Big Red Handle: pulled

The GOP said they’d do it.

The Demorats filibustered Judge Neil Gorsuch for SCOTUS. They didn’t have to. It was their decision.

So the GOP pulled the Big Red Handle.

John McCain thinks they’re “idiots” for having done so.

In the end, however, McCain voted in the same fashion as all the other Republicans in the senate.

From CNN.com (who says I’m not egalitarian?):

Senate GOP triggers nuclear option to break Democratic filibuster on Gorsuch

by Ashley Killough and Ted Barrett

Washington (CNN) The Senate Thursday triggered the so-called “nuclear option” that allowed Republicans to break a Democratic filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.

The chamber is now expected to vote to confirm Gorsuch Friday. The controversial changes to Senate rules, made along partisan lines, allows filibusters of Supreme Court picks to be broken with only 51 votes rather than 60.

The actions on Thursday and Friday cap more than a year of tension over an empty Supreme Court seat, as both parties in the Senate are poised to take action leading to an outcome neither party wants.

It’s a situation loaded with nuance, procedural twists and Senate history — not to mention a spot on the nation’s highest court — and a standoff that reflects a peak in polarization following a deeply divisive presidential election.

The move came after Democrats blocked the nomination under the previous 60-vote threshold. Only four Democrats — Sens. Michael Bennet, Joe Donnelly, Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin — crossed party lines to side with the Republicans.

Subsequent party-line votes allowed the GOP majority to change the rules, leading up to the final vote breaking the filibuster. After the final vote was gaveled, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell went down his row and gave high fives to Majority Whip John Cornyn and two aides.

Here, however, is a very interesting article from the NYT.com:

After Senate Filibuster’s Death, Somber Lawmakers Seek Path Forward

by Jennifer Steinhauer

WASHINGTON — The conventional Washington wisdom dictates that the end of the judicial filibuster is also the end of life as it is currently known in the Senate.

In truth, it may not make that much of a difference at all. In an unexpected way, it may well herald the beginning of a better era for the Senate.

The Senate Republicans’ successful effort on Thursday to end the 60-vote threshold to proceed with confirmation of Supreme Court nominees was really only the final step in a process set in motion by Democrats in 2013 when they removed that threshold for other nominees.

That set off a far bigger firestorm, and Republicans now have simply extended that precedent.

Republicans are quick to point out — and many Democrats privately agree — that had former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the White House last year, and Democrats taken the Senate, a similar confrontation was likely in the other direction, and that Democrats may have needed to take the same step as Republicans took to confirm any Supreme Court nominee that Mrs. Clinton had chosen.

Color me gobsmacked, now, because the New York Times just allowed a bit of truth to creep out of an article. Yes, the Demorats would have done precisely the same thing had they been in power. Because of this, I have a sneaking suspicion that Jennifer Steinhauer may not quite have a loving, hallowed and lengthy work future at the Gray Lady.

If you wish to see how all the senators voted, please click here.

The move came after Democrats blocked the nomination under the previous 60-vote threshold. Only four Democrats — Sens. Michael Bennet, Joe Donnelly, Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin — crossed party lines to side with the Republicans.

Manchin described Thursday as a “very sad day,” saying the Supreme Court won’t have “have a check and balance” system in which the minority has input on future justices. He argued that senators will “rue the day that this happened.”

“They all know what goes around comes around,” Manchin told reporters. “I was just extremely sad.”

And yes, in a way it was extremely sad. But it was the Demorats who decided to filibuster what is fundamentally a good, honest, serviceable and dedicated individual like Judge Neil Gorsuch who has continued to maintain that he has and can remain independent in his opinions from the bench. He follows the law and allows it to inform and guide him. He does not, unlike Demorat/Leftist judges, attempt to create transformative new law out of thin air where precedent does not primarily exist.

Both sides blamed each other for the episode. Democrats blasted Republicans for using the workaround. Republicans, meanwhile, said they felt they had no other option because of the Democratic filibuster.

But the real truth comes next, from Orrin Hatch.

“For the life of me, I don’t understand why the Democrats made such a fuss about this (nominee),” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. “They look stupid. The next one, I mean I expect Armageddon.”

CNN spoke to Senator Hatch on Thursday.

I feel compelled to repeat some things I’ve written before here on the blog and stated on my radio show — which is on tonight, by the way, the Bloviating Zeppelin’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon, at 8PM Pacific and 11PM Eastern tonight on the SHR Media Network. At the appropriate time click ON AIR to listen.

Republicans, on the other hand, argue Gorsuch answered more than 20 hours of questions and was abiding by what’s known as the “Ginsburg standard” so as not to show his cards on how he’d rule in cases that may come before him.

Hitting back against the argument that he’s extreme, Republicans say Gorsuch sided with the majority in 99% of his opinions as a federal judge in the past decade, and the GOP said that of the 2,700 cases he has ruled on, 97% were decided unanimously.

On Friday at 11:30 Eastern, the senate will vote up or down on Judge Neil Gorsuch. A majority vote will yield confirmation.

There will be Armageddon as Hatch suggests. I have it on good information there is a chance that, later this year, another opening on SCOTUS will occur. I believe that President Trump will deign to nominate an individual not unlike Judge Gorsuch. That will tend to move the court to the right. Further, as this is only 2017, there is every chance that between now and 2020 there will be another opening on SCOTUS and the opportunity for President Trump to nominate a person similar to Judge Gorsuch.

If this is true, and I believe it so, this may impact the US Supreme Court for, literally, decades to come.

So yes, the Demorats were rather stupid to filibuster Judge Gorsuch.

What will be the immediate result of this? Will the Demorats become even more obstructionist than they are now, considering there are over 1,000 vacancies still requiring installation in the Trump presidency?

Time will tell.

BZ

 

If it’s Friday it must be Gorsuch

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said this week that, by Friday, Judge Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed as a SCOTUS jurist to replace Antonin Scalia, who died a little over a year ago on February 13th of 2016 at the age of 79 whilst vacationing at a West Texas ranch.

First up, from the WSJ.com:

Next Up Thursday: Cloture Vote and Rule Change

The Senate is on the verge of a major rules change sparked by Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to be a Supreme Court justice, as Republicans and Democrats barrel toward a partisan showdown on the Senate floor over the future of the filibuster.

The first procedural vote on Judge Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s nominee to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, is expected Thursday morning—a vote where the GOP is expected to fall short. As a result, Senate Republicans are expected to use a procedural motion that would eliminate the filibuster for this and future Supreme Court nominations—expanding on changes that Democrats initiated in 2013.

What were the changes initiated in 2013 by then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid? From the WSJ.com:

Reid, Democrats trigger ‘nuclear’ option; eliminate most filibusters on nominees

by Paul Kane

Senate Democrats took the dramatic step Thursday of eliminating filibusters for most nominations by presidents, a power play they said was necessary to fix a broken system but one that Republicans said will only rupture it further.

Democrats used a rare parliamentary move to change the rules so that federal judicial nominees and executive-office appointments can advance to confirmation votes by a simple majority of senators, rather than the 60-vote supermajority that has been the standard for nearly four decades.

The immediate rationale for the move was to allow the confirmation of three picks by President Obama to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — the most recent examples of what Democrats have long considered unreasonably partisan obstruction by Republicans.

Confirmation of three US DCA picks to the DC Circuit.

In the long term, the rule change represents a substantial power shift in a chamber that for more than two centuries has prided itself on affording more rights to the minority party than any other legislative body in the world. Now, a president whose party holds the majority in the Senate is virtually assured of having his nominees approved, with far less opportunity for political obstruction.

Reid said the chamber “must evolve” beyond parliamentary roadblocks. “The American people believe the Senate is broken, and I believe the American people are right,” he said, adding: “It’s time to get the Senate working again.”

Translated: it’s best for my party and my party is in charge therefore that’s what we are going to do.

Republicans said the way Democrats upended the rules will result in fallout for years. “It’s another raw exercise of political power to permit the majority to do anything it wants whenever it wants to do it,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), the GOP’s parliamentary expert, told reporters.

Republicans vowed to reciprocate if they reclaim the majority.

Thank you. History, meet schadenfreude. Shake hands and come out fighting.

“Democrats won’t be in power in perpetuity,” said Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), a 27-year member. “This is a mistake — a big one for the long run. Maybe not for the short run. Short-term gains, but I think it changes the Senate tremendously in a bad way.”

Shelby was remarkably prescient.

From November 22nd, 2013.

Can anyone remotely say “goose and gander”? WSJ.com continues:

After the Senate Goes ‘Nuclear’ on Supreme Court Nominees, Will Legislation Be Next?

Republicans are expected Thursday to change the Senate’s rules to make it easier to confirm Supreme Court nominees. The move has aroused concern that legislation may be the next target.

The Senate, its occupants worry, is just one step away from acting a whole lot like the House if the party in the minority is no longer able to block legislation.

Right now, most bills need 60 votes to clear procedural hurdles in the Senate. Most of the time, Democrats and Republicans have to work together unless unless one party controls more than 60 seats in the chamber. Currently Republicans hold 52 seats. Both parties have tried to use the chamber’s procedural tools to their advantage, leading to more frequent standoffs.

Then Breitbart.com writes about the situation now.

Constitutional Option Unstoppable: John McCain and Lisa Murkowski Will Vote Yes

by Ken Klukowski

WASHINGTON,D.C.—Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) announced on the Senate floor Wednesday that they will not allow a filibuster of Neil Gorsuch, and will instead vote for the constitutional option to restore a simple-majority vote to confirm Supreme Court nominations, making that outcome now almost certain.

Really? And how will they manage to halt it?

Earlier during the day Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claimed that he had the 50 votes he needs—plus Vice President Mike Pence as a tie-breaker, if needed—to invoke the constitutional option and confirm President Donald Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee.

With his towering stature in the party, both in seniority and later as the 2008 presidential nominee, McCain was seen by some as the de facto chairman of the Gang of 14 effort in 2005 to save the option of filibustering judicial nominees in the future — but allowing through many of President George W. Bush’s nominees that were then being blocked by a Democratic filibuster. Ironically, that strategy’s architect was none other than Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who implemented it in 2003.

Do you see this? Do you see the wheels within wheels? On the other hand, this is McCain serving McCain and, simultaneously when it pleases him, doing the work of the GOP.

“The unprecedented nature of the Democrats’ filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee has left me in a difficult position,” the Arizona senator lamented on the state of affairs in 2017, and after surveying years of past practice in Senate confirmations.

“I’m left with no choice,” McCain declared. “I will vote to change the rules to allow Judge Gorsuch to be confirmed by a simple majority.”

The Nuclear Option. What is it?

That said, what is cloture?

“What if the Republicans become the majority again?” Inside baseball, but very important. Full circle. Should be no shock to anyone. But, zounds, a major shock to the Demorats who hadn’t fully anticipated that the Republicans — heretofore unpossessed of a spine — actually grew a modicum of one under a president who coiffed an orange dead cat on top of his head.

Again, more on the “nuclear option.”

Trent Lott coined the term. But here is a graphic.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has already approved Judge Neil Gorsuch.

One thing that I simply cannot understand. Please, someone attempt to explain to me, obviously, the advantage acquired by the Demorats in the filibustering of Judge Gorsuch. Because, once changed, the rule will allow the GOP to acquire another potential SCOTUS nominee during this term or another subsequent.

I have information to indicate there may likely be another SCOTUS vacancy extant somewhere in 2017. Then, between 2017 and 2020, my guess is that there will likely be another SCOTUS vacancy. That’s three.

By forcing a filibuster the Demorats will have, potentially, enabled the next three SCOTUS replacements. With luck they won’t be Left-leaning. This could be an unprecedented achievement in all of US history.

All under President Donald Trump.

Three Demorat Senators have had the guts to take a stand.

With 52 Republicans and 48 Democrats in the Senate, the GOP needs eight Democrats to join them to break a filibuster, which takes 60 votes.

So far, however, only three Democrats have come out saying they would support Gorsuch – Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana.

Who and what? Time will tell. These are my thoughts.

BZ

 

Reflections on Orlando: we’re not learning

Muslim Kills 49 Orlando Gay ClubApologies for the lack of current posts. Personal issues. — BZ ]

The US is not learning from the radical wave of Islam that is thundering across Europe right now and, of course, it is having its own effects here.

I’m referencing the San Bernardino shootings from December of last year by Muslims and most recently the Orlando gay bar mass shooting on Saturday night/Sunday morning in Florida.  This Islamic fuck — whose name isn’t warranted printing here on my blog — now holds the “record” for the number of persons killed in one US mass shooting, at 49 murdered and 53 wounded.  (Except for Antietam, where roughly 22,000 persons were killed in one day, American vs American, and perhaps Wounded Knee.)

The wife of this piece of shit was a clear accomplice and should be charged as a co-conspirator to murder.  She knew that, on June 4th and 5th, he purchased a 9mm handgun and an AR-15 rifle.  She knew how false he was.  Of what his dogma truly consisted.  You cannot live together and now know, unless you are continents away.  They were not.  She knew his heart.  She knew what he was.  And what he wasn’t.  Specifically, she knew about the attack.

Oh, but wait.  It was not an AR-15 the Islamic fuck possessed.  It was a Sig Sauer MCX carbine which shares no major parts with an AR-15.  At all.  The MCX also  Of course, how can you fault the American Media Maggots?  Everything, as you well know, is an AR-15.  This is no mistake, naturally.  This is called a narrative.

AR5

And like good anti-gun Lefitsts, everything evil must be an AR-15.  Therefore the ammunition for AR-15s must be eliminated as well.

Clue into this, Leftists: again, like the bulk of most recent shootings in the US, he was in compliance with the current gun laws for the area.  Further, he was a security operator for a company that held a contract with the federal government.  He not only had to pass local security laws for possession of various weapons — as a security operator that guarded federal facilities — but had to pass federal background checks.

And did.

Further, the FBI conducted two separate investigations into the suspect.  They found nothing.  They cleared him.  They met with him three times.

We — the United States — we are not learning.

The Muslim fuck was working for a multi-national security company that employs about 625,000 people with many contracts to the US federal government.  A “security company” can range from someone guarding a parking lot to persons providing specialized security for special ops American forces on the ground — as with those highlighted in the “13 Hours of Benghazi.

With these contracts, the federal government required a security backgrounding of every employee.  Both sides failed to report.  The Muslim fuck had two gun licenses.  One was for the rifle — the “AR-15” — and it is unlikely he would have acquired these licenses had his employer known of the FBI investigation.  They proscribe even “contact” with the FBI.

AR6[ Hillary Clinton, as an aside, is wrong again as the bint she is.  The “AR-15” she falsely said was involved is not a “weapon of war.”  It is a rifle.  It shoots semi-automatically.  It is in fact used by hunters.  What she really objects to, like most Leftists, is that it has odd bits and angles that make it, with its black color, appear to be completely sinister in their over-imaginative minds. ]

The FBI concluded it lacked sufficient evidence to go forward with even what they call a “preliminary investigation.”  But whatever they found out about him, they should have told his employer.  In that they failed.

Let me repeat for the abundant Leftists amongst you here and now: the Islamic fuck Omar Mateen (okay, sorry) passed every background check required by the state and by the federal government.  He was never “institutionalized” as well.  But there’s more; just wait a few paragraphs.

Captain Obvious: the bar was a “No Gun Zone.”  Right.  Larfs all around.  But nothing works against a gun like?  Right.  Another gun.

Columbine, Newtown.  All of these mass killings took place where the government prohibited people from protecting themselves.  A “gun free zone” is like shooting fish in a barrel.  Gays or not.

A LE axiom: when an assailant is confronted sooner rather than later, lives are saved.  Period.

Leftists immediately jumped to gun control.  And the American Media Maggots helped to buttress that so-called “argument.”

There was no call from the Oval Office to Orlando.  Party politics.  Leftist Obaka to Republican Governor Rick Scott.  Didn’t happen.

There is no doubt that the Muslim fuck was motivated by Islam.  His father was a supporter of the Taliban.  The Muslim fuck himself cheered when planes struck the WTC on 9/11.  Inspire magazine exists to, eh, “inspire” after all.

On the other hand, it could be clear that the Muslim fuck was sexually confounded.  He could have been trying to resolve various homosexual issues that he finally applied to the Pulse gay bar.

I suspect there were a number of motivators of the Muslim fuck.

I suspect that he was conflicted with his own personal sexuality.  I suspect that he realized the inherent conflict that exists in the Middle East — a conflict that very few persons seem willing to address in the Western Media.  That is to say, the conflict that exists between small boys and older men.

In the ME form of Islam it does not seem to be disagreeable that small boys are penetrated anally for sexual satisfaction.

US soldiers in ME assignments realize this rather rapidly: “women are for procreation, and boys are for fun.”

That brings us to the “bacha bazi” dancing boys.  Click at your own disgust.

Muslim Bacha Bazi BoysThe secret shame of Afghanistan’s bacha bazi ‘dancing boys’ who are made to dress like little girls, then abused by paedophiles

  • Bacha bazi, meaning ‘boy play’, is a tradition found across Afghanistan, where boys dress as women and perform

  • But these boys, some as young as 10, are also sexually abused by the men – passed around after the parties

  • The stigma of having been a ‘bacha bereesh’ sees the victims shunned by their families and society

  • However, ‘owning’ more than one boy is seen as a display of both power and wealth among some Afghan war lords

  • See full news coverage and stories from Afghanistan at www.dailymail.co.uk/afghanistan 

For some deviant reason, in the ME form of Islam, this is not considered a form of pederasty.  Only when one transitions from boys to men is buggery considered verboten by Islam.  And by that the Islamic fuck found himself conflicted.  He was not attracted by boys.

He liked men.  He hated America.  He may have been spurned in conflict of his religion.  It only takes one blowjob to make someone a “homosexual.”  And that appellation of “homosexual” is completely unacceptable in Islam.

As a conflicted homosexual, to attack a gay bar would solve the bulk of his problems.  It would resolve his unstated sexuality, and it would place him into a place of importance within Islam.  Let’s kill gays.

But instead of Islam or violence or philosophy, instead, according to Obama and his sycophants, it’s all about guns.

If guns were the issue, then what about Belgium?  What about France?  What about the UK?  What about California?  These locations all have the strictest gun control imaginable.  California has the strongest, most constrictive laws on the books of any state — and they are creating even more.

And yet it’s about the tools and not about the root cause.

To Leftists: let there be no mistake.  Barack Hussein Obama has drawn the battle lines between Islam and gays.

Guess what?  Islam wins.

“Evil always wins through the strength of its splendid dupes; and there has in all ages been a disastrous alliance between abnormal innocence and abnormal sin.”
— G.K. Chesterton

BZ

P.S.
The most immediate goal of Leftists now?  To eliminate those weapons which have detachable magazines.

Trust me.

 

Ferguson out of control:

FERGUSON BLUE LIVES MATTERThe Ferguson Police Department is the last department that officers throughout this nation would want to belong to.

Despite the fact that Officer Darren Wilson was completely exonerated, two officers were shot on Thursday.

From CNN.com:

State, county police take over Ferguson protest security after shooting

(CNN)  With tensions running high after the shooting of two officers in Ferguson, Missouri, state and county police took over protest security in the St. Louis suburb Thursday.

St. Louis County Police and the Missouri State Highway Patrol are assuming “command of the security detail regarding protests,” St. Louis County Police said, while Ferguson Police will remain responsible for “routine policing services” in the city.

Meaning: the city was “taken over” by outside forces.

Ferguson DecisionThe officers who remain are there because they cannot readily leave, and they can do nothing right — at this point — in the eyes of the nation.

Ferguson Cops SensitiveThey are caught between belief and physicality.

And they are caught up in the lie that apparently won’t stop.

#BLACK LIVES MATTER

#HANDS UP DON’T SHOOT

BZ