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Ronald Bell, cofounder of Kool and the Gang has passed away.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court Justice. 87.

That was completely expected and desired by capital.

The election is like a month away, the republicans don't have a supermajority, the democrats could easily block this until the election if they wanted to. The republicans blocked a nomination for years, remember? So it would be literally the least they could do.

If they don't do it and you view yourself as a democrat, maybe ask for anything from your guys.

We are so fucked.

... yeah like I said before the supermajority requirement in the senate is fake and made up. I take back what I said 10 seconds ago.

The Democrats just can’t catch a break.

Living under corporate feudalism is gonna trigger the libs SO HARD!

U.S. Justice Ginsburg hits back at liberals who want her to retire.

That was in 2014. The 113th congress was the last time the democrats held the senate, and could have seated anyone they wanted to, despite the lies Ruth told in this interview. She was 81 years old and was in remission from pancreatic and colon cancer. She had collapsed far more than a couple times by that point in her life. It was more important to her to maintain her personal social status over anything or anyone else.

That's what her memorial should be, but like usual she doesn't have power and is thus irrelevant. Everyone in the media will nod their heads about what a great, funny person she was, how bipartisan and nice she was with her #1 best friend Scalia (you're going to see that photograph of them on the elephant together, fucking guarantee it), then she'll promptly fall through the memory hole and be forgotten, and her replacement will be incoming next week.

So, she liked what she did and didn't want to quit... that made her a cunt?

What she did was occupy a lifelong position as essentially one of the Popes of the United States with a power of constitutional review that Thomas Jefferson warned, "The Constitution on this hypothesis is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please." and she was getting fucking old and cancer-ridden, and the democrats controlled the senate at the time, and the danger of her dying during a republican administration turned out to be very real.

This was not a case of some lady who loved her manager job at the local store and wanted to stay on past retirement age. This decision is going to have dire global consequences. The two Trump appointees, plus the Bush jr ones have shown no restraint in making massive changes to decades-long precedent like it's nothing. The reason there are such long voting lines in black districts in the South is because the Bush jr. judges gutted the voting rights act. Worst case scenario, with all the mail-in-voting and vote totals that will not be available in key states on November 3rd, we could easily have a second Bush v. Gore court case to stop the count and coronate Trump the winner. Whatever happens, she's going to be replaced by a pre-pubescent Republican psycho in this LIFETIME POSITION who's going to be sending down bad decisions that will make Americans poorer, sicker, and even more at the mercy of corporate malfeasance for decades to come.

So yes, she's a cunt for putting her ego and Steve-Jobs-like belief in her ability to stave off cancer above the stability of the United States and the safety of its people.

So being ideological and not playing bullshit politics is the wrong thing to do. Got it.

I don't know what the ideology is here, but yes, she should have played politics. Republicans do!

There's this notion that justices, despite their leanings, actually take things at face value and interpret the law without any type of loyalty to a party. Even Kavanaugh and Gorsuch kinda stuck it to the religious right recently. Besides, I don't want someone telling me I'm gonna be too old to do stuff. You should see the look on my GFs face when I laugh when she says she'll outlive me despite having statistics and 15 years of youth on her side.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh shit! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I once thought as you did. Then I took constitutional law in Law School. They make the decision first, then come up with the legal rationale second.



That was Roberts, and if you read the actual decisions he makes it clear that the only reason he voted against them was the incredibly lazy arguments made by the religious right's lawyers, while spelling out to them the kind of arguments they can make next time to get his "yes." Also Roberts was playing politics because talk of court-packing was really starting to build up steam and he wanted to tamp that fire down by putting on a thin veneer of bipartisanship on some throwaway cases.



The Spiderman principle applies. With great power comes great responsibility and I'm guessing you croaking on the job wouldn't cause the decades-long devastation that Ginsburg's death on the Supreme Court will.

She had a plush professorship at the ivy league college of her choice waiting, or partnership at her choice of law firm, or a lucrative tour on the speaking circuit, any of which were jobs she could have safely worked to the grave without the political fallout.

With a job as consequential as a seat on SCOTUS, her precious feelings shouldn't have even been a factor. Now we're all going to suffer for her arrogance.

It was Gorsuch.... maybe wasn't that recent. It was early summer at least though b/c I remember being well into this bullshit. probably a source

Wasn't the case I was thinking of.

Look, your lips to god's ears this new judge won't be a nightmare, but I'm extremely skeptical.

I wasn't taking it that far. As disconcerting as this all is (I think it's shit to be frank) I think it needs to serve as a catalyst for the next time the Dems have all branches (who knows when that will be) to just finally go for the jugular.

I do think things are going to get nasty. Like real nasty. I can't see anything that can legally be done really, which is what matters. I also don't see all the protests in the world stopping the Senate from voting. Maybe I'm taking it lying down, but the long game seems to be won elsewhere.

When one party constantly and openly flouts the law - and objective reality -that's kind of what happens. I mean, remember waaay back in 2016, when McConnell refused to hold a vote on Merrick Garland because it was too close to an election and "the people should decide" who nominates the next Justice (a line which, not surprisingly, Biden and others are now throwing back in his face)? Well, guess what?



See that? His original, openly-stated cause for refusing to vote on Garland has simply disappeared - NOW the reason they refused to consider him back then is because they weren't allowed to confirm (or even consider and reject on the record, apparently) an opposite-party nominee, it's tradition! Absolutely nothing in common with what's happening now!

And just like in 2016, not a single Constitution-humping conservative, from the rank-and-file to the think-tank philosophers, will say a single word about this; the "moderates" will happily go right along with the reactionaries, as they always do, and the Evangelicals will claim yet another fig leaf as they pull the lever for Trump in November, so that the unborn can live to see their education, health care, and other lifelines slashed for the rest of their days.

I'm not sure I'd go quite so far to impugn RBG's motives for staying on - honestly, in an alternate universe where I had the chops to make it to the Supreme Court I'm not sure how open I'd be to retiring early on the off-chance that perhaps the most self-indulgently lawless regime our country has ever had would have taken over when I die - but yeah, I can very well understand the frustration of wondering what might have been as the top 3 contenders to replace her are presumably Harriet Miers, The Exhumed Corpse of Antonin Scalia, and Neil Gorsuch Again Just To Fuck With You Some More.

Pointing out hypocrisy in politicians is a waste of time. Wasting your time with headaches is the entire point of the wrestling show. You knew the words they said to justify not even bothering with a "no" vote were just there to fill space when they said it, don't go crazy thinking about it. Once again, they want to distract you from anything actually important, stop entertaining yourself too much with the antics of Lamb Chop. (If it makes you feel any better, the material outcome would have been exactly the same had they held the vote, their lie just saved us from the awkwardness of having to formalize it.)

Floating Ted Cruz's name for the slot is... probably just to fuck with us, too. Ted has to be our next president after Trump, after all. It'll be his turn.

... jesus christ.



I would never call anyone a cunt. It's a coarse, dehumanizing word used by horrific people to try to diminish the humanity of their victims. Using it on a person of immense power such as Clinton, people second only to the godlike power of the donors, only serves to humanize them and generate sympathy from people who actually have souls or qualia.

It's testament to our irreconcilable terminal values that you think someone knowingly endangering the lives of others because they "like their job" is okay. There is no logical argument to dissuade you from thinking it's okay to harm other people for your personal gain, Hume's Guillotine and all that. I'll still yell at you whenever you rationalize something horrible with the ancient "it's not really harming other people" canard as the sky burns tho.



If you can stretch your mind to its widest ranges and even imagine the capitalist democratic party to ever oppose capitalism, to the extreme degree they'll pack the supreme court or ignore it (as the supreme court's rulings only have power insofar the legislature and executive branches deign to obey them), you're living in an upside down fantasy world. You can't possibly believe Charlie Brown will kick the football someday with the track record he has.

Even if you replace the democrats with a bunch of commie socialists that would like to try to ameliorate the crises of global warming and resource depletion, it's way too late. It's all downhill from here. You can't replenish the zinc supply with good feelings and hippy intentions.

... ..Are you trying to kill me with laughter, with the phrase "democrats might go for the jugular"? They're not doormats for vampires, that's a character they play on TV. They're the party of George W Bush now. They haven't made a single mistake, they are not stupid, they've done what they're paid to do. What their personal incentives tell them to do:

"Take the money and do their bidding, everyone else get fucked."



The article I linked says her goal was to get the high score in the history books as the oldest justice on the court.

The thing that makes me puke blood is she was right to do so for her values. She'll get a passing mention as a novelty in history books and mindless tv documentaries. Honest historians like Thomas Frank will note she wasn't a great person, but who ever cares or can even hear what leftists think.

Yes, of course I do. As does anyone. It seems far more plausible to have brought up a lawsuit then as of now. I don't think there is such thing as precedence when it comes to congress. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

At this point we should probably continue this particular conversation in the politics thread and leave this space for obituaries, as intended; I've posted a reply in there, please migrate in that direction if you want to discuss it further.

Internet legend Longcat, whose real name was Nobiko, has passed away. She was at least 18 years old, so not a bad run for a domestic cat.

Aw, crap. Rest in peace, kitty.

Further to the passing of Alien's Sir Ian Holm - Ron Cobb, 83, complications from dementia. Artist and designer with one hell of an influence on science fiction and fantasy cinema. Here's a nice video tribute from Alien Theory on his work and legacy.

Thanks for all the years of laughter and reflection, Joaquin.

And now we've received the news that Eddie van Halen has died at 65 years of age, too.

Fucking hell. Not even much of a VH fan, but that's a pretty epochal passing. Not especially surprised either, sadly. He'd been dealing with that cancer forever.

I'm never moved about celebrities dying, but I'm legit choked up about Eddie's death...

his play is my goal, what I strive to get closer too. What I study to get better.
I'm a big Van Halen fan goes without saying

He seemed like a super good dude too and well-grounded

The best rythm electric guitar player of all time.
One of the very best guitar soloists of all time.
One of the most important innovator of electric guitar technique and tone.
The most influential rock player of the modern era basically

And most important than all :
the inspiration for millions of guitarists

R.I.P. Eddie. I'm sure Dimebag is the first to welcome you at the gates of Paradise and that you guys will have some sick jams.