Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Quick Hits: Volume CCCXXX

- Happy 10th anniversary to this Tweet: 





Then Senate Majority Leader Reid was referring to nuking the filibuster for judicial appointments below the U.S. Supreme Court, something Dems contended was tantamount to treason when Senate Republicans even entertained the idea 8-1/2 years earlier. 


Since Reid set the precedent, it wasn't exactly a stretch for the GOP majority in the U.S. Senate to extend it to SCOTUS appointments shortly after Donald Trump was inaugurated President in January 2017.


National Review also commemorated the anniversary of Reid's stepping on the proverbial rake. 


(O)nce Donald Trump entered the White House, Republicans used Reid’s weapon to confirm 54 circuit judges and 174 district judges in four years. With the precedent in tatters, they also discarded its remains to confirm three Supreme Court nominees who would have been enormously difficult to get on the Court with a 60-vote threshold. Those three justices form the backbone of the new conservative majority and provided the decisive votes to overturn Roe v. Wade. Reid, who died in late 2021, lived to see the utter ruination of his plans by his own actions.

Be careful what you wish for.


Indeed.  



- I haven't played Fantasy Football since 1998. I've had many invitations to join leagues over the years, but I've declined them all. 


I'm sure the vast majority of FF participants are fine people who enjoy spirited competition among friends and acquaintances.


And then there are the intense competitors who personally go after NFL players for underperformances or not rehabbing fast enough from injuries. The best WR in the game today, Justin Jefferson, had his fill of those who want him to expedite his healing from a bum hamstring. 





JJ is still on his rookie contract and thus is in line for a monster extension. Since the average NFL career is maybe three years, I don't blame players one bit if they take extra precautions when going through the rehab process. The big payday's only comin' once, if ever.



- Conservative commentator Erick Erickson with an accurate (and downright depressing) assessment of a potential rematch of the 2020 presidential race

 

Joe Biden is currently the most unpopular President in modern American history. He makes the Carter Administration look positively popular. If I were a Democrat and saw the President’s polling and saw him statistically tied in a race against a man most Americans loathe and who Democrats believe is an existential threat to democracy itself, I might want to consider pushing the man aside (not down stairs) and letting him retire gracefully a one term President.

Concurrently, Republicans, your front runner is statistically tied to the most unpopular President in modern American history. The GOP leads the Democrats on border security, immigration, national security, crime, spending, fighting inflation, and the economy. The President is less popular than most venereal diseases. And your front runner is only tied with him — in large part because Democrats themselves are tired of their front runner but will rush back to him if Trump is the nominee. And, remarkably, the further you get from Trump as a GOP nominee, the better the Republican candidate does against Biden.

Both parties should be rethinking their front runners.

The most unpopular President in modern history is tied with the most unpopular candidate for President in American history. It’s not the unstoppable force meets the immovable object. It’s the brain eating amoeba versus the brain swelling virus — where Americans are forced to pick which cruel death they prefer — a choose your own adventure where at the end you always wind up in hell.


Seems to me that those complaining loudest about our democracy supposedly being in peril are looking to make decisions which will only enhance those concerns. 


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