Autocorrect deleted that is said that Alito replaced the more moderate O’Connor. The next sentence should have started “The judges they are evaluating now…”

David, you’re correct that some of the Hard Right judges we’ve seen inflicted onto the Supreme Court have surprised the GOP. Roberts has mostly ruled from the Right but will occasionally go a little more to the center if he thinks there is an issue of the court’s credibility. Meaning that if they’re divided and he can swing the vote, as with the ACA, he’ll do something to provide a little stability, just so the court doesn’t appear to be violently swinging with the passions of the moment. But most of the time, he’s a reliable Hard Right vote.

David Souter was really the last big surprise these guys had, and that was because everyone, including the Left, thought he was secretly a Hard Right judge before he got on the SC. He was picked by John Sununu as a stealth candidate who the Dems couldn’t reasonably stop and could then wreak havoc on the Constitution- but he turned out to be a true independent who tended to vote in a more liberal way.

Ever since Souter, the Right hasn’t been taking any chances with their picks. Roberts was a reliable Hard Right choice, as was Alito. Both were younger picks, designed to make sure that the court continued its swing farther to the right, particularly with the vicious Alito replacing the more moderate judges they are evaluating now are fervent Hard Right judges who have already shown their biases. Gorsuch is an unapologetic acolyte of Scalia. Pryor is on record referring to Roe v Wade as “an abomination”. These are not stealth candidates, nor are they going to suddenly decide they are liberals at heart when they are given a chance to swing the court even farther to the Right. We should have no illusions about what these men intend to do to the SC after they are easily confirmed to it.

We’ve gotten to a much nastier place than we were during even the Reagan years where something like Bork could be rejected and the Right could be forced to go with a more “business of America is business” judge like Kennedy. The Pence White House is firmly in the notion of going as far over to the Right as possible, including rebuilding the SC as a 6-3 or 7-2 Hard Right majority, and if they succeed, it won’t matter if Roberts is trying to keep stability. They’ll have the votes to take us back to the 1950s, pre- Brown v Board of Education. If that happens, the SC is toast for the next35 years.

The Dems do not have the votes to stop this for the next two years, so the best we can hope for is stasis on the Court until we can vote more Dems into the Senate to stop this abuse of our Constitution and our country.

David: Supposedly hard-right judges have occasionally voted in unexpected ways. Even Scalia was at times a disappointment to the fundamentalists. Is there any hope that Gorsuch or Pryor might be sufficiently loyal to the Constitution to prevent the Supreme Court from sounding the death knell of the USofA?

David, I think we already know what the Pence White House is thinking when it comes to the Supreme Court. They’re going to have Trump name either Neil Gorsuch or William Pryor. Both are extremely Hard Right justices in the Scalia mold. Both are relatively young. Gorsuch is 49 and Pryor is 54. The intention is to have this justice sit on the bench for the next 35 years at least. And they intend to replace Kennedy and Thomas with similarly young and Hard Right justices before 2020 to solidify the court’s Right leaning. And if they really get the best possible scenario for themselves, they’ll get to replace Ginsburg or Breyer with another young, Hard Right justice and thus completely tip the court off the edge.

Trump openly stated that he wants Mitch McConnell to change the Senate voting requirements to a simple majority, so that if the Dems try to filibuster Pryor or Gorsuch, the GOP can feel free to ignore them as they’ve been doing all along. I frankly believe the Dems will cave on this appointment, however, and the “nuclear option” most likely won’t be needed – yet. In the event of Pence getting to pick another Hard Right justice to replace Ginsburg, then I think we’re absolutely looking at a filibuster and then the rule absolutely will be changed and there’s nothing the Dems would be able to do about it. On the other hand, if we can hang on until 2018 and if enough people are angry enough about what the Pence White House is doing, there is a chance that the Senate could shift, which would at least get us to a stalemate.

Josh Gilman,

Oh, I think you missed where I wrote (and I’ll print it in all caps to make it easier for you): ’"FOX NEWS DID DIP IN AND OUT WITH REPORTS OF THE PROTESTS THROUGH THE EVENING."

is it your reading comprehension problem or were you just too eager to smear us that you didn’t bother to read?

I view this as feeding red meat to the base. We’ll find out where his head is really at with the Supreme Court nominee.

Kevin: The very fact that Fox did NOT cover the story ad nauseam is of itself weird. Shucks, they’re always all over any other story where there’s a protest or a car accident. Methinks they simply didn’t trust themselves to go with the story live. Don’t want another Shepherd Smith moment, do we? The Foxies are somewhat in disarray these days.

Josh: Good heavens above. Why on earth would any thinking person believe that bashing a whole bunch of people won’t end up antagonising them? Instead of inspiring love and respect, that usually gets their backs up. I fear that the ban may have significantly increased the chances of lone wolf attacks.

The idea that Muslim immigrants are terrorists was soundly debunked by a recent statistical study by highly reputable numbers crunchers. They concluded that the chances of Muslim immigrants actually doing anything to harm other Americans were equal – please do pay attention – to winning the lottery and being hit by lightning on the same day.

Fox did cut in many times to the airport protests, albeit from the Pence White House’s point of view about it. I don’t know that it was live after the first time – I caught them recycling the same coverage of that and the GOP retreat multiple times.

Oh you missed the fact FOX cut in multiple times live covering the idiots who want to be killed by terrorists. #fakenews

Just saw what the people in Seattle are doing. Fantastic. That’s the way to do it. Persistent but no punching or shoving. Move like water to occupy space in a constantly moving flow around the police, not against them.

“Well, there goes that relationship”, but I’m referring to the one that the USA once enjoyed with the rest of the world, including the majority Christian countries (aka the “civilised” world in RW parlance). Only ISIS/DAESH/ Boko Haram and Putin’s lot are cheering, albeit for reasons that bode ill-will for the USA.

Facts mean nothing to a child-man who never misses a chance to show-case his ignorance and arrogance by claiming to know anything and everything better than people who actually know something. He also seems to think that bashing others will earn their love and respect. Sheeeeeeeeeesh. The child-man should be hauled into court for high treason on the grounds that he is advancing the cause of terrorists by fueling resentment and deep hatred towards the USA. My only hope is that people in the USA and throughout the world will join together to express their dismay at the sheer stupidity of this mean-spirited initiative that totally belies what the USA used to stand for (cf. the inscription on the Statue of Liberty).

A couple of days ago, the child-man basked in what he thought was the friendship and respect of the UK, whose Prime Minister exploited that aura mistressfully" to a few concessions on record. I don’t think he realised what had happened to him until later. Then, she goes and signs a hugely lucrative fighter aircraft development and production deal with TURKEY of all places. Uh-oh. The jobs will be there and the USA is not in the picture at all. Extraditing that religious leader to Turkey will probably not do much to improve relations between the USA and Turkey.

Buckle up, folks, this is going to be a very rocky ride. But, please, please, please, do keep it peaceful. Violence will only give them a reason to start bashing.