Said the retired Justice Breyer, quoted in "Breyer warns justices that some opinions could ‘bite you in the back’ in exclusive interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace" (CNN).
Breyer seems to have adopted the catchphrase "And there we are." He's quoted using it 3 times in this short summary of the interview.
He used it after stating the he tried to change the outcome in Dobbs, describing the mood at the Court after the Dobbs leak, and after declining to criticize either Ginni or Clarence Thomas.
Breyer's "And there we are" made me think of Kurt Vonnegut's "So it goes." In "Slaughterhouse-Five":
[Vonnegut] uses it as a refrain when events of death, dying, and mortality occur or are mentioned; as a narrative transition to another subject; as a memento mori; as comic relief; and to explain the unexplained. The phrase appears 106 times.
Is Breyer's "And there we are" like Kurt Vonnegut's "So it goes"? "And there we are" feels lighter, more like "It is what it is" or "Whaddayagonnado."
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Did he offer an opinion on his brilliant replacement ?
Isn't it funny how none of the Democrat court's opinions are ever made to come bite anybody in the back? Nobody ever warns Democrats not to go too far. Nobody ever questioned the Democrat court's "legitimacy."
Funny how that works, huh?
Michael K asked: "Did he offer an opinion on his brilliant replacement?
Who cannot even spell the word "woman."
And there we are in the final analysis when all is said and done at the end of the day.
And that’s the way it is.
Find yourself a healthy amount of emanations from penumbras and there you are! You've got everything you need to create whatever you want out of thin air. A New Soviet Man is not just around the corner, he's here now!
The court's opinion in Griswold found heretofore unknown "specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance."
Emanations and penumbras that give "life and substance" (ironic, no?) to rulings that allow the general "if it feels good do it" killing of unborn babies and selling off of their baby body parts for profit.
And now, of course, our New Soviet Democraticals are saying those unborn babies at 6 weeks don't even have a beating heart and everyone should be allowed to whack their babies at any point up to birth.....and some of them are so confident of their societal ascendance that they are arguing for post-birth abortions.
And for those children that survive the abortion gauntlet the lefties/dems/NeverTrump (but I repeat myself) want continued and expanded, then those kiddos will have to skillfully navigate the left's Groomer Archipelago (something David French calls a "blessing of Liberty") to emerge unscathed from their indoctrination/Maoist struggle sessions.
I'm not sure we as a people possess the sufficiently negative verbiage to properly characterize the overall scheme of the left/dems/NeverTrump (but I repeat myself).
The Left is so, so bitter about losing its advantage in the judiciary. Screw'em.
Elections matter.
Now the Left will actually have to get laws passed. America rejects the extreme and radical agenda of the Left.
Michael K said...
Did he offer an opinion on his brilliant replacement ?
i wish they'd asked HIM, if HE could define what "a woman" is
"You do your best, you know, and maybe people will agree. And maybe they don’t. And maybe you’ll win. And maybe you’ll lose."
And there we are. So much for "the rule of law."
The far more interesting Breyerism is bite you in the back. What could Breyer mean by that? It reeks of the soft leftie language like called out. It’s meaningless language that pretends to have meaning while making the allies feel just a little bit better. Boy are they in trouble! it seems to want to mean…
What’s the expression to summate the meaningless of the dedication of all the lawyers wasting their lives to defend Roe, their desperation that a miracle will appear and the despair of knowing they’ll be dead before they see it?
The Democratic party has been captured by the hard left as shown by the way in which adherents speak of their political opponents - using the grossest insults available rather than objective descriptions of differences; characterizing the speech of half the country as in some way a stench from the depths of human social evil; pridefully stating that they only will present one-half of any argument (see NYT especially); and so on. At present, there is an unorganized faction within the Dem party which objects to this hard left capture - we might say that Justice Breyer, Bill Maher, Glenn Greenwald, Bari Weiss, Joe Rogan and our hostess all belong to this ?faction ?effort? trend? They aren't trending right as it sometimes seems; they are trying to return the Dem party to its liberal roots. So, for example, Breyer talks about collegiality as a good which harmed more by actions taken by the left than by the right. Leaking Court discussions was more hostile to the Court functioning than the presence of Justice Thomas, says Justice Breyer - the hard left would undoubted reverse that judgement.
In Russia the liberal faction of the left was swept away in the Revolution; is that the necessary fate of all liberals confronting the hard left? Perhaps American liberals must ask themselves this question at this moment: is it "So be it", meaning "injustice and madness rules" or is it: "And there we are" meaning: "Keep on keeping on." In my opinion, liberalism did not have the deep roots in Russia which it has in America, roots so deep that almost all shades of opinion here are descendants with variation from one ancestral stock. It is rather the US hard left which is a thin layer clumsily copying an alien tradition. Manhattan and other hard left cities are enacting policies which are just suburban copies of Paris styles. Liberation means drag queens at pre-K library story hours? What would Lenin say?
I am probably wrong, but it seems to me Breyer doesn’t understand the purpose of the Constitution to ground the decision-making process between conflicting sides of issues. If you rely on that framework, which is the foundation of our union, after all, then the decisions would be less malleable over time. The problem with Roe was it was not grounded anywhere in the Constitution, and that made it flimsy.
He seems to lament that the Constitution can get in the way of some of his ideological preferences, IMHO. Makes me wonder - did he understand what his job was?
Slavery; diversity, inequity, and exclusion (e.g. affirmative discrimination, color blocs, class-based bigotry); political congruence ("="); redistributive change (e.g. progressive prices, Obamacares); single, central, monopolistic solutions; World War Springs (WWS); immigration reform; feminism/masculinism; and, of course, the wicked/final solution (e.g. human rites, clinical cannibalism, planned parenthood).
to emerge unscathed from their indoctrination/Maoist struggle sessions
Over 100 million dead, slavery, diversity, redistributive change, and ethnic cleansing. Mao led the left-wing national and transnational struggle for progress, inclusion, and equity.
Who cannot even spell the word "woman."
They cannot define a man or woman, male or female sex, masculine or feminine gender, are ideologically prone to conflation of logical domains, and sincerely believe that babies are delivered by Stork at the time of convenience, after the age of profit, denying the dignity and agency of both a woman and man, individually, and as a couple.
Mommy, where does "our Posterity" come from?
a healthy amount of emanations from penumbras and there you are
A faith, an ethical religion, and unrecorded Amendment to the Constitution, the twilight fringe has been the source of diverse mischief and progress.
Buckaroo Banzai for the win...
"some opinions could ‘bite you in the back’" Certainly Roe v Wade bit liberals in the back. It became the driving force for conservative politics for two generations.
Now, of course, conservatives are trying to do the same thing to themselves, after Dobbs.
Unforced errors. You want something so much you won't deal with consequences.
At this point, what difference does it make?
Great post Ann. “And there you are” suggests you bear some level of responsibility for your predicament. “So it goes” implies complete lack of agency. Nothing you’ve done would and nothing you do now will change the situation. “Whatayagonnadoaboutit” says it seemed like a good idea to draft Trey Lance as your fantasy quarterback until he broke his leg running between the tackles. You’re bound to finish last and they’ll make you wear the Statue of Liberty costume on the center divide of the busy intersection down the street with an “Alms for the poor” sign on a Saturday to stay in the league next year.
Breyer said it was a "very frustrating" spot to be in as he found himself in dissent in a number of historically consequential cases where he said the majority … was unwilling to bend.
And how much was the majority “willing to bend” when he and his fellow liberals were in the majority? Sometimes one gets as one gives.
"You do your best, you know, and maybe [babies will die. And maybe they won't]. And maybe you’ll win. And maybe you’ll lose."
There. Fixed. Winning and losing in the bubble with Justice Breyer.
Perhaps Breyer should warn Biden. It was what? A Day? Seemed less than 24 hours that the building known as “The White House” was over turning statements by the duly elected President that the “pandemic is over” and “US troops would defend Taiwan”. Biden made those statements. Some would agree and maybe they don’t. You win some and lose some. My question is how did Biden lose in making the statement? Apparently “The White House” didn’t agree and it won the argument. Is it defending Democracy when a building is given Executive authority?
Breyer has absolutely no self awareness.
If Breyer started from the position that the constitution is a limit on government he wouldn't have gone wrong.
Another gem of faux thinking---"What goes around comes around". The majority leans one way and Breyer is happy. The new majority leans the other way and Breyer is not.
And then another gem. Some days you're the dog, some days you're the hydrant.
"Breyer warns justices that some opinions could ‘bite you in the back’ in exclusive interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace"
Of course what Breyer means is that if the Majority stays the course and strikes down Dobbs his violent shitty allies will protest outside their homes and try to kill the other justices at some point.
This reminds me that I've been meaning to re-read some WWII-set classics such as S-5, and Catch-22. I used to have both in pbk but have since lost track of them.
So there is that.
What an unfortunately nonsensical expression to latch onto. You could say, "And HERE we ARE" or "And THERE we WERE", but how could it be that "THERE we ARE".
You can only ever BE HERE....
What an unfortunately nonsensical expression to latch onto. You could say, "And HERE we ARE" or "And THERE we WERE", but how could it be that "THERE we ARE".
You can only ever BE HERE....
"Well, there it is."
It feels like "And so it goes" to me. Kind of sort of a tautology leavened with the sad awareness that we are going round and round in an unpleasant cycle. Fatalism.
There we are: we are where the things that happened got us.
And so it goes--the sort of things that happen happened.
the constitution is a limit on government
Yes, the Constitution establishes a uniform basis to regulate government, bureaucracy, and other secular models of authority under a national and hierarchical jurisdiction.
"And so it goes" was NBC's Linda Ellerbee closing catch phrase.
Repetition of catchphrases is an early sign of dementia. My mother uses, "to make a long story short" whenever she loses the thread of her spoken words.
Catchphrases are different. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztnr0Aovof8
"Bite you in the back" is the wimpy "bite you in the ass."
People go to the Ivy League and they forget what an ass is, or where it is.
Ass? Ass? Do you think I shit or something? I'm an Ivy Leaguer!
So "ass" disappears from his language.
"I am without shit. There is no shitting, or farting. I have only back. A nice, PG, no shit, no hair, just flat boring back. And that's where you will get bitten."
And life goes on.
It is what it is
"A thing like that."
Breyer's baby in sequels.
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