Ultra Conservatives Would Like Us To Forget Everything We Know About Them
Alito's Got Another Flag Problem
Remember last week when Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito tried to tell us that the upside-down flag flown at his New Jersey home was just a silly thing his wife did because she was mad at their neighbors?
None of us bought that line, right? Good. It turns out that last summer, at a different home, Justice Alito flew a different flag with a “provocative symbol” on it. According to the New York Times, the “Appeal To Heaven” flag was seen and photographed flying at the Justice’s Long Beach, NJ, summer home for an unknown amount of time last year.
Also known as “the Pine Tree Flag” it was flown as a symbol of colonial resistance during the Revolutionary War. It has only recently been picked up again as a symbol of “resistance” by ultra-conservative and Christian nationalists. The flag was carried by some Trump supporters at the January 6th, 2021, Capitol riots. Before that, it was spotted behind Sarah Palin at the 2013 Million Vet March. In 2015, an entire conservative Christian movement was launched behind it.
The Alitos did not fly that flag by mistake. It will be hard to spin this any other way than as tacit support of J6 rioters. Democrats are calling for Alito to recuse himself from any cases brought before SCOTUS regarding J6 activities. He needs to go. He should take Clarence Thomas with him. They should take a fishing trip together. I hear the Straits of Gibraltar are lovely at this time of year.
Here’s another one for you. Remember when Nikki Hayley was still running for President, and she told us that Trump was “a catastrophe” and “not fit” for the office? In a surprise to absolutely no one, she takes that all back and is endorsing his candidacy now. Shocking, I know. The GOP is a collection of broken wind-up toys with stuffing for brains who all get wound up by Trump and his supporters. Then they spin around in circles until smoke comes out of their ears and collapse into a heap of parts muttering about a stolen election.
None of that matters to Republican supporters, though. They are all firmly in the “better red than dead” camp. Democrats pay lip service to voting blue “no matter who,” but there are always outspoken objectors who try to convince their fans and/or followers that Democrats don’t deserve our votes. The Democratic party is far from perfect, and there are plenty of legitimate reasons to be unhappy about some of Biden’s policies. But none of them is a good enough reason to hand the keys to the country to the Republican party again. They’ve told us exactly what their plans are if they win this election, and they’ve got money to spend on Swing-State votes, too.
Remember that when we talk about doing things like reforming The Supreme Court and holding SCOTUS Judges to standards of ethics, we have to make sure that Democrats win the election first.
I have voted for Dick Durbin a lot in my years in Chicago and I have typically really liked him - but his failure as the chair of the senate judiciary to do ANYTHING beyond mealy-mouthed requests for either Alito or Thomas is infuriating. I’m calling him daily and hoping some younger democrats with a spark steps into his seat in 2026, provided we still have a semi-functioning democracy then. BRB - upping my monthly donation to Biden
The far right's appropriation of every revolutionary war flag you care to identify pisses me off to no end.