The week was dominated by two stories, the Republican tax cut efforts; and the variations on the sexual harassment theme by men in positions of power.
Letâs talk about sexual predation by men. We shouldnât be pushing all predators to the front of the same firing squad. Without diminishing or excusing what any of these scumbag politicians have done (Al Franken, Bill Clinton) pedophiles are in a detestable class all by themselves. We are now in the middle of a teachable moment, where publicizing how badly men have treated women in our society might bring about real behavioral change. This is solely due to those many, if not most, women who are saying that they arenât going to take it anymore. This tsunami of accusations and personal testimony will bring down some of the worst of the predators. In this case, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
The GOP wrote the bill. Now, weâll see who votes for it:
The elephant will always protect his best constituents:
Using the Pot/Kettle meme brings risk:
Mitch has selective beliefs when women tell their truth:
The sexual predator issue focuses the thinking of Republicans:
Trump chose Jeff Sessions for Attorney General in part because Alabama would be a lock to elect another Republican. Weâll see in 3 weeks if that works out as planned.
Bonus Republican hypocrisy: Do these people ever hear themselves?
Chalk Pyramids, Oakley Kansas – photo by Marlon Flores
(Wrongo is writing this on Election Day, and will not know any national or local results before you read the column on Wednesday. Two years ago, Wrongoâs hometown turned out 20+ years of Republican control in a deeply Republican county. The subsequent efforts by local Republicans to block change mirrors exactly what we have seen on a national level. Despite that, much was accomplished. Weâll know on Wednesday if vision or blockage controls the townâs next two years.)
We are one year into the Trump administration. Many of us are still dealing with the reality that the country elected someone who is incapable of empathy, who has very little understanding of how the world works. Someone who treats women, minorities, and people who disagree with him so appallingly.
The worst thing is how bad behavior (by Trump and many in his administration) has become normalized in the eyes of the press and the people. It started immediately with the administration lying about the size of Trumpâs inaugural crowd. Martin Longman took a look back and sums it up perfectly:
Looking back a year later, itâs a struggle not to succumb to a well-earned cynicism. We donât like to repeat our mistakes, which makes it tempting to over-correct for them.
There were…times when President Obama stood up and told the American people that weâre better than this, that we can do better and be better. Itâs not a good feeling to know that the response [by voters in 2016] was, âNo, weâre not, and no we canât.â
…But one giant mistake doesnât condemn us in perpetuity. I actually find comfort and a cause for optimism that so many people were unable to imagine a Trump victory. It means that I wasnât alone in having some standards or in believing that we can be better than this. Itâs just going to be harder and take longer than I was willing to imagine.
Wrongo thinks Martin is too optimistic, and we shouldnât expect any real change in his lifetime. Why? One reason is that the Democrats canât stop playing inside baseball long enough to have a winning vision for the country. The Donna Brazile kerfuffle tells all we need to know: There is no leadership in the Democratic Party.
So, no leadership and no vision. The Dems are like your kids fighting in the back seat of the SUV. While the GOP is a well-oiled machine, staying on message, even when they donât agree with whatever it is that the Donald just did.
The Democratic Party leadership has to go, we canât stand by them, not even for another election cycle. Mike Allen at Axios suggests we look to mayors for the next Democratic leaders:
Here’s something unusual and refreshing: There are two highly ambitious Democrats who don’t even bother hiding their strong desire to run [for president] in 2020 â and to reshape the party: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, president of the US Conference of Mayors.
Allen thinks that Democrats could be led back from the wilderness by a mayor:
Garcetti: “We’re too busy talking to ourselves, and about ourselves…People don’t care about our inner workings, or even our inner leadership battles…We’ve got to get back to speaking plain English. We are so inside baseball right now…Are you a Bernie person? Are you a Hillary person?”
Landrieu, speaking about the bipartisanship of the Conference of Mayors: “The one thing we never do in any of our meetings is think about what the Democratic caucus or the Republican caucus in Washington, DC, is doing. It never enters our mind…People in America are feeling unbalanced right now.”
Allen asked top Dem donors and operatives about possible candidates like Garcetti and Landrieu, and heard that they think DC experience is a vulnerability not an asset for a presidential candidate.
Wrongo agrees. Americaâs mayors actually do things, and getting things done energizes them. Wrongo has seen this from up close in his hometown. Mayors don’t talk like DC pols, they seem to love their jobs.
And it’s a level of government where Democrats have a deep bench.
The GOPâs goal is to destroy the New Deal, the environmental legislation passed during the Nixon administration and all of Johnson’s domestic achievements.
We wonât defeat their goals without a new message and a new messenger.
Grand Tetons early morning â 2011 photo by Wrongo
Two short thoughts for your Saturday. First, hidden in the language of the GOPâs Tax Bill is a something that would change the Johnson Amendment, a provision in the tax code that prohibits churches, faith communities, and other non-profits from outright endorsing political candidates:
âŠThe provision is not a complete repeal of the Johnson Amendment. As written, it would only free up religious communitiesânot all non-profitsâto endorse candidates and appears to prohibit churches from going out of their way to campaign for a candidate outside of their normal religious activities.
The GOP wants to erode the separation of church and state. Letâs see who, if anyone, in Congress is willing to fight for the Constitution.
Second, the Democrats had a grenade go off inside the DNC when an excerpt from Donna Brazileâs new book was published by Politico. She claims that the Clinton administration assumed control over the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in exchange for keeping it solvent, then funneled most of the funds raised into her campaign, leaving the states with very little to support down-ballot races.
The states kept less than half of 1 percent of the $82 million they had garnered from the Hillary fund-raisers the campaign was holding to support state-level candidates. Thatâs about $4.1 million.
When Howard Dean was chair of the DNC he instituted a 50-state policy, saying the DNC would maintain full time workers in each state, to contest seats up and down the ballot from the county, to state legislature to house and senate races.
When Obama won, Dean was out, and the 50-state policy was dismantled. After that, the DNC was reorganized to serve only national level elections. And Obama For America took its place as the funds-raising vehicle for the presidential re-election. And Hillary did much the same with the Hillary Victory Fund, but she went further, as Brazile reveals: The DNC would covertly back Hillary in the primaries.
And now, through these efforts, the Democrats have lost the White House, the Senate and the House, in addition to most state governments.
Itâs hard to decide whatâs worse, that the party is run by incompetents, or that it is just hopelessly corrupt.
Time for a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party.
On to the weekend. You obviously need to go to a happy place that doesnât include continual assaults by our national media. So brew up a cup of London-based Union Hand-Roasted Coffeeâs El Topacio Microlot, El Salvador, available online for ÂŁ8/200g.
Now kick back someplace you can see the natural world outside, and listen to Peter Mulvey playing his instrumental, âBlack Rabbitâ. Mulvey is known for his guitar chops and songwriting. He got started by playing in the Boston metro. This short acoustic gem is executed with ease, and pure musicality:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
(There will be limited blogging until 10/17, as Wrongo and Ms. Right are visiting London to see five plays in seven days. We are also having dinner at Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey). Please keep your tray tables in the locked position while we are away.)
Another week of shocks to the system. Cartoons may help. The GOP reaction to Las Vegas is almost automatic, just like bump stocks:
Some are reluctant to give up their Congress:
The Senate is always on sale:
Tillerson tries to explain Trumpâs undermining:
Trump tosses different kinds of paper depending on the audience:
Naiman Nuur (Eight Lakes) National Park, Mongolia. The lakes are just 22 miles from the Orkhon waterfalls, but are accessible only by hiking, or by horse. You can get to it with 4 wheel drive vehicles, but it is 80+ miles one way, 160 if there are heavy rains. You are probably never coming here.
Rick Perry heads Trumpâs Department of Energy, (DoE). With the Russians, nuclear war with North Korea, ditching the Iran deal, and hurricanes, we have ignored Perry. But Perry hasnât ignored the coal industry Trump hired him to protect. The DoE has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to begin the rule-making process to subsidize coal and nuclear plant operatorâs costs and profits. From Vox:
Perry wants utilities to pay coal and nuclear power plants for all their costs and all the power they produce, whether those plants are needed or not.
The loss of coal plants had not diminished grid reliability; in fact, the grid is more reliable than ever. Reliability can be improved further through smart planning and a portfolio of flexible resources.
Then the DoE said to FERC: Address a crisis we determined doesnât exist. They are asking FERC to adopt a rule forcing utilities in competitive energy markets to pay the full cost of plants that have 90 daysâ worth of fuel on-site. Perryâs argument is that the levels of renewable energy produced from wind and solar is variable. And since backup is needed for days with calm winds or cloudy skies, we need to preserve the aging coal and nuclear plants to protect the power grid from dips in availability, because they alone among electric power sources, have 90-days of fuel on hand.
Perryâs contention is that coal and nuclear stored fuel is necessary for grid reliability, and, that these plants are unfairly being driven out of business by subsidies to renewable energy. This is patently false. It is cheap natural gas that is driving coal out of business.
Having fuel on-site does little for grid resilience. No one expects energy outages if coal and nuclear plants continue closing. But, letâs have more corporate welfare for the least useful part of the energy industry!
Perryâs alleged problem isnât real, and his solution, subsidizing coal and nuclear plants, is a form of theft. A transfer from the most deserving, clean renewable and safe plants, to the least deserving, most polluting and dangerous coal and nuclear plants.
And people will be taxed through artificially higher electricity rates to subsidize coal and nuclear plants. More from Vox:
Itâs hard to overstate how radical this proposal is. It is wildly contradictory to both the spirit and practice of competitive energy markets. It amounts to selective re-regulation, but only for particular power sources, which wouldnât have to compete, theyâd just have to have piles of fuel.
So does FERC have to do what DoE asks? No, but consider this: FERC has three commissioners (a quorum), two of which, including the chair, are Trump appointees. The chair is Neil Chatterjee, who was a staffer for Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s champion of coal. Chatterjee recently said:
I believe baseload power should be recognized as an essential part of the fuel mix. ⊠I believe that generation, including our existing coal and nuclear fleet, needs to be properly compensated to recognize the value they provide to the system.
So, this market-wrecking plan to Make Coal Great Again is likely to happen.
This is an old-school Ayn Rand-style looter giveaway from a bunch of self-described free-market âconservativesâ trying to rescue a dinosaur industry that is choking the world.
Just another issue that raises our anxiety level. Itâs Saturday, and we need to dial it back, relax and stop thinking about how these Trump termites are quietly undermining everything. Grab a hot, steaming cup of Mystic Monk Paradiso Blend coffee ($15.99/lb.), find a quiet corner, put on the Bluetooth headphones and listen to Telemannâs âConcerto in D major for Violin, Cello, Trumpet and Stringsâ, TWV 53:D5. Here performed by the Bremer Barockorchester, recorded in a November, 2015 live performance at the Unser Lieben Frauen Church, Bremen, Germany:
Re: Las Vegas: In an America of unlimited guns and unlimited ammo, we live or die at the whims of killers. That is clearly what the Founders intended when they authored the Second Amendment. And âthoughts and prayersâ, or lowering the flag to half-staff, are do-nothing pap for the masses.
The Daily Escape:
Madrid, the capital of Spain – Photo by Wilhelm Lappe. The effort by the people of Catalonia to vote for independence from Spain was the largest story of the weekend, until Las Vegas happened. Barcelona, in the northeast part of Spain is home to the Catalans.
About 92% of Catalans who voted in the weekendâs referendum backed independence, on an overall turnout of just 42%. Eight percent of voters rejected independence, and the rest of the ballots were blank, or void.
The entire process of voting for independence was marred by the effort of the Spanish national police to prevent polling places from opening, or votes from being counted. That led to violence in which at least 844 people and 33 police were reported to have been hurt.
The Spanish national government of Mariano Rajoy showed bad judgment in trying to prevent a Catalonian referendum from happening. There were good examples of how to handle this: The UK allowed the Scots to have their vote, and campaigned showing why the Scots would be better off in the UK. The Scots rejected independence. Similarly, Canada permitted Quebec to vote for independence, and campaigned on the benefits of remaining with Canada. The Quebecois voted against separation.
If the Spanish had allowed an open referendum and campaigned against secession, the outcome might well have been that separation was rejected. In an open referendum, those opposed to secession would have been empowered to campaign and vote against it, not participate just by casting blank ballots. From Benjamin Studebaker:
If someone was against Catalan independence, it would be odd to participate in this referendum because the Spanish stateâthe entity you recognize as sovereignâdeclared the referendum illegal. An independence referendum that has the backing of the regional authority but not the national authority can only deliver a divisive result.
But, the Spanish government chose to disrupt the referendum with police force. The separatists (call them voters!) chose to confront the police exercising their right of self-determination. That right, codified in the UN Charter, states that a people can freely choose their sovereignty and international political status without interference.
But few nations would agree that the right of self-determination creates a right for a portion of the country to secede from an existing nation state. In the US, a Supreme Court case, Texas vs. White, (1869) held that the Constitution did not permit states to unilaterally secede from the US.
And with the Catalonia vote, Spain is now divided, and what happens next is unclear. The referendum will be followed by a declaration of independence, leaving the central government with few choices but to escalate toward repression.
Spain will be a true test, as the Catalonian movement could well become a feature of this century. The Kurds are attempting it in Iraq. We see a weakening of the nation state as an organizing principle due to the weakening of national identities, and their replacement with micro-identities.
People now have some choice regarding identity, thanks to global flows of information. For example you can identify as conservative, libertarian, Muslim, Jewish, or Jedi Knight-American. The old âbrands” – English, Spanish, Italian, American, are being parsed into a subsets with which people identify, organize, and vote. This âidentity politicsâ, organizing around the new identity, is a problem. Itâs a threat to unified societies.
This is qualitatively different from simply being a hyphenated American who celebrates their roots.
Itâs time to wake up: the old world order isnât holding. People will not stay inside it voluntarily. We need to look at our system of government, and the ties that bind us. To help us wake up, here is Muse with their tune, âUprisingâ from their 2009 album, âThe Resistanceâ. The song is about a proletarian revolt against the 2008 global banking crisis:
Key Lyric:
They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Reflection Canyon, in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah. This spot became popular with hikers after Apple used it to promote its Mac Book Pro high resolution with retina display. People first learned about the location after this photograph was taken by Michael Melford in 2006.
Texas has a $10 billion rainy day fund. Now, you would think that when the rains came to Houston, Gov. Greg Abbott would say âItâs a rainy day fund,letâs send some to Houstonâ.
Nope. The Texas Observer reports: (brackets and emphasis by the Wrongologist)
On Tuesday, after Turner [Houstonâs Democratic mayor, Sylvester Turner] made a public request for money from the rainy day fund, Governor Greg Abbott joined in, telling reporters that the fund wouldnât be touched until the 2019 legislative session. Turner âhas all the money that he needs,â Abbott said. âIn times like these, itâs important to have fiscal responsibility as opposed to financial panic.â The governor went on to accuse the mayor of using Harvey recovery efforts as a âhostage to raise taxes.â
This is an epic statement of Evil. The Texas rainy day fund has $10 billion. The bill for Harvey is estimated at $180 billion, but Houston has all the money needed.
The Observer also quoted Lt. Governor Dan Patrick from early August, less than a month before Hurricane Harvey made landfall:
Where do we have all our problems in America?…Not at the state level run by Republicans, but in our cities that are mostly controlled by Democrat mayors and Democrat city council men and women. Thatâs where you see liberal policies. Thatâs where you see high taxes. Thatâs where you see street crime.
Ideology always comes first in Texas. You would think that these ultra-conservative chimps would be looking for ways to help Houston, if not its mayor. But, itâs business as usual: Everything good in Texas is to the credit of the brave GOP legislators in Austin, and everything bad is the fault of county commissioners, mayors, city councils and school boards.
Oh, and the immigrants.
Six of the nationâs 20 largest cities are in Texas. And those six have half of the stateâs population, and they generate most of its economic activity. But, Republicans consider them a threat, either because of their âliberalâ values or the demographic, and thus, the political threat they represent to the Texas Republican Party.
This could be a real problem for the entire country in the future. Increasingly, we are seeing the GOP in red states using their control of the political system to make war on the blue cities in their states. Think about Flint, MI where local interference by the governor and state-level Republicans partly brought about the lead-in-the-water crisis that remains unresolved, and which the state wonât pay for.
Maybe this is a good time to remember that Greg Abbott received a multi-million dollar settlement for an accident that paralyzed him, and put him in a wheelchair. He is also the guy that subsequently proposed, sponsored and shepherded tort reform in the Texas legislature.
Heâs the guy that acts as if tort reform doesn’t keep present day accident victims from getting the kind of compensation that he received. He closed the door after he got his millions in a settlement.
Texas is dominated by right-wing extremists determined to turn everything to advance their ideological agenda. Forget that Texas already has massive disparities between whites and non-whites in terms of social services, policing, and most other government functions.
Turning their back on Houston just makes the ideology more visible.
In Texas, they just do everything bigger and badder.
Time to relax and think about summer being over. Fall is officially here, the leaves are turning and falling onto the fields of Wrong. Time to brew up a Vente-sized cup of Durango Coffee CompanyâsCosta Rica Las Lajas Perla Negra ($16.95/lb.), put on the Bluetooth headphones, and watch the leaves fall.
While you do, listen to âWoodsâ, the second cut on the 1980 album âAutumnâ by George Winston. It was his second solo piano album. Wrongo chose this because of the great fall-inspired video that accompanies the music:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
SunndalsĂžra, Norway, best known for its aluminum factory, one of the largest in Europe – photo by Brotherside
WaPo reports that estimates say it will take about four months for electric power to be restored on Puerto Rico. You would hope that we could beat the estimate by quite a bit. What is the Congressâs plan to help out our Commonwealth?
Can you imagine living somewhere without power for several months? We had to do it once at the Mansion of Wrong, at the height of winter for 7 days. It got to 37°F one night inside the house. We now have a whole house generator.
What happens to the Puerto Rican economy if there is no power for multiple months? Can average people make a living? How will they pay the rent, or the mortgage?
Our first concern should be providing them with supplementary power. Generators and the fuel to power them must be among the first things we deliver to the island. They are the cheapest, fastest way to deliver temporary power while the basic infrastructure of power lines and cell towers are rebuilt. Fuel (mostly diesel) will need to be brought in via ship. Health care facilities need power to operate, and the basic elements of government requires it as well. With power, they can begin to restore normalcy, communications and water for citizens.
People will need some form of temporary housing. Businesses will need to sell products and services, and help keep people employed. Itâs also not clear how law and civil order will stand up to months without power, or to a situation where people canât get their basic needs met.
Anyone with resources, or family connections on the US mainland is going to move away, many will come here. Will Puerto Rican immigrants be seen by the GOP base as simply more illegals coming to use our welfare system?
Will the GOP remind their base that Puerto Ricans are US citizens? It isn’t certain that Republicans all will say that. Think about what that says about the America we live in today.
The scale of this disaster would be unfathomable and unacceptable on the US mainland. Will we step up as a country and help our brothers back to their feet? Or, will we do something half-hearted because they are the “other“?
Before you answer, remember that Flint Michigan still doesn’t have safe drinking water. Maybe getting the help you need is mostly about whether you (and your town) are the correct color.
Time to get soothed after another really tough week. Try to find a bag of Beanstockâs Shuckerâs Roast coffee (only available at retail during the Wellfleet Cape Cod Oysterfest) but otherwise available at great Cape Cod restaurants like C-Shore Wellfleet. Then, brew up a hot, strong cuppa. Settle back, put on the Bluetooth headphones, and listen to Tchaikovskyâs Trio in A minor, Op. 50. This will take about an hour, but you will be greatly rewarded.
Tchaikovsky wrote this between December 1881 and late January 1882. It is the only work Tchaikovsky ever wrote for piano, violin, and cello. Here it is performed live at the New England Conservatoryâs Jordan Hall in February 2013, with Livan on piano, Zenas Hsu on violin and Yina Tong on cello:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Old Prison, Annecy, France. This 12th century prison sits in the middle of the river Thiou. Because of the canals in the town, Annecy is called the Venice of the Alps.
Yesterday, Wrongo said that we needed a special tax to be used solely to rebuild the economies and infrastructure of states hit by Irma and Harvey. It didnât take long to hear that millionaires already pay enough taxes. In one way, that is correct. From the Atlantic:
Forty years ago, the richest 1% paid about 18% of the country’s federal income taxes. Today, they pay about 40%.
While 40% seems high, we need to look harder at the arithmetic: The number of million-dollar-earners in the US has grown rapidly since Y2K. According to the IRS, the number of households with an adjusted gross income greater than $1 million more than doubled between 2001 and 2014, the last year with complete data. And no group has grown faster than the super-rich; the number of households earning more than $10 million grew by 144%.
Between 2001 and 2014, income earned by millionaires grew twice as fast as income earned by the rest of us. In 2001, million-dollar earners and above collectively reported income of about $600 billion. In 2014, they reported $1.4 trillion, more than double the amount in just 14 years. And the top 10% of wealthiest families in this country control 76% of our country’s total wealth.
So, we shouldnât feel guilty about taxing them for a specific need, for a time-limited period.
If you’re a millionaire, it’s not just because you worked hard. It’s because you worked hard, and you live in a country where the government provides a well-developed infrastructure, stable institutions and markets governed by a strong commercial code.
Rich people need to stop griping and pull their weight, just like the rest of America’s tax-payers.
So Wrongo says again, we all need to pay extra taxes into a special fund for redevelopment of Florida and Texas. As the libertarian Joseph Tainter asserts in his book âThe Collapse of Complex Societiesâ (donât read it), when a society no longer has the reserves to help offset what might otherwise be a recoverable disaster, collapse canât be far off.
Increased revenues will absolutely increase our reserves. And they will help us recover from this current disaster.
Itâs Saturday, and we need to relax. Today Dr. Wrong prescribes a double Hayes Valley Espresso (whole bean is $ 17/lb.) from Oakland, CAâs Blue Bottle Coffee. Get it now, Blue Bottle has just agreed to be acquired by Nestle.
Brew it up, put on the Bluetooth headphones, and listen to the Flute Quartet No.1 in D major by J. J. Quantz, flute maker and Baroque composer. Quantz was extremely prolific. He wrote six flute quartets that were discovered in 2001 by American flutist Mary Ann Oleskiewicz in archives of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. Here is Quantz’s Flute Quartet No. 1:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
We have been watching Trump clap Pelosi and Schumer on the back, as Democrats declared victory. But in background, the administration was busy announcing their seventh Wave of Judicial Candidates, including three appellate judge nominations, and 13 district court appointments. All are to vacant judgeships.
These are lifetime appointments, and most will serve long past Trumpâs tenure as President. Business Insiderquotes Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE):
This will be the single most important legacy of the Trump administration….They will quickly be able to put judges on circuit courts all over the country, district courts all over the country, that will, given their youth and conservatism, will have a significant impact on the shape and trajectory of American law for decades.
Coons went on to say these appointments will lead to âa wholesale change among the federal judiciary.â
Part of the reason Trumpâs been able to nominate so many federal judges is that an unusually large number of these positions were unfilled. From Business Insider:
The furious pace of nominations come as Trump faces an impressive number of vacancies to fill. As of [July 27], the federal bench had 136 vacanciesâŠ. In August 2009, Obama faced 85 vacancies on the federal bench.
It is possible to attribute the big discrepancy in vacancies to obstruction by Senate Republicans during the last few years of the Obama administration.
Democratic senators have started using a 100-year old procedure to block some Trump nominees. This process is called the âblue slipâ. Since 1917, the Senate has followed a process whereby a stateâs senators traditionally must return a blue slip of paper, endorsing any federal judicial nominee from their home state, in order for the nomination to proceed. If the senator fails to return the blue slip, or does so with some indication of disapproval, the nomination may be delayed, or possibly, blocked.
This system is old, but it isnât absolute. Some Senate Judiciary Committee chairs wonât schedule hearings without receiving positive blue slips, while others think they do not necessarily disqualify a nominee. In recent years, the blue slip has given individual senators virtual veto-power over a federal judicial nomination, if the individual was from the state the senator represents.
Will this tradition continue? Last week, Sen. Al Franken (D-WI) did not return a blue slip for David Stras, a nominee from for an open spot on the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
 Justice Strasâs professional background and record strongly suggest that, if confirmed, he would…reliably rule in favor of powerful corporate interests over working people, and that he would place a high bar before plaintiffs seeking justice at work, at school, and at the ballot box… I fear that Justice Strasâs views and philosophy would…steer the already conservative Eighth Circuit even further to the right.
Later, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) wouldnât return blue slips for Ryan Bounds, a nominee for a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, because they will not green-light any candidate that had not been previously approved by the stateâs bipartisan judicial selection committee. More from Politico:
Unfortunately, it is now apparent that you never intended to allow our longstanding process to play out…Disregarding this Oregon tradition returns us to the days of nepotism and patronage that harmed our courts and placed unfit judges on the bench…
So, will Republicans end the blue slip process? Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IW), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reportedly thinks the blue slip process is less important for district court judgeships than for appellate positions.
But, nobody knows if Grassley will schedule hearings on appellate court nominees who do not secure blue slip approval. Republicans have majority control of the Senate and could confirm judges even over strenuous Democratic objections.
OTOH, tradition is strong. While the denial of a blue slip does not legally restrict a judge from being approved, Business Insider reports that:
No circuit court nominees have been confirmed over objection of one (or two) home state senators â including under Obama.
Even if the blue slip process remains in place, Democrats arenât in a position to stop more than a handful of Trumpâs nominees. Most will probably soon be confirmed, since it is relatively easy to pick nominees that are not in a state with a Democratic senator.
Using the Pot/Kettle meme brings risk:
