In the US, if you have money and power, you can get away with anything. Land of the free (If you're rich).
politics
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Since finding this 17 year old song linked somewhere on the fediverse awhile back I continue to be amazed how it just gets right to the root of nearly every problem we have. Start to finish, if you are angry at the current state of things (and not a maga), pretty good chance this song nails it for you.
Welcome to the United Snakes
Land of the thief home of the slave
The grand imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is God
(and it turned me into a bit of a Brother Ali fan)
Thank you for sharing this song. It really hits hard right now
It's bad enough libs blame voters for their crappy genocidal candidates...
But now voters are responsible for the completely disgusting punishment system?
What will they blame voters for next?
Voters literally are to blame. Even if you're of the opinion that voters that stayed home bear no responsibility, those who voted for Trump absolutely do. No democratic system can protect itself from its own voters.
Those who couldn't be bothered to vote against him are also very much to blame.
Next they'll blame voters for the rise in suicide bombings of CEOs
For the report it links to WaPo which is behind a paywall (and shit). I get annoyed by articles that don't link the full thing that they are discussing.
If you want to read the full report then here is an article that links to it.
Alternatively: direct link to report
Democrats and blaming voters name a better combination.
In a democracy, voters are responsible for who gets elected.
Where's the democracy?
Wherever people get the candidate they voted for.
Wrong. His LIES, Russia, China, Iran, nutcases and the corrupt Republican party save him.
And about 10mil white/hispanic men who stayed home despite voting for a democrat in the last election.
The fact that they didn't secure a conviction for four years tells you all you need to know. Complete sham. Guilty as sin, but they wouldn't put him in jail.
To be fair, that was not jack smith's fault. He did his job exactly as well as he was allowed. Blame the system, but in this instance, do not blame the man.
It's his fault for devoting his life to a disgusting system of punishment for the poor.
God stfu. Him getting elected means nothing. He was getting away with everything either way
True, if anything he somehow would have dragged everything out until he was bed-ridden at which point he would have gotten house arrest which is laughable considering the size of his mansions.
This is insane, it shouldn't matter, he did the crimes. I hate this country
We don't elect presidents anymore. We elect short(-ish) term kings
short(-ish) term
That's optimistic.
Fat fuck will be dead inside of 4 years.
~~That’s missing the point.~~ He’s an authoritarian and will destroy everything with what time he has left.
Your point is orthogonal to the comment to which I replied. Not that I disagree.
You’re right.
I think there is some deeply cynical logic, or a horrifying game of chicken, being played by Democratic leaders here.
Let's say Jack Smith is given the go-ahead to investigate and prosecute Trump as fast as he possibly could (while building a bullet-proof case for conviction). With all the legal resources (not to mention Republican-friendly judges) available for Trump to leverage, it's safe to say that Smith certainly would not have been able to complete a full trial and secure a conviction before the 2024 election. But perhaps one could have been under-way.
A Trump trial for election interference in the middle of 2024 would have been a galvanizing force for his base, and likely cause his popularity among like-minded folks to surge and likely help his polling numbers. After all, conservatives love their persecution complexes and already live in a hazy fantasy world where their guy can do no wrong. So this doesn't help Democrats.
If Trump were to be acquitted, this would obviously be credibility kryptonite for Democrats, so that's a bad outcome. And if Trump were to be convicted, I believe there is genuine concern among top Democrats that all the armed crazies (including those in the police, government positions and military) might do a real insurrection this time as opposed to the world's shittiest flash mob.
So what's a cynical Democratic operator to do? Have Smith slow-walk the investigation and take his time to make it immaculate. Have the election without using litigation to get in Trump's way and hope that people don't make a shitty choice. If they do, they'll get what they paid for: another four years of ridiculous chaos. These would represent setbacks and lost ground for Democratic causes, but their patrons will figure out how to make it profitable in the meantime and be there to fund a comeback when the American people become exhausted by the bullshit. Let him burn himself out in the spotlight, further expose himself as a corrupt fool, letting his support curdle naturally rather than fighting him and his supporters at their strongest.
This scenario presumes several deeply horrifying and risky ideas:
-
No one who matters will get hurt in the next four years. Are you rich? Are you a middle-class cis-het-white person? Do you not live in Palestine, Ukraine or Taiwan? You'll ride this out. The poor and the queers have nowhere else to turn, so they'll eat shit and be right back on the Democrat's side next time around (unless they have money, of course).
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Trump and his cronies will be too inept to dismantle American democracy before the next election.
I'm no card player, but this all seems like a terrible gamble to me.
Or, do the right thing and prosecute him, even if it's bad for them politically.
Now it's terrible for them politically and terrible for the country and the world.
The first half here doesn't really track because Trump's numbers didn't really change. He had a similar amount of voters as usual, and the Democrats came up short. I don't think there could have been a substantial boost for him, his people are solid regardless of whatever he says or goes through.
The second half, yeah that makes sense, but now we see happens when Democrats "play by the rules" or try to play it safe... They lose. It's less about trump and more that they didn't capture voters. We needed Kamala to distance herself from Biden but she wanted to be "nice". People are struggling, no one feels the economy is great, they left progressives behind, and here we are now. Even if progressives are only 10-20% of the party, you NEED them to win
I hate this timeline.
And by “voters” he means democratic city polling place bomb threats, Elon Musk & Starlink, and a 2 year Merrick Garland delay.
The fact Biden didn't reinstate Sally Yates is all I need to know to hate the guy forever.
...and yet there won't be thousands of people protesting his inauguration or anything the fuck else.
The people in this country have been broken, and now they're just gonna lay over and take it.
We're a long way from February 15th, 2003.
Face it, American citizens, we're fucking cooked.
An effective protest requires a call to action. What would the call to action for his inauguration protest be?
A protest without a backing of a threat of violence if demands are not met is just a fitness walk.