ProfessorPlum
ProfessorPlum's JournalFor years, thousands of people begged our politicians to get money out of politics
As everything moved to give people with the most money the most power: Citizens United, failed election finance reform, failed efforts to address wealth inequality.
And the responses to those pleas were either GOP: "Corruption is good, actually. Rich people are smart and moral" or Democratic: "We can just be a Little Corrupt without being Monstrously Corrupt, so shut up".
And now, here we are at the logical conclusion of money= political power. A drug-addled manchild, who once wrote some code for a website that became popular and then used his money and lies to give himself more and more power, is now our King. He can do whatever he wants, and what he wants is to destroy our government that so many have fought and died for. To help out his Russian oligarch boss Putin.
THIS is the fruit of letting money = speech and power. It was always going to end this way.
A helpful guide for Making It Make Sense
Since Vladimir Putin is now in charge of the US, if anything Trump or his administration does seems frightening, weird, illegal, counterproductive, or horrible, just remember that it is what Putin wants.
What would Putin do? Is the operative question. Since Putin wants his global rival America to be weak, impoverished, sick, fighting against itself, broke, and increasingly under his control, Trump and his administration will do the things that bring about those results.
This will hopefully help allay any confusion. Trump does something that doesn't Make America Great Again - or something that doesn't help the GOP electorally, or doesn't make the world a better place, even for rich white guys? Trump does something that diminishes his own power, like dismantling the federal government that he is in charge of? Don't be confused or surprised - it is what Putin wants for America that matters now.
We are essentially an occupied country, just by proxy. All of these easily blackmailed department heads, etc., just make the takeover easier for Vlad.
The Shock Doctrine comes (inevitably, apparently) to the US
it's becoming clear that the trump administration plans to "shock doctrine" the US. This is probably a good time to read the Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein - or at least and especially the last chapter, which is about surviving, fighting, and organizing against Shock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine
Democratic politicians need to act like they are trying to win popularity contests by being populists
not "obeying the norms" contests. Not "sanity" contests. Not "adult" contests.
Popularity contests. FDR wasn't a flaming radical - but he knew how to cast himself in the hero's role and ally himself with normal people.
Copy that just a little bit. I don't know why this needs to be spelled out. Even the precious donors should be able to understand that elections need to be won before anything good happens.
America's political systems, law enforcement systems, security agencies, parties, voters etc. have all failed massively
with regard to Donald J. Trump, who is both a consumer of tv culture and a symptom of tv culture, and in every case they have failed massively in his favor. Everyone from Democrats, to Republicans, to every agency, to the supreme court, to the benighted voters, to the complacent and complicit media, have laid down to this fucking fool, this rapist pedophile insurrectionist fascist racist piece of shit.
If you want to blame M. Garland, or McConnell, or Biden, or Obama, or whoever, it doesn't matter, this demon has glided through life forcing himself on everyone in his path, with zero consequences. As if he were the fabled Antichrist.
And now, the USA become a (n even more) corrupt oligarchy like the Russian state, with no visible or viable path back to democratic control, ruled by corrupt cronies who won't hesitate to use the vast killing machine we've built even on our own allies and our own citizens.
What a fucking debacle, and dishonor on everyone involved. Holy christ.
What if the death machines that health insurance companies build were visible
Imagine a movie where a rich guy and a bunch of helpers build a big metal robot. The robot roams the streets and if it detects a sick person it shakes them down for all of their money and valuables and then rips their head off. Then brings the money back to the rich guy.
One reason we allow health insurance companies to get away with what they do is that their machines are largely invisible.
Another scene from the movie:
politicians saying "we can't stop the murderous thieving robot executioner. what about the jobs of all of the technicians that keep it working?"
The Deafening Silence on the coming Corruption
Americans, in their benighted apathy, have re-elected the most corrupt president in our lifetimes. We have a few months before he is inaugurated and The Theft begins, where Trump takes the hard-earned taxpayers money and starts shoveling directly into his pockets.
All of the people in charge of our nation - politicial leaders, media leaders, law enforcement - seem to be OK with that and willing to just let it happen.
NO ONE is warning Trump and all of his kleptocratic allies that if they are caught ripping off, defrauding, embezzling, stealing from government - OUR MONEY - that they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Why do you think that is? Do all of the powers-that-be think that the rule of law is just over in the US? That we should never hope for any justice at all? That all lawbreaking is now just allowed, because the GOP is above all accountability.
It seems that way.
It makes sense that The Insurance Adjuster comes from a privileged background
prep school, ivy league college, rich influential family, good job, young, athletic, smart.
Most Americans are not taught to stand up for ourselves. We take whatever crumbs the government and corporations choose to drop for us and never stand up and demand what we actually want and need - living wages, healthcare for all, affordable education. We are taught that there is nothing we can do about any of that, because the system is obviously corrupt and just drains us for the value of our labor and throws us away once they have wrung the life out of us.
But this guy comes from a background that had given him every advantage and was doing well in life. He hurt his back in a surfing accident (in Hawaii?) and suddenly found out that UnitedHealthCare was just going to let him suffer in pain for the rest of his life (or at least for the next few decades). This was not what he was used to. This injustice was for other people, not someone like him. He'd been playing the game of life on the easy setting - yes, taking advantage of the opportunities he was given, but what opportunities! - and now suddenly he was facing an injustice that all of his privilege couldn't solve.
For a person like that, who is self-actuated and taught that life should be fair, it makes sense that he took action. He didn't know, like the rest of us, that life in the US is unfair and cruel and the rest of us just put up with it. And so, he didn't.
Can the government take away citizenship? What does that mean? Doesn't it make us all vulnerable?
I keep hearing Trump talking about taking away birthright citizenship - but is that even possible? Is there a precedent? I would think that one of the rights of US citizenship is to not have it stolen from you - especially without some kind of due process.
But once your citizenship is revoked, you lose all of the other rights you are supposed to have as a citizen - rights against search and seizure, cruel punishment, self-incrimination, etc.
If we let Trump declare that a bunch of our fellow citizens are suddenly stripped of their citizenship, it makes us all vulnerable to having the government just declare us un-persons and do whatever they want with us.
Kash Patel at the FBI is why Biden absolutely needed to pardon Hunter. That guy is a lunatic and has it out for him.
Joe's pardon of Hunter is way overdue. Presidents all use/abuse their pardon power, and thinking that H.B. should have to put up with this sham of a prosecution over bullshit charges was ridiculous to begin with, but ok, Biden was willing to put up with it in a bid to support the rule of law, etc.
But Patel will absolutely politicize domestic federal law enforcement and investigation, and no one should have to put up with that shit. In that light, the pardon is not only understandable but absolutely necessary.
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Member since: 2001Number of posts: 11,461