Since my last post, somebody, either on the Supreme Court or closely connected to them, leaked a draft of a very important decision that appears to be forthcoming: according to the draft's author, Justice Samuel Alito, Roe v. Wade is going down. Alito specifically cites the writings of 1600's jurist, Sir Matthew Hale, as being influential on his decision (although no mention is made of Hale's enthusiasm for burning suspected witches), and notes the Constitution's failure to include abortion as a protected right. Well, duh. What a maroon! One wonders how we got to the point where a 21st Century Supreme Court Justice channels a 17th Century Witchfinder-General to determine what a woman can and cannot do with her own body. 

And yet....here we are. 

Thank Donald Trump for Amy Coney-Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, all of whom prevaricated under oath when they were being questioned by Congress during their appointment hearings. In days of yore, Big Daddy Bush was responsible for nominating the reprehensible Clarence Thomas, although I have to admit that that hearing wasn't Joe Biden's finest hour, either. If only they'd listened to Anita Hill....  But, it was that genius, George W. Bush, who gave us Sam Alito, so maybe the news outlets need to stop reappraising W's presidency and let the facts speak for themselves. W was an idiot. There's a fact for you. 

Adding fuel to the fire these past few days was Mitch McConnell, looking ever-so-suave with his chinless self, informing USA Today that if Roe v. Wade is overturned as expected, he and his buddies in Congress may move to enact a nationwide abortion ban. That, of course, assumes that the Repugnant Party takes control of Congress in the midterms. In any democracy possessing a reasonable degree of sanity, the Republicans would all be drummed out of office in November--that would, and should, be the fruit of their vile labors. Unfortunately, as we all know, the mental state of the nation is far from stable, so every assumption of every right that we (by which I mean we who are either non-Christian, non-white, non-male, non-heterosexual, or any combination thereof) have ever had is on shaky ground. No, that's not fear-mongering, as some on the Far Right are suggesting. It's just that, for so many of us, equal rights (i.e. equal to those granted to Christian, white, heterosexual males) have never been a given. Even after the Supreme Court decision on Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, the Far Right has indicated that they will seize what moments may come to have our "gay marriages" nullified. Alito has claimed that this won't happen but I trust Alito about as far as I can throw him. If a case involving LGBQT+ rights comes his way, look for him to throw us under the bus. Count on it. 

If we've learned nothing else from the past few days, we've learned this: do not rely on the Supreme Court to save you. The Court's conservative majority have proved themselves to be contemptuous and dishonest partisan hacks who base their decisions upon outdated (by a few centuries) treatises and religious ideology (despite protestations to the contrary). If Roe v. Wade is overturned, that will be Chief Justice John Roberts' legacy, and it will dog him until the end of his days. He knows this. It's why he's stridently demanding that the leaker be unmasked. It underscores the fact that he's a chief justice in name only: he's lost control over his own court. But why shouldn't the decision be leaked, really? Why should the Supreme Court operate in secrecy and shadows? Was Roberts planning to spring this decision on the American public as a summer surprise? There need to be many changes made in the way this country is governed but the very first step is to make sure you vote in November. The American people, that is the people who are the actual fabric and backbone of this country, will never move forward, will never have real power, until the regressive forces driving the Republican Party are voted out of office.