Ruth Bader Ginsburg and "stupid" protestors

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/17763208/ruth-bader-ginsburg-supreme-...

I'll have to admit that my opinion of RBG has dropped after reading the above article.

"I think it's really dumb of them," Ginsburg said. "Would I arrest them for doing it? No. I think it's dumb and disrespectful. I would have the same answer if you asked me about flag burning. I think it's a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn't lock a person up for doing it.

"I would point out how ridiculous it seems to me to do such an act. But it's dangerous to arrest people for conduct that doesn't jeopardize the health or well-being of other people. It's a symbol they're engaged in."

"If they want to be stupid, there's no law that should be preventive," Ginsburg said. "If they want to be arrogant, there's no law that prevents them from that. What I would do is strongly take issue with the point of view that they are expressing when they do that."

With those statements she seems to me to be at risk for justifiably being accused of arrogance herself. If feeling that protesting the USA's poor record on race and justice is stupid, then where does that leave Ginsburg standing on the subjects?

It seems a sad state when a person considered one of the most liberal SCOTUS justices elevates the national anthem and flag onto such a high pedestal. But then those symbols of nationalism (and nationalism itself) have not impressed me too much for many years.

Maybe I'm just soured after a weekend of the Blue Angels flying over the SF Bay area. I see no significant difference between that bit of nationalism and a big parade of tanks and missile launchers through Red Square.

On the other hand, I'm willing to be just as gracious as RBG was to the protestors and affirm her right to hold her "stupid" opinion

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Lily O Lady's picture

ruling technocracy and the rest of us. Income and wealth inequality have made it impossible for the 1% to empathize with us.

Now we see how even SCOTUS is corrupted by TPTB. Scalia's ghost is laughing his ass off as RBG reflects his values.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Raggedy Ann's picture

I think you are spot on. There is no way they can empathize with us, to our detriment, as we are witnessing and living in that struggle every day.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Lily O Lady's picture

I suppose I shouldn't be. This election cycle has been a real education.

Values that I thought all Democrats shared have been repudiated by party leaders. These are values they defended when Obama ran against Romney. Now, just four short years later, those values have been abandoned along with those of us who still hold them.

But of course the gulf between the 1% and the rest of us has continued to widen. We truly are becoming a banana republic.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Raggedy Ann's picture

This is indicative of America's decline, imho. I'm watching it, thinking of my 18 & 21 yo grandkids and wonder what their world will offer. I used to be hopeful. I'm more cautious, now.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

I'm a non traditional aged parent of an 18 YO. I too am very concerned about the world they must inherit from those with no concern for the future of our planet. Money is their "god" and they have blind faith in its rewards. The "I've got mine mentality" rules the day here in the good ole USA

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Ah, but she is included in the unanimous Supreme Court that overturned the bribery conviction of former VA governor Robert McDonnell. He was originally convicted of accepting $177,000 in gifts and loans. He performed many services for his benefactor including allowing him to launch a new product in a spot at the governor's mansion. The Supreme Court found that if the verdict were allowed to stand no politician could ever be confident when accepting gratuities from people who appreciated routine constituent services. Plenty of empathy there.

But we HAVE to vote for Hillary so she can appoint more people like Ginsburg to the Supreme Court.

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She is not, overall, a conservative, like Obama's most recent nominee, whom Hillary bizarrely promised to nominate, if she becomes President.

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She clearly doesn't remember her work with the ACLU as a lawyer and a director. At least if you the client aren't female. Then she might remember her advocacy for equal rights for women.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

Because she does not want to arrest the protesters? Or because she believes that millionaire athletes sticking their middle finger into the face of every American is dumb?

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

elenacarlena's picture

into the face of every American. I'm an American and I'm not offended.

I am offended by the police and others coming down hard on people who exercise their First Amendment rights to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances. I am offended by police and courts ignoring our Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, and/or that warrants should only be issued for probable cause. I am offended when they ignore our Fifth Amendment rights not to be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. I am offended when they ignore our Sixth Amendment rights to a speedy trial, that we be informed of the nature of the accusations against us, and that we have the effective assistance of counsel regardless of ability to pay. I am offended when our Eight Amendment rights are violated, to be free from excessive fines, excessive bail, and cruel and unusual punishments. I am offended when they ignore our Ninth Amendment rights to keep any rights not specifically enumerated by the Constitution (such as abortion and privacy).

All these guys are saying is that the promise of this country enshrined in the founding documents is not being lived in modern times. They are correct.

You read and write here every day about the problems in this country. They are using their fame to bring attention specifically to the problem of police brutality. Fantastic! Good for them! If more millionaires cared, the police would behave a lot better.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lily O Lady's picture

than we do. They learn how to de-escalate a crisis rather than escalating it. Their prisons are much more humane. We could do with that kind of policing.

You have escalated the issue by suggesting that elenacarlena wants to get rid of the police. That's not the case at all. We'd just like them to stop killing innocent, unarmed citizens. We think morale will improve when the beatings END.

TVitW, you seem to have gotten the wrong message. Defense of peaceful protests is not the same thing as tearing down authority, at least not in a democracy.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

elenacarlena's picture

Indeed, peaceful protests are part of the First Amendment and part of what makes America great.

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elenacarlena's picture

whom police themselves would probably also admit they'd like to get rid of, if they felt free to say so.

I can't find it now, but remember the killings of Russell and Williams in Cleveland, at whom officers fired 137 bullets? 49 bullets hit the couple and killed them. A fair number hit the surrounding police cars. The couple was unarmed. Cops shot at each other! That's probably why so many bullets were fired; cops thought the couple was firing at them, but they were unarmed, it was all friendly fire! All for a speeding ticket, the cops hyped up on adrenaline or who knows what other substances. I saw a video at the time, there were a lot of cop cars hit by a lot of bullets, it wasn't just one or two.

Six officers were fired, but 62 police cars were involved, I'm sure a lot more should have been fired for recklessness. If you know and love a police officer, do you want him/her working with these fools?

That is, of course, just one example among many.

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of black people by LEOs for no good reason?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum

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Kneeling on one knee during the anthem is not even a little problem for me.

I think nationalism is a hell of a lot scarier than peaceful protest. Seems odd to me that a ball game, professional or amateur, requires the National Anthem in the first place. Also, I am very grateful that the athlete's protests of serial murders of people of color by LEOs have been peaceful. http://caucus99percent.com/comment/190319#comment-190319

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mouselander's picture

They had more in common than it would seem at first blush. Both haughty, entitled aristocrats with undisguised contempt for anyone ill-mannered enough not to abide by their rules and stay within narrowly defined boundaries when engaging in dissent or seeking redress of grievances.

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inactive account

k9disc's picture

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

because she'll replace Ginsberg with.....what? You can bet it won't be someone even close to being as liberal as Ginsberg, which it seems isn't saying a whole helluva lot...

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because she'll replace Ginsberg with.....what? You can bet it won't be someone even close to being as liberal as Ginsberg, which it seems isn't saying a whole helluva lot...
And please Ruth, stop calling people "dumb" and "stupid". Couldn't you just say, "I don't agree with them but I respect their right to peacefully protest."

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Big Al's picture

national anthem at the games in the first place. Who the hell decided that and do we simply accept it like sheep? She proves she's just another sheep. Get the fucking national anthem out of sports! (GTFNAOOS)

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was an artifact of WW1 (along with slacker raids and sedition charges for opposing Wilson's War)

I know it was used during the World Series in 1918 and that was a Series marked by player unrest over overbearing owner interference of the players' share of the gate. (It's widely thought that the first two games were thrown to raise the pot - it was, I think, a 9 game series)

WW1 also saw baseball teams marching with bats on shoulders led by a military person around the perimeter of the field to show they were warlike ala Wilson and most of the rest of the country.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

The elites can hardly get more out of touch.

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Lily O Lady's picture

hights. This is just the beginning.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

flowerfarmer's picture

have just begun.

The disconnect is widening each time we choose to play along and 'vote' for the lesser of two evils.

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Lily O Lady's picture

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Amanda Matthews's picture

as when they took the 2000 election and handed it over to a bunch of thugs. Remember, that great liberal Sandra Day O'Connor was part of that perfidious action. These people, regardless of who is sitting on the court at any given time, can (and have) turn on the plebs so fast we don't know what hit us.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

elenacarlena's picture

Reagan. Apparently her family had money; she attended private school as a girl. She began conservative and eventually became the swing vote, but voted with the conservatives 82 times and the liberals 28 times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Day_O%27Connor

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Amanda Matthews's picture

the 'leftwards' tilt so I never really looked too closely at her. I was always more wary of the men on the court until lately. That's really telling on my part. I actually need to go back and look at her record. But I remember she supported Roe v. Wade and affirmative action. Other than that I never really paid her much attention. Until 2000 that is.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

elenacarlena's picture

appointed by Reagan but I was pleased with some of her votes. Without Google my ignorance on an array of subjects would be appallingly obvious.

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Cachola's picture

She was appointed just as I was applying for and starting law school. That and her being the first woman Justice made me very interested in her. Never thought of her as liberal, more of a moderate, but then I was comparing her to Thurgood Marshall.

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Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

Amanda Matthews's picture

Liberal, was she? Thank you for the info.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

In other words, she voted to allow private entities to abuse eminent domain to take private property away from the owners in order to facilitate the financial gain of a larger, privately-held organization. At no time would the public good need to be involved.

Thus, her liberalism disappears once money enters the picture as it does for Sotomayor and Kagan who also voted to uphold Kelo.

Kelo v. City of New London

edited to correct about Kagan, who was not yet named to SCOTUS when Kelo was deliberated.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

Dhyerwolf's picture

if the liberal justices should still all vote the same way if some big money topics came up and "liberals" were the majority. It's easy to vote against big money when you know the conservatives outnumber you and they will all vote for it. I'm just reminded of CA single payer initiatives where certain Democrats voted for it until it actually had the votes to pass- then they flipped against it.

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It is the only ruling in my memory where I thought the SCOTUS conservatives were correct. One would have thought they would "follow the money" as Deep Throat (Mark Felt) advised Woodward and Bernstein during Watergate.

I was greatly disheartened when I heard which side each group supported.

edited for spelling & clarity

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

and god help a citizen who comes before them with Big Finance on the other side. Obama/Hatch's pick for the 9th slot with further solidify hold the rich have.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

I understand that Hillary doesn't like Garland, but whoever she picks won't be any better.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

out of the house!

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

They rarely are resident in the same place at the same time.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

WindDancer13's picture

One only has to think about the fact that the ACA has not been rejected by SCOTUS. Is it really constitutional to make people pay for something they cannot use in order to protect the profits of Big Pharma and the insurance industry? Should consumers be fined for not buying into a program that has no benefits for them? The Republicans challenged this law upteen times. While lower courts found the individual mandate to be unconstitutional, the Supreme Court didn't.

Although the Supreme Court declared that the law could not have been upheld under an argument based on the regulatory power of Congress under the Commerce Clause, the Court declared that the legislatively-declared "penalty" was constitutional as a valid exercise of the Congressional power to tax, thus upholding the individual mandate. The Court also limited the expansion of Medicaid initially proposed under the ACA. All provisions of the ACA continue to be in effect, with some limits on the Medicaid expansion. Source

Wouldn't this be called taxation without representation? The people said they want single payer, not to be taxed for nothing that benefits them. (Kind of like being taxed and getting wars instead of infrastructure repair.) While it is good that people with existing conditions may be able now to get some help, many have to pay for something that is unusable.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Shahryar's picture

dangerous!???!? Arrest people for kneeling???? Does she understand this is NOT a police state...yet? Does she realize a police state is unconstitutional?

That she doesn't dismiss it out of hand, that she doesn't say it's wrong, unconstitutional, un-American to arrest people for kneeling is mind blowing.

And she's the prime example of "why we need Democrats in the White House"! So people like her can be nominated for the Supreme Court.

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Bollox Ref's picture

Seriously odd comment from a supposed judge.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

that leads to so many innocent people getting killed.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

Bollox Ref's picture

has a retirement age for voting Cardinals.

Perhaps the 'justice for life' should be a thing of the past.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

lotlizard's picture

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve is sort of a “supreme court” of economics, money, finance, and banking.

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Damnit Janet's picture

That I must vote for Rodham ... Supreme Court!

It's all one great big do over. Let it all fall down.

Nothing but stupid, greedy pigs of war.

They are all in on it. It's just one big fucking party and none of us are invited.

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"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison

But, calling names when people peacefully protest members of law enforcement killing black people by refusing to stand for what, in reality, is a rather awful song about a piece of cloth? Wow!

I don't understand why people of color have been so peaceful for so long. When they protest this mildly, people like RBG should kiss the ground in gratitude. JMO.

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