Putin must not have known how much power he had. Ukraine is small potatoes. He was the czar of one half of the political system of the US. It was a real possibility his party would control the whole government again in 2024. A lot of times people don't know how successful they've been.#
The point of yesterday's philosophical question was this. The Constitution says the government may not search you unless there's probable cause. That doesn't mean that people you invite to enter your house should be allowed to go through your private stuff. It may not be illegal, but we still recognize it as wrong. In the same way, you have "free speech" in America, even when it isn't the government restricting your speech, when it's your employer, school, family or friends. No law prohibits them from doing it, so you don't need to make that much-belabored point, but being intolerant of other people's opinions is still, as far as I'm concerned, and many other Americans of all persuasions, wrong, un-American. #
- First let me say up front that, of course, African-Americans are not fungible. It's a stupid question, but I didn't raise it -- the Supreme Court process did, over many decades of the comings and goings of black justices and also women. #
- So -- are racism and genderism part of the Supreme Court process? Yes they are and I can prove it.#
- When Thurgood Marshall retired, the Repubs replaced him with Clarence Thomas. Thus the "African-American" seat's significance was supposedly preserved. Marshall was the Supreme Court's first African-American justice. Thomas is the second. #
- African-Americans are fungible, they seemed to say. Of course Marshall and Thomas, even though both were black, were almost exact opposites in philosophy and rage-suppression. The former was very liberal, a highly respected scholar, and the latter is fascist and resentful, and the depths of his depravity are only now starting to be explored.#
- And when RBG died, she was replaced with ACB. Yes both are women, and thus women are considered fungible as well, as far as the Supreme Court is concerned, at least by some people, in some sense. Politically, ACB is the opposite of RBG, probably is committed to reversing all of RBG's accomplishments. Yet the number of women on the court remains the same.#
- Of course Clarence Thomas is in the hospital while the Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings are going on, which gets you to consider that the number of AA's on the court would be preserved if KBJ was ratified and the unspeakable happens to CT.#
- PS: I actually love the term fungible for some reason, always have, so I was somewhat delighted that the latest tech scam are NFTs where the F stands for fungible. This means I get to think of this word more often and that generally makes me happy for some odd reason. I hope the scamminess of NFTs doesn't end up spoiling that, or maybe I'm wrong and NFTs are the basis for a new capitalism? I have been wrong before. #
