Ginsburg

[Brian Roth]

Two things about a Big Shift for the SCOTUS:

1.  Killing Obamacare.  I was initially annoyed years ago because it was mandatory vs. paying a penalty for not enrolling.  I signed up while grumbling BUT glad I did.  As a guy too young for Medicare (and working in a dying biz....Pro Audio) health insurance costs were insane at my age....a couple thou a month for anything decent and I had no health probs.  In 2016 I had a "gut malfunction" which sent me to the hospital for three days, and the bills ran to five figures.  Obamacare saved my bacon.  At age 66, I pray that Medicare stays around, even with the hundreds/month I pay in for Part B plus supplement insurance.  I also worry about my 91 year old Mom who relies on Medicare while depleting her savings for supplement coverage.  Mom and I paid into Medicare.....perhaps not enough to cover out bills as we age, but dying should not be the price for not being rich.

2.  I am "agnostic" re. abortion, but I can see how Roe v. Wade can be repealed.

Bri

 

[fazer]

All kinds of facts .  Let’s throw out any good facts and portray the ugly as if that’s the only facts .  Let’s compare history to today as if time and history never changes.  Let’s look at 600000 dead from the civil war over the ending of slavery.  140 years ago.  Let’s look at 60 years ago and ignore that lives are better today than that time period.  Let’s look at the accomplishment of the civil right legislation led to an unexpected outcome of people trapped in a system that was setup with the best of intention but led to fatherless family’s trapped i. Subsidized housing and segregated neighborhoods.  I’m ready for some changes but people like Andrew Yang who is a very smart and patriotic leader with real ideas that don’t punish the people they are trying to help is out and a 78 year old man with obvious mental challenges and a woman who dropped out before the Iowa caucus beCause no one liked her and would not give her money is the choice from the party your so in love with?  We are being played by the parties that only care about Money Andy power.  There are all kinds of facts about the Roman republic.  Some very brutal facts but that doesn’t take away from the greatness of the achievements.  1941 the US entered the war and helped to defeat the Nazis.  NATO was to be participating nations contributing to the financial needs of keeping Europe a free zone with military strength.  Has Germany finally contributed their 2% .  Or how about the other nations.  There are many roads to go down.  The one presented I. That article is one ugly picture.  There are truths in it but there are also facts not presented and these tribal heads are still operating them as a sovereign nation.  Not like a democracy.  Some have great mineral rights others have gambling and they have free legal services from government Agencies like the MMS, BLM BIA.  Some cultures want to preserve a heritage and some are embracing a modern world.    We all need to do some of that .  In Europe I guess were just always going to be the ugly American but that’s your narrative not mine.  So I say how dare you accuse me or the people I know in this country (silent majority) how dare you!

 

[Matador]

Ummm.....what?

 

[fazer]

Rambling on.  I’m mad over Livingsounds suggestions of doing away with senators from less populated states.  Wisdom from Berlin.  You really have no idea how things work here.  And then let’s throw a shame on white people professor article. 

The Supreme Court is not going to takeaway Obama care and there will be no overturn of row wade .  These are all scare tactics to manipulate people to vote Democrat. 

The economy was rocking In the US until the pandemic.  So let’s piss on people’s history to make us think we we’re never great. 

It’s an election year and I should just let it go but I hear no sense from Germany and I won’t let that go.   

How about people in the us.  Do you want to get rid of some senators from every state? That’s how the house works . Never the senate.    Never! 

 

[boji]

My first instinct about majorities being basically about power is that it's an oversimplification for what might occur within a pure democracy, which we of course do not have. Was going to cite Federalist #9 & #10, where the sense is we struck a workable compromise regarding factionalism and points anti-federalists made that LS may have been channeling.  But I am not a constitutional scholar. Didn't want to debate about something that might put me under water. ;D

 

[living sounds]

fazer, I get where you're coming from. But it's not really my positions you are argueing against.

Let me clarify: I am a big fan of many of the historical achievements of the US. Here it is usually me defending your countrymen in discussions against anti-American attacks from the left as well as the right.

Also, I do not love the Democrats or think they are perfect in any way. It's just that the other side is so much worse right now.

Things hardly ever are just black and white.

I also don't think it is helpfull in any way to frame the issues in national terms. It is about policy. Neoliberal thinking originated in the US, but it infected the whole globe for decades.

You probably perceive my words here or Chompskys writing purely as negativity, but it is simply about naming things that can and should be improved. I see it as matter-of-fact, problem solving tasks, not an attack on national pride. Maybe because, as a German, the concept is pretty alien to me.

I could bore you with a long list of things that need changing here, too, but globally it really doesn't matter as much as the US, from which the whole (western) world takes its cues and on which the world relies to function.

And the Supreme Court certainly matters. Voter disenfrenchisment, unlimited money in campaigns and a host of other issues are as bad as they are because of the conservative majority. Of course they will try to take abortion rights and health care away. And foster policies that widen inequality. This is not a time to be naive.

The GOP has shown itself to be the party of naked, corporate greed and selfish power-seeking with little regard for most of the people who put them in power. It really is that bad, and the sooner people realize this, the better.

Ideally, the US would get rid of the winner-takes-all system so partys can rise that are not as tainted by special interests. But right now the Democrats surely are the lesser evil.

 

[living sounds]

BTW, I just read about China expanding forced labor programs for Tibetans. Right now the world needs the US to be that shining city on a hill with a moral standing to counter these developments. Every authoritarian regime can point at the corrupt Trump administration (how many campaign and cabinet members have been convicted now?) that churns out a plethora of lies with impunity and puts children in cages and suggest you are no different.

I wish there were an FDR, but right now the choice is between Biden and Trump, so it has to be Biden.

 

[hodad]

The Supreme Court is not going to takeaway Obama care and there will be no overturn of row wade . 

Why not?  Do you actually follow the court, or keep up with anti-abortion laws in the several states?  If you did, you'd know that access to safe & legal abortions has diminished substantially in many states--to the point where people in many places have to drive hundreds of miles to get an abortion.  The Supreme Court has not overturned Roe v. Wade but it has allowed this slow strangling of abortion rights that some states (and the conservative think tanks that write these laws in the first place) have been engaged in. 

It's possible Roe v. Wade won't be overturned by a yet more conservative Supreme Court, but it's not at all unreasonable to speculate that access to safe & legal abortions will be further diminished in the future.  They're doing it already; is there actually any reason at all that it won't continue with a 6-3 ultra-conservative majority?

 

[fazer]

The Harris Biden ticket is a shell game.  Both have referred to the ticket in this way in speeches. 

As far as leadership what about the the Middle East accomplishment in recent weeks.  No mention and heaven forbid the non coverage by the lame stream press. 

Anyway back to Ginsberg.  I hope the senate waits till after the election to choose a new justice . 

The constitution is the sacred document to follow not change.  Some adjustments will be made with amendments. 

 

[living sounds]

The Harris Biden ticket is a shell game.  Both have referred to the ticket in this way in speeches. 

As far as leadership what about the the Middle East accomplishment in recent weeks.  No mention and heaven forbid the non coverage by the lame stream press. 

Shell game? I'm afraid I don't know what this is about.


As for the Middle East deals, I have seen it covered in the media I read. There is some reality check about those here:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KABrwjgVr6cJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/09/15/trump-deals-bahrain-uae-kosovo-serbia/+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=de&client=firefox-b-d

 

[hodad]

Shell game? I'm afraid I don't know what this is about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_game

I have no idea what fazer means though.  I don't think either Biden or Harris has referred to the ticket this way, as fazer suggests they have. 

 

[Recording Engineer]

I don’t know either, but based on the repeat of one of Trump’s many mantras, lame stream media, and that he put Harris Biden and not Biden Harris (most likely on purpose), I’m wildly guessing it’s something to do with that.

 

[iturnknobs]

Anyway back to Ginsberg.  I hope the senate waits till after the election to choose a new justice . 

This is only fair given 2016. To do otherwise will understandably and rightfully cause unrest.

 

[Winston OBoogie]

It would have been nice if a respectful amount of  time had elapsed after R.B.G.'s death before talk of filling her still warm seat became an issue.  Oh well.

On Isreal, UAE, and Bahrain:  Sure, credit has to be given that a formalized agreement was signed. 
But I'm not sure we can call this a 'peace' agreement since relations between the 3 have been far from acrimonious for quite some time already.

How many Palestinian people think of this as a 'peace' agreement? 

Anyway,  Britain sure has a lot to answer for in leaving that place in a mess after making double promises during WW2... 

 

[scott2000]

what would make sense is subtracting Senators from states that are mostly farmland and adding them to the most populous areas.

Mostly farmland? Meaning land that is used solely to farm? Or land that isn't being used yet? Or land that can't be used?
That article mentions CA,TX and NY as densely populated... Not sure that's really accurate. CA has a population density of more than double that of Texas. Hard to imagine what that looks like without seeing it. CA has about a third PD of Germany so maybe that can give a clue...

Or divide states like California into smaller states.

So what does Germany do and what would this look like for CA assuming you are talking about splitting up California like Germany does it's states.


RIP Mrs. Ginsburg

 

[living sounds]

So what does Germany do and what would this look like for CA assuming you are talking about splitting up California like Germany does it's states.

Ideally Senators would be awarded proportionally. That's the way Germany's Bundesrat (upper house that represents the Länder, which are comparable to US States) works. 100 is a nice, round number, but doesn't make for good democratic representation.

 

[fazer]

Today i choose to recognize Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the service she has given this country.  A great Justice who served the American people.  Her vast accomplishments should serve as inspiration for all men and women.

Ideally Senators would be awarded proportionally. That's the way Germany's Bundesrat (upper house that represents the Länder, which are comparable to US States) works. 100 is a nice, round number, but doesn't make for good democratic representation.

Thumbs down.  That’s what the house does already.  How many times do I have to say it? 

 

[living sounds]

Thumbs down.  That’s what the house does already.  How many times do I have to say it?

What kind of an argument is that?

 

[Matador]

There is no argument that can be made, other than "that's the way it is".

It makes absolutely no sense as to why land gets a vote in the Senate.  The usual retort is that otherwise we would have 'tyranny of the majority', however we've just replaced that with 'tyranny of the minority' where the vote of a North Dakota voter is given equal weight to seven California voters.  Given that land has no political affiliation it's just absurd.

And we also haven't discussed how an entire nation's reproductive rights hinge in the passing of a single 87 year old woman.

 

[iturnknobs]

The body is still warm, how about RIP for a well respected jurist?

JR

Your well intentioned comments might be more effective over in the Breitbart comments section. Most people here are actually worried about the ramifications of what has happened and what is about to ensue. RBG would want people to immediately work towards the proper solution to her demise. The opposite will likely be the result. RIP democracy.
[/quote]

...or you could contact the political party you support concerning this matter

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/27/amy-coney-barrett-nrsc-sells-notorious-acb-t-shirts/3554172001/