Report: Justice Antonin Scalia found dead

[MarcATL]

These extremists are not the party's base. They never were. But the republican party cannot win elections through its base, alone. There simply aren't enough people willing to vote for a party that only serves the wealthy. So the religious extremists have become the party's go-to 'swing voters'. They use them to fill in the gap between their base voters and the votes they need to win elections. And it's worked for them in the past. Unfortunately, these extremists are nuts. They are so extreme that they make the party look like lunatics to moderates, and now days even to their own base. Yet the republican party has become "addicted" to using these extremists to win elections, and so they just can't seem to stop pandering to them. And the result is a party that looks to most of America like incompetent obstructionists who's electoral candidates all appear to have just fallen out of a clown car.

The republican party needs to jettison these extremists, and do it soon. But they believe they still need these extremist 'swing voters' to win elections. So they're trapped by their own deceits. And as a result they just keep getting more absurd, and more extreme.

At the rate they're currently proceeding, I expect they are not only going to continue losing the presidential elections, but they're going to lose their majorities in the house and senate, too. Because the American people are getting sick and tired of the insane partisan nonsense.
They are NOT the core republican voters. They are an extremist 'swing' voting block that the republican party generated, by deceit, to win elections. They were just marginalized fringe extremists until Carl Rove "discovered" them and used them to get "W" elected. (Well, not elected, really, but close enough to steal an election.)

Excellent post.

 

[MarcATL]

The base of the republican party has always been conservatives. Conservatives are by definition people who seek to 'conserve' the status quo. They are people who don't like change, and don't want it. Mostly because they are also the people in society who are benefitting most from the 'way things are now'. That it, the very wealthy, the wealthy, and the well off upper middle classes. also some working class folks who have good benefits and job security, and who are particularly given to obedience to authority.

These are not the people we are currently discussing as the republican "base": radical religious conservatives that want America to become some fantasy version of "bibleland", and political extremists fueled by racist, religious, and sexual bigotry, fear-mongering and a general anger that they are no longer the white male power class that they once were. These people aren't even conservatives, though they seem to have cooped the label. They are radicals, and extremists. They are a lunatic fringe that the republican party has been pandering to, to gain their votes because the party can't win elections, otherwise. Their real base is just not strong enough on it's own because of the massive and growing income disparity in this country. But this deal they made with the 'devil' is coming back to bite them in the rear end, because the extremists are now all 'fired up' and taking over their party, and they are chasing the real republican base away.

Nailed it again!

 

[MarcATL]

Conservatives tend to be a mean spirited bunch - not just with liberals but with each other.

It never fails to amaze me how the front-running Republican candidates all claim to be good Christians, and then proceed to attack each other in a very unChristian way.

Running for president certainly doesn't bring out the best in people!

Carson is the only one that acts close to Christlike on the debate stage, but he has no business being there.

 

[kmoney]

Carson is the only one that acts close to Christlike on the debate stage, but he has no business being there.

Agreed. The best quality about Carson.

 

[Nick M]

President Obama is not 1: Gay; 2: a foreigner; 3:A Muslim.

According to Obama, he is Indonesian. Kenya says he lost his citizenship because he didn't live there when was 20, or something like that.

I wrote the post before getting the links and feel no need to change 20 to 23.

 

[serpentdove]

Antonin Scalia's Son Calls Conspiracy Theories About Father's Death A 'Hurtful Distraction'

Of course, he had the added benefit of living. Pr 8:36

 

[kmoney]

The obvious one is Brown v. Board of Education. He would have disagreed, but it seems likely that he would have claimed otherwise.

Why do you think an originalist interpretation would disagree? What kind of approach do you think the SC used?

 

[annabenedetti]

Carson is the only one that acts close to Christlike on the debate stage, but he has no business being there.

Funny you should say that, it's been said of Carson that he has a God complex or a Messiah complex, and that his home is basically a shrine to himself.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...house-homage-to-himself-in-pictures?CMP=fb_gu

 

[kiwimacahau]

According to Obama, he is Indonesian. Kenya says he lost his citizenship because he didn't live there when was 20, or something like that.

I wrote the post before getting the links and feel no need to change 20 to 23.

He was born in Hawai 'i to an American citizen. He grew up in Indonesia and part of his extended family lives in Kenya. He is as American as Apple Pie.

 

[kiwimacahau]

Antonin Scalia's Son Calls Conspiracy Theories About Father's Death A 'Hurtful Distraction'

Of course, he had the added benefit of living. Pr 8:36

Scalia's son is correct but don't let that stop you from bloviating. Oh and please explain how

Of course, he had the added benefit of living. Pr 8:36

the quoted scripture applies here?

 

[chrysostom]

there are some valid questions
like
who paid for the trip?

someone should answer that

 

[genuineoriginal]

He was born in Hawai 'i to an American citizen. He grew up in Indonesia and part of his extended family lives in Kenya.

And his father is a foreigner, which disqualifies him because it creates divided loyalties.

 

[ok doser]

He was born in Hawaii...

unproven

to an American citizen.

to a mother who was an american citizen and a father who was a british colonial

at his birth, he held dual citizenship, regardless of where he was born

He grew up in Indonesia and part of his extended family lives in Kenya. He is as American as Apple Pie.

riiiiight, because most americans grow up in indonesia and have an extended family in kenya :kookoo:

 

[serpentdove]

[Hurtful comments about

child-killing dad] "Scalia's son is correct..."

Of course he's alive to make the argument (Pr 8:36). Scalia will get to meet those who disagreed with him (Re 20:11-12).

 

[serpentdove]

there are some valid questions
like
who paid for the trip?

someone should answer that

Obama (Eze 38:3) :Nineveh: will find you another child-killing Catholic (Jud 11 :burnlib like Reagan. Wasn't he the first President to pledge allegiance to Rome? linger:

"Reagan was the first President to take his inaugural oath in the west wing of the Capital Building facing the Washington Monument obelisk..." Full text: Toward a New World Order: US Presidents Doing Their Part--The Progression

 

[kiwimacahau]

And his father is a foreigner, which disqualifies him because it creates divided loyalties.

unproven



to a mother who was an american citizen and a father who was a british colonial

at his birth, he held dual citizenship, regardless of where he was born



riiiiight, because most americans grow up in indonesia and have an extended family in kenya :kookoo:

The courts disagree that having a foreign-born parent makes you a foreigner (you might want to try this argument with Ted Cruz.) His birth in Hawai'i has indeed been proven. Dual citizenship is not a bar to being president and almost all Americans are descendants of dual born ancestors.

 

[genuineoriginal]

The courts disagree that having a foreign-born parent makes you a foreigner

The courts are frequently wrong, just look at Roe v. Wade (if you are a Christian) or the Scopes trial (if you are a godless athiest).

(you might want to try this argument with Ted Cruz.)

Yes, Ted Cruz is not qualified to be President of the United States because he was born to a foreigner.

His birth in Hawai'i has indeed been proven.

Not with the obviously electronically created "long birth certificate".
But the place of Obama's birth is merely a red herring to keep people from addressing the real issue, his father is a foreigner and not an American citizen.

Dual citizenship is not a bar to being president

The writers of the Constitution determined that the President was to be the son of American citizens, and not the son of a foreigner.

and almost all Americans are descendants of dual born ancestors.

We are talking about whether a person's parents are both American citizens, not whether an ancestor was a foreigner.
It does not matter whether your grandparents were foreigners, it does matter whether both of your parents are American citizens.

 

[ok doser]

The courts disagree that having a foreign-born parent makes you a foreigner

that's not the issue

the issue is the definition of "natural born citizen"

and there is none

so we rely on case law

and in it's strictest interpretation in the past, holding dual citizenship excludes you

in its loosest interpretation in the past, it doesn't

(you might want to try this argument with Ted Cruz.)

what make you think i give a ratz patootie about ted cruz?

His birth in Hawai'i has indeed been proven.

nope

Dual citizenship is not a bar to being president

see the bit above about "natural born citizen"

and almost all Americans are descendants of dual born ancestors.

that doesn't figure into it

 

[Town Heretic]

That's where it gets tricky. No one knows for sure that the next President will be a Democrat. Maybe the Senate will be more favorable after the next election, maybe not, but to assume that the next President won't be a Republican is quite a gamble.

Odds are it will be...which is his best card to play at present. Present a moderate to left of center candidate and tell Mitch that if they don't take the olive branch and gentler shift the next administration will make it job one to carry the day more strongly to the left of center. They couldn't block the attempt for four years. So take a gentle shift now or take worse medicine then. A left leaning Roberts, by way of...

 

[rexlunae]

Odds are it will be...which is his best card to play at present. Present a moderate to left of center candidate and tell Mitch that if they don't take the olive branch and gentler shift the next administration will make it job one to carry the day more strongly to the left of center. They couldn't block the attempt for four years. So take a gentle shift now or take worse medicine then. A left leaning Roberts, by way of...

I think it's better than even odds the Dems win the election. The Republican field is as weak as I've ever seen. But a lot can happen between now and then.