06hawkalum wrote:

Monkeyboy wrote:

06hawkalum wrote:I have been watching a couple of excellent 20+ hour docs on the 20th Century in the past month:

The Cold War (CNN)

The People's Century (BBC/PBS)

Both aired in the late 90s and are available on YouTube.

I know some of you are sick of me trying to find a reason to be grateful for being alive in 2020, but here goes:

I would take enduring a lifetime of 2020s over a single day of trench warfare during WWI. Watching the vets describe their experiences really drives home what constitutes true hell on earth and gives a man a sense of perspective.

I think the concern is we are going down the type of road that leads to those things and maybe this time we're the Germans. Fascism pokes its head up once in a while and the problem I see with it happening in our modern world is the technology that will allow it to spread and keep down the masses that might resist. It's always good to look back at history to learn lessons but you have to think of those lessons in terms of the modern world. In parts of China, every nook and cranny is on camera and those cameras have face recognition. Jay walk and you get a fine sent to your WeChat account within minutes. What could that technology do in a fascist state with citizens that try to resist?

We are entering a different world and who we are will be determined in the next decade or two as the technology goes off the charts. We need to be in the right place as a democracy to handle it without going down a dark path. Instead, we have a russian troll in charge, locking in anti-democratic principles that will be extremely hard to undo. Only a fool would wave their hands and say it's insignificant or just another bump in history.

Who will push back against the tyrants this time when the US, China, and Russia are all on one side? South america is dominated by Brazil which has another fascist in charge. China has its tentacles all through Asia and Africa. Good luck getting people in Asia to join the resistance. Europe is the only hope and even they have fascists in their midst, and Europe can't take on the world.

I appreciate your perspective. Keep in mind that over the course of human history, democracy is rarely the prevailing form of goverance, so perhaps we are in the end days of this second wave that started in the 18th Century. I sure as hell hope not.

The Savior wrote:Greenfield +3 over Ernst

Likely voters

Des Moines Register

thephan wrote:The White House and the pharmaceutical industry were nearing a major deal to lower drug prices. Then the administration demanded that $100 cash cards be sent to millions of seniors before the election — and the industry balked. - NYT

The Savior wrote:In that Ernst Senate poll (which May put Iowa in play for Biden)

- greenfield +15% with independents
- 10% of those who voted for Trump are voting for greenfield

If this holds, and money pours in to help her, I think we realistically have a shot at adding a senate seat in AZ, CO, NC, IA and ME. Maybe even IA and SC.

Worst case, we lose a SC judge but flip the senate. Trump wouldn’t waste 4 years being the bad guy. He’d probably turn blue.

More likely case, we flip senate and win the WH. And from there, we full #$!&@ court press. Add states. Add judges. Makes it impossible for Rs to regain any power without changing their racist, xenophobic agenda.

Best case, Mitch doesn’t vote. We win the senate and WH. And we do all the full #$!&@ press #$!&@ anyway.

The Savior wrote:Add judges.

jerseyhoya wrote:

The Savior wrote:Add judges.

I think expanding the Supreme Court would be really bad for America. So that's my prior.

I am kind of curious on the best positive cases from folks on what adding justices looks like and what the argument is and what the number is and how this helps anything.

I guess I'm very stuck on the idea that the Dems, if they add two seats, are looking at a world where John Roberts is once again the median justice. So they've nuked everything to have that. Congrats?

And if they try to add more than two justices they're going to a level that's utterly indefensible by what's happened in the preamble to justify the change.

The Savior wrote:Bullock tied in ND