Today’s links Blue states should play “constitutional hardball”: Scooping up medical professionals, teachers, doctors and anyone with a trans kid. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2004, 2014, 2019, 2023 Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. Recent appearances: Where I’ve been. Latest books: You keep readin’ em, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Upcoming books: Like I said, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Colophon: All the rest. Blue states should play “constitutional hardball” (permalink) Nothing’s more frustrating that watching the GOP smash norms and decency to advance policies that harm millions of Americas, unless it’s that, plus Democratic officials stamping their feet and saying, “C’mon guys, play fair.” The GOP’s game is called “constitutional hardball.” Think: Mitch McConnell refusing to hold confirmation hearings on Obama’s federal judiciary appointments, not never for Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court seat – then filling the Federal judiciary with the least-qualified, most FedSoc-addled lunatics in US history, all for lifetime appointments. As bad as this is at the federal level, it’s even worse at in the states, especially the Republican “trifecta” states where the GOP holds the governorship and the state house and senate, where shameless gerrymandering and legislative attacks on hard-won ballot measures are the order of the day. GOP-held state governments engage in rampant interstate aggression, targeting out-of-state abortion providers, publishers, and journalists. This is a one-sided Cold Civil War, because state Dems, for the most part, are unwilling to play hardball in return (the closest they come is when, say, California…Pluralistic: Blue states should play "constitutional hardball" (18 Oct 2024)