Well, as I feared, I was wrong about the Supreme Court and the possibilities of legislation by a democratically controlled Senate and House. Many thanks to the unknown commenter who laid things out for me and thanks as well to my son who sent me a lengthy response explaining exactly why my optimism was misplaced. It looks to me as though the only thing we can do is take control of the government and expand the Supreme Court. My guess is that Biden will be very hesitant to do that so we will have to push him hard. The prospect of striking down the Affordable Care Act in the midst of a pandemic may concentrate his mind somewhat.
Nobody said this was going to be easy.
8 comments:
It may not matter what Biden thinks about enlarging the court. When FDR tried it he failed with a lot of congressional Democrats opposing the idea. The effort, though, did get the Court's attention and suddenly their jurisprudence began to moderate.
On health care, if the Democrats get a trifecta--hold the House, win the presidency, and flip the Senate--they could make a fix in the ACA to solve the S.Ct. problem. When Roberts voted with the liberals in upholding the Act, he agreed with the conservatives that the individual mandate was unconstitutional, but held that the Act was saved by a tax provision. So the Republicans repealed the tax, and that's the basis for the case in the S.Ct. If the Democrats have control in January, all they have to do is reinstate the tax. That would render the S.Ct. case moot.
The health insurance issue is really beyond my imaginative capabilities. I can't grasp how anyone could want to deprive anyone else of health insurance. The only thing I can come up with is just plain meaness.
For some reason billionaires have made depriving most working people of health insurance into a hobby.
I recently read a good book called "How Democracies Die". It came out in 2018 and one of the main points of the book is that one of the ways democracies die is when parties ignore or breach democratic norms. One example given of the way democracies stay healthy was when FDR tried to pack the Supreme Court and Democrats joined with Republicans to stop him. FDR also was the first president to break the norm of presidents voluntarily limiting themselves to two terms, which got us the 22nd Amendment.
Of course, Trump has been the yugest at breaking democratic norms, and I would be surprised if Democrats felt the same need to defend norms now as they did during the Great Depression.
Personally, I would prefer if we could all hold to norms, but I fear that ship has sailed, and I am now all for adding 2 SC Justices and eliminating the filibuster.
In the 19th to early 20th century tradition of novelists that are prophets as well, like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, I believe Herman Melville to be a prophet too. I believe this because of Melville's original Nostradamus Quatrain in chapter 1 of his novel Moby-Dick. Now he mentions a bloody battle in Afghanistan. And such things probably didn't affect any Europeans, or Americans, or American presidential elections during that time span of Melville's career before he wrote Moby-Dick. This is a probable theory, of course, so there is still some room to say he could be talking about anything besides this theory of mine. Here's the Quatrain of Melville's:
"GRAND CONTESTED ELECTION FOR THE
PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES.
"WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL.
"BLOODY BATTLE IN AFGHANISTAN."
There are 3 things going on in this Quatrain. But it just takes 2/3rds of this Quatrain to be fulfilled for it to be a true prophecy and for Melville to be considered a prophet. And that of course is a "bloody battle in Afghanistan" that happens soon after, or up to one to three years, after a Presidential Election has been "grandly contested."
So if Melville is right: Biden will win the Presidency & Trump will stubbornly contest it. Or Biden will lose the election and stubbornly say Trump cheated. These two options don't seem like they would appear 50/50 to one another. It seems more likely that Trump would "grandly contest" the election and not that Biden would.
So if any of the two options happen, then my suggestion is to not take a trip to Afghanistan for a couple of years after, and to get one's loved ones out of Afghanistan for several years time. Plus, the U.S. Military should be warned and put on high alert: especially in Afghanistan.
Michael,
Melville’s prophecy has already come to pass in its entirety. He was referring to the 2020 contested election, which shortly thereafter was followed by the invasion of Afghanistan. And the day that the invasion of Afghanistan was launched, one Ishmael Khomeni set sail from Iran, wailing at the injustice of the American invasion of his country’s neighbor.
MS
Oops.
I meant the 2000 Gore-Busch contested election.
MS
A Historical Note may be needed:
If you look at the timeline in order, Melville discharges himself from the whaling ship Acushnet in July of 1842, while the great disaster of the British Army in the First Anglo-Afghan War ends January 13 of 1842. Although history does say the last action of the British Army in that war took place in the autumn of 1842 when the British Army leveled Kabul in revenge for the Afghan victory of January 13--also known as the massacre of Elphinstone's Army. However, the First Anglo-Afghan War began in 1839, and Melville began his whaling voyage on the Acushnet on 3 January 1841. So in this context the timeline is reversed. Plus, Melville doesn't get back to his home in New York until October of 1844--officially ending his overseas voyage. And the only Presidential Elections of that time period was in 1844 between James Polk and Henry Clay, where there was no "grand contested election." Neither for President William Henry Harrison, who died only a month into office in 1840. And the Second Anglo-Afghan War started up in 1878. And although Melville died in 1898, this is besides the point since Moby-Dick was published, with the Chapter One, Nostradamus--like Quatrain in 1851.
And Herman Melville, when all is said and done, could very well be a prophet testifying about the future. Nostradamus that great 16th century Prophet predicted accurately about that 19th century Frenchman Louis Pasteur in his prophetic, four line stanza Quatrain, Century 1-25 of his book: The Prophecies. So although these prophetic powers may seem improbable for anybody to have, they at least are not impossible to practically come by--however that may happen.
Unknown,
I never thought of his prophecy like that. That sounds pretty good. But you have to ask yourself the question: What does Grand Contested Election mean? It could mean the Gore-Bush election of 2000. But there also looks like the greatest of all contested elections is about to commence in November of 2020...
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