2026 Mid-Term Elections

[laughing dog]

Why should black women not have a seat on the USSC?

They should not have a guaranteed seat on SCOTUS. Why do you think they should?

Why should there be any religious test? AFAIK, there is none.

There shouldn't. There should not be a racial or gender test either. And yet Biden instituted one.

Because every black person in an important role is a DEI pick. Duh.

Since Biden excluded everyone who is not a black woman from consideration, in this case she was definitely a DEI pick. How could you even argue otherwise?

Get off your hobby horse. The Supreme Court Justice is a political appointment. Which means politics plays a role. And if that means some white man doesn't get appointed every now and then, that is just life.

Do you think that Samuel Alito or Brett Kavanaugh or John Roberts were the best available candidates?

 

[Derec]

Get off your hobby horse.

It's not a hobby horse.

The Supreme Court Justice is a political appointment. Which means politics plays a role. And if that means some white man doesn't get appointed every now and then, that is just life.

Last time Dems put any man on SCOTUS was in 1994, more than 30 years ago.

Do you think that Samuel Alito or Brett Kavanaugh or John Roberts were the best available candidates?

Probably not. That does not make Biden's move to restrict his choice like he did in any way good.

 

[Derec]

Pretty certain Justice Jackson is only a single person, not an anthropomorphic conceptualization of all black women.

What does that have to do with Biden deciding to only consider black women for the seat?

It really would only be morally an issue if the intent was to discriminate against white, Hispanics, Asians, etc... to keep them intentionally off of the bench.

The real intent was to buy off Jim Clyburn so that Biden would win South Carolina and save his campaign.
But the restriction is nevertheless discriminatory against these groups, yes.

Justice Jackson became only the second black person to sit on the SCOTUS bench,

Third, actually. Are you forgetting Thurgood Marshall?

over 3 decades after Justice Thomas got his seat, roughly 3 decades after the Civil Rights Act was passed.

But Thomas is still in his seat. If it had been three decades since the last black justice vacated a SCOTUS seat, you'd have a point.
But it is pretty ridiculous to claim that there must be hyper-representation of black people on the Supreme Court.

 

[laughing dog]

Get off your hobby horse.

It's not a hobby horse.

The Supreme Court Justice is a political appointment. Which means politics plays a role. And if that means some white man doesn't get appointed every now and then, that is just life.

Last time Dems put any man on SCOTUS was in 1994, more than 30 years ago.

So?Get off that hobby horse.

]

Do you think that Samuel Alito or Brett Kavanaugh or John Roberts were the best available candidates?

Probably not. That does not make Biden's move to restrict his choice like he did in any way good.

True. Doesn’t make it bad either.

 

[Derec]

Yeah, Derec, women have been banging our heads for decades now.

I didn't know that the bonesmashing trend went back that far.

 

[Derec]

True. Doesn’t make it bad either.

You think a president restricting his choice to a narrow demographic slice is not bad? Why?

 

[Derec]

Oh, no!

So you are saying that DSA are like Trump when it comes to government control of key industries. So, are you agreeing with me that the DSA platform is bad, or should Elixir start calling you a "Trumpsucker"?

And you have not even addressed the other rotten planks in the DSA platform.

 

[Derec]

Pure hand waving.

It's not handwaving. It's a fact that there are politicians on the Left who are not formally DSA members, but share many of their positions. Like with Abdul with his economic policies and his rabid hatred of Israel.

Fear shuts your eyes.

On the contrary. It opens them.

 

[Toni]

Why should black women not have a seat on the USSC?

They should not have a guaranteed seat on SCOTUS. Why do you think they should?

Why should there be any religious test? AFAIK, there is none.

There shouldn't. There should not be a racial or gender test either. And yet Biden instituted one.

Because every black person in an important role is a DEI pick. Duh.

Since Biden excluded everyone who is not a black woman from consideration, in this case she was definitely a DEI pick. How could you even argue otherwise?

White men have been the majority on the USSC since it's inception until quite recently. They are the original guaranteed slot.

Why should someone not break that barrier? Reagan broke the gender barrier by nominating Sandra Day O'Connor. Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall breaking the color barrier. Brandies was the first Jewish USSC justice.

It isn't as though there were not a plethora of well qualified black women who could have been nominated by Biden or by previous POTUS.

 

[Derec]

This here is the methodology by which the right wing has thrived.

I disagree. Being accurate with the use of language is not the methodology by which the right has thrived.
I think obfuscating language is the methodology by which extremes on both ends of the horseshoe have thrived.

It has become impossible to even talk about any alternative to neo-libertarian capitalism and economic rationalism, because any and all efforts to do so are immediately (and I suspect deliberately, and probably maliciously) turned into an endless and pointless debate about the minutiae of the dictionary definitions of the word "socialism" and all its variants.

Yes, the right wing likes to obfuscate definitions in order to attack any social programs. The left wing does it too, by claiming that popular social programs are "socialism" to desensitize people to those whose end goal is to "seize the means of production".

I don't give a crap what it is called;

I do care, because knowing what words mean ensures we mean the same thing when we say them.

The best societies - the ones in which a citizen chosen at random is most likely to be leading a happy and productive life - recognise that there need to be inequalities of wealth, AND that there need to be controls to prevent those inequalities from becoming excessive.

But that is not socialism. That is capitalism with social democratic elements.

 

[Derec]

White men have been the majority on the USSC since it's inception until quite recently. They are the original guaranteed slot.

So other white men need to be punished now with quotas restricting access of white male jurists to the Court?

It's like with affirmative action. Blacks and women were discriminated against decades ago, so we should punish white male (and also Asian) students now even though they are very different individuals than those who were discriminated against in the past.

Why should someone not break that barrier? Reagan broke the gender barrier by nominating Sandra Day O'Connor. Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall breaking the color barrier. Brandies was the first Jewish USSC justice.

I have nothing against appointing qualified people regardless of demographic. And yes, somebody is by necessity going to be first. But that does not mean that a president should restrict his choice to e.g. black women only. And certainly not because he wants to secure endorsement of Jim Clyburn as part of a corrupt bargain.
Biden made a campaign pledge to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court.

It isn't as though there were not a plethora of well qualified black women who could have been nominated by Biden or by previous POTUS.

There are also a plethora of well qualified jurists who are not black women. No need to discriminate against all of them, like Biden did.

 

[Patooka]

Since Biden excluded everyone who is not a black woman from consideration, in this case she was definitely a DEI pick. How could you even argue otherwise?

Because the way you distort the concept behind DEI Charlie Kirk style implies anyone who is not a white male is clearly unqualified for whatever role they're in. I seriously doubt you give a flying fuck about Ketanji Brown Jackson's years of experience or qualifications.

 

[Derec]

Critical primary in Michigan, maybe? It is hard to tell if Trump's numbers are going to trash the GOP in November, so it might not even matter. But I wanted to share this thing on el-Sayed.

I come at this from a place of principle. I will not treat money spent to Israel differently than I treat money spent to Egypt, right? I don't think we should be sending money to either. Egypt is the second biggest recipient of foreign military aid. If you'd like to start there, we can start there.
I don't want to see my tax dollars being used to put a chokehold on the Egyptian people by a military dictatorship, which is what happens in Egypt. Similarly, I don't want my money used in apartheid and genocide. I want my money used to provide classes for kids and good schools and health care here in Michigan. So they are making themselves one of the most important players in our politics.

El-Sayed not wanting any military aid for Egypt either is not him being so principled that he is even against military aid for his own country. No, the truth is very different. He is against military aid for Egypt because he is a Muslim Brotherhood supporter.

Abdul El-Sayed’s Father-in-Law, a Top Donor to an El-Sayed Super PAC, Is Among Top Leaders of Muslim Brotherhood Organization Linked to Terror Funding

There is more:
Michigan Senate Candidate Backed by Bernie Sanders To Speak at Islamist Convention Alongside Hamas Sympathizers

El-Sayed will share the convention stage with Sami Hamdi, a British activist who said he felt "euphoria" after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel. Tom Facchine, another conference speaker, said after the Hamas attack that, "we are with the Palestinian resistance 100 percent, no ifs, no ands, no buts, no equivocations, no apologies, no condemnations." He has also encouraged Columbia University students to "take out" pro-Israel professor Shai Davidai, the New York Post reported.
Muslim American Society director Ayman Hammous, another convention speaker, has praised Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who called for another Holocaust to "punish" Jews and has defended Palestinian suicide bombers. Hammous recently promoted a protest sign that referred to "the Satanic state of Israel."
And there is Shaun King, a former Black Lives Matter activist who converted to Islam after the Oct. 7 attacks. King, who has served alongside El-Sayed as a Bernie Sanders campaign surrogate, called Joe Biden a "genocidal monster" after the former president’s cancer diagnosis earlier this week, and said, "I hope his final days are painful." King expressed outrage after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, whom he referred to as his "dear brother."

It looks like El-Sayed will win the nomination, sadly. Then Rogers is the only hope to stop an MB sympathizer from getting into the Senate. Is Adam Hamawy, the associate of the Blind Sheikh, not enough?

P.S.: I didn't even know Shaun "Talcum X" King converted to Islam. I guess that makes his nickname even more fitting.

 

[Derec]

Because the way you distort the concept behind DEI Charlie Kirk style implies anyone who is not a white male is clearly unqualified for whatever role they're in. I seriously doubt you give a flying fuck about Ketanji Brown Jackson's years of experience or qualifications.

The point is that Biden pledged to not consider anybody except for black women two years before that seat was even open.

I never claimed that there aren't qualified black women, but that it is wrong to restrict a pick this way.

 

[Patooka]

El-Sayed not wanting any military aid for Egypt either is not him being so principled that he is even against military aid for his own country.

This isn't prejudiced or bigoted at all

 

[Derec]

El-Sayed not wanting any military aid for Egypt either is not him being so principled that he is even against military aid for his own country.

This isn't prejudiced or bigoted at all

He is Egyptian, isn't he?

 

[Patooka]

I never claimed that there aren't qualified black women

Agreed. And in the 24 years you've been a member on this forum you've never mentioned one that is either.

but that it is wrong to restrict a pick this way.

And as everyone has told you, that wasn't the only consideration. Cry about the political component if you want, but don't pretend it doesn't exist.

 

[Patooka]

El-Sayed not wanting any military aid for Egypt either is not him being so principled that he is even against military aid for his own country.

This isn't prejudiced or bigoted at all

He is Egyptian, isn't he?

He was born in Michigan and is campaigning as a United States Senator, Kraut boy.

 

[Derec]

Agreed. And in the 24 years you've been a member on this forum you've never mentioned one that is either.

KJB is qualified. I never claimed otherwise.

Doesn't mean she would have been the best choice, had Biden considered all jurists without restricting it to ~7% that are black women.

And as everyone has told you, that wasn't the only consideration. Cry about the political component if you want, but don't pretend it doesn't exist.

The political component was the corrupt bargain with Clyburn. That makes it more wrong, not less.

 

[Derec]

He was born in Michigan and is campaigning as a United States Senator, Kraut boy.

He is still Egyptian by descent; that is not irrelevant. And he has ties to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and has attended an extremist Islamic conference.