RIP, RBG. 2020, just STOP Already.

MaeZe

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I'm not sure about this. The GOP is all about stacking the courts and installing the perfect white 1950s dictatorship.

Yes, it'll piss a lot of people off. But will that even matter?

I'm not talking about the GOP. I'm talking about a few, less than fanatical GOP Senate members of that party that aren't kowtowed.

As for motivating Biden voters, remember that world-wide women's march the day after Trump was inaugurated? I have not forgotten. RBG was a warrior for women. I have not forgotten that either.


Though I do admit, McConnell's already claiming Trump's nominee will get a vote is incredibly discouraging.
 

Roxxsmom

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I'm just feeling sad.

I've never been big on personal heroes. IME people generally turn out to be disappointing in some way or another and to fall from pedestals. No one leads a perfect life. But if I did have a list of heroes, she'd definitely be on it.

It's been a tough week for me for a variety of reasons, and here's one more gut punch. I knew this was likely coming, but it's still such a blow, such a loss to all that is decent.
 

MaeZe

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Virus Pulls Down Trump, Poll Shows, and G.O.P. Senators Suffer With Him
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. led Mr. Trump by wide margins in Arizona, where he was ahead by nine percentage points, and Maine, where he led by 17 points. The race was effectively tied in North Carolina, with Mr. Biden ahead by one point, 45 percent to 44 percent.

In all three states, Democratic Senate candidates were leading Republican incumbents by five percentage points or more. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican seeking a fifth term, is in a difficult battle against Sara Gideon, trailing by five points as voters there delivered a damning verdict on Mr. Trump’s stewardship: By a 25-point margin, 60 percent to 35 percent, they said they trusted Mr. Biden over Mr. Trump on the issue of the pandemic.

The battle for control of the Senate is likely to move rapidly to the foreground of national politics after the death on Friday of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal Supreme Court judger. Republicans are expected to seek to appoint a replacement, despite having argued in 2016 that a vacant Supreme Court seat should not be filled in an election year, and Mr. Trump recently challenged Mr. Biden to unveil a list of people he would consider naming to the court.

I'll be looking for that silver lining for the next few days weeks (six and a half weeks to be exact). After that I can deal with the lame duck and Trump's attempts to avoid stepping down.
 
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Gregg

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I highly doubt there will be a vote before the election. There's just not enough time, especially when 1/3 of the Senate is up for re-election. Those Senators in close races don't want to be stuck in Washington. Historically it takes 2-3 months for the nomination-vote process.
I also think it is to Trump's benefit to wait. Ambivalent Trump voters would have a good reason and motivation to go and vote for him instead of staying at home. Voters on the Left would be more motivated to support Biden as well, but I think Trump has the edge here. The Supreme Court issue was a large factor in his election in 2016.
 

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I'll be looking for that silver lining for the next few days weeks (six and a half weeks to be exact). After that I can deal with the lame duck and Trump's attempts to avoid stepping down.

Me, too.

It's clear they know they can't win unless they cheat. We need to get out the vote, and do what we can to minimize the cheating.

We also need to take back the Senate.
 

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I'm seriously depressed about this. I was starting to feel hope again: the positive response to Kamala's nomination, watching Biden kill it at the town hall... and now I feel like after the 2016 election.
 

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Virus Pulls Down Trump, Poll Shows, and G.O.P. Senators Suffer With Him


I'll be looking for that silver lining for the next few days weeks (six and a half weeks to be exact). After that I can deal with the lame duck and Trump's attempts to avoid stepping down.

This is a piece of optimistic news. Biden is still doing better than Clinton did with every demographic except Latinx voters. Not sure why more (though still a minority) are on board with Trump, given his viciousness against people of various Latinx backgrounds and the treatment of detainees in the ICE camp (no one seems to care about the kids in cages anymore, though maybe the non-consensual sterilizations will wake some voters up). But it's definitely the case that people with ancestry in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America are a very diverse group.

Plus, with more ways of people of varying heritages to identify themselves in polls and on forms, I wonder if there are more people who might have called themselves "White" or "Caucasian" a few years ago are now checking Hispanic and or Latino as well or instead. I haven't seen any real explanation for why Trump is more popular with this overall demographic than he was in 2016.

Biden is also pretty far ahead overall with independents and college-educated White voters, and in fact he's pretty even with Trump with all White voters so far (when Clinton was always behind in the polls with White Voters).

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/18/914103948/poll-biden-maintains-lead-over-trump

Of course, Republicans like to say there are secret Trump voters lying to pollsters, but even so, by most polls, Biden is doing better than Clinton (and than Obama and Kerry) was 50 days out. Plus the shy Trump voter thing was pretty much debunked as an explanation for the polling divide. There are fewer undecided voters this time, so even if more than half break for Trump in the end, it won't be enough. Unless things get weird in most of the critical swing states, which is always a concern.


He's also doing well in some states Clinton lost back in 2016, such as Arizona, and further ahead than she was in some of the swing states. But there are no guarantees. I think we all know what a kick to the gut it for him to win four years ago when it seemed so unlikely, so I'm not going to relax until it's over.

And adding to the anxiety is the fact that we may not know the outcome for weeks after the election. It's possible it will look like Trump is ahead on election night, but as more absentee ballots are counted, Biden will catch up and pass him. That will be a nailbiter too, because we know Trump is likely to challenge results if this happens. If it goes to the courts, whether or not he replaces Ginsberg by then, it is not clear what the vote will be.

What happens if it is 4/4? Wouldn't the vote be deferred then? And it would have to be deferred until the next POTUS picks a new justice. Or would an incomplete SCOTUS simply refuse to hear it and let a lower court decisions stand? Does anyone else feel a major case of hives coming on?
 

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I went from updating my twitter: "L'Shana Tova!" to an immediate, "NO. Z"L." This is terrifying.
 

regdog

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I am heartbroken and at the same time terrified for the generations of millions of women to come.
 

Introversion

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Everyone with a blog or byline is parsing what Ginsberg’s passing means to this year’s election. Most assume that Trump and McConnell will of course nominate and confirm her replacement ASAP. It think it’s a certainty that Trump wants this.

This article has a different take. I guess the next week or two will perhaps show how this will play out, but I suspect the author is making a good prediction here. (Either way, Trump and the GOP will obviously pick her successor, so it’s more critical than ever that Democrats win not only the presidency this year, but the Senate as well.)

Why Ruth Bader Ginsburg Won’t Be Replaced … Until After the Election

Prospect said:
Mitch McConnell is a pure political animal and he always chooses what he believes to be the most politically advantageous decision, no matter what the circumstances. He looks at what can aggrandize the most power to conservatives and makes his choices on that basis.

In the situation of the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, McConnell will ask himself how he can ensure that the Republicans retain their Senate majority, and confirm one more Republican Supreme Court justice to entrench conservative power. The answer will likely go something like this, regardless of McConnell’s statement on Friday night: He will state that there will be no vote on a replacement justice until after the election. He will not say that the victor of the election will be the person who gets to appoint Ginsburg’s successor.

We can also count on President Trump to name his choice for a replacement (Amy Coney Barrett is likely) within a week or so. McConnell will commit to moving along the process—but not to holding the final vote before Election Day.

This would satisfy his various goals. His Republican colleagues who are facing possible repudiation at the polls—Maine’s Susan Collins and Colorado’s Cory Gardner, in particular—want no part of having to vote for a Supreme Court nominee before the election. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said, hours before Ginsburg died, that she would not vote until after the election; Mitt Romney (R-UT) has reportedly decided to promise this as well. Others, like Thom Tillis in North Carolina or Joni Ernst in Iowa, might want to appeal to social conservatives by holding the vote early (Ernst sent a fundraising email about the Supreme Court minutes after the death announcement). But setting things up with an Election Day cliffhanger will energize those socially conservative voters. If the intimation is that their vote is critical to secure a 6-3 position on the Supreme Court, you will see right-wing enthusiasm fly through the roof.

But there’s an offsetting dynamic to Ginsburg’s death: Democrats can claim, with far more credibility than they have before, that a Court with six hard-right conservative justices could very well decide to repeal Roe v. Wade. While decades of polling has shown that abortion is an issue that mobilizes its opponents far more than those who favor abortion rights, Joe Biden and the Democrats are likely to solidify and perhaps even expand their support among swing women voters—particularly, but not limited to, college graduates and middle- and upper-middle-class suburbanites—who for the first time will seriously face the prospect of Roe’s reversal.

All the more reason for McConnell to delay the vote until after the election.

Come what may, McConnell will fill the seat if his Republican colleagues stick with him. He won’t let cries of “Merrick Garland” get in his way. But the smartest and most cynical move, and therefore McConnell’s move, will be to leave it open, hold the election, and then fill the vacancy in the lame-duck session. That way, he can get the juice of increased social-conservative turnout on Election Day without having to sacrifice Collins and Gardner in the process. There will be no real way for Democrats to stop that from happening.

...
 
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RichardGarfinkle

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She showed how the law can actually be used to serve humanity and make lives better.

The Republicans will try to erase her legacy.

If Biden is elected and the Democrats take the Senate and hold the House, they can change the number of Justices on the Court. Biden can pack it with young diverse progressive justices to outvote the ones the Republicans put in.

To honor and protect her legacy, it's time to drop the pretense of niceties and do what she did, make the law work for humans and humanity rather than enslaving people under color of the law.
 

Chris P

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The scene this morning outside the Supreme Court. RIP, RBG.

(Hmmmm, images not loading from the "Insert Image" button, so left as links)

LgdCv8D
D2FPoYX

Hmstvkx
https://imgur.com/LgdCv8D

https://imgur.com/D2FPoYX

https://imgur.com/Hmstvkx

https://imgur.com/jjyHMJf
 

Lyv

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Posting only as a reference (Graham's already kissed up to Trump and gone back on his earlier words this morning, which I hope helps his Jaime Harrison). I know they don't care about anything but power and they seem almost (?) proud of their hypocrisy, but it's important to try, imo. I'm a realist, but today, to stay productive and focused, I am not engaging in or with naysaying or defeatism.

A Long List of GOP Senators Who Promised Not to Confirm a Supreme Court Nominee During an Election Year
 

Introversion

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Posting only as a reference (Graham's already kissed up to Trump and gone back on his earlier words this morning, which I hope helps his Jaime Harrison). I know they don't care about anything but power and they seem almost (?) proud of their hypocrisy, but it's important to try, imo. I'm a realist, but today, to stay productive and focused, I am not engaging in or with naysaying or defeatism.

A Long List of GOP Senators Who Promised Not to Confirm a Supreme Court Nominee During an Election Year

Thanks. It’s critically important that Democrats win the Senate this year — maybe even more so than the White House. If anyone can afford to donate to the cause, donating via this link will divide your donation among the thirteen blue Senate candidates deemed to have a chance of defeating their red opponent. Remember, we only need a few more Democrats in the Senate.

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/getmitch
 
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Lyv

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I made some donations this morning. The winner of the special election in Arizona could be sworn in in late November. Most polls have Mark Kelly ahead of McSally, but I'm going to donate to his campaign.

From the article below the linked one:

Democratic donors gave more money online in the 9 p.m. hour Friday after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death was announced — $6.2 million — than in any other single hour since ActBlue, the donation-processing site, was started 16 years ago.

Then donors broke the site’s record again in the 10 p.m. hour when donors gave another $6.3 million — more than $100,000 per minute.


The unprecedented outpouring shows the power of a looming Supreme Court confirmation fight to motivate Democratic donors. The previous biggest hour, on Aug. 20, when Joseph R. Biden Jr. spoke on the final night of the Democratic convention, saw $4.3 million in donations processed, according to an ActBlue spokesperson.


Before noon on Saturday, donations to Democratic causes and campaigns on ActBlue since Justice Ginsburg’s passing had topped $45 million.
 

neandermagnon

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RIP. A very sad loss indeed.

May those she inspired stay strong and keep one striving to build a better USA and a better world.
 

heza

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I didn't have a lot of personal heroes, but she was one of them. I cried a lot last night and drank a lot, too. I was overwhelmed by sadness and terror. But she wouldn't want us to despair. She would want us to take up her shield. I'm not sure it does a ton of good, but I'm going to do whatever I can in the time left to help with Broyles campaign here in OK (she's running against Inhofe). I'm distraught that RBG is gone, but my hope is that her death continues to galvanize us in a way nothing else has before.
 

MaeZe

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OMG! Why do I watch this crap on CSPAN.

Barr is in some event or another claiming it's common sense that mail in votes will encourage fraud. "I don't have any empirical evidence, it's common sense."

Then he goes on to explain that because people don't have a private booth behind a curtain to vote they will be unduly influenced. He claims falsely that their name will be attached to their ballots. That's no more true than when I go to the polls to vote they check my name off on a list and hand me a numbered ballot. It's either pure ignorance or willful disinformation to claim vote by mail is riddled with fraud. ... Now he's off repeating his absurdity that making people social distance and wear masks is the biggest denial of freedom the country has ever experienced.

Then I switch to the other CSPAN channel and some idiot is on who wrote a book about how the country is devolving into identity politics. Okay, so I thought that might be interesting. Instead he claims Marxists are trying to take over the country, they already own the universities, and the rioting and violence in the cities is evidence of said movement.

How does this idiot believe such nonsense? The Lincoln Project needs video a flyover of city after city asking where is this massive anarchy occurring because they can't find it.

This is scary shit. Nov 3rd is either going to break this country altogether or start it on a long path of recovery. I say long path not because Biden will have so much repair work to do (though he will), but because that's probably when the fight with Trump and his cult following will start in ernest.
 

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To honor and protect her legacy, it's time to drop the pretense of niceties and do what she did, make the law work for humans and humanity rather than enslaving people under color of the law.


This needs repeating 1000 times and more
 

regdog

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Donations have been pouring into ActBlue since RGB's death. Donations now top $100 million. For a woman who spent her career fighting for women and the average American, it will be a testament to her legacy if her death is what helps propel true change this election. More and more people are committing to vote as well as vote Democrat down ticket, donating, volunteering to poll work or whatever their local democratic organization need.




I quote Dolly Parton.
She was small in stature but even the tallest looked up to her. Her voice was soft but her message rang loud and clear and will echo forever. Thank you, RBG. Rest In Peace. Respectfully, Dolly Parton


Link
 

Roxxsmom

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I've seen lots of posts and memes and articles that are saying the same thing: stop it with the despair. Stop it with the "we're so screwed." Stop it with being hopeless. Do what RBG did and roll up our sleeves andwork to change things.

So logical and so true. But I know many of us still find it overwhelming. For me, the dose of reality is that I am not her. I don't have a law degree. And if I did, I certainly wouldn't have been first in my class at an illustrious school like Columbia. One of the hardest, bitterest pills in my life is that I am not all that special or brilliant. Smarter than average maybe, but certainly not smarter than the average person in the sciences or academia. And I definitely lack that especially important quality, one that many claim is an innate trait that taught or learned: grit. I could never even figure out how to work harder and smarter when I ran into a wall.

When job interviewers ask that "What personal strength or talent makes you unique and better suited for this job than the other applicants?" I have no idea.

I was never told I couldn't have a position because I was a woman (thanks to Ginsberg's work). But I was told over and over that while my degree was nice, and I was clearly smart and hardworking, so were the other 100 or so people applying for the same positions, so they were sorry, but someone else had simply been a better match for their lab or department or whatnot.

What puts me in awe of Ginsberg is that she was so good at what she did, so brilliant, so unique, and when she discovered that being top of your class wasn't enough to land a woman a plumb job at a top firm, or even to be paid as well as her male colleagues in academia, she went to work using her skills to argue that women's rights are human rights and the law should reflect this. She managed to convince judges of this fact in a time when judges were male, older, and mostly very traditional.

So what, can I, an adjunct biology prof about ten years from retirement age, do to further the cause of social justice, to help fix the broken political system in our country? I give money to political causes and charities. I vote. I occasionally attend marches.

But how can I be of more use with my skill set? I'm no lawyer. I'm not even much of a biology teacher, since can't convince my conservative friends and family members that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change, or that wearing a mask does reduce the spread of Covid, or convince my religious students that evolution is real.

I want to be more like her, to do things that change the world, but I don't even know how to start.

- - - Updated - - -

I've seen lots of posts and memes and articles that are saying the same thing: stop it with the despair. Stop it with the "we're so screwed." Stop it with being hopeless. Do what RBG did and roll up our sleeves andwork to change things.

So logical and so true. But I know many of us still find it overwhelming. For me, the dose of reality is that I am not her. I don't have a law degree. And if I did, I certainly wouldn't have been first in my class at an illustrious school like Columbia. One of the hardest, bitterest pills in my life is that I am not all that special or brilliant. Smarter than average maybe, but certainly not smarter than the average person in the sciences or academia. And I definitely lack that especially important quality, one that many claim is an innate trait that taught or learned: grit. I could never even figure out how to work harder and smarter when I ran into a wall.

When job interviewers ask that "What personal strength or talent makes you unique and better suited for this job than the other applicants?" I have no idea.

I was never told I couldn't have a position because I was a woman (thanks to Ginsberg's work). But I was told over and over that while my degree was nice, and I was clearly smart and hardworking, so were the other 100 or so people applying for the same positions, so they were sorry, but someone else had simply been a better match for their lab or department or whatnot.

What puts me in awe of Ginsberg is that she was so good at what she did, so brilliant, so unique, and when she discovered that being top of your class wasn't enough to land a woman a plumb job at a top firm, or even to be paid as well as her male colleagues in academia, she went to work using her skills to argue that women's rights are human rights and the law should reflect this. She managed to convince judges of this fact in a time when judges were male, older, and mostly very traditional.

So what, can I, an adjunct biology prof about ten years from retirement age, do to further the cause of social justice, to help fix the broken political system in our country? I give money to political causes and charities. I vote. I occasionally attend marches.

But how can I be of more use with my skill set? I'm no lawyer. I'm not even much of a biology teacher, since can't convince my conservative friends and family members that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change, or that wearing a mask does reduce the spread of Covid, or convince my religious students that evolution is real.

I want to be more like her, to do things that change the world, but I don't even know how to start.
 

Introversion

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When job interviewers ask that "What personal strength or talent makes you unique and better suited for this job than the other applicants?" I have no idea.

I’ve been writing software for pay since 1982. I eventually learned that such questions aren’t worth your respect, and would answer them with whatever bullshit answers I felt the interviewer most wanted, like, “I just don’t know when to quit” or “sometimes I work too hard”.

(A more recent trend in software interviews is to ask targeted questions about whatever expertise you claim to have on your resume, like stand at a whiteboard and solve problems together. Which is fair and realistic. And/or to ask you to write a project after hours and send it in, which is my favorite “ask”.)

When I’m the interviewer, I always try to find out and ask them to talk about whatever excites them. I try to gauge what they might be like to work with. I’d far rather someone be competent and a good team mate, than a brlliant asshole. There’s too many of the latter, and I’ve known more projects to fail because of them, than due to not enough of them.

I was never told I couldn't have a position because I was a woman (thanks to Ginsberg's work). But I was told over and over that while my degree was nice, and I was clearly smart and hardworking, so were the other 100 or so people applying for the same positions, so they were sorry, but someone else had simply been a better match for their lab or department or whatnot.

That’s hard, but not a bad reflection on you. There’s always someone brighter than us, or better connected than us. Or in my industry at my age, younger & cheaper & less cynical. ;)

What puts me in awe of Ginsberg is that she was so good at what she did, so brilliant, so unique, and when she discovered that being top of your class wasn't enough to land a woman a plumb job at a top firm, or even to be paid as well as her male colleagues in academia, she went to work using her skills to argue that women's rights are human rights and the law should reflect this. She managed to convince judges of this fact in a time when judges were male, older, and mostly very traditional.

So what, can I, an adjunct biology prof about ten years from retirement age, do to further the cause of social justice, to help fix the broken political system in our country? I give money to political causes and charities. I vote. I occasionally attend marches.

But how can I be of more use with my skill set? I'm no lawyer. I'm not even much of a biology teacher, since can't convince my conservative friends and family members that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change, or that wearing a mask does reduce the spread of Covid, or convince my religious students that evolution is real.

I want to be more like her, to do things that change the world, but I don't even know how to start.

Just donating & voting & marching puts you ahead of so many, in terms of accomplishing change. We can’t all be RBG.
 
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Marian Perera

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But how can I be of more use with my skill set? I'm no lawyer.

No, but you're a writer. At least, that's what I tell myself on bleak days. We can write stories that reflect hope and strength, rationality and diversity.

Getting them published/read is another matter, but we can still write them.