Well I guess the murder of the son of a 'lesser' judge doesn't really warrant panic, does it? No good will come from advocating political violence, but given the actual severity of this threat from a mentally ill man, maybe the offering of the always impactful thoughts and prayers given to the most recent group of slaughtered school children would be adequate.
On Biden not commenting, I can't help but wonder if calling more attention to the concept of assassinating supreme court justices might not be counterproductive.
It shouldn't be minimized, but imagine how many on the right would view things if Biden made a big deal about this. I don't think Biden would ever do a, "Nice Conservative Majority you have here, be a real shame if something happened to it." But I am sure that plenty on the right would spin it that way if he commented on this, given how unserious the 'attempt' appears to have been.
I don’t think NYT didn’t cover it front page for some nefarious reason. I do think if it were Justice Kagan they would have found reason to investigate it as part of a larger story of threats against government officials. This is the story they should do. Put it in context of the times we are living in so people see it’s not just about Kavanaugh. It’s about people giving up on the democratic levers and resorting to violence. Yes, Biden should have made a speech specifically about this.
I think the ship for bipartisan goodwill sailed after trump, J6, and the continued BS from the GOP. Trump himself recently talking about civil war. That is a direct threat to half the country. Last week, some lunatic pretend preacher for sone phony church calling for gay executions. That is extreme. The R Supreme Court is extreme. That is why we are here and for no other reason. I would be pissed if Biden spent time trying to put out an olive branch to those who have refused in any way to take it.
Many at the Bulwark fail to understand how demoralizing it is to constantly hear about how Democrats are supposed to follow one set of rules while Republicans have none. Please spare me whatever obscure thing Biden once said taken out of context, or Bork getting voted down because Republicans voted against him too. Dems would never have refused a vote, and the media would have been foaming at the mouth if they tried. Let's stop sugarcoating what happened. They stole two Supreme Court seats. Obama went out of his way to appeal to moderates by nominating Garland. Yet Trump, who lost the popular vote, doesn't try to unite the country with a consensus pick. No, only Dems are required to do that. Then, while people were voting, they rushed through Barrett after insisting a President can't fill a seat in an election year. It's gaslighting on steroids. Let's be clear this is not a legitimate Supreme Court, and we should not accept it as one. By doing so, we're legitimizing the GOP's anti-democratic tactics.
Chuck Schumer pointed out the 2 Supremes who said in their confirmation hearing that Roe v Wade was settled law. I understood that. I wonder why no one else did??....
No less a conservative than Sarah Isgur, over at "The Competition" noted during their amazing "Advisory Opinions" podcast that Mitch McConnell's machinations, holding a seat open, and then ramming Coney Barrett through at the last minute, made Democrats think they won't get a turn. She is a former SC clerk-her insight was that the left assesses that the right is going to game the system to block their nominees, so why not leak opinions and otherwise screw around with the institution?
I'm not doing justice to her argument, and it was on a podcast so hard to reconstruct, but I thought she did a great job of explaining how, when one side perceives that the cards are marked and the dice are loaded, resorts to bad behavior as well because why not.
Another riveting read, Cathy. 👍🏽 Thanks for saying "no, Ruth did not send you", it has been driving me crazy.
Yes, it would be swell if President Biden said something about not harassing the Justices. But the poor schlub who just wanted mental health treatment, well, maybe that doesn't quite rise to an occasion for presidential condemnation. It would make it worse for the "perp" and since there turned out to be "no there there", it would look silly for Biden to cite it as an example. Kinda playing into the hands of "it's not the guns, it's only mental illness" jerks.
As for this court's legitimacy, I think it's fair to question it, especially since the bad-faith crookedness of the MCConnelites vis a vis Garland. Plus we know the final three were appointed by another mentally ill sociopath, (and criminal!)
There was nothing remotely just about the catastrophic collapse of our system for judicial nominees. And because it was a serious breach of decent norms, it does call into question the legitimacy of this court, and the manner in which it was formed.
Of course that doesn't mean harassing the Justices at their homes is okay. However, trying to get their attention through protests is almost an obligation for a functioning Republic.
Question: do the authors here select the illustrations? Because whoever picked the two pointing Spidermen made me laugh. My thanks for that.
Cathy, Cathy, Cathy... The problem isn't media bias. It's that we are living in a hyper-partisan and increasingly violent world, fueled by a party led by a man who called for attacks against protesters at his rallies and whose incendiary language led to the attack on the Capitol, and who packed the Supreme Court with partisan Justices, aided and abetted by the chicanery of a Senate majority leader.
That's not the fault of the MSM or Joe Biden. They aren't the problem.
Feb 20, 2011, twelve thousand angry Democrats and leftists marched to protest their anger at Wisconsin legislation confirming the right to work. They violently stormed the state capitol and occupied it for weeks. Today many of the same Democrats claiming Jan-6 was a threat to democracy and an insurrection (without ever having to define the use of those terms) were lauding the Wisconsin spectacle as just freedom of speech with some civil disobedience.
In general whataboutism is how we identify the hypocrites in our midst.
Cathy Young, you wonder whether an aborted plan to assassinate Sonia Sotomayor would have been covered as quietly by news publications such as the New York Times. I think it would have been. At least, I hope it would have been.
When there's no other parties involved in the planning, when the final attack is not undertaken, and especially when it might reasonably be feared that prominent coverage would inspire imitators or be otherwise harmful to a secure and civil environment for courts, it is good ethics to present the facts without blaring headlines.
Yeah the Right Wing Media pays little to no attention on these type of events when Democrats are targeted. I don't think Fox, WSJ, National Review, etc. covered for more than a short bit about the Nancy Pelosi would-be assassin and they tried to play down the threat to Democrats when mail bombs in 2018 were sent to Geogre Soros, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, Maxine Waters, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, John Brennan (package at CNN also containing white powder), and other prominent Democrats/Anti-Trump individuals.
Never mind Gretchen Whitmer who the former president singled out and intimidated on social media many times prior to the plot being uncovered for her kidnapping and assassination.
I'm all for protecting Supreme Court Justices and think anyone that protests outside of anyone's private residence should take a hard look in the mirror and realize that they are part of the overall problem. But the fake whataboutism with no context of magnitude is stupid. We are always going to have individual nuts that are politically motivated and dangerous. And we are always going to have aggressive protestors that generally are over the top and lack in any sort of wisdom. What didn't need to happen was an attack on the capital based off a lie. 99% of people never heard of the official vote counting day in Congress before 2020. So protect the Supremem Court justices, state officials, etc. but don't lump that in the same stratosphere as January 6th or even all the efforts to pressure local officials prior to that where mobs of Trump supporters intimidated local and state election officials at their houses.
Maybe you should set your hair on fire since the President and I didn't. Read with understanding instead of looking for fault.
I am surprised that Republicans would use this event to politicize gun freedom. /s
Well I guess the murder of the son of a 'lesser' judge doesn't really warrant panic, does it? No good will come from advocating political violence, but given the actual severity of this threat from a mentally ill man, maybe the offering of the always impactful thoughts and prayers given to the most recent group of slaughtered school children would be adequate.
On Biden not commenting, I can't help but wonder if calling more attention to the concept of assassinating supreme court justices might not be counterproductive.
It shouldn't be minimized, but imagine how many on the right would view things if Biden made a big deal about this. I don't think Biden would ever do a, "Nice Conservative Majority you have here, be a real shame if something happened to it." But I am sure that plenty on the right would spin it that way if he commented on this, given how unserious the 'attempt' appears to have been.
I don’t think NYT didn’t cover it front page for some nefarious reason. I do think if it were Justice Kagan they would have found reason to investigate it as part of a larger story of threats against government officials. This is the story they should do. Put it in context of the times we are living in so people see it’s not just about Kavanaugh. It’s about people giving up on the democratic levers and resorting to violence. Yes, Biden should have made a speech specifically about this.
I think the ship for bipartisan goodwill sailed after trump, J6, and the continued BS from the GOP. Trump himself recently talking about civil war. That is a direct threat to half the country. Last week, some lunatic pretend preacher for sone phony church calling for gay executions. That is extreme. The R Supreme Court is extreme. That is why we are here and for no other reason. I would be pissed if Biden spent time trying to put out an olive branch to those who have refused in any way to take it.
Many at the Bulwark fail to understand how demoralizing it is to constantly hear about how Democrats are supposed to follow one set of rules while Republicans have none. Please spare me whatever obscure thing Biden once said taken out of context, or Bork getting voted down because Republicans voted against him too. Dems would never have refused a vote, and the media would have been foaming at the mouth if they tried. Let's stop sugarcoating what happened. They stole two Supreme Court seats. Obama went out of his way to appeal to moderates by nominating Garland. Yet Trump, who lost the popular vote, doesn't try to unite the country with a consensus pick. No, only Dems are required to do that. Then, while people were voting, they rushed through Barrett after insisting a President can't fill a seat in an election year. It's gaslighting on steroids. Let's be clear this is not a legitimate Supreme Court, and we should not accept it as one. By doing so, we're legitimizing the GOP's anti-democratic tactics.
Chuck Schumer pointed out the 2 Supremes who said in their confirmation hearing that Roe v Wade was settled law. I understood that. I wonder why no one else did??....
No less a conservative than Sarah Isgur, over at "The Competition" noted during their amazing "Advisory Opinions" podcast that Mitch McConnell's machinations, holding a seat open, and then ramming Coney Barrett through at the last minute, made Democrats think they won't get a turn. She is a former SC clerk-her insight was that the left assesses that the right is going to game the system to block their nominees, so why not leak opinions and otherwise screw around with the institution?
I'm not doing justice to her argument, and it was on a podcast so hard to reconstruct, but I thought she did a great job of explaining how, when one side perceives that the cards are marked and the dice are loaded, resorts to bad behavior as well because why not.
I think the president is correct not to comment on this assassination attempt. Giving attention to such actions seems to make them more likely.
Another riveting read, Cathy. 👍🏽 Thanks for saying "no, Ruth did not send you", it has been driving me crazy.
Yes, it would be swell if President Biden said something about not harassing the Justices. But the poor schlub who just wanted mental health treatment, well, maybe that doesn't quite rise to an occasion for presidential condemnation. It would make it worse for the "perp" and since there turned out to be "no there there", it would look silly for Biden to cite it as an example. Kinda playing into the hands of "it's not the guns, it's only mental illness" jerks.
As for this court's legitimacy, I think it's fair to question it, especially since the bad-faith crookedness of the MCConnelites vis a vis Garland. Plus we know the final three were appointed by another mentally ill sociopath, (and criminal!)
There was nothing remotely just about the catastrophic collapse of our system for judicial nominees. And because it was a serious breach of decent norms, it does call into question the legitimacy of this court, and the manner in which it was formed.
Of course that doesn't mean harassing the Justices at their homes is okay. However, trying to get their attention through protests is almost an obligation for a functioning Republic.
Question: do the authors here select the illustrations? Because whoever picked the two pointing Spidermen made me laugh. My thanks for that.
Re: the Kavanaugh incident
Cathy, Cathy, Cathy... The problem isn't media bias. It's that we are living in a hyper-partisan and increasingly violent world, fueled by a party led by a man who called for attacks against protesters at his rallies and whose incendiary language led to the attack on the Capitol, and who packed the Supreme Court with partisan Justices, aided and abetted by the chicanery of a Senate majority leader.
That's not the fault of the MSM or Joe Biden. They aren't the problem.
As a lifelong Democrat I can say that Schumer is an idiot --and, worse, incompetent.
Feb 20, 2011, twelve thousand angry Democrats and leftists marched to protest their anger at Wisconsin legislation confirming the right to work. They violently stormed the state capitol and occupied it for weeks. Today many of the same Democrats claiming Jan-6 was a threat to democracy and an insurrection (without ever having to define the use of those terms) were lauding the Wisconsin spectacle as just freedom of speech with some civil disobedience.
In general whataboutism is how we identify the hypocrites in our midst.
Cathy Young, you wonder whether an aborted plan to assassinate Sonia Sotomayor would have been covered as quietly by news publications such as the New York Times. I think it would have been. At least, I hope it would have been.
When there's no other parties involved in the planning, when the final attack is not undertaken, and especially when it might reasonably be feared that prominent coverage would inspire imitators or be otherwise harmful to a secure and civil environment for courts, it is good ethics to present the facts without blaring headlines.
Yeah the Right Wing Media pays little to no attention on these type of events when Democrats are targeted. I don't think Fox, WSJ, National Review, etc. covered for more than a short bit about the Nancy Pelosi would-be assassin and they tried to play down the threat to Democrats when mail bombs in 2018 were sent to Geogre Soros, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, Maxine Waters, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, John Brennan (package at CNN also containing white powder), and other prominent Democrats/Anti-Trump individuals.
Never mind Gretchen Whitmer who the former president singled out and intimidated on social media many times prior to the plot being uncovered for her kidnapping and assassination.
I'm all for protecting Supreme Court Justices and think anyone that protests outside of anyone's private residence should take a hard look in the mirror and realize that they are part of the overall problem. But the fake whataboutism with no context of magnitude is stupid. We are always going to have individual nuts that are politically motivated and dangerous. And we are always going to have aggressive protestors that generally are over the top and lack in any sort of wisdom. What didn't need to happen was an attack on the capital based off a lie. 99% of people never heard of the official vote counting day in Congress before 2020. So protect the Supremem Court justices, state officials, etc. but don't lump that in the same stratosphere as January 6th or even all the efforts to pressure local officials prior to that where mobs of Trump supporters intimidated local and state election officials at their houses.