I wrote about the first Alito flag flap last week. My enthusiasm flagged so I didn’t pounce on the WaPo’s admission that they knew about the story and had even interviewed the Alitos before sitting on it like The Fonz. Apparently, the WaPo’s old school court reporter Bob Barnes and then senior managing editor Cameron Barr decided the story wasn’t worthy. But that was in a pre-Dobbs pre-Harlan Crow world: SCOTUS deference is out, and scrutiny is in.
I originally considered naming the WaPo malaka of the week, but they deserve a scintilla of credit for publishing a story about the non-publication:
The Post decided not to report on the episode at the time because the flag-raising appeared to be the work of Martha-Ann Alito, rather than the justice, and connected to a dispute with her neighbors, a Post spokeswoman said. It was not clear then that the argument was rooted in politics, the spokeswoman said.
What about the fuck Trump sign described to the NYT? I want a refund on that scintilla of credit thing.
Mrs. Alito pitched an unjudicial fit when the WaPo’s Bob Barnes visited Casa Alito to inquire about the flag flap:
Martha-Ann Alito then got out of the car and shouted in apparent reference to the neighbors: “Ask them what they did!” She said yard signs about the couple had been placed in the neighborhood. After getting back in the car, she exited again and then brought out from their residence a novelty flag, the type that would typically decorate a garden. She hoisted it up the flagpole. “There! Is that better?” she yelled.
Things got even more contentious when the NYT dropped the second flag story:
Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs.
This time, it was the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War, but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms.
One of my favorite Talking Heads songs posited that, “Heaven is the place. A place where nothing ever happens.”
I hate to disagree with lyricist David Byrne, but the Alito’s Christian nationalist heaven is a happening place much like this old Supremes tune:
Anyone who thinks Sam the Sham Alito isn’t biased in handling Trump and Dipshit Insurrection cases also believes that the Kaiser of Chaos didn’t shtup Stormy Daniels. It’s incredible how incredulous some people can be when the facts conflict with their politics.
I try my damnedest to remain factual even when it conflicts with my opinions. I am a clear-eyed stone cold realist. Let’s run this by Joe Friday:
Christian Nationalism is a festering sore on our body politic. Most Christian Nationalists are Protestants, but the Alitos are Catholics. It’s unclear if either subscribes to the far right tenets of Opus Dei; nothing would surprise me about Sam the Sham and Martha-Ann.
Life has been good to the Alitos, but they’re angry people who fly flags to express their rage. In a word: Pitiful.
I did some flag song research at Second Hand Songs. com. Here are the fruits of my flaggy labor:
The last word is a personal message from the late John Prine to Sam the Sham Alito:
