Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has died

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has died — Trump to get another Supreme Court nomination

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has died, the Supreme Court announced on Friday.

“Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature,” Chief Justice John Roberts said. “We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her, a tired and resolute champion of justice.”

President Donald Trump is now free to nominate a third candidate for the nation’s highest court after having Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh confirmed by the United State’s Senate.

There goes that branch of government.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dead At 87

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal icon who served on the Supreme Court since 1993 and who crusaded for women’s rights before that, died on Friday at the age of 87.

Ginsburg died from complications of cancer, according to the Supreme Court. She died Friday evening surrounded by her family at her home in Washington.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, supreme court justice, dies aged 87

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, blocked Barack Obama from filling a court vacancy in March 2016, eight months before the presidential election that year, claiming that the window of time was too narrow and saying the slot had to be held for the next president to fill.

McConnell has indicated that he would race to confirm any Trump court nominee at any time before the 2020 election, however.

Of course he will.

And you know that thing that knocked that thing off the news cycle? And the thing before that and the thing before that? Well, this is all we're going to hear about until McConnell forces this through.

This is why Trump is Teflon. Because every one of the hundreds of political-career-ending things he's done has been knocked off the news cycle by some other crazy thing, or some real world disaster, and there's never enough time to pin him down. How long did it take to wear Nixon down? We can't seem to focus on anything for more than three days.

All eyes on Lindsey Graham after passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The question on whether to hold hearings is ultimately up to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Graham is an interesting situation due to the timing, as there’s a good chance Republicans will lose control of the Senate in January.

Graham is also under pressure to spend as much time as possible back home in South Carolina, as he’s facing a credible re-election threat from Democrat Jaime Harrison.

So the future of the country is in the hands of Lindsey Graham? Sure, he can't dare cross Trump or McConnell, but OTOH he can't afford to spend the next few weeks in Washington instead of campaigning. Or does that even matter during the pandemic?

It's all above my pay grade.

Also Lindsey Graham, from 2018: "If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump's term, and the primary process has started, we'll wait to the next election."

So I bet that the spin is going to be that it's totally different than last time because it was the end of Obama's second term, and this is the end of Trump's first term. See? Totally different.

And how will this affect other Senate races? Can Susan Collins risk voting for another Trump nominee? Or does she accept that she isn't going to win and vote her conscience? Does she have one?

This is from 8 days ago:
Trump unveils list of possible Supreme Court picks if re-elected

Here are all the new names on the president's list:

Judge Bridget Bade, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Daniel Cameron, Kentucky attorney general
Paul Clement, former solicitor general
Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas
Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Steven Engel, assistant attorney general at the Justice Department
Noel Francisco, former solicitor general under the Trump administration
Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri
Judge James Ho, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Judge Greg Katsas, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Barbara Lagoa, 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Christopher Landau, U.S. ambassador to Mexico
Justice Carlos Muniz, Florida Supreme Court
Judge Martha Pacold, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Judge Peter Phipps, 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Judge Sarah Pitlyk, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
Judge Allison Jones Rushing, 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Kate Todd, deputy White House counsel
Judge Lawrence VanDyke, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

My bold prediction: Trump puts it up for bid on eBay.

And here's where I try to embed some tweets. Wish me luck.

Talk about a Friday night news dump...

Senator Murkowski said she will not vote for Ginsburg’s replacement before an election

In an interview shortly before it was announced that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had passed away from complications from pancreatic cancer, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told a reporter that she would not vote for a Supreme Court replacement with less than 50 days before the election.

I wonder if now, a few hours later, she still feels that way?

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Does this mean we can now officially cross “Because the Supreme Court!!!” off the official list of reasons to vote for Biden?

(Edit: sorry for my black humor. Laughing to keeping from crying, like everyone else.)

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32 users have voted.

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Pricknick's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter
Well done!

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18 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

snoopydawg's picture

@Pricknick

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26 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

snoopydawg's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter

Quite a few people are saying that about not needing to vote because of the Supreme Court so you’re not out of line. This was the first thing I thought of too.

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19 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Ruth Ginsberg seemed like a quite strength among the supremes.
Unafraid to dissent, giving her strong views on the role of justice.
Glad she was able to work at her role for so long.
A rare example of the efficacy of life time appointments.

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21 users have voted.

@QMS

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/03/the-rise-of-the-ruth-bader-ginsbu...

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1 user has voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

thanatokephaloides's picture

Nihil umquam in oblivione est. (Nothing is ever forgotten!)

And THANK YOU! (That, too!)

Rest in Peace and Power, most Excellent Lady!

Sad

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13 users have voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@thanatokephaloides @thanatokephaloides

One of the few who still has my respect.

I hope she and Justice Stevens have a nice cognac or something together. Smile

EDIT: Gotta edit this comment too; I'd forgotten Ginsburg considered retirement in 2010 but didn't do it because HRC good, or something. That was an ill-considered, ugly decision, even more from Ginsburg's point of view than mine. After all, I think all these people are vicious assholes who belong in an asylum for the criminally insane, but Ginsburg (I imagine) still believed in the two-party system, and believed that Democrats were better than Republicans. Which makes it far worse than if someone like me did it.

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6 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

and block any SC nominations until after the 2020 election is settled, sometime in late 2021.

Buckle up campers, it’s going to get wild sooner than we expected.

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19 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

.

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1 user has voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

That's so 2020.

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15 users have voted.
Daenerys's picture

We're fucked now.

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15 users have voted.

This shit is bananas.

@Daenerys choose a candidate for the SC that would find that the NSA illegally sweeps up our phone calls.
We have been screwed since Truman permitted the creation of the CIA.

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27 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp @on the cusp
The difference between Biden and HRC is that HRC was never accused of sticking her finger into a co-worker. AFAIK.

EDIT: And good IDPol optics if Trump nominates him and Dems stop or delay the nomination.

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10 users have voted.

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

Pricknick's picture

@Daenerys @Daenerys
The fucking started long ago.
Some have been fucked for a long time.
Some have been fucked and didn't realize it.
Others are just realizing they're being fucked.
Others agree with the fucking and are submissive for a reward.
The very few are fucking more people than they realized was possible.
Commonly known as a clusterfuck.
Smile

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18 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Daenerys @Daenerys

She gets to pass before watching the Republic she loves go totally to hell without being able to stop it. She gets to pass knowing she did what she could and stayed true.

EDIT: I must edit this because I forgot that she considered retirement under Obama and didn't do it--because HRC, the inevitable queen, should have the chance to direct this most undemocratic of American political traditions. So she didn't do all she could.

As for the rest of us, we have been screwed--in the way I think you mean?--since about 1994; I didn't know it till 2010, for which my apologies to you and all your generation.

I did try to do my best, but trying to do one's best based on wrong assumptions doesn't help.

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8 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

First Asian-American? Or would Trump's prejudice stop him?

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5 users have voted.

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

Lily O Lady's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

torture program, so he’s got that going for him.

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10 users have voted.

"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"

snoopydawg's picture

@Lily O Lady

He’s teaching at Berkeley IIRC. Anyone who had qualms about taking his class is long gone if there were any.

Lots of people are being naughty on the Twit tonight about Ginsberg.

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13 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Pricknick's picture

@snoopydawg
and you do, load it up, as I too have little feeling about her.

Lots of people are being naughty on the Twit tonight about Ginsberg.

There will be accolades galore for her work on being one of the supremes from the douopoly.
None from me.
She was only one person with many faults.

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8 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

snoopydawg's picture

@Pricknick

One tweet that has lots of likes said that just 3 months ago Ginsberg sided with big oil. This is when she voted to allow oil pipelines go through the Appalachia’s. And remember that she was good friends with Scalia who Biden voted for. . Hmm I wonder if they ever finished their investigation into Scalia's death?

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18 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

OzoneTom's picture

@snoopydawg
Saying that kneeling during the national anthem is "dumb," "disprespectful," and "terrible."

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8 users have voted.

@OzoneTom
It is! it's giving the finger to whole USA. By pampered millionaires!

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2 users have voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

It was ONE person who had a legitimate reason to protest against police injustice. This puts her on par with Obama telling blacks to shut up and play ball. It privileged speech.

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7 users have voted.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

than in the daily political sausage factory. (Which is probably why that won't happen.)

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9 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

earthling1's picture

No more abortion (except in back allys).
Prayer in school, at the grocery store, and the doctors office.
Black, brown, yellow, and white lunch counters.
And the ol'$1.61 fed minimum wage.
Woohoo!
Hey, maybe they will rebuild the Interstate Hyway System.

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14 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

in a tough race. She's already toast and has been for months. She'll do whatever McConnell asks of her to preserve some standing within the party.

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10 users have voted.
Situational Lefty's picture

I was hoping you would live beyond January 20th.

May we get another Earl Warren in your seat, you beautiful woman.

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9 users have voted.

"The enemy is anybody who is going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on." Yossarian

snoopydawg's picture

Cohen was an incredible writer and damn 2020 the year from HELL.

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17 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg for liberal voices.

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16 users have voted.

@snoopydawg
Steven Cohen was a voice of enlightenment about Russia, in contrast to our country which is totally committed to irrational Russophobia. He actually knew what he was talking about compared to every "expert" in the press and in the government here. We would have desperately needed his clear voice in these difficult times ahead. This is one of the worst pieces news of the year, and I expect that very few people will understand this. In a country filled with irrational, aggressive Russophobes his counterpoint was critical. Russia naively has expected that a positive relationship with the US is possible, in part because of voices like Cohen's. They have moderated their response to our blatant aggressive behaviour because of this. I expect them to be more realistic in the future.

I'm very sad and distressed.

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11 users have voted.

Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

@The Wizard

He was a voice in the frigging wilderness!

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6 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@The Wizard

He called out that silly intelligence report by Brennan because he saw it for what it was.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

snoopydawg's picture

@The Wizard

https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/stephen-cohen-has-died-remember-his-u...

BTW Trump is sending troops back into Syria to push back against Russia. Funny thing for a person under Putin’s thumb to do don’t you think? I wonder how Russia Gaters square this in their minds? But then how’d they square Obama not sending weapons to Ukraine because of Russia? I’d love to see a brain scan of their brains.

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4 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

...did she not retire in 2009-2010?!?

Time to end lifetime appointments. Like the Electoral College, the Hamiltonian anti-democratic "safeguard" components of the American Experiment are baring their fruits, and it's good-news-bad-news: The good news is that democracy does in fact work better than oligarchy, the bad news is that we're being forced to learn that the hard way every time aforementioned "safeguards" backfire spectacularly.

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18 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

wanted to pass the torch to HRC. We will be living in the consequences of that pride and narcissism.

@The Liberal Moonbat

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13 users have voted.

NYCVG

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

and, despite my gratitude to her for behaving properly in re: Bush 2000, I should always remember that she made that nonsensical gesture of waiting for HRC when she had a perfectly good bird in the hand--from her perspective, anyway. Since she and everyone else was pretending in 2010 that Barack Obama was a historically good president.

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2 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

OzoneTom's picture

It is now time for Joe Biden to do the same. There must be a list as filling a seat in the next term has always been much more than a hypothetical.

Thus far all he has said is that he would nominate "a black woman."

Time for specifics Joe. It's real right now and voters deserve that information.

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10 users have voted.

@OzoneTom

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3 users have voted.

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

OzoneTom's picture

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5 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@OzoneTom

is well represented. Gotta have somebody up there who would be a congruent running mate for the lead sponsor of the 1994 crime bill.

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1 user has voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

In which case, this appointment may be critical. Expect Trump to pick a candidate who is hard to oppose, perhaps a minority candidate. Expect the Republican party to mount enormous pressure on its Senators, especially with the possibility of a Democratic Senate after the election.

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4 users have voted.

Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

@The Wizard
He does seem to be a dimwit with a big mouth and inherited money.
Yes, there are lots of choices politically hard for Dems to refute. I'm sure he can find a right wing minority female candidate somewhere. Maybe another religious fanatic.

The damn job is not supposed to be political anyway! There should not be right wing and left wing justices. Just impartial justices. No zealots for anything but the Constitution, rule of law, and justice (not necessarily in that order).

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3 users have voted.

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

WoodsDweller's picture

Susan Collins pour cold water on effort to force through Supreme Court confirmation before the election

Given the proximity of the presidential election, however, I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election. In fairness to the American people, who will either be re-electing the president or selecting a new one, the decision a lifetime appointment should be made by the president who is elected on November 3rd

That's a little more than I expected. A reasonable (though not desirable) position is that Trump should avoid a nomination, or at very least hearings and a vote should wait, until after the election, during the lame duck session. So they could vote on someone truly terrible as their last act on the way out the door.

Here Collins is saying that whoever wins the election should make the nomination. That's actually a pretty enlightened position. Nothing would stop Trump from nominating someone, but the Senate could refuse to hold hearings until Biden nominates someone.

I don't expect this to hold, but who knows what Collins would do during her own lame duck? I vaguely recall that she is pro-choice? Or am I making that up? Maybe there are limits to how low she would go when there is nothing for her to gain.

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4 users have voted.

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

@WoodsDweller
Trump is somewhat restrained in his choice now. After he is re-elected all the gloves come off.
Unless the election is already fixed for Biden. Remember Hillary was sure too. And also Dewey.
#BLM is doing their best to reelect Trump.

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2 users have voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

@WoodsDweller

to letting Trump appoint one before the election. Now how many democrats will cross over and vote with republicans? Manchin most probably will.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

mimi's picture

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1 user has voted.

When are we going to stop lionizing people to the point of making them into a mythology?

RBG was a centrist and not too kind to the rights of the very poor, lowly and black.

I'd say she is having lunch with Scalia in heaven but I'm not sure he's there. If he is, it's another good reason to be an atheist.

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6 users have voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Fishtroller 02

Never did. But she never said the Bush 2000 atrocity was anything other than what it was. She responded exactly as a person with her responsibilities should have. Which puts her a million miles ahead of not only 5 of her fellow justices, but also a whole lot of people who call themselves progressives.

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2 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

with this responsibility as Joe Biden did in the nineties.

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2 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver