They might have waited too long. You know how fighter pilots are, I suppose.

Too brave for their own good sometimes.

I was in Germany in 2001 when they moved from the marks to the euros. Lots of immigration while I was there. There were a lot of military members being threatened and attacked all over the place by the time I left. It was a big change in only a few years.

Germany....a very sad story and a very sad end.

You know, I was in Berlin the night the wall came down.

Everyone thought they had a magnificent future.

If you had told us back then that it was actually the end, everyone would have called you dillutional.

or...."outside interference"...perhaps. 😄

Really? I watched it on TV. I was still in school. I know a lot of Germans that are very unhappy with their government right now.

They dont have a government.

They have feudal lords.

Rheinmetall and Siemens.

Yeah, France is in the same boat.

So I hear.

anyways...it is 0700 here.

Ill have a go at sleeping again, I think.

Have a good morning.

@linuxace, you just advanced to level 5!

Thank you for a good conversation, sir.

Take care, @Doc ...

You too! I'll be around from now on so hope to talk to you again.

Man I step away for a few minutes and miss a ton.

Yeah, we were just discussing fine music and the fall of the western world.

@linuxace You mentioned your belief that Democrats working to tear down checks and balances. Democrats feel that is what McConnell and Trump have been doing with the Judiciary. How do you reconcile that? I feel that the there is plenty of blame to go around. Both sides have a win at all costs mentality that fundamentally seems un-American to me.

I don't feel that way because appointments have happened within the bounds of tradition and the law, it's just been publicized more than when Democrats tilted and maintained a left-leaning supreme court for decades. I don't have a problem with either side doing that within those bounds. It's the court packing, changing a states electorial votes to match the national popular votes, stacking electorial votes by adding new states or districts, and calls to abolish the electoral college and eliminate the 2A that I have problem with. I would have a problem with either side doing those things.

I fully expect the SC to swing the other direction before too long. Some areas of the country might never have a voice again if some of the other things are done.

I don't think you have to worry about the 2nd amendment any time soon. Since the pandemic, liberals have decided they aren't that opposed to it.

I'm not sure how that is going to pan out. It's not getting a lot of press but Biden is getting a lot of pressure to go full steam ahead on a lot of bad gun legislation and executive orders from what I've heard. NFA or mandatory buybacks of AR rifles, additional taxes for any gun owner, no magazine over 10-rounds, etc. I'm hoping that those are just token offers and are serious policy goals.

Regarding the SC, 20 of the last 24 justices were nominated by Republican presidents. It hasn't been a liberal court for more than 40 years. Until the last 4 years, Presidents seemed to be interested in maintaining a balanced court 3 Conservative, 3 Liberal, 1 Center Right, 1 Center Left, 1 swing... Roughly.

At least half of the country doesn't trust the government enough for that to go over well in my opinion.

I am a big fan of a balanced court and think that there would be nothing wrong with expanding the court to 11 seats. It would still maintain the conservative majority, but would appease the half of the country that feels it was a shady move on McConnell.

We need to start the healing.

I haven't researched the Federal and appellate judges, but those might be fine for now.

That's not going to go over well with the normal everyday conservatives, especially after the election. The healing isn't going to happen unless there are some apologies given to everyday Americans for how they have been treated.

I think that it's kind of like salary negotiations... if either side feels too good or too bad, it was probably a bad deal. Both sides should feel equal parts satisfaction and disappointment.

Liberals would want to tip the scales and conservatives will resent the deck not being quite as stacked.

For example, I'm not a Trump fan but my 85-year old grandmother is and had a Trump sticker on her car and had thousands of dollars worth of damage done to it. She was stranded at a grocery store by her self for hours until someone could come pick her up and had to borrow money from her kids to pay the deductable to have it fixed. These things have been a lot more common than has been reported and I'm telling you, it is going to take more than a shady election and calls for unity (while still being slandered) for that divide to be fixed after so many things like this have happened.

I get it... What happened to your mother was inexcusable.

There is no justification for that and I don't know a single person on either side of the political spectrum that would think otherwise.

You know, except the people who did it.

Well... I don't know them.