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Jan. 28, 2022 - The Muckrake Political Podcast

25:26

The Kangaroo Supreme Court

This is an abbreviated version of our weekly Patreon show. To access the full-episode and support the pod, head on over to http://www.patreon.com/muckrakepodcast Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman discuss the political horserace that is known as picking the next Supreme Court justice, as Stephen Breyer has mercifully deigned to retire soon. They invoke the name Bill Krystol, so beware. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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	Hey everybody.
	Welcome to the Weekender Edition of the Montclair Podcast.
	We're going early today.
	I've got a cup of coffee in my hand.
	Are you going to slurp it?
	No.
	No, I'm not going to do the NBR.
	ASMR.
	Oh, nice.
	I did it.
	I did it as a sarcastic thing.
	Anyway, welcome to the Weekender Edition everybody.
	For our patrons, thank you for subscribing.
	I'm here with Nick Hausman, as always.
	We got a lot to get to today, but we gotta start.
	The Supreme Court has an opening.
	Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer has announced his intention to retire.
	And there is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, that political pundits and journalists and personalities love talking about more.
	Well, here's what's interesting because the Republicans tend to use this as a big lightning rod to get out the vote, get people really motivated.
	I don't think that this does anything for the Democrats in terms of the midterms or even the presidential election in 2024.
	Does it?
	Well, I'll tell you this.
	There's no end to the articles this morning that are saying that it's a game changer.
	It's going to change absolutely everything.
	And oh, this is it.
	So we were talking before and I used a term and I wanted to find it for the audience very quickly.
	Beltway Brain.
	And Beltway Brain is the idea that everybody within Washington, D.C., within the Beltway, becomes totally and irreparably obsessed with politics in a way that is irrational plus hyper rational.
	They get brain worms, Nick.
	And it's stories and who's up and gossip and palace intrigue.
	And it has nothing to do, by the way, with your life or my life or the lives of our listeners and the people that they love.
	They get so obsessed with the ups and the downs.
	But today, That everybody is just, this is a game changer.
	Everything now changes and they love this thing.
	It's like a brick in a bathtub.
	I don't, I don't, it depends on how this thing works out whether or not it affects the midterms at all.
	But you'll notice we're talking about the Supreme Court of the United States of America.
	It's supposed to be the arbiter of our laws and we're talking about it like it's a football game.
	It's absolute madness.
	I mean, unless they can count, can they get like three justices in for one?
	Is that going to happen?
	Because that would actually have some interest in there.
	Can I blow your mind for a second?
	This whole thing is just fucking make-believe.
	You can do whatever you want.
	You could decide to add eight justices.
	And if people go along with you, you've got... Let's add 50!
	Yeah.
	Let's make a blue ribbon committee that says that we need 150 justices.
	I'm sorry.
	You gotta make the decisions work.
	151 justices.
	That's a lot of robes.
	Let's do it!
	It's all make-believe!
	The only reason that they have any legitimacy whatsoever is like Tinkerbell and Peter Pan.
	Like, we have to believe in it.
	Well, let's not forget that the framers of the Constitution had three equal branches of government, this being one of them, right?
	Although, confirm this for me, for a long time in the beginning of the country, they really weren't co-equal branches, right?
	No!
	The Supreme Court didn't have the power to judge the constitutionality of laws.
	This started because of a rivalry between Thomas Jefferson and his cousins.
	And people were terrified that Thomas Jefferson was going to come in and be like a radical president and change literally everything.
	I know this is shocking.
	Oh, by the way, they believe that he was part of the Illuminati, part of a Jewish conspiracy to run things.
	Funny how things continue to cycle through.
	And then the Supreme Court, again, like Tinkerbell, asking the audience to believe in her.
	And do they clap?
	Do they snap?
	Do they ring bells?
	What do they do?
	I don't know.
	Maybe they just sit in their bed and read books before they fall asleep.
	If you're at a play of Peter Pan, Tinkerbell asks the audience to do something to show that they believe in her.
	And that powers her up.
	Blink?
	I don't know.
	I can remember the commercials for Sandy Duncan, but I don't remember.
	Maybe I never went.
	I was deprived.
	I have to be honest with you, as a very anxious little kid, every time I saw a production of Peter Pan, I was just terrified people were going to go flying.
	They were just going to crash, like that Spider-Man musical, into the dark for a while.
	Just to show you an example, at eight years old, you might be going to see Tinkerbell.
	My parents were taking me to go see Evita.
	So that's what I was doing.
	You know, I mean, it's all about belief is what it is.
	But, you know, the Supreme Court gave itself its powers.
	And basically, there have been times throughout our history where people are like, hey, Supreme Court, go pound sand.
	Like, what are you going to do?
	You got to send over your little Supreme Court justices to make me, you know, not suspend habeas corpus, you know?
	So in this case, you can add however many you want.
	They're not going to because all these people are people are sticklers for I don't know, institutional something or another, whatever gets them to sleep at night.
	But yeah, it's just going to be adding one more.
	The conservatives are still going to control the court because, a big quick reminder, they stole it.
	But yeah, you can add eight, nine, ten, however many justices you want.
	Add them.
	Yeah.
	You know, so the thing is, because it doesn't change the six to three ultra conservative control of this.
	By the way, Yeah, I don't even know if I'm mad.
	Well, OK, we have to talk about who they're pitching to actually, you know, and whether or not Biden is going to maintain his promise in the campaign.
	I don't know.
	Whenever we talk about SCOTUS, I just want to, you know, we have, what do we have?
	We have fuck Henry Kissinger.
	We had fuck Nancy Pelosi.
	Like, that was a good one last week.
	That felt good.
	I just want to say fuck Clarence Thomas.
	We can move on.
	I just want to say it.
	Can we just say that?
	By the way, going back to what we said about how the Supreme Court needs us all to believe in it, this is why John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, every time they give a speech now, they're like, it hurts us so much.
	that people think we're not legitimate, like, and that we're not taking our jobs seriously.
	It's like, no, listen, we watched you steal the court for ideological and political and financial purposes.
	In this case, Clarence Thomas has just, refuses to not serve on cases that he has personal interest in whatsoever.
	He has completely just destroyed any credibility that the court even had remaining.
	And absolutely, he should be impeached.
	There's every evidence that Kavanaugh should be impeached as well.
	I mean, it's an absolute ridiculous thing.
	And we're gonna get in... Yeah, and fuck Ginny Thomas too.
	Oh yeah, oh my god, the amount of money.
	But by the way, her presence alone makes Clarence Thomas need to recuse on like every case they're going to hear.
	That's the other problem.
	Certainly anything that happens on January 6th, he needs to recuse and he won't.
	You know that they won't.
	Do you believe, by the way, so here's another admission here, another college admission.
	Oh, that's interesting.
	Admission from college.
	I am in the same, I was in the same fraternity as Neil Gorsuch.
	I am mortified.
	I was already mortified about being in a fraternity for the couple years I was.
	I wanted to erase it.
	But I just discovered last week that he's in the same fraternity.
	I can give him the shake.
	You know What the shake is just a fuck if you if you wanted to show Neil Gorsuch If you really wanted to stick it to him you would reveal to the muckrake audience the shake.
	Yeah, I I mean, should I?
	I'll do it.
	I don't care.
	No, don't do it.
	No.
	Anyway.
	We are about loyalty on this show.
	We're not... it's ridiculous.
	We're not gonna... Oh, well, by your description, the process we went through to become a brother, you know, the ceremony is as legitimate as the Supreme Court.
	The Supreme Court!
	No, it just made itself up.
	You're 100% right.
	It just made itself up.
	Do you believe that Gorsuch refused to put a mask on next to Sotomayor?
	Yeah, probably.
	All the sources that have come out.
	And by the way, all of that, first of all, that's a dick move.
	Dick move.
	That he wouldn't possibly mask up.
	But also, that's why so many of these institutions exist the way they do.
	So us mortals standing here looking up at Mount Olympus will be like, can you believe that Zeus wouldn't wear a mask?
	You know, it's just these passion plays that are playing out over and over and over again that give the veneer of respectability.
	The Supreme Court, again, created its own power.
	It was created by a bunch of people who wanted to make sure that white, aristocratic, slave-holding men controlled all of society and basically was stocked with people in the Senate and the Supreme Court, which It's weird that the Senate is the one that confirms them, which we're going to have to talk about in a little bit later.
	It's almost like the elites were trying to keep the elites in power and to continue their power.
	All of this stuff was a veneer.
	It was supposed to create this religious-like mythology that we trusted in, and it's so obviously corrupt.
	And it's so obviously not just antiquated but purposefully antiquated.
	You know what I mean?
	It's so outside the realm of anything reasonable.
	But here's the thing, I think it took getting to a 6-3 majority for the conservatives to really Hit home.
	I think for the longest time either we were willing to sort of just ignore it or sort of have faith in this institution because it was 5-4 or 6-3 the other way.
	Which, by the way, when you're 5-4 or 6-3 in the progressive side, you are simply just representing what the country would want anyway, right?
	So it's not as controversial.
	It doesn't feel like it's corrupt.
	But, you know, if ever you thought, and it's weird because obviously the people on the right would say, well, you know, Sotomayor is just as much of a pundit for the left as Clarence Thomas is.
	Maybe, but I gotta tell you, when you read her opinions, especially now that she's a minority of opinion, they're so well thought out and they're so well written and what the case they make about why we shouldn't be going with the majority in the Supreme Court.
	It's just, the opposite is ridiculous.
	Like, you know, when you hear a decision when they get rid of the voting rights protection in certain states, it's because, well, we don't need them anymore.
	It's not even thought out at all what their rationale was.
	And by the way, let's not forget, John Roberts was a chief in that in 2010 when they He said, you know what, Alabama, they're okay.
	They figured it out.
	They don't need to have any more of a site anymore.
	He was well, he's right there with them.
	And that's the most insidious part of all this is that when you have that sort of lack of self-awareness and the racist aspect of our country, then it almost doesn't matter if you're happy that he'll vote for, you know, eminent domain or whatever other issues you might have, or even abortion or healthcare, because it's insidious and deep rooted problem that we have is not getting fixed.
	So, there's this thing in psychology.
	It's called intermittent rewards.
	And so, basically, if you have, like, a rat in a cage, right?
	And you give it, like, a pellet dispenser.
	If it presses the dispenser and it gives itself a pellet all the time, like, that's effective, but it's not that effective.
	If every now and then you give it a pellet, when it presses the lever, it becomes addicted to constantly pressing the lever and expecting things to happen.
	The Supreme Court is like this.
	We are supposed to view it.
	So like, for instance, when has the Supreme Court actually reflected the will of the people?
	Occasionally.
	Right?
	Like, it struck down segregation.
	Thank God.
	By the way, it upheld segregation.
	First.
	Right?
	Later on, it gives gay couples the right to marry.
	Well, guess what?
	That's not technically the right of the Supreme Court to give someone a right.
	Right?
	It technically should have been there anyway.
	That and these disagreements, these opinions that are written in the minority.
	So like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, beautiful, beautiful disagreements, right?
	Like what the court should have done.
	You have Sotomayor, who's writing these beautiful disagreements over what the court should have done.
	Those are messages to us which we're allowed to have.
	So we're like, guess what?
	There are people of conscience on this court.
	Meanwhile, what are they doing?
	They're rolling back progress time and time again.
	It's supposed to give us the hope that if we play our cards right, if we play this chess game the right way, right?
	Eventually, like, it's going to find its way to justice and maybe some sort of a utopic situation.
	They're not going to let that happen.
	Like, Joe Manchin, I want to get to these... It's almost like when the Pope dies or resigns, like the Nazi Pope did.
	It's like when they go away, do you know that crazed media madness where they're waiting outside the Vatican for the right smoke to come up?
	Yeah, I know that.
	And it's like, oh no, it's black smoke today!
	It's the Jews and the Pope!
	And then when the white smoke comes up, it's like, oh my God!
	They treat the Supreme Court rhetorically.
	The place that it holds in society, they treat it like a priest class.
	Right.
	We're supposed to believe that somehow or another, these are the people who can like really get in touch with the spirit of the law.
	Meanwhile, look at what they're doing with this.
	Joe Manchin, who I'll believe that he votes for a nominee when he votes for a nominee.
	You know what I mean?
	Yeah.
	He's already voted for the leading candidate right now for, you know.
	That's right.
	And by the way, we'll get to the actual candidates and what it all means.
	But Joe Manchin said at this point, he said, it's not going to change the makeup of the court.
	This is why he's okay with a more liberal nominee.
	Oh, wait, I thought this was supposed to be a sacred institution.
	I thought that this was supposed to be like the end-all be-all, the backstop of democracy and our liberal institutions.
	It's not too hard to get more liberal than me.
	Thanks, Joe.
	I appreciate that.
	It would not bother me having a person who is sound in their thought and who is sound in their disbursement of justice.
	As far as their philosophical beliefs, that would not prohibit me from supporting somebody.
	But you'll notice what he says first.
	It won't change the makeup of the court.
	That's what he cares about.
	It's holding on to power.
	It's just a tool in all of this stuff.
	It's not this sacred priest class.
	I agree.
	Mansion probably should sit this one out.
	Manchin should probably just shut up.
	Yeah.
	I mean, listen, thank you, Joe.
	Thanks, Chris Kirsten.
	Like, you know, now you're going to be part of the group and like, yeah, I had no problem voting for this.
	I mean, heck, they'll probably get a few Republicans to vote, too, for the same very reason, right?
	Because it's not really going to matter.
	We still have an impervious 6-3 control over this right now.
	Only when, you know, the next couple are going to have a thing.
	Now, the scary thing about why the Republicans might want to try and figure out a way of Blocking this or whatever.
	So 6-3 is bad, but if you get to like 7-2, you're talking about generation upon generation of shifting the entire court.
	And that's, I think, you know, you almost say, okay, Republicans, enough.
	You've won enough.
	You've gotten enough of these things to control.
	And by the way, that was the thing about McConnell that was so genius, was that he realized we don't even need a majority to control the government or do laws.
	We can just get a hold of the Supreme Court by bullshit, and then they can just undo whatever the Democrats want to do eventually, because they're under our thumb.
	And let's not mistake that fact.
	These people are under the thumb of the Republicans.
	Now, again, Sotomayor et al.
	might also be under the thumb of Democrats, but the Democrats at least represent, generally, a lot more of the country.
	Well, and here's the thing, and I gotta tell you, and I'm sure our audience feels this way too, and maybe they've seen it.
	Yesterday, it was kind of amazing.
	Like, there's this anti-McConnell brain that has seen what he does.
	You know what I mean?
	How long have we dealt with McConnell at this point?
	How much have we seen?
	Like how dastardly, right?
	And how this person has no shame and has no concern whatsoever of being a hypocrite and of doing these dirty tricks.
	And here's the thing.
	The Democrats will probably go ahead and pass this person.
	There's a couple things we need to talk about in terms of who are the leading contenders and some wrenches that could be thrown into this.
	Not to mention that Joe Manchin and Sinema have incredible corporate sponsorship that is maybe going to get in the way of one of these things.
	But everyone's just like, ah, McConnell, let this one go.
	It's like, do you not understand who Mitch McConnell is?
	Do you not understand how he works?
	And, you know, going into the sports world, if you have a team that's winning by a lot going into the fourth quarter, like, yeah, maybe you coast a little bit, but that's not the smart way to play.
	You just, you step on the neck and you end it.
	Why wouldn't Mitch McConnell steal another one?
	Why not?
	It's, there's no consequences for it.
	Oh, and you're like, oh, what are they going to do?
	They're going to hold this out until 2025?
	Maybe.
	Maybe they will!
	Or maybe they'll figure out a way to get somebody else and push Joe Biden to push like a real moderate.
	Like that's a possibility.
	Those things are in play.
	We've seen what he does.
	We know who he is.
	Stop playing these political games thinking that maybe this one he's not going to try and mess around with.
	I feel like I see he said he, you know, because the only way what they could do is get it delayed until the midterms.
	I got it.
	I got it.
	I got to break it to you, Jared.
	The Republicans are going to take control of the Senate.
	Probably.
	And it might be like they might have like 54.
	If you can't.
	And by the way, this is something we keep saying.
	If you as Joe Biden and you as the Democratic Party can't offer an alternative story about what has happened over the past year, you're done.
	You're cooked.
	You just keep saying, I don't know, we just need more of us.
	Like, that doesn't work.
	You have to talk about what's going on.
	Let's dive into your backyard for a minute because that was on my mind earlier before we started recording about, you know, Raphael Warnock right now is polling behind Herschel Walker.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
	And it's like not even McConnell wanted Herschel Walker because he's such a bad candidate.
	So and the other thing I think is interesting is that, you know, the Georgians have our terrible, you know, poll rating of Biden, right?
	Biden's getting hit on a couple different fronts on the pandemic and on the economy, which is so ridiculous, right?
	Because the economy, by all the measures that the Republicans would use, is doing as well as it ever has since Reagan.
	But none of this has anything to do with reality.
	Right.
	So my take on the Georgian stuff is they're not like sheepish to have been thrust into the national spotlight about, oh my God, everyone's accusing Georgia of like, you know, stealing election and whatever.
	I feel really embarrassed that we have to.
	No, they're angry, right?
	They're angry that they somehow became a blue state.
	That's what it feels like to me.
	Certainly the white voters in the suburban Georgia, they're angry about it.
	And nothing that Biden would do and nothing that the economy does positively would have any effect on that.
	And that's why the Democrats, though, give him not great marks either.
	So it's and that probably reflects the entire country at this point.
	And anyway, I guess.
	Well, you know, you say that there's not a lot to do, but we're going to bring in an expert here real fast.
	And I want to Basically what I want to do is I want to spotlight, you know, it's like one of those things, right, where it's like you find the perfect specimen.
	You know what I mean?
	Out and about in the world you're searching for the ideal candidate to express your thesis or your ideology or all of this, right?
	I found it.
	And I want to give a quick introduction to this specimen.
	This specimen's name is Bill Crystal.
	And Bill Kristol is a longtime Republican.
	You're listening to this podcast, so you're not hearing me with air quotes saying intellectual.
	Bill Kristol, who started the Weekly Standard and is one of the main neoconservatives, and also, by the way, a never-Trumper.
	A real—good job, Bill Kristol!
	Oh, I forgot to mention that Bill Kristol is one of the reasons that healthcare just absolutely ate shit in the 1990s with Clinton.
	Like, he basically said, this would be a political win, we have to submarine it at all costs, which is why your family doesn't have better healthcare at this point.
	Thanks, Bill Kristol.
	But you know what?
	He was never a Trumper, so he's a hero, right, Nick?
	This is Beltway Brain at its best.
	This is two tweets, and I just want to give it to everyone, and I just want to let it soak for a second about what Beltway Brain is and what it's like to have brain worms like this.
	And a reminder that Bill Kristol is one of the reasons that we got Donald Trump.
	He's one of the reasons that the Republican Party is the way that it is.
	He wasn't great at prognosticating all that, was he, Nick?
	Uh, Billy?
	No.
	No.
	No, he was not.
	1.
	Straightforward from here.
	June 30th.
	Court overturns Roe.
	July 1st.
	Breyer resigns.
	Says court, quote-unquote, needs aggressive progressive justices.
	July 4th.
	I love that he says July 4th, because it's July 4th.
	Biden picks Harris for the court.
	Harris resigns as Vice President.
	July 5th.
	Biden picks Romney as Vice President.
	Says national unity needed for the world crisis.
	Let's finish this out before we comment on exactly what's happening here.
	Fall.
	Progressives are energized by the bitter Senate fight to confirm Harris and fear state legislative battles over choice.
	Centrists are reassured by the competent Biden-Romney national unity government.
	November 8th.
	Democrats have best midterm for party in power since 1934.
	Fuck.
	You know what?
	Come on!
	I don't know.
	First of all, Kamala getting out of there, I'm not opposed to.
	It's fine.
	Wait, but wait, wait, you're letting Beltway Brain get in your brain.
	I know, but like... I don't know.
	It's like... I thought the Supreme Court was a sacred institution.
	It used to be, maybe.
	I thought this was a priest class, where like... Okay, she was a public prosecutor.
	Right?
	Well, hey, you don't need to be a judge to be on the Supreme Court.
	Okay, so now all of a sudden, if you get on social media, it's like, you know who Biden should nominate for the Supreme Court?
	Joe Biden.
	You know who Joe Biden should nominate?
	Michelle Obama.
	You know who he should nominate?
	Neil Young.
	It never ends.
	It's beltway brain.
	It's this strategizing.
	This is about, supposedly, the future of the country and our rights, right?
	Okay, so we move Harris out of the VP.
	I understand why people think that that's a good strategy.
	That's fine.
	All of a sudden you're bringing in Mitt Romney as Vice President on a unity ticket.
	Which, Mitt Romney, yeah, he has stands of principle and conscience, but he's still not a good politician.
	And he has sold people out over and over again.
	Real fast, I want to point out, what did Bill Kristol suggest here?
	Why would a Never Trumper who has left the Republican Party advocate for a Republican to become the Vice President within a Democratic Administration?
	Because he lost his party, he's trying to take over the Democratic Party, which is what all the Never Trumpers are doing, which is what the Lincoln Project people are trying to do.
	They lost their boat.
	They didn't just lose it.
	They torched their boat.
	They did that.
	They led to Trump.
	Rick Wilson led to Trump.
	Crystal led to Trump.
	Now they're trying to take over your vote and tell you what you should do with your vote.
	And you have been listening to a free preview of our Patreon-exclusive Weekender Show.
	If you want to get in on all the fun and get that bonus episode every week, not to mention exclusive content, live hangouts, question and answer sessions.
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	So you should do that.
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