RIP RBG

[ursus arctos]

I wonder if the religious education/remaining in the church has a significant generational element, and/or is more common among non-Protestant, non-fundamentalist congregations.

It is certainly very common for graduates of Catholic high schools and yeshivas in my age cohort to have remained in the church and not at all unusual for the Catholics to have become prominent lay members of the congregation. My brother-in-law is one of several examples that I can think of the top of my head.

But those are very different institutions that what the DeVos clan has in mind.

[Satchmo Distel]

I read today that there was actually a time when SCOTUS recognized that housing discrimination was systemic and a lingering effect of white supremacist mentalities - 1968 St Louis case, Jones v Alfred H Mayer co, concurring opinion of William O. Douglas. The ruling recognized "the lingering effects of slavery" in the words of Douglas, effects which SCOTUS now denies.

Similarly, the 1972 ruling against Georgia's death penalty for only executing convicted black rape defendants not white ones (reversed in 1976).

But generally the law makes it impossible to win cases on claims of intersectional discrimination, which is partly why CRT evolved in response to that (the argument being that the system was rigged to maintain the status quo by making the criteria by which claims could be made very difficult to fulfill).

[ursus arctos]

This was nailed on from the outset but still hurts given its very direct impact on our family's safety.

https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1539979577828802560?=otFWm6OBK1IrmRu1YXyERg&s=19

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/djrothkopf/status/1539985428744380421?t=dy4EhBgOUXmGjCnsmCAfcA&s=19

[San Bernardhinault]

I read a piece yesterday with Dahlia Litchwick describing this as a YOLO court. They don't care what they do to the court's reputation - this is a once in many generations opportunity to completely change the laws of the US without having to win popular support. It looks like Roberts has accepted this reality now, and decided to sign on with a whole bunch of craziness.

[Hot Pepsi]

Why do we even bother?

[ursus arctos]

Leah Litman (a law professor at Michigan and one of the hosts of the excellent Strict Scrutiny podcast) came up with the painfully apt YOLO Court concept.

The majority might as well get "Let's do to and be legends" t-shirts made.

Innocents are going to die because Alito can't stop engaging in Death Wish cosplay.

[Flynnie]

I mean, at what point do you just say “Oh yeah? Enforce this with your law cops, we’re not changing the law here”.

blah blah blah Pandora’s box, Texas is already a hell hole.

[ursus arctos]

Well, the New York Legislature is going to pass something that will generate another round of litigation, but this six people be cray cray.

[Flynnie]

Well, the New York Legislature is going to pass something that will generate another round of litigation, but this six people be cray cray.

Good, it's time to prime the pump that having major questions of social policy, particularly those that are popular and have been enacted by legislatures, decided by a bunch of Ivy League freakazoids, half of whom belong to obscure cults, is insane. No other court in the world gets such powers and rightly so.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

It's surprising that there isn't a more serious secessionist movement in the US. Like the Federal Government hasn't been able to improve people's lives for decades and now the courts not only refuse to protect people in fascist controlled states, but actively make people's lives worse in non-fascist controlled states with no prospect of reversing that.

[San Bernardhinault]

Good, it's time to prime the pump that having major questions of social policy, particularly those that are popular and have been enacted by legislatures, decided by a bunch of Ivy League freakazoids, half of whom belong to obscure cults, is insane. No other court in the world gets such powers and rightly so.

This historically has cut both ways. The Supreme Court has in the past acted as a bit of an anchor on extreme legislation coming out of Republican state legislatures. Right now, though, it's purely one directional. And, of course, liberal/Democratic/progressive legislatures generally want to enact more legislation than the Randian cultists who think destroying the entire architecture of governance is a moderate starting point.

[ursus arctos]

Yes, but the Court has been reactionary for most of its history.

To BLT's point, what is striking is that to the extent there is a secessionist movement, It is all from the right.

[Hot Pepsi]

Yes, but the Court has been reactionary for most of its history.

To BLT's point, what is striking is that to the extent there is a secessionist movement, It is all from the right.

I'm not sure if the Hawaii movement is from the right. I'm not sure it's really viable either. Seems like more of a vibe than a political movement.

Cascadia seems to have roughly equal support from the left and right. Weird. It's main asset seems to be its flag.



I'm all for letting Texas and the south go especially if we can create an EU-style right of migration and even if that means I have to move.

If vulnerable people are going to be second-class citizens in those states anyway, what good is it for the 21st century states to be anchored by the ones stuck in the 17th century?

Lately I've been looking at online listings in the Adirondack region.

[ursus arctos]

I had forgotten about them.

NYC gave up soon after I graduated from college.

[Hot Pepsi]

Is there still a Long Island statehood thing?

That would be more aesthetically pleasing on maps,* but maybe not practical or necessary.

The most amusing one to get very far was Killington, Vermont's effort to join New Hampshire. Keen observers will notice that Killington does not border New Hampshire.



*Also, I've always thought all of New York state east of the hudson should be its own state or part of CT, VT, and MA. I think that would look better. I also think Pennsylvania should either give up Erie or get the bottom bit of New York so the border is a straight line.

[ursus arctos]

Hasn't been for decades.

[Hot Pepsi]

I see.
The only split in NY that I can see making sense to anyone would be Staten Island leaving NYC. It seems like there's a lot of mutual animosity there.

[ursus arctos]

All the cops and firemen are afraid of losing their job and the other four boroughs have just put billions into developing land fills.

[San Bernardhinault]

In California, the State of Jefferson is definitely a right-wing thing, but they also talk about joining Cascadia which only makes sense if Cascadia loses all of its cities and coastal areas and is just the relatively underpopulated hinterland. To be fair, that would be a fairly culturally consistent state - but it's not what anyone is really talking about.

I do wonder how long the current rule-by-extremist-lawyers will last before New England (plus other NE states) and West Coast States do start talking about secession. If California starts passing more liberal laws that keep getting struck down, the frustration might begin to take hold more properly.

[ursus arctos]

That is what the eastern portions of Washington and Oregon want to do, especially when they realized that they wouldn't get senators and electoral votes if they join Idaho

[Hot Pepsi]

I do believe (about 90%) that something big is going to happen in the next 10 to 15 years that we would have have imagined 10 to 15 years ago - states secede, the senate/Supreme Court are abolished, or something. I'd like to see one or more states just tell the Supreme Court to GFI. It's rule is illegitimate. It always has been, really. Push the issue.

But this big change will probably be something we have not or cannot foresee. Lots of people foresaw World War II, but how many people really expected it to all go the way it did? Some people foresaw the internet, but even William Gibson didn't imagine Twitter. We're all flying blind.

It might be triggered by a right wing coup. We'll just have to see. I hope it won't be too violent, but it already is violent, so there's no hope of it being "peaceful."

I don't think we'll have another full on civil war because this isn't really regional.

It will go on as it has as far as that goes, albeit perhaps a bit more like The Troubles or life in Israel and Palestine. Just constant fear of terrorism. But then, we're already there, really. I don't spend much time worrying about being blown up or shot, not because it's so unlikely, but because there is really not a damn thing I can do about it.

I do not foresee the full-on Christofascist Theocracy that twitter is warning me about or that a lot of Republicans actually want. At least not nationally and/or for very long.

Aside from the fact that Christofascist is an oxymoron (then again, so was Nationalist Socialist), it's not actually a very popular idea, especially among the affluent. And I don't think they can suppress the free press enough to create The Handmaid's Tale. The technology is too diffuse.

Insofar as those people can continue to get elected, they're heavily dependent on votes from the roughly 40% of voters who are not really paying attention and will just vote for whomever they think is the "change" candidate. Once they try to really install their policies - destroying public education, police state style military occupation of neighborhoods - on wealthier neighborhoods, they're going to find it a lot harder to con those people. Even if they can continue to subvert democracy, there's going to be a limit to how far they can go before it either triggers a mass uprising or a mass exit or both.

Eventually, they will overplay their hand and it will trigger the backlash we've needed for 200 years. The senate will be abolished along with the Supreme Court. The Second Amendment will be repealed, etc. Religion will be taken out of government because it's not going to be a big part of our culture.

That might take another 100 years, though. And I'm not really sure that whatever comes next will be better. The problem with opposing the American empire is that the other Empires on offer aren't any better. Barring the unlikely event of a friendly invasion by a superior species from outer space, nobody is going to come in and liberate us.

[Hot Pepsi]

Another possibility that I'd wish for that could happen...

Why aren't other countries making it easier for educated Americans to move there (and bring your tech start-ups with you)? I realize that's extremely self-serving and I probably couldn't get to the front of the line, but it seems like there could be a deal made there.

[ursus arctos]

Funny that you mention that, as I was just talking with a friend who is moving to Portugal and has been struck by how welcoming the Portuguese government has been.

[Lang Spoon]

Portugal is going all out on the tech talent poaching tip. I know where I'd rather be as a young Dev if the choice of EU residence was Lisbon or Dublin.