Would be helpful if people could think about this outside of R/D partisanship and consider the implications of endless gridlock for the constitutional system itself. i.e., there is a reason the executive branch and the courts keep accumulating power
in the absence of a congress that can fulfill its large and dynamic role in the constitutional system, power will accrue to those actors that can take up the slack. which means, on one hand, an unelected tribunal of “judges” and on the other, a large and powerful bureaucracy.
the other thing i’ll say is that an endlessly gridlocked congress changes the incentive structure for people who might be interested in elected office. out with people with policy ambition, in with people who are there mainly to preen for the cameras.
and while you can’t blame the filibuster for all of this, it certainly does not help
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the truth of the matter does not actually matter here but it is worth saying that, among other things, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution were passed on "party line" votes
also, just think about what sinema is saying here. "state governments might be trying to deprive americans of the right to choose their leaders but it is even worse to try to do anything about that in a partisan manner"
watching the first Austin Powers because i haven’t seen it in like, fifteen years. and you know what? it’s still pretty funny
“austin, the cold war is over!”
“finally those capitalist pigs will pay for their crimes, eh? comrades? eh?”
“austin…we won”
“oh, smashing, groovy, yay capitalism”
one thing about this movie, it looks great. the cinematographer, peter deming, had previously worked EVIL DEAD II and MY COUSIN VINNY among other films. he also went on from this to shoot MULHOLLAND DRIVE
it's remarkable. generally the popular defense of the american constitutional order is either a (many times mistaken) assertion of framer's intent or just outright folk civics with no relationship to reality
for example, "they designed the electoral college to protect rural/small states from urban/large states" is a commonly believed thing that is a) false and b) makes no sense on its face, i.e., every state in 1787/88 was "rural"
even the more intelligent defenses rely on something like "you just don't understand the higher purpose of the framers." see this response to one of my columns: nationalreview.com/2021/11/jamell…
beginning the new year with a big dumb superhero movie, and one of my personal favorite big dumb superhero movies, AQUAMAN
tomorrow we’ll hunker down with something serious but for now i just want to see crab people and an octopus drummer
i’ll say though for as dumb as this movie is, the submarine sequence is legitimately great action filmmaking, and yahya abdul-mateen is just utterly captivating
got my hands on four pounds of great looking collards and i am very excited to cook them on saturday
longtime followers will know that i’m a guy who loves collard greens
a recipe i really like is from asha gomez’s “my two souths.” i use all collards & swap the ham for smoked turkey. i also do it in the pressure cooker (40 minutes), which means less water/stock (just a cup). the nutmeg is very non-traditional but trust me it works.