Anything related to the midterms.
Would it not be wonderful if they kept the House too?
Of course they would screw it up by not doing anything for two years but it would be wonderful just the same.
And all I want is two things - voting rights act and get rid of the filibuster. Just those two things would do more to protect American than anything else they could do.
Yes! I'd also add remove the debt ceiling, or somehow change the procedure, so it can't be used as political blackmail.
Yes! I'd also add remove the debt ceiling, or somehow change the procedure, so it can't be used as political blackmail.
Warren was calling for that on the talk shows this weekend. Hopefully she can get it done
Would it not be wonderful if they kept the House too?
Of course they would screw it up by not doing anything for two years but it would be wonderful just the same.
And all I want is two things - voting rights act and get rid of the filibuster. Just those two things would do more to protect American than anything else they could do.
Triple the size of SCOTUS. Nothing else matters as long there are ideological hacks overturning good laws. They just nullified pre-clearance and punted on gerrymandering, you think they give a f*ck about the voting rights act?
All of your ideas are great but I tried to pick the smallest number of things that I think would really be necessary.
I mean if I want to really ask for the moon I want them to fix the House to again be about population. It was setup so that the Senate gave two senators for each state so all states had representation but the House was supposed to be based on population so that the people were represented. But in 1929 they passed The Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 which locked the size at 435 so no matter how small the population of Wyoming gets they will still get some representation and no matter how huge California gets they won't get proportional representation.
Expanding SCOTUS is the smallest thing necessary, because nothing else good will stick. Everything else is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
13 to match districts makes the most sense. Should have been done long before now. And hell if the GOP gets another chance they might do it in 2024.
I mean if I want to really ask for the moon I want them to fix the House to again be about population. It was setup so that the Senate gave two senators for each state so all states had representation but the House was supposed to be based on population so that the people were represented. But in 1929 they passed The Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 which locked the size at 435 so no matter how small the population of Wyoming gets they will still get some representation and no matter how huge California gets they won't get proportional representation.
It's actually not that disproportional - despite all the jokes, every state has between 500k and a million people per representative, and most of them are somewhere in the middle. There's certainly some discrepancy but it's nowhere near the "their vote counts five times as much as mine" that you hear all the time.
The real problem is that with a smaller number of districts it's a lot easier to gerrymander them into things like the Snake on the Lake and the Duck District. Maybe we really just need a law that district borders have to follow some kind of feature - a county or city line, a river, or if strictly necessary a road - and you only get to pick a certain number of them, so you can't have a district defined by 73 distinct borders.
farley3k wrote:Would it not be wonderful if they kept the House too?
Of course they would screw it up by not doing anything for two years but it would be wonderful just the same.
And all I want is two things - voting rights act and get rid of the filibuster. Just those two things would do more to protect American than anything else they could do.
Triple the size of SCOTUS. Nothing else matters as long there are ideological hacks overturning good laws. They just nullified pre-clearance and punted on gerrymandering, you think they give a f*ck about the voting rights act?
So in 2-6 years when there is a GOP president and Senate, what then?
Mixolyde wrote:farley3k wrote:Would it not be wonderful if they kept the House too?
Of course they would screw it up by not doing anything for two years but it would be wonderful just the same.
And all I want is two things - voting rights act and get rid of the filibuster. Just those two things would do more to protect American than anything else they could do.
Triple the size of SCOTUS. Nothing else matters as long there are ideological hacks overturning good laws. They just nullified pre-clearance and punted on gerrymandering, you think they give a f*ck about the voting rights act?
So in 2-6 years when there is a GOP president and Senate, what then?
They'll have to write laws that pass a 21-6 decent human majority, or start murdering justices.
lunchbox12682 wrote:Mixolyde wrote:Triple the size of SCOTUS. Nothing else matters as long there are ideological hacks overturning good laws. They just nullified pre-clearance and punted on gerrymandering, you think they give a f*ck about the voting rights act?
So in 2-6 years when there is a GOP president and Senate, what then?
They'll have to write laws that pass a 21-6 decent human majority, or start murdering justices.
Or they just raise the size of the Supreme Court to 100.
When it comes to abusing the system, anything we can do, they can do "better" - or already have. They even have the advantage that they don't have to justify it to their constituents besides telling them that it'll own the Libs.
(Note that I'm not saying that the Dems should do nothing, but we need to remember that any kind of changes they make to try to make the system less rigged can and will be undone as soon as the GOP has a chance to do it, if it's in their power to do so.)
Mixolyde wrote:lunchbox12682 wrote:Mixolyde wrote:Triple the size of SCOTUS. Nothing else matters as long there are ideological hacks overturning good laws. They just nullified pre-clearance and punted on gerrymandering, you think they give a f*ck about the voting rights act?
So in 2-6 years when there is a GOP president and Senate, what then?
They'll have to write laws that pass a 21-6 decent human majority, or start murdering justices.
Or they just raise the size of the Supreme Court to 100.
When it comes to abusing the system, anything we can do, they can do "better" - or already have. They even have the advantage that they don't have to justify it to their constituents besides telling them that it'll own the Libs.
(Note that I'm not saying that the Dems should do nothing, but we need to remember that any kind of changes they make to try to make the system less rigged can and will be undone as soon as the GOP has a chance to do it, if it's in their power to do so.)
Which is why the country is doomed, and everything is a stalling action. But at least unpacking the courts slows things down rather than lets them accelerate.
Anyway, the point is moot because them Democrats don't have the spine to unpack the court or even put ethical conduct guidelines on them, so everything progressive they want to do will get overturned anyway.
Or they just raise the size of the Supreme Court to 100.
Putting us... basically where we are right now?
Keldar wrote:Or they just raise the size of the Supreme Court to 100.
Putting us... basically where we are right now?
No, no, you're not thinking long term enough.
They raise it to 100.
We raise it to 1000.
They raise it to everyone in red states.
We raise it to everyone.
That's THE HONORABLE Jonman to you, Justice Legion.
All of which is to say, buy stock in robes.
All of which is to say, buy stock in robes.
I tried, but Oak Hill (Bentley & Simon) is privately owned. 
At some point I think we'd have to pass a law requiring justices to wear wizard robes
EDIT: NO NOT THAT KIND OF WIZARDS, Bannon
At some point I think we'd have to pass a law requiring justices to wear wizard robes
EDIT: NO NOT THAT KIND OF WIZARDS, Bannon
If the pointy white hat fits.
Keldar wrote:Mixolyde wrote:lunchbox12682 wrote:Mixolyde wrote:Triple the size of SCOTUS. Nothing else matters as long there are ideological hacks overturning good laws. They just nullified pre-clearance and punted on gerrymandering, you think they give a f*ck about the voting rights act?
So in 2-6 years when there is a GOP president and Senate, what then?
They'll have to write laws that pass a 21-6 decent human majority, or start murdering justices.
Or they just raise the size of the Supreme Court to 100.
When it comes to abusing the system, anything we can do, they can do "better" - or already have. They even have the advantage that they don't have to justify it to their constituents besides telling them that it'll own the Libs.
(Note that I'm not saying that the Dems should do nothing, but we need to remember that any kind of changes they make to try to make the system less rigged can and will be undone as soon as the GOP has a chance to do it, if it's in their power to do so.)
Which is why the country is doomed, and everything is a stalling action. But at least unpacking the courts slows things down rather than lets them accelerate.
Anyway, the point is moot because them Democrats don't have the spine to unpack the court or even put ethical conduct guidelines on them, so everything progressive they want to do will get overturned anyway.
IMO the best we can hope for is a peaceful breakup. Things are far, FAR too gone to do anything else at this point.
It looks like McCarthy gets his wish to be Speaker, but with a majority likely to be in the low to mid single digits and a caucus that appears ungovernable. That and he isn't the leader that Pelosi is so he will be held hostage by f*ckwits like Marjorie Taylor Greene. I suspect he will spend the next six months trying to be free pizza only to be hated by everyone and ousted just in time for the sh*tshow that will be the 2024 election.
Only if the goal was to do something productive.
Their goal is to make sure nothing good for Americans happens so they can blame Biden in 24 and have dozens of hearings so they can make Biden look bad.
Only if the goal was to do something productive.
Their goal is to make sure nothing good for Americans happens so they can blame Biden in 24 and have dozens of hearings so they can make Biden look bad.
That is a lot easier to do when you have a huge margin, but if you have five Republicans who want highway money in their state or infrastructure cash to deliver to their constituents, things get a lot harder to maintain discipline.
I'm also thinking of getting nitwits like MTG, Boebert and others actually in their seats to vote, as a few absentees have a major impact. They'll be there for the headline stuff like impeaching Biden and "investigating" Hunter's laptop, but for anything else?
They'll be there for the headline stuff like impeaching Biden and "investigating" Hunter's laptop, but for anything else?
What makes you think there's going to be anything else?
It feels like they don't need anything else. Idiots continue to vote for them and if they can keep the anger fire raging their numbers are bigger than progressives so they win.
There has to be some recognition that their current approach didn't work. The "red wave" was barely a leaky faucet, and things seem to only be gearing up to get worse with a Trump GOP vs. Rest of GOP war brewing.
I have to imagine there's plenty of GOP House reps who feel like they're on shaky ground. And if the party isn't going to be in good shape to support them in 2024, maybe some of them look for a life raft in the form of, you know, actually getting something productive done, even if it involves holding their nose and working with the stinky stinky Democrats.
And the ones that wish Trump would go away expect the Democrats to clean up their mess. (McConnell openly said this) Not only with no help, but with actively working against them. Again, where was this after Jan 6th?
They can't see the forest for the tress and they blind themselves by/to what is right in front of them. And then they are cowards on top. And we still have yet to see whether the hang nail that we did nothing about to the point of amputating our arm was cut far enough to avoid going septic and dying.
There has to be some recognition that their current approach didn't work. The "red wave" was barely a leaky faucet, and things seem to only be gearing up to get worse with a Trump GOP vs. Rest of GOP war brewing.
Oh they will take the absolute wrong lesson. Since Florida and Wisconsin and New York redistricting are the only reasons they have a majority, they will try like hell to gerrymander more states the next 2 years. That's the only way they can keep power so they'll keep grabbing for power before having any introspection.
*Legion* wrote:There has to be some recognition that their current approach didn't work. The "red wave" was barely a leaky faucet, and things seem to only be gearing up to get worse with a Trump GOP vs. Rest of GOP war brewing.
Oh they will take the absolute wrong lesson. Since Florida and Wisconsin and New York redistricting are the only reasons they have a majority, they will try like hell to gerrymander more states the next 2 years. That's the only way they can keep power so they'll keep grabbing for power before having any introspection.
Exactly this. They won't think that they went too fascist, they'll think that the problem was that they didn't go fascist enough. They're not starting to reject Trump because they've finally realized fascism is bad, it's because he's an incompetent fascist and they've found a more competent one in DeSantis.
They already know that they can get away with being the cause of the problems if they yell loudly enough about it being the Democrats fault. And on the rare occasion when a Republican voter sees through that, that they'll only stay mad about it until the next thing comes up. Even if they do remember and are still mad about it, the peer pressure to stay part of the Republican in-group won't let them do anything about it.
As part of this year's midterm election ballot, there was a measure in Seattle to switch to Ranked Choice Voting for mayoral and council elections, which passed. This was part of a number of other victories for the system nationwide. It's a snowballing trickle, like marijuana legalization I think.
https://fairvoteaction.org/results-f...
What's fun is that after years of effort the measure only appeared on ballots because tech billionaires managed to cram a different system (approval voting) into the ballot, so city council members proposed RCV as an alternative
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