Robert's Court the Worst in American History?

 On this day [August 5] in 1965, the Voting Rights Act became law. It became such a fundamental part of our legal system that Congress repeatedly reauthorized it, by large margins, as recently as 2006.

But in the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts struck down the provision of the law requiring that states with histories of voter discrimination get approval from the Department of Justice before they changed their voting laws. Immediately, the legislatures of those states, now dominated by Republicans, began to pass measures to suppress the vote. In the wake of the 2020 election, Republican-dominated states increased the rate of voter suppression, and on July 1, 2021, the Supreme Court permitted such suppression with the Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee decision.

Letters from an American Historian 

A little case history for calling this the worst SCOTUS in US history: 

DC v. Heller, 2008: Declares for first time Second Amendment protects individual right to bear arms. 

Citizen's United v. FEC, 2010: Spurs latest orgy of super PACs and dark money in politics. 

Shelby County v. Holder, 2013: Guts Voting Rights Act protections against racial discrimination. 

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 2022: Strips women of individual reproductive rights. 

Trump v. United States, 2024: Court gives immunity to POTUS as long as what they do can be construed as part of their "official duties," which then somehow exempted Jan 6 and trying to change votes in Georgia and refusing to relinquish top secret national security documents, etc. So, in other words, POTUS is now above the law. 

There's more but this list is enough to make the case, if you ask me. Republicans, with McConnell and Trump in starring roles, packed the Robert's Court with conservative ideologues and we are now living with the results: fascist, Christian nationalist, plutocratic rule in America. The blueprint: Project 2025. Only rivals, possibly, Taney Court 1836 to 1864, setting up the Civil War, or the Waite Court 1874 to 1888, basically, undermining the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution. 

Is "Expansionary Fiscal Contraction" returning to America?

 "There is no evidence – and never has been – that austerity (cutting to grow) works in the fashion promised by those who support it so vehemently. Britain – used as a laboratory rat in order to prove that expansionary fiscal contraction works – is proof of that, as are the examples of Ireland, Greece and Portugal.

The UK experiment began three years ago [2010] when the coalition came to power. The timing could hardly have been better for the new breed of expansionary fiscal contractionists at the Treasury. The deficit was at a peacetime record, the economy appeared to be on the turn and, as an excellent new book by Mark Blyth shows, it was the time when the brief one-year dalliance with Keynesian economics had just hit the buffers."

Larry Elliott @ The Guardian

Meaning, by "buffers," hit the wall of the austerity police in banking and government in the aftermath of the debt crisis that followed the economic recession in Europe in the late '00s. I happen to be reading Blyth's austerity book right now: Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea. It's a brilliantly plainspoken and illuminating history of austerity economics for dummies like me; i.e., readers enthusiastic about economic history but don't want to deal with too much math. Austerity is the stock position of capital, or rich elites, whenever the demands of workers or the environment threaten bottom lines, or whenever the tenor of the times is such that governments are contemplating raising taxes or imposing more regulations on business. Austerity always says the same thing: it costs too much; it being wage and/or benefit increases, climate change reforms, public infrastructure, etc. Spending increases budget deficits. Spending depresses growth. To expand economic growth we need to cut spending and cut taxes and regulations and let the job creators create jobs. Which is almost precisely the path the new admin is about to embark us all on, if I'm not mistaken. Cutting social programs to expand Billionaire profits, or that's the threat anyway. Ack! 

I am not suggesting there isn't waste in government, or that efforts to reduce waste are always in bad faith, but I am saying conservative corporate rule efforts to reduce "waste" are almost always bad faith and really a now timeworn tactic to resist government or labor or environmental or any other claims on their wealth, no matter how legitimate or even economically pro-growth. 

Krugman says the US economy is basically a massive insurance organization with an army. So much of what the government does is pass through insurance payouts for stuff private industry cannot or will not produce or pay for. 

We know the military budget is where most the waste in the federal budget is but they'll cut more cancer research for children, as they've apparently already done, before even looking at the military budget. Or cut other absolutely necessary social safety net stuff: health care, social security, and other social programs and public infrastructure crucial to 70-80% of the population but wasteful "entitlement" spending to richies that can afford their own social insurance. 

Some inequality in a big complex society is inescapable but some inequality is so bad it discredits society and the whole economy and rule of law. It makes such norms appear as mere shams and dysfunctional rackets. Billionaires and homeless encampments juxtapose like that. 

"Y.A.L.A," M.I.A. (2013)

In as much as punk rock is in your face, taunting, angry, and snotty M.I.A. is punk rock. She turns YOLO ("you only live once") inside out, like a Hindi mind trick, now YALA ("you always live again"), but with the same urge to throw caution to the wind. M.I.A. was defining "bangers" before "bangers" were "bangers bangers." 

Post-colonial Sri Lankan/Global South, immigrant as global refugee, dancefloor toaster with swagger and lots of sauciness: "Where is my mind?" Pioneer in world beat electronic music genre. That her electronics sound like cheap home electronics adds to the rock & roll energy. She's more DIY hiphop than DIY punk. 

And maybe most punk rock contrarian-libertarian of all she's now come out against vaccines, which goes with '77 punk's wearing Swastikas for sheer stupid "I wanna destroy the passerby" punk-rock-ness. I mean, if you have a bad experience with a vaccine by all means speak out about it. But your misfortune, terrible as it may be, isn't a credible argument against vaccines; it can't negate the millions of lives saved by vaccines. The health care where I live tries to screen for bad reactions to vaccines. Sounds like a lot of people close to M.I.A. missed such screening measures. Anyway, what I especially don't like about M.I.A.'s latest punk move is how it feels like she's trolling for the conspiracy theory fake news audience. Which actually does endanger public health. So, annoying and disappointing.

But, alas, M.I.A., Bad Girl to the bone, again, again, and again, rocks, always has. "Y.A.L.A."! One thing I believe for sure, it's a banger! 

"Drommer," Bremer/McCoy (2013)

 Because shit is hard enough already.