Congress
FLAWLESS! Republicans Reach (Partial) Agreement (With Other Republicans) On New Coronavirus Bill
No hurry guys. Just 30 million people out of work and about to lose their federal unemployment.
July 23, 2020 11:45 AM
With the emergency unemployment benefits from the CARES Act just 9 days away from expiring, Republicans in the Senate and White House announced last night they had reached an "agreement in principle" on a new coronavirus stimulus bill. Except the "agreement" doesn't even address what to do about the expiring unemployment assistance, or about protections against evictions for people who have lost their jobs. But at least they've figured out how much money they want to spend on reopening schools and for coronavirus testing, so that's something at least. As the New York Times points out, pointedly even, the partial "agreement" is only among Republicans, who aren't even close to talking to Democrats yet. It's kind of a longstanding thing with them.
And the clock keeps ticking on those expiring protections for jobless people.
America now has a lot more jobless folks, too; the new weekly unemployment figures are out, showing 1.4 million new claims for unemployment during the week that ended July 18. That's 109,000 more new claims than in the prior week, marking the first uptick in new jobless claims since the record-setting job implosions back in March. Given the number of businesses having to close or cut back due to the renewed outbreaks of COVID-19, that increase in unemployment is hardly a surprise.
Maybe Congress should do something about it. The House already passed a new stimulus bill, in fucking May (MAY!!), so Republicans in the Senate might want to at least start negotiations before everything falls apart. More than everything already has.
<p>But the three days of intense intra-Republican battling at least resulted in a step toward action that should have been taken two months ago but was put on hold while Republicans decided to see if the economy came roaring back, via magick or wizardry of some kind, after states started reopening. Instead, the coronavirus came roaring back, and here we are. The tentative Republican agreement would allocate $100 billion to schools, give states $16 billion for testing and contact tracing, and include a new round of direct payments to Americans, although the amount is still being determined. Unfortunately, there's nothing in the proposal yet about extending the $600 per week of emergency unemployment, because Republican senators who'd like to be reelected are for it, while rightwing fiscal hawk assholes like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee are aghast at the thought that anyone might be deterred from jumping into the thriving job market by getting enough money to pay the rent and buy food. Why yes, all three of them <em>were </em>reelected in 2018 and won't have to answer to voters any time soon. </p><p>Mitch McConnell, perhaps invigorated by an especially tasty bite of lettuce, slowly eased his head out of his carapace and reassured America a new stimulus bill was on the way, eventually, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/us/politics/coronavirus-stimulus.html" target="_blank">explaining, </a>"We're hopeful we'll be able to get there. [...] This discussion has just really begun in earnest."</p><p>As for the details of the tentative plan, the money for schools would be split into two chunks; $30 billion for colleges and universities, and $70 billion for K-12 schools. And because it's Republicans we're talking about here, fully half the funds for public schools would be reserved for districts that open with full, in-person classes, regardless of how bad local infection rates may be. </p><p>The other agreed-upon spending would include $16 billion for coronavirus testing and contact tracing, plus $4 billion to help with "global distribution of a vaccine." The <em>Times </em>helpfully <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/us/politics/coronavirus-stimulus.html" target="_blank">points out </a>that those amounts represent a grand compromise: Senate Rs initially proposed more money, while the White House "at first balked at including any." Let's repeat that: With coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths all rising rapidly, Donald Trump originally wanted ZERO funding for testing. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/22/politics/stimulus-negotiations-congress-latest/index.html" target="_blank">told Senate colleagues</a> after a Tuesday meeting at the White House that he wondered whether he was "on acid" when he heard that. </p><p>Also not addressed in the "agreement" is <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/trump-jolly-tax-holiday" target="_blank">Trump's weird obsession, a payroll tax cut.</a> No Republicans are especially in favor of it, because it wouldn't be noticed by most people, it would reduce funding for Social Security and Medicare, and perhaps most important in an election year, it would only help those who <em>still have jobs.</em> But nobody's willing to tell the Great Man his cherished idea is stupid, so it may make it into a final bill in some form. </p><p>The expiring unemployment benefits are starting, finally, to make some Republican senators sweat. (Did we mention House Dems <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/democratic-economic-stimulus-package-full-of-nice-things-mitch-doesnt-want-you-to-have" target="_blank">passed an extension,</a> through next January, IN MAY? Let us mention it again, and every day between now and the election.) Some Rs even </p><blockquote>suggested at one point Wednesday that they might pursue a short-term extension of the enhanced unemployment benefits expiring next week to buy more time to reach a final agreement. Even that idea sparked infighting: Conservatives loathe the extra $600-per-week benefit, regarding it as a disincentive to work, and the White House chief of staff panned it.</blockquote><p>Republican senators facing voters this fall seem remarkably willing to bend a little on their never-spend-anything stance, at least until there's a Democrat in office to accuse of profligacy. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said you can't worry about deficits in a crisis, especially if it looks bad in the polls: </p><blockquote>People are concerned about that, but I also tell them in World War II, while we were fighting Hitler, we weren't thinking about how much it costs. We were thinking about survival, and that's my first priority here.</blockquote><p>Especially political survival. It's a big deal! Texas's other senator, Ted Cruz, who won't be up for reelection until 2024, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/worries-about-trump-and-a-bloodbath-at-the-polls-this-fall-stokes-republican-feuding-this-week/2020/07/22/820e038e-cc2a-11ea-b0e3-d55bda07d66a_story.html" target="_blank">said full speed ahead</a> on opening the economy, because apparently there are still some ICU beds available somewhere in the state: </p><blockquote>I think [a] sure way to lose the Senate, and elect Joe Biden, is to allow Democratic politicians to keep the country shut down and keep 40 million people out of work. </blockquote><p>Cruz apparently hasn't heard about any reasons why businesses might be shutting down, even without being told they have to. Must be Democrats telling people to stop going to restaurants. Speaking of which: </p><div id="cb2f1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0262f2d94ef719bd186f94620e01d2c7"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1286116036769529856" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">isn't it funny what @tedcruz cares about? 30 million unemployed, the @GOP all meeting to hash out doing nothing abo… https://t.co/qSDqFhw1zr</div> — Rebecca Schoenkopf, Wonkette Editrix, King Of You (@Rebecca Schoenkopf, Wonkette Editrix, King Of You)<a href="https://twitter.com/commiegirl1/statuses/1286116036769529856">1595468932.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer just couldn't believe the Republicans are being such idiots, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/us/politics/coronavirus-stimulus.html" target="_blank">wished </a>the GOP would just get their shitty proposal together so Democrats could fix it and pass a stimmy:<br></p><blockquote>The Republican Party is so disorganized, chaotic and unprepared that they can barely cobble together a partisan bill in their own conference[.]</blockquote><p>Schumer was so very astonished he might say hell or damn later. But he has a point: You idiots have spent long enough with your thumbs up your asses, so would you please just get moving? There's kind of a crisis here. </p><p>[<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/us/politics/coronavirus-stimulus.html" target="_blank">NYT </a>/ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/23/another-14-million-workers-filed-unemployment-benefits-last-week-pandemic-continues-weigh-labor-market/" target="_blank">WaPo </a>/ <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/22/politics/deal-reached-congress-covid-response/index.html" target="_blank">CNN </a>/ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/worries-about-trump-and-a-bloodbath-at-the-polls-this-fall-stokes-republican-feuding-this-week/2020/07/22/820e038e-cc2a-11ea-b0e3-d55bda07d66a_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-high_trumpcongress-720pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans" target="_blank">WaPo</a>]</p><p>Yr Wonkette is entirely supported by reader donations. Please help us keep bringing you the latest news as we sail straight toward those icebergs while thi ship is on fire. </p><p></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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Trump
Lawsplainer! Trump Doing Illegal Fu@k-Sh*t To Census, Surprise!
Shut up is too the legal term.
July 22, 2020 03:18 PM
Well, we now know Trump's latest plan to subvert democracy and screw over the American people — by pretending that undocumented immigrants just don't exist!
Donald Trump, with the help of John Yoo, as in George W. Bush's torture guy John Yoo, announced yesterday in a memorandum that he would be fucking with the data collected by the Census Bureau and altering it to exclude undocumented immigrants before sending it to Congress. The result of this would be that undocumented immigrants would be ignored when determining how many congressional representatives are allocated to each state, taking congresspeople away from states with high immigrant populations and instead giving them to other, whiter states.
In addition to being white supremacist nonsense, this is also blatantly unconstitutional. But that has never been a problem for this regime!
Yoo and Trump have apparently decided that the Supreme Court's recent decision striking down Trump's attempt to rescind DACA gives Trump carte blanche to do whatever he wants, Constitution and federal law be damned. (Don't try to make sense of it. It is as batshit insane as it sounds.)
<p>
If you're having a sense of déjâ-vu right now, it's not just you; Trump has been trying to manipulate the Census to screw over people of color, immigrants, and people in blue states ever since he took office. He already tried to fuck with the Census and intimidate people of color and immigrants, both documented and undocumented in 2018, when he tried to include a question on the Census specifically <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/mean-judges-wont-let-trump-ratf-ck-census-unfair" target="_blank">asking respondents</a> about their citizenship status in a baldfaced attempt to intimidate immigrants and people of color into not responding. After documents came out showing Republicans were specifically hoping to benefit "Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites," the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/the-census-is-coming-and-it-just-might-destroy-our-constitution-before-it-even-gets-here" target="_blank">struck down</a> this bullshit.
</p><p>
But with Trump, enough is never enough. And since he will hopefully, fingers crossed, be <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/new-york-times-polls-say-trump-is-bigly-f-ckin-loser-whos-gonna-bigly-f-ckin-lose" target="_blank">leaving office</a> in January, he is desperate to try to find other ways to destroy our democratic system in the meantime.
</p><p>
The executive order comes right out and says that its purpose is to ignore undocumented people, stating<br>
</p><blockquote>
For the purpose of the reapportionment of Representatives following the 2020 census, it is the policy of the United States to exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status[.]
</blockquote><p>
It also ridiculously claims that "[t]he Constitution does not specifically define which persons must be included in the apportionment base." Unsurprisingly, the memorandum pretends that the words in the Constitution that directly contradict this just don't exist. Section 2, clause 1 of the 14th Amendment states that
</p><blockquote>
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the <strong>whole number of persons</strong> in each state[.]
</blockquote><p>
As we no longer count anyone in the United States as being merely three-fifths of a person, this language seems to be self-explanatory. And the Supreme Court has long agreed.<br>
</p><p>
The memorandum also claims it is proper for the president to fuck with the data collected by the Census Bureau, saying,
</p><blockquote>
The President, by law, makes the final determination regarding the "whole number of persons in each State," which determines the number of Representatives to be apportioned to each State, and transmits these determinations and accompanying census data to the Congress (2 U.S.C. 2a(a)).
</blockquote><p>
Of course, that's not at all what Title 2, Section 2a(a) says. Rather, it states
</p><blockquote>
the President shall transmit to the Congress a statement showing the whole number of persons in each State[,] as ascertained under the [...] decennial census of the population, and the number of Representatives to which each State would be entitled under an apportionment of the then existing number of Representatives by the method known as the method of equal proportions, no State to receive less than one Member.
</blockquote><p>
So, no. There's no part of the law that says "but if Donald Trump is President, he gets to do whatever he wants!" No matter what Trump, Stephen Miller, and John Yoo think.<br>
</p><p>
The ACLU has already <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-calls-trump-anti-immigrant-census-order-unconstitutional" target="_blank">announced</a> that it plans to challenge Trump's latest attempt to Make America White Again. Dale Ho, the director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said yesterday that
</p><blockquote>
The Constitution requires that everyone in the U.S. be counted in the census. President Trump can't pick and choose. He tried to add a citizenship question to the census and lost in the Supreme Court. His latest attempt to weaponize the census for an attack on immigrant communities will be found unconstitutional. We'll see him in court, and win, again.
</blockquote><p>
Whether this latest will hold up in court (spoiler: it won't), however, is probably not the point. While we all rightfully scream about what utter poppycock this is, Trump gets to distract everyone from the absolute disaster that is his COVID-19 "response." Plus, racism and xenophobia are two of his absolute favorite ways to rile up his bigoted, hateful base.<br>
</p><p>
Like most things Trump tries to do, this is discriminatory, anti-democratic bullshit. But don't take my word for it! Let's see what Trump's own <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/about/census-constitution.html" target="_blank">Census Bureau</a> has to say about the Founders' intent in writing the Census into the Constitution. After all, we're all "originalists," right?<br>
</p><blockquote>
The U.S. Constitution empowers the Congress to carry out the census in "such manner as they shall by Law direct" (Article I, Section 2). The Founders of our fledgling nation had a bold and ambitious plan to empower the people over their new government. The plan was to count every person living in the newly created United States of America, and to use that count to determine representation in the Congress.<br>
<br>
</blockquote><p>Oh.<br></p><p>
[<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/memorandum-excluding-illegal-aliens-apportionment-base-following-2020-census/" target="_blank">Memorandum</a>]
</p><p>
<em>Follow JLC on <a href="https://twitter.com/jamielynncrofts" target="_blank">Twitter</a>!</em>
</p><p>
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Post-Racial America
Trump To Give Chicago Old Razzle-Dazzle, The 'Federal Troops Invading US Cities' Kind
For his next number, he'll do 20 acrobatic tricks in a row, one, two, three, four, five, splits, spread eagles, back flips, flip flops, one right after the other.
July 21, 2020 12:27 PM
Donald Trump is ratcheting up his war on American cities, according to the Chicago Tribune, with a deployment of 150 federal agents to Chicago this week. The Department of Homeland Security is sending agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to the city, allegedly to help crack down on violent crime, although under the Constitution, law enforcement is a local and state job. On the other hand, the Framers had no idea how well cracking heads would play with the Republican base in 2020, so the silly ol' Constitution was probably just an oversight.
The Tribune reports that as of yet, no "specific plan on what the agents will be doing — and what their limits would be" has been made public, but it did get confirmation from an anonymous Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in Chicago that the deployment is on the way. HSI is the mostly non-immigration investigatory arm of ICE, usually focused on customs violations, smuggling, human trafficking, and the like; the official told the paper the HSI agents "would not be involved in immigration or deportation matters."
As in Portland, Oregon, the goal seems to be to put on a show of toughness, or to provoke a violent reaction, so Donald Trump can run on a promise of getting tough on crime in cities he wants to portray as out of control because The Blacks live there. It's not like cities are going to vote for him, so why not put them to use? Playing to white fear worked for him in 2016, so he must think enough Americans in enough states can be distracted from how many people are suffering and dying from the pandemic Trump has so badly mismanaged.
<p>
Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/us/politics/trump-chicago-portland-federal-agents.html" target="_blank">said Monday</a> that he simply had to send federal law enforcement to cities with Democratic mayors, because Democrats bad, crime bad, and Joe Biden bad, because Joe Biden Democrat bad crime liberal BAD!
</p><blockquote>
"I'm going to do something — that, I can tell you," Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "Because we're not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia and Detroit and Baltimore and all of these — Oakland is a mess. We're not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats."<br>
<br>
The president portrayed the nation's cities as out of control. "Look at what's going on — all run by Democrats, all run by very liberal Democrats. All run, really, by radical left," Mr. Trump said. He added: "If Biden got in, that would be true for the country. The whole country would go to hell. And we're not going to let it go to hell."
</blockquote><p>
Before the <em>Tribune </em>story even broke Monday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-chicago-police-dhs-deployment-20200720-dftu5ychwbcxtg4ltarh5qnwma-story.html" target="_blank">said </a>at a news conference that Chicago doesn't need the sort of "help" Trump has sent to Portland, thank you very much.
</p><blockquote>
If Trump wants to help, she said, he could boost federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives resources and fully fund prosecutors.<br>
<br>
"We don't need federal agents without any insignia taking people off the streets and holding them, I think, unlawfully," Lightfoot said.
</blockquote><p>
Lightfoot also appeared on Joy Reid's new MSNBC show, "The Reidout," Monday evening to <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-chicago-police-dhs-deployment-20200720-dftu5ychwbcxtg4ltarh5qnwma-story.html" target="_blank">make clear </a>she'd do everything she can to keep militarized federal cops out of her city, including going to federal court.<br>
</p><blockquote style="margin-left: 20px;">
"Our democracy is at stake and I'll be darned if I'm going to let anybody, even if their name is Mr. President, bring those kind of troops to our city and try to take off our residents," Lightfoot said.
</blockquote><p>
The <em>Tribune</em> story notes that while Chicago and Illinois officials aren't too hot on Trump sending the Unidentifiables to bust heads in Chicago, the head of the city's biggest police union sent a letter to Trump Saturday, asking for urgent head-busting assistance.
</p><blockquote>
"I am certain you are aware of the chaos currently affecting our city on a regular basis now," John Catanzara, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, wrote in a letter that was posted on the FOP's Facebook page. "I am writing to formally ask you for help from the federal government. Mayor Lightfoot has proved to be a complete failure who is either unwilling or unable to maintain law and order here."
</blockquote><p>
On MSNBC, Lightfoot <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-chicago-police-dhs-deployment-20200720-dftu5ychwbcxtg4ltarh5qnwma-story.html" target="_blank">called </a>Cataranzara "unhinged," which seems accurate enough.
</p><p>
Trump's deployment of tin soldiercops seems inevitable, since he's so far had little success in stopping his slide in the polls. "Chicago" has been a go-to dogwhistle for Republicans for years, and rightwing idiots are always thrilled at the prospect of Getting Tough.
</p><p>
<span></span>It's also true that Chicago has had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/us/politics/trump-chicago-portland-federal-agents.html" target="_blank">higher levels of violent crime</a> including more shootings and murders this year than last, although year-to-year comparisons are lousy indicators of long-term trends, and even with recent spikes in crime in some areas, violent crime nationwide, including Chicago,<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/17/facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/" target="_blank"> has dropped dramatically since a peak in the 1990s</a>.
</p><p>
Plus, there's that stupid Constitution. Federal law enforcement can be sent to protect federal property, but (acting) Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/us/politics/trump-chicago-portland-federal-agents.html" target="_blank">claims </a>that under 40 U.S. Code 1315, he has much broader authority to send federal agents from a variety of departments
</p><blockquote>
"for duty in connection with the protection of property owned or occupied by the federal government and persons on the property," according to the law.<br>
<br>
But the federal agents would not be limited to guarding federal property. Under the law, the agents could also conduct investigations of crimes committed against a federal property or federal officer throughout the city, Department of Homeland Security officials have said.
</blockquote><p>
That doesn't sit so well with law professor Stephen I. Vladeck, of the University of Texas at Austin, who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/us/politics/trump-chicago-portland-federal-agents.html" target="_blank">told </a>the <em>New York Times</em>
</p><blockquote>
it was not clear how federal agents could occupy the streets of a city that is 99 percent not federal property. "It's of course the prerogative of the federal government to enforce federal law and protect federal property," Mr. Vladeck said. "It is not the job of the federal government to be a general police force for all crimes."
</blockquote><p>
How about it's legal because Trump says it is, and it's an election year, mister smarty-pants law guy? Trump can send federal officers to bust heads wherever they need busting, because Americans aren't scared enough, as the Trump campaign's new ad reminds us.
</p><div id="94dc3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="340d0977601b6c2e35bf0c49834ea41a"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1285325829870956546" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Joe Biden is controlled by the radical left.
You and your family won't be safe in Biden's America.
https://t.co/ecxIZeiMAt</div> — Donald Trump Jr. (@Donald Trump Jr.)<a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/statuses/1285325829870956546">1595280532.0</a></blockquote></div><p>
We feel so bad about killing grandma, we really do. And also for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Gh_IcK8UM" target="_blank">letting the robots steal old people's medicine.</a>
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[<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-chicago-police-dhs-deployment-20200720-dftu5ychwbcxtg4ltarh5qnwma-story.html" target="_blank">Chicago Tribune</a> / <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/us/politics/trump-chicago-portland-federal-agents.html" target="_blank">NYT</a>]
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SCOTUS
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Determined To Scare Living Fu*k Out Of Us, Again
STOP DOING THAT PLEASE.
July 17, 2020 04:05 PM
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg announced today that she's being treated for a recurrence of cancer, the fourth bout of cancer she's been through. Ginsburg said in a statement released by the Supreme Court that doctors found lesions on her liver in February, and that she has been undergoing chemotherapy, which is going well. In the statement, she wrote,
I have often said I would remain a member of the court as long as I can do the job full steam. [...] I remain fully able to do that.
The statement said that a recent scan on July 7 "indicated significant reduction of the liver lesions and no new disease."
We frankly believe Ruth Bader Ginsburg is doing her very best to become immortal, but we'd be relieved if she had fewer opportunities to put that determination to the test, thank you very much. In addition, Ginsburg wrote,
<blockquote>I am tolerating chemotherapy well and am encouraged by the success of my current treatment. I will continue bi-weekly chemotherapy to keep my cancer at bay, and am able to maintain an active daily routine. Throughout, I have kept up with opinion writing and all other Court work. </blockquote><p>Ginsburg made clear that her recent hospitalizations, for gallstones in May and to treat an infection earlier this week, were unrelated to the cancer. During her May hospitalization, she participated in online oral arguments. Her statement today remained silent on which of her colleagues <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/toilet-flush-supreme-court-livestream.html" target="_blank">flushed the toilet</a> during that May videoconference. </p><p>The <em>Washington Post </em><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/ruth-bader-ginsburg-liver-cancer/2020/07/17/9742a598-c847-11ea-8ffe-372be8d82298_story.html" target="_blank">reminded us </a>again, as it did when Chief Justice John Roberts <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/john-roberts-fell-and-hit-his-head-clinton-hit-squad-thwarted-again" target="_blank">fell and hit his head in June,</a> that it's left to individual Supreme Court justices to decide what health information to disclose, and when. This is why Justice Samuel Alito has never had to admit that he was grown in a vat in a secret basement of the Federalist Society's Washington headquarters, from genetic material taken from the late Antonin Scalia. </p><p>Ginsburg said in her statement that she had decided to disclose the new cancer diagnosis because she's "satisfied that my treatment course is now clear." </p><p>Ginsburg needs to hang on because while we knew that Mitch McConnell has already said that he would confirm a new justice to the Court during an election year — despite his bullshit "let the voters decide" rhetoric in 2016 — we hadn't actually seen his insane made-up justification for it. WaPo reports McConnell said the difference in 2020 "was that in this election year, the same political party controls the White House and Senate." He's big on traditions he pulls out of his ass. </p><p>We're glad to hear that Notorious RBG appears to be handling this latest health scare with her usual aplomb and ass-kickingness, and we hope she continues to serve on the Court well into Joe Biden's first term. And for fuckssake let's all please get out and vote for Joe Biden so if she decides she wants to retire, she can. She may be doing okay, but we're a wreck. </p><p>[<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/892293736/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-has-cancer-again-says-she-will-remain-on-the-court" target="_blank">NPR </a>/ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/ruth-bader-ginsburg-liver-cancer/2020/07/17/9742a598-c847-11ea-8ffe-372be8d82298_story.html" target="_blank">WaPo</a> / Photo: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/euiweb/24678477572/in/photostream/" target="_blank">European University Institute,</a> Creative Commons <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" target="_blank">License 2.0</a>]</p><p>Yr Wonkette is supported entirely by reader donations. Please send us some money to keep this little mommyblog afloat, and to help our 2020 day-drinking fund. </p><p></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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