No one should be surprised at what the leak of Alito’s opinion taking away abortion rights revealed. There is a plan, and this is just one part of it.
 
This is why Mitch McConnell refused to let the Senate consider Judge Merrick Garland.
This is why they eliminated the filibuster for Gorsuch.
 
This is why they pressured the FBI to tank the Kavanaugh investigation.
 
This is why they broke the “Garland rule” to stuff Barrett on the Court mid-election.
 
This is why $580 million was spent to capture the Court.
This is why the Federalist Society was the turnstile for Supreme Court nominees.
 
This is why anonymous donors wrote checks as big as $17 million to the Judicial Crisis Network for ad campaigns for right-wing nominees.
This is why the apparatus exists of dozens of front groups to write “amicus” briefs in chorus instructing the Court what to do.
And don’t think this ends with abortion. This is also about polluters getting to pollute for free, big corporations being deregulated, dark money being baked into our politics, and minority voters kept out. Buckle up.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Sheldon Whitehouse

Sheldon Whitehouse Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @SenWhitehouse

May 3
If the majority Republican justices stay the course, this decision will go down as one of the most supremely political acts in Supreme Court history.
Roe v. Wade has stood firm in the law for decades, guaranteeing women the freedom to decide if and when to have a child – one of the most profoundly personal and life-altering decisions a person can make.
This decision would wipe that well-established precedent away, to give right-wing ideologues a political victory. The right-wing goal has been to control the Court, to achieve policy gains against the will of the American public.
Read 5 tweets
Apr 29
Thanks to fossil fuels, we are veering toward mass oceanic extinctions. As Pope Francis said, we do not have the right to do that to our fellow creatures, particularly not for our waste.
washingtonpost.com/climate-enviro…
Bear with me while I tell you what a zettajoule is: a joule is a unit of heat energy, a zettajoule is that unit with 21 zeros behind it: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules. It’s a lot of heat energy.
Here’s a more practical reference: all the energy used annually by all the people in all the world — all of it — amounts to half a zettajoule (yup, it’s a big number). So what does that mean for oceans?
Read 5 tweets
Apr 28
I am thrilled the Biden administration has come out forcefully in favor of our bipartisan proposal to seize oligarch assets to supply aid to Ukraine. Putin and his oligarchs should be held to account for their unprovoked aggression against a peaceful neighbor.
The U.S—as a leader of the transatlantic alliance and a beacon for democracy & rule of law—should take a more active role in that mission. Atop the list of requests from the President is streamlined authority for the seizure of assets...
…and the power to move proceeds from the sale of those assets to help Ukraine recover from the war. That’s exactly what my colleagues & I have been pushing for in Congress. The House passed legislation similar to my bill to advance these goals, but there is much more to do.
Read 4 tweets
Apr 22
Illicit drugs cause immeasurable pain & loss in our communities. As the Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, I’ve pressed for an updated federal plan to tackle them. Yesterday, @ONDCP released one.
I’ve been clear that the plan must include a more coordinated approach to cracking down on transnational criminal organizations, especially the ways in which they launder and protect their ill-gotten gains using U.S. rule of law & financial networks.
I also stressed tearing down barriers to treatment, including expanding access to life-saving naloxone & medication-assisted treatment; improving our data collection systems to better understand the effects of our intervention efforts…
Read 5 tweets
Apr 10
Marcus’s wise analysis omits one component: the vast right-wing apparatus out to “capture” the court. (See “agency capture” or “regulatory capture.”)
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
CMD puts the secret funding behind this operation at $580 million.  Massive funding implies massive motive.  Single donations ran as high as $17 million dollars.
A related armada of dark money front groups communicates the donors’ wishes to the Court and has a near-100% win rate.
Read 5 tweets
Apr 7
Today, I proudly cast my vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the next Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. She will bring tremendous experience and skill to the Court, and will serve with distinction, as she has throughout her career in public service.
And as a Black woman facing down many obstacles to arrive at this moment, she will be a shining example of perseverance and hope for generations to come.
She also shows the American people that their justices can ascend to the Supreme Court bench through their own merit, not through a process built by anonymous donor interests seeking policy wins via the courts.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(