They’ve already reformed it to their liking through corruption

Joan McCarter of Daily Kos praised Biden for being more progressive than we thought he might be and for recognizing what the GOP in Congress is doing. However, McCarter said, Biden has a blind spot – the judiciary. That might be because he used to be chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee (12 years ago) and is bound by traditions. He doesn’t have much imagination for how to reform the court. Biden has declared the courts are “out of whack” – one thing is the Supremes need an ethics code – but hasn’t understood how much partisanship had made it out of whack. McCarter discussed what is going on with the commission Biden set up to propose changes to the courts. Her discussion includes a close look at commission members, an article posted on Rewire News. The big problem is that four people on the commission are members of the Federalist Society. It is the Federalist Society who recommended and campaigned for Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Alito, and Roberts. The society does not believe in women’s autonomy. The society is funded by dark money and knows how to stage strategic, corporate friendly cases to get them to the Supremes and to file supporting briefs from a swarm of sub groups. They are on the side of corporations, which Sheldon Whitehouse discussed (and I wrote about) during Barrett’s hearing – Whitehouse reported corporations won 80 cases out of 80. They are on the side of overturning the 2020 election. These are people who are not going to help reform the court because they’ve already reformed it to their liking through corruption. Biden doesn’t yet see “he's keeping those foxes on the planning team for rebuilding the henhouse.” Mark Sumner of Kos discussed a story by The Washington Post about the origins of the Big Lie pushed by Giuliani and Sidney Powell. The story centers on Republican hustler Russel Ramsland. Back in 2018, when several “safe” seats went to Democrats, he began selling the idea of a vast conspiracy to steal elections through voting machines that were ripe for fraud. He told his GOP audience that they couldn’t fail, but they could be cheated. That even applied to someone who lost by 30 percentage points. And in the nasty guy this con man found his perfect mark. Biden’s infrastructure and recovery proposals are very popular with the public. Biden has insisted these hefty packages need to be paid for, meaning raising taxes on the rich. The taxes are more popular than the rest of the proposals. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported that, alas, several Democrats are squeamish about raising taxes. Sheesh. Over the last few days Leah McElrath’s twitter feed has been full of the violence of the Israelis against Palestinians. This has included Israelis roaming the streets looking for Arabs to attack and included missile launches that have brought down Gaza apartment buildings. Some people are now calling it ethnic cleansing. One must be quick with the mouse to stop the many videos showing violence. I haven’t wanted to get into discussing this, though a couple of tweets summarize it quite well. Edo Konrad tweeted:

The Israeli gov't didn't 'lose control' of the situation. It sowed the seeds for it.

Asher Schechter added:

This has to be front and center in all coverage of the horrifying events in Israel-Palestine: this isn't wildfire-- it's arson. And Netanyahu and his minions are the ones stoking the flames, purely for political profit.

McElrath has a video with this one, so I’m rather glad when it is quoted there is no video. McElrath tweeted:

Israeli Jewish mobs attacking Israeli Arab businesses. Watch with sound ON to hear the glass breaking in the night.

Sunny Singh responded:

History knows no irony....

And one more from McElrath (though careful of videos in this thread showing violence).

Israel receives $3.8 BILLION per year from the United States. We fund this oppression. We fund this ethnic cleansing. We do. American taxpayers.

Sumner listed some of the ways people are being encouraged to get the vaccine. * Krispy Kreme is offering free donuts, White Castle is offering fudge dipped cheesecake, Junior’s Cheesecake is offering a mini. * Connecticut is offering a free libation (only until the end of the month), New Jersey is offering a shot and a beer, as is Budweiser (just a few days left), and on one day DC Marijuana Justice offered joints for jabs. * If you now need a designated driver, Lyft and Uber are offering free rides to and from vaccine sites and in Detroit anyone can earn $50 for taking someone to a jab. * Go to the New York Mets or Yankee stadiums for a jab and stay for the game for free, though Cincinnati is only offering discounts. Also in New York, get a free 7-day subway card at certain stations. * Maryland is offering $100 to state employees and West Virginia is giving those under 35 a $100 savings bond. Sumner concluded:

Oh, and it should be noted that there is another offer available nationwide to those with proof of vaccination. It’s called “not catching COVID-19.”

Mandalit Del Barco of NPR talked to Pierce Freelon, who performs music for children. He and his children, wanting to convince 12-15 year olds to get vaccinated, released a song with the refrain, “Now I got my cootie shot.” Kids may not understand viruses, but they do understand cooties.