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Anthony Flack wrote: Mon Jun 27, 2022 4:09 pm ...Quite a legacy for the Notorious RBG to leave behind. She had no regrets.

This narrative about Ginsburg needs to stop, it's astronomically facile.

Why did Ginsburg linger with the Court for so long? Because they all do, since there is no mandatory retirement.

But it's way more than that: currently, to get to the point where you will be considered for a position on the court, you have to single-mindedly pursue the anointed path to the court by first heavily ingratiating yourself into the shadow aristocracy that runs the U.S., then firmly brainwash yourself into thinking the rule of law--as currently constituted in the U.S.--works; you can get away with acknowledging that it's not a perfect system but you must believe that it is the best of all possible systems.

That only partially begins to explain the deranged personality you must possess to be on the court.

You have to also look at the entire history of the supreme court and the evolution of its various, ridiculous, doctrines that are used to either frustrate litigants or bar them from even stepping into court in the first place; when you start to understand that, you should realize that the only real problem is the court itself.

Wouldn't it be great if tomorrow the Democrats said "well, we realized that no matter what we do, we're going to get accused of illegitimacy by the right, so we decided to do all of the things they're going to accuse us of doing anyway, since it's what they're already doing"?

ErickC wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 2:35 pm Wouldn't it be great if tomorrow the Democrats said "well, we realized that no matter what we do, we're going to get accused of illegitimacy by the right, so we decided to do all of the things they're going to accuse us of doing anyway, since it's what they're already doing"?

And this is what they're doing instead:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 ... judge.html

Anthony Flack wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 2:32 am But he says not to worry, because he considers it "settled law".

Which is exactly what the three appointees to the SC said under oath when interviewed for the position.

penningtron wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 2:42 pm And this is what they're doing instead:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 ... judge.html

Ugh. Mitch always looks like an ageing slug that just got back from a 3 day bender.

Curry Pervert wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 4:41 pm Which is exactly what the three appointees to the SC said under oath when interviewed for the position.

My point exactly.

Hairy Caul wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 10:04 am This narrative about Ginsburg needs to stop, it's astronomically facile.

Which narrative, the hero narrative or the egotistical fool narrative? The game is rigged but she still played her hand terribly. Everybody knew when it was time to call her boat in. Prattling on in that last interview about all her achievements that she was so proud of. Never mind that she'd blown up the whole thing. Well, her and gutless Obama and gutless Biden. Tired, pathetic old Biden, the man of the moment. Mitch McConnell's good friend and the guy who threw Anita Hill under the bus. Rising to the occasion as only he can.

Yeah, the court itself is the real problem. Having the future of the US, possibly the world, hinging on the timing of an old lady's death. What could be more undemocratic and arbitrary than that? Everything about the Supreme Court is ridiculous. They should send them all back to Hogwarts.

But everything about the structure of US government is the problem. It's all archaic and corrupted and dysfunctional and ridiculous. Americans aren't worse than other people, 30% of people everywhere are fucking monsters if given the chance, but it's only when certain conditions arise that they seize power. It will be an even bigger problem if the Republicans succeed in turning the US into a kleptocratic one-party gangster state like Russia. The fight is only going to get harder and when democracy dies the fight won't be at the ballot box but with car bombs.

Maybe the seriousness is starting to cut through now at last. Even Adam Kinzinger is calling GOP extremists what they are, Christian Taliban. But it's always too little, too late. You can tell people if they don't vote for Hillary then Roe is as good as dead, but they won't take it seriously until after it all happens and then they go "oh".

Some day in the future, I expect that people will agree that avoiding the worst effects of climate change would definitely have been a good idea. Remember back in the 90s, they said if we start the transition now, we can still save the climate. It was all too hard back then, but compared to now it all seems quite achievable, and so it was. Now they're saying ok that old climate we had for all of human history is gone now, we didn't save it, in fact our failure to act has destroyed that forever as predicted, whoops, but if we start the transition now, there's still a chance to avoid "the worst".

Still a chance? Well let's come back to it when there's no hope left at all, and we'll reassess whether it's time to get serious.

I guess I'm just ranting.

Looking at the SC's recent ruling, buttressed by the Jan 6th hearings, it's fucking myopic. The rules are being changed in favor of the minority and the minority will end up ruling for decades, perhaps generations, until the rules can be changed again. An ignorant, apathetic population that either doesn't vote or votes on short term goals has allowed a minority of shysters to take over power. No wonder the GOP fell in line with Trump, they saw the path to achieve their goals, and he was evil and brash enough to achieve it. The Jan 6th hearing is just a small story that in my mind explains a complex conspiracy that has been in the works for generations, which is playing out on the SC this summer. Roe was just the tip of the ice berg. We're going to see rulings on cases that have to do with separation of church and state (already happening, in favor of the church), state independence on choosing electors for federal elections, and more on cases that align with GOP ideology just to change the precedent, and then the rules.

It's fucking mind blowing to me that the court can ignore precedent, only to create new precedent, that then has to be followed because of the new precedent. How easy a nation can fall with just a few bad actors.

I will not be surprised, should (when, rather) the republicans take the majority of congress and the presidency, that they end up adding 5 justices to the Supreme Court, with Mitch McConnell on the mic saying the republicans have responded to the public's interest in adding more justices to the court. He'll say it in the most cynical McConnell way, it will probably cause a lot of people to commit suicide.

Once the SC rules in favor of the Independent State Legislature Doctrine--because they will, why wouldn't they--the end game is upon us all. There will be nothing left but violence, because your vote won't matter anymore.

I don't think this is hyperbole. I'd like to be proven wrong. We'll see soon enough, I guess.

We can't even agree as a society what reality is today, even when evidence is put forth. Imagine how difficult things will be in the near future when half the population is going to be educated with religious indoctrination by state and/or federal mandate. The middle class will be eventually wiped out, labor laws will be gutted, voting rights will be gone in practicality, and the majority of the populace will no longer own property. We'll have a lot more poor people, our economy will be rent-based, and eventually we'll fall out of favor on the global stage and become irrelevant.

All this, just so some inbred southerner named Billy Bob can own the libs.

Past me would have theorized the SC is getting in all these changes because they know hard right candidates don't have a chance of winning most elections, but seeing how weak the overall Democrat response to this has been, it doesn't even fucking matter if the Democrats win. Sinema didn't miss a beat saying she'd oppose any (probably too late to matter) filibuster changes to undo this, which is unbelievably brazen and stupid. Manchin would have done the same anyway, so why make your already difficult reelection chances harder than it already will be. (I suspect several other Democrat senators are aligned with Manchin & Sinema, they just let those two take the blowback. The vote on $15 min wage revealed some of that.)

I'm really, really struggling to see some sort of silver lining in all this..