Absolutely. My family is feverishly working on how to leave this hellscape of a country we’re in. The United States is dead.
A bit melodramatic. Unless 95% of the rest of the world is a hellscape of a country too.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died
421–430 of 1001 posts
Re: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died
#422Of course a president should not appoint a judge on the last few months of his term, should he?
One possible strategy for Trump (which would be very much out of character) would be to wait out of respect for RBG and/or the Garland precedent. Meanwhile, he uses the empty seat as a campaign issue to keep reluctant conservatives from jumping ship.
Yep. This is what I fully expect to happen. It's despicable, but it makes way too much sense. You motivate moderate conservatives, and if you win you get to claim the moral high ground. If you lose, you push a lame duck justice through anyway. This is a gift from a campaign strategy point of view.
I feel terrible focusing on the political maelstrom and not RBG's legacy, but these are also important conversations to have.
Re: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died
#423Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They do not give a fuck Something that the Democrats need to realize is that they (especially Obama) assumed too much good faith in the congressional GOP. You can stick to your principles while doing it but, when you are against a party who now considers its last nominee (Romney) a radical BLM leftist, when they go low you need to be ready to kick them in the head.
Democrat senators Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid first introduced a filibuster for judicial nominees, and then ending the filibuster for judicial nominees when it was politically convenient for them. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/mitch-mcconn... Do you think that might have affected the ability of the current president to successfully appoint a supreme court justice now?
There are so many unpacked assumptions and unevaluated arguments here it would take a book to work through them all.
To give a short version - if you oppose a filibuster, then don't use it to prevent Merrick Garland from being on the court.
Nothing about Schumer's position on the filibuster in 2002 can be used to argue that the trajectory of court appointments since then is a culmination of any logically consistent argument in response to it.
Re: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died
#424The potential ramifications of this are chilling. If the Republicans mishandle this, it could drastically increase the chances of widespread conflict around the time of the elections.
It seems to me that widespread conflict is exactly what Trump republicans want. Just this weeks' news: mass hysterectomies in ICE camps, Trump's tirade on rewriting school history books on slavery, overt mail service destruction, more anti-mask rhetoric, and the list goes on and on. They're putting the pedal to the metal.
>mass hysterectomies in ICE camps
It seems quite a bit over the top. Do you really think it's true?
Re: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died
#425Absolutely. My family is feverishly working on how to leave this hellscape of a country we’re in. The United States is dead.
I’m sad to say you may find the grass is always greener on the other side - government corruption exists everywhere that government exists.
Nah. I’ve lived in other countries, but none as long as America. It is truely the door through which satan enters the world.
Re: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died
#426> According to her granddaughter Clara Spera, Ginsburg said, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/13071014175225610...
There would seem to be precedent for this now. Justice Antonin Scalia died in February of 2016, a replacement was nominated in March of 2016, and because Scalia's seat had become vacant during an election year, the Senate would not even consider a nomination from the president [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick_Garland_Supreme_Court_...
The Democrats wanted the nomination to go through, but the Republicans blocked it. There's no real precedent unless both parties are for it.
Re: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died
#427Earlier quoted context omitted.
The distinction being that the opposition controlled the senate under Obama and he was too weak a president to take up the case that he had a right to have his nominees even considered. They didn’t just stop him from picking a justice, he abdicated his power by not pushing back.
What do you mean, too weak a president? The president can’t push back on that—-the senate confirms justices, that’s in the constitution: ... and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States...
The point is that he could have called McConnell out and demanded the advice of the Senate (which would have required at least holding hearings).
Re: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died
#428Unfortunately modern activists and politicians want to make it seem like no reasonable person could disagree with them. This makes it impossible to engage in a dialogue and bridge a gap.
The problem is that those activists and politicians you refer to are a reflection of what way too many voters genuinely want.
Is it though? Most people are more politically center and the extremes of the political spectrum keep trying to pull politicians towards the extremes. When that failed to work, they started pulling out the "you're either with us or against us" card forcing people to pick sides or be ostracized if they risked being nuanced.
Re: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died
#429Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hillary won the popular vote by 1.1% and currently the Republicans hold a razor thin Senate majority and have been substantially outpaced by Democrats in the House, so I'm not really sure where you get the idea that there's a "far disproportionate share of power/representation". It seems pretty proportionate to me.
You look at the core beliefs of the Republican Party: Anti-Abortion: about or above sixty percent of Americans support legal abortions Climate change: two thirds of Americans view it as a top priority and that the benefits of action outweigh the costs Guns: sixty percent to two-thirds of Americans support stricter gun control. 90–92% support mandatory background checks Taxing Wealthy: again, sixty percent to two thir…
Polls are notoriously unreliable and easy to manipulate. "Lies, damned lies, and statistics". I'm not even saying that you're wrong -- I'm saying that we have no way to know whether you're correct or not based on the numbers you threw out. We would need some good sources to even begin to evaluate the truth of these assertions.
The assertions themselves are so unbelievably vague that they could easily go either way with cherry-picked polling. Most people support abortion in cases of rape, so if you do a poll asking if people think some abortion should be legal, you will easily get a majority. If you ask about easy access to abortion in the 9th month, you get far lower levels of support. Saying "most support legal abortions" is practically meaningless without specifying what type of abortion they support.
Re: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died
#430Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It only takes a majority in the senate and house to add a seat to the SCOTUS Exactly. If Biden wins and the senate flips, they'll just add two justices (for 11 total) to get a majority. The right will scream bloody murder, but won't be able to do anything about it.
Four. Whatever trump got plus one for Garland. Also make DC a state on day 1.
I for one, hope to all hell, this doesn't happen. It would make the supreme court just an extension of any party in power of presidency and senate.
This is also, not to say I want freaking TRUMP to appoint the next justice. I just don't want to see it become a game of who's got the most votes.
I was very opposed to Obama losing his appointment.
I just don't want the precedent of 9 to change.