My 25c to help with a lot of these questions, that we also have in Scandinavia with only sligthly different battle trenches:

For people with at least one parent or grand-parent being at least semi-wealthy and academic - I can tell you this, being a guy who have travelled from the suburb where everyone works nine to five or are in unemployment to a semi posh academic area, now being one of you:

People from lower classes do not really dream.
Do not get questions on what to do with their lives.
Have a super high threshold to take a job different that which gives safe monthly pay.
They do want safety. I cannot emphasise this clear enough. When people from academic backgrounds threaten this, through neo-liberalism or activism they scare people into voting for something that seems to guarantee safety.

Whatever solution you have to problems - make sure that the "normal person" has a feeling of being safe. Which is hard living in a western country in the globalized world. The people born in the 40´s, If you behaved decently you got a decent job and had a decent life. The normal guys in Germany did not feel safe after the crash 1929 and all the US loans to Germany being reclaimed. The normal guys in my home country do not at all feel safe with a massive immigration from middle east and a lot of criminality.
Those guys will vote for parties that seem to make their general situation safe.

So whatever you suggest : Make sure that what you say keep the normal daytime workers feeling safe enough. A hell of a lot can be done within these limits. I have read a lot of posts in this thread, I do not address any specific post. See this as a sanity check for what you are suggesting.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-us-canada-49488374

"Baruch dayan ha'emet!"

Ruth Bader Ginsberg 1933-2020
Assoc. Justice SCOTUS, Civil Rights Warrior
& Feminist

"Women belong in places where decisions are made." :fire:

...the shofar blows this night in your honor ...

269 days before the 2016 election:

"The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president." ~"Moscow" Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader (R-KY), Feb. 13, 2016

46 days before the 2020 election:

"President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.” ~"Moscow" Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader (R-KY), Sept. 18, 2020

UPDATE:

https://youtu.be/kw8SSQHQitg

“I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination." ~Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chmn Judiciary Cmte

"The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president." ~"Moscow" Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader (KY-R), Feb. 13, 2016

I do so hope that someone in the senate quotes McConnells own words to his face on this one.

I do so hope that someone in the senate quotes McConnells own words to his face on this one. — MSC

He will not give an iota of a shit; in fact he will just smile and laugh.

You're probably right. This is 'Moscow' Mitch we are talking about here, after all.

I still hope it is done, so others are reminded of it. Not that it will help stop a new conservative Justice from being voted in by the senate. This could be so far reaching though, with a bigger conservative majority on the supreme court, they may vote to stop the counting of mail in ballots and hand the presidency to Trump. Will be like Bush all over again.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg 1933-2020
Assoc. Justice SCOTUS, Civil Rights Warrior
& Feminist

This is devastating news. The arrogance of the Left never fails to dumbfound me. The fallout from this will be disastrous. Trump has already re-shaped the entire political landscape through the courts, which will no doubt lead to more civil unrest. This is a major loss for democracy.

Maybe a system in which the rights of millions hinge upon the death of a single person is totally broken and should not be a thing.

You make a very, very good point. It certainly doesn't sound like how democracy should work

The arrogance of the Left never fails to dumbfound me. — JerseyFlight

Weird, the arrogance of humans now completely fails to even surprise me.

Not for nothing, but the dumbass should have retired at 80, or just 77 when Obama was first elected. Now we have to deal with the fallout of sublime arrogance.

“Americans reelected our majority in 2016 and expanded it in 2018 because we pledged to work with President Trump and support his agenda, particularly his outstanding appointments to the federal judiciary. Once again, we will keep our promise,” McConnell said in a statement. “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”

Mitchy Mitch.

This could be so far reaching though, with a bigger conservative majority on the supreme court, they may vote to stop the counting of mail in ballots and hand the presidency to Trump. Will be like Bush all over again. — MSC

Bush v. Gore was an incredibly close election which the supreme court leaned in to favor the GOP. If the conservative justices decided to just hand the election over to Trump with the mail in ballots heavily favoring Biden in such an obviously undemocratic way then that will be the end of the United States as a country. The SCOTUS might as well just call off the election entirely and name Donald "God Emperor of Trumpland" or something if they'd go that far.

If Putin's Bitch & Moscow Mitch replace the late Justice RGB, then, unfortunately but by all means, the next POTUS (Biden or Pelosi) and Democratic Congress must (1) "pack" the SCOTUS by expanding it from the current 9 seats to 12-15 seats (in order to ADD 3-6 diverse and center-left justices!) AND (2) "kill" the Senate's "filibuster rule" in order to expedite U.S. recovery from
• tRUMP's PANDEMIC
• tRUMP's DEPRESSION
• tRUMP's SOCIAL INJUSTICE
• tRUMP'S CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL VANDALISM.

The American Republic 1787-2020???

"... IF you can keep it."

And the guy won by only 80,000 votes in a country of 300 million people gets to decide 1/3 of the Supreme Court and small courts lifetime appointments.

Don't forget tRUMP's (coming soon) 'Patriotic Education'—aka fascist indoctrination. And no, folks, it's not overwrought to call the cocksucker a fascist now. The idea that Trump gives a shit about democracy, the constitution, and written and/or unwritten rules or conventions that prevent him doing whatever he wants is absurd.

But Republicans want you to be worried about ANTIFA, a tiny unorganized group that no one even knows how to join (otherwise I would have) and sometimes beats up a few Nazis.

Is it arrogance or a difference in motivations? If you’re motivated by the acquisition of power and wealth then it wouldn’t be unexpected to act with cold calculation in order to secure that goal. If you’re motivated to fight for equality, justice, and democracy, and live by such principals, then maybe that’s just who you are and there’s no helping it.

But Republicans want you to be worried about ANTIFA, a tiny unorganized group that no one even knows how to join (otherwise I would have) and sometimes beats up a few Nazis. — Baden

Antifa isn't a group as far as I'm aware but an ideology. You're already Antifa bro! There are organised Antifa movements all over the world but there is no centralised Antifa leader nor direct communication between each group. For obvious reasons relating to what Fuhrer means.

Antifa operates similarly to the French resistance during WW2 except it hasn't killed anyone. The French Resistance was the collection of French movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and the collaborationist Vichy régime during the Second World War.

Collection of movements.

Sorry if the correction comes across as rude. I'm with you on this though. The new American Nazis should just consider themselves lucky that Antifa doesn't employ the same tactics that the French resistance did. Otherwise there would actually be a fucking death toll.

You don't need anyone's permission to beat up a few Nazi's. Although I would wait until we find out the results of the 2020 election before you grab your baseball bat. If we lose, I'll lend you mine, just don't remove any of the nails.

:up: :up:

You're already Antifa bro! — MSC

:cheer:

An all-too-often illiberal, minority-ruled (i.e. Senate & Electoral College) - contra-democratic - Madisonian "republic" (aka military-keynesian, neoliberal, plut/corporat-ocracy), it's bound to happen, right? :eyes:

When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. — It Can't Happen Here (1935)

https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54274115

update:

"The Election That Could Break America"
The Atlantic Magazine
(Nov. 2020 print edition)

For likely the past 5 years or more, a dying geriatric woman of doubtful intellectual competence clung to a job as a placeholder for a political ideology, even supposedly admitting as much, despite her position having demanded political neutrality. That she saw it a laudable objective for her to shape the ideology of the future court and not leave such politics to the politicians is evidence of unfitness.

So, to those outraged by today's politicians contradicting their words of yesterday, at least respect their adherence to protecting their political interests, because they are, unlike Justices, after all, politicians.

What If Trump Refuses to Concede:

According to sources in the Republican Party at the state and national levels, the Trump campaign is discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground states where Republicans hold the legislative majority. With a justification based on claims of rampant fraud, Trump would ask state legislators to set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly. The longer Trump succeeds in keeping the vote count in doubt, the more pressure legislators will feel to act before the safe-harbor deadline expires.

Will you commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the election? — Reporter

We're gonna have to see what happens."

Get rid of the ballots and there'll be a peaceful … it won't be a transfer frankly it will be a continuation. — Trump

https://boingboing.net/2020/09/23/trumps-threat-get-rid-of-the-ballots-there-wont-be-a-transfer-frankly-there-will-be-a-continuation.html

I've felt physically ill all day today

Agreed. ( :yikes: )

Hungover?

There is something not altruistic about aging justices hanging on for dear life, rather than resigning. Ginsburg isn't the first one. And IF they are concerned about preserving their liberal or conservative chair on the court, then they should resign during a favorable presidential administration, even if that means leaving the court 4 or 5 years sooner than one would on a gurney, as was the case here.

There should probably be mandatory retirement ages. Maybe in 1776 (so to speak) a "for life term" was mercifully short; not anymore.

Your raise some very valid points here. Over the last 50 years, life for the working class (which is the vast majority) has become much more precarious. The "precariat" is perched on a wobbly branch which threatens to throw them off. Unemployment, a pandemic, medical disaster, debt, etc. can break the branch, and we fall into the ditch of much more severe poverty which is hard to dig out of.

I find that many people are making proposals that I find undermine my sense of security--from both sides of the political spectrum. One group of lunatics wants to get rid of social security (my main source of income at this point) and another group of crazies (like my city council) has pledged to defund the police. A plague on both their houses.

And there are still those that claim he's not a fascist and the Republican party haven't embraced fascism. This is what you get for voting Republican, America.

Get rid of the ballots and there'll be a peaceful … it won't be a transfer frankly it will be a continuation. — Trump

Translation: Get rid of democracy and I'll be dictator forever.