It's time for everyone to start getting used to the fact that, unless some massive legal apocalypse intervenes, the president* is going to get at least one more nominee for the United States Supreme Court and that, barring a sudden desire to keep the republic from turning entirely to guacamole, the Senate is going to rubber-stamp Justice Wingnut McWingnutty onto the Court for the next 40 years. That's not the bleakest speculation. The bleakest speculation is that he gets more than one.

Happy Monday!

The most recent speculation was prompted by the fact that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg missed oral arguments on Monday for the first time since she's been on the Court. From CNN:

Ginsburg's absence came midway through the term as the justices will consider petitions concerning some of President Donald Trump's most controversial policies, including the phase-out of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and his ban on most transgender individuals from serving in the military. Ginsburg was released from the hospital about two weeks ago, according to the court, following the surgery earlier last month. The court said there was no evidence of any remaining disease following the surgery. The nodules themselves were discovered incidentally following tests after a fall she sustained in November. The key liberal justice returned to the court shortly after the fall that fractured three of her ribs last November.



MANDEL NGAN Getty Images

Unmentioned in the CNN story is the fact that the administration* is giving off unmistakable signs that it might be wise to start fireproofing the Reichstag. From USA Today:

"We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly," President Donald Trump said Friday. "But if we can do it through a negotiated process, we are giving that a shot." The president repeated that assertion Sunday and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on CNN's "State of the Union" that Trump had directed "every single Cabinet secretary and the Office of Management and Budget to go out and find money that can be used legally to guard the southern border." "Presidents have authority to defend the nation," Mulvaney said, adding that he was personally involved in the hunt to find funds that could be steered toward a border wall.

Now, he has announced that he will give a Big Boy speech on TV Tuesday night, which will be followed by his taking his unending road show to the border on Thursday because that's just what the border needs. He can go there because there is no emergency. There is no emergency just because the president* will say there is. (I think the networks who will cover this dog-and-lizard show are obligated to give the Democrats time for rebuttal.) In any event, if he tries this foolishness, it's invariably going to end up in the courts, which are the last line of defense, and they're thinning precipitously.

There is a huge constitutional crisis brewing over an endless series of lies from the executive branch. And there are dozens of embryonic Kavanaughs waiting in the wings.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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