Are We About To See A Full Blown Constitutional Crisis On Saturday?

How did it start?  Small. It always starts with something small   Egg Chen  Big Trouble In Little China

I fear that after decades of GOP surreptitious excavation to try to weaken the very foundation of our democracy. The sh*t may finally be about to hit the fan.

Pseudo Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito, the nitwit with his judicial philosophy deeply rooted in The Salem Witch Trials, has extended the court’s stay on the obnoxious ruling of the 4th Circuit Appellate Court banning the use of the abortion pill until midnight Friday night. A typical Roberts court d*ck move. wait for a late Friday night news dump, when all of the justices are once again safely locked away in their McFortresses, and then make a ridiculous shadow docket ruling stripping another civil right away from millions of Americans.

From reporting it appears that one of the reasons for the delay on the rights stripping is that the court has kind of hoist itself on its own petard. In his assenting opinion to Alito’s far right fundamentalist ruling, Beer Bong Brett Kavanaugh smelled a trap, and tried to avoid it. In his opinion Brewski Brett went out of his way to assure all of the little ladies out there that this was not a national ban on abortion. It simply left it up to the states to determine their own laws. In dealing with the potential trap, Kavanaugh specifically stated that The free right of interstate travel for the purposes of abortion services was neither granted by, nor allowed under the ruling.

Nice Try Brewski! But apparently the far right Christian fascists in the state legislatures didn’t read that far down the ruling. Now you have states like Idaho not only criminalizing transporting a minor across state lines for an abortion without parental consent, but criminalizing even giving the minor money to go and do it herself. Other states are criminalizing a woman resident from travelling across state lines to get an abortion where it’s legal, and then returning to the state. At least the poor misguided waif won’t be pregnant anymore, so the orange jumpsuit should fit better.

That’s the real problem for the Roberts court, and the reason for the delay. Kavanaugh insisting that the ruling was not a national abortion ban was fine, as was the assurance that women with resources could travel wherever they liked to obtain one. But when you look at what the deep red states are actually passing into law, outlawing an abortion pill with a 20+ year history that has been proven to be more safe and effective than either Tylenol or Viagra sure as hell feels like a national ban on abortion. Thus the delay while Alito tries to find the right combo of $8 legal words to justify their hypocrisy.

But this time, I’m not so sure it’s going to work. The simple fact of the matter is that this whole thing is an act of purely political Kabuki theater. The suit should never have survived the preliminary hearing. In order to bring suit, the plaintiffs must establish standing for bringing the suit. In other words, they have to prove to the court that by the decision they’re fighting, somehow they are either personally or professionally harmed or damaged by the rule. And if Baldilocks Alito can cut out his open mike standup comedy sh*t for a minute, I’d like to hear how a bunch of far right anti abortion activists and a handful of Jesus wheezing doctors are being personally or professionally harmed by women hundreds and thousands of miles away making a perfectly legal personal choice fits the bill?

If this goes down the way I think it will on Friday, I fear that on Saturday we’ll have a full blown constitution al crisis on our hands. Alito is a blithering idiot to wait until Friday night to drop the hammer, when everybody will be off on Saturday and Sunday to protest! And protest they will, likely in Pink pussy hat numbers.

We Americans are by nature a pretty easygoing lot, at least those of us without 148 AR-15’s stacked up in the basement, but when you piss us off, there’s hell to pay.

The anti Trump inauguration protests dogged his whole residency. When he tried to ban Muslims from entering the country, not only did protesters swarm international airports, but so did lawyers and social workers, offering pro bono legal assistance to the weary travelers. And when Stephen Miller started separating infants and toddlers at the southern border, people rose up, and they kept rising up until they finally forced the Trump administration to do the unthinkable, stop the separations, and start keeping records to try to eventually reunite the tykes with their parents. And they ACLU has been holding two administrations feet to the fire over the issue ever since.

And even corporate America joined in on the fun. Major League Baseball pulled the summer All-Star game from Atlanta following the passage of anti LGHTQ law. Television and movie companies piled on to pull their contracts from filming in the state. The NCAA pulled all of its championship sports events from North Carolina after they passed their anti trans bathroom law.

And we’re starting to get whispers that the same thing may happen again. The AMA has loudly condemned the law as unconstitutional, unfounded, and as a potential national health risk. A few weeks ago MSNBC reported that groups of doctors and clinics in states where abortion is legal have already signed up to declare that they’ll stop proscribing the drug when the FDA tells them to, and not some national nag in a black muumuu. And the state of California recently pulled a multi million dollar state contract from national pharmacy Walgreens, for taking the wimpy decision to stop dispensing the drug, even in states where it’s legal, after getting a letter from a bunch of red state bully Attorneys General.

Personally, I just get the feeling that when this starts rolling, it’s going to make the Trump era protests look like pre-game warmups. Those protests were fighting to ensure American civil rights to somebody else, whether Islamic, Mexican, or Salvadoran. This time it’s the constitutional and civil rights of American citizens at stake, and those American citizens just happen to represent a majority of the US population, and the men that love them. These things aren’t going anywhere in my view, especially in deep red states, where the constituents have the most to lose. We cut our national social activism teeth in 2017, honed and fine tuned it in 2018 and 2022, and in 2023 it will be the razor sharp tip of a national spear.

And again I can’t see corporate America not getting involved again. Due mostly to the massive threat of social media activism threatening boycotts against major companies for silence. And what about this? Do you think that the Ladies Garment Workers Union, and the Service Employees International Union, both with large female memberships will call for National strikes or National Days of Action, just to make their point, and put the squeeze on corporate America to have that Come-to-Jesus moment.

This is all speculation I grant you, but when you combine it with our recent past history, and the debacle in France over Macron raising the retirement age by two years, it all comes together almost seamlessly. The American people are sick and tired of being misruled by a permanent minority of Evangelical zealots. Enough is enough.

With all of that being said, the one thing I can’t seem to find or wrap my head around in the solution. On the one hand, you have the majority of Americans, at least 64% who feel that abortion should be legal and accessible in all or most cases. And on the other hand, you have six far right, anti abortion ideologues, masquerading as Justices on the runaway rain wreck Roberts Supreme Court. And they could give a sh*t less. They’re covered. According to the constitution they can only be removed by impeachment, and good luck with that. Where is the middle ground for compromise and an equitable solution? Nowhere, as far as I can see.

My greatest hope, and my mist devoted prayer is a combination of long term, sustained grassroots protest, especially locally, and sustained pressure against major companies. Show up at every single one of your MOC’s events, town halls, ribbon cuttings, fundraisers, and make your feelings known. After all, these ballot mice are going to need your votes in November. And then threaten every single company, small, medium or large, with boycotts if they give one red cent to a GOP incumbent or challenger who favors abortion restrictions. After all, Traitor Tot is already sucking up every last dime of small money donors, these clowns are going to need every penny they can get their hands on.

And when November of 2024 gets here, vote your *sses off. Vote like your reproductive lives depend on it, because they do! And from where I’m sitting? Between now and then every single Democratic incumbent and challenger should be running on an ironclad promise of Supreme Court Reform so they can get those idiots heads out of their *sses. Todays Sesame Street letters are A and R, for Abortion Rights, and the number is 64, the percentage of the population that believe that abortion should be safe and legal. Throw in common sense gun reform, and you’re unstoppable.