New SCOTUS Photo To Go With All Those Nifty Rulings!
You know how they say absolute power corrupts absolutely? The fallout is on full display here in the U.S. After approximately 250 years of the grand experiment we call democracy, the wheels are about to fall off the bus. The basic tenet of our democratic nation — that no man is above the law — has come to a calamitous and chilling end with the court’s recent decision on presidential immunity.
It begs the question: What was SCOTUS thinking? (Only about themselves, obvi.) And, how will the rest of us get by if one of us — I’m looking at you, man with the orange hair — think they can “shoot someone and not lose voters,” and actually be right? Congratulations, man with the orange hair; you’re a winner! Take a bow because SCOTUS just made your Make-a-Wish dream come true. Looks like one man’s win is a loss for the remaining 333 million of us, a bleak day for America.
For his unceasing attack on precedent, Chief Justice Roberts wins the This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things award. Roberts has done more damage during his tenure — always with a smile, or maybe that’s why he’s smiling — than any other justice in recent history, because he not only steers the court, he’s often the swing vote. Under his tenure, only the richest among us are safe. Women, gays, trans, minorities, the homeless, the poor, and future generations themselves if you factor in the imminent and radical decline of the environment, can no longer rely on the rule of law to save them. That’s because Roberts and the other conservatives on the bench don’t care about precedent. They care only about who’s lining their pockets; who’s giving them the best vacation experiences; whose spouses got good jobs because their husbands are sitting on the bench; and what who has done for them lately.
It’s been a disatrous 24 years since Gore v. Bush was decided; Citzens United v. FEC put the power squarely in the hands of those with the moola; and the environment has taken hit after hit at the court’s hand until finally, the defining moment, the thing ultra-conservatives everywhere –the ones who put making money above all else, even dogs — have lusted after for an eternity, the death of the Chevron defense. Goodbye, administrative law! Hello, regulation-free business!
No one is above the law! That is unless you’re a Supreme Court Justice or are the man with the orange hair.
By injecting doubt into the administrative process itself, the court has assured that business interests will prevail, not because they are right, but because it will take the government eons longer to bring a judicial case instead of an administrative one, if ever. The government simply does not have the resources to try every case. Nor can it regulate every chemical.
Take PFAS regulation/litigation, currently in its infancy. The government has zero chance of regulating the 6,000 to 8,000 PFAS on the market today. It’s just not possible for an Agency to do risk assessments on that many chemicals, and without a blanket regulation to cover the entire class of chemicals, the government will never catch up because new PFAS are being created all the time.
Typically, the government doesn’t lead, excepting initiatives like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, the New Deal, the Declaration of Independence — okay, it does lead — but more often, it funds research and development and lets the market lead while holding the door open for everyone else, thereby assuring a level playing field for things like civil rights, human rights, women’s rights, education, and the like, so everyone gets a shot at the promise of the American Dream: equality, a living wage, a nice life — you know, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Thanks to SCOTUS, the American dream has become a nightmare.
Imagine if Al Gore had won — BTdubs, Justice Roberts was the deciding vote. We probably wouldn’t have entered Iraq and spent kajillions of dollars, most of which went to Halliburton, mucking around in a mindset we didn’t understand. We probably wouldn’t have stayed there for 20 years, and we may have maintained the global prominence we had then instead of the global enmity we now enjoy. And maybe, just maybe the inhabitants of Planet Earth would have stood a fighting chance against climate change — because make no mistake, Mama’s gonna save herself, whether we go along for the ride or not.
But all that goodwill is gone now, and with it, much of our hope. Except — that’s what they want, right? For us to give up hope? Because if we do, they win.
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” Matthew 16:26. All this chaos from those who call themselves devout Christians. Maybe they didn’t read that one.
You know what you have to do, right? Start with voting people who have no respect for the rule of law (or anything other than money) out of office. Follow your heart. Google the rest.
Survival of the fittest was never going to work, not without leaving a bunch of folks crushed and bleeding underfoot. Collaboration and cooperation are the only paths forward. Nothing less than survival or our way of life is at stake.
The Independence Day we get is the one we deserve.
pam lazos 7.4.24
Originally Published on https://greenlifebluewater.earth/feed/
