You may or may not be wondering (if you’ve even noticed) why I have never once written a word about the King v. Burwell case that the Supreme Court is getting ready to rule on, but the answer is pretty simple. It’s the stupidest fucking lawsuit in the history of the universe. It’s so stupid that, if the conservatives on the Court rule in favor of the plaintiffs, then there’s just no point in ever pretending that this is a serious country again.
Put another way, if I have to seriously worry about Obamacare subsidies being ruled unconstitutional because of a clerical oversight, then I’ve been wasting my life and nothing I’ve written matters even the slightest bit. I have to assume to even get up in the morning and clock into work that this case will not be treated seriously by the Court. The fact that they agreed to hear the case is troubling enough, but I’m guessing that they took it because you only need four Justices to grant certiorari and Justice Kennedy is still butthurt about losing the actual Obamacare case back in 2012.
Anyway, there’s been a lot of ink spilled on what would happen if the Court ruled against the administration and I’ve considered every drop of that ink to be wasted breath. The Court will not rule against the administration.
And, if they do, then we’re such a joke of a country and the Conservative Movement’s virus has so badly infected our institutions that we might as well just pack it in and let some Saddam Hussein rule this place.
If Obamacare subsidies are tossed I’ll look forward to your Firebagger editorial in WaMo.
Kind of whiplash comment.
Firebaggers and WaMo are basically historical polar opposites on the left, at least if you go back to prior incarnations of WaMo.
Sure, but you sure sounded like you’d be ready to let the mother fucker burn if they invalidated the subsidies. That’s a stance I mostly associate with Firebaggers.
I already believe that we are a joke of a country so… I’m sort of looking forward to the rest of you finally getting it.
Here in Indiana we got a sneak preview and the punch line wasn’t funny.
The organs of the State, such as the courts, exist to serve the needs of the Party, and not the other way around, because it is the Party, and not the State, that is the Vanguard of the Revolution. In fact, come the Revolution, the State itself is destined to wither away.
All correctly oriented cadres, even Party members who presently work in the judicial system, know this principle, and need to be prepared to act upon it.
Looking ‘stupid’ in the eyes of the bourgeoisie is a small price to pay for final triumph.
¡Viva Reagan! All power to the soviets of jackleg preachers and hedge-fund managers.
One simple response: “Bush v. Gore”
It’s not even a clerical oversight. They used phrasing that’s perfectly clear in context but which is ambiguous out of context. This is just called “writing”. You could find dozens of similar things in any law.
That said, Bush v. Gore shows the right-wing Court majority doesn’t have the least interest in justice, law, or precedent when power is at stake, and the aftermath shows they don’t get called on it.
About to say the same. It’s not an error.
I’m reminded of the context of a certain constitutional amendment that begins, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State…” Context means nothing to Republicans or this Supreme Court.
it all depends upon who John Roberts’ true Master is: Corporate America or the right wing, because, in this case, they are not one and the same.
Does anyone know if the national Chamber of Commerce, the one headed by Tom J. Donohue, has chimed in yet? Because they are Roberts’s true master.
I remember that corporate America wrote a number of briefs in favor of the law, including the COC.
Isn’t it terrifying that the Capitalists are currently our best bet for survival? They are evil, but usually not insane.
YES, it’s quite terrifying
I agree it’s really that stupid. I can’t imagine Roberts or even Scalia would be so lacking in self-respect. And yet…
Yeah, I can. Thomas, definitely. Even the Democrats on SCOTUS can get pretty literal sometimes.
Bush v. Gore is the case that caused me to realize we’re living in a Banana Republic. Scalia even admitted at the time that it was a completely political decision. He said something like, “Did they really think (referring to the Florida Supreme Court) that we were going to sit back and let the count go on?” It was completely partisan, 5-4, with all Republican appointees voting to appoint the buffoon who had lost the popular vote and by any meaningful standard the electoral vote too to the highest office in the land.
I don’t trust the whack jobs on the courts right flank. Scalia, Alito, Thomas, Kennedy and Roberts; These are the folks who brought us Citizens United. If our only hope is Roberts or Kennedy, then we should be very afraid. The fact that this thing hasn’t been thrown out of court is an indication that this country is on the crapper already.
Excuse the double post but one more thought: If there’s a reason not to worry about the outcome of this case it’s because a Republican “win” would be Pyrrhic in every meaningful sense. The media will jump all over the thousands of examples of people dying because their health care was cut off and those morons would realize they bargained for way more than they can handle.
They’d demand Obama sign a bill that guts the law but he wouldn’t. They’d try to claim it’s all his fault people are losing coverage. But people would continue to suffer and die and the people would blame them. Their between a rock and a hard place with their crazy constituents vs. the rest of the nation but they’ve sowed this result, methodically over years and years. It’s hard to imagine them not capitulating, just as they capitulated on the shutdown. It would be scary to watch because who the heck knows what those fools would do but my guess is we’d need the mother of all popcorn loads before it was over and the result would make clear to everyone that Obamacare is here to stay.
“They’re between” . . . mea culpa.
Will the media really do that? Remember the media is owned by RWNJ plutocrats like Sam Zell and Rupert Murdoch.
“…then there’s just no point in ever pretending that this is a serious country again.”
You know, maybe that’s the point. A SCOTUS decision that’s so rank and smelly that it unmistakably marks the opening day of our new form of government.
Been thinking Roberts will be looking for a way to split the baby, in a sense like they did the first round with mandates, thus justifying taking up the case to begin with. If he votes to sink the subsidies will he give them a paddle?
You can never overestimate the stupidity or malice of conservatives…
OT: Jeb’s doing the European tour too?
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
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Jeb Bush’s anti-Putin speech in Berlin is a strategic and political blunder
Updated by Max Fisher on June 9, 2015, 8:40 a.m. ET @Max_Fisher max@vox.com
I happened to arrive in Berlin a few days before Jeb Bush, who is visiting the German capital today for a big anti-Putin speech. The governor did not see fit to recruit me into his advance team. But if he had, I would’ve called the home office to strongly urge that he cancel, for the good of both his political campaign and American strategic interests in Europe.
Having Jeb Bush come to Berlin to argue on behalf of US foreign policy in Europe is a bit like sending Edward Snowden to give a speech on NSA reform to the Republican National Committee. Bush has come up in nearly every conversation I’ve had here since arriving, and always with a warning: that skepticism of the US is already high here, that the German public’s support of tough policies toward Russia is tenuous, and that the mere sight of a Bush makes Germans want to run in the opposite direction of US foreign policy.
……………
Jeb Bush is extremely unpopular in Germany, where only 7 percent see him in a positive light, according to a recent YouGov poll, with 27 percent negative. His last name is deeply intertwined with a popular opposition to US foreign policy that, to my surprise, Germans themselves have frequently characterized to me as “anti-Americanism.” When Germans express skepticism toward Merkel’s hardline policies on Russia and Ukraine, they often do so by suggesting those policies are being pushed by the Americans, and raising the much-loathed 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. The very worst person to convince them to stay the course on Russia, then, is anyone named Bush.
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/9/8750597/jeb-bush-berlin
OT: Back to the debate about the continued coddling of the White Working Class.
When people vote against their own self-interest, there comes a time when they should not be coddled anymore.
IF they vote this mofo Bevin in and he takes away their health insurance…no better for them. I have not one ounce of pity for them.
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Kentucky election could blot an Obamacare bright spot
Matt Bevin has made eliminating the state’s Obamacare programs a central plank of his platform.
6/9/15 6:48 PM EDT
excerpt:
Gallup polling shows Kentucky saw the second biggest drop in its uninsured rate in the country, behind only Arkansas.
Yet, Republican gubernatorial nominee Matt Bevin, a tea party favorite who narrowly won a brutal primary last month and could run a competitive general election race, has made eliminating the state’s Obamacare programs — and sharply curtailing the ranks of the newly insured — a central plank of his platform. If he wins this November, more than half a million people who got covered through the exchange or an Obamacare-proscribed expansion of Medicaid could find themselves in health care limbo.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/kentucky-election-could-blot-an-obamacare-bright-spot-118794.h
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So I suppose the White Professional Class and the White Investor Class get a pass. it’s only we subhuman grunts that don’t deserve any consideration?
I thought better of you.
As many above have noted, Bush v. Gore was my first real indicator, 2004 confirmed it, and pretty much everything that I’ve seen since has reaffirmed that point. I stay involved to play in the margins but the country – as a whole – is beyond marked for the majority of its citizens.
One thing that I note is that the top 80 million or so Americans are doing just fine, their education system serves them well and they have adequate healthcare and police protection. Then we have another 220 million or so Walmart shoppers who can man a massive army if the government decides to bring Freedom™ to someone else’s country. They get just enough from the government to remain alive and healthy enough to fight in case they’re needed…
Well done, Booman —->
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“… that we might as well just pack it in and let some Saddam Hussein rule this place.”
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Well done, lad, well done!!!