It was clear to me what you meant:
noodge or nudzh or nudge
MEANING:
verb tr. : To pester; to nag.
verb intr. : To whine.
noun : One who pesters and annoys with persistent complaining.
Oy.
I don’t remember the rules of this particular drinking game, but – having been pretty compelled by your and @LSLGuy 's post – I’m pretty sure I need to take a shot.
Cheers !
I didn’t say it was owned yet; just if.
Indeed. In Illinois, they’re doing it as we speak.
I think Trump and McConnell did about as much damage to the judiciary as they could have inflicted. The US judiciary has exceptional independence, so it’s not like a political party can take over the legislature and/or executive, modify the constitution on their own, and install lackeys. There are countries where this can happen but the US ain’t one of them.
But what McConnell - and I’d say he more than Trump - did succeed in doing is identifying right wing ideologues who, even though they might not owe McConnell and the GOP, nevertheless are ideologically in concert with them. Republicans confirmed some judges who weren’t even ABA qualified - they were chosen strictly for their partisanship.
Highly partisan, yes. But mostly Federalist Society partisan, not OANN partisan. I have no desire to live in an nation ruled by either sort of judge. But if forced to pick between them I sure know which I’d prefer.
As you say, there are some who are utterly unqualified and are simply party apparatchiks who McC et al hope will remember who they owe their sinecure to.
I disagree totally. The judges appointed by Trump and other republicans threw out all the election lawsuits Trump and the GOP files after 2020. The president appoints judges and the senate votes on them. The last 4 years has shown GOP presidents and senators have no morals or allegiance to democracy or the constitution.
They could have appointed lackeys instead. That is the sad fact of Trump, Trumpism isn’t dead but the next generation of authoritarians will learn the wrong lessons. Stack the courts and military leadership with lackeys, pick someone more competent and less odious to lead the GOP, promote social welfare programs to buy some votes (authoritarian right wingers in other nations generally promote social welfare to win votes).
This is a good article about how Chavez and Maduro took over the judiciary in Venezuela and how it is now an arm of the executive branch. The same could happen here. They added a bunch of lackeys, and when the citizens voted for an opposition party to run congress, the supreme court just neutered congress’s ability to affect the government.
Over the last few years some of my leftist friends were prone to posting rhetoric calling for revolution. I finally started asking them if they really knew what they were asking for. Did they understand how ugly a revolution really was? Were they prepared to drag their neighbors out of the house at midnight and shoot them in the face? What makes them think they’ll win?
Last October, I was out for a walk and one of my neighbors struck up a conversation with me about the upcoming election. For some reason, probably because I’m white and have grey hair, he assumed I was a Trump supporter. I made it clear that I wasn’t a fan of Trump and I’d be voting for Biden. He cooled towards me but we parted ways amicably enough.
On the afternoon of January 6, 2021 I started to wonder how long it might be before I could expect a violent reaction for not voicing support for a particular candidate. Will I start to see rocks thrown through windows, cars vandalized in driveways, or people attacked because they have BLM or Democratic candidate signs in their yards any time soon?
I’m honestly not sure how I’ll react. It’s disheartening to think that tens of millions of Americans don’t mind if the Republicans end democratic proceedings. Whatever happens I expect a lot of people to get hurt.
The idea that any political party in the USA will end or might end democracy is hyperbole on steroids; pap for the lowbrow masses.
At what point does rigging the electoral process to favor permanent minority rule bleed into “ending democracy?” That’s what is going on in front of us, a smaller and smaller minority continually rigging the rules so that they can win control with an ever-decreasing share of the vote.