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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Lindsay Graham admits to election tampering.
Just casually says, "Oh yes, I also called two other states than Georgia."
This is America now.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.It's not just old people, you have people who avoided taking student debt by limiting their options or people who never got further education of any kind, or people who did pay it off early (though you have equally many of those who don't want other people to deal with the debt hell). Then there's the well meaning but unaware type that go "but paying off everyone's debt would devalue higher education so you need degrees for everything" and... sorry, that ship's sailed.
The hard sell is trying to explain to people that a student finance system that requires every discipline and field only produce some sort of high-level professional (which is unsustainable and would be very bad for research in most areas on the academic side) to pay off loans or create an infinite debt spiral also hurts everything they might care about like local businesses.
And I say this as someone baffled by what humanities students expect to obtain that's job relevant. Like sure, do it for the learning, but I have no idea what some of you were thinking it would do job wise...
Edited by RainehDaze on Nov 17th 2020 at 6:01:58 PM
Budd, an associate justice since 2016, would fill the role last held by the late Ralph D. Gants, whose death last month shook the state’s legal community and the SJC.
“The idea that I would be the first Black female chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court is a little overwhelming and it’s very meaningful to me,” Budd said at a State House news conference Wednesday. “But the idea of actually just being the chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court is more overwhelming for me.”
A former prosecutor, Budd, 54, was hailed by litigators and elected officials as a conscientious jurist whose nomination would not only be barrier-breaking on a predominantly white court, but befitting a time when the judiciary is weighing how best to address racial inequities and access to justice.
Attorney General Maura Healey called her nomination “historic and inspiring." Representative Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts’ first Black congresswoman, said she was confident Budd would “meet and exceed the history-making expectations.”
“Justice Budd will do a fantastic job because she has all the tools necessary for the role,” former chief justice Roderick L. Ireland, the court’s first Black chief, said in a statement released by Baker’s office. “She is brilliant, hardworking, analytical, collegial, and astute.”
If confirmed by the Governor’s Council, Budd would be tasked with not only leading the seven-member court as its chief justice but serving as the top administrator of the state’s entire judiciary.
No woman of color has ever been chief justice in the history of the SJC — the oldest continuous sitting appellate court in the Western hemisphere — and she would be just the second Black chief justice after Ireland (2010-2014) and the second woman to hold the role, following Margaret H. Marshall (1999-2010).
Budd, who celebrated her 54th birthday Friday, would also be the state’s youngest chief justice in more than a century. She wouldn’t face mandatory retirement age until October 2036.
The other two justices he’s nominating would also be historic firsts for the Massachusetts Supreme Court, with
the first Latina
and the first Haitian
.
Interestingly, he will also be the first Governor in like 50 years or something to appoint all the justices on the Supreme Court, which I am actually okay with, funnily enough. He has a very “best idea wins” approach to governing, and is pretty darn good at his job.
Edited by megaeliz on Nov 17th 2020 at 2:17:09 PM
"And I say this as someone baffled by what humanities students expect to obtain that's job relevant. Like sure, do it for the learning, but I have no idea what some of you were thinking it would do job wise..."
Humanities, literature, art, and philosophy degrees are well-represented in law schools in the United States, iirc. Outside of teaching, there probably isn't a professional class that would serve as the logical next step in, for example, a philosophy student's career, but that doesn't mean there aren't places that value it.
The real useless degrees tend to be those ready-made, vaguely vocational sounding "pre-law," "pre-med" types of programs that have a lot of breadth, but not a lot of depth so you end up with like a party platter of introductory knowledge.
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."The exams and tests were open book, it definitely wasn't a memorisation test. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And undergraduate law degrees are a requirement for becoming a lawyer in the UK (or another degree followed by a specific course for the legal knowledge), so it's obviously not comparable with the US where it's apparently not required at all until the postgraduate stage?
@megaeliz We are such a weird state. Deeply blue (with rural areas more strongly blue than more affluent areas!) but regularly elects Republican governors, who get things done even with a solidly Democratic legislature. A Republican gets to appoint the entire SJC during his tenure and most people think his picks are great and important representation milestones.
And then the state Republican party (per the article Crimson Zephyr posted) looks at everything Baker's getting done and his overall high approval and thinks "We need to be less like him and more like Trump".
Baker's arguably the one with messed up thought processes since he thinks what he's doing is actually what the GOP wants.
Doesn't he know that as a GOP governor he should be brutalizing criminals, lowering taxes, privatizing services, oppressing minorities, and making things easier for rich white men by defanging government? Who does he think he is, a Democrat?
Edited by M84 on Nov 19th 2020 at 4:49:55 AM
Disgusted, but not surprisedYeah, reading Baker's wikipedia page, all I can think is "...why aren't you a democrat, dude!?" Seriously, other than possibly mishandling covid and the occasional slightly troubling view on illegal immigrants, he seems like a perfectly fine, comptetent, common-sense democrat politician. So what the heck is he doing with the nest of racist vipers that is the GOP?
Roll a Constitution saving throw to make it through the year.
. He’s not though. He’s an old school “Rockefeller Republican”, that got left behind by the current Republican Party.
. If I remember correctly, he was actually trying to push the state Republicans in a more moderate direction, but they went all in on Trump anyway.
Edited by megaeliz on Nov 18th 2020 at 10:23:01 AM
Inertia keeps people in parties well after it makes sense for them to jump ship, that’s before you get to the people who make a deliberate choice to stay so as to try and change the direction of the party.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranMy grandfather apparently told my dad that if he ever wanted to run in politics then he should run as whatever side was the one historically popular in the area.
At the state level, it didn't matter what your policies were as long as you got the votes.
(Grandpa ran for Lieutenant Governor and was a KY Supreme Court judge so he knew what he was talking about)
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Nov 18th 2020 at 1:50:22 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.![]()
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How old-school republican are we talking here? Pre-Southern Strategy? Or just pre-MAGA madness?
Oh yeah, local politics can look a lot different from national politics at times. Hopefully the GOP could eventually learn from people like Baker and evolve into something more in line with his policies. Although, I'm not gonna hold my breath, we're probably looking at like 50 years minimum before that can happen - and that's assuming the MAGA cult will actually decline...
Ah, thanks ^^
Edited by Kardavnil on Nov 18th 2020 at 1:58:08 AM
Roll a Constitution saving throw to make it through the year.
He’s actually an archetypal example of the so-called Rockefeller Republican
.
However Geoffrey Kabaservice states that they were part of a separate political ideology, aligning on certain issues and policies with liberals, while on others with conservatives and on many with neither. They often saw themselves as champions of "good government", contrasting themselves to the often corrupt machine politics of the Democratic Party, particularly in large cities.
In general, they tended to be highly educated, at least somewhat technocratic, and solution oriented. (For example, a Rockefeller Republican might favor increasing immigration quotas, as a way of decreasing the number of people coming into the country illegally, or be pro-choice because they believe that government shouldn’t infringe on a person’s individual right to bodily autonomy).
My dad would probably qualify as one. He’s not as liberal as me and my mom, but certainly not a modern Republican.
Remember, political parties used to be less clear cut, and both parties had liberal and conservative wings.
Edited by megaeliz on Nov 18th 2020 at 11:37:03 AM
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There's a surprisingly large number of Republicans who are breaking away from the GOP thanks to Trump. What with groups like the Lincoln Project and Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT). They've even went as far as supporting Biden despite their differing political views. It makes me wonder if they will wrestle for control of the GOP once Trump leaves office? (Think of it as the Tea Party movement but with moderates instead of populists)
Does the late John McCain qualify as a Rockefeller Republican?
In North Carolina, there'll be a recount in the race for Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court, where incumbent Democrat Cheri Beasley trails by about 400 votes (out of more than 5 million cast). Beasley is the first African American woman to hold the position. The court used to be 6D-1R, but Republicans already flipped one seat this election. If Beasley loses, the court will remain majority Democrat, but have a narrower 4-3 split. Link
400 votes is actually small enough that a recount may make a difference.
Problem is, the RVAT and Lincoln Project were mostly Republican consultants and lawmakers who have been out of office for a long time. A tiny handful of current Republicans said they would vote for Biden (almost all of them at the local level), and the election showed that almost all Republican voters still like Trump. Under Trump, moderate Republicans have been replaced with MAGA hats, at all levels from county party chairs to Congress. That doesn't bode well for them wresting away control
Rockefeller Republicans are a critically endangered breed, being down to 5 members in the House, 3 in the Senate, and 4 New England Governors. And I'd have to squint and tilt my head sideways to call some of them "moderates", by any reasonable definition.
Edited by nova92 on Nov 18th 2020 at 3:09:50 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgnOf1GrH90
Not sure if this has been linked or the content in it's already been mention, but Colbert noting the GOP starting to crack under the pressure and slowly but surely admitting Biden really is the President-Elect, as well as turning on each other.
‘I’m not a f—-ing socialist’: Florida Democrats are having a postelection meltdown – The state party recorded one of the worst election performances in the country. Now comes an identity crisis
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/18/florida-democrats-meltdown-437113
After suffering crushing losses from the top of the ballot down, the state party now is mired in a civil war that could have profound consequences for future elections.
High hopes for gains in the state Legislature have given way to recriminations and finger-pointing. Florida Democratic Party Chair Terrie Rizzo is almost certain to lose her job, but no one has stepped up to claim her mantle. Prospective 2022 gubernatorial candidates, including state Rep. Anna Eskamani and state Sen. Jason Pizzo, are slinging blame. And redistricting, which could deliver Democrats into another decade of insignificance, is around the corner.
Even as Joe Biden heads to the White House, state Democrats know that President Donald Trump did more than just win in Florida. He tripled his 2016 margin and all but stripped Florida of its once-vaunted status as a swing state. His win, a landslide by state presidential standards, was built on record turnout and a Democratic implosion in Miami-Dade County, one of the bluest parts of the state.
“We have turnout problems, messaging problems, coalitions problems, it’s up and down the board,” said Democrat Sean Shaw, a former state representative who lost a bid for attorney general in 2018. “It’s not one thing that went wrong. Everything went wrong.”
While Democratic losses were particularly devastating in Florida, the party fared poorly across the country at the state level. The timing couldn’t be worse. Political redistricting begins next year and Republicans in control of statehouses across the country will have a chance to draw favorable maps that will help their state and federal candidates for the next decade.
What happens next in Florida could be an early signal of how the Democratic Party’s current progressive-centrist divide plays out in Washington and elsewhere. In interviews, more than 20 Democratic officials, organizers and party leaders throughout the state said the party schism has grown only deeper since Election Day. Would-be gubernatorial candidates have already begun trading fire as they begin to lay the ground to try and defeat Republican Gov. Ron De Santis.
The article goes on to list errors made by local Democrats, such as not combating GOP misinformation, a lack of leadership, and using out of state pollsters, which might be part of why the Cuban surge to the Right was missed.
Edited by sgamer82 on Nov 18th 2020 at 5:25:21 AM
I really cannot believe that more people would turn out for Crowley in Florida even when it was because of him and his loyalists that the Covfefe-19 virus killed thousands and shut down so many businesses over there.
I don't think it's because of the fear of socialism but rather the fact that Ron the Death Eater and his cronies were doing voter suppression to prevent Democrats from voting.
Edited by clemont107 on Nov 18th 2020 at 8:35:07 AM
"Wow, no Mega Togekiss in Legends Z-A. Or any non-Froslass new Sinnoh Mega Evolutions. Round of applause, everybody." - Dawn

It doesn't help that it's increasingly difficult to actually get a job to pay off said student debt.
It also doesn't help that student debt lacks the same protections as other debt - no declaring bankruptcy or anything.
Edited by M84 on Nov 18th 2020 at 1:55:27 AM
Disgusted, but not surprised