https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/supreme-court-monarchy-july-4/
King George III was tossed aside 248 years ago. Now the court seeks to impose King Donald I.
The illegitimate Supreme Court brought it back. Don't forget that Republicans stalled for a year to get one of their Justices, and we have two known perjurers, two that have openly accepted bribes, and an insurrectionist flying fascist flags outside his home.
There's no court with authority over the Supreme Court. There's no systemic means to operationally define their means as illegitimate.
So, if the system is to be preserved, the rules must be respected, and We the People must tolerate corrupt Justices until they choose to resign or die. But, such is intolerable! The system must yield. But, if it ignores its core rules then it deserves no respect!
It's important that we recognize that various systems are scams and learn how they work. But, often, just like this example, what we find is that the system allows no means of recovery that We the People would find adequate.
They'll always tell us to be patient, to wait for a more convenient time for change, praying that enough of us don't reason our way into enough systemic impasses to do more than cast a meaningless ballot. Most of us have very little and trust each other even less. But, sacrificing for our neighbor is the only way forward.
The government is allowed to impeach them. Legally speaking.
The right will block such an action though because they too are corrupt.
The government is allowed to impeach them. Legally speaking.
Yes.
The right will block such an action though because they too are corrupt.
I encourage ignoring the present day situation for a moment. Instead, think along the lines of systemic design.
If our system exists as a two party system, if one party takes a strong position using whatever legal means, they know the other party will soon also use the tactic in greater magnitude. If they impeach Justices, the vote certainly along party lines, then the composition of Congress changes, and their Justices will surely face impeachment. If one party wisely expands the court leaving room for future expansion, the other party will in the future certainly expand the court to the limit.
Neither party actually needs to fulfill promises to anyone but those that donate money for the propaganda. The propaganda keeps the vast majority from killing all the would-be kings, money lenders, and politicians.
The initial designers of our system predicted that the greatest weakness is the possibility of devolution into a two party system. They thought it'd take much longer than "immediately".
Coming back to the modern day, and he last several years, I think some protesters said it best:
Fuck Donald Trump and fuck Biden, too! Neither of them give a fuck about you!
America's combination of First-past-the-post and presidential democracy makes a two-party system all but inevitable.
You're not wrong.
And who signs 90% of these apparatchick's paychecks? It's the billionaires.
The billionaires are the ones LARPing as the puppeteers. And if we don't challenge them, their shitty LARPs are uncontested and become real.
The billionaires are the primary beneficiaries of the status quo.
And who signs 90% of these apparatchick's paychecks? It's the billionaires.
The billionaires are the ones LARPing as the puppeteers. And if we don't challenge them, their shitty LARPs are uncontested and become real.
The billionaires are the primary beneficiaries of the status quo.
I feel like you're anthropomorphizing. The vast majority of the billionaires aren't human. We deregulated banks with a partial repeal of Glass-Steagall and the Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act. And, we continued to strengthen corporate personhood.
Today, the banks are the billionaires that own the stock in the corporations that exercise their right to free speech in campaign donations to puppeteer politicians into making the status quo worse for the vast majority of humans.
Valuable thought! Thank you!
You're not wrong about the system being what it is.
But the system lacks agency. The system cannot do things differently one fine Tuesday morning. Only human beings have this kind of latitude.
Another distinction is that the system is a tool while humans are the beneficiaries or the fodder for the system, as the case may be. Billionaires are the foremost material beneficiaries of the system.
Therefore, the weak link is the human, and not the system. But. What you say is, in my opinion, very important because it helps us recognize that the human beings are organised in networks and are also creatures of habit, which means there is a lot of inertia that must be overcome. Even the best action won't have instant results.
Right now there is zero risk, zero downside for the billionaires. They have the biggest per-individual influence on the system which essentially prints money for them. It makes sense that protecting and expanding the system would be the sole concern of the 99% of the billionaires. The other 1% might have some earnest sympathy for the underclass. Might... So simply adding an element of risk will change this equation.
However if you think there is a clever way to gum up the system in a purely procedural/bureaucratic way, I am all ears. I am currently not smart/cognizant enough to think of a way.
Crystal clear piece of writing. Humans are obviously collectively responsible for the systems they create and perpetuate.
I am currently not smart/cognizant enough to think of a way.
An individual, regardless of wealth, power, and ability, is powerless relative the systemic mandate. Large groups produce mediocrity. Their outcomes fail to meet the prerequisite urgency of the human mandate.
However if you think there is a clever way to gum up the system in a purely procedural/bureaucratic way, I am all ears.
The first rule consists of a relatively small number of people, who know little to no information concerning organization assets (such as member identities). This limits the harm that can be done to the organization as a whole by any individual member. The structure can range from a strict hierarchy to an extremely distributed organization, depending on the group's ideology, its operational area, the communications technologies available, and the nature of the mission.
Gold.
The human Mandate!
First time I hear such powerful words. I have to think about this and the last part too.
Above, I wrote one cohesive response, not three snippets. It's powerful because great people wrote it: from King to Wiki. I'm just a guy who knows you're not looking for ideas.
Another thought, for the longer term.
We could add real downsides to being in the upper class. So that being in the upper class is no longer a strict upgrade from the middle class, but a trade-off.
For example we can guarantee most privacy protections for the lower classes (the very opposite of the current surveillance capitalism). At the same time the upper class would have to submit their persons and all their transactions and doings to the most stringent transparency requirements. Don't like being constantly under a microscope and in public view? Don't be in the upper class.
While the middle class would be a position in the middle with just marginally less privacy than the lower class, but much more privacy than the upper class.
Privacy is prerequisite to a life of dignity. It's not a bargaining chip for another prerequisite.
Wealth is only a prerequisite up to a point, beyond which wealth transitions into a luxury as opposed to something life-giving or dignifying.
I can accept accumulations up to somewhere between $50 and $150 million.
People with extreme accumulations have to be watched and regulated if we want a society that optimizes for broad dignity.
If you want to optimize for peak dignity, monarchies with unlimited accumulations are the best for that.
If humans constantly tempted by wealth and power, who then fall victim to it, have their right to privacy infringed, then they'll go right on feeding their addictions, no matter the cost of maintenance of privacy?
You guys need to write a new constitution yesterday. The US constitution is an old relic and it's hardly surprising it's so disfunctional.
Been saying that for years. It's been a quarter millennium, how about we get the best and brightest minds from every field of academia, science, philosophy, and yes, even *shudder* religion, to get together and literally hold a constitutional convention? Just toss that old scrap of parchment out and re-write it from scratch, with modern language that is unambiguous and straightforward. If the rights enshrined in the Constitution that we hold so dear to us are actually that important, I'm sure they'll make the cut for Constitution v2.0. But while we're in there, we might as well clarify some stuff. Let's clarify that 14th amendment, let's define what a "well regulated militia" is, and so on.
Of course, the people in power like the ambiguity. It means that as long as someone somewhere could interpret the constitution in some way that is favorable to them, they can have it mean whatever they want when it suits them and as long as they keep the populace at each other's throats with an unending culture war they know we'll never organize enough to change that. It's a bit of a pessimistic outlook. Our fates are controlled by people who like the dysfunction and that sucks because we could very easily fix a lot of the problems by unifying, but I don't know if that's possible at this point.
Pack the court, or order the CIA to assassinate the conservative justices.
Of course neither of these will happen.
Time to get your passports current.
Republicans like this right now because it benefits Donald. It's going to come back and bite them in the ass when it helps their opponents.
But they are the disenfranchised and the poor. They have the right to vote for someone who will gut regulations for corporations that will happily increase to looting and pillaging in the quest for profit.
The fact these people reason that it would be better for them with less regulations and oversight is beyond comprehension.
Republicans have learned that there are millions of votes on one particular issue that will allow them to do whatever on all other issues. Abortion.
You're assuming reason is involved here. Most of them vote R because that's how they were brainwashed into voting.
Most voters who suffered from the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and the subsequent "controlled explosion" that poisoned the shit out of that area voted to deregulate everything. Trump even went there after the poisoning and did a rally.
You're assuming a lot: elections, peaceful transfer of power, Congress composition, even the unity of the states is an assumption at this point. If King Trump gets in, many states will refuse to cooperate (if you think this is too wild, many locales and at least one state already refuse to cooperate with ICE, Texas was at one point not cooperating with the Feds on their Southern border). What happens after that is anyone's guess.
The Democrats love it because is lucrative for donations. It's a terrible storm of pure evil and ineptitude.
I know it's been said as a joke a million times. But it feels like the current POTUS using his immunity for official duties to unilaterally correct this SCOTUS problem that is a flaw overlooked by the founding fathers would be a legitimate, official act that is done with the interest of the country and not for personal gain.
Straight up killing the ones taking bribes and inserting left leaning judges would cause a civil war, and I'm not sure how you can use this immunity situation to correct this problem through policy. Either by creating some sort if oversight, term limits, maybe, since Supreme Court judges are so important they should be elected by the people, not congress, idk. But If immunity to crimes is the hot topic right now, water board them all.
If Biden ordered their assassination he would have my vote and donations to his campaign.
If Biden assassinates, pardon me, official acts out of existence at least Thomas and Roberts, or better yet all 6 of the servative judges, I promise I will forget for 4 more years that Tim Walz, Marianne Williamson, and Jill Stein even exist. I won't even mention their names. I will be a Biden-stan for the next 4 years.
Love Tim Walz, he's the best.
But if Biden does the deed above, I can be an exclusive Biden-stan for 4 years. IF!
4 years. Not forever.
And only with regard to presidency.
Outside of the context of the presidential election I can (and probably will, unless something important changes) still be a Tim Walz stan even if Biden does the deed.
As long as Biden refuses to exercise ruthlessness in my name and with my approval I will be bringing up Tim Walz as a vastly superior presidential candidate to Harris, Newsom, Whitmer, and the typical gaggle of the establishment picks.
Wait a minute...
Grabs the SCOTUS by the hair and removes the mask revealing them to really be
"King George?!"
I'm gonna start growing veggies. I need to get all the gravel out of my back yard first. I need to spend money to practice at the range, ballistic tubes is the most expensive hobby. Today I'm organizing and helping John Brown breakfast club. What other actionable goals should I focus on to dismantle our newly founded monarchy, comrades?
I recommend highly conscious and aware physical fitness, which is to say doing the exercises with full internal awareness of all that's going on subjectively in your world while performing the exercises.
If you can only do one thing, let it be running. Land on the bowls of your feet while wearing zero offset running shoes (web search "zero offset running shoes"), heels ever so slightly off the ground. Never heel-stomp during running. Relax deeply. Let the belly drop naturally. Consciously slow down your breathing and try to breathe as slowly as possible while running. While running attempt to enter a state similar to sleeping without actually losing awareness. So this here is work for both the body and the mind. Adjust your pace to make running pleasurable and slightly challenging in order to habituate your relationship to running as something you enjoy doing and something you look forward to. Get plenty of recuperation time, don't run non-stop, take breaks and let the body and mind recover. If you're older the breaks have to be longer too.
Then if you have more time and energy I recommend body weight exercises including pullups.
If you still have energy left, run with the kettlebells.
This is "born to run" by Christopher McDougall running theory right? My knees are kinda bad now so I get most of my aerobic exercise from bicycles now. I should probably find some grass or dirt to run in.
I need to set up a pull bar.
I usually clean and press kettlebells when I'm watching YouTube trash.
Are battle maces worth it? I kinda think just beating a sledgehammer hammer into the ground would be an equivalent range of motion.
This is "born to run" by Christopher McDougall running theory right?
First I hear of this McDougall. I learned everything I typed on my own, painfully, by running in all the wrong ways first. That's why I was about 42 when I learned how to run.
That said, if McDougall says the same things I say, great! No one should suffer injuries from heel stomping like I had. No one should go through the same hell as I. No one should have to cough up blood from their lungs due to overly rapid breathing, like I had. No one should believe the rate of breathing is a fixed and inborn quality. Instead everyone should know that the rate of breathing is a trainable quality. And the rate of breathing depends on the calmness of one's deep mind. The calmer the mind, the slower the breathing can be. Hence why I advised to enter a sleep-like state.
I also combined running with meditation and psychoenergetic training (I learned psychoenergetics from Nanci Trivellato and Robert Bruce). That's basically it in a nutshell.
Are battle maces worth it? I kinda think just beating a sledgehammer hammer into the ground would be an equivalent range of motion.
Don't know about that, boss.
It probably depends on your goals?
I suggested running first because that one exercise just does waaaaaaay too much benefit in waaaaaay too many areas.
But there are lots of highly specific exercises like partial lifts, finger strength, static exertions, dynamic tension a la Charles Atlas, etc. All depends on your goals and time/energy availability.
What I described will make one tough and resilient like a solder with an endless gas tank.
If you have close friends with similar views make sure they get armed. Make sure they still vote and don't head down the path of extremism either. Go to your jobs. Make sure you family is still taken care of...
But remember that feeling in the back of your head saying get prepared, and do it.
Saying the USA has been a democracy for 248 years is a bit of a stretch. when:
White men who didn't own land didn't get to vote everywhere in the USA until 1868.
Main-land Native American males who left their tribes and lived like white people could start to vote in 1887.
The above but for Alaska in 1915. In 1925, they needed to also be able to pass an English literacy test to vote.
Women were allowed to vote in the 1920's.
Black people were allowed to vote in the 1960's.
The act that prohibits racial discrimination for voting rights was passed in 1965.
Alaska Natives were able to vote without taking an English literacy test, a language which they may not speak, in 1970.
“We” didn’t do shit. People in 1776 did, today’s Americans wouldn’t reject it out of fear for consequence to personal comfort.
The logic follows that the people who should be doing something are the ones that we elect. While it's true that they aren't doing anything either, the shit won't really hit the fan until a republican gets the white house and actually starts abusing that power.
We still have time to resolve this without bloodshed and destruction. Most people see that and aren't going to jump the gun on what could very well be the end of their lives in the most heavily armed per capita country on earth.
Say “death to amerikkka” to your boss and then tell me we don’t live under a fascist dictatorship. It’s been like this since 1492.
How do you guys not see this is obvious propaganda? Seriously, please tell me when any president has been held accountable for the things they did in office that were not directly person?
Yes because it was a person thing. And so was Nixon.
Are you really pretending like trump is not being gone after by the justice system?
The justice system exists to go after people who commit crimes. And Trump, a convicted felon, commits all sorts of crimes.
The previous guy seemed to think differently. The issue is that the trump cases are almost all complete bullshit but we have to pretend they are real because we dont like trump. Its not justice.