Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Not to distract from Roe and Dobbs, but you are so totally wrong about this. Democracy only works because the side that loses elections gives up power. Trump has normalized the idea that this doesn't apply to Republicans.

The republicans already have people in place to just appoint their legislators no matter how many people vote for whom based on fraud, right?

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

The Constitution is whatever the right wing says it is. This is just the start. We are in for rule by judges, not the rule of law, as the Dobbs dissent says.

"[T]he Supreme Court has become an institution whose primary role is to force a right-wing vision of American society on the rest of the country."


They told everyone they were going to do this. How can Nancy and Chuckie act surprised?

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Not to distract from Roe and Dobbs, but you are so totally wrong about this. Democracy only works because the side that loses elections gives up power. Trump has normalized the idea that this doesn't apply to Republicans.

The key question is who does the military respond to. It was clear on or around January 6, that the armed forces generally said "Fuck that guy."

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Right wing media and Rs looking to whatabout are carping about threats to Justices. As though it’s possible to even compare that to the damage they’ve just created.

An apt reply, IMO:

I can’t agree with the threat of violence. But it’s more than arguable that he who unjustifiably strips the most essential rights of others, knowingly, forfeits his right to walk in public without looking over his shoulder.

Caveat emptor? Perhaps Newton’s Third Law in action? Analogies abound. But a lifetime of fear seems an appropriate toll for having crossed this bridge.

"It would be naïve to depend on the Supreme Court to defend the rights of poor people, women, people of color, dissenters of all kinds. Those rights only come alive when citizens organize, protest, demonstrate, strike, boycott, rebel, and violate the law in order to uphold justice."

[Icky Thump]

The Wire and The Expanse were the two must underrated TV shows in history, change my mind.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally Posted by Icky Thump

The Wire and The Expanse were the two must underrated TV shows in history, change my mind.

I love the Expanse so much. So much. I get why it ended when it did, and I am really glad they got to tell their story, but damn I want more.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan

I've been living with this level of crazy for about two years. We've been right-wing for 20 years, but not like this, not to this level. With the exception of Lubbock/Amarillo and Midland/Odessa, every major metropolitan area in this state is purple leaning blue. And we are totally hamstrung by the insanity coming out of Austin. And it's going to get worse. We saw the testing in the 2000 election, where city/county governments were trying to get creative to get voting easier during a pandemic. Austin went batshit, and they're specifically writing laws to dilute the power of the cities/counties. That's why the insane bounty law was written, because they knew there was no way in hell our DAs were going to prosecute on the abortion bans.

As for the Big Lie. They either believe it or it's so sacrosanct to their ethos at this point that they can't refute it. Only 13 Republicans were willing to say it was bullshit of the 140plus running in primaries for US Rep. And they heckled the heck out of my be-eypatched representative at the state convention last week because he's one of them. Moderate Rs are not welcome in that party anymore. I'd feel bad for them except they made this bargain, and most of them want the bullshit that happened with SCOTUS this session.

Our only hope is that the overreach is too much. But with gerrymandering and disenfranchising, who knows if the groundswell will be enough to overcome these assholes.

My kid is 10th generation Texan. I love the state. But we will have to leave if it gets too much worse.

Michigan was bluish purple but our districts were R gerrymandered so state house/senate was R and laws were wacky. We had a state referendum to handoff redistricting to an independent commission. I believe we are going to adjustin Nov. WTTW

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Icky Thump

The key question is who does the military respond to. It was clear on or around January 6, that the armed forces generally said "Fuck that guy."

Exactly. And even Mitch and the Supremes stood down. Those people have actual power and anointing a dictator would mean they no longer have it.

Ask the Chief Justice of the German Supreme Court a month after Hitler took over. Pretty sure he had less power the day after?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Icky Thump

The Wire and The Expanse were the two must underrated TV shows in history, change my mind.

Never seen or heard of the Expanse.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Never seen or heard of the Expanse.

Oooh oooh, but Mr Ed and Car 54 are the most underrated shows ever,

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by Icky Thump

The key question is who does the military respond to. It was clear on or around January 6, that the armed forces generally said "Fuck that guy."

So, in your scenario, if Trump had found a sympathizer in the Georgia Secretary of State, and maybe a couple of others in the Justice Department, the military would have stepped in and stopped the steal? Really? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know and you don’t either. But the problem with the delusionally arrogant is that, no matter how many times they are proven wrong, they are still 100% right about everything else all the time, and everyone who disagrees is a hair-on-fire hysterical alarmist in an echo chamber. And by they time the delusionally arrogant are proven wrong yet again, and offer their weak, self-serving mea culpas, it is too late. COVID is killing 2,000 people a day, not 2,000 total. Roe v. Wade is dead and the right to gay marriage is not far behind.

I once told Sebastian about my uncle who was so overtly racist that he disowned his daughter because she married a successful black man. I noted that my uncle faced essentially no personal or professional consequences in his little Greenwich, CT world for his overt racism. Sebastian nonetheless insisted that this was not the case, that this type of overt racism was Simply. Not. Tolerated. I shared this story with my cousin and her husband, and her husband said, “Do you know how many white people have explained to me over the years how the overt racism I personally experienced did not actually exist?”

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

So, in your scenario, if Trump had found a sympathizer in the Georgia Secretary of State, and maybe a couple of others in the Justice Department, the military would have stepped in and stopped the steal?

Not necessarily but they wouldn't have lifted a finger to help him.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

So, in your scenario, if Trump had found a sympathizer in the Georgia Secretary of State, and maybe a couple of others in the Justice Department, the military would have stepped in and stopped the steal? Really? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know and you don’t either. But the problem with the delusionally arrogant is that, no matter how many times they are proven wrong, they are still 100% right about everything else all the time, and everyone who disagrees is a hair-on-fire hysterical alarmist in an echo chamber. And by they time the delusionally arrogant are proven wrong yet again, and offer their weak, self-serving mea culpas, it is too late. COVID is killing 2,000 people a day, not 2,000 total. Roe v. Wade is dead and the right to gay marriage is not far behind.

The thing was the courts ruled against his nonsense 100%, so eventually the Court would have to find the same, then Trump would order the military to do something- empty out Congress or something? To me the fear was the military doing something- but it didn't?

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by Icky Thump

Not necessarily but they wouldn't have lifted a finger to help him.

That seems to be the case, but less clear is that he would have even needed their help if he had found enough loyalists in the right places.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

That seems to be the case, but less clear is that he would have even needed their help if he had found enough loyalists in the right places.

Joint Chiefs probably thinking they should have nuked the White House on 1/6.