US Politics, July 2024 - "Will you just drop out, man?"

This could go in various threads, but I'll park it here. Labor writer Hamilton Nolan has one of the most concise and cogent summaries I've read of current conditions:

You have to hand it to right wing ultracapitalists. They really know how to stick with a plan. All those decades of writing checks to the Heritage Foundation, writing checks to the Federalist Society, grooming law students, funding conferences, lovingly building an entire intellectual and professional ecosystem ideologically vetted cadres ready to penetrate government and destroy it from within… it’s all paid off. They are reaping the fruits of their labor now. The rest of us are in a very scary place, but you have to admire the persistence of the horrible people that got us here.

“Let’s do what’s best for the very rich above all” is not an effective political message in a democracy. So the very rich have long worked to both conceal the message, and undermine the democracy. The Republican Party exists to serve the interests of the rich, but its long marriage of convenience to religion and racism have tied all those qualities together in a package. Voting rights must be suppressed, the electoral system must be designed in a way that creates power imbalances that can be exploited for the cause of minority rule, and levers of power must be found that can most effectively advance the agenda of unrestrained capitalism, along with enough Christian nationalism and regressive race-baiting to bring along a large enough coalition to support the whole project. Here we are. Here we are! Take a good hard look at the landscape they have now produced, my friends.

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-end-of-liberal-institutionalism

He offers practical next steps, too — primarily via organized labor, since that's his bailiwick, but he has a lot of good thoughts.

Yep, Tipsy. This is all part of a very, very long game.

you do not gotta hand it to 'em

lol well you especially don't have to hand to them because they just came and took it anyway

I imagine Ham knew that opening line was going to get this reaction.

I like the column and I'm going to share it. I didn't like his burying the lede, though: (1) abolish the filibuster (2) expanding the Court.

really think the uses of dril's "do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to ISIL" tweet have been throroughly exahusted by now. we do not, under every circumstance of somebody saying "you have to hand it to them," gotta do the "you do not gotta hand it to 'em" thing

whaddya expect? It's a bunch of dudes on a message board. We gotta one-up each other.

if presidents are immune from prosecution, biden could kill the 6 justices who gave him that power, right?

as the world's population ages and there are more people over 65 then there are little kids you will see more and more fear-based politics. it already explains the ring-wing thing all over the world. if you tell old folks that people are coming to get them they will vote for you to keep them safe. despots feed on fear and it doesn't hurt that the climate/pandemic/etc makes it easier for everyone to be afraid anyway. and before you know it, Matlock is the President of every country on earth. doesn't matter that he isn't real. in general, reality will be less of a thing. trump is only the beginning.

https://hallmark.brightspotcdn.com/a2/61/fd15fda913c25ee9e53f0bbca8ab/matlock-0015.jpg

HamNo’s post inspired me to fill out the union card when I get home (I think it’s the card you sign to show interest?).

I don’t think it’s a universal truth that old people are necessarily conservative. Old folks in Portugal are apparently leftier than young people.

I was a young Clintonian centrist now I’m ready to join the New Weathermen.

piece of shit country

"I don’t think it’s a universal truth that old people are necessarily conservative"

i didn't say they were. i think they are more easily frightened. and if someone says they are the only one who can save/protect them then they will feel less frightened. i don't think the Democrats make people feel more safe. when Repubs say they are going to stop the millions of murderers from coming across the border older people feel safer. that's just my opinion. and my anecdotal judgement from the reaction of fear that my dad shows when i hand him a spoon too quickly and how tightly he holds on to the strap in the car when we are going 20 miles an hour.

i mean its been the GOP strategy my whole life. scaring people. with racism usually. and they have relied on older voters to vote for them. well now there will be even more older voters. is all i'm saying.

to your very anecdotal evidence, i will add my own

my parents (b 1945) would never EVER have voted for a republican, would never ever say that they are scared of immigrants, nor would they otherwise subscribe to this fearmongering bullshit. they would, however, expect republicans to behave like adults and work in a bipartisan fashion, and that is where they were wrong.

their mistake was believing that people could and would work together even if/when they disagreed on policy. that does not appear to be true for most of this century so far.

I don’t think it’s a universal truth that old people are necessarily conservative

They most definitely are here. Proportionately.

"Conservative" in terms of clinging to the values of the past, which depending where your past was will look different along the political scale.

I wouldn't nec say older Portuguese ppl are "leftier", it's just they lived through a dictatorship and thus know the value of what came after in terms of social services, unions, etc

I feel like if the US lived under an actual brutal dictatorship, attitudes would change fast (among most, but not all - there are always large numbers of people who support the police state). problem is the one that will show up is going to be a soft dictatorship that wraps everything in weak justification (i.e. yesterday's SCOTUS ruling) and plausible deniability, so most of the idiots in this country will say with a straight face that this isn't a dictatorship even as freedoms are eroded and checks and balances crumble.

basically fuckin' STar Wars Eps 1 -3 much more prescient than realized, maybe they were classics after all

my prediction. the oldening of america will more and more result in blue turning red in places that were always blue.

The good thing is that there aren't that many boomers left -- and your kids ain't having many kids or any at all.

i frequently read TPM's "morning memo", usually written by David Kurtz. today's was a bit different

...At this point in the narrative, it feels necessary to orient the reader to the narrator. I’m not by nature or temperament a hair-on-fire personality type. I counsel calmness under pressure. I value clear-eyed assessments of difficult situations. I can find pleasure in puzzling though solutions to hard problems. I’m more inclined to take the long view and try to prevail through perseverance. What I am about to say is uncomfortable, painful even.

Yesterday’s immunity decision by the Supreme Court took a sledgehammer to the constitutional foundation of American democracy and eviscerated the rule of law. It will, in my view, go down in the annals of wretched Supreme Court decisions alongside Dred Scott, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Korematsu. It makes Bush v. Gore look like a piker.

Three days ahead of the 248th anniversary of the American colonists formally shucking off monarchial rule in revolutionary style in Philadelphia, the Supreme Court gilded the U.S. presidency with monarchial powers the likes of which we’ve never had before, never sought, and thought we had rid ourselves of two and half centuries ago.

The American presidency now exists outside of the law and beyond the reach of the criminal law. In the Supreme Court’s view, the President is the law. This is new, it’s unprecedented, and the consequences are almost beyond our ability to imagine or foretell.

The rule of law, as the saying goes, must exist for everyone; otherwise, it exists for no one. By placing the president beyond the rule of law, the Supreme Court has deprived all of us of its protections. The constitutional structure we have relied on since 1789 — imperfect but resilient, a creation of man not of the divine, a work in progress never to be fully completed — was turned on its ear yesterday by an ahistorical decision grounded neither in the text of the Constitution nor our traditions and customs nor our best hopes for ourselves or our form of self governance.

It is a shock to the system that is going to take a long time to come to grips with and decades or longer to remedy. In the first few hours since the decision came down, I’m not seeing it sinking in yet across broad swaths of the media, the legal system, the political system or society writ large. The high court has ruled it so. There is no immediate recourse against it or against the new and alien structure it has foisted upon us. Short of a new constitutional convention or a series of constitutional amendments, we are stuck with it. That is going to take time to settle into elite consciousness.

The conceit that I began this monologue with — that vigilant watchdogs applying steady public pressure could rally those in authority to uphold the rule of law even in the extreme situation of a failed auto-coup — collapsed upon itself yesterday. What began as an effort to validate the rule of law ended up being the grim task of bearing witness to its demise.

As a former lawyer, I can tell you we are outside of the legal realm now. This is no longer the work of lawyers or judges. They have been displaced in a bitter irony by the Supreme Court itself (how this is an aggrandizement not just of executive power but of Supreme Court power is an essay for another day). My friend Dahlia Lithwick, a relentless defender of the rule of law, recognized yesterday’s seismic shift. “As an official representative of the legal commentariat I want to suggest that tonight’s a good news cycle to talk to the fascism and authoritarianism experts. This is their inning now …”

We have entered an uncertain new era. The door is now wide open to the kinds of fascism and authoritarianism we spent much of the 20th century and hundreds of thousands of American lives combatting overseas. Many of you will be skeptical of this. I will take no joy in being right about this. You can wait and see, but don’t wait too long. It may already be too late.

if presidents are immune from prosecution, biden could kill the 6 justices who gave him that power, right?

people keep saying that -- Biden is a Democrat. Democrats won't be weaponizing this ruling, as they absolutely immediately should. I don't mean he "should" kill anybody, but there's so much this ruling opens up -- it's not good! the stuff it opens up is fucked up! and a party that wanted to retain power would jump in with both hands; it's what an (R) admin will absolutely do. but I don't think there'll be any actual "how do you like your ruling now?" stuff from Team Liberal. we just don't work like that. we'd rather lose! after all, we have our standards.

they go low, we go die

cool

🟡 NEW: The next Republican Party platform will be written behind closed doors.

In a break from decades-long precedent, reporters and spectators will not be allowed to watch next week’s party platform committee proceedings, @daveweigel reports.https://t.co/I7MafQywLw

— Semafor (@semafor) July 2, 2024

which means several of them have spouses/girlfriends/mistresses getting abortions and they're calibrating how to hide this from their voting public

Totally normal and cool

I've seen a lot of weird talk on Twitter about how this ruling means that Biden can issue a bunch of executive orders on anything. I mean sure, he can order that all immigrants in the country are now citizens, but it would still be overturned by the courts.

the talk of Biden doing anything extralegal to expose the stupidity of the ruling/restore balance is entire fan fiction that people are using as a coping mechanism, I doubt anybody (or hope nobody) believes he's going to do any of these things.

the message is going to be...

...as always...

..."we need to show up at the ballot box"

But how can Biden keep reaching across the aisle and following Michelle fucking Obama’s words of wisdom?

looking at 3-way voter polls, it seems less like Trump picked up much after the debate, but Biden lost support. Kennedy's numbers jumped in several polls, including one having him at 13%.

that might be why, uh, having him step down might be a good idea, because people not fleeing to Trump, but to a shitbag third party.

meanwhile, Giuliani disbarred

I hope this ruling doesn’t lead to unthinkable practices like targeting an american citizen in a drone strike! (being facetious — this is awful)

the fallout of the immunity ruling on the hush money sentencing continues:

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s sentencing in his N.Y. hush money case may be postponed from next week in light of Monday’s Supreme Court immunity ruling, with the Manhattan district attorney saying he is not opposed to a delay requested by Trump’s lawyers so they can seek to vacate his conviction.

The district attorney’s office noted in a letter to the court Tuesday that sentencing would have to be delayed from July 11 for the defense to make its case about how the Supreme Court’s decision could impact Trump’s state court prosecution.

Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records was based in part on evidence of meetings and communications that occurred while he was president.

In a historic and far-reaching decision on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts, and that evidence cannot be used to prove alleged private criminal activity if that evidence is part of a president performing his official duties.

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has previously ruled that Trump’s conduct in the falsifying records case has nothing to do with his official duties as president, a decision Merchan made when rejecting a request by Trump’s lawyers to postponed the trial until after the Supreme Court’s ruling on immunity. The Supreme Court ruling was sparked by a different Trump criminal case, his federal election-interference trial in D.C. But it may impact his other cases as well.

Merchan must now rule on whether to formally adjourn the sentencing.

Even as they said they would not oppose a delay, prosecutors also said in their letter that the defense arguments about how the Supreme Court ruling should impact the New York case are “without merit.”[/q]

oh my fucking god

I'm going back to hoping they both die before the election

You know I’m now thinking that they need to replace him with Harris now, in light of the shock of the Supreme Court ruling. It actually might inject some new energy, even if Harris isn’t exactly someone to get excited about. That is, if she wants it and the Democrats are capable of actually doing something bold (I know, they aren’t).

the conversation around it is going to get louder, and not quieter. I don't know if it results in anything actually happening, but as much as Nancy/establishment/Biden want the convo to die down, the next week or two of polls is going to make the screams louder

Yeah, I saw that

Out of words.

Based on the rate of news in the past week alone, we're about 30 months out from MAGA squads knocking on doors to make sure the Trump portrait is hung to specs in all living spaces.

don't worry the Democrats have a comprehensive four year battle plan to deal with the fallout of another Trump administration. they've got this.

I look forward to seeing friends die as they’re nestled in their concentration camps

You make it sound kind of cozy.

How will the televised military tribunals work in the era of streaming? Will we all be required to subscribe to Trump TV? Will they be aired on every service?

I was alluding to my favourite episode of Strangers With Candy

He wasn’t president when he was paying a porn star. What is there to delay and review in this?

I keep picturing that scene from The Office where Michael declares bankruptcy by shouting out, "I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY", with Trump just pacing around yelling, "THIS IS AN OFFICIAL ACT" before everything he does.

He was President when he paid back Michael Cohen and labeled it a campaign expenditure.