Moonlight Through the Pines

Sam Alito's wife explained to a Washington Post reporter on January 17, 2021 - without knowing that he was a Washington Post reporter - that she had been flying the Stars and Stripes in protest of what a neighbor said about them.  I can't help but wonder if she did the same thing to her neighbors on Westover Terrace in our mutual hometown of West Caldwell, New Jersey - and if she did, I'm glad I live on a street several blocks away in this five-square-mile town, because she wouldn't have wanted me as a neighbor. 

So, okay, the inverted flag was not Justice Alito's doing, and it had nothing to do with supporting January 6 insurrectionists.  Let's assume that.  So why was the Pine Tree Flag from the American Revolution, adopted as a symbol of the Stop the Steal movement that insists the the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, flying at the Alitos' summer house on New Jersey's Long Beach Island?

Was it because Mrs. Alito thought the pine tree was pretty?

I wish I could apologize to America for my town giving the country the worst Supreme Court justice in recent memory not named Clarence by his mother, a justice who is too ideological and to biased to rule on Trump-related cases and must but will not recuse himself, but I have a feeling I'm in the minority.  I think a lot of people in my hometown still love the guy.  

Am I worried for exposing myself as an Alito detractor living in his former hometown?  Look, I could have kept my hometown a secret and bashed Alito, Trump, James David Vance and the rest, but my address still would have been found out thanks to all sorts of people-search sites (even though I've never given my full address here).  And if Trump gets back in power, I will be found out.  If not by the United States Secret Police (currently known as the Oath Keepers), then by citizen-informers who share my postal code.  And when I see moonlight through the needles of the pine tree that stands outside my window . . .

That won't be moonlight . . . they'll be searchlights . . . oh no . . ..  😨

Hometown Hero

I was born in Montclair, New Jersey, a suburb of Newark, though I have never actually lived in Montclair.  In fact, I live in a town nearby, which feels like a small Midwestern town that was plopped into the Northeast at random.

Montclair's residents, past and present, have included an Oscar-winning actress, a songwriter who wrote Stephanie Mills' biggest hit, an MSNBC political commentator, the current host of CBS's "The Late Show,"  a CNBC anchor, and a Dutch supermodel.  

Montclair's most famous resident was one of the first two men on the moon, who took part in planting the American flag on the lunar surface.  

Who's my hometown's most famous resident?  A fascist hangin' judge who wrote the Dobbs decision on abortion and who has flown the American flag upside down to express his belief that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump! 

Well, G. Gordon Liddy might actually be more famous . . . he came from my hometown too!

I have a lot of paper bags . . . I don't know whether to use them to wear over my head in public or barf in them.

No Mo' Roe

Look. We all knew that the Supreme Court was going to overturn Roe v. Wade because of the leaked opinion draft from Justice Samuel Alito from last month.  But certainly the final draft wasn't going to be nearly or even remotely as harshly worded, right? 

Well, the decision was just handed down officially, removing a constitutional right handed down nearly fifty years ago, and it turns out that the only changes from Alito's first draft were largely commas and conjunctions.

I'm just glad that Justice Alito no longer lives in his New Jersey hometown and doesn't commute to Washington on the air shuttle,  Because his hometown . . . is my hometown!

And who's to blame for this overruling?  Susan Sarandon.  Because she told us to vote for Jill Stein for President in 2016 instead of Hillary Clinton.  She also failed to codify Roe in 2009 when she had the power . . . oh, wait, that was the filibuster-proof Democratic-majority Senate of the 111th Congress!

Of course I was being facetious when I said Susan Sarandon was to blame.  Look, you stupid Twitter twits, Susan Sarandon is not a witch - she only played one in the movies!  (Now, Christine O'Donnell - she was a witch!)

So thirteen states automatically ban abortion as a result of this ruling, with another thirteen ready to do so.  And a federal abortion ban is not out of reach, lest any woman who lives in a illegal-abortion state like Iowa to go to neighboring Illinois, where abortion is legal.  And then women will either have to carry their babies to term - even if her child was fathered by a criminal or a family relative - will have to travel to Canada . . . and then the Supreme Court will decide there is no constitutional right for a woman to travel to another country to get an abortion. Then someone will decide that there is no constitutional right for anyone to travel to another country for anything . . . and the Canadian and Mexican borders become the new Iron Curtains under President-For-Life Ron DeSantis.   (It will be like the old Soviet Union; the only Americans who will be allowed to travel abroad are Olympic athletes and ballet dancers.)

Justice Alito said that this opinion should not be read as an attack on other rights rooted in privacy.  So Justice Clarence Thomas, who would not be sitting on the Court if a certain Colorado Democrat who shall remain nameless had not invited a comely blonde and future evangelical Trump supporter to his townhouse in 1987, wrote that decisions such as on contraception and gay marriage are definitely on the table.  And so folks opposed to such things will not stop at abortion.

President Biden urged pro-choice activists to come out and vote in November.  Right.  As long as inflation and gas prices remain big issues, this issue is not going to have a major impact on the 2022 midterms, least of all in the elections for the state legislatures that will now decide on abortion.  There's only one Democrat who even focuses on state legislative elections, and Martin O'Malley is only concerned with his wife's bid for Maryland Attorney General this year.  

I wish well all of those who fight to get this overturning overturned.  But, as I indicated three months ago, I want to be counted out.  Besides, I expect to be busy . . . checking out Irish real estate.

Odor In the Court

I know a man . . . he came from my hometown . . .. These are the very words he uses for what's going down . . ..

"[Roe v. Wade] was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, [Roe v. Wade] and [Planned Parenthood v. Casey] have enflamed debate and deepened division . . ..  We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.  It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."

Thus spake Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Jr., of my hometown in New Jersey, in his draft opinion on Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which will likely obliterate a woman's right to abortion on the basis of the lack of a constitutional right to privacy.  This was despite his assurances when he first joined the Court in 2006.  This decision even surpasses his deciding vote in the Citizens United decision of 2010 that recognized corporations as people and money as free speech.

When this opinion gets handed down, it will likely be toned down, but the effect will be no different.  Abortion will be legal in only a few states, not all of them, and a Republican Congress and a Republican President as early as 2025 will no doubt criminalize abortion nationwide, with no exceptions for rape or incest - after the filibuster is done away with. 

And how many other countries have completely outlawed abortion?  About a couple dozen - mostly in Africa and Latin America.  European countries? One - Andorra, a country between Spain and France, which is so small the Rhode Island state militia could invade and occupy it in an hour.

The draft opinion was leaked in a breach of protocol that keeps Supreme Court drafts private, even as the right to privacy is, ironically, in jeopardy.  MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell interestingly pointed out that while Congress routinely puts out drafts of bills in progress, the Supreme Court - which apparently writes first drafts by painting them with broad brushes of dismissive language - refuses to be transparent. Chief Justice John Roberts, who loves the Court and his open to a ruling that preserves legalized abortion but allows for some restrictions - has demanded an investigation into the leak.  Too little, too late; this draft shows how reckless the justices can be in private and are.

And if the right to privacy is nullified through this ruling, what other rights could fall by the wayside?  Gay marriage? Interracial marriage?  If women in states where abortion is outlawed can't travel to states where it's legal to get one, the lack of the right to travel could be applied to anyone trying to leave the country once Trump comes back and establishes der Amerikanisches Reich.

The Democrats expect abortion to be a major issue that improves their chances in the 2022 midterms.  Uh, no, it won't be.  Yes, I still think it.  Inflation and the economy will remain the biggest issues going into November.  Abortion won't even make a distant third place - not as long as immigration and COVID remain potent issues.  The problem is that not enough Democrats and independents who are motivated by the overturning of Roe will tip the balance for Democratic candidates, and besides, the people most likely to vote on abortion are . . . pro-lifers.

Of course, if I had a black wife and we were having trouble making ends meet, we, knowing that our marriage could be nullified by a Supreme Court ruling, wouldn't likely base our electoral choices on the economy.

Westboro Blues

I never thought I'd find myself praising Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, but yesterday he proved himself to be a profile in courage by dissenting in a case decision that allows the Westboro Baptist Church to continue its picketing of military funerals. The Court ruled that the Topeka-based religious group, which believes that American servicemen are condemned to die in battle because of this country's increasingly tolerant policies toward gays, has the right to protest at funerals under the First Amendment. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority: "What Westboro said, in the whole context of how and where it chose to say it, is entitled to 'special protection' under the First Amendment and that protection cannot be overcome by a jury finding that the picketing was outrageous."

Justice Alito was the only dissenter.

The case, Snyder vs. Phelps, was instigated by Albert Snyder, whose son Matthew was a Marine killed in Iraq in 2006. Westboro picketed at that funeral. Albert Snyder sued Westboro leader Fred Phelps and two of his daughters (the Westboro Baptist Church is dominated by the Phelps family; some would say it is the Phelps family) for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, being angry that he could not have his son laid to rest without being left alone. A federal court found in favor of the Snyder family in 2008 and ultimately awarded them $5 million for damages, but the church appealed; a federal appeals court then overturned the lower court's ruling in September 2009 and ordered Snyder to pay the church's legal costs. Liberals were appalled at all of this, of course, but so was Bill O'Reilly, who helped raise money for the Snyder family to pay these fees. The case was brought before the Supreme Court in 2010.

In his dissent, Alito correctly noted the limits to free speech as well as the right to privacy that the Snyders and other families are entitled to in holding funerals for their military service relatives killed in the line of duty. "Our profound national commitment to free and open debate," Alito wrote, "is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case."

The Westboro Baptist Church - not recognized by any of the major Baptist conventions - may see this as a victory for freedom of religion as well as freedom of speech. But Alito knows a thing or two about religious freedom as well, having endorsed a greater expression of religion in the public square. In this case, it could be speculated that Alito found limits to expressing religious beliefs of the most outrageous kind in such a flagrant matter. But on the more pertinent issue (in this case, at least) of free speech, it was enough that Alito decided that the Westboro Baptist Church had gone too far.

Fortunately, the ruling may allow some leeway for local officials to pass laws allowing picketing at funerals but setting rules and regulations to keep protesters at bay.

No Justice

I live in West Caldwell, New Jersey, and I usually make a concerted effort to downplay that fact and hide it altogether, as its most famous former resident, Justice Samuel Alito, keeps giving me reasons to do so. Alito - whom many of my neighbors take great pride in - was present at a fundraising dinner for The American Spectator, a right-wing magazine famous for devoting resources to bring down President Bill Clinton on trumped-up charges going back to his days as governor of Arkansas - and championing his impeachment.

Alito has involved himself in political fundraising despite his role as a Supreme Court justice, and of course he was the key fifth vote in handing down the Citizens United decision which let money flow freely and heavily from major corporations. This is despite his supposed disdain for appearing at presidential State of the Union addresses because of the "partisanship" of such affairs - and at the last such event, of course, he famously insisted that the Citizens United decision would not affect the balance of corporate campaign funding or encourage foreign donations. He was wrong on both counts, but not as wrong as we will be if we imagine that the idea of Alito going to political fundraisers and palling around with domestic terrorists like Michele Bachmann is an impeachable offense. The code of conduct for the American judiciary clearly prohibits such activity. Alito dismissed the American Spectator dinner appearance as "not important." Of course, he's wrong again.

Oh yeah, this isn't Alito's first appearance at a fundraiser sponsored by the American Spectator. At the 2008 dinner, he made a speech calling Joe Biden a serial plagiarizer.

Alito is not just an embarrassment to my hometown or state. He's an embarrassment to this country.

Read about this year's American Spectator shindig here.