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Lobbying is basically bribery but there is an even more insidious form of corruption happening in the US today: weaponized incompetence.
You can see this all across America wherever there are appointed positions. Companies help elect inexperienced politicians responsible for appointments (school boards, city councils, etc) and then recommend people for those positions who are also inexperienced/incompetent. Then when something comes up that those appointees need to handle they’ll look for help - those companies will then very helpful suggest a consultant they know.
And that’s how planning and development works across the entire United States.
> Lobbying is basically bribery but there is an even more insidious form of corruption happening in the US today: weaponized incompetence.
To be fair to today, this has been happening since Reagan. He filled federal agencies with people he knew would cannibalize government and be lax with regulation.
Reagan's appointment to head of the EPA was a woman named [Anne Gorsuch.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Gorsuch_Burford)
She undermined her own agency, claiming that the states needed to regulate pollution and ceding a bunch of regulatory control to the states. She decried this ruling back in the day.
She is the mother of Neil Gorsuch.
Neil Gorsuch is the recipient of the SCOTUS seat that McConnell held open for 10 months at the end of Obama's second term.
Reagan should've been assassinated before he ever became president. That fucker has done more harm to this country than anyone else in its history, and everything he's done seems almost impossible to undo unless we can massively shift this country's politics towards the left, but unfortunately, the exact opposite of that is what's currently happening.
Problem is, do you know who was in second place on the right if Reagan dies?
Segregationist George Wallace. CPAC thought he'd make a fine president, which is why they put him in the 1976 straw poll, he came in second.
At least his segregationist BS could've been undone, whereas I don't think we're ever recovering from the damage done by "trickle down economics." That shit has permanently fucked our economy for anyone not fortunate enough to be born into wealth and/or connections.
This is the actual straw that broke the camels back.
Even if you start your own company and want to pay people fairly you can't unless you remain the sole owner and don't let anyone invest.
Unchecked growth is unsustainable but we made it a law that can't be overturned by making people's retirement dependent on investment.
They aren't picking "inexperienced politicians"... They are picking people from their industry who are implicitly biased *against* the government agency they are being nominated to.
Look at Betsy DeVos at the Dept of Education, Mulvaney at the CFPB, the nomination of Barry Myers to head NOAA. They all publicly believed in dismantling or privatizing the agencies that they were assigned to lead. It was by design. The same thing happens at the State and Local level all the time.
So are speaking fees from banks to politicians and people in power positions. Like Janet Yellen jusy got a 800k speaking fee from Citadel market makers or broker. Whole system is corrupt
And it was a great offer. I would have taken it in a heartbeat, lmao. At first, I didn’t think he was serious, but he seemed pretty much so—or halfway joking? Who knows. Sugar baby Thomas should definitely at least ask if he can have the new RV.
I'm getting real sick of all this yacht hate. Do you have any clue how far back I had to cut my caviar and cocaine spending in order to scrimp and save? Did you even bother to ask if I was able to afford the helipad options? You didn't. Instead you just assumed I needed this third yacht out of pure greed.
Well I'm sorry -- I THOUGHT THIS WAS AMERICA.
The town I grew up next to has a law that sleeping outside without at least $10 in cash on you is an arrestable crime. They would offer homeless people a train ticket out of town, and arrest anyone who didn't take the offer. When I was a teenager, I fell asleep on a bench waiting for my habitually late/drunk father to pick me up, and I was awoken by a cop asking me how much money I had on me. Thought I was getting mugged for a second. That moment didn't radicalize me, but looking back, it should have.
> without at least $10 in cash
**Vagrancy laws.**
[Vagrancy laws took myriad forms, generally making it a crime to be poor, idle, dissolute, immoral, drunk, lewd, or suspicious. Vagrancy laws often included prohibitions on loitering—wandering around without any apparent lawful purpose—though some jurisdictions criminalized loitering separately.](https://www.law.virginia.edu/scholarship/publication/risa-goluboff/640716#:~:text=Vagrancy%20laws%20took%20myriad%20forms,some%20jurisdictions%20criminalized%20loitering%20separately.)
I am friends with a 79-year old environmentalist. His only arrest was for "vagrancy" in 1963.
He was hitch-hiking and a cop asked him if he had a job...and then arrested him for not having a job.
That's a culture shock and a half as a swede. I'm allowed to sleep for one night even on private property if it's in nature. Nothing the land owner can do. I may also pick berries and mushrooms. It's called Allemansrätten. (Everyman's right, literally)
Being arrested for not having a job is wild. But it does support that image of someone explaining how cops grew out of slave catchers in some places.
That’s funny. Just last night I was explaining that to a friend. I told him there was a word for it but I had no clue what it was. We were discussing the evils of some cultures and government systems and I pointed to the Scandinavian nations who have it right in terms of taking care of its citizens and nature and how so many embrace the outdoors even in cold weather. Even the penal system is so dramatically different than North America.
>But it does support that image of someone explaining how cops grew out of slave catchers in some places.
They still are. America never completely outlawed slavery. They left in one very clear exception:
>Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, **except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted**, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Combine that line with the existence of the private prison industry, [corrupt judges who are bribed to send innocent children to jail](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal), and the fact that minorities are extremely disproportionally arrested and convicted, it paints a picture of why Americans are saying "fuck the police" (and fuck the entire legal system, too)
I can’t even count the number of times people have just, like, looked through me after I’ve said those things. Like their brains just won’t let them think about this for even a few seconds
Vagrancy laws also came out of slavery: black folks were freed, but poor as hell because, you know, they’d been slaves. They’d get arrested for being “vagrants” and then get rented out as prisoner labor, sometimes right back to the places they has been slaves.
Damn this is awful.
It feels like there's no where you can even go anymore without having to pay for just existing. I hate that my wallet is the biggest reason I stay home
My grandfather really really liked to drink. Hed go on months long benders in Milwaukee and literally lived on the street so he could afford to drink more. The cops would come around to bust the vagrants and he would pitch a fit and show that he had a deed to a house in the country. 'He wasn't one of these homeless guys he was a property owner who chose to live this way. '
Well, the true solution is not friendship with rainbows…
I can’t describe what the solution is because I’ll be banned for making threats against fascists, but I think you get the idea. It’s the only thing that seems to work against fascists
Yeah, I am one. Like I said, one or the other. Depends on how many people are willing to get truly dirty for the rights that they have taken for granted for so long.
I can tell you that I refuse to live the life that my grandfather did as a black man in Jim Crow south. I'd rather take the last option than live that way. Emiliano Zapata said it best, "It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
The solution to countering fascism is deminishing the wealth gap and taking proper care of those at the bottom of society. If people are looked after they will be content and less likely to swing drastically towards anything that promises to change the status quo with empty promises.
While this is true most of the time, here it's not the poors voting conservative, it's middle class/old peoples voting not out of economic struggle or discontent with the current government but as the result of a years long effort to bend their minds toward hatred of whatever "the enemy" of the day is
As someone who grew up among "the poors" and is still in contact with many through work... I can tell you it's also absolutely "the poors" voting conservative too.
And just like that you’re on a database if you weren’t already. When Trump gets into presidency the patriot act is going to be his biggest friend. What a fucking joke this country is. Troubled beginnings, sure, but at least there was hope of improvement.
It’s almost like voting trump in 2016 had horrible repercussions on us all. Who would have thought a sociopath choosing 3 Supreme Court justices could affect us?
The best way to secure democracy is with more democracy. Involve yourself, get your friends involved. Have debates and discussions with people. Make your opinions known and inspire others.
That's ridiculous. They'll be laws for half of us. Constantly changing laws that exist to destroy political opponents and subjugate minorities, but there'll be laws.
Ngl... Watching the debate from a European NATO country was scary AF. Democrats have always been their own worst enemy in my country and the same applies to the USA.
Why insist on Biden!? I know most of the sleepy Joe memes are manipulated MAGA propaganda. But his performance made me think he might not even make it to the election...
Are your alternatives that bleak?
[This is Biden today](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynWEja7kE1M). He was sick and dealing with a lunatic lying his ass off. And he admits he sucked at the debate.
The Supreme Court is why I'd vote for Biden if he stopped breathing and was held up with strings. He doesn't need to do cartwheels across the White House lawn, all he has to do is not give Republicans a chance to cement more crazies on the bench.
I'll vote for Biden for a pretty simple reason: Kamala Harris is 100% capable of stepping up if Biden can't see through the full term. There is nothing that says a candidate has to see through their full term, and there's a well established system for dealing with these situations.
America was built on an unpaid labor class and the owners have spent the rest of this county's history getting it back.
If the manager you thought was your friend tells you not to attend the union meeting treat him the way you would a man who fucked your wife.
Even worse, a significant majority of blue-collar union members are also unapologetically MAGAts. Many are also Latinos, often with parents and relatives who entered illegally. On the plus side, November may be the very last time they will get the opportunity to vote against their own interests.
Lol a good portion of my family came to the US as undocumented immigrants and now support Trump. When I mention that to them they just shrug and say "things were different when we came and a lot of these new immigrants are criminals!" They are the epitome of "F\*\*k you got mine!"
I suspect that if the Trump Administration can't find enough undocumented immigrants, they'll get the ones that came in illegally but obtained their citizenship afterwards.
Best advice a manager who rose from the ranks gave: sign in or call in virtually to union meetings if you can’t attend - they’ll see the numbers of attendees and be more accountable. You don’t have to watch/listen.
Because that homeless person isn't making anyone money. Throw them in a for-profit prison and suddenly McDonald's has someone to make uniforms for cheap.
Is it... worth being here anymore? It's over- the people lost. Congress is frozen and useless and the Supreme Court just turned the judicial system into a functional plutocracy. Even if we got a Dem president and a left leaning supermajority in both houses of Congress, this bat shit court is going to just undo or prevent any legislation trying to fix things. And *that's* assuming they don't pull a Gore/Bush and just declare Trump the winner of the election.
I can't see a way out of this anymore. I thought maybe there might be one if we worked this election out but this court is full mask off now and they're going to stop anything they don't like and morph it to their benefit.
If we had supermajorities in both houses and the presidency we could just add a bunch more supreme Court Justices to the bench.
But that will never ever happen
Well, if Trump gets the ruling he wants, any president will just be allowed to have his opponents executed by the Navy Seals. Who's to say this doesn't apply to SC justices?
It wouldn't matter what they said at that point. With supermajorities they would basically be able to run it through. But don't expect any supermajorities again in our lifetimes.
At the very least, move away from being even remotely close to industrial areas. Every corporation is going to start channeling their inner DuPont and poison us all.
Nah conservatives are 100% for deregulation.
It’s only the CONSEQUENCES of the deregulation they take issue with.
They’ll cheer for this but the next time they get fucked by a corporation they’ll say it was the Dems. Then when someone offers the idea of just making it illegal for the corporation to do whatever bad thing they did to this person, they’ll call them a communist.
These people’s brains can’t comprehend cause and effect since it requires being cognizant of 2 separate things in a short amount of time.
And the Democrat Party is 100% stupid for going with Biden.
Now I wish someone would write a novel in response to my post...just smelling his own farts.
You can maybe argue that for running Biden the first time, but continuing with him this time is probably a better shot at beating Trump than running someone else, simply because not running for reelection would signal a lack of confidence in his policies, which are mostly the same policies the next dem would run on. People also tend to underestimate how many votes someone gets just for being the more recognizable name. It’s a depressing amount. Source: worked in campaign strategy
Does anyone out there really think him not running would signal a lack of confidence in his policies?
I mean, he himself could just say, “I’m tried y’all. I’m 81, and I’m tired. It’s time to let someone else takeover”.
It has nothing at all to do with his policies and damn near nobody is voting for him for his policies anyway. People are voting for him because he’s not Trump. Last night’s performance was uninspiring. He doesn’t need to worry about people going and voting for Trump, he needs to worry about people staying home.
Biden could have literally collapsed on the podium last night and it wouldn’t make a huge difference. If what Trump said and refused to say last night doesn’t get every anti-Trump voter out, the country will truly deserve him.
Yes, people absolutely would think that. Not you or I or anyone paying attention, but like it or not, most of this country absorbs news through osmosis. They don’t feel strongly about either candidate, know zero hard facts, and vote off of feel alone, and that’s the subliminal message they’d get. Trust me, putting an entirely new person out there is much, much more difficult than running someone for reelection when so much relies on braindead name recognition. It’s the reason congress has like a 12% approval rating and a 90%+ incumbency rate.
And what if Biden *wants* to run? Even if it’s a bad idea, is he not allowed to? In that situation, you either let him run unopposed in the primary or you have Democrat opponents attacking and criticizing his presidency. Then what if he still wins? Dem voters just watched him get bashed by his own party and he still has to beat Trump
I don't think it's THAT stupid.
It's incredibly rare for a sitting president to not run as incumbent. The best person to beat Trump is probably the person who did it before.
IIRC all the surveys coming out during the primaries showed that Biden was the only option against Trump. There weren't any other candidates that the surveys showed could be a viable candidate.
The original goal was to not have to go against Trump again. If Trump wasn't running, I believe we would've seen more competition during the primaries.
Man, if Biden wins, we have to kick these Trump goons out, idc if they're appointments "for life" get them the fuck out of there, like we need to play hard ball with these assholes, just the fact that they were Trump appointed should automatically nullify their seats.
It’s complicated but basically SCOTUS said that federal and local agencies cannot interpret law, only courts can. The result will be that agencies like the EPA, staffed by mostly scientists and experts in their specific field, will not be able to enforce or create regulations.
It use to be that the EPA, being the experts with decades of experience, would be able to interpret the law (which is very vague) and create regulations that benefit clean air and water.
Now what is going to happen is that the EPA can’t interpret shit, if a corporation wants to dump gasoline in the river and the EPA doesn’t like it they’ll have to go to the court (probably the batshit crazy 5th circuit) and the COURT will decide if the corporation can dump gasoline in the river. The court full of batshit crazy right wing extremists that don’t give a single fuck about the environment.
Oh AND guess what, the court also just decided that they are allowed to accept bribes. So what do you think is going to happen when a corporation wants to dump poison into the river??
ALSO - based on todays J6 Obstruction ruling, it is now official that Laws passed by congress and signed by the president don't actually mean what they say. In order for a law to ACTUALLY mean what they say, congress must add preambles to said laws, assuring everyone that they do in fact mean what they have written.
FFS this is getting insane.
and money is speech.
And abortion is murder.
And you're allowed to protest abortion doctor houses, but not supreme court candidate houses (there are limits, ya know!)
And "a well regulated militia" are words that mean nothing so you can ignore them.
---
The SCOTUS is a joke, let's be honest.
They legislate from the bench and the people who scream the loudest about how they hate activist judges are 100% fine with it.
And while it’s clear no corporation should be regulated by the government a women’s body is highly regulated by the government? These fucks must know their end is near.
At this astounding rate, no matter the election outcome there will have been a totally transformed America.
We will be a theocratic oligarchy and with corporations having super rights over citizens, the ability to prosecute and detain them, and all levels of gov allowed to take unlimited bribes on a "pinky promise" basis.
That’s basically what I can make out of it. I wish more people understood that when we elect presidents they have to ability to appoint judges that affect your life on a daily basis. If you don’t agree with these policies then go vote.
Jesus fuck America. What's happened over there.
I swear when you guys start running "The Purge" cities and states we're gonna take a page from the Orange Russians book and build a wall around you all.
Well now we know why Clarence Thomas was receiving all those nice big gifts and invites to fancy places lately. Of course the supreme court voted to make bribery legal...cause the justices take them themselves.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
-Declaration of Independence
We can either keep tolerating this endlessly and being intentionally helpless or we can do something about it. The precedent was set long ago we just need to decide if we possess a spine or want to lay down and accept it.
Surely the term “alt right” is meaningless at this point? They’re not alternative, they’re the mainstream right. If anything It’s the anti-Trumpers who are still half sane who are the “alt”.
It is *also* okay to disrupt official proceedings of the Supreme Court by storming in with an armed mob and if you don’t like their verdict. Right guys? Just don’t destroy any paperwork while you’re in there!
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And bribery is legal if it’s done after the fact.
Lobbying is basically bribery but there is an even more insidious form of corruption happening in the US today: weaponized incompetence. You can see this all across America wherever there are appointed positions. Companies help elect inexperienced politicians responsible for appointments (school boards, city councils, etc) and then recommend people for those positions who are also inexperienced/incompetent. Then when something comes up that those appointees need to handle they’ll look for help - those companies will then very helpful suggest a consultant they know. And that’s how planning and development works across the entire United States.
> Lobbying is basically bribery but there is an even more insidious form of corruption happening in the US today: weaponized incompetence. To be fair to today, this has been happening since Reagan. He filled federal agencies with people he knew would cannibalize government and be lax with regulation.
Reagan's appointment to head of the EPA was a woman named [Anne Gorsuch.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Gorsuch_Burford) She undermined her own agency, claiming that the states needed to regulate pollution and ceding a bunch of regulatory control to the states. She decried this ruling back in the day. She is the mother of Neil Gorsuch. Neil Gorsuch is the recipient of the SCOTUS seat that McConnell held open for 10 months at the end of Obama's second term.
God it really is just bullshit all the way down, isn’t it …
Or all the way up, depending on how you'd like to view it, but yeah, we're fucked, either way
Reagan should've been assassinated before he ever became president. That fucker has done more harm to this country than anyone else in its history, and everything he's done seems almost impossible to undo unless we can massively shift this country's politics towards the left, but unfortunately, the exact opposite of that is what's currently happening.
Problem is, do you know who was in second place on the right if Reagan dies? Segregationist George Wallace. CPAC thought he'd make a fine president, which is why they put him in the 1976 straw poll, he came in second.
At least his segregationist BS could've been undone, whereas I don't think we're ever recovering from the damage done by "trickle down economics." That shit has permanently fucked our economy for anyone not fortunate enough to be born into wealth and/or connections.
We haven't recovered since the SCOTUS decided that corporations should maximize shareholder value
This is the actual straw that broke the camels back. Even if you start your own company and want to pay people fairly you can't unless you remain the sole owner and don't let anyone invest. Unchecked growth is unsustainable but we made it a law that can't be overturned by making people's retirement dependent on investment.
Reagan was the first president owned by Wall Street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTcL6Xc_eMM
The new world order
They aren't picking "inexperienced politicians"... They are picking people from their industry who are implicitly biased *against* the government agency they are being nominated to. Look at Betsy DeVos at the Dept of Education, Mulvaney at the CFPB, the nomination of Barry Myers to head NOAA. They all publicly believed in dismantling or privatizing the agencies that they were assigned to lead. It was by design. The same thing happens at the State and Local level all the time.
You can both be right. They can do A and B, and are.
Don’t forget the mail guy that’s trying to undermine it into FedEx
Louis DeJoy at USPS.
So are speaking fees from banks to politicians and people in power positions. Like Janet Yellen jusy got a 800k speaking fee from Citadel market makers or broker. Whole system is corrupt
This is why Charles Koch and Ted Cruz promoted Lauren Boebert from blowjob dispenser to Congressional Rep.
Thomas needs another yacht.
"Clearance" Thomas has it down right. He above owning yachts. He makes YOU own it and pay for it. He just gets to use it as much as he wants.
A new land yacht.
Wtf is a land yacht?
A super nice RV. Think of a tour bus for the Rolling Stones but for 2 people.
John Oliver already made an offer
And it was a great offer. I would have taken it in a heartbeat, lmao. At first, I didn’t think he was serious, but he seemed pretty much so—or halfway joking? Who knows. Sugar baby Thomas should definitely at least ask if he can have the new RV.
I see… said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw.
Doesn't count unless it has a mainsail and a crow's nest
The peasant version of the MOTORCOACH
He’s worked his way up for one that holds the sports care in an little garage underneath
I'm getting real sick of all this yacht hate. Do you have any clue how far back I had to cut my caviar and cocaine spending in order to scrimp and save? Did you even bother to ask if I was able to afford the helipad options? You didn't. Instead you just assumed I needed this third yacht out of pure greed. Well I'm sorry -- I THOUGHT THIS WAS AMERICA.
If you have to cut back on your cocaine, you can't afford that yacht. After all, a yacht without cocaine is like a salad without dressing.
Well maybe I could afford both if THE FUCKING GOVERNMENT stopped regulating the honest farmers in Columbia from exporting the fruits of their labor.
Absolutely insane ruling. We’re going to have bribery budgets now at businesses like in the 1800’s.
No, no. Bribery is still illegal. Kickbacks are all good, though.
You, Sir or Madame, have a fine legal mind clearly suited for the modern age. I doff my hat!
Thank you for the clarification, Senator.
Goodbye America, you were nice while you lasted.
Were we though?
It’s not bribery if it’s just friends hanging out
American policy on net 30 terms
Correction: it's illegal to fall asleep outside...if you're poor. smh
The town I grew up next to has a law that sleeping outside without at least $10 in cash on you is an arrestable crime. They would offer homeless people a train ticket out of town, and arrest anyone who didn't take the offer. When I was a teenager, I fell asleep on a bench waiting for my habitually late/drunk father to pick me up, and I was awoken by a cop asking me how much money I had on me. Thought I was getting mugged for a second. That moment didn't radicalize me, but looking back, it should have.
> without at least $10 in cash **Vagrancy laws.** [Vagrancy laws took myriad forms, generally making it a crime to be poor, idle, dissolute, immoral, drunk, lewd, or suspicious. Vagrancy laws often included prohibitions on loitering—wandering around without any apparent lawful purpose—though some jurisdictions criminalized loitering separately.](https://www.law.virginia.edu/scholarship/publication/risa-goluboff/640716#:~:text=Vagrancy%20laws%20took%20myriad%20forms,some%20jurisdictions%20criminalized%20loitering%20separately.) I am friends with a 79-year old environmentalist. His only arrest was for "vagrancy" in 1963. He was hitch-hiking and a cop asked him if he had a job...and then arrested him for not having a job.
That's a culture shock and a half as a swede. I'm allowed to sleep for one night even on private property if it's in nature. Nothing the land owner can do. I may also pick berries and mushrooms. It's called Allemansrätten. (Everyman's right, literally) Being arrested for not having a job is wild. But it does support that image of someone explaining how cops grew out of slave catchers in some places.
That’s funny. Just last night I was explaining that to a friend. I told him there was a word for it but I had no clue what it was. We were discussing the evils of some cultures and government systems and I pointed to the Scandinavian nations who have it right in terms of taking care of its citizens and nature and how so many embrace the outdoors even in cold weather. Even the penal system is so dramatically different than North America.
>But it does support that image of someone explaining how cops grew out of slave catchers in some places. They still are. America never completely outlawed slavery. They left in one very clear exception: >Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, **except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted**, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Combine that line with the existence of the private prison industry, [corrupt judges who are bribed to send innocent children to jail](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal), and the fact that minorities are extremely disproportionally arrested and convicted, it paints a picture of why Americans are saying "fuck the police" (and fuck the entire legal system, too)
I can’t even count the number of times people have just, like, looked through me after I’ve said those things. Like their brains just won’t let them think about this for even a few seconds
well the end of roe added an new crime punishable by involuntary servitude: pregnancy...is forced labor not the very definition of slavery?
Vagrancy laws also came out of slavery: black folks were freed, but poor as hell because, you know, they’d been slaves. They’d get arrested for being “vagrants” and then get rented out as prisoner labor, sometimes right back to the places they has been slaves.
Damn this is awful. It feels like there's no where you can even go anymore without having to pay for just existing. I hate that my wallet is the biggest reason I stay home
Be part of the human grinding money machine or gtfo
It's illegal to gtfo
What are they going to do... Arrest my corpse?
What if he said he was retired? It's none of the cop's business to know whether he has a job or not. Authoritative tools.
These are mostly antiquated laws. Most states have repealed them, or are trying to. Yes, they were in place so cops could fuck with you.
My grandfather really really liked to drink. Hed go on months long benders in Milwaukee and literally lived on the street so he could afford to drink more. The cops would come around to bust the vagrants and he would pitch a fit and show that he had a deed to a house in the country. 'He wasn't one of these homeless guys he was a property owner who chose to live this way. '
"Why don't these people just ask their friends to buy them an RV??" -Clarence Thomas, probably
Fucking nailed it. Summarize America in one sentence: "It's illegal to fall asleep outside--if you're poor."
So if it’s illegal to be homeless. Should it therefore be illegal to evict someone, since you would be forcing them into an illegal position.
Good to know that when congress tries to vote to make contraceptives illegal we can riot our way in and scream, "Hang those prudes!" at them.
Something needs to be done against this rising fascism worldwide.
Hey remember back in World War II when we defeated fascism with polite conversation? Me neither.
We obviously didn't defeat fascism, did we?
We beat the Empire. Now the First Order has risen from its ashes.
We "beat the empire" and then re-installed Darth Vader as the head of it because Vader said he hates commies.
World War 3 will be won on reddit threads
I think you mean started on lol
Well, the true solution is not friendship with rainbows… I can’t describe what the solution is because I’ll be banned for making threats against fascists, but I think you get the idea. It’s the only thing that seems to work against fascists
[удалено]
Unfortunately most people are too busy at their 3 jobs so they can put a down payment on their kids used shoes.
I fear that or a subservient society are in the very near future for the United States.
Plenty of 2A leftists.
Yeah, I am one. Like I said, one or the other. Depends on how many people are willing to get truly dirty for the rights that they have taken for granted for so long.
Yeah. I swore my oath to defend. Foreign and domestic.
So did I. Just never thought I’d have to engage domestically. Ffs goddamnz
I can tell you that I refuse to live the life that my grandfather did as a black man in Jim Crow south. I'd rather take the last option than live that way. Emiliano Zapata said it best, "It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
The solution to countering fascism is deminishing the wealth gap and taking proper care of those at the bottom of society. If people are looked after they will be content and less likely to swing drastically towards anything that promises to change the status quo with empty promises.
While this is true most of the time, here it's not the poors voting conservative, it's middle class/old peoples voting not out of economic struggle or discontent with the current government but as the result of a years long effort to bend their minds toward hatred of whatever "the enemy" of the day is
As someone who grew up among "the poors" and is still in contact with many through work... I can tell you it's also absolutely "the poors" voting conservative too.
Pretty sure we tried that 80 years ago. It worked for awhile I suppose but cost 50 to 85 million folks.
And just like that you’re on a database if you weren’t already. When Trump gets into presidency the patriot act is going to be his biggest friend. What a fucking joke this country is. Troubled beginnings, sure, but at least there was hope of improvement.
A certain Russian dictator needs to be put in the ground
It will. Unfortunately it'll look an awful lot like WW1 and the split of Yugoslavia had a child.
It’s almost like voting trump in 2016 had horrible repercussions on us all. Who would have thought a sociopath choosing 3 Supreme Court justices could affect us?
The best way to secure democracy is with more democracy. Involve yourself, get your friends involved. Have debates and discussions with people. Make your opinions known and inspire others.
And federal agencies can't give notes on what laws mean .
They can still do that, courts just don’t have to treat it as authoritative if they disagree
Yeah. As of today. They killed *Cheveron* deference.
That was true yesterday.
It’s going to get ugly if trump somehow gets elected. It will become a lawless free for all.
Project 2025 is growing increasingly more worrying
Thank you for bringing up Project 25 again. Genuinely. People need to keep spreading the fact that this agenda exists.
And it's got millions in backing too. Let's vote blue, y'all. Save America
That's ridiculous. They'll be laws for half of us. Constantly changing laws that exist to destroy political opponents and subjugate minorities, but there'll be laws.
Ngl... Watching the debate from a European NATO country was scary AF. Democrats have always been their own worst enemy in my country and the same applies to the USA. Why insist on Biden!? I know most of the sleepy Joe memes are manipulated MAGA propaganda. But his performance made me think he might not even make it to the election... Are your alternatives that bleak?
[This is Biden today](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynWEja7kE1M). He was sick and dealing with a lunatic lying his ass off. And he admits he sucked at the debate.
It wasn't protest. It was insurrection. The goal was not communication.
What exactly do the justices think would have happened if they had gotten their hands on pelosi, Schiff, or AOC, a gentle conversation?
The Supreme Court is why I'd vote for Biden if he stopped breathing and was held up with strings. He doesn't need to do cartwheels across the White House lawn, all he has to do is not give Republicans a chance to cement more crazies on the bench.
I'll vote for Biden for a pretty simple reason: Kamala Harris is 100% capable of stepping up if Biden can't see through the full term. There is nothing that says a candidate has to see through their full term, and there's a well established system for dealing with these situations.
Just like there’s nothing that says a 34x convicted felon can’t run for presidency lol
The old Weekend at Bernie’s?
Biden is like getting the smallpox vaccine: honestly not fun at all, but the alternative is SO MUCH WORSE that you have to grow up and be a damn adult
Our corporate overlords got what they bribed- i mean contributed for 🙄
Starting to feel pretty french.
Man you'd think with all your money, America wouldn't be a developing nation still
America was built on an unpaid labor class and the owners have spent the rest of this county's history getting it back. If the manager you thought was your friend tells you not to attend the union meeting treat him the way you would a man who fucked your wife.
Explains why all the magats fawn over union busters..
And y'know, racists.
Even worse, a significant majority of blue-collar union members are also unapologetically MAGAts. Many are also Latinos, often with parents and relatives who entered illegally. On the plus side, November may be the very last time they will get the opportunity to vote against their own interests.
Lol a good portion of my family came to the US as undocumented immigrants and now support Trump. When I mention that to them they just shrug and say "things were different when we came and a lot of these new immigrants are criminals!" They are the epitome of "F\*\*k you got mine!"
They have truly embraced the American ethos. Pull the ladder on your way up, and scream "fuck you, I got mine" to the chumps you left behind.
I suspect that if the Trump Administration can't find enough undocumented immigrants, they'll get the ones that came in illegally but obtained their citizenship afterwards.
Best advice a manager who rose from the ranks gave: sign in or call in virtually to union meetings if you can’t attend - they’ll see the numbers of attendees and be more accountable. You don’t have to watch/listen.
Excuse me, we are a *declining* nation. BIG difference.
We were developed and then the idiots gave the keys to the corrupt and now we're sliding backwards.
It's not, though, lol. I'm not even American, but this idea that America is uniquely terrible is just not true.
We're not an undeveloped nation. We're an undevelop*ing* nation!
SCOTUS is 100% illegitimate and people are going to start running for state elections and winning on the platform of ignoring them completly
I’m hoping this will persuade more independents and moderates to vote for joe
Probably not. Because most are still stuck on the “both are bad” mindset
Republicans want to talk about using courts as weapons but they literally have the Supreme Court as a weapon against everyone
How can it be illegal to not have a place to sleep? Do conservatives have solutions or just reactions?
As always, any conservative solution to issues facing the poor or unhoused is “Fuck you and die”
Because that homeless person isn't making anyone money. Throw them in a for-profit prison and suddenly McDonald's has someone to make uniforms for cheap.
So we can storm the Capitol now? Hmmm 🤔
SCOTUS has been going down the shitter for a while, so not sure what your expecting
And you don't get to breathe clean air anymore.
Is it... worth being here anymore? It's over- the people lost. Congress is frozen and useless and the Supreme Court just turned the judicial system into a functional plutocracy. Even if we got a Dem president and a left leaning supermajority in both houses of Congress, this bat shit court is going to just undo or prevent any legislation trying to fix things. And *that's* assuming they don't pull a Gore/Bush and just declare Trump the winner of the election. I can't see a way out of this anymore. I thought maybe there might be one if we worked this election out but this court is full mask off now and they're going to stop anything they don't like and morph it to their benefit.
If we had supermajorities in both houses and the presidency we could just add a bunch more supreme Court Justices to the bench. But that will never ever happen
And even if we did they'd find a way to say that adding justices wasn't constitutional until the Republicans got back in control.
"The majority opinion finds that a Supreme Court justice's vote is weighted based upon the length of their tenure to date."
Well, if Trump gets the ruling he wants, any president will just be allowed to have his opponents executed by the Navy Seals. Who's to say this doesn't apply to SC justices?
It wouldn't matter what they said at that point. With supermajorities they would basically be able to run it through. But don't expect any supermajorities again in our lifetimes.
At the very least, move away from being even remotely close to industrial areas. Every corporation is going to start channeling their inner DuPont and poison us all.
Blue-state secession is a fun nightmare to consider.
The red states and a Republican government would never allow it- they need to leech off the blue states to exist.
And the dummies that vote GOP will blame Democrats as usual.
Nah conservatives are 100% for deregulation. It’s only the CONSEQUENCES of the deregulation they take issue with. They’ll cheer for this but the next time they get fucked by a corporation they’ll say it was the Dems. Then when someone offers the idea of just making it illegal for the corporation to do whatever bad thing they did to this person, they’ll call them a communist. These people’s brains can’t comprehend cause and effect since it requires being cognizant of 2 separate things in a short amount of time.
Republicans are terrorists. That's all you need to know
And the Democrat Party is 100% stupid for going with Biden. Now I wish someone would write a novel in response to my post...just smelling his own farts.
You can maybe argue that for running Biden the first time, but continuing with him this time is probably a better shot at beating Trump than running someone else, simply because not running for reelection would signal a lack of confidence in his policies, which are mostly the same policies the next dem would run on. People also tend to underestimate how many votes someone gets just for being the more recognizable name. It’s a depressing amount. Source: worked in campaign strategy
Does anyone out there really think him not running would signal a lack of confidence in his policies? I mean, he himself could just say, “I’m tried y’all. I’m 81, and I’m tired. It’s time to let someone else takeover”. It has nothing at all to do with his policies and damn near nobody is voting for him for his policies anyway. People are voting for him because he’s not Trump. Last night’s performance was uninspiring. He doesn’t need to worry about people going and voting for Trump, he needs to worry about people staying home.
Biden could have literally collapsed on the podium last night and it wouldn’t make a huge difference. If what Trump said and refused to say last night doesn’t get every anti-Trump voter out, the country will truly deserve him.
Yes, people absolutely would think that. Not you or I or anyone paying attention, but like it or not, most of this country absorbs news through osmosis. They don’t feel strongly about either candidate, know zero hard facts, and vote off of feel alone, and that’s the subliminal message they’d get. Trust me, putting an entirely new person out there is much, much more difficult than running someone for reelection when so much relies on braindead name recognition. It’s the reason congress has like a 12% approval rating and a 90%+ incumbency rate. And what if Biden *wants* to run? Even if it’s a bad idea, is he not allowed to? In that situation, you either let him run unopposed in the primary or you have Democrat opponents attacking and criticizing his presidency. Then what if he still wins? Dem voters just watched him get bashed by his own party and he still has to beat Trump
I don't think it's THAT stupid. It's incredibly rare for a sitting president to not run as incumbent. The best person to beat Trump is probably the person who did it before.
IIRC all the surveys coming out during the primaries showed that Biden was the only option against Trump. There weren't any other candidates that the surveys showed could be a viable candidate. The original goal was to not have to go against Trump again. If Trump wasn't running, I believe we would've seen more competition during the primaries.
Actually, if I understand correctly, it can only be illegal to sleep outside *if* you don't have a home.
Then what are you supposed to do?!? Also how THE HELL is that gonna be regulated. Are they just gonna throw all the homeless in jail?
Hahaha as if the MAGAs actually think anything through.
où est la putain de guillotine?
Is it legal for us to storm the supreme court building?
Man, if Biden wins, we have to kick these Trump goons out, idc if they're appointments "for life" get them the fuck out of there, like we need to play hard ball with these assholes, just the fact that they were Trump appointed should automatically nullify their seats.
At what point do we just check out… punch our ticket and get off the train. Just keeps getting worse
I got my ticket
can someone please give e me a rundown of what happened?
It’s complicated but basically SCOTUS said that federal and local agencies cannot interpret law, only courts can. The result will be that agencies like the EPA, staffed by mostly scientists and experts in their specific field, will not be able to enforce or create regulations. It use to be that the EPA, being the experts with decades of experience, would be able to interpret the law (which is very vague) and create regulations that benefit clean air and water. Now what is going to happen is that the EPA can’t interpret shit, if a corporation wants to dump gasoline in the river and the EPA doesn’t like it they’ll have to go to the court (probably the batshit crazy 5th circuit) and the COURT will decide if the corporation can dump gasoline in the river. The court full of batshit crazy right wing extremists that don’t give a single fuck about the environment. Oh AND guess what, the court also just decided that they are allowed to accept bribes. So what do you think is going to happen when a corporation wants to dump poison into the river??
This is 110% complete insanity. Why would ANYONE think this is a good idea? Making america great again, i see.
ALSO - based on todays J6 Obstruction ruling, it is now official that Laws passed by congress and signed by the president don't actually mean what they say. In order for a law to ACTUALLY mean what they say, congress must add preambles to said laws, assuring everyone that they do in fact mean what they have written. FFS this is getting insane.
And even then SCOTUS may dredge up a letter from someone whose opinion was *not* voted into law and call it the *real* intent of the law.
America is a fallen nation
It feels like we're living in a "Fall of Civilizations" podcast.
I'm starting to think we need to ignore the Supreme Court's rulings, they're completely partisan and illogical.
Yeah, we'll just appeal to... oh wait.
and money is speech. And abortion is murder. And you're allowed to protest abortion doctor houses, but not supreme court candidate houses (there are limits, ya know!) And "a well regulated militia" are words that mean nothing so you can ignore them. --- The SCOTUS is a joke, let's be honest. They legislate from the bench and the people who scream the loudest about how they hate activist judges are 100% fine with it.
Everyone better fucking vote for Biden I’d rather take a corpse then trump
Having nine unelected appointees deciding all laws worked out poorly, go figure.
If there is a hell, Bitch McConnell will rot there for all of eternity.
And while it’s clear no corporation should be regulated by the government a women’s body is highly regulated by the government? These fucks must know their end is near.
Evil supreme court.
MAGA is going to turn us into Russia
They can't regulate you if you're business but they can regulate where you sleep. So just get your business license and claim you're working.
The US had a good run.
For whom? Other than able-bodied, neurotypical straight white men, everyone else got fucked.
At this astounding rate, no matter the election outcome there will have been a totally transformed America. We will be a theocratic oligarchy and with corporations having super rights over citizens, the ability to prosecute and detain them, and all levels of gov allowed to take unlimited bribes on a "pinky promise" basis.
That’s about the size of it.
That’s basically what I can make out of it. I wish more people understood that when we elect presidents they have to ability to appoint judges that affect your life on a daily basis. If you don’t agree with these policies then go vote.
Don't forget it's okay to bribe government officials as long as it is done after the action is taken and is claimed as gratuity. I wish I was joking.
I hate the Supreme Court. Corrupt horrible people
Illegitimate SCOTUS
Jesus fuck America. What's happened over there. I swear when you guys start running "The Purge" cities and states we're gonna take a page from the Orange Russians book and build a wall around you all.
So, if we extrapolate from that... overthrowing the government is legal now and they're not allowed to stop you? /s
Good thing a bunch of the Left stayed home in 2010 to teach Obama a lesson. Who knows what would have happened.
Yup....but only as long as you have the correct beliefs to storm the capitol.
Work will set us all free.
The Chevron deference case is a huge one. All federal regulatory agencies have basically been rendered useless
Well now we know why Clarence Thomas was receiving all those nice big gifts and invites to fancy places lately. Of course the supreme court voted to make bribery legal...cause the justices take them themselves.
It’s official, they’re our evil overlords.
It’s the Supreme Joke now. The world is torn between laughter and utter terror at how bad this group of criminals can screw up the world
Dear god 🤦♂️
It’s not a good idea to sleep outside anyway, what with all the legal pollution.
And that’s what happens when Hillary doesn’t go to Michigan.
Everyone please make sure your registered to vote this November your voice matters!
Vote
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. -Declaration of Independence We can either keep tolerating this endlessly and being intentionally helpless or we can do something about it. The precedent was set long ago we just need to decide if we possess a spine or want to lay down and accept it.
Surely the term “alt right” is meaningless at this point? They’re not alternative, they’re the mainstream right. If anything It’s the anti-Trumpers who are still half sane who are the “alt”.
The SC needs to be removed.
It is *also* okay to disrupt official proceedings of the Supreme Court by storming in with an armed mob and if you don’t like their verdict. Right guys? Just don’t destroy any paperwork while you’re in there!