Politics: Why the Proper Term is Undocumented Immigrants

This is going to be a very quick post. You see, sometimes I have used the wrong term for those that live in America without proper authorization. I have called them illegals. Many people have and do call them that. But I’m not going to call them that anymore as that is the wrong way of talking about this group of people. The proper term is undocumented immigrant. There is no reason to ever call them anything else. I’m sorry that I have done this in the past, but will not be doing this in the future. I urge others to follow my lead.

Politics: The Horrible Thing Called The Thurmond Rule

For the longest time, there were no major issues with Supreme Court vacancies or that of any judicial nominees. Sure, we had some issues with the Supreme Court as the number of people that are supposed to be on it had fluctuated for a while. But there could be vacancies after a president lost the election that he could still fill, like what happened with John Adams. But then things all changed when a politician named Thurmond invented a rule.

In reality, there is no real practice and implication of this rule. But what is it? Well, it states that during a presidential election year, especially during the second term of a term limited president, one would stop appointing judges. But this often never happens in reality until Obama was in office. Plus, people would often flip flop on this as it appears in some places to be the only issue that both Democrats and Republicans are hypocrites on. But it isn’t.

Now let’s get to when it was first implemented and all the horribleness of this started. It was towards the end of the administration of Lyndon Johnson. There was a potential for a vacancy on the Supreme Court, but the seats were never vacated yet. They never were until the next president, namely Nixon, took office, getting to name a new Chief Justice. But the whole issue was that it was late in the administration of Johnson and thus when Thurmond invented this rarely enforced rule of his.

Starting from that administration onward, pretty much every president had judicial controversies. Every single one from Johnson onward was affected, but not any one before him. Sure, there were some other issues earlier with some late judicial vacancies. But it wasn’t until this rule was made up that it became a constant part of the country.

Still, like I said, there is never a point where people just stop confirming judges. Sometimes it is slowed down for a while. But until the Obama administration, it wasn’t just blatantly ignored like it was. Trump talked about in the first debate how there were a lot of judges that he got to appoint since there were vacancies at the start of his administration. But he acted as if it was just a lazy person who wasn’t doing his job by filling these vacancies that caused this to happen and not the unprecedented obstruction and disrespect that Obama got during his time in office. Now, Republicans, of course, have done a 180 with this, trying to confirm all of the judges that they can despite the fact that they can still maintain control of the presidency and senate.

This rule isn’t even guidelines. It definitely isn’t a good thing. It arguably isn’t even real outside of the end of the Obama administration as previously stated. It is so inconsistency applied with the senate and presidency constantly switching or not otherwise in control. Some say that it shouldn’t exist unless it should. The rules invented during the Merrick Garland nomination that follow this rule are instantly thrown out when they no longer benefit them.

This is how we wind up with a whole mess of all this judicial system, something now swamped with tainted judges thanks to conservatives. They are awful and need to be stopped. Making sure that this rule never applies during a Democratic presidency or senate is a good start since there is no way that Republicans follow it when it doesn’t benefit them. The evidence is clear now. If they aren’t willing to follow their own rules, then why follow have rules? They can’t just either confirm judges or put the senate on recess. But that’s all that they do now. They don’t vote on more important things like a coronavirus relief bill that the house passed in May or even sooner. This supposed rule needs to go forever since it arguably already has.

Politics: Analyzing Black Lives Matter

Well, in today’s age, you’d think that it would be a given that black lives matter. They shouldn’t have to tell people this. This should be something that people already know. But they are not treated as such. Even after the former slaves became free citizens, they were still treated as second class citizens. Even after they could vote, they still faced obstacles to do it. Some might think that the Amendment after slavery that gave them voting rights for the first time was all that was done to solve their rights, but they still face voter suppression and still do today.

Even after the Civil War, there was segregation with blacks still treated as second class citizens. This lasted for around 100 years when Civil Rights told a hold of people and Lyndon Johnson was able to make that law, doing lots of good for minorities. Still, getting rid of racism is such a huge task that it may never be accomplished in the end.

This leads us up to the 90s, to the start of my lifetime. Such racial issues were still an issue, but one would still be lead to believe that it might be better now. Indeed, one cannot legally own another person in this or any other country now, as far as I know. But there are still issues that happened during this time. White people were voicing black people on cartoons. Blackface was still used at times despite widely being considered racist by now. These problems persisted for the next two decades.

What does this have to do with Black Lives Matter? Well, like I said before, we should already know this and treat them as such. We shouldn’t have cops or even citizens shooting unarmed black people. They shouldn’t be shooting people who might simply think that a home invasion is going on. They definitively shouldn’t be kneeled on and suffocated while restrained.

I like the idea of Black Lives Matter. The organization is much needed. It will always remain sad that we need sometime like that this. You’d think that everyone should be okay with this, but as certain as racism exists, there will be people against such organizations that seek racial equality in this country and that of planet earth as a whole.

Too many people feel that they have to respond that all lives matter. That’s not something that the people in support of BLM (Black Lives Matter) disagree with at all. It’s not like they are saying the Black Lives Matter more than other lives. It’s not like those who want to save the whales don’t care about the rest of ocean life or animals. The fact is that saying all lives matter can just be rude in that context or any other one like it, if not downright racist as well.

Another absurd stance on this agency that I’ve been seeing recently is the believe that BLM is Marxist in some way. I guess that all of this talk about socialism started to wear off so now they picked a new fancy sounding insult that sounds good and applied it to all liberals too. What does it mean? I forget the real definition, but they sure mean it to mean “they are bad, boo, hiss.”

Some might wonder about the rioting and anti-police sentiment that seems to come from BLM. Well, I know that some of the rioting was being blamed on Black Lives Matter that actually came from white supremacists. And most people know the different being a peaceful protest and just rioting. People always condemn the looting even within this. As for the police issue, I do believe that most of them trust the police if they know that there are good ones. But not all of them are good ones, even though most of them are.

I don’t think that there is much else to state on this subject. I support Black Lives Matter. I do wonder if those who support it can be put in one of two groups: 1- they are racist or 2- they don’t understand what the group means. Maybe there are third and more ways of labeling them. If you don’t think that Black Lives Matter, then do you really think that they matter? Or are there some sort of issues that I don’t see with it that haven’t been covered?

Politics: Ruth Bader Ginsberg Supreme Court Analysis

Well, if you have kept track of all that’s gone on in this crazy world of ours or not over just the past month, you should basically know the gist of what’s going on. I will be getting rid of the miscellaneous posts as of two political posts ago so I can do the returning theme for this blog. Since there is now a vacancy on the Supreme Court, I will be going back to doing a recurring theme by posting about the Supreme Court for a while at least twice until maybe the vacancy is filled, the end of the year, or I just decide to get rid of it for some reason.

Today’s post is on the late and great Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Perhaps the most well known of all of the justices at one point, I figure that it makes sense to pay respects to her by doing a post in her honor. Let’s get to this post.

Her influence on the court was quite good in many ways. I can’t even begin to list all of the ways that it was good because it would take too long and I figure that I might as well get into doing just what you want to hear. Despite being in the minority in many ways throughout her whole time on the court, she was a force to be reckoned with in many ways.

As for her influence for women, that was such a huge factor in so many women’s lives that they may take what she did for granted. You mean one couldn’t do things without a man’s authority if they were a woman? She did a lot for women’s rights.

It is worth noting that she was not the first woman on the court, although she might be thought of as the woman authority on the court. What’s interesting to note is that if she hadn’t felt some of the gender discrimination and had made it further as an attorney, she never would have been on the Supreme Court, similar to the first woman on the court, Sandra Day O’Conner.

She was nominated by Bill Clinton to be on the Supreme Court. This was one of the best parts of his presidency. Sure, she may have been partly a diversity pick, but she was one of the best picks in the end that could have ever happened on the Supreme Court.

Since the liberals were in the minority on the court during her entire time on it, she became known for her dissents which since the time she became the most senior of the liberal wing which happened during the Obama administration. She wrote about guts to the voting rights act being akin to throwing out your umbrella in a rainstorm because you aren’t getting wet. And she was the only woman on the court for quite a while.

One of the most notable things about her was her friendship with Antonin Scalia. This is notable because he was one of the most conservative members in the court’s history. I have no idea just how often they disagreed on things. But they enjoyed visiting the opera and it even inspired an opera based on them.

In addition to helping women, Ruth’s ways were also able to help men. While men’s rights are often just known as being sexist and otherwise not needed, if only women are known to benefit from something, then that would be as bad as only men benefiting.

Before she became a judge, she had argued before the Supreme Court, winning at least twice in decisions that were made there. It was after this that Jimmy Carter put her on one of the court of appeals that is one of the more federal courts in the country.

What is interesting is that when Bill Clinton got his first opportunity to put someone on the court, it was Orrin Hatch, a Republican senator, who recommended her and helped vote her in. This was when we had more consensus and bipartisanship in terms of court confirmations. But at the time, she was considered a moderate. She wound up getting 96 votes for confirmation.

However, one of the dangers of her hearings was that she was not answering questions in hearings for the Supreme Court. This created a precedent that was later used by John Roberts and, more infamously, Brett Kavanaugh. But she thinks that this is okay because, after all, she did it herself.

One of the most notable things that she helped with was a gender discrimination case that one Lily Ledbetter brought to the court. While she lost the Supreme Court case, because of what Ruth said in her dissent, a new law was made to ensure that women would get equal pay.

Sadly, not every choice that she did was good in the end. She made a bad decision with a case that involved Native American land and while it was not the only one she regrets, it was the one that she regrets most as it is often cited in cases that take away land from Native Americans still to the very day.

Some are wondering now if she should have stepped down from the court earlier. Some have thought that she could have stepped aside before the 2014 midterms when Obama was still the president and the Democrats still had the senate. But she wanted to stay as long as she felt she was mental sharp enough. Sadly, it was her physical health that did her in.

What now is going to happen? Well, we are sadly already in a shit storm due to Republicans doing an about face on how they feel about filling vacancies during a presidential election year which could hopefully ensure their losses in the senate. More of what is going on with the new vacancy is worth covering in other blog posts and I plan to do at least one YouTube video about it. I can only hope that she gets her dying wish fulfilled to not be confirmed until a new president is in charge.

I’m most concerned about the upcoming case California v Texas as not only does the fate of the Affordable Care Act on the potential chopping block once again, but if the past votes of certain justices are any indication, then the fate could lie with the hands of the people that Trump appointed to the Supreme Court, which is concerning, yet not as concerning as one might think given the times that they have agreed with the liberals thus far.

As for the rest of this post, there’s not much else to say as I’ve already gone a bit off topic towards the end. I’m very worried with her parting that the court could get worse than it already has by now. But maybe things will be okay in the end.

Cast Update 10-1-2020

I thought about something to do in this blog potentially. I have often put things in one blog instead of another and I have done and still do this a whole lot. But when it comes to cast updates, I wouldn’t know if there would ever be a new person that I’d want to add to this blog’s ones that wouldn’t be better suited for another blog instead. That’s when we get to the idea that there are some times where I might not be able to add what I want to in case of a death that happens (which would prevent anyone new from being added to the updates unless it is the dead person themselves) and I’ve already written about the people I was going to add to the cast update. I can only hope that it wouldn’t affect a whole lot of blogs at once as that could be quite an issue.

Tea Leoni: She will be in a project called Endangered, which will be a movie. There are no other things that I see her in right now besides that. I don’t know when they finished filming the show, but you’d think that those who are still doing projects will have stuff right now to do (if that makes sense).

Endangered: This is a movie about the lives of threatened species. We’ll see what role she has in it. The website I’m checking makes it seem like she’ll be lending her voice to it so maybe it will be some sort of documentary. The release date is unknown now.

Bebe Neuwirth: She’s had a recurring bit on Blue Bloods and may show up on it from time to time. There are other minor things that she has done. It appears that she will be in a new movie called Modern Persuasion. Another thing she is appearing in is Julia. She will also be in The Sandman.

Modern Persuasion: This movie has an unknown release date at this time. The plot is about a woman’s ex-boyfriend hiring her company which forces her to deal with various things in her life. I don’t know yet what role Bebe will play in this.

Julia: This is a pilot for a show about Julia Child, the chef. We’ll see if anything comes from the pilot in the future or not. It would have an edge if it was already filmed. The release date is currently unknown for this. Maybe one will never come.

The Sandman: There is no plot mentioned for this yet, but there is a picture with this that says this will be adapted from a Neil Gaiman book and be an Audible original based on that book. I don’t think that I’ll be able to review it as a result. This is out now. I will be removing this from the updates.

Geoffrey Arend: He hasn’t really been doing that much yet. Maybe he will later. I guess we’ll see what will become of his career. Maybe there will be something in the future. I can only hope so. Until then, just wait to see what happens.

Kathrine Herzer: She hasn’t been doing much since the show ended or now, it seems. Maybe she is going back to a more normal life. Not all the child actors or actresses continue into the field when they get older as they want to do other things in life. Remember the people from Shining Time Station?

Evan Roe: Again, this person has not been doing much after the show ended. I guess it hasn’t been over long enough or a lot of these people just haven’t found a new job yet, at least in the Hollywood industry. You’d think that the filming would have ended long enough ago, but maybe not.

Tim Daly: I might easily run out of ways of saying that people from this show haven’t done much of anything yet now that the show has ended and it hasn’t been over that long. I can only hope that there are a lot of people who have something in the work at some point.

Zeljko Ivanek: He also has no new projects in the works right now, although he could be wanting to retire in the future or something like that. I won’t make assumptions and just wait until the next time I see something potentially in a later post.

Erich Bergen: He’s also doing nothing yet as of the show ending. How recently did filming wrap? Was it not that long ago? Why is no one that I’m looking up doing anything yet? I don’t get it. Whatever the reason, he has nothing yet and maybe that will change later.

Patina Miller: She is the narrator of a show called Word Party. That’s all that she’s doing for now. I think that she’s a mother so that may affect how much work she’ll be able to do. We’ll see what goes on in her life and I hope she can do something I can watch. She will also be in a project called Power Book III: Raising Kanan.

Word Party: This is a Netflix kids show that is available now. Patina is the narrator of it. I don’t know much about it. I doubt that I will be able to see it in the future. This show is about teaching others how to talk and learning simple things like that.

Power Book III: Raising Kanan: This isn’t set to air until 2021. It is a prequel about Kanan Stark, whoever that is. I doubt already that I’ll be able to see it, although I guess that it is possible that I might at some point. I hope to find out more info about this soon.

Wallis Currie-Wood: She has done very little outside of the show. Maybe she will do something more in Hollywood or maybe not. It will be hard to understand some of why I’m not seeing much in terms of what the cast is doing in the future unless or until more time passes.

Keith Carradine: He has two projects in the works. One is called Sallywood. The other one is called The Daylong Brothers. We’ll see what happens between those and anything else that he does. I look forward to hopefully seeing these films at some point in time. He will also be in something called The Power of the Dog. Maybe more will happen in the future.

Sallywood: This movie romantic in some way, but I don’t know if it’s a comedy or not. It is about a man who moves to Hollywood and becomes a woman’s personal assistant. They’ll be more to it than that. It has an unknown release date at this time.

The Daylong Brothers: This has an unknown release date at this time. It is about three brothers who try to get revenge on their father for selling their souls. This could be interesting, even if I don’t really like to watch horror films. But this could just be normal supernatural.

The Power of the Dog: I don’t know why they are making a Trump based movie. Wait, this has nothing to do with politics. It is about sibling rivalry that happens between two men who are brothers when one of them gets married. It is set for release in 2021.

Sebastian Arcelus: It looks like he will appear in a TV movie or perhaps potential pilot called Blanco. He’s doing better than others in terms of projects in the works. He’s also doing a project called Homebound. That is it for now.

Homebound: This is set for release in 2021. It is about a woman searching for her therapy dog as she deals with personal fears or things like that. There is no trailer for this yet or specific release date. It could be good, but I won’t know unless I can see it at some point. It is a short.

Blanco: This has an unknown release date at the moment. It is about a criminal who seeks to work with the cops only to build his criminal empire. I have no idea what network this would air on, if any. This might be just another in a long line of passed pilots that I get confused about and wind up in this blog for a long time like what you might have seen in my CSI: Cyber blog.

Sara Ramirez: Despite not appearing or even being mentioned in the final season of this show, she has not done a thing since leaving this show. The others I can understand as they haven’t been off the show this long, but I want her to do something. And I hope she improves her hairstyle for the future.

Kevin Rahm: While the entire world is crazy right now and pilot season messed up, there still might be hope that he is doing something as I see him in Vegas High, the potential pilot for a TV show. We’ll see what, if anything, comes of it later.

Vegas High: This is a pilot for HBO Max. Whether or not it becomes a series is unknown, but if they already filmed the pilot, it would have an edge on other shows. The plot is about a female torn between her Mormon life and the fast paced life of Las Vegas. The release date is currently unknown.

Barbara Hall: I will see what future, if any, she might have in the film or movie industry. You’d think that she’d be doing something at some point or another, but maybe she won’t be at least for a while. I guess that I’ll keep her in the updates for now.

Schedule

Available now- Word Party (on Netflix), The Sandman (on Audible)

Unknown 2021- The Power of the Dog, Power Book III: Raising Kanan (unknown time on unknown network), Homebound

Unknown year- Endangered, Modern Persuasion, Sallywood, The Daylong Brothers, Blanco, Vegas High, Julia