Yesterday Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer signaled that Senate Democrats would try to filibuster Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.

"I cannot support Judge Neil Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court. His nomination will have a cloture vote. He will have to earn 60 votes for confirmation."

If Schumer is right, Senate Republicans will have to decide whether they want to go "nuclear" -- blow up the filibuster and hold a straight simple-majority vote on Gorsuch.

A lot is at stake here - especially for women's rights.

If you listen to the media, they'd have you believe that Neil Gorsuch is someone who, while conservative, is still a lawyer's lawyer -- a reasonable guy. And then you look at his actual positions, and he comes off looking like a hardcore reactionary. So who is this guy?

I think most Americans who are generally aware of politics first heard of Gorsuch during the Hobby Lobby birth control mandate case when he essentially said that corporations are capable of religious beliefs. If he's confirmed, Gorsuch could very well decide the fate of Roe v. Wade. This was his answer during his confirmation hearings when California Senator Dianne Feinstein asked him about abortion:

"Sen. Feinstein: Do you view Roe has having super precedent?

Judge Gorsuch: Well, Senator, super precedent is a...

Sen. Feinstein: In numbers, 44...

Judge Gorsuch: It has been reaffirmed many times. I can say that, yes.

Sen. Feinstein: Yes, dozens."

That's a very ambiguous answer. Can we trust Gorsuch on women's rights?

-Thom

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10:30pm... Do We Want a Society where Hopes, Fears & Secrets Are Monetized? (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

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Article: "Ronald Reagan's Warning About Socialized Medicine - Video and complete transcript".

Article: "Medicare "Part E"- for Everybody" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "Threshold: The Progressive Plan to Pull America Back from the Brink" by Thom Hartmann

Article: "This 32-Year-Old Florida Woman Is Dead Because Her State Refused To Expand Medicaid" by Tara Culp-Ressler.

Article: "The GOP health bill is a $600 billion tax cut - almost entirely for the wealthy" by Dylan Matthews.

Article: "Ryan-aligned super PAC pulls support from GOP member who opposes healthcare bill" by Lisa Hagen.

Article: "The biggest foreign lease holder in Canada's oil sands isn't Exxon Mobil or Chevron. It's the Koch brothers." by Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin.

Article: "Keystone XL: Trump issues permit to begin construction of pipeline" by Amber Jamieson and Adam Vaughan.

Article: "Clear Skies Act of 2003" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Clean Water Act", 1972.

Article: "Dear Mom-about your 50 year nursing career & Medicaid... Woman's post PLOWS the GOP" by Leslie Salzillo.

Tweet: "the problem is the Rich. Their biggest fear is the people standing together. #eattherich" by Dj severin.

Tweet: "Republican's seem to have hive minds without the capacity for empathy. At times I ask " are they human, or aliens?" by Beatrice Druid.

Video: Gorsuch Nomination Hearing -- Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse opening statement.

Article: "Whitehouse Remarks At Gorsuch Confirmation Hearing" by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.

Article: "10th Amendment" "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people"

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann (read online).

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Cold extermination: One of greatest mass extinctions was due to an ice age and not to Earth's warming" by Université de Genève.

Article: "Computer operating system and short movie stored on DNA" by Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Clip: Phone conversation between President Lyndon Johnson and Sen. Everett Dirksen (R) 968. "Here's the latest information we've got... This is treason. ... "

Book: "October Surprise" by Barbara Honegger.

Book: "October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan" by Gary Sick.

Hour Two: Yet Another Coup for the Billionaires...
- Greg Palast, The Guardian/Rolling Stone Magazine/The Best Democracy Money Can Buy      

Article: "Trump administration approves Keystone XL pipeline" by Elise Labott and Jeremy Diamond.

Article: "Kochs pledge millions to GOPers in 2018 -- if they vote no on health care bill" by Theodore Schleifer.

Article: "Americans for Prosperity" by Wikipedia.

Site: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.

Video: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.

 

Article: "How often does Pope Francis go to confession?" by Cindy Wooden.

Book: "The Prophet's Way" by Thom Hartmann

Article: "Watch the Life Drain From Sean Spicer as He Defends Trump's Obviously Doomed Health Bill" by Sidney Fussell.

Article: "Read President Trump's Interview With TIME on Truth and Falsehoods" by Time.

Article: "Trump wants 'as little as possible' in intel briefs" by Gabby Morrongiello.

Article: "Trump plans to hold summit with Xi at Florida resort in April: report".

Article: "Zaha Hadid Architects unveils 666 Fifth Avenue skyscraper for Kushner Companies" by Dan Howarth.

Article: "The GOP's Stealth War Against Voters" (Crosscheck) by Greg Palast, August 24, 2016.

 

Neil Gorsuch's Backward Views On Working Women
- Angélique Roché, Ms. Foundation for Women    

Article: "Ms. Foundation for Women Opposes Confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch".

Article: "Ms. Foundation for Women Statement on Release of Trump Administration's Budget Proposal".

Article: "Former Law Student Warns Senate of Neil Gorsuch's Backwards Views on Working Women" by Prachi Gupta.

Article: "Hobby Lobby and executive power: Gorsuch's key rulings" by Steve Vladeck.

Article: "Chuck Schumer: Democrats Will Filibuster Neil Gorsuch's Nomination" by Amanda Terkel, Jennifer Bendery.

Article: "Merrick Garland" by Wikipedia.

 

Movie: "Soylent Green".

Article: "Trump Budget Director Takes Aim at "Wasteful" Social Security Program That Helps Disabled Americans" (Mick Mulvaney, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)) by Zaid Jilani.

 

Talk Media News Segment:
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Article: "U.S. sanctions 30 firms, individuals for aiding Iran, North Korea arms programs" by David Alexande.

Article: "Exodus Feared At State Department As Top Officials Resign" by Abigail Tracy, January 26, 2017.

Article: "Conservative website only media on Tillerson plane to Asia" by Yeganeh Torbati.

Law: "Iran, North Korea, Syria Nonproliferation Act".

Article: "Tillerson promises new policy on North Korea after '20 years of a failed approach'" by Matt Rivers and Joshua Berlinger.

Article: "Trump administration weighing broad sanctions on North Korea: US official" by Reuters.

Article: "Mnuchin: Automation won't replace human labor for '50 or 100' years" by Luke Vargas.

Article: "US airdrops Syrian forces near Raqqa in surprise attack on Isil" by Josie Ensor.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Hour Three: Building the New American Economy
- Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair, & Sustainable/Columbia University    

Article: "As Many as 24 Million People Could Lose Their Health Care Coverage If GOP Gets Away with Repealing Obamacare" by Steven Rosenfeld.

 

Quote: "More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." - Woody Allen.

Article: "Marco Rubio Quietly Undermines Affordable Care Act" by Robert Pear.

Article: "Explaining 'Risk Corridors,' The Next Obamacare Issue" by Louise Radnofsky and Jennifer Corbett Dooren, Jan 22, 2014.

Article: "Theresa May speech in full: Prime Minister says London terror attack suspect 'tried to silence our democracy'" by Lizzie Dearden.

Article: "Senate Republicans Vote to Strip Americans of Online Privacy Protections" by Timothy Karr.

Speech: "Farewell Address", by Dwight David Eisenhower, January 17, 1961 (transcript). "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex."

Book: The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by Vincent Bugliosi.

Movie: "The Prosecution of an American President".

Site: Gentle Disposition.

Quote: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." - Benjamin Franklin.

Article: "Sick man robs bank for $1, demands jail and healthcare" by Cory Doctorow, Jun 21, 2011.

Article: "'Affordable care' - Oregon man robs bank for $1 to be arrested and get free healthcare" by RT, 28 Aug, 2013.

Article: "Go to Jail for Free Health Care? 5 Desperate People Who Tried" by Kevin Mathews.

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