Another leaked Supreme Court opinion. Per New York Times, Justice Alito ...

Color me shocked. Justice Roberts will not be pleased at either the leaks or the reporting. Hobby Lobby argument did not argue that religious liberty is often a cover for exercises of religious power. 

Dobbs argument left out Civil War issue and did not discuss congressional power under 14 to say when personhood begins, which states don't have.

Alito voted with Roberts and Kennedy when Scalia wanted to overturn Roe to uphold partial birth abortion law. They used commerce clause instead  So, no. No investigation.

The justices, in their confirmation hearings all said the magic words on how no future case can be telegraphed in hearings. At the time, the votes were not there to challenge Roe. Then Kennedy retired and the restraining affect he had evaporated.

R Congressmen can run but they cannot hide

The Republicans have won the House. The question is, can they keep it? Members who participated in planning the Insurrection are reportedly nervous, which shows consciousness of guilt.

Will the January 6th Committee hold a hearing to name names? Will their report do so? Will the Lame Duck session pass legislation about whether these members can be seated (without a 14th Amendment 2/3rds vote in each Chamber)? We will see.

What did the Speaker designate know and when did he know it? The Mark Meadows text history is in the hands of the FBI. The Grand Jury could decide who controls Congress. Will indicted members talk about McCarthy? Doh!

Why is this important? The Constitution is important and the 14th Amendment is clear. Also, tax policy will change on January 1st, 2025 as certain provisions of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act expire. The upcoming Congress may act or punt. If they act, what happens with members who were part of the larger January 6th seditious conspiracy is all important.

Arguments for God are NOT important. Here's why (feat. Cosmic Skeptic)

Belief in God is a personal thing. Religious identity is about group membership and dynamics. It is why sociology is better than theology in examining it. Dennett talks about the belief in the belief in God, which is a social question, not a faith question. Genetically Modified Skeptic hits it out of the park.  

I will go further in saying that arguments about God are more important than arguments for God. Arguments made about divine humility (including those made by Jesus) are vital in talking about religion, especially Christianity - most especially when they relate to  behavior, particularly in law.

The Holy Spirit gives us love, not apology. It can even be expressed as a commitment to love, without mention of Shekinah's involvement. Sadly, Christians do not mention Shekinah by name or by the correct gender, which is feminine.

Just to be snarky, reason is what makes Christians into Catholics - which is a low bar given the insanity of Catholic sexual teaching. Orthodoxy is a bit more reasonable. There is evidence for the belief in the resurrection, but the event cannot be proven.

Standing against Christian Oppression

The persecuted almost always become persecutors. This started when Constantine saw his cross in the sky. Even before that, neo-platonists like Anselm and Augustine started their war on women when they created Sacred Countenance and turned the Holy Family to a trio of asexuals. 

The question before us in American constitutional law is whether bishops firing gay employees who get married is religious power instead of religious freedom. Hosanna Tabor leaves that question to the Church - or the current Court will at least say that. 

Fixing the problem is up to the laity. Catholics can keep the Sacraments while adopting a more Anglican priesthood, but with a more democratic (congregational) governance. It is not enough to apologize to or defy the hierarchy. We must eviscerate it.

The question must be, does the clergy serve at our pleasure or do we worship at theirs. Pretty basic.

Let's talk about why there wasn't a red wave....

In 2020, the Democrats lost seats in the House. This was a readjustment on the 2018 Blue wave. That was your Red Wave. The districts that were Red were really Red in 2020. The ones that were really Blue, reflected the people in 2020. The GOP had no ground to take. The Dems did because some amount of GOP gerrymandering was cleaned up. So was Democratic gerrymandering, which will affect Maryland's 6th (like it did Virginia's second). 

What will get us beyond the current personality base for electing people is new ideas. Biden has a few of those, which are good for the nation, but the Red districts won't go with them unless they come with real tax reform and real info on the national debt and how it fuels inequality.

Let's talk about Meidas Touch, Stonekettle, and myself....

Polling, on the whole, works. Polling averages that include Republican polls do not. Polling averages are a species of both-siderism. If both sides were honest, they would say the same things as "leftist" polls - which are not skewed. I always throw out polls that agree with Rasmussen and I always come up with the right answer. Both siderism is great for capturing audience (except that it never does - right wingers always watch Fox and live on confirmation bias). News editors love close races. So do campaigns because it gets people to the polls.

The other factor is that this is a 50-50 nation where we vote for candidate resumes and personalities, not actual proposals. The only way past this is for someone to have a new idea, like massive tax reform. This worked for Huckabee with the Fair Tax until Romney's cult of personality won the Republicans in 2008. Oops.

Who lost bigly last night?

Republican Congress Perp Walks

Trump teases "big announcement" on 11/15. But a presidential bid will NO...

By Glenn.

My comments:

Being President did not shield him either, according to every federal judge who was involved in his other cases. It is only the media and especially the media lawyers who let it pass that he could have been arrested and indicted. Even Bill Barr said, in testimony on the report, that Mueller could have. Trump may or may not be making a deal on the terms of his fate, which would delay his indictment until the deal is done.

The interesting question is which of the R. Congressmen will be the first to do a perp walk this week and whether the House makes some sort of rule about them being seating on January 3rd. I assume the Ethics Committee may also have something to say about this. And the Rules Committees of both houses. 

This is important in the case of Senator Mike Lee, who was clearly in the top tier of the R. Congressmen side. Hawley and Cruz are sitting, so must be expelled, but Lee can be denied his seat outright, should Senate Rules deal with the implications of the 14th Amendment.

Let's talk about voting while left....

from Beau.

From me: In the science of revolution, there is a theory that to make the system collapse, you must make it mean enough for the population to start resisting. I think we are there already in enough force to kill the GOP, but not capitalism. You cannot vote in real revolution. 

The best you can vote in is social democracy. We have the basics, it is just not as effective as in Norway or Denmark. The reason it is clunky is race and class, which is why getting rid of the GOP is needed.

For workers to actually gain control of the means of production and fire the owners and their CEO team (which may be the true owners in many companies) is for workers to be asked the right questions and offer better options on production, consumption and finance and to introduce tax policies to make it better for the rich to go along than the current tax system. Think asset value added taxes zero rated for ESOP sales of public (not just private) stock. Right now, most ESOPs are no better than social democracy.

Let's talk about Halloween, filters, and Fermi....

By Beau of the Fifth Column.

My comments:

Those who traffic in near death experiences and channeling say that there is a vibrant galactic civilization with one rule - don't contact more primitive cultures. That would be us. According to sources, many are wondering if we will make it or not.

The operative metric for joining the civilization is not developing faster than life travel. It is developing a culture that goes beyond blame (aka original sin). Truly civilized societies have a more direct contact with the Divine than we do, which is why they know each other and the rules. They have gone beyond what we call "free will" which is essentially the right to call other people evil to justify bad behavior. Especially where it comes to religion.

Until we accept the absolute humility of God (rather than creating a vision of divine retribution) that we serve others with, rather than serve, we will be considered a backwater who people are wondering about filtering out. Putting the test in this way means that we might actually pass it. We seem to be at a turning point at the moment.