xyzzy

joined 6 days ago
[–] xyzzy@lemmy.today 1 points 41 minutes ago

What motivated you to join this community then?

[–] xyzzy@lemmy.today 5 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

I hope she gets the big seat someday.

That's not how it works in the US.

Edit: In many other countries the most senior justice becomes the chief justice by seniority, and I was saying that's not how it works in the US. But it looks like there have been four times when an associate justice has been "promoted" to chief justice, which I didn't realize. The first being John Rutledge in 1795 and Rehnquist being the most recent in 1986.

[–] xyzzy@lemmy.today 10 points 22 hours ago

It's just a cult, man. It's just as true and based in reality as a UFO transporting their souls to heaven.

[–] xyzzy@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago

They already did The Stand as a miniseries on Paramount Plus like 4-5 years ago...

[–] xyzzy@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago

I'm still disappointed they never made an Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis movie in the mid to late '90s.

[–] xyzzy@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I kind of agree with the guy. He moved it out of committee despite citing problems with it, but signaled a willingness to continue working through those issues. The bill was a rush job with lots of missteps, and budget numbers came very, very late in the process. When he expressed frustration at this and said it doesn't make sense for public comment before the budget numbers are in, and because of this he was currently a no (but continuing to signal willingness to work to get to yes), the Democratic majority tried to strong arm him by removing him from the committee immediately after as punishment. So he voted no.

Try again next session. Should be easier since they've done all the planning this time. Maybe don't alienate your allies next time.

[–] xyzzy@lemmy.today 12 points 2 days ago

Still too many

[–] xyzzy@lemmy.today 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This is an .ml take. There are many, many writings where they opposed specific policies now undertaken by the Trump regime. You can start with the Declaration of Independence if you'd like.

Regardless, they're dead and we're not. Governments are for the living. (That's something they thought too, by the way.)

[–] xyzzy@lemmy.today 5 points 2 days ago

2 is right, but the reasons aren't for aggrandizement (at least, not mainly). It's for more power and the legitimacy of that power.

But it seems that they don't need to convene a convention if the Supreme Court and Congress can simply allow Trump to ignore laws with impunity.

[–] xyzzy@lemmy.today 99 points 2 days ago (4 children)

To echo another commenter, this article is a harrowing read—particularly the litany of reasons for declaring independence:

The Declaration pronounces these rights to be so important that it’s worth overthrowing a government over them. But one should not undertake revolution against a tyrannical government lightly, the Declaration says, going on to provide a massive litany of complaints as justification. In modern times, the full list was considered to be the boring part of this document, lacking the vim and vigor of “we hold these truths to be self-evident” and other such bars from the preamble. But this year, it’s become a… bracing read.

Listed among the reasons to boot the British monarch are:

  • “transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences”
  • “Obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither”
  • “erect[ing] a multitude of New Offices, and sen[ding] hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people”
  • keeping “among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures”
  • attempting “to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.”
  • “cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world”
  • “depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury”
  • “excit[ing] domestic insurrections amongst us”

This was visceral:

As Donald Trump’s imperial presidency rolls forward across the wreckage of Congress on tank treads greased by the Supreme Court...

And it ends with this:

The Declaration of Independence has some notes about “the Right of the People to alter or to abolish” its existing government “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.”

But that was another time, right? Surely nobody wants to take the Founding Fathers’ original words literally. Their original meaning and original intent can’t just be superimposed on American life today, not when American values are very different from the values of 1776. In Trump’s America, the national ethos is simply a boot on your neck, forever.

[–] xyzzy@lemmy.today 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

A June 27 poll from the Democratic group Priorities USA finds that an astonishing 48% of Americans haven’t heard about Trump’s landmark legislation. [...]

The Priorities USA poll found that only 8% of Americans could name Medicaid cuts as a detail of the bill. [...]

Although Democratic opposition isn’t surprising, KFF also found that 71% of independents and 27% of “MAGA Republicans” objected to it too [when informed about it].

Also

A March poll by the liberal group Data for Progress found that 44% of left-leaning voters would give the party a “D” or “F” grade for its handling of Trump. And support among the broader electorate isn’t any better. In April, Gallup found that confidence in Democratic congressional leadership had fallen to 25%—an all-time low.

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