There is a possibility of completely eliminating Senators’ power to block or slow federal judge nominees. At present, Republican Senators are slowing Biden’s federal judge nominees in states that have Republican one or two Senators. It is likely that the Republicans will take control of the Senate after the 2024 elections. In that case, it is reasonable to expect that Senate Republicans will (i) eliminate this power if a Republican also takes control of the White House, or (ii) reinstate the power if Dems eliminate it now but control the White House after the 2024 elections. The AP writes:
The rising friction over what in Washington parlance is known as the “blue slip” is creating tensions on the Senate panel that handles judicial nominations and prompting stern warnings from Republicans about a dangerous escalation in the partisanship that already dominates the judicial confirmation process.
The clash over Senate procedure could have major ramifications for Biden as he seeks to fill as many court vacancies as possible during the final two years of his term. Aghast at the speed with which Republicans approved judges during the Trump era, Democrats have made the confirmation to the courts a top priority, vowing to fill every seat possible. Their focus on the nominations is even greater now that Republicans control the House and can stall much of Biden’s broader legislative agenda.Since at least 1917, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has sent a blue-colored form, or “blue slip,” to the senators representing the home state of a judicial nominee. A blue slip returned with a positive response signals the senator’s approval of moving forward with a nomination hearing. But if the blue slip is not returned or comes back with a negative response, that means the home state senator objects, which can doom the nomination.
Republicans during Donald Trump’s presidency determined the lack of a positive blue slip would not stop them from moving forward with considering appellate court nominees — and they did so 17 times. Democrats were livid, pointing out that Republicans blocked several of President Barack Obama’s appellate nominees by declining to return a positive blue slip.
Now, Democrats are being encouraged to follow suit and do away with the blue slip when it comes to the district judges whose courts serve as the starting point for federal civil and criminal cases.
Is it time to get rid of the blue slip right now? It sure looks that way to me. The Dems cannot afford to let authoritarian Repubs slow or block any Dem judicial nominees at any of the three federal levels, trial, appeals and supreme. Radical right Repubs do that now with a vengeance when they are in power. They enthusiastically blocked Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court for no reason whatsoever. That hyper-partisan mindset has not improved one iota since then. In fact, it has gotten worse.
There is no evidence the authoritarian radical right will be changed for the better once they claw their way back to power. In this matter, meaningful bipartisanship is 100% dead. All that's left is GOP threats and maybe some feeble lip service.
Unfortunately, the Dem in charge of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin (D-IL) does not want to end the blue slip practice. Durbin is an incredibly incompetent fool. His idiotic policy could wind up dooming meaningful democracy and civil liberties in America.
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Waddabout them charter schools?: The Hill writes about that:
Charter schools aren’t fixing public education. Here’s what is.Charter schools, private school vouchers and other market-based reforms to public education are not working. They are like a medication that only treats symptoms, like Prilosec for heartburn or Advil for arthritis. They look good in shiny brochures and work for some families and students, but they don’t address the root cause of the problem. And sometimes the side effects make the problem worse.
We know the root cause: Whether in rural Oklahoma or the southside of Chicago, we don’t invest enough in public schools in low-income ZIP codes. Market-based reforms ignore this problem and instead merely hand over control of schools to private organizations. This siphons away funding meant for traditional public schools, many of which are already starving for dollars.
What low-income students and their families need is what those from wealthier neighborhoods already have: enough funding and a say in how that funding is spent. In other words, those closest to the classroom – students, teachers and parents – know what they need. We just have to listen.
The good news is that there are schools that are listening, in diverse places such as Hillsborough County, Fla., and the Washington, D.C., suburbs. They’re called “community schools,” and they aim to support the entirety of a student’s well-being to ensure they are healthy, well-fed, safe and in a better position to learn. Most importantly, they empower those closest to problems at school to guide the solutions to those problems. (emphasis added)
Unequal funding for public schools has been a known problem for decades. This is another indictment of the inherent inability of free market capitalism to sometimes best serve the public interest. The free markets always want more revenue and power and that usually comes at the expense of the public interest. Just take out the profit motive and one gets a very different, more pro-public interest operating system.
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Florida county GOP votes for crackpottery: From the crackpot land of Florida, comes this news bit: Florida county Republican Party votes to ban the COVID-19 vaccine. Joe Sansone, the crackpot who drafted this crackpot resolution, said, “The Lee County Republican Party is going to be on the vanguard of this campaign to stop the genocide because we have foreign non-governmental entities that are unleashing biological weapons on the American people.” (Twilight Zone music quietly tinkling)
Fortunately, the Lee County crackpot squadron has not power to make it so in crackpotlandia. This freak incident will probably go quietly away. One observer commented: “Stop the genocide? Foreign non-governmental entities unleashing biological weapons? Holy space-laser-operating-lizard-alien-living-on-a-flat-Earth-with-a-5G-transmitter!”
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Christian theocracy in Idaho -- The American Redoubt blither: This radical right-inspired news bit comes from Idaho:
‘Christian patriots’ are flocking from blue states to IdahoCOEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Earlier this month, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican, addressed the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, whose purview runs from this small resort city up along the Washington state border. Before she spoke, a local pastor and onetime Idaho state representative named Tim Remington, wearing an American-flag-themed tie, revved up the crowd: “If we put God back in Idaho, then God will always protect Idaho.”The event may be the closest thing yet to Greene’s vision for the GOP, which she has urged to become the “party of Christian nationalism.” The Idaho Panhandle’s especially fervent embrace of the ideology may explain why Greene, who has sold T-shirts reading “Proud Christian Nationalist,” traveled more than 2,300 miles to a county with fewer than 67,000 Republican voters to talk about biblical truth: Amid ongoing national debate over Christian nationalism, North Idaho offers a window at what actually trying to manifest a right-wing vision for a Christian America can look like — and the power it can wield in state politics.The origin of North Idaho’s relationship with contemporary Christian nationalism can be traced to a 2011 blog post published by survivalist author James Wesley, Rawles (the comma is his addition). Titled “The American Redoubt — Move to the Mountain States,” Rawles’s 4,000-word treatise called on conservative followers to pursue “exit strategies” from liberal states and move to “safe havens” in the American Northwest ....
“In calamitous times, with a few exceptions, it will only be the God fearing that will continue to be law abiding,” writes Rawles, who declined to be interviewed for this article.
One thing about the radical right Christian nationalist movement, it is consistent in lying, slandering and crackpot ‘reasoning’. Claiming that only Christians will be law abiding is a slander and a lie. Safe havens from liberal states is an undeniable reference to the Christian persecution myth that is central to theocratic Christian nationalist dogma.
A big thing about political extremism is that it cannot survive by relying on truth, sound reasoning or respect for others. It has to gin up fake enemies and fake conspiracies. Then they can demagogue and slander the fake enemies and their fake plans as evil horror. Radical right Christian nationalists like these aren’t just immoral. They are evil because they are malicious deceivers. They intend harm to others. That includes death if they see fit to kill for their bigoted, hateful extremist beliefs.
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