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Nov 4, 2022Liked by Robert Reich

Professor, your testimony is more relevant than ever. Add Clarence Thomas to Roberts and we have just scratched the surface of government not working for the people. And the possibility of corruption when Corporate America rules. We’ve watched the courts dismantle the rights of citizens, as corporations gain power. Voting Rights, gun laws, immigration, Equal Rights and the almost latest, the end of Roe v. Wade and Women’s Right to Choose.

“It may seem strange to talk about the economy in moral terms but that's only because we often don't recognize that moral choices are involved.” When and how does this stop?

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A brilliant well reasoned advice to the Republican led Senate which in 2005, the GOP held 51 seats and W was president. If we are to have a truly representative government we would need to root out every greedy, self interested legislator in both parties, in both houses, We also need some sort of vetting to assure any candidate, knows and understands the articles and amendments in the Constitution. We need "Free and Open" elections. But I fear we are staggering toward an authoritarian, fascist leaning government whose motto will be for the wealthy, by the wealthy, and and the rest be damned.

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SCOTUS should always remember the declaration that preceded the Constitution, perhaps the finest political document in the English language since Magna Carta in 1215, which also enshrined the rights of the common man and started England on the long, slow, road to democracy:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

What are we faced with now?

Life? Generally lousy and impoverishing healthcare which may be snatched away at any time by a boorish Republican cult.

Liberty? Tell that to all those imprisoned by Fentanyl addiction.

Pursuit of happiness? Tell that to all the people who have to work two jobs just to keep up with the bills.

In 2024, Democrats need a solid platform from the left, with a charismatic leader to take over from Sanders.

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Some members of the Supreme Court keep demanding respect from the public. As many arrogant leaders they seem to live in their own little world and have forgotten some basic rules about leadership. Anybody who has been in a leadership role , and almost everybody has in some shape or form, knows that real respect cannot be demanded but has to be earned. So, if some members of the Supreme Court believe they are not being respected by the public , they better have a critical look at their own behaviour to find out why instead arrogantly just blaming the public. Public perception of the Supreme Court and/or individual members is determined by the behaviour of its members and can only change if members change their behaviours. A very basic lesson which even well educated people often seem to forget when rising up the ladder simply because it requires humbleness. This goes well beyond the Supreme Court and equally applies to politics, business ,private life etc

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A Supreme Court that would ignore and negate the inescapable fact that millions of Americans are born and live much of, if not their entire, lives with one or both feet in a social, educational and economic hole, with Affirmative Action the only viable mechanism enabling any chance of their standing on ground level with their white fellow citizens would, if the right court case were cynically crafted and placed before them, also strike down progressive income taxes as unconstitutional — and act thar would forever destroy the Republic’s ability to finance every necessary service and enforce every just law that, somehow, miraculously remains on the books.

In each case, the Court’s decision would not be for the purpose of upholding the concept of “Equal Justice Under Law,” the phrase chiseled into the pediment above the Supreme Court Building’s portico that grows more hypocritical by the day, but to dig its pale white heels into the earth to delay, by whatever means at its disposal, America’s inexorable transition into a majority-minority society. It would be nothing less than the enabling and enshrining white privilege and the tyranny of the rich.

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Trump’s Tax Cut Gave Us the present Inflation (trickle down economics)

It’s all due to CORPORATE GREED!! We can only hope that voters will see this FACT!

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Your most important column yet; should be a full page ad in WAPO!

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The problem with an articulate, well thought out and implementable opinion like this is that the ones who really need to read or hear it can't take in anything longer than a sound bite. We are on the same page with you, which is why we get and enjoy reading your pieces daily. How do we get to those, like Owen Roberts, who might be on the verge of flipping to the other side, so they can put their eyeballs on it? Or do we have to take Justice John Roberts into a classroom and have him talk with BIPOC students who have to work twice as hard as white students just to stay in place? Reparations can take many forms. We think of it mainly as property or monetary, but these are often not the most important forms. Opportunity may prove more important, and the John Roberts' court stakes its philosophical foundation on the denial of enhanced opportunity in spite of powerful evidence that blacks, native peoples, and people of color in general are not provided an equal education, housing, food and medical access from birth.

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I recognized how much income affects the education of children after being puzzled about seeing how the wealthier kids always scored higher on tests during school. I always scored fairly high on all the tests we were given throughout school including the SATs, but I noticed that there was a bunch of kids, a group if you will, who always seemed to score higher than I did. I wondered why that was so, but I didn't think much about it then as I always did well enough. It's only lately that I figured out why that same bunch seemed to score so high. I didn't think they were cheating, but now I wonder? lol. I grew up in a small town in the rural South. The educational system wasn't particularly great. In that town of 29,000, there was only one grammar school where all the better students went, regardless of where they lived even though families of the wealthier people tended to live in 3 neighborhoods. The school that kids went to was supposed to be determined by where you lived, except that the best students all went to this one grammar school called Central Primary. Most of the students at this school were from professional families, if not all. Being from a family of a working class father and mother, I have finally put 2 and 2 together. I was a good student. My brother and sister were good students, but we were a level below the kids of the real professional families of that town. I have realized that income makes a tremendous difference in the test scores that kids make throughout school. It's not the only factor, but even among white middle class kids, it is a big factor. It determined where students went to school, and how good their early educations were. The 90% of children in the city where I lived, and didn't attend Central Primary got the shaft, and these are the white kids. The black kids all went to a separate school altogether since I grew up in the segregated South. Those black kids received a terrible education back in those days. I've pondered over this many times, and finally realized that there are many degrees and levels of education that this country has offered its children, and a family's income has been a big determinant of the quality of that education, not only on a racial basis, but on a financial one as well. The racial basis produced a double whammy on those children because, in general, the black kids in my town were the poorest educated because of their skin color and their income because almost all the black families in that town were the poorest families there. So, after all is said and done, there are a dozen factors that produce striated levels of education, and that produces many levels of test scores. I was always pissed that the kids of the wealthier families had so many advantages over me in so many ways. It was bad enough that they had money advantages, that Mercedes. I was a sensitive child and I noticed all the advantages, even the subtler ones. They both motivated me to do better, but they also hurt me as well because you can't overcome them all by working harder. Life is an unfair adventure at best, and there are many unfair advantages and disadvantages we experience along the way, but we must not add more bullshit on our citizens. We must try to equal out the disadvantages our children and our citizens face along the road. We must remove the unfair advantages, too. I know exactly what the Repub would say here. "Who determines what's an unfair advantage?" Only someone who enjoys one would say that, but I've had them say it to me. We can't allow things like income and race to give or take away a citizens' right to find success and happiness. We must level the playing field at every turn. At least, that's how I see it from my vantage point from somewhere below the middle where I now find myself at age 74. If I were skating along the top, maybe I'd see it differently. I never thought it was fair to put up blockades to hold my fellow citizens down, so that I could keep my advantage or get one, even though it might not have been in my best interest. I always had a sense of fair play that ruled my ethics, although I was, and still am a very competitive person. But I play by a set of rules that allows everyone an equal and fair chance. The point of all this, in case you don't get it is, I believe in keeping affirmative action in place as one factor to help in making our country stronger and fairer for those who couldn't go to Central Primary.

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Roberts & Kavanaugh were part of Roger Stone’s “Brooks Brothers Rebellion”. Now we know why a rage-filled Kavanaugh believed he was promised a SCOTUS appointment and he demanded they deliver.

Roberts’ “life project” has been to overturn the Voting Right Act, the way Thomas goal was to end Affirmative Action, and Alito’s waa to end Abortion. These plans were made during the Reagan/Bush/Bush years of the Party.

This has been a Group Project to destroy the last remaining New Deal and Great Society progressive advances. Next they will eliminate Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

They have almost succeeded. We must stop them at the ballot box.

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Thank you, Robert, for continuing to give voice to the conscience of our nation.

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The context of this problem, namely a country bitterly divided on partisan lines, makes it very difficult to solve. But in trying to be part of the solution it may be necessary, not only to encourage people to go out and vote next Tuesday to protect your country from great danger (as I note the comedian Stephen Colbert, and Senator Elizabeth Warren on the show have been doing) but to aim for the long term, in encouraging values connectedf to the common good. Given that Republicans may prevent schools from doing this, it may be necessary to organise events outside schools in public. Your "Chautauqua" tradition may be suitable for this, especially if visual stage drama (perhaps filmed, for wider use later) is part of it. Good luck next Tuesday, as well with organisjng things like this.

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You are a good man, Robert.

You should send today’s writing to President Biden as an argument for expanding the court and for term limits. Your piece also reminded me of Congressman Clyburne’s argument for his preferred SC nominee, a competent, intelligent woman who did not receive her law school education at Harvard or Yale.

It is appalling that one smug, self-satisfied man who pretends to be “Christian” can do so much damage. This happened because Roberts has had decades of control of the SC. Every decision you listed moved our country backwards in the direction of maintaining a permanent serf class.

What can we the people do to help bring necessary changes to this fossilized Supreme Court?

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And we have this about this corrupt Supreme Court “Yesterday morning, Kyle Cheney, Josh Gerstein, and Nicholas Wu of Politico reported more about the eight emails lawyer John Eastman, who wrote the memo outlining a plan by which then–vice president Mike Pence could steal the 2020 election for Donald Trump, tried to hide from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. The emails included discussions between Eastman, fellow Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, and others about how to stop Congress from counting the certified 2020 electoral ballots on January 6, 2021.

In the emails, Chesebro urged arranging to get a case before Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court so he could issue a stay that would cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election in Georgia. They should “frame things so that Thomas could be the one to issue some sort of stay or other circuit justice opinion saying Georgia is in legitimate doubt.” Thomas oversees the circuit court that includes Georgia, and he would “end up being key” to getting Biden’s victory overturned.

Eastman responded: “I think I agree with this.” Such a move by Thomas could “kick the Georgia legislature into gear.”

“As a young lawyer, Eastman clerked for Thomas, and Dan Froomkin of PressWatchers noted that Eastman and others were in this same period of time writing to Thomas’s wife, Ginni, who was urging state legislators to overturn the election by submitting fake slates of electors. “.

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Robert, this was brilliant! Thank you for this post today! Even though I have listened to your lectures and read this blog for some time now (as well as being a long-time champion of yours), the statement you singled out in the middle of this piece: “ How it balances the values of property and community will affect the moral cohesion of the nation.” finally pierced my muddled mind as to why “the other side” could not morally see the plight of the “community as a whole” worth tempering their version of Capitalism. The “Founding Fathers” were of two minds. One with It’s lofty Human Rights language. It acts like window dressing on documents and ideas whose true intent was crafted for protection of property and freedom to contract without a meddling monarch’s interference. But so many of us stop at -and define our American Idea by - the precious line: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, endowed by the creator with certain inalienable rights…”. Yet this assertion, in the hands of today’s court, were really just window dressing a philosophy of “Mine! Mine! ALL Mine!” The power to keep property and actions of the aristocracy (whether we call our rich that or not) penultimately important.

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Nov 4, 2022·edited Nov 4, 2022

Since Roberts was nominated, I have always called him "The Dread Chief Roberts". His is the blandly smiling face of a deadly patriarchal White Christian nationalist Reaganite totalitarian determined to destroy democracy and to roll back Civil Rights for Black people, other People of Color, women, LGBTQIA+ people, and non-Christians to the time before 1954 -- while liberating the commercial predation of corporations and the wealthy White investor, owner, financier, executive, and professional classes and giving them control of law and government. He and the other "originalists" would reinstate enslavement if they could manufacture a way around the 13th Amendment (other than the mass-incarceration that has long been used under the criminal conviction exception), as they have already abrogated the 14th and 15th Amendments. With the fascist supermajority on the Supreme Court, any resumption of control of the White House and Congress by the Republicans will be the end of Democracy in the US. The Democrats needed to expand the Supreme Court during Biden's first two years, and they failed. We will continue to pay the price for that with our rights and lives for generations.

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