Transcript for Podcast: "I Feel Snitty," Episode 72: "Supreme Jackasses" is now available!

Podcast: "I Feel Snitty"

Episode 72: Supreme Jackasses

Premiere Date: 9/25/20

Length: 10:18 (1,589 words)

Link: https://ifeelsnitty.podbean.com/e/supreme-jackasses/

Transcript: 

 

Welcome to I Feel Snitty, episode 72, entitled, “Supreme Jackasses.” I’m your host, Craig Rozniecki.

 

Well, as everybody knows by now, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – the Notorious RBG – passed away over the weekend. As everybody also knows, not five seconds after her announced death, Republican leaders started chanting, “Fill her seat! Fill her seat! Fill her seat!”

 

The modern-day GOP is pretty amazing. When we fall victim to a terror attack, they immediately declare war and roughly say, “Let’s bomb the shit out of some people and blow shit up!” Not a moment after a legendary Supreme Court Justice passes, they yell, “Yeah! Fill her seat now!” Yet after close to 40,000 people die from firearms in the course of a year, they’ll mumble, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait just one minute there. It’s way too soon to talk about this.” The Sandy Hook school shooting occurred nearly 8 years ago, yet it’s still too soon to discuss. Then there’s the COVID pandemic. When Trump was first notified of it, his philosophy was, “Well, let’s just wait and see what happens. Perhaps, like a miracle, it’ll disappear, because, you know, miracles disappear all the time. That’s why they’re miracles. They don’t exist, except this time. This time the miracle will be real. I feel it in my black little heart, bigly.”

 

Now, before Republicans tell me, “Hey, you probably had the same reaction after Scalia passed away,” please allow me to present to the jury exhibit A. It’s a blog I wrote shortly after former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away – February 14^th of 2016 to be exact. It reads:

 

“As most of the world has heard by now, former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was pronounced dead yesterday at 79-years-old. He was seen by many Republicans as the bedrock of the Supreme Court and of conservatism. Democrats, meanwhile, tended to see him as the largest obstacle in their fight for progression. While it was inevitable, especially in an election year, that Scalia's departure from SCOTUS would be talked about ad nauseam shortly after his death (and for days, weeks, and months to come), I was highly disappointed, to the point of embarrassment, by some fellow progressives' comments regarding the matter. Some were celebrating, exerting jubilation about the news, saying, ‘Today's a great day!’ Look, I know many of us despised Justice Scalia with just about every fiber of our being, but even so, this was a human being, a person who had friends and family he left behind, and we should be much classier than to celebrate this tragic news.”

 

So, yeah, suck it. At least I’ve been consistent. Speaking of consistency, I don’t believe GOP Senators know the meaning of that term. Here’s what some of them said about filling a seat on the Supreme Court in an election year in 2016 and then in 2020.

 

Mitch McConnell

- “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.” (2/13/16)

 

- “Americans reelected our majority in 2016 and expanded it in 2018 because we pledged to work with President Trump and support his agenda, particularly his outstanding appointments to the federal judiciary. President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.” (9/18/20)

 

Lindsey Graham

- “I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination.” (3/10/16)

 

- “I will support President Trump in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg.” (9/19/20)

 

Chuck Grassley

- “The fact of the matter is that it’s been standard practice over the last nearly 80 years that Supreme Court nominees are not nominated and confirmed during a presidential election year. Given the huge divide in the country, and the fact this president, above all others, has made no bones about his goal to use the courts to circumvent Congress and push through his own agenda, it only makes sense that we defer to the American people who will elect a new president to select the next Supreme Court justice.” (2/13/16)

 

- “If the shoe were on the other foot, Senate Democrats wouldn’t hesitate to use their constitutional authority and anything else at their disposal to fill this seat.” (9/21/20)

 

Ted Cruz

- “The Senate has not confirmed a nominee that was named in the final year, an election year, in 80 years.” (2/14/16)

 

- “We are one vote away from losing our constitutional liberties. I believe that the president should, next week, nominate a successor to the court, and I think it is critical that the Senate takes up and confirms that successor before election day.” (9/18/20)

 

Thom Tillis

- “We are in the middle of a presidential election, and the Senate majority is giving the American people a voice to determine the direction of the Supreme Court.” (3/16/16)

 

- “Four years ago, a Supreme Court vacancy arose under a divided government and a lame-duck president as Americans were choosing his successor. Today, however, President Trump is again facing voters at the ballot box and North Carolinians will ultimately render their judgment on his presidency and how he chooses to fill the vacancy.” (9/19/20)

 

In addition to this, following Scalia’s passing, six current members of the Senate Judiciary Committee (Chuck Grassley, Lindsey Graham, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Thom Tillis) signed this letter. It was dated February 23^rd of 2016.

 

“Not since 1932 has the Senate confirmed in a presidential election year a Supreme Court nominee to a vacancy arising in that year. And it is necessary to go even further back – to 1888 – in order to find an election year nominee who was nominated and confirmed under divided government, as we have now.”

 

So, let’s rummage through all the inconsistencies and epic logic fails.

 

First off, Antonin Scalia died on February 13^th of 2016 – a full 269 days before the election. We didn’t even know who the nominees were going to be at that point. Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on September 18^th, just 46 days before the election. Not only have the nominees been decided, but voting has already begun in some states.

 

Secondly, Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 2.8 million and only earned 27.2% of all eligible votes.

 

Third, at least partially due to the unpopularity of President Trump and the GOP-led Senate, the Democratic Party flipped the House blue in the 2018 midterms.

 

Fourth, Trump is currently losing to his opponent, Joe Biden, in every reputable poll that’s been released to this point.

 

Fifth, it’s highly likely Democrats will pick up seats in the Senate this November – maybe enough to flip it blue.

 

Oh, and lastly, Russia helped Trump win the election.

 

So, don’t try to tell me the timing makes more sense this time around; or the people have spoken that this is what they want the Republican Party to do (polls signify otherwise); or least of all, that they’re being consistent. This is what the Republican Party has become. They’re about nothing more than power, money, and control – thinking rules never apply to them. Think about it.

 

According to the GOP:

There should be different rules for Republicans and Democrats. Look no further than the Supreme Court vacancies in 2016 and 2020.

 

There should be different rules for blacks and whites. If an unarmed black man has his back to a police officer, it’s perfectly fine for the cop to shoot him multiple times and paralyze him in the process. If a white high school-dropout, however, illegally arms himself with an assault weapon across state lines to terrorize protesters and kills two in the process, he should be branded a hero.

 

There should be different rules for men and women. Psst, just look at your paychecks.

 

There should be different rules for straights and LGBTs. You’re a man and woman who just met in Vegas, drunk, and want to get married? Go for it! You’re two men or two women who have been together for 20 years? No rings for you!

 

There should be different rules for the rich and poor. You own 29 corvettes, 17 houses, and 2 countries? Eh, here are some tax loopholes for you to buy that 3^rd island you so desperately need. Oh, but the secretary working for you? Yeah, they’re going to need to pay up.

 

There should be different rules for Christians and non-Christians. Churches here, churches there, churches everywhere. That mosque, though? It should probably be investigated for terror ties.

 

Of all the words in the English language, none seem to offend modern-day Republicans more than “equality.” They don’t want to make America great again. They want to make America the 1950s again. They don’t want life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. They want life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for those like them. They don’t kneel during the anthem because they want their lives of privilege to remain as such. The modern-day GOP: the land of the deranged, the home of hypocrisy.

 

That’s it for today’s episode. I’ll see you again next week. Until then, you can check me out on Podbean, Twitter, Amazon, and Blogger. This has been I Feel Snitty with Craig Rozniecki. Take care.