Why is anyone pretending that the Supreme Court's decision on Health Care Reform is going to be a surprise?
Is this just dumb hope?
Or is it denial?
Maybe people just like the idea of surprises so much that they want to pretend that this big obvious turd of a looming decision could possibly be something that will surprise us.
Please. Hey everyone! There is no mystery. There won't be a surprise. The Supreme Court is going to overturn the law. Duh. And I mean all of it. They won't let one bit of it stand.
But the Los Angeles Times is trying to convince me in the fourth paragraph of its front-page story yesterday that maybe there is some other option:
The justices could rule in unexpected ways that would allow both sides to claim a victory.
No, they couldn't. Believing this kind of thing is just going to disappoint us.
And here's the Huffington Post's big front-page banner story quoting Justice Ginsburg lying to me:
"My favorite among the press pieces wisely observed: `At the Supreme Court ... those who know don't talk, and those who talk don't know,'" she said.
Well I know and so does everyone else with any sense, and we should all be talking about this looming travesty, letting people know we know the fix is in.
Here's the New Republic's lie:
With the result apparently in doubt—smart money still says the chances of the full law surviving are about 50-50...
No, that's the dumb money saying that. The smart money knows what's about to happen.
Here's the White House's lie, via another story in the Huffington Post:
Mr. Obama and the White House have put on brave faces, insisting that the law and the mandate at its center will be upheld when the court rules this month. In private conversations, they predict that the bulk of the law will survive even if the mandate requiring Americans to buy health insurance does not.
Oh come on, none of it is going to survive. The bulk of it? Get real.
This Supreme Court is the hackiest, most openly political group of Justices ever in the history of the United States. We all know it. So don't expect anything sensible or worthwhile from them in any way.
My reasons below.
Number One: The Supreme Court of today has 5 of the same justices from the horribly partisan "Bush v. Gore" decision from 2000, overturning the popular vote and a lower-court decision that the vote count must continue until it was accurate. They're still the same partisan, political, shameless hacks they were then, but now with another 12 years of totally biased Fox News and insane Rush Limbaugh commentaries ringing in their ears. Not to mention professional dirty rat Karl Rove working his fiendish ways upon the Justices, employing their wives in high-paid "consultant" jobs, inviting them and their extended families on exotic monthlong vacations and paying them to attend by inviting them give a speech or two while they're there to other conservative millionaires from around the world. Sheesh. That's what they're not going to overturn, their chance to pocket millions of dollars and hang out with international rich and famous titans of industry and influence.
Number Two: The four new Justices who have joined the Court since 2000 are sure not going to change the Court's horrid track-record. The conservatives who left were replaced by ultra-conservatives. The two liberals who left were replaced by moderates. The two Justices appointed by George Bush Jr. are openly far-right. Chief Justice Roberts is famously partisan and political. Justice Alito's two most famous opinions are "U.S. v. Rybar," where he wrote a special dissenting opinion overturning a gun-control law that banned submachines, and "Chittister v. Department of Community & Economic Development," where he wrote the majority opinion weakening the Family Medical Leave Ace, ruling that it can be overturned by state laws. Get it? His two big decisions overturned so-called "liberal" laws put in place during Democratic administrations.
Number Three: This is the same court that decided "Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission," which, duh, overturned longstanding election laws that everyone believed had already been approved by the Supreme Court. Oh, and the decision just happened to totally benefit the GOP, the party of the billionaires.
The Conservative Justices are going to stand firm against Obama and totally overturn his signature law. Count on it. If I had any money, I'd bet all of it on the decision being to totally overturn the law. Unfortunately I don't have any money to bet, because I'm always broke due to huge medical bills paying for treatment of my wife's disabling health condition. Oh well.