Caricatures of Supreme Court Justices Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito
In the old film classic, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", as the two likeable outlaws were being pursued by a posse of Texas Ranger lawmen on horseback-but unknown to them at the time- they kept asking each other, "Who are those guys"?
Somehow that memory came to mind after the recent decision by SCOTUS in the "Hobby Lobby" decision whereby the five living dinosaurs of the firm Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Kennedy were at it again. This time they ruled in favor of the family owned corporation "Hobby Lobby"-whose owners say they run their business on "Christian principles"-whereby the Court majority ruled "closely held" for profit corporations run by religious families cannot be required to pay for contraceptive coverage of their female workers.
As usual the Court was split along partisan lines with the four dissenters Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor furiously rejecting the majority's decision on grounds it was discriminatory toward women-something that should be obvious to all; except the five "amigos" apparently still stuck in an age where women were chattels subservient to their husbands and kept barefoot and pregnant.
C'mon; Not only is this ruling outrageous, giving privately held for profit corporations the right to discriminate against their female employees on religious grounds, it's totally absurd we're still fighting over birth control methods or abortion at all.
You'd think these issues were settled long ago and then we get the Hobby Lobby decision.
Of course it shouldn't be surprising considering the "five" sided with corporations having the same rights as people in the "Citizens United" ruling in 2010 and more recently in "McCutcheon" both v/s FEC where the rulings dealt a harsh blow to campaign finance reform and regulating the outsized influence of big money corrupting the electoral process.
We've got enormous domestic problems in the US with corruption of the electoral process at the top of the list. That's because ALL our problems and issues are left wanting because of who is elected and the political agenda they control. It's a campaign finance system that ensures our law makers are beholden to the big money that underwrites their election.
Therefore its no surprise we have huge unemployment, stagnant wages, substandard unemployment insurance, millions in foreclosure, the movement of manufacturing off shore, outsourcing of jobs, massive college student debt over $1trillion, infrastructure deterioration, fracking operations despoiling the environment along poisoning underground clean water, little regard for people produced climate change, no universal health care for all-to name just some of our big problems not even on the political agenda.
Then there's the bloated and unnecessary defense expenditures of nearly a $ trillion annually which takes a huge chunk of domestic spending that could, should be expended on those real problems and issues. It shouldn't take too much imagination to recognize why the real issues and problems of the country aren't met; they're simply not intended to be addressed, never mind discussed.
But that outlandish defense spending with no real enemies out there to justify it reveals-if one follows the effects of our governments policies and actions and the sinister nature of our unnecessary wars, resort to torture, drone strikes et al it's a government that acts with impunity, has no oversight to rein it in and be held accountable. So a "hobby Lobby" controversy is just a big distraction; a dumb ruling we're talking about with all its wrongful ramifications for women.
Hobby Lobby and its suit should have been dismissed out of hand by the Court. It wasn't because of a Court majority was more interested in pressing its own biased political agenda rather than acting in the best interests of the people.
So as to dealing with our real problems and issues, forget it. We have Hobby Lobby in its place. This is the US; foolishness is a staple.
