You “think”? @darrtown , you know better. This guy is constantly amazed that the Constitution is an actual document that has, like, rules.
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Steel-trap mind appoints hush-money trial loser as White House counsel. Next week, Typhoid Mary (she’s been doing amazing things) will be chosen to lead the FDA.
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Tides. TPM commenters are something of a mirror of the pundocracy, trying to explain this election primarily by what the Harris campaign and Democrats did wrong or didn’t do right or just didn’t do. We fall too easily into the fallacy that Democrats, and only Democrats have agency in our political outcomes. But to believe that a few thousand political party leaders are the sole or even primary agent for how a society of approximately 160 million voters spread across three and a half million square miles of land, many packed into medium and large cities and their suburbs, others living in virtual population deserts, thinks and votes is an exercise in arrogance and hubris. Countless factors determine what these voters think and what they want from their political parties.
The pattern of history is well described by Hemingway’s description of how a bankruptcy occurs, very slowly and then very suddenly. This is confirmed by recent events in Korea and Syria. I suspect that we are on the verge of another sudden shift in the direction of the country.
The New Deal era lasted 47 years. In 2028, the Reagan revolution will be 48 years old. There is a strong chance that the conservative dominance started in 1980 with the election of Reagan will reach its apex over the next 4 years and flare out in a supernova to fade away in the face of a realignment of the American people between their priorities and which party they choose to serve those priorities.
Nearly 70% of Americans support Roe v Wade. 80% want governmental action to address climate change. 70% now have a favorable view of unions. 80% support raising taxes on the rich. These are the core positions of the Democratic Party - and of a super majority of the American people. The historic pattern of cycles of progress followed by cycles of retreat, then of progress may be about to assert itself again. We can no more make this happen than the Republicans can stop it. And I have repeatedly advocated that the Democrats sharpen and pound their message, but the realignment of a resounding majority of Americans with the Democratic Party will only occur when the myriad of historic causation factors drives that realignment. It will happen when the voters choose on the basis of their highest hopes and not the most base fantasies of fear.
The Reagan Revolution has to play itself out, and I think it’s about to. We have to avoid despair and the distractions of whether we need to be more “left” or more “left center” or more “centrist” and be ready to enhance history’s next cycle of change when it begins sometime in the next four years.
The world trembles as it watches and waits. Something much bigger than the restoration of trump and his minions is about to begin. We must be ready. The truth that we have been in far worse places in the past, with a far worse majority view, saddled with far more apathy and cynicism yet emerged a better, yet not ideal country makes me optimistic as I enter the last decade or so of my life that the another cycle of positive emergence is about to begin.
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With SCOTUS and 2 houses of congress on Traitor Don’s side, he can make up the law as he goes! And we all sit back and say: “He can’t do that!!! That’s illegal!” We’ve been doing that for 7 going on 8 years and he’s gotten away with it every time.
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Congress still has the power to impeach and remove a sitting SCOTUS justice. It isn’t likely in the current political era, but it was done once back in the 19th Century with an associate justice.
Now all we need is a Dem majority in the House and a supermajority in the Senate to kick the bums out. Maybe in a different timeline with fewer idiot voters we already did that. This timeline sucks.
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And WSJ, Politico and NYTimes.
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Maybe I’m naive, but in order to put someone in jail in this country, don’t they have to be indicted for a crime and don’t they have to be convicted? Or am I missing something.
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But making passports and other more official documents harder to get is a win-win-win for these anal chapeaus.
- Make life more difficult for “them”.
- Slow down government operations, thus proving it is “inefficient.”
- Thus allowing Starlink Data Processing to take over the entire process. Too cut government and be more efficient.
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Doesn’t know, doesn’t care, will never care, will never know.
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So what happens when Congressional immunity runs up against Presidential immunity when Trump issues an official order to the military to arrest Liz Cheney?
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And approval by 3/4 of the States.
NOT. GOING. TO. HAPPEN. (See ERA)
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And LA Times.
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Remember though, no other period in American life has had to cope with constant, steady, overwhelming 24/7 propaganda. And not just from the right-wing media, as we discuss all the time here. I daresay if Fox News existed in the 30s, FDR would not have been nearly as successful.
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I so hope you are right. It is so much better to live with hope than drown in despair. I keep hoping people will decide to aspire to better for everyone rather than continue trying to drag everyone down to the bottom.
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Well, in Israel which we all know can do no wrong, all they have to do is arrest you and throw you in jail. You can stay there for year after year after year, without even being charged with a crime or seeing a judge.
So the Felon Maladministration could adopt this convenient and tidy method, too. Precedent! Particularly if he decides to declare martial law!
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Doesn’t mean they can not make someone’s life a living hell. On false charges, minor charges, or a traffic stop.
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The US government ignored this when deporting Mexican-origin citizens in the 1930’s and again during “Operation Wetback.”
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Lets you and me fighter over whether the soldier “scampered” or “scarpered” away.
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”
― Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
I sometimes feel like Alice with Trump around. Words have no meaning for him.
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Since I griped about the Xitter use a lot, let me just congratulate everyone on TPM who has moved to BlueSky.
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A lot of people (mainly poor and POC) routinely spend months or more in jail without being convicted of anything because they are denied bail or cannot pay it. Some of them die from the mistreatment. Just sayin’.
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