After taking power in 1933, the Nazis quickly moved to remove internal opposition to the Nazi regime in Germany. The legal system became one of many tools for this aim and the Nazis gradually supplanted the normal justice system with political courts with wide-ranging powers. —Wikipedia

The supreme court has never been the brightest bulb among the separated powers, having voted to uphold racism and inequality almost as often as it has done the opposite. I pretty much gave up on them in 2010, when they cut the last shredded piece of leather minimally leashing the Koch and friends Dogs of Hell* with the decision in Citizens United v. FEC.

Recently the court has jumped the shark, though. In the decision that found gerrymandered districts were not racist, the (racist) justices who prevailed chastised the plaintiffs for assuming that the districts were drawn up with the purpose of denying voting rights by race, rather than assuming they were drawn up with all the best intentions, then…oh, wow! Who knew the votes of people of color wouldn’t count?

But that’s fake news! The years-long, brilliantly executed plan by the Dark Money forces to take over state houses and gerrymander districts in favor of republicans after the 2010 census has been  documented dozens of times, including in book length by Jane Mayer, one of the most careful evidence-gatherer/presenters in the land. It would have made as much sense to ask the plaintiffs to assume that Clinton won the presidency in 2016.

Then the court upheld the Muslim travel ban, saying the intent of the president as expressed in tweets is inadmissible–where else does he express intent?–and making a big point of saying this decision is not racist, not like the decision about Japanese-American internment, which definitely was. They were real clear on that point. Crystal.

I always believe those people who state, repeatedly, I am not a racist. All those people who never need to say that are probably really racist.

Most egregious, though, was a tweet from Mitch McConnell, a picture of him shaking hands with his boy Neil Gorsuch, titled “Team Mitch.” Are supreme court justices on teams? Apparently. This tweet is a blatant celebration, by both Gorsuch and McConnell, that the right wingers on the court are now free to decide cases without considering jurisprudence, precedent, or even common sense. They voted for the team, and they won, Yea! The year Mitch spent obstructing Merrick Garland was totally worth it.

That last sentence is not sarcasm, it’s terrifying. They wanted, and they got, a party-controlled court.

The 2018 midyear election is coming, assuming the US is still a democracy by then. Clearly lots of elections have already been decided, since it’s impossible to overcome the odds in these gerrymandered districts. If the red wave that Trump is predicting strands most of the reasoning folk at sea, I think I would like to move before they come for us. Listening, husband? There must be a sane corner left on Earth. New Zealand?

The normally-capitalized institutions rendered in lower case herein are ones I no longer respect. I’m too much of a grammar nerd to not capitalize people’s names though, even the names of Despicable Hes and Shes.

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* Is that a Marvel thing now? I thought it had an idiomatic meaning that predated Marvel movies, but maybe my own memory has been usurped by the zeitgeist, which might cast some doubt on the entire blog entry, mightn’t it?