Ruth Bader Ginsburg shows why "Oh the SCOTUS" can't change #VoteGreen

"Oh, the SCOTUS" is always the last ditch desperation line from Democrats worried that Hillary Clinton (or previous Democratic presidential candidates) might snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by losing votes to the Green Party.

I always respond that modern Democratic-nominated Supreme Court justices often aren't that liberal on that many issues.

And Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom some call the "Notorius RBG," has just exemplified that again, as if her years-long bromance with Antonin Scalia didn't exemplify that enough.

She has called San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick's refusal to stand for the National Anthem "dumb and disrespectful."

Of the athletes, Ginsburg said, "if they want to be stupid, there's no law that should be preventive. If they want to be arrogant, there's no law that prevents them from that. What I would do is strongly take issue with the point of view that they are expressing when they do that."

I'd actually call her take on the issue, as well as on flag burning — which Hillary Clinton wanted to selectively criminalize even after the SCOTUS said it was constitutional — "dumb and disrespectful." Disrespectful to Black Lives Matter. Disrespectful to the spirit of the First Amendment while giving lip service to its letter. Disrespectful to a minority when a member of an oft-oppressed minority herself. (If another Jew failed to stand for the National Anthem after we refused to, say, bomb the rail lines to Auschwitz in late 1944, or after we turned away the MS St. Louis in 1939, would she have called that "dumb and disrespectful"?

UPDATE, Oct. 13, 2021: Katie Couric, in her new memo, says she edited out even worse shit that Ginsburg said in that interview in 2016.

And, worse yet? She suspected Ginsburg didn't understand the question. She asked the Notorious Bobo Whisperer, David Brooks, and he agreed!

If they were right, they agreed to protect a senile Justice, and in an election year no less. 

For the record, here's what's edited out:

In new memoir, Going There, Couric writes that she edited out a part where Ginsburg said that those who kneel during the national anthem are showing 'contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life.'

Wow.

In reality, I HIGHLY doubt Ginsburg was senile or close to it.  Instead, Katie and the Bobo had to protect the St. Notorious of Scaliaburg from herself.

And, with everything that's happened since George Floyd's death, I find her equivalent of a knee-jerk conservative's take on Kaep to be nothing other than despicable.

ZERO attempt to understand him, just like wingnuts. But, not surprising. She, along with the WHOLE rest of the Court at the time, per that top link, hated the freedom of assembly clause of the First Amendment. And, of course, tha's what protects protests.

As for the flag burning and BFF Hillary's take? Ginsburg had sold her mess of pottage to become a "centrist liberal" well before Bill nominated her to the Supreme Court. This is only more confirmation. And yes, "centrist liberal" is correct, and that's not just my take.

It's also clear that Ginsburg doesn't grasp the power, or the utility, of symbolic speech. Such speech has power precisely because it's disrespectful.

Her bromance with Nino Scalia also speaks volumes.

Three years later, The Nation does its own callout. Speaking of Scalia, the piece notes she did a cave-in to him on part of Bush v Gore.

Update, Oct. 3, 2023: Part of James Bamford's early writings against the NSA offer further reason to loathe Ginsburg with her appellate court support for snooping. Read also his latest book, SpyFail.