Home » Open thread 5/3/22

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Open thread 5/3/22 — 33 Comments

  1. Lovely photo!

    I am counting on comments here to tell me WHO leaked that Supreme Court draft.

  2. @Kate honestly I don’t think it matters who leaked it because the Abortion issue may not be as hot button of an issue as the leaker hope it will be.

    Because Abortion as an issue has to counter with dick girls swimming around the girls locker rooms. It may literally be a non starter in my opinion.

  3. I do think that leftist predictions that overturning Roe will result in Democrat victories in the midterms is off base. Opinion polls, for whatever they’re worth, consistently show that a limit of about fifteen weeks, like the Mississippi law in this case, would be accepted by the vast majority of voters.

    The question about the leak is to identify who thought it was wise to try to break the Court by leaking its deliberations.

  4. @Kate ¯\_(?)_/¯. From what I can see in the conservative sphere nearly all suspect it was somebody from the Democrat’s side in an attempt to try to swing votes for the mid terms.

    From left wing rags the narrative seems to be two things.

    – This shows how broken the Supreme Court it and god help us all that the final check and balance is breaking.

    – Somebody in the right leaked it to force the undecided judges in this case Kavanagh and Roberts to swing towards affirming the decision. (Which to me is too farfetched)

  5. Amongst conservatives, the betting money is on one of Sotomayor’s clerks (apparently three female and one male), although Dinesh D’Souza has suggested that “The Wise Latina” herself may perhaps be responsible. With so few possible culprits, discovering the identity of the scoundrel should not be a difficult task.

  6. I am worried about the election impact of the SCOTUS leak.

    The thing that I expect to be lost in the media noise is that even if Roe is completely overturned, younger women everywhere who can buy a longer distance bus ticket will still be able to get an abortion. It will become a state’s rights issue again and many states will have easy to obtain abortions.

  7. If Roe v Wade is overturned, would there be BLM / Antifa type riots?
    Republicans need to be screaming loud and clear about the rights of real women in sports, public restrooms and women in prison not being forced to share a cell with a man they have no interest in.

  8. I just about fainted when I got my oil bill this morning- it’s up 40% from last month and the average in MA for home heating fuel is now over $6- and I would like to know where the end is? How many people, now that we are entering a warmer period, are aware of how much their energy costs are and will be? Fortunately, we can afford the increases, but there will be a whole lot of pain before this is finished. I can’t help but thinking about breaking eggs and omelets…

  9. Well, even the Wise Latina and her clerks may not have expected a “Spanish Inquisition” in response to their institutional arson.

    Not too clever at all, no fractions needed.

  10. om,
    The FBI is tasked with the SCOTUS leak investigation. What could go wrong with that?

  11. Nothing to see, nothing seen?

    Almost like a laptop?

    But if you don’t want a certain answer, don’t ask any questions, could be interesting in unexpected ways. We need a Ministry of Disinformation. 🙂

  12. KatherineinMA @ 10:55: I feel your pain here in CT. Heating oil is diesel in drag and priced accordingly. This $6/gallon stuff has got to stop. But how? The chain of accountability is overdetermined (Putin, sure: but mostly the Green Freakshow, under Biden’s masterful supervision) and the Progs will blame Big Oil to the exclusion of all else. As these costs ripple through *everything* we build, buy and use, you can expect *all* your bills to explode. Thanks, Brandon!

  13. I agree that Republicans have the chance to make a big victory of this. Roe was a bad decision that may now be overturned. But the response should be to reasonable laws (my opinion is that it is the 20 week laws, but I’m sure I am a minority). In addition of not just becoming the prolife party (when abortion previously fell out of the top ten issues for voters), Republicans should focus on protecting other protections women should have. Mostly they should acknowledge women are a thing and not just a construct that any man can claim or another women fail to define.

    Alas, I’m afraid Republicans will play right into the narrative the left will now construct. A narrative clearly developed by long time politicians seeing an opportunity to rake in donations from a well divided and activated electorate. Losing in November will keep Nancy Pelosi in charge of the Jan 6th committee. It will affirm the Disinformation Governance Board. And it will give a regenerated Democrat party a second chance to nationalize elections. That’s on top of more wars in foreign countries and continuation of the green agenda at the risk of national starvation. Then there is the down ballot impacts that might make moot any gains from the overturn of Roe.

  14. President Joe Biden exhibits his relentless, remorseless political pigishness in a statement on the SCOTUS leak: https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/biden-issues-statement/

    Notice he couldn’t trouble himself to denounce the breach of duty to the Court’s trust by the leaker(s), nor comit to seek their identity out and bring them to justice. Partisanship alone is his all-in-all.

  15. Just saw how people have noticed that the D response was quick and, as usual very coordinated in the response from Pelosi on down. As usual, using the same language. So the suggestion is that the Ds already knew about the leak before it was even published. Did the the Ds actually manufacture the leak?? Given their record of trying to destroy anything that gets in their way with no restraint, why not?

  16. @Kate – I don’t know who the leaker is. I can put together plausible rationales for a conservative clerk, a conservative justice, a progressive clerk, or a progressive justice. The mechanics of the leak may favor the anti-Roe position because it will be more difficult now for any of the five to flip now under pressure (although not impossible). The politics of the leak, though, definately favor the left. This is demonstrated by the White House’s statement and the statements from leftist media personalities lauding the leak. Its also curious that this leak is before the primary season whereas we otherwise would have found out about the decision after the primaries.

    As for the political impact, I’m not sure its going to be as big as people are saying. Progressives have built up the end of Roe as an apocalyptic disaster. It will certainly bump up Democratic fundraising, but I can’t see a huge response when people figure out that nothing is really changing except in deep red states like Mississippi.

  17. The FBI is tasked with the SCOTUS leak investigation. What could go wrong with that?

    The Chief Justice in his announcement said the chief of security at the Court would be investigating. Maybe he doesn’t trust the FBI either.

  18. The “National Security” regime that spies on the President and Congress certainly spies on the courts as well.

  19. So Chases Eagles, do you think the leak itself came from some intrusion into the Court’s communications by some external agency (personnel) like NSA or some other such institution? Or are you merely remarking that such agencies have access to the communications of the actual leakers as well as those of the reporters to whom they leaked? And hence can know already (in principle) who the leaker(s) are?

  20. The sad state of affairs is that Art Deco’s comment may actually be true.

  21. I have zero doubt this was leaked as a twofold strategy.

    1) To try to pressure the judges to change their vote
    2) To use and a way to rally the troops on each side to vote if that fails.

    Point two could frankly be either side. Point one seems to me to indicate that it probably came from the left. As the winning side does not need to influence votes.

    That said this could all be avoided if both sides ever took the time to follow the correct processes when creating new “laws”

    The legislature creates laws. And the constitution specifically lays out this process. It also lays out what freedoms that are covered in its texts. And how to amend those texts.

    1) Unstated constitutional “penumbras” are not codified law. This should have been obvious 50 years ago.
    2) Executive orders are not laws. And can be reversed by the next executive.
    3) Bureaucratic rules are also not laws. Subject to the whims of moment.

    As a society we have fallen for the short sighted appeal to get our desired outcome. Without doing the actual work involved. Passing actually voted upon laws seem like a weird fairy tale now. And an actual constitutional amendment is something that seems far beyond the current thinking.

  22. If a clerk leaked it, s/he/it can look forward to a bright future of being adored by the Left. Probably even a seat on SCOTUS.

  23. Art Deco:

    Well that May 9, 2022 Victory Parade celebrating the “de-Nazification” of that phony country Ukraine was retracted. Time will tell how many servings of crow are needed.

  24. Art Deco-

    I am of the opinion that the security state has any piece of information in their hands that has ever been put on a phone, typed in a computer or mentioned near a microphone.

    So this sort of thing is going to become more and more common. As the clearly autocratic nature of federal government becomes more apparent. And there will be less need to disguise this sort of maneuver. As the elected officials continue to demonstrate less actual authority over these agencies.

  25. I look forward to the overthrow of Roe and returning the question of abortion to the states.

  26. Ace is far too opinionated on the subject.

    The previous Marshal was a generic federal employee. The current one was an Army JAG, which is an improvement. She has people working under her who have some specialized functions. It’s also possible they’ll call in outside technicians in cybersecurity and the like. We’ll see.

  27. Art D.,
    Yes, I just heard that. The chief of security is on it. Good.

  28. I did hear an answer of possible criminal violations. The gist is that the opinion is government property and that the property was used in an authorized manner. I’m not going to look up what that gets you, but it is apparent that trespassing can get you several months in solitary without even a court hearing.

  29. I understand the skepticism about Roberts and the leak investigation but saying, “He should have given it to the FBI” rings hollow these days. There are a limited number of suspects, I think it will be apparent if there is a coverup going on.

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