Many-Faced Votary

It is a reality check, as it's important for us to understand the context. Fascism is not a threat to us; it is already here. The more powerful of the two political parties with any relevance in the United States is an authoritarian death cult operating in an oligarchy masquerading as a democracy. The time for incremental reforms is past, especially when the vast majority of the reforms in recent decades have been for the worse, from Citizens United to the Voting Rights Act being dismantled across the country. There must be real, structural and fundamental, change.

Maybe stop putting words in my mouth. It is now too late this election cycle, but it didn't have to be, whether the mechanism was within or without the Democratic Party.

No; I want people to recognize that the "lesser evil" fully enabled and thereby gave us the fascism. Maybe it's time to stop giving them a pass and to start effecting change.

Okay, this one was actually funny. Snaps for that.

No, it is constantly choosing the lesser evil that resulted in that. This defeatist mentality that "better things aren't possible" is what has actually resulted in better things not being possible. When the greater evil gets even worse with every single year and the lesser evil follows them into absurdity and insanity, voting for the latter pushes the country into the wrong direction, more and more. Do you know what would prevent the decline of American political culture? Not voting for the increasingly terrible lesser evil, and instead, demanding better options. This is particularly true now, when the choice is either what's left of democracy or fascism: if that is every election from now on, and make no mistake that it will be, it means that fascism has already won. It's just a matter of time.

18 U.S. Code § 2383 was passed during the Civil War, prior to the Fourteenth Amendment. It is not a mode of enforcement; it was written, in historical context, as a precursor to Section III of the Fourteenth Amendment. The sheer notion that a Constitutional Amendment requires separate enforcement is itself enough to change it from the supreme law of the land to something constrained by politics and bound by political will. Saying that Section III is not self-executing is already enough to make it meaningless, which is what the five justices in the majority wanted. By the way, the Trump v. Anderson ruling is so sweeping that it invites arguments that the Department of Justice filing suit on that law would not disqualify Trump from federal office. Make no mistake, this will be the first thing argued in such circumstances, as SCOTUS fully expected. Instead, he will have to be explicitly barred by Congress to pass muster. I also question the thinking that the most feckless Attorney-General in the history of the country will actually attempt to convict Trump of insurrection.

This is incorrect, or they would have clarified that Trump is already ineligible. As per the ruling, Congress has to pass a resolution confirming that Trump is disqualified on those grounds, or a new law explicitly disqualifying him.

The Supreme Court trying to polish the turd with a paper-thin veneer of impartiality by refusing to exonerate Trump of insurrection (have we seriously sunk so low as to praise SCOTUS when they do less than the bare minimum?) is irrelevant in context. That context being that the 5-4 majority that went beyond the judgment to answer a legal question that was not even presented has rendered the Insurrection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment effectively inoperable. The rationale is that because Section V empowers Congress to enforce the Amendment, it must do so in every case the Amendment applies. This is mind-boggling sophistry, not to mention a profound legal pitfall. The so-called Constitutional Originalists on the Court have decided that rather than Section III being the self-executing disqualification it was obviously intended to be, it is actually just another form of impeachment. As a result, it faces the same problems impeachment does, including a party fully participating and complicit in rejecting democracy; consequently, it is completely useless. As far as this case, this tangibly entail two things: [1] that the Constitution does not apply to Donald J. Trump, and [2] that any Republican president in the future is free to attempt additional coups without repercussion. More generally, it means that there is virtually no consequence for Republicans who attempt coups, because Congress alone has the power and means to bar them from federal office. Even more generally, the ruling could be used to obliterate the whole Fourteenth Amendment, and potentially other Amendments with an enforcement provision. It is now nothing more than a paper shield, as you had better believe Republicans everywhere will cite this case to attack anything protected by it. If Congress must specifically pass legislation to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment, its provisions are meaningless. The Justice Department cannot itself enforce the provisions or bring suit to do so. Federal courts cannot order federal or state governments, or private parties, to take action in order to fulfill the law of the land. Congress, and Congress alone, must separately and directly enforce the single most consequential Amendment in the U.S. Constitution.

Alternatively, he'll succumb to the sheer cognitive decline and signs of dementia he's been exhibiting for months now. I am far from a Biden fan, but isn't it ever so great to see the endless media coverage and manufactured problem of Biden's age with virtually no mention of Trump losing it? I fear this is wishful thinking on par with President Jesse Jackson, or President Martin Luther King, Jr., when those were discussed in their respective eras.

^ Monica should have been a billionaire herself due to the inevitable success of the nonpareil product that is Mockolate.

No. Delivering a modicum of justice is not, in fact, "opening fissures." The fissures were opened long ago by the now-fully fascist Republican Party that had increasingly rejected democracy and the rule of law for decades. The cracks existed beforehand, but they started to pull apart drastically during Nixon's time... Not as late as Watergate or his other scandals in office, but when he committed treason to narrowly win the 1968 presidential election. (A playbook imitated by Reagan in 1980.) I would be remiss not to mention the actual, literal stolen election of 2000. Is it even worth mentioning the stunning corruption of Bush's own brother being the Governor of Florida who directed its Secretary of State to purge voting rolls, of no less than three Republican justices having conflicts of interest in Bush v. Gore that should have been grounds for recusal even beyond the naked partisanship they displayed, etc.? The completely unchecked conservative media apparatus that deals with fabrications day and night, and which warps the narrative of all polity to favor Republicans because the legacy media uncritically adopts their stances in their efforts to appear "balanced," has perpetuated the radical and rapid rightward shift of the Republican Party, and that extends to their rejection of the rule of law. These are the fissures that need to be healed. This, along with the sheer spinelessness of establishment Republicans throughout Trump's term and after his insurrection on January 6th, is what has warped the country, rotted its politics utterly, and resulted in at least 35% of the population living in an insane fantasy world. Trump facing any measure of justice is good, actually. Trump would never relinquish power, even if it the presidency (and soon-to-be dictatorship) wasn't now an existential tether for him to avoid all legal consequences.

Ted, because while much (though far from all) of Ross' malice can be attributed to his sheer ignorance, incompetence, and dysfunction as a human being, Ted generally knows that what he's doing is wrong and he simply does not care. Having said that, he's much funnier (and intentionally so), even if it isn't saying much -- as you alluded to.

Please don't kill me, but Friends was a painfully unfunny and simply bad show when it first aired, and it neither aged well nor holds up to scrutiny. I have always held this view and am gratified to see a significant proportion of people finally beginning to express it. (Still infinitely better than The Big Bang Theory, though.) That said, this is fun! 1) Phoebe 2) Joey 3/4) Monica 3/4) Chandler 5) Rachel 6) Judas Iscariot 7) Ross

Go to! It's telling how your first instinct is to defend those lens rather than reexamine them. It's a lot easier to perceive the problem if you compare his essays on Tyrion, Doran, and especially Jon to the one on Dany. There is a pretty clear double standard at play when you contrast the conclusion of The Meereenese Blot with that of Other Wars, with some horrific gender-based interpretations and eyebrow-raising inferences that could only be achieved by valuing the slaver over the slave. Forgive me for not having much respect for slavery apologia and misogyny. Here's a significantly more valuable quote from George R. R. Martin himself, for your perusal: "I never held much with slavery [...] You can’t just go... usin’ another kind of people, like they wasn’t people at all. Know what I mean? Got to end, sooner or later. Better if it ends peaceful, but it’s got to end even if it has to be with fire and blood, you see? Maybe that’s what them abolitionists been sayin’ all along. You try to be reasonable, that’s only right, but if it don’t work, you got to be ready. Some things is just wrong. They got to be ended." ~ Abner Marsh, Fevre Dream

The Dothraki will resuscitate Dany's sickly body. She's already a traitor. I can see Dany making an evil pact with the Great Masters.