Tom Toles for October 14, 2020

Amazing the things that Republican’ts can’t see — or willfully ignore — that the rest of the world can … and mustn’t ignore anymore.

It would be good if the partisanship were… less. Not just less blatant. I wish, but I don’t even hope, much less believe.

Look what that elephant just pooped out!

A federal law makes it a felony to intimidate voters or obstruct voting.

Amy Coney Barrett says she cannot say that it is illegal.

The U.S. Constitution clearly states that the Congress shall determine the date of the election.

Amy Coney Barrett says she cannot say whether or not a president could unilaterally postpone an election.

And Barrett wants a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court and does not know these simple facts about the law? She claims to be a “textualist” but does not know what is in the text?

A competent judge would have been able to acknowledge and confirm explicit text in federal statutes and the Constitution itself, while reserving the right to apply it to a specific set of facts as they would be presented. She did not do that. She simply professed ignorance of the Constitution and federal statutes and disqualified herself.

I’ve been thinking recently that the GOPigs should retire that poor elephant as a symbol and instead adopt something rather more appropriate. Say, maybe a rapacious honey badger completely lacking any ethical inclinations, or perhaps even better a lobotomized angleworm which lacks both a brain and a spine…

She’s good at acting like a lot of things aren’t there.

Separation of church and state, women’s rights…

Most of Trump’s picks for Government jobs have been incompetent or so partisan they cannot perform their jobs properly. This woman is only one in a long stream of blind, deaf and dumb ignorers of the people who pay their salaries.

And she does it without notes.

These Congressional hearings always remind me of some performance by a troupe of Cirque du Soleil: Instead of acrobats doing physical stunts, politicians in business suits show off fantastic feats of supposed verbal agility, and grotesque contortions of Truth.

(The cartoon recalled to me one performance I saw about 20 years ago that featured two men, one of whom supported the other on his head, while that man did various handstand positions.)

The fix is in. I don’t see any way out of this one.

What, who, me? Of course, not, says the lady that has already decided how she will decide on any future case. She will have clerks to find some sort of justification. Case closed.

She certainly can lie easily. Maybe another psychopath?

This is also someone who co-authored a paper in which she questions the 14th amendment. “Congress has to decide whether to …rely on the power conferred by the possibly illegitimate Fourteenth Amendment.” Or …“The originalist legislator might have to face questions… such as the legitimacy of the Fourteenth Amendment.” This alone, should disqualify her!

As Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said, she’s “so far perfected the art of non-answers.” This rampant, blank-slate disingenuousness from Barrett proved to be as irritating throughout the day as Brett Kavanaugh’s fake outrage and crocodile tears in his hearing, and just as unbelievable. When she held up a blank notepad, she wasn’t demonstrating what Sen. John Cornyn, who asked her about it, was saying she was. He called it “impressive” that she was there without notes. What it was was insulting. She came to that hearing prepared to do nothing but obfuscate and refuse to answer questions, without even bothering to prepare because she knows the fix is in and Republicans are going to jam her onto the bench no matter what. Her blank sheet of paper was the perfect, albeit unwitting, metaphor for this entire sham of a process.

Hair Furor KNOWS that he’s going down in flames in 3 weeks, along with most of the Republican Party, so he is bound and determined to screw up the U.S. Court system for YEARS!!!

Elephants are pigs.

Another master of RW weaselly wiggling.

I am so amazed to see how political cartoons draw flies.

Would that be grounds for impeachment later?

and the elephant in the room doesn’t care one whit

We know for sure that the reactionary Federalists who told Li’l Donnie to nominate her knew for sure ahead of time that she passed their litmus test. So, pretending that she hasn’t already made up her mind is bleedin’ PERJURY. You know, a crime? Maybe some people are afraid that the two Justices on the Court who are criminals will be lonely without a third crook………….

This is a useful piece on the history of my eight decades, – and on “heading off the prospects of a dark and tumultuous future”: – https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/heading-off-the-prospects-of-a-dark-and-tumultuous-future/

Has anyone been listening to the hearings? She was asked her OPINION about climate change, but she claimed not to know enough science. This is one of the most intelligent persons in the room, any room, and she in claiming ignorance. If she truly is Catholic, her Pope has put out encyclicals stating that climate change is real, and caused by man. (He IS A SCIENTIST, with advanced degrees in chemistry.) She, as such a devout “Catholic” must be aware of what the leader of her church professes to be true. I ask, whom is she following? In whom is she putting her trust? To whom has she sworn allegiance?

Like Pence’s fly. Hard to miss.

“Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies " . . .otherwise I’ll just say “I don’t recall”. . . hearing that Trump had guaranteed he’d nominate a candidate to overturn Roe v Wade (since I’m under oath).

Because I bought my computer at Julius Caesar’s garage sale, sometimes when I try to reply to a specific post, it doesn’t turn out that way. (I know that GoComics cannot possibly be blamed…………..) One of my replies was meant for that current great, Old_Curmudgeon, and one was meant for JenSolo. I hope this clears that up. (Then again, this being ME, I misdoubt me over-much that things were cleared up over-much……….)

She represents the religious wing of the Know-Nothing party