Alito Admits to Impeachable Theocratic Offense
June 11: Alito admits theocratic loyalty … Hamas open to deal … Jewish voters polled on Biden … Giuliani’s mug appears in mug shot …
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Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was caught on tape last week agreeing that religious people in the United States should fight to make the United States a place of godliness. Alito was recorded without his knowledge or consent by documentarian Lauren Windsor, who during their brief exchange suggested she held right-wing theocratic views.
Leading up to Alito’s admission, they were discussing whether political polarization was reparable. Alito suggested it was, and that there are ways of working and living together. That led to this exchange:
Alito: It’s difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can’t be compromised. They really can’t be compromised. So, it’s not like you’re going to split the difference.
Windsor: And that’s what I’m saying. It’s just, I think that the solution really is, like, winning the moral argument. Like, people in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that, to return [sic] our country to a place of godliness.
Alito: Well, I agree with you. I agree with you.
I’m not a lawyer, and I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but the words “I agree” strike me as an impeachable offense.
All federal officials, including Supreme Court justices, take an oath when they’re sworn in. (Justices can take two oaths!) They swear, among other things:
“…that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”
And the Constitution itself not only forbids the government from respecting an establishment of religion, but also says that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
And you know that shit’s old-school serious because they capitalized random words!
Alito, it seems to this non-lawyer, has clearly violated his oath and the Constitution. He’s endorsing a fight — even if it’s a rhetorical, political one — to make the United States of America a theocracy. That’s not bearing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution. As someone who believes in God, Alito is implying that he, too, is fighting to “return [sic] our country to a place of godliness.”
And we know he’s not doing that with flags, because that’s his wife’s battlefield. So, given his rulings and statements he’s made, it’s fair to conclude — or at least ask him under oath — whether he is fighting in any way to return [sic] our country to a place of godliness. Just as the Senate should be asking every single judicial nominee.
Religiosity and public accountability are not non-overlapping magisteria. Politicians, law enforcement, and definitely journalists are obliged professionally or in some cases by oath to pursue any hint of religious beliefs that may be unconstitutionally driving official actions.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) understands this, and — tongue-in-non-believing-cheek — last month thanked Alito for flying his true, theocratic colors. In his extraordinary cri de cerveau1, Huffman refers to Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker proclaiming himself an adherent of the “Seven Mountains Mandate,” which calls on Christians to use all seven (in their taxonomy) aspects of life to serve their god. Yes, even especially the Mountain of government. Here’s Huffman:
“What most in the media missed—and what the American public urgently needs to know—is that Judge Parker is not an outlier. There are many Christian nationalist judges at every level of the judiciary who share this extreme ideology, and I have dozens of colleagues in Congress—including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA)—who embrace the Seven Mountains Mandate.
“Perhaps Justice Alito’s ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag scandal can finally break through the denial, deference, and latent Christian privilege that prevents a serious national conversation about the threat we are facing.
“This extreme religious movement has spent decades packing the courts with its allies, including Justice Alito.”
Huffman helpfully takes a broad inventory of the Seven Mountains on which Alito has planted his metaphorical flags:
“He was the driving force behind a stream of Supreme Court opinions that chip away at church-state separation and advance the movement’s theocratic goals—
from requiring state governments to fund religious private schools,
to forcing public schools to permit Christian prayers at school-sponsored events,
to allowing corporations to use religion as an excuse for denying women’s reproductive health care,
to barely masking his personal anti-abortion extremism in the disastrous Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.”
It’s impeachable to violate your oath by using your position on a federal bench to aid enemies of the Constitution, foreign and domestic. Even if their commander-in-chief is Jesus.
The founders of this country didn’t just rebel against a king, or the place where that king ruled. The American Revolution was an explicit, violent rejection of kings as God’s agents on Earth. Monarchies justified their evil by claiming divine right. God made them king. That’s why the founders didn’t just create an American king. They had to create an entire new system, a moral basis for governmental authority, because they were rebelling not just against a king, but against the divine system of monarchy itself.
As Huffman explains (I thought I’d have to do so much writing on this, and then I found Huffman had already done the work. Whew!) about Alito:
“He openly embraces a political movement that rejects the constitutional separation of church and state and seeks to end our democracy.”
And this was before Windsor’s tapes came out! Huffman calls for recusal, because non-believers can only shift the Overton Window so much, but as I’ve said, it seems to me that embracing a political movement that seeks to end our democracy is impeachable at the very least and if making that case means I must stay at a Holiday Inn Express one night, then by God that’s what I’ll do.2
It’s true that such an impeachment would be unprecedented and, of course, pooh-poohed by the Republicans who’ve somehow become the leading, most-heeded, most-lauded heroes of the Democratic Party. But the logic here is the same as it was for DCC3FRFP3 Donald Trump’s criminal trial: It was unprecedented because the crime was unprecedented.
Is there constitutional support for impeachment? I mean, soundness doesn’t seem required for logical argument at the moment, so sure, I guess I can claim it’s impeachable to put the toilet paper roll with the loose end hanging on the inside, the way Satan commands us.
But let’s say we were doing facts again: The Constitution says Congress can remove judges from office for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” As I noted last week, Alito’s lies to the Senate were a crime. And I’d say that recidivist oath-violation in service of an anti-American, unconstitutional theocratic movement working and criming to elect install a president by illegal means up to and including force would count as at least a capital-m Misdemeanor. But even if not, there’s another clause.
Federal judges “shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour,” the Constitution says. As kids learned in colonial kindergarten, bad Behaviour includes overthrowing democracy for theocracy.
A few sidebars on this before I drop it (for now).
As I exhaust myself and loyal Newsfuckers by repeating, the norm-violators and crimers aren’t the problem. Lack of policing is the problem. As Huffman heart-wrenchingly outlines, we lack sufficient policing among our politicians. And in our journalism.
Here’s how the AP frames it:
“How is that news?” I would ask the press, associated and otherwise. I mean, who doesn’t question the possibility of political compromise? Alito’s remarks are one dude’s guess about the future. How in the rolling lava fuck is that more newsworthy than a justice on the Supreme Court saying god-believers should fight to make this country into a place of their version of godliness?
And the Washington Post was even more substancierless. Its headline merely identifyied the topic of discussion!
Imagine the equivalent 1930s Germany headline: “Chancellor Hitler talked about Jewish people on purported secret wax Victrola cylinder.”
Here’s one alert I got:
This kind of language is actually toxic and dangerous. The alert headline isn’t that a Supreme Court justice embraced theocracy and dominionism, it’s that he didn’t know he was being recorded. The alert leads with…the political leanings of the personal recording Alito. All of this diminishes and minimizes the radical horror of what was actually said. You know, the news part.
I agree there are substantive, real questions to ask about the process behind this recording. I have concerns about obtaining the audio using deception, especially deception that may not have been required to pierce power’s cone of silence. And I personally disagree with Windsor’s decision to focus on rift-healing, leaker-finding, and flag-flying.
But neither my questions nor Windsor’s politics are the story! If you believe the CNN alert, the story is that they were recorded saying stuff by a person who had political beliefs. That’s not the story. The story is what Alito said about making a theocracy.
The wild thing is that evangelicals, conservative ones, will agree with me. Yes, some will flash knee-jerk outrage about the recording, blah blah blah. But they’ll agree in a heartbeat that it’s hugely important to have a Supreme Court justice sherpaing them up the Seven Mountains. (And you can tell I’m worked up because I keep italicizing!)
ROBERTS It’s worth giving credit to Chief Justice John Roberts, whom Windsor also recorded, for pushing back on the notion that America is a Christian nation. One of the problems with how the Alito audio was obtained — at a social event under false pretenses — is that Alito can plausibly claim he agreed with theocracy merely to avoid being rude. To nullify that defense, an interrogator needs to be as neutral as possible.
MORE CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE The New York Times, of all places, gets it pretty much right in their headline:
BUSH Never forget that Alito was put on the court by Pres. George W. Bush, who exploited religion for his political ends.
Hamas Agrees to Deal on Peace, Hostages
Hamas and other really, really bad organizations said last night that they welcome a U.N. resolution endorsing a plan to end the fighting and release the hostages.
And I’m about to poop all over that hopeful feeling you might have right now, but it must’ve felt pretty nice for a minute there!
It’s not a formal Hamas sign-off on the treaty, which doesn’t exist yet. And Secretary of State Tony Blinken said today he still needs Hamas approval of the deal, which he claims Israeli officials agreed to.
The U.N. Security Council resolution endorses a plan released by Pres. Joe Biden. Which was basically a distillation of a proposal drafted by the Israelis. Problem is, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he wasn’t done with the draft and he wants to keep doing more war.
The proposed plan involves stages of hostage releases, with a temporary, six-week cease-fire leading to a forever cease-fire, which we know is impossible because have you READ The Bible?!? Spoilers!
It’s also impossible because Netanyahu says Israel will keep fighting until Hamas is gone. Which Hamas will never be while Israel is still trying to make them be. (We’ve already seen this, as Israel has declared areas of Gaza Hamas-free and then returned to those same areas due to them not being Hamas-free anymore.)
The first rule of forever fight club is not to play. (Movie lines mashup, yay!)
Anyway, knowing that Israel will balk, Hamas said it will cooperate with mediators to arrange details of implementing the plan. Which, and I can’t stress this enough, won’t happen. At least, not right now.
But it’s possible that Hamas and the U.S. and the U.N. agreeing on something could shift the domestic political dynamic in Israel. Hostage families have been enraged at Netanyahu for not getting their people home by turning off the guns.
Now, is it also possible that Hamas will balk over some fine-tooth bullshit the instant Netanyahu says “Fine, let’s peace”? Sure. After all, you can never win at Whack-a-Mole if they keep moving the goalposts. (Political game clichés mashup, yay!)
U.N. Both-Sides War Crimes in Gaza
The U.N.’s human rights office reported yesterday that Hamas may be committing war crimes by holding hostages in densely populated areas. (Surely by holding hostages at all, no?)
And the same office at the same Geneva briefing yesterday said that Israel’s rescue operation Saturday may also have involved war crimes. One Israeli commando died, as did 274 Palestinians. Israel’s raid may have violated war-crimes rules against disproportionality and distinguishing between killable and not killable. Dozens of women and children (mostly, presumably, non-combatants) are said to have been killed.
And just for the record, both-sidesing war crimes is appropriate when both sides may have committed war crimes.
Campaign Watch
SOME POLLING SHIT Jewish voters are sticking with Pres. Joe Biden. For now. A new poll by the American Jewish Committee finds that the number of 2020 Biden voters abandoning him this year is statistically insignificant. In the poll of Jewish voters:
64% said they voted for Biden in 2020
61% said they plan to vote for Biden in 2024
Keeping in mind margins of error, the overall shittiness of current polling, and the fact that voters often misremember and think they voted for whoever won, these numbers basically amount to little or no losses among Jewish voters. It’s also a political repudiation of DCC3FRFP Donald Trump’s attempts to woo and/or bully Jewish Americans out of voting for Democrats.
The poll found the political lines virtually unchanged:
2% said they voted for Biden in 2020 but will vote for Trump in 2024
2% said they voted for Trump in 2020 but will vote for Biden in 2024
In fact, Biden is more popular among Jewish voters than he is among non-Jewish voters. The 64% who’d vote for him constitute a landslide. But Biden’s also leading in job approval.
56% approve of Biden’s job performance
40% disapprove
The polling predates Biden’s suspension of some arms shipments, but already showed displeasure with his handling/non-handling of the war in Gaza. Forty-eight percent approve while 43% disapprove (either because Biden’s too helpful to Israel, or not enough).
On the domestic front, Biden does better. Fifty-five percent believe Biden is better at combating antisemitism in the U.S. than Trump would be. Only 20% say Trump would be better. And by “only 20%” I mean “An unbelievably massive and gobsmacking 20%.”
Crime Watch
RICH PERSON TO DO TIME A rich person was sentenced to prison on Monday even though their crime was committed by a rich person. This happened in an American courtroom. Okay, California, but still.
In September 2020, socialite Rebecca Grossman was driving her Mercedes through a Westlake Village crosswalk. At speeds of up to 81 miles an hour. She tapped her brakes to slow down…to 73 miles an hour…but two seconds later plowed into 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his nine-year-old brother Jacob.
They died, because, as math tells us:
Mercedes mass × socialite speed = 0 survivors
As a prominent socialite with all the responsibilities and obligations that come with noblesse oblige, Grossman did the obvious thing and fled the scene. Which seems pretty anti-socialite, amirite?
Yesterday, she was sentenced to 15 years in prison. That’s three concurrent sentences: 15 years for Jacob, 15 years for Mark, and three years for hit-and-running from your noblesse oblige.
OTHER (ALLEGEDLY) RICH PERSON GETS SPECIAL TREATMENT DCC3FRFP Donald Trump was allowed to do yesterday’s required probation-officer meeting remotely, with help from his attorney, the way other convicted felons are not.
Instead of urging that Trump be denied counsel, four groups representing public defenders called on the courts to allow all convicts to have counsel present, even though that would look suspiciously like equal justice under the law. (Having counsel present is now up to individual judges.)
WITNESSES TESTIFY AGAINST RICH PERSON THEY ENRICHED I’m not even following the trial of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) but I keep seeing alerts and headlines about witnesses testifying that they gave him and his wife all kinds of cash. Except the legal kind. Which, if Menendez wanted that cash to be legal, he should’ve first become president and gotten the Supreme Court to make it legal, like anyone else would’ve done.
EX-RICH PERSON DENIED SPECIAL TREATMENT America’s Former Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, was processed in Phoenix, AZ, yesterday, after being charged with nine felony counts of trying to steal Arizona’s 2020 presidential-election votes.
Here’s his mugshot, in which the increasingly bankrupt and bereft former mayor once again defies a lawful order. In this case, “Please look at the camera”:
Uplifting (and Then Thrillingly Downsending) Kicker Story!
Disney’s Splash Mountain flume-log ride used to be themed around the racist Disney film “Song of the South,” which failed to mention that the song in question was sung in the key of slavery.
That ride is going the way of the (official) Confederacy. And it’s being replaced later this year at both the World and the Land of Disney by a flume-log ride called Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. The inspiration for the new ride is the 2009 movie “The Princess and the Frog.” And Tiana just happens to be Disney’s first Black princess.
Go woke, get soaked!
TCB
NICOLE SANDLER My weekly Monday “The Fucking News” segment didn’t happen on The Nicole Sandler Show yesterday, due to Nicole’s husband coming down with COVID. I haven’t heard an update today, but obviously wish Nicole and hubby the best. Hopefully, Nicole and her show will be back real soon. You can watch/listen to her live every weeknight at 5pm, or on demand, here, including Monday’s “The Fucking News” segments.
SOCIALS Find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, Mastodon, Spoutible, and Threads. (LMK if you want me to follow back; I mostly use social media to get my stories out there and hunt for overlooked news).
Go get ‘em, kids…!
Cry from the brain, which is where cries come from.
Not a legally binding promise.
DCC3FRFP = Disgraced, criminally convicted, tridicted, fraudster, rapist, former President.
With respect to Alito, I agree that he is helping orchestrate an anti-democratic right-wing "Christian" state. However, I think making a big case about the recording is overreach. Living in a red state--Iowa--many Christians would agree with the idea of a return to "godliness," without believing in a "Christian" state. I think this will backfire and the right will use it to say the left hates all Christians, which is untrue. Right or wrong, the oath the justices take (looks like there are options) concludes, "So help me God." https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/oath/oathsofoffice.aspx#:~:text=oaths%2C%20which%20reads%3A-,%E2%80%9CI%2C%20_________%2C%20do%20solemnly%20swear%20(or%20affirm),of%20the%20United%20States%3B%20and
Israel has been an occupying force for 75 years. I've watched the world condemn the illegal Israeli settlements for 50 fucking years yet to absolutely nothing to stop them. Israel turned down the last treaty. Hamas accepted it just like they accepted this one. The Palestinians have a right to defend themselves against an occupying force.