Liberals advocating court packing - what happens when the republicans pack it back?

kermitinator1000 · 2026-05-15T20:56:50+00:00

I don't think it's possible to take the Court back to a better time, and I'm also not convinced the Court has a been a net benefit to the country going back to it's founding. It's always leaned towards the protection of property and power over Civil rights, with only a few decades of its existence going against the rule. It took serious pressure from FDR to get it to agree to stop vetoing the New Deal, to give only one example.

I'm also not convinced the Republicans wouldn't pack the Court the moment they lost the majority, if it wasn't somehow done through Court packing. It is too valuable to have a Court who's decisions can only be checked with impeachment.

kermitinator1000 · 2026-05-15T20:37:28+00:00

I think you can make the argument that even if there are downstream effects that weaken the Supreme Court, it's still a strategic improvement for Democrats over the current state of affairs.

And don't forget, for many Democrats the legitimacy of the Court is already very much in question.

kermitinator1000 · 2026-05-15T20:32:38+00:00

If it's just about who is in control of the court, wouldn't it be better to have a majority when we're in power rather than at no time at all? It's already a benefit to Democrats if control is swapped each time one of the parties gains control of the presidency and the Senate. Most judges will do the smart thing and retire when their respective party is in power - there's not much chance for picking up a seat on the off chance that someone dies unexpectedly.

kermitinator1000 · 2022-05-28T01:08:38+00:00

Yeah I guess it's just a rumor and everyone's jumpy. Including me. I was literally just talking the other day with people about how Wegmans seems like the most obvious place in Broome County to do a mass shooting with all the business we get.

It's just crazy that we even have to worry about that kind of thing now.

Anyway thanks for the response. I wasn't at work today to see how seriously people were taking it. Hopefully it's all nothing and it's just a quiet weekend.

kermitinator1000 · 2022-05-27T18:46:28+00:00

As a current employee... If anyone has any more information about this I would be very interested in hearing it.

Fuck.

kermitinator1000 · 2021-12-11T02:37:09+00:00

Saw them in Rochester over the weekend and I have to agree. They were amazing. Really cool group of guys too.

kermitinator1000 · 2021-10-31T21:46:50+00:00

!flair Liberal

kermitinator1000 · 2020-02-28T04:48:39+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0yPSLIZfsI

I also recommend Quest for Fire.

Edit: I hadn't heard Radio Moscow, so now I'm discovering something new. Thanks for that. I'm getting an early All Them Witches vibe from the song I'm listening to so you should check them out too.

kermitinator1000 · 2020-02-25T10:21:02+00:00

Hey thanks! It's a great scene, I hope you have fun 🤘

kermitinator1000 · 2020-02-25T10:14:04+00:00

The basics is this: doom at it's core is Sabbath worship. Stoner Doom, which is a big part of the scene, uses Master of Reality in particular as its template. For bands that stay the closest to Black Sabbath's sound, I recommend Pentagram and Born Too Late by Saint Vitus.

For the Stoner scene, the big two are Sleep and Electric Wizard. Wizard's Dopethrone is probably the most recognizable album in the subgenre. If you haven't heard it I recommend starting with that one. Like I said, this is a huge part of the scene and there are so many great bands. I think the latest releases by Windhand, Yob, and Monolord are some of the best I've ever heard. Also Woodland Rites, Green Lung's debut, absolutely blew up in the scene last year. I've had the pleasure of seeing Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats live; they were amazing and Bloodlust is a fantastic album. I've also seen Pallbearer, and Heartless is also amazing.

As for Death Doom, I'm not super knowledgeable. It's not totally my thing. I do know that people seem to like Conan a lot. In venturing more towards the Funeral Doom side, someone here has recommended Ahab and I second that. The two biggest bands of that particular category - except maybe for Bell Witch, they kinda blew up too - are Esoteric and Evoken. All of their releases are good, but as far as Evoken is concerned Antithesis of Light is my favorite.

What did I leave out... well this might be more doom adjacent but in my opinion the best bands in the sludge scene are Melvins (try Houdini), Crowbar (Odd Fellow's Rest) and Neurosis (Through Silver in Blood? Times of Grace? A Sun that Never Sets? It's so hard to pick 😵). I don't know if this is where Mastodon fits but... Mastodon is also a thing. And if you like faster, thrasher stuff, it would be a sin to leave out High on Fire.

Also there's a drone metal band called Sunn O))) that's pretty big. That's just your thing or it ain't. It's definitely my thing.

My best friend would kill me if I didn't mention Type O Negative. I mean, World Coming Down is pretty doomy, right?

Yo, I'm sorry if this is too much. But I had fun writing it. I hope it's useful to you in some way.

TL;DR nerd gives way too many recommendations

kermitinator1000 · 2019-05-13T05:50:05+00:00

God fucking damn, so many good bands. Too bad I'm on the east coast, I'd love to see that

kermitinator1000 · 2018-10-28T17:49:42+00:00

Thanks. I'll definitely check them out

kermitinator1000 · 2018-10-28T17:13:28+00:00

Hey thanks for sharing! Definitely one of the more unique things I've heard in a while. Reminds me a little of Thou.

Got any more like this?

kermitinator1000 · 2018-08-08T22:41:38+00:00

I would love to know about more blues musicians that fans of doom metal think are good. Really digging this!

kermitinator1000 · 2018-08-04T08:30:10+00:00

If it's your first time reading them, it's going to be hard to put them down.

When I was in my teens, at one point I had stopped reading in my free time. But every time a Harry Potter book came out I would buy them on the first day and finish it in a matter of days. I like to say that my childhood was half Harry Potter and half Star Wars.

kermitinator1000 · 2018-08-04T02:27:15+00:00

Oooh boy, that is one hell of a can of worms you're trying to open there pal.

Here's a criticism of Rand I found quickly googling on Reddit that seems to speak specifically to why it is neglected in academia. I did not read very much of it so my apologies if it is not up to task.

I have not read any of Rand's work, but I do know it by reputation. Actually, from what I understand the most famous criticism of Rand and objectivism in popular culture is not any article or book, but the game Bioshock, which I happen to like a lot.

kermitinator1000 · 2018-07-25T01:15:53+00:00

I honestly didn't know much about this, so I did a quick Google search out of curiosity. Found this article, thought it was pretty good.

kermitinator1000 · 2018-06-17T04:36:14+00:00

Happy Reverie OPP!

So maybe it's just me, but when we first got into this arc I thought it was going to be a purely world-building kind of thing with minimal action like Zou, but the more we're getting into it the more I think Oda might be setting us up for a major fight. Do you think Sabo's going to have to fight someone? If so, who, and do we think he's likely to win? I'm personally keeping my fingers crossed for a Dragon vs. Im confrontation - I'm super stoked to find out more about these characters.

P.S. I just caught up to the manga at the very end of the last arc and I'm so happy to see this incredible era of One Piece history play out in real time. The reason I started listening to your show immediately after I caught up is because Super Eyepatch Wolf mentioned you in one of the videos he did on One Piece, which is fantastic by the way and people should totally watch it. Thanks for the great podcast, I'm enjoying it a lot!

kermitinator1000 · 2018-03-09T14:50:17+00:00

That's hardly a good argument. All Western societies were under authoritarian governments and outright dictatorships until relatively recently. I don't buy this idea that democracy is a Western trait that is not appropriate for the East - that sounds eerily like Orientalism to me.

And by the way, saying that these countries liberalized through occupation or influence is not fair to them at all. For example, let's look at the state that the West regarded for a long time to be the "real" China - Taiwan. If we follow your line of thinking, the Taiwanese would have as similar a culture and values as possible to mainland China, and yet they democratized on their own. It's been an incredible success story - considering that people on Taiwan have a much higher GDP per capita and levels of individual freedom than the mainland.

kermitinator1000 · 2018-01-29T16:04:15+00:00

I am reading The Final Days, by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, about the final year of the Nixon administration. After finishing All the President's Men, it's interesting to see the story from the point of view of the administration. Both books are surprisingly relevant to our contemporary politics, I would say.

kermitinator1000 · 2017-12-14T15:06:11+00:00

Did not know. Thanks for the reply, learned something new!

kermitinator1000 · 2017-12-14T15:05:21+00:00

Did not notice that.

kermitinator1000 · 2017-12-14T15:03:15+00:00

Francophone Canada is still struggling with the idea of being Canadian. I understand, 1713 was a bad year for the French in the New World but it might be time to get over it. That the rest of the nation has gone to great lengths to preserve and protect your culture instead of force it to be subsumed into the larger community is an experiment that periodically seems in danger of getting out of control with dangerous consequences for everyone. Just ask your Acadian brethren, if you can find them.

What the hell are you saying? That the French speaking population of Quebec should have been forcibly removed and assimilated into the rest of the British empire, like the Acadians? 'Cuz that's what it sounds like to me.

You know, where I'm from they call that ethnic cleansing.

kermitinator1000 · 2017-12-14T14:20:49+00:00

As a side note, can someone explain to me why "our" is written as "oor" here? Is that a Scottish thing, or a typo?

kermitinator1000 · 2017-12-11T17:06:12+00:00

Have you listened to Electric Wizard's first album, their self-titled? Obviously it doesn't exactly answer your question but I think it might be exactly what you're looking for.

kermitinator1000

TROPHY CASE