Scrum at the Supreme Court as GOP rams Barret confirmation vote through Senate

Video-confrontations outside the Supreme Court 2 min 53 sec

On the evening of October 26, GOP Senators rammed through the final confirmation vote to install Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court 52-48, a party line vote. As they did so, women's rights activists protested while supporters of Christian theocratic fundamentalism celebrated.

At times debate grew very heated, and at one point someone warned someone else "don't touch me" but the intense shouting matches didn't escalate to fistfights. As usual though, some of the Trump supporters and theocrats were not wearing masks. Any viruses these "gift-givers" were spreading is much more serious than getting one's teeth knocked out in a fistfight. At least one physical incident did occur. As shown at 1 min 46 sec in the video, a non-mask wearing white "all lives matter" supporter tore down an opponent's sign, somehow without triggering a general melee. The same video at 2 min shows a scene where right-wingers raised their arms in a gesture similar to a Hitler salute except for fingers separated rather than together.

The visual image of women in Handmaid's Tale costumes has proven so powerful that the fundamentalists had to attempt to co-opt it with "Schumer's Handmaids" posters, but this had little meaning outside of the context of the oppression of women depicted in the novel and movie at the hands of a Christian theocracy. It also made it difficult to determine at a glance which side those bearing these signs were even on. The fundamentalists were joined by a smattering of Trump/Thin Blue Line "Magats," one person in militia dress (camo) and someone in a Boogaloo Bois outfit with a sign claiming the FBI is hiring child prostitutes. Also hanging out with the far-right was a viciously anti-Semitic man in a robe with signs condemning Jews and circumcision.

After the confirmation vote, Christian fundamentalists outside the Supreme Court crowed that that the US had entered a "post-Roe v Wade era" while some of the Democrats warned that if Trump is defeated they will add three more judges to the Supreme Court and neutralize Donald Trump's court-packing. At any event, even a Federal law making abortion a felony would be impossible to enforce. Instead, it would trigger another failed War on Drugs as existing underground/foreign/Internet pharmaceutical distributors added RU-486 and other abortion-inducing drugs to their product lines.

Elsewhere on October 26 protests were more intense. A police shooting in Philadelpha blew the Barrett nomination off the top of the news there. This shooting in turn triggered a major street battle between protesters and cops, once again considerd guilty of murder. Riot cops in full gear were bombarded with trash cans, at least one cop car was burned in the street , and at one point a clothing store was plundered. It is one thing for ivory tower folks like Amy Coney Barrett to legislate from the bench, quite another for cops to enforce the results. All arrests (outside of certain very narrow contexts like civil disobedience) have the potential to end in shootings, and all officer-involved shootings now have the potential to burn down the offending area. Police raids on illegal abortion clinics or on drug dealers selling RU-486 could well lead to shootings followed by street battles, urban plunder, and blazing fire. In the current political situation that in turn could touch off an even bigger conflict, assuming the Philly police shooting this close to the election doesn't start it right now.