Judiciality

Of course the US Senate is a corruptible and fully corrupted institution which should not exist in it's current rule-from-above form which enables plutocracy and imperialism.  Likewise, mostly, the US Supreme Court, with rare exceptions, Roe V Wade being by far their best decision that comes to mind, amidst a lot of other reeking decisions, like Bush V Gore and those relating to campaign finance.

But given that you have any kind of supreme court, one obvious requirement for justices is to speak the language of impartiality.  Best if they were to actually practice it, of course, or at least a certain kind of impartiality which looks at the good of society and therefore the best possible interpretations of law.

Even with the truthfulness of the accusations of sexual assault by Kavanaugh uncertain (I'd rate the testimony against him so far as sounding highly likely), his reaction to those accusations shows the epitomy of an unjudicial temperment.  A truly judicial reply would have gone like this:

"I do not recall such events.  As no one's memory is perfect, this doesn't mean they necessarily didn't happen.  Some may say an an investigation is warranted; I leave that question of law to my investigators in the Senate Subcomittee.  Furthermore, I do not consider them entirely relevant to my nomination.  Much as many people, I had an alcohol problem in my youth, and got involved with activity I should not have.  That is true, and I truly apologize for any harm I may have caused back then.  Nobody one ever confronted me for my actions back then [I've nixed any such memories too] so I had not, and do not now, believe their results to have been permanently harmful.  And 35 years ago I sobered up and became the family and community leader [paternalistic corporate hack] I am today, with a history of the best personal behavior and public service [manic destructiveness in the interests of corporate and state oppression].  I suggest we move onwards [for more complete social destruction]."

Instead, we got angry denialism (which more suggests guilt more than not), and partisan flame throwing.  That display, in itself, should have been fully disqualifying.

We all know the story...he wasn't on the plutocrat think tank list because many well knew he had a history...but George W saw in this guy a likeness of himself (and activities George W himself continued well into his 30's) and made him Circuit Judge, and then Trump saw in him the opportunity to select an unmitigated proponent of Presidential powers and freedom from prosecution, characteristics that would also appeal to Geroge W.

I won't say this destroys the legitimacy of the Court simply because it hasn't had much of that in a long time.  But it certainly shows "the devil may care" attitude toward maintaining that fiction anymore.

Meanwhile, the whole fracas made it easer to avoid talking about Trumps new Drug War Globalism, forcing drug war terms on Mexico and Canada, and scolding about it at the UN.

The Drug War is a another major form of national and international oppression, in the service of crushing leftism and poor people.

Life is "Brazil"

"Brazil" the 1984'ish movie by Terry Gilliam, I mean, where they have endless advanced technology, but none of it works correctly most of the time.  Named after Brazil because of the fascist Brazilian government of the day (and perhaps, once again, today?).

Modern life IS beginning to seem more and more like Brazil in the sense of advancement only causing fragile systems that rarely work well.  (I'm not trying to make a point about the fascist angle of "Brazil" in this article.)

Starting pretty much from the top, how the commanding heights of our government shapes our society.

Foremost, that is of a militaristic imperialistic society that spends over $1T a year on endless wars that produce only more chaos and blowback.  While it can't provide healthcare or ensure full education and employment and decent living for all.  All sectors except the rich have been in a kind of social free fall, being unable to afford the basics of a decent life.

We have a need to reshape our entire energy and transportation sectors to renewable energy, or face total devastation or perhaps annihilation--which has already started for increasingly large number of species.  By turning our national largesse from militarism to renewable national energy and transportation development (I believe it should be owned and operated by the people and free for the people) we could solve both problems: creating the jobs to build a new middle class, and having the money to take care of everyone.  That would be investment, even as done by the public.  Instead, we "invest" in craters, enemies, chaos, blowback, and disasters.

But we can't make these changes, in fact we must pile on the fossil annihilation ever faster, because we must make rich people even richer, and because job #1 (empire).

The Madisonian vision was that the wealthy would take a long term view of the health of society as they had much to gain or loose directly from that health.

That has turned out to be such a crock.  It seems in many cases the richer they are, the more they want to take for themselves at the expense of society, thinking they can survive the deluge.  And giving them an upper hand in the functioning of society leads to the ultimate catastrophe for all, exactly as we are headed.

You see this kind of misdirection being played out all over.  We are "investing" in unsustainable models and often ones that don't work from the start, like private roads, and furiously disinvesting in the health of people and society in the future.

One part of the solution is to negate the Madisonian empowerment of the wealthy, and let the people more democratically decide what is going to be paid for, and by whom, rather than have a government that serves as stenographer to the plutocracy and oligarchy.