The death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein places Gov. Gavin Newsom under intense pressure to quickly name a replacement as a bitterly divided Congress votes on a spending plan in the coming hours to avert a government shutdown.

Newsom had hoped to avoid the politically charged decision of selecting a second senator. But he will need to move swiftly as a budget standoff has the government on the verge of shutting down, and Senate Democrats could need every vote. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) affirmed on Friday that the fast-moving political situation creates an imperative for Newsom to make a difficult decision quickly.

“He, you know, wants to be respectful and not name somebody while folks are still grappling with their grief,” Kaine said, but “we cannot afford to be one down. We really can’t.”

The timing of Feinstein’s death — four months before a primary but more than a year before the end of her term — complicates this election cycle. Staff at the California secretary of state’s office was huddling early Friday morning to determine the timelines that would govern an appointment or a possible special election.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Society has already decided on a general retirement age. Social Security age eligibility should be the cut off for all elected positions.

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        As long as someone has their cognizant abilities and is capable of doing the job and they want to do the job they should be able to do the job.

        We as voters should be voting them out of the office if we don’t like the job they’re doing, or even if we feel they’re out of touch with their constituency, but we shouldn’t be excluding them from taking the job just because of their age.

    • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Ageism IS wonderful.

      age·ism /ˈājˌiz(ə)m/ noun prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age.

        • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Here’s news: the leftist “anti-agism” crusade is a super weak position to be taking

          So pushing back against prejudice and/or discrimination is a “leftist ‘anti-ageism’ crusade”? Really?

          Prejudice and/or discrimination of ANY kind should not be allowed in a healthy society, and is definitely NOT a “super weak position to be taking”.

            • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              You are wildly outnumbered in this thread.

              **

              I really don’t care if it’s 1v3 or 3v1, etc. I’m speaking towards the truth of things, and what is right, and not being emotional and extremist just for the sake of it.

              trying to invent fake “offenses” like ageism.

              So if a black person tells you you’re being discriminatory or racist towards them, you’d be able to tell them it’s a fake offense they’re having/feeling as well?

              You don’t get to choose which offenses are fake or not, it’s up to the person that the comment is targeted to to decide if they’re offended or not, if they feel discriminated against or not.

              ageism ā′jĭz″əm noun Discrimination based on age, especially prejudice against the elderly. Discrimination against middle-aged and elderly people. The treating of a person or people differently from others based on assumptions or stereotypes relating to their age.

              The literal English definition defines it as discriminatory, a negative.

        • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Ageism IS wonderful. Stop defending the fucking geritocracy.

          age·ism /ˈājˌiz(ə)m/ noun prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age.

          So you agree that five-year-olds should own guns and drive cars

          Your logic train blew past the station it was supposed to stop at.

            • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              Doesnt change the fact that ageism is a good and proper thing, and all the self-righteous virtue signaling will never change that.

              Sticking your fingers in your ears and going “Lalala!” as loud as you can does not change the facts on the ground.

              I’m not going to repeat myself, I’ll just leave a link to my comment that directly answers your response: https://lemmy.world/comment/3931658

              Apparently trying to leave a link directly to the comment doesn’t work for some reason, so instead I will just copy and paste the pertinent part of what I was trying to link to below…

              trying to invent fake “offenses” like ageism.

              So if a black person tells you you’re being discriminatory or racist towards them, you’d be able to tell them it’s a fake offense they’re having/feeling as well?

              You don’t get to choose which offenses are fake or not, it’s up to the person that the comment is targeted to to decide if they’re offended or not, if they feel discriminated against or not.

              ageism ā′jĭz″əm noun Discrimination based on age, especially prejudice against the elderly. Discrimination against middle-aged and elderly people. The treating of a person or people differently from others based on assumptions or stereotypes relating to their age.

              The literal English definition defines it as discriminatory, a negative.

                • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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                  2 years ago

                  Blah blah blah shitty bad faith argument

                  Again, you can’t tell someone else when they feel they’re being prejudiced or discriminated against, it’s up to them that decide, not you.

                  Abd fuck you in the neck for trying to pretend that this is tha same as skin color, you racist asshole

                  Prejudice and discrimination is always the same, no matter who the target is.

                  And right back atcha, ahole.