The photo is of a pen presented to my husband’s cousin who
successfully argued a case before the SCOTUS some years ago. She
was very proud of this accomplishment and we were proud for her but I wonder
what she would think of the recent rulings handed down from on high.
Actually I don’t wonder, not really as I know what her
reaction would be and it would be loud and scathing. How far the SCOTUS has
fallen into the political mire of the far right and it’s batshit crazy
denizens. Unbelievable and yet, it is happening. Better to disband this crooked
den of thieves than to allow them to further desecrate the constitution and our
whole legal system.
The SCOTUS most famously ruled in favor of corporations
siding with Citizens United in allowing
unregulated spending sprees in political elections thus paving the way for
corporations to buy politicians and unduly influence elections. Despite the new
Koch Brothers' warm and fuzzy TV ads, they remain one of the biggest offenders
to American patriotism.
So when Washington didn’t burn and the people did not rise
up, the conservative majority of the SCOTUS became even more emboldened and
have since ruled to disallow buffer zones for protests around planned parenthood
type facilities that also perform abortions - while considering it constitutional
to have a rather large buffer zone around the Supreme Court building (they may be needing that) and will no doubt rule against any group challenging buffer
zones around other legislative facilities such as the zone recently placed into
law that keeps Moral Monday protesters away from the North Carolina State
Capitol building.
And while the regional news is broadcasting headlines about the
recent case of a toddler cooked to death in a car and a newborn buried in a
backyard, the SCOTUS has seen fit to rule in favor of religious exemptions for
corporations in order to allow them to deny providing birth control for their
employees. Women of limited means are further
marginalized while more babies will be born to suffer from torture, neglect and
death. Not to say that poor women hurt their babies, but this certainly closes
the door on choice so they can limit the number and timing of their
childbirth and pull themselves out of poverty. And those who are ill equipped
and do not desire to have children will be forced into a situation where their
children will be in grave danger.
I’m no legal scholar but doesn’t it seem completely
senseless that the SCOTUS majority would rule that a corporation, which exists
only on paper, has personhood and religious convictions? Once there is
incorporation, there is no “owner”. There are company officers such as the CEO
but he or she is NOT the corporation. So, where does the corporation attend
church? How did the corporation form its religious convictions?
The right continues to scream that our Kenyan, socialist,
leftist President is going to have us under Sheria law which, of course, has
not happened in the nearly 8 years he has been in office but the Supreme Court,
with just a few strokes of their mighty pen would have us living under Krazy
Konservative Khristian law, completely vacating the US Constitution and they
have the nerve to call liberals unpatriotic? HA!
Once again I find myself seriously exploring my options to expatriate.
SHAME! On the Supreme Court of the United States and SHAME! On
us if we allow this to pass without protest and a demand that the favoring Justices
step down. They have proven they cannot be trusted with our most sacred of
documents, the Constitution.
Yes, rockync, this decision stands everything on its head. As I said to Sheria in a comment to her, 54 years ago the nonCatholics in this country were worried that John F. Kennedy would be influenced by Papist Rome if he were elected POTUS. There was never any danger to that then, but we see it now. The five men who made the majority opinion are all Roman Catholic, and they've ruled that a Catholic or fundamentalist religious prohibition against family planning is legal reason to withhold insurance coverage from women who are NOT Catholic, Christian, and who are nonbelievers.
ReplyDeleteHow many times have I read on conservative blogs that it is Mr. Obama who is shredding the Constitution? Too many to count. But here these five men who are conservative Catholics have just done a Freddie on Elm Street to that document.
We are all Catholics now. Even if that's not your religion.
PS. I think you meant to write "Sharia" law, not "Sheria" law. Although we'd be much better off if she was a SCJ.
Hahaha! Yes I did mean Sharia law and I think I just had Sheria on the brain but agree completely that we would be much better off with Sheria Law. "Don't make me hurt you!" :)
ReplyDeleteFunny how the patriot act, which, amongst other horrors, suspends the 4th amendment for over 80% of the country and allows summary confiscation of assets and massive surveillance without warrant -- despite laws which make it impossible for expatriate Americans and even those born to American parents but are not Americans to own property or transact much business abroad, Obama is trashing the constitution and in fact Obama is just the worst president because of what Bush did. It's the ultimate triumph of bullshit and the Religious right and the corporate oligarchy has won the 200 year battle.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost impossible to give up your citizenship these days and they will pursue you to the ends of the Earth. Even so we have a record number of Americans renouncing citizenship, hard and expensive as it is.
The difficulty of leaving the country and the issue of citizenship is what has kept me from leaving to date but when the situation gets bad enough, that may not be a deterrent anymore. Since both my parents were foreign born I may have an easier path to alternate citizenship but it would involve sacrifice and some hardship so I don't consider it lightly. I am just so tired of the uphill battle and isn't that exactly why the enemy creates a huge hill to stand upon?
ReplyDeleteDual citizenship won't help you live as an ex-pat if you were born here. I speak from experience. Basically you can't bank in more that 70 countries now - no Social Security deposits, no credit cards, no bank accounts. Look up FATCA and FBAR. a Million US retirees in Mexico have had their accounts closed.
DeleteI have relatives who have never been to the US who are now rightly afraid of huge fines and criminal penalties under US law and all in the name of stopping tax cheats -- while corporations thumb their noses at US taxes.
This is why elections are so important. Americans fell for the "cut tax" line for 30 years and we are basically bankrupt and now we have to live under the laws these conservatives have brought in through their winning elections (right to name their Supreme Court Justices and other positions). We deserve the leadership we vote for. Imagine how different things would be if our election turnout was 80-95% as it was for 150 years before WW II.
ReplyDeleteNo we're not. Not even close, if it's even possible, but the fact remains that in the years of 90% marginal rates, we were prosperous and had full employment. Every attempt to produce prosperity with upper bracket tax cuts has failed miserably and sometimes disastrously and in my opinion, Republican austerity and deregulation produced the Great Depression. Every economic prediction the Republicans have made in my memory has been wrong and continues to be, but the science of Bullshit being what it is, the rank idiocy of the American public, the superstition, the prejudice, the obsession with narrow issues on both sides of the isle makes the right monolithic and the left as unified as ten cats in a bag.
DeleteBut you're right, we brought this on ourselves and we get what we vote for. We stay home because Obama isn't yelling about this or that and the Neanderthalers and cannibals and the monopolists and the bigots win.
Where are the angry villagers brandishing pitchforks? This is an outrage!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you OCTO, this is such an outrage. And Anonymous, I agree the election turnout is really going to be important in many state elections as well as the national election so I am going to volunteer to drive and really push to get the voters out and to the polls.
ReplyDelete