Roundtable

Jim: It's roundtable time. Remember our e-mail address is thethirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com but you can also use common_ills@yahoo.com and, in fact, should this week Participating in our roundtable are  The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava, and me, Jim; Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude; Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man; C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review; Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills); Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz); Ruth of Ruth's Report; Trina of Trina's Kitchen; Wally of The Daily Jot; Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Betty's kids did the illustration. You are reading a rush transcript.

Jim (Con't): The Congressional mid-terms are around the corner --

Ava: Tuesday, November 8th.

Jim (Con't): Thank you.  Who, if anyone, is excited?  And I've got dead silence.  Why?

Cedric: I canvass for the Democratic Party every election.  Not this go round.  I have no reason to.  I asked what we were doing -- message wise -- to turn out voters?  Nothing really.  People are suffering with inflation and you want me to go to their homes and offer them nothing?  I'm not bothering people.  It would be one thing if the party had a plan -- "Help us keep control of the House and we will pass legislation for stimulus checks," for example.  But they have no plan.  

Trina: I don't think DC gets how badly people in this country are hurting.  Or that Ukraine is not part of this country.

Marcia: Way too much money has gone to Ukraine to support a racist government.  I hope all those screaming their support for Ukraine grasp that there will be a reckoning.  We are not going to, five years from now, be kind about the idiots who gave billions of our tax dollars to racists who are so racist that the Peace Corps had to warn their volunteers.

Ann: Exactly.

Jim: At the end of last week, Joe Biden was talking Armageddon -- and I don't mean the Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler film.  

Kat (singing): "I could stay awake just to hear you breathing . . .  Watch your smile while you are sleeping . . . While you're far away and dreaming."

Jim: That's Kat offering her version of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing."

Ty: From the film ARMAGEDDON.

Jim: Yes, from that film.  But Joe was talking about a real life Armageddon.

Ruth: And acting as if this just developed and as though he had nothing to do with it.

Elaine: When he has led the world to this point.  JFK didn't act surprised by the Cuban Missile Crisis.  He took ownership of it.  He was something like 45 years old and he took ownership.  Joe Biden turns 80 next month and he can't take ownership.  

Trina: We have no leaders anymore -- just people who shuffle the blame.

Cedric: And that reality is another issue with the party and how they're not giving people anything to vote for.

Jim: What's one thing the Democratic Party should do immediately?

Mike: Retire the old folk.  Joe's too old to run for re-election.  Make the announcement.  Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Angus King, Ben Cardin, Mitch McConnell.  They need to get out of the Congress.  It's embarrassing.  We need mandatory retirement.

Ruth: And we need that for the Supreme Court as well.

Rebecca: That or term limits.  This can no longer be a lifetime appointment.  

Betty: I looked it up.  When the Constitution was written, the average life expectancy was 34 years old -- actually 34 and a 1/2.  Now?  78.79 years.  This far exceeds what anyone expected.  The Supreme Court is illegitimate and it doesn't represent the American people.  It's 2022.   Clarry Thomas is 74 years old, he needs to go.  We need people with experience, yes, but we also need mental fitness.  Mental fitness does not mean you haven't lost all of your faculties, it does mean you are able to think quickly and well.  I say a cap of 60 is required for the Supreme Court.  When you hit 60, get off the court.

Jim:  And those who would say that's too young?

Betty: Show me where in the Constitution it guarantees you the right to sit on the Supreme Court.   It doesn't.  It is a privilege and the privilege has been abused so it's time to rectify the matter.

Jim: You called it illegitimate.

Betty: The current Court is illegitimate.  It's made up of people who swore to uphold precedent.  But DOBBS tossed aside precedent.  It was an illegitimate decision from an illegitimate court.  And if that makes Jonathan Turley butt hurt, I don't give a damn.

Jess: Amen to that. 

Isaiah: They are woefully out of touch and they need to retire.  I think we need to do something like a ten year limit for Supreme Court justices.  These people are already out of touch and they just get more so the longer they remain on the bench.  DOBBS revealed that they are hacks.  They're not interested in the rule of law.  Get the hacks gone and let's have a faster turn over.

Jim: I can understand that.  What I don't understand is why they're not pushing to impeach Clarry Thomas?  That would be a winning, turn out the vote move.

Betty: Again, I looked it up before we got ready for the roundtable.  The House impeached Justice Samuel Chase in 1804.

Jim: Some would argue that if we start impeaching now, then it will be endless.

C.I.: Can I jump in?

Jim: Sure.

C.I.: I was asking Ava.

Jim: Ava and C.I. take notes for these transcript pieces. Ava's nodding yes.  The floor is yours.

C.I.: First off, one impeachment, in 1804, did not result in a slew of impeachments.  Second, impeaching Clarry Thomas is not impeaching the whole Court.  I think January 6th has been inflated but the Democratic Party members in Congress do not.  Okay then.  At the very least, it was an abuse of power for him not to recuse himself on matters relating to January 6th.  The committee has now heard from his wife, she was a part of those actions and he should have excused himself.  Strike one.  Strike two, we know he lied in Hill-Thomas.  If you lied in your confirmation hearing and you're found out?  Guess what: Impeach.  You misled everyone.  Anita Hill can offer testimony again and we can also hear from the women that Joe Biden refused to take testimony from.  Strike three?  You tossed aside precedent with DOBBS.  And we're still not done.  Not only did he toss aside precedent, he revealed that he planned to do it again with regards to marriage equality and birth control.  In a functioning world, having revealed his bias, he would now not be allowed to hear on those issues.  But, as evidenced by his failure to recuse himself from cases involving his wife Virginia Thomas, he has no ethics.  A strong case can be made for his removal and should be made. He harassed Anita Hill in the workplace.  That is no longer a question mark and he is unfit to serve on the Court as a result.

Jim: But retaliation --

C.I.: This is not remove all the conservative justices.  This is a case where one reeks of corruption and needs to be removed.  It would actually strengthen the Court because the American people would see that even members of the Court are held accountable.  And, again, this would not then move to target the majority on DOBBS.  There's a world of difference between them and Clarry Thomas.  

Jess: I agree.  And someone needs to be used to show that there is accountability.  The Court is now illegitimate.  A move like this could restore legitimacy.  

Jim: Illegitimate?

Jess: Yes.  When you toss aside past rulings because you didn't like them and just construct a 'verdict' out of thin air, you're illegitimate.  The Supreme Court is illegitimate.  

Dona: If the Democratic Party wanted to hold both houses of Congress, the easiest way in the world would be to announce that if they control both houses in 2023, they will move to impeach and remove Thomas.

Cedric: That's something I could go door to door and sell people on.  Even with the lousy economy, that is something tangible and something that they would see as a benefit for their lives.  

Jim: Okay.  Anyone concerned with the debt ceiling?  That's a topic that yet again is being raised on the Sunday chat & chews.

Wally:  I'm not worried about it.  If anyone is, I suggest the argument is that if we care about the debt ceiling, we don't give 80 or so billion to Ukraine.   I'm serious.  It's appalling that the federal government has done nothing for American citizens but Joe Biden's going to give $100 billion -- before this is all over -- to Ukraine.

Jim: Okay.  Kat and Stan we need you to weigh in.  Ty's got an e-mail that came in today.  Ty?

Ty: Jennifer-Ruth Green is running in Indiana's first Congressional district.  She's a Republican, she's African-American.  And she's the topic of George's e-mail because POLITICO outed her.  She was assaulted while serving in the US military and POLITICO contacted her before publishing.  She -- quote -- begged them not to publish the details.  They ignored her request and published.  George wants some sort of comment.

Kat: Me?  Okay.  POLITICO is in the wrong.  It was not their job to expose her.  She is a survivor.  Her being attacked is no one's business unless she decides to make it public.  Had she been the attacker, that's different.  In that case, she would have been a criminal committing a criminal act.  She is not a criminal.  And POLITICO should be ashamed of themselves.  It is neither their job nor their role to tell the world that Jennifer-Ruth Green was assaulted.  I will gladly stand with her and say this was wrong.  I don't care what political party she belongs to.  This was wrong.

Stan: I second everything Kat said.  I'll add something else, as an African-American male, I find it hard to believe that POLITICO would have done this to a woman belonging to the Democratic Party.  They need to be called out for what they did.  This is not a scoop, it is not anything that needs to be attached to Jennifer-Ruth Green -- I got her name right? --

Ty: You did.

Stan (Con't): It is not anything that needs to be attached to Jennifer-Ruth Green unless she decides to make it public.  This is awful.  This is like when Sally Field's awful character in ABSENCE OF MALICE exposes Melinda Dillon's abortion.  It was not Sally's character's business in the movie and it is not POLITICO's business in this real life example.  It's outrageous. 

Jim: Okay.  On that note, we'll need to wrap up.  This is a rush transcript.  Best e-mail to contact at us is common_ills@yahoo.com.