shithole MAGA judges are why we can't have nice things
welcome to the latest judicial atrocity
the worst thing about Mitch McConnell is not that he’s an evil human-turtle hybrid. the worst thing about Mitch McConnell is that he’s smart.
he’s smart, he’s focused, he’s determined, he’s evil, and he’s super fucking competent. he knows how to get shit done.
contrast that to his counterpart in the House, Kevin McCarthy, a feckless moron who can’t walk three steps without tripping all over his dick.
all during Senator Turtlefuck’s tenure as Majority Leader, he his main focus has been to pack the judicial system with as many Republican and MAGA loyalists as possible— because the courts are where true power lies. Congress can pass all the laws it wants, and a president can sign them, but it’s the judges who decide which laws can be implemented — and which can’t.
so all the way down to the lowliest district magistrate and all the way up to the Supreme Court, every time a vacancy opened up, McConnell made sure to install a compliant stooge.
that’s how we ended up with Donald Trump fangirl Aileen Cannon, an inexperienced tool who imagines that her job is to do everything within her power to extricate her heartthrob from his legal problems.
that’s how we got medieval religious zealot Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, an anti-abortion ideologue who ignored decades of scientific and medical data and banned the sale of mifepristone, a decision based solely on his own ignorant superstitions.
these partisan hacks are not judges. they are not weighing the facts and making judgements.
these partisan hacks are foregone conclusionists. they already know in advance how they’re going to rule because they have an agenda.
which brings us to our latest judicial atrocity.
Judge blocks U.S. officials from tech contacts in First Amendment case
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked key Biden administration agencies and officials from meeting and communicating with social media companies about “protected speech,” in an extraordinary preliminary injunction in an ongoing case that could have profound effects on the First Amendment.
what this boils down to is that it prevents the Biden Administration from working with social media companies to identify and remove content dealing with crimes and disinformation.
this is a terrible ruling, because rather than being based on facts and jurisprudence, it’s based on the two things conservatives love best: grudges and paranoid batshit conspiracy theories.
wingnuts have long been obsessed with the whackadoodle notion that cOmMiEs iN ThE gOvErNmEnt have been forcing Facebook and Twitter and the like to hide their posts and tweets, and to amplify left-wing voices.
this of course of a stupid fucking bunch of nonsense, which — like most conspiracy theories‚ is based on a grain of truth: it’s true that the government does ask — ask, not force — social media companies to try to remove content such as hate speech, covid disinformation or election denial.
which we call all agree is a good thing, yes?
can we help it if hate and lies are the conservative movement’s preferred mode of speech?
so, once again we have a piece of shit ruling based on some ideologue’s perverted interpretation of justice.
but here’s the real atrocity: Terry A. Doughty, the underqualified Trump loyalist who made this ruling, was approved unanimously by the Senate — yes, that’s right, every fucking Democrat voted him.
Democrats, what the fuck are you doing?
Republicans routinely fight tooth and nail to block or at least delay every Democratic judicial nominee. they use every available trick in the book. they put up every roadblock. it doesn’t matter who the nominee is, or how qualified they are. they do it as a matter of course. they do it out of partisan spite. they do it because fuck you, that’s why.
Democrats roll over and ask “are we voting fast enough for you?”
wake the fuck up, Democrats.
folks, a word on a different subject before I let you go: we’re doing some quarterly fundraising at my other venture, The Smirking Chimp. I’m leery of even mentioning it because if you’re one of the people paying to support my own writing here, you’re already doing god’s work and you’re already doing more than enough to help out. but if you’ve got five dollars that you absolutely wouldn’t miss and you do feel like supporting the Chimp, well, that just makes you twice the hero. the donation link is here, or you can go straight to paypal if you need no further convincing. and if you don’t care to donate, that’s totally cool, too, and we will not speak of this again. in fact, we never had this conversation. thanks for listening and that’s it from me for now.
by the way, this post was written while my nearest neighbor ran a weed-whacker for two solid hours. any incoherent passages are his fault
thank you, jeff, for "forgone conclusionist"
not sure how we shd roll here -- i like a clean nose going into conflict -- lead by example stuff -- we go high, they go low -- so i am resistant to the concept that we play rough and dirty -- but, given the existential threat to our democracy, might be we gotzta suspend decency so as to save our sorry asses??
feels all wrong tho