Wednesday, May 18, 2016

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TRUMP'S COURT PICKS IS THAT JOHN YOO IS DELIGHTED

Donald Trump has released a list of potential Supreme Court picks, and Bush administration torture enabler John Yoo has already announced at National Review that he's over the moon:
Everyone on the list is an outstanding legal conservative. All are young, smart, and committed. They would excel in any comparison with anyone whom Hillary Clinton would appoint to the Supreme Court.

... These names are a Federalist Society all-star list of conservative jurisprudence. In the interest of full disclosure, I will note that I count several of them as colleagues and friends. It is a good sign that, on one of a president’s most important decisions, Trump clearly turned to the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation for advice.

... Many have run for office and already know what it is like to be attacked by the Left. They may prove more immune to the pressure from the New York-Washington liberal media/academic elite that has managed to sway Justice Anthony Kennedy and other Republican appointees.

... I am thrilled by this list.
Have you decided that you're going to sit out a Trump-Clinton general election -- or maybe even vote for Trump in order to help "heighten the contradictions" -- because you think Clinton is so awful and hey, what's the worst that can happen in a Trump presidency? Well, what can happen is that Trump could seat two, three, or even four High Court justices from a list that has "thrilled" a man who said the president of the United States (back when the president was a Republican) has the legal right to order the testicles of a child crushed in order to persuade the child's terror-suspect father to talk.

Yoo has only one reservation:
But that being said, I cannot trust Trump to keep his word. He has already flip-flopped on so many issues, before, during, and after the primary campaign. How do we know he would not start wheeling and dealing on judicial appointments if he were to win the Oval Office?
RedState's Leon Wolf raises the same concern, a bit more pungently:
Look, if you’re an absolute sucker who’s decided to defenestrate your discernment in order to ease your conscience about pulling the lever for a mentally unstable person in November, you might believe this. If, however, you have a functioning long term memory, you will remember that Trump has lied or flip-flopped about literally everything during the course of this primary.

... Doing this stuff comes as easily as breathing to Donald Trump. His unrelenting dishonesty and malleability even puts Bill Clinton to shame. And we are supposed to believe that this list, which costs Donald Trump nothing at all, is an iron clad promise and we can totally believe that this list isn’t just a “suggestion” or an “opening bargaining position” with Democrats, and that he won’t end up nominating another Souter.

Sorry, pass. I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday.
Why would Trump flip-flop on this? He doesn't give a crap about the Supreme Court. Sure, he'll want justices who won't overturn his Muslim ban, or prevent him from building the wall, or declare that he's overstepped his bounds by ordering U.S. interrogators to torture. He'll want justices who'll decide cases in ways that won't hurt him financially. Beyond that, he doesn't care. These folks, I'm sure, will be extremely accommodating.

If Trump is elected president, that will mean that voters rejected the Democratic Party and kept the Senate in Republican hands. A GOP Senate will rubber-stamp any of these picks. The minority's right to filibuster Supreme Court justices might have to be abolished first, but that'll be a formality.

So relax, John and Leon. Trump will give you your dream Court. And anyone on the left who thinks that's a small price to pay in order to punish that evil neoliberal corporate shill Hillary, well, don't come crying to me about the godawful rulings that result.

12 comments:

Lit3Bolt said...

Incrementalism is for corporate sellouts, Steve. Demand your agenda 100%, refuse to compromise, throw chairs and scream and fight security on national TV, and then wonder why you're utterly marginalized.

But hey, remember how the Green Party totally moved the national zeitgeist to the Left after 2000? Remember how successful the Ralph Nader was in enacting his policy agenda of campaign finance reform, free education, minimum wage increases, affordable housing, and universal healthcare after the election? Remember all this was justified because if Al Gore couldn't beat the stupid George W. Bush, it simply proved he was a terrible candidate in the first place?

I'm hearing the same things once again.

petrilli said...

I'm a NYC high school teacher with tenure, seniority, a strong union (for now) and a decent defined benefits pension waiting for me in a few years. There are dozens of well funded wingnut lawsuits designed to blow up every one of those earned remunerations (Not Benefits!) either on the court's docket or working their way up in the next 4 years. They intend to replace my profession and me with Pearson and Kaplan canned online curriculum administered by minimum wage trainees from TFA or any similar scab factory. Not in the abstract. Not 10 years from now. Right now. We just dodged a big one recently when the swarthy little quail killer died. Shits real to me. Amazingly, I know lots of teachers in my school who love Trump.

Victor said...

Leon, about that turnip truck, you didn't fall off it yesterday, you jumped aboard it years ago!
With both feet, may I add.

You bought the yammering from the other root vegetables in that conservative truck before, but NOW you draw the line?
It is to laugh, sucker!

KenRight said...

Well, right. Could Trump coopt Yoo, the way some say he has coopted Adelson?

If Trump adopts non-interventionism, there would be less people to torture, of course, worst case scenario. Wild card.

Not a wild card.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/clintons-hawkish-admirers/

Feud Turgidson said...

I did learn SOMETHING from Uoo, finally: "a Federalist Society all-star list" is a truly hilarious phrase. The little fascist dickhole has some comedy chops!

Everyone on that list is a get-along type who knew Who Do U Blow and How Long. Even the Twitterfeed guy, Willett, is about as deep as veneer side tables in a 10 dollar motel.

I very much Yoo 'just learned' of the names on this list. The Federalist Society whackoids are a tightly wound up ball of snakes.

mathguy said...

I always follow a war criminal's endorsements.

AllieG said...

On the short list of human beings who deserve President Trump, America's Internet leftists come first. Maybe they should put the immigrant detention camps in Vermont, Portland, Ore. and Madison so they can view their handiwork.

AllieG said...

Part of me, the dark part, believes white America deserves Trump. But a police state, civil insurrection, depression and world war seem like a high price to pay to show other people they're fools.

Blackstone said...

Everybody knows there was no difference between Bush and Gore. Gore would have invaded Iraq on a lie about WMDs; Gore and Bush were exactly the same on climate change; Gore endorsed Roberts and Alito for the supreme court. Ralph was, in the words of Judy Miller, "so fucking right!"


The brown acid is not specifically too good, but it's your own trip so be my guest.

KenRight said...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/19/breaking-through-power-join-together-to-mobilize-against-wars-of-aggression/

Speaking of a hero, notice Nader's listing of military against the Iraq War.
Do you people believe Clinton was oblivious to their opposition? Of course not, she voted for the war and her only regret is there was an insurgency
which ruined her chances to put us in more war as president in 2008.
So she worked as S of S with fellow war hawk Obama to get us in Libya, Syria, Yemen, surging to more quagmire in Afghanistan.

Allie, you got more worries than Trump.

Steve M. said...

CLINTON (shakes fist at television): DAMN YOU! I WANTED MORE WAR!!!!!

Steve M. said...

Do you know any actual human beings, Ken? Getting all your notions of psychological motivation from articles in Counterpunch is almost as stupid as getting them from Maureen Dowd columns.