I can\u2019t lie: watching the news yesterday was depressing. There was a laundry list of \u201cbad news\u201d items that just took, as my mother would say, \u201cthe wind out of my sail\u201d. We start with the US Supreme Court, headed to prevent the US Government from forgiving some level of student debt. Justice Gorsuch put his view simply, saying it \u201cwouldn\u2019t be fair\u201d to those others who didn\u2019t benefit or paid their debt off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This new concept of Supreme Court fairness is troubling.\u00a0\u00a0The conservative Justices take the stand that everything:\u00a0\u00a0race, economic opportunity, education, voting; is somehow now \u201cequal\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And since the Thomas-Barrett-Alito-Gorsuch coalition have set this arbitrary line, ignoring centuries of American history, they feel confident that \u201cfrom here on out\u201d everything should be \u201cfair\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the same logic that allowed Chief Justice Roberts to eviscerate the 1965 Voting Rights Act.\u00a0\u00a0Roberts seemed to think that everything, particularly racial equity, is all good and equal now.\u00a0\u00a0That’s \u201cBS\u201d, but I suppose it\u2019s easy for Roberts to say.\u00a0\u00a0After all, all his friends are \u201cequal\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are two legal issues on student loan forgiveness.\u00a0\u00a0The first: does the President have the legislative authority, under the Covid emergency provisions, to act.\u00a0\u00a0The obvious precedent is that he does.\u00a0\u00a0No one fought either Biden or Trump on the PPP provisions, were businesses got trillions in “forgiven” loans to survive the pandemic.\u00a0\u00a0Few argued that it wasn\u2019t \u201cfair\u201d to those businesses that failed.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone just \u201cbellied up to the bar\u201d and took their share of cash.\u00a0\u00a0But now that money might be shared with the least influential, including a high percentage of minorities, who tried to advance their education \u2013 well we can\u2019t have that!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second is the legal standing of the states to bring this case in the first place.\u00a0\u00a0In Courts, litigants are supposed to have a real stake in the outcome of the proceedings.\u00a0\u00a0But the states that are suing really have nothing to gain or lose.\u00a0\u00a0They aren\u2019t profiting or paying;\u00a0\u00a0it really doesn\u2019t have anything to do with them.\u00a0\u00a0Reasonably, the Supreme Court should have \u201cdenied certiorari\u201d, and refused to hear this in the first place.\u00a0\u00a0But the \u201cconservative coalition\u201d is vested in taking charge of America.\u00a0\u00a0So here we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second depressing news item is from Texas.\u00a0\u00a0The Texas Radical-Republican legislature and Governor wrote abortion laws so punitive, that women facing miscarriages are unable to get prompt care.\u00a0\u00a0The doctors who would care for them face first degree felony charges if \u201cit is deemed\u201d they performed an abortion, and are now forcing women to risk their lives to \u201cprove\u201d they\u2019re not seeking one.\u00a0\u00a0Oh, and the provision that allows for abortions in cases of rape?\u00a0\u00a0The \u201cproof\u201d is so onerous, that women can\u2019t show it before the state mandated deadline.\u00a0\u00a0And now Texas is out to ban medical abortions (drug induced) as well.\u00a0\u00a0You can\u2019t blame the doctors or the women; just the politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third item is from Tennessee, but also includes Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Utah, and already has support in Ohio\u2019s legislature as well.\u00a0\u00a0These ban adolescents suffering from gender dysphoria from receiving gender-affirming care.\u00a0\u00a0It not only prohibits surgical intervention (which seldom occurs before eighteen anyway) but medical intervention as well.\u00a0\u00a0In plain language:\u00a0\u00a0a transgendered child will be required to live in a body that is betraying them until they are an adult.\u00a0\u00a0The amount of emotional trauma and potential suicides these legislators will cause is horrific.\u00a0\u00a0But it\u2019s spreading across the nation.\u00a0\u00a0And it\u2019s all to \u201cgin up\u201d the radical voters in the gerrymandered Republican states.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s not about morals, or protecting the \u201cunborn\u201d or children, or even being fair to \u201cJoe the Plumber\u201d who didn\u2019t go to college.\u00a0\u00a0This is all about getting votes and power.\u00a0\u00a0The radicals are willing to do whatever it takes to exercise their new-found power in the Supreme Court, or in the state legislatures.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s not even a veil of decency, or concern.\u00a0\u00a0It doesn\u2019t matter who gets hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n