I’ve seen all sort of interesting suggested modifications, but the main concept, expanding the court to be large enough to prevent it from being manipulated, doesn’t seem to have much resistance as a starting point.

You also make excellent points.

I understand that it could sound like Right-wing talking points, but RW talking points often have a kernel of truth, that gets distorted. We have all seen government agencies that are hopelessly bureaucratic, but that doesn’t mean ALL government agencies are that useless. I’ve been to terrible DMVs in past locations I’ve lived, but the DMV in the area I live now is amazing. I’m never there longer than a half hour. Government doesn’t have to be inefficient, MAGAs just like to make it that way, so they can invent excuses to cut programs.

Excellent point. Obviously, there is a lot more nuance involved that can’t be contained in a single sentence.

Ah, the old “I’m not part of this group, I only hang out with them because they have good snacks” excuse.

You can get close a whole bunch of times first though. That would be unpleasant.

AI is the denialist’s best friend. Now they just declare it AI, and that’s the end of the discussion. Not their stuff though, that’s totally real.

I do occasional business with a guy who is a hard core MAGA, and always has a TV on next to his desk, tuned to Fox News. I’ve been doing business with him for years, and that TV has NEVER been on a different channel.

He ONLY knows what Fox News tells him. Anything else from any other source is fake news.

I’d take my business elsewhere, but we have a good business relationship, and it’s good to know a few MAGAs so you can touch base with the delusion, and stay in touch with what’s going on.

I used to believe we needed to add 3-5 additional justices, but I no longer believe that.

Now I believe we need to add 20 additional justices. The composition of the court shouldn’t be so tight that one bad-faith president can manipulate the system to negatively influence American society for the next 50 years.

We need 29 justices, with rolling term limits so that every president can appoint a few, but not enough to fundamentally change the direction of the court.

A country as big and influential as ours, needs to be responsible to our citizens and the world in keeping our political policies under control and trustworthy. How can any other nation make deals with America, when they know the very people they dealt with may change their minds tomorrow - literally. Nobody can trust such a capricious government, and nobody will work with us.

It is already happening, and America is starting to feel the results of permanent trade shifts away from American goods and markets. That is a direct result of recklessly fickle governmental policy at every level - trade, military, judicial, Congressional, presidential, etc. None of our systems can be trusted anymore.

Adding 20 justices to SCOTUS would be a big step in the right direction in taking true control of this country.

The fact that he was Republican had nothing to do with it.

That’s right, Biden appointed a Republican to investigate the Republicans. One more reason why he will be permanently ranked among the bottom 15 of American presidents. If he hadn’t done a great job with Covid and the Trump Economic Crash, he’d be in the bottom 5.

Like when they handed a reporter a giant binder on camera, and claimed it was the health care plan they intended to release “in two weeks?”

Later, the journalist looked at the pages in the binder, and those that weren’t simply blank pages, were nothing but printed out documents and emails. None of it was any kind of a health care plan. It was like someone grabbed a random binder off a shelf, and said “Give them this, and tell them it’s a health care plan.”

Apparently, they didn’t care that the journalist would later expose the binder as a fraud, they got the visual of the hefty “health care plan” being handed to a journalist, and that was good enough.

There is nothing wrong with regulating vices, but not because they are offensive to God, that’s just stupid superstition.

The reason to regulate vices is because they tend to be addicting and destructive, and there are many immoral people who will deliberately addict as many people as possible, just to shake the Almighty Profits out of their pockets.

I don’t care about that when it’s voluntary - nobody is addicted to buying a new car, or a new couch, that’s a personal choice. But when they have been enticed into becoming ADDICTED by marketing and advertising, the choice is no longer theirs, and they are spending money they don’t really want to because a corporation got them literally addicted through shrewd and effective advertising.

I have noticed that Matthew Broderick is now doing commercials for a new gambling app that uses Candy Crush type games to gamble instead sports or cards, and they are aiming it at middle aged women. Worse, they are aiming it at UNSATISFIED women. The ads show women with adult children who have moved back in, with husbands, or children, who won’t pay attention to them, etc. They are aiming at older women who feel unfulfilled in life, and encouraging them to feel better by playing a video game that is barely disguised gambling.

It’s not enough that they are addicting young men to sports gambling, now they’ve identified a new demographic - unhappy middle-aged women, many of whom control the household finances. It’s only a matter of time before we hear about families losing their home because mom gambled away the mortgage.

Vices need to be regulated to keep the Corporate Predatory Parasites under control, or they will eventually enslave ALL of us.

all political labels are meaningless outside the classroom.

This is the real truth. None of the world’s governments are what they claim to be. All of them have taken a basic foundation, and then added various things from various systems until every government in the world is some Frankenstein’s Monster of bureaucracy.

We’re supposed to be a Democracy, or a Republic, or a Democratic Republic, or something, who knows, but a lot of the best stuff in America is straight up Socialist, like parks, schools, libraries, museums, roads, bridges, etc.

Fire Departments are one of the best examples of American Socialism. In the olden days, if you owned a building, you’d buy fire insurance from a local fire brigade, and they’d give you a “fire mark,” a cast iron medallion, that you would attach to your building. That proved that you were paid up, and if your building caught fire, they’d show up to put it out. If you weren’t paid up, they’d show up to watch your building burn, unless you paid.

Eventually, they replaced the profit-making fire fighting system with a municipal fire fighting system, paid for by ALL the citizens, to benefit ALL the citizens, and not just those with enough money to pay. Same with public schools, roads, bridges, etc. Much of the best of America is already Socialist.

NONE of the world’s governments adhere to the political philosophy they claim to follow, except in the most basic ways. Whatever labels they apply to their own systems, or the systems of others, is meaningless propaganda. There are no Socialist, Communist, or Democratic nations. They are all mixed systems, that exist more by evolution than design.

This is dumb, because there is still a profit, it’s just the state collecting it instead of a private individual. If there was no profit, the product would be significantly cheaper, but it’s not. There’s a profit being made, it’s just going to “the people.”

The problem is that the government is going to operate the retail operation so inefficiently, that the profit will be eaten by bureaucratic costs.

That’s the real value of profit - it drives efficiency. Without a profit motive, there is no reason to value and implement efficiency, so money gets wasted.

When I was kid in Ohio, I would sometimes go into the state-operated liquor store with my dad when we were running errands. There was one bottle of each product on display behind glass, with a number, and you’d write down the numbers of all your selections, and give them to a guy at a counter, also behind glass, like a bank teller. He’d go get your bottles, and you’d pay and leave.

I was just a kid, and even I could see that this was an inefficient and stupid way to run a retail operation. At some point they changed the law, and regular retail liquor stores became legal, and state run stores disappeared. You could buy beer and wine at grocery stores, gas stations, etc., but hard liquor was only at liquor stores.

I was an adult when the switch happened, and I was friendly with my favorite store to buy beer. They got one of the first licenses to sell hard liquor, and when he told me, I said “Oooh, you’re gonna get RICH!” and he just gave me the biggest smile I think I’ve ever seen.

Here they come!

Always. MAGAs are afraid of EVERYTHING.

Yeah, they said they kill 200 Russian soldiers for every kilometer they claim. That’s a steep price to pay for a little bit of territory, but it sounds like Russia is willing to pay it, and it’s working. Not for the soldiers, but for “Russia,” I guess.

That’s all. We don’t need to go after their politics, as reprehensible as they are, their actual crimes will keep us plenty busy, we won’t have any need to be making things up.

What’s wrong with being “performative?” What does that even mean anyway? He doesn’t really want this stuff, he’s just doing it to look good? So what? If it gets done, I’m happy. I like performative.

He balanced the budget: Not really, he had to cut deals, shuffle things, etc. Yeah, no kidding, that’s how you balance a budget. It only looks weird to all these politicians because they’ve never actually done it before.

Or filling potholes: I don’t care if it is “performative,” all I know is that 6 inch deep pothole that’s been growing in front of my building for the last three years is finally filled. “Performative” works just fine for me. More politicians should try it.

Its matter of time until they try to grab the wrong person, and someone starts shooting, and it turns into a street battle. It’s inevitable, and “PeeWee Himmler” would love nothing more.