Blogger Candidate Forum: Why The Supreme Court Is Necessary To The Republicans

 

nationalvoterregistrationday.org

Hello Everyone:

A nice warm sunny Tuesday afternoon in the Blogosphere.  Today, The Candidate Forum is stepping in for a look at how the upcoming fight over who will replace Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will impact the general election.  Before we get started, The Candidate Forum has a question for the group: Are you a registered voter?

Today, September 22, 2020, is #nationalvoterregistrationday and The Candidate Forum cannot think of a better day than to register to vote in the upcoming general election November 3, 2020.  Registering to vote is fast, easy, and makes you feel good.  Where can you register?  You can go to nationalvoterregistrationday.org, it takes a few minutes and you are done.  If you are a registered to vote, check your registration status at usa.gov.  Need a plan to vote?  Easy, text VOTE to 30330.  Once you have registered to vote, checked your status, and made a plan, pat yourself on the back  and read the post.  Onward

The justices of the United States Supreme Court
nbcnews.com

Could the 2020 election cycle be anymore of a wild roller coaster ride to the finish?

The death of Justice Ginsburg suddenly opened up another seat on the Supreme Court for Mr. Donald Trump to fill with than 42 days until the election.  The president, enabled by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), before November 3rd.  Mr. Trump has already committed to nominating a woman and currently there are two potential female justices on the shortlist: Judges Amy  Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa.  Both women are conservative and would tilt the high court rightward.  The point of today's post is to take a look at how the upcoming nominating process will impact the election.  Will it make much of difference to voters?

Judges Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa
nationalreview.com

Even before Justice Ginsburg's passing, the question of nominating a new justice was on the agenda: Who would be the better candidate to nominate the next justice, should there be a vacancy?  Former Vice President Joe Biden (D-DE) or the incumbent president?  If you recall, four years ago, the issue of nominating a new justice came up in a big way.

Four years ago, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the incumbent president were locked in a fierce battle for the Oval Office.  In February 2016, a full nine months before Election Day, Associate Justice Antonin Scalia passed away.  Following an appropriate amount of time, then-President Barack Obama fulfilled his constitutional duty by nominate federal appellate Judge Merrick Garland.  However, what should have been a very straightforward process, became quite contentious because the Senate refused to allow a vote on President Obama's nominee.  Senator McConnell pledged instead,

...let the American people decide (theconversation.com; Sept, 20, 2020; date accessed Sept. 22, 2020)

His power play worked, Mr. Trump won the election and successfully appointed a conservative justice--Neil Gorsuch--14 months after Justice Scalia's death.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
ballotpedia.org

Since Friday, the Gentleman from Kentucky has done a complete about face, saying "the Trump administration will decide who Ginsburg's replacement will be--not the American people on election day" (theconversation.com; Sept, 20, 2020).  Hypocritical?  Absolutely.  Incumbent South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee also pledged in 2016 to let the next president nominate the next Supreme Court justice.  Now, the Gentleman from South Carolina, who said on camera that voters could hold him to his words, has turned around and agreed with Senator McConnell.  The incumbent president plans to move quickly and the looming battle guarantees that the wild roller coaster ride of an election is about to get more wild.  Hang on tight.  Ask yourself this, why is the Supreme Court so important?

The Supreme Court is the third branch of government of the United States.  The high court keeps the other two branches--executive and legislative--in check.  Its landmark decisions have fundamentally transformed the nation: the 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education ruling declared that segregation of pubic schools was unconstitutional.

The current make up of the court features three justices appointed by Democratic presidents and five appointments by Republicans (theconversation.com; Sept, 20, 2020), the potential for a sixth conservative justice could have generational implications on issues such as healthcare, a woman's reproductive health, and immigration.  SCOTUS settled contested elections in the past (Bush v. Gore, 2000).  With both campaigns ready to mount legal challenges to this election, there is a good chance this could happen again.

Senate Judiciary Committee chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
axios.com

Why are the Republicans so determined to appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court?

American politicians, like the president, are subject to term limits and the ballot box, however, federal judges, including SCOTUS justices, serve lifetime appointments.  Thus, appointing conservative judges is of the utmost importance to the Republicans.  Few issues, outside of women' reproductive health, is more sacrosanct.

The main reason for this is the demographics are not on the side of the Republicans.  "The US is gradually becoming more urban and non-white--two trends that favor [sic] the Democratic Party more than the Republicans" (theconversation.com; Sept, 20, 2020).  This could explain why the Gentleman from Kentucky has prioritised [sic] the appointments of conservative judges to the federal bench.  These judges potentially could outlast the decline of conservative political power (theconversation.com; Sept, 20, 2020).

The incumbent president
theguardian.com

Before the 2016 election, many within the Republican circles wondered just how much of a conservative Mr. Trump was.  In a move, obviously designed to prove his conservative credentials, his campaign made the unusual move of releasing a list of potential SCOTUS nominees.  The list of established conservatives eased (some of the) concerns about a Trump candidacy.  

In fact, exit polling from the 2016 contest indicated 26-percent of Trump voters said high court nominees were the single deciding factor for them (theconversation.com; Sept, 20, 2020), compared to the 18-percent of Clinton voters (Ibid).  This year, with the incumbent president either trailing or running neck-and- neck with VPOTUS Biden, "Trump's victory reliant on a combined margin of just under 80,000 votes across Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, even the smallest of advantages--in this case, those deciding who to vote for based on the Supreme Court--could have had outsized importance" (theconversation.com; Sept, 20, 2020).  This has energized the Democrats.

VPOTUS Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA)
bbc.com

Some of the political chattering class have posited that the newly vacated SCOTUS may help the incumbent president's chances in this year's cycle because it changes the subject from his lethal ineptitude in managing the COVID-19 pandemic and flagging economy.  However, it also has energized the Democrats.  

Indeed, in the hour after the announcement of Ginsburg's passing, Democrats raised US$6.2 million on the fundraising digital platform ActBlue--more money in a single hour than the website had ever seen.  This record was broken the next hour when donors gave over $100,000 a minute on average to total $6.3 million (theconversation.com; Sept, 20, 2020).

In total, about $42 million was raised in less than a day by online donors.

Four years ago, Republican voters held their noses and voted for Mr. Trump.  This year, Democratic voters may do the same with the Gentleman from Delaware.

The incumbent president and Senator McConnell
apnews.com

Nothing in The Constitution prevents the incumbent president from nominating judge and the Gentleman from Kentucky going ahead with hearings and a vote.  Even if the Democrats regain control of the Senate and the White House, they cannot prevent a lame-duck Republican Senate from confirming a lame-duck president's appointee.  There is every reason to believe that is exactly what the incumbent president and Gentleman from Kentucky plan to do.  The real question is other than Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), what about the remaining 49 Republicans?

Already, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) have committed to voting on a nominee this year.  Be that as it may, amid the deep political polarization, some Republicans are questioning the long-term impact of rushing through a SCOTUS justice, "most notably, what doors this opens for Democrats if they gain power" (theconversation.com; Sept, 20, 2020).  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said nothing is off the table if the Republicans try to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat before the the final results of the General Election.

Already there are rumblings from the Democrats about what they would should they regain the Senate and White House.  This included giving statehood Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. (yes), which would ostensibly each add two more Democratic senators.  Some Democrats have proposed expanding the Supreme Court to temper conservative votes.  A tricky move that late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt attempted during his second term but was stymied by Congress.  Court packing is something that the Gentleman from Delaware has explicitly crticised [sic].  

This just in: In a retaliatory move, Senator Schumer has invoked the "two-hour rule," a measure intended to hamstring the scheduling and duration of Senate Committee meetings (cbsnews.com; Sept. 22, 2020)

The 2020 Presidential Election will go down in history as one of the most contentious contests in memory.  This is why it is so important that every man and woman, 18-years-old and over register to vote.  Vote by any way you can, mail-in or in-person.  Staying home or tossing your ballot in the recycling bag is not option available this year or any year.  With so much riding on who sits in the Oval Office beginning 20 January 2021, you need to register and vote.

  

What Will The Post-COVID Cities Be?

 

newyorker.com

Hello Everyone:

A very happy start of the week to you all.  Blogger's good mood is tinged with sadness over the death of United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  Justice Ginsburg was a true patriot, a champion for gender equality before the law, a scholar, advocate, loving wife to her late husband and fellow lawyer Martin Ginsburg, and devoted mother to her children Jane and James.  As a lawyer, she argued that the Fourteen Amendment to The Bill of Rights also provided equal protection and due process on the basis of gender.  This meant that women were equally entitled to make their own medical decisions and determine their own financial histories, forever changing the roles of men and women.  Beyond that, she was a pioneer in the legal field during a time when women were the legal secretaries, not the lawyer.  Her experiences with gender discrimination galvanized her determination to put an end to it.  Her relationship with her husband was true couples goal.  They were equals in every way.  They supported and nurtured their ambitions.  Outside of the court, Justice Ginsburg was an opera lover, even making a cameo appearance in Gaetano Donizetti's The Daughter of the Regiment as the Duchess of Krakenthorp, a humorous speaking role.  It was a passion she also shared with her ideological opposite and fellow justice the late Antonin Scalia.  Ruth Bader Ginsburg may have been a tiny woman but she was a giant in court.  The battle is on to replace her and The Candidate Forum will be in to talk about it.  Onward

Vilnius, Lithuania
theguardian.com

Vilnius, Lithuania, like cities around the world, was not sparred from the COVID pandemic.  Yet, it is emerging from the pandemic a completely different city.  The Lithuanian capital city has remade itself into an open-air cafe, where restaurants and bars have set up tables in plazas, squares, and streets, to serve customers in a very socially distant manner.  There was a short-lived drive-in movie theater in the city's idle airport.  Next month, the municipal government will ban most cars from its Old Town, to provide more space for pedestrians.  Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Simasius spoke to The Atlantic,

We planned it for next year... (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020; date accessed Sept. 21, 2020)

However, with country still in lock down during the month of June and outdoor space at a premium, he said that speeding up endeavor seemed natural (Ibid).

Vilnius is one example out of many cities remaking themselves in anticipation of a post-COVID world.  From creating more walkable streets, to re-purposing public spaces, cities around the world are re-configuring themselves to address the needs of their citizens during the pandemic.  However, as restrictions ease, "the legacy of the coronavirus--and the changes it has inspired in urban spaces--remains unclear" (Ibid).  Yasmeen Serhan speculates,

Will this pandemic, like those before it, inspire a new blueprint for urban planning?  Or will it drive people away from cities for good? (Ibid)

New York City, New York
ny.curbed.com

Although few places have been spared from the pandemic, urban areas have fared the worst.  New York City, once the world's epicenter of the pandemic, recorded at least 15 percent of COVID deaths in the United States, despite accounting for 2 percent of the American population (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020).

London, England logged more than a fifth of COVID deaths in England and Wales.  Madrid accounted almost a third in Spain (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020).

The contemporary city was not designed with highly contagious diseases, like COVID-19, in mind.  They are dense and many do not have a lot of green space.  Further, many of the benefits of urban dwelling--cultural, public transportation, restaurants and bar, et cetera--require some form of close contact.  The pandemic has made these activities dangerous.  Cultural venues like museums and theaters are still shuttered.  Public transportation is still available but the buses and trains are running at less than capacity, no way of knowing when people will feel comfortable enough to board a bus or train.

History tells that urban development is borne out of plagues.  Ms. Serhan muses, "...in a weird way, most urban dwellers (your London-based author included) owe much of how they live to the pandemics of the past" (Ibid).  Prior to the 19th-century, cities were absolutely filthy  She describes the scene,

...Streets were lined with mud; rivers were thick with human and industrial sewage; and animals, and their waste could be found scattered across town (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020).

Sorry, did not mean to disgust you with the facts.

Therefore when disease emerged, the conditions were ideal for their rapid spread, laying waste (no pun intended) to the urban population.  More facts:

...More than 5,000 people died during the 1793 yellow-fever epidemic in the then-American capital Philadelphia.  An 1849 cholera outbreak in London killed more than 10,000 people in three months (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020).

19th-century London
npr.org

Full disclosure: disease transmission was still largely unknown in the 19th-century, "...public-health officials theorized that the unsanitary conditions of cities, and the foul odors they produced, were to blame" (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020).  As more information became available, more cities began to prioritize water sanitation and overall cleanliness.  By the mid-1850s, New York City built a 40-mile aqueduct system and exiled 20,000 pigs from the city.  Similar sewer systems were installed in London and Paris.  During the same time period, urban planners began to think of other ways to improve the overall health and well-being of cities, eventually leading to the first public parks.  There have been some urban silver linings amid the gloom of COVID-19.

The COVID pandemic has already produced some measurable changes.  In Athens, Bogota, and Milan streets have been re-configured as bicycle lands, sidewalks have been widened to give people more commuting options while practicing safe social distance (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020).  More examples, in Rotterdam and San Francisco, public spaces have been re-purposed as outdoor retail spaces for hard-hit businesses to safely serve their clientele (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020).  Public parks in Toronto and New York City now feature social distance circles to prevent overcrowding (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020).  Although some of the changes are temporary, others, like sidewalk expansions, could be permanent.

Social distance circle
holland.com

 Truth be told, no one knows exactly how COVID-19 will ultimately re-shape cities, at least not in the long run.  Ben Rogers, the director of the think tank Centre for London, told The Atlantic, It's still early days (Ibid).  Mr. Rogers suggested "that the most profound changes are likely to appear not in the physical makeup of cities, but rather in how people choose to live in them" (Ibid).  One example is the way people work:

Prior to the pandemic, only a small fraction of Britons and Americans had the option to work at home regularly.  Those figures necessarily surged as a result of the pandemic, and now employers--among them Twitter and Facebook--have made that option permanent (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020).

This is not likely to affect jobs that cannot be done remotely, like those in the hospitality and retail sectors.  Mr. Rogers did speculate it could nevertheless,

...push the digitalization of our economies and society even further  (Ibid)

Further, the shift in work patterns could result in other changes.  For example, the expansion of work from home options could mean reduced congestion on public transportation, and could spur people to move out of cities all together.  Proof, a recent study by the British real-estate website Rightmove found that over half of Londers' property inquiries for residences outside the British capital, compared with 42-percent the previous year (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020).  Another survey, in the United States, the Harris Poll found that almost 40-percent of American urban dwellers are considering moving to less populated areas because of the pandemic (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020).

Ben Rogers' own think tank found "...32 percent of Londoners are more likely to continue living in the city after the pandemic, said a mass exodus from cities is unlikely--especially for young people" (Ibid).  Mr. Rogers said,

When you're in your 20s, cities play this absolutely crucial role,... It's where people meet, [where] they make their friends, [where] they develop really valuable networks...Culture fuels that.  It oils it all.  I just can't see all that going away anytime soon (Ibid).

Street scene in Seoul, South Korea
fodors.com

Although COVID-19 may have affected urban life for some, the majority of urbanites will tell you that contrary to popular belief, density isn't the problem.  Proof, some of densest cities in the world: Seoul, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taipei were able to suppress the pandemic.  The bigger public health issues included residential overcrowding, tied to a lack of affordable housing and air pollution (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020).

Several cities are currently prioritizing measures like more walkable and bicycle-friendly streets as low-hanging fruit (Ibid), according to Roger Keil, a professor of environmental and urban change at York University in Toronto.  Prof. Keil told The Atlantic, "city leaders should prioritize more difficult investments, such as public transportation and housing" (Ibid).  He also emphasized the importance of looking beyond downtowns.  He said,

We need to make those noncentral parts of the city more livable (Ibid)

...using under resourced neighborhoods such as the Paris banlieue and the outskirts of cities like Milan and Berlin as his examples.  He continued,

These are the kind of investments... that we need, not only because the next pandemic is just around the corner, but [because] the next thing could be a flood or some other thing that comes and hits us in the age of climate change (theatlantic.com; June 9, 2020).

Whatever reform measures or investments evolve out of the COVID-19, they will be tailored to each specific city--what may work for Vilnius may not work in Los Angeles or London.  Mayor Remigijus Simasius said,

Our city is quite dense, but it's not as dense as many megacities or central parts of megacities,... we're dealing with the same virus as all of humanity