Posted on 08/27/2019 6:02:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
Over the weekend, the media took notice of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's apparently successful treatment for a malignant tumor on the pancreas. "No further treatment is needed at this time," said Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City -- which wasn't the same thing as saying "Justice Ginsburg's Supreme Court tenure is locked down and guaranteed."
Possibly the least edifying phenomenon you run across in politics -- a highly unedifying pursuit these days, full of noise and rancor -- is what might be called the death watch, as in how-long-before-we-get-to-replace-old-so-and-so-on-whatever-it-is. Few are the political folk whose disappearances for one reason or another excite public rejoicings. Ginsburg -- a smart, snappy and rigorously honest jurist -- isn't among their number. "Long may she wave!" we need to exclaim so as to keep up some pretense of humanity amid all the grossness.
This is not to deny she's a major player in the 2020 elections -- in one sense, the major player.
Maybe Donald Trump understands, and maybe he doesn't, that his widely supported project of tugging the federal judiciary to the right buys him tolerance he might not otherwise be vouchsafed -- and well could lose if certain things don't change.
The bare, spare, unsentimental fact is that The Notorious RBG's retirement from the Supreme Court, due to age and health, would allow Trump this year -- next year -- to strengthen a tenuous conservative majority on the court, made possible by the 2016 election, and possibly the next one up. At the same time, he would continue to staff the lower federal benches with conservatives.
Here, in all its quasi-glory, is the main reason many conservatives cut him so much slack. They want a conservative judiciary. They want to fill the Ginsburg seat. This helps counteract the distinct possibility Trump could be wearing out his public welcome.
Witness last week's rants and raves about China and the Fed. The Fed chairman no less a threat to America than a Chinese dictator? So the president would have it. American companies "hereby ordered" -- by tweet -- to end their Chinese ties! Aaaarghhhh! This is government by tantrum. Did one other American besides Trump find the experience inspiring? One certainly hopes not.
Thus the prospect that ordinary Middle Americans next year could be talked into canceling "The Donald Show" is a prospect the show's star seems not to notice. The matches with which he plays so carelessly could start a political forest fire -- putting the country in danger of, God save the mark, a Warren or Harris or who-knows-what-else presidency.
No democratically elected president should ever take for granted his ability to snap his fingers and make the masses move this way or that. Hillary Clinton did. Look where it got her.
Voters find life in the midst of a political blizzard little to their taste. They don't want insults constantly swirling through the air. They don't want nonstop tweets oozing with personal pride and righteous indignation. Most of the time, unless five decades of journalism have blinded me to reality, they want general well-being and a strong sense of personal freedom to achieve the same, in pursuit of which they tend to anoint those they see as likeliest to encourage or bestow such public ends.
No one should ever, ever underestimate the cringe factor in public life -- a more general factor than the present White House seems to acknowledge. Every president -- hardly excluding the self-satisfied Barack Obama -- is capable of causing teeth to grind. It is the grim factor Trump is grimly awakening.
For now, the prospect of a sure-enough conservative federal judiciary, pre- or post-RBG, plays to Trump's long suit. It helps, like his refugee policies, to keep conservatives and many much-desired moderates happy, if nervous.
Better still, from the standpoint of rolling up crucial centrist votes, would be a widely shared sense of economic well-being, such as we thought we were enjoying prior to last week's Twitter storm, in all its peevish incoherence. What was the point here? Was there a point at all? With DJT, no one can say -- possibly not the president himself, who by Sunday was backing away from the rhetorical precipice.
If Trump truly desires reelection, he should realize he is pressing his kind of amazing luck -- which is what gamblers do, instinctively. It can work, but not always, even with the likes of RBG hovering tableside.
I wonder if she sleeps with a pillow over her face? Hmmm.
“Here, in all its quasi-glory, is the main reason many conservatives cut him so much slack. They want a conservative judiciary. They want to fill the Ginsburg seat. This helps counteract the distinct possibility Trump could be wearing out his public welcome.”
...and that is based on? You could say the same about Obama - in that liberals wanted him to stay another 4 years in the White House to follow through on Obamacare, even though they were otherwise tiring of him...not true in either case, but only posited for Trump. Interesting.
know when to walk away. Know when to run.
The writer of this article proves that he knows no more than we do about RGB’s physical condition. He begins the article with a bit about her that has already been made public, and then he shifts to bashing Trump about the possible opportunity to replace her.
Is Commie Liz Warren better equipped to capture centrist votes? I don't think so when Trump reveals her radical stance on everything.
“It helps, like his refugee policies, to keep conservatives and many much-desired moderates happy, if nervous.”
The only thing people here are ‘nervous’ about is Trump losing, or Republicans in Congress again pulling the rug out from under him.
I guess they are trying to imply that she was “cured”. Pancreatic cancer rates are some of the worst; friends that I have known who got it were all dead in months. But I guess it is worse for young healthy people than tough old leftist birds. Unless the deep state has installed a look-alike, she is not likely to be able to hold on to her seat much longer. Then we will be seeing hysteria comparable to the Chinese biking LA.
I have my doubts too. I was taught history; taught by people who actually remembered when America's affliction was only a rash here and there, not the fullblown leprosy it suffers now.
It's going to take a miracle. Does the Lord want to work a miracle on a nation in which half the people aren't even sorry about killing sixty million babies, and the other half are only sorry? Put up with it, with all the left does, indeed enable it with your tax dollars, and you own it.
Hope I'm wrong and the grace of God can cross the barrier that has grown over our hides.
Thanks Android autocorrect for changing nuking to biking.
A curious phrase struck me when I first heard it and at the time it seemed to me it was directed at libtards. “When you kill a killer the number of killers remains the same.” What utter tripe. I won’t claim to know the mind of God outside what He has shared with me in reflection upon reading His word but I expect from my understanding is sort of like this, “If evil flourishes when good men do nothing (Bonhoeffer) then God must rejoice when good men do what has to be done.”
“The Notorious RBG’s retirement from the Supreme Court, due to age and health, would allow Trump this year — next year — to strengthen a tenuous conservative majority on the court, made possible by the 2016 election, and possibly the next one up.”
If RBG were to die while still a sitting justice, that alone would make the Court more conservative without having to get a replacement confirmed. That is an enormous difference from the situation with the late Justice Scalia, whose loss left us down a conservative pending replacement. (Lately, justices have been retiring effective upon the confirmation of their successor; that ploy would the Left a bit more leverage; however, the Left appears determined for her to remain on the Court until the point of death, a strategy that could backfire.)
Ever wonder if Google autocorrect isn’t screwing with you on purpose? Proof read everything as much as you can. You may start to see a pattern.
RBG is not forced to do anything by anyone, particularly at her age and state of health. She is doing what she wants to do...hanging on to her position whether or not she is capable of doing the job. Lots of DC swamp critters do the same thing.
As in so many things there is a clue in here that the “journalists” are failing to share. “Plastic stent”. Placed when survival is months. As in “a couple...”. Metal stents are used for longer predicted survivals.
Very sorry to hear about your brother.
In the Ginsburg situation the statement “no further treatment” may mean that further treatment is probably futile and is not indicated. It doesnt necessarily mean that the illness is cured.
“Very sorry to hear about your brother.”
Thank you. I miss him every single day.
Best,
L
I think she’s beyond running.
No official statements claimed a cure. But they worded things slyly so the media could run with what they have.
The media will pretend she is alive until 2024. Her clerks will continue to announce her rulings which will always be the opposite of what the constitution sais
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