Pride and Prejudice

In much more distressing legal news, yesterday we learned that “Justice Samuel Alito spoke candidly about the ideological battle between the left and the right – discussing the difficulty of living ‘peacefully’ with ideological opponents in the face of ‘fundamental’ differences that ‘can’t be compromised.’ He endorsed what his interlocutor described as a necessary fight to ‘return our country to a place of godliness.’ And Alito offered a blunt assessment of how America’s polarization will ultimately be resolved: ‘One side or the other is going to win.'” Today, we get a follow-up from the same secret recordings. This time its upside-down flag flying Martha-Ann Alito condemning pride flags, the Left, and the media. “You know what I want? I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag, because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month.” (On the SCOTUS dating app, you can only swipe right.) Other than the willingness to speak openly about these issues, nothing here should surprise you. There’s a religious war taking place in America and SCOTUS is ground zero. There’s always been one quid pro quo that really matters. Trump agrees to appoint the judges he’s told to appoint. Regardless of his flaws and crimes, they agree he gets to be president.

+ “Americans have a normalcy bias. It leads them to believe anyone who tells them that everything is awesome and that a system is ‘holding’—even as that system is hanging together by way of dental floss.” Dahlia Lithwick and Norm Ornstein in Slate: The system will not inevitably ‘hold.’