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.

sorry, read "know" as "think"

I live in Orange County, CA in a very red part of the state. I have a somewhat unique perspective. Around here, folks have figured out how to coexist - more or less.

Way more than less.

To be fair.

I'm not even a Trumper and I damn sure not going to unify with a party that isn't going to apologize for excusing and encouraging that kind of behavior against normal citizens. I'm not angry with you. I just feel like people don't understand why the healing and unity is going to take more than "hey, we won, now lets be friends." That being said, I know a lot of moderates who are Democrats who I will always do my best to treat with respect as long as that respect is mutual. I don't want to judge all Democrats by the bad actors but someone has to start apologizing and making these things right. Talking down to people and telling them they are racist after they have been assaulted and had property destroyed is just going to anger them. Just saying. Unity and healing isn't going to happen for most of America until mutual respect for each side is restored and I don't see that happening soon. I'm honestly just hoping it doesn't get worse at this point.