SCOTUS: No longer content with stacking, they're now dealing from the bottom of the deck

[LadySkinsFan]

6 minutes ago, NoCalMike said:

 

I think it's reasonable to point to the fact that money in the system is a big issue, and that a lot of big money is spent on interests that directly go against the interests of the masses.  

 

It would be different if Roe being overturned happened in some kind of vacuum where it wasn't a bigger indictment on the system itself and how a judge even gets to SCOTUS in the first place.

 

We may not be in a full-on oligarchy right now, but the influence of the wealthy's money on the system is hard to deny, especially after some of the SCOTUS's rulings in the last 20 years.

 

Citizens United decision that ruled that inanimate corporations are classified as persons with the same rights was the downfall into oligarchy, plus not passing election contributions. I suggested limiting dollar amounts, contributions only by humans, and only those candidates directly in someone's election sections, and campaign ads limited and equal for the opposing candidates. 

 

The corporations and the wealthy that control our electoral system won't go along with the above.

[Renegade7]

1 minute ago, tshile said:

Yes when you get to pick your candidate and your candidate loses - that’s sort of what happens. 
 

 

So the amount of propaganda, even coming from overseas, had no impact on that election?

 

1 minute ago, tshile said:

Lack of voting in non-presidential years. Lack of primary participation. Lack of time spent learning about any of it. What about local participation? People know who their school board members are? Town councils?

 

At a time when states are going out of there way to disenfranchise voters and GOP refuses any changes to help with increasing voter turnout?  You really want to put the blame jus on the general population?

 

Not to mention it is next to impossible to get any differentiation on local elections the smaller they are. I've tried, especially for school board in Hampton Roads and now back in NOVA.

 

1 minute ago, tshile said:

People know about tv series and movies and video games and what the point spread in (and what it should be). 
 

but they don’t seem to know a lot about their government. 
 

it’s a choice. People have clearly shown the ability to pay attention and consume information. 
 

they’ve also shown which information it is they’re interesting in spending time on. And which ones they aren’t. 

 

I've noted how limited that information is the smaller the local election is, and we've discussed ad naesuim the impact of information being ingested that isn't fn true.  The lately is completely out of control right now and the impact is obvious to anyone that isn't trying to deny it.

[PokerPacker]

26 minutes ago, PeterMP said:

We are dumb by choice

We are dumb by nature of the human condition.  This is true of every country in the world.  The difference comes in what safeguards are in place to prevent the exploitation, and how long the morally corrupt have had to find their hold to twist things and tilt the scales in their favor.

[hail2skins]

I was reading the last few posts in this thread and came across this Tom Nichols mini-tweetstorm within the past hour and it relates:

 

 

[tshile]

1 hour ago, Renegade7 said:

 

So the amount of propaganda, even coming from overseas, had no impact on that election?

 

don’t believe I’ve ever said such a thing. 
 

I do believe being informed is the best way to combat it. 

 

1 hour ago, Renegade7 said:

 

At a time when states are going out of there way to disenfranchise voters and GOP refuses any changes to help with increasing voter turnout?  You really want to put the blame jus on the general population?

 

are we going to pretend this problem just started?

 

been going on for a while. Yeah - they’re out in power by voters. 
 

 

1 hour ago, Renegade7 said:

Not to mention it is next to impossible to get any differentiation on local elections the smaller they are. I've tried, especially for school board in Hampton Roads and now back in NOVA.

 

 

I've noted how limited that information is the smaller the local election is, and we've discussed ad naesuim the impact of information being ingested that isn't fn true.  The lately is completely out of control right now and the impact is obvious to anyone that isn't trying to deny it.

you see helpless people being controlled by misinformation 

 

I see fools not putting any effort in 

[tshile]

I had a guess (and I was not alone) when the draft of the Roe ruling leaked, that it was entirely possible it was done by conservatives to soften the outrage

 

I’m not saying there isn’t outrage but what I’ve seen is softer than I would have thought. Not that I condone it but I would have expected violent protest. 
 

i think it makes sense conservatives leaked it for that purpose. And that it worked. 
 

(although softening the immediate outrage doesn’t mean it does anything for midterms or future elections - that’s solely in the dem’s hands)

 

[China]

2 minutes ago, tshile said:

 

(although softening the immediate outrage doesn’t mean it does anything for midterms or future elections - that’s solely in the dem’s hands)

 

 

Yeah, if the dems don't use this to motivate voters for the midterms, then they've failed.

[tshile]

15 minutes ago, China said:

 

Yeah, if the dems don't use this to motivate voters for the midterms, then they've failed.

They are gunning for contraception…

 

who is like **** yeah I want sex with my wife to be dicey again. accidentally having 6 kids sounds ****ing awesome. 

if you can’t win running against that then lol what is wrong with you 

 

seems like there’d be mass appeal against that. As in everyone who is not practicing a religion strictly against it. 
 

Make sex great again

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by tshile

[Cooked Crack]

On 6/24/2022 at 3:20 PM, The Evil Genius said:

Susan Collins is concerned. 

 

 

 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/politics/football-coach-prayer-high-school-supreme-court-kennedy/index.html
 

 

I think a person should be able to pray to his god after a game if it makes him feel better, I don’t see this as a separation of government and religion issue. He wasn’t forcing his players to participate.

[PeterMP]

8 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/politics/football-coach-prayer-high-school-supreme-court-kennedy/index.html
 

 

I think a person should be able to pray to his god after a game if it makes him feel better, I don’t see this as a separation of government and religion issue. He wasn’t forcing his players to participate.

 

This I disagree with.  It isn't like he does a quick little silent prayer from what I understand.  He goes out to the middle of the field and kneels, does it out aloud, and it sounds like a large number of players have joined him.  

 

He's not praying (“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.  But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."), he's evangelizing at a school sponsored event as a person in a position of authority at the school.  

 

There's no way people don't feel pressured to join him.

 

And evangelizing should be against the rules.

 

(And any real Christian knows the difference between praying and evangelizing.)

Edited June 27, 2022 by PeterMP

[CousinsCowgirl84]

The news article makes it sound like he was praying to himself.

[Llevron]

12 hours ago, China said:

 

Yeah, if the dems don't use this to motivate voters for the midterms, then they've failed.

 

There is no hope for their current leadership if they cant take advantage of this. 

12 hours ago, tshile said:

 

Make sex great again

 

 

See...i would be ignorant enough to run some **** like this and lose because of it 

[Cooked Crack]

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by Cooked Crack

[Ball Security]

54 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

The news article makes it sound like he was praying to himself.

This is from the article you posted…
 

But, Katskee said, that is not what Kennedy had engaged in. Instead, Katskee argued, Kennedy “insisted on audible prayers at the 50-yard line with students … (and) announced in the press that those prayers are how he helps these kids be better people.”

[Hersh]

No public school employee should be leading prayers. 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

2 minutes ago, Ball Security said:

This is from the article you posted…
 

But, Katskee said, that is not what Kennedy had engaged in. Instead, Katskee argued, Kennedy “insisted on audible prayers at the 50-yard line with students … (and) announced in the press that those prayers are how he helps these kids be better people.”

 

4 minutes ago, Ball Security said:

This is from the article you posted…
 

But, Katskee said, that is not what Kennedy had engaged in. Instead, Katskee argued, Kennedy “insisted on audible prayers at the 50-yard line with students … (and) announced in the press that those prayers are how he helps these kids be better people.”

I think the article was updated since I linked to it.

 

 

for example, I’m pretty sure this excerpt was not in the article when I posted it:

 

‘Audible prayers’ on the field

Kennedy began his prayer ritual soon after he was hired in 2008, but the school district grew concerned when Kennedy’s short, quiet prayers grew in 2015 as players began joining him on the field all while the crowd was still in the stands.

The school district said it never restricted him from offering silent, private prayers, and offered him an alternate place to pray off the football field after games. Kennedy refused the accommodations and was ultimately placed on paid administrative leave and suspended from the program. After the season, he was given a poor performance evaluation.

[Llevron]

They aint even hiding it, because the ones that don't like them already know, and the ones that do don't read anyway. Reminds me of this short story my band director in school had on his door. Basically it said I don't have to lie or hide anything to the negro because they wont read it anyway. Only it didn't say negro. And it was very vile and explicit in how stupid the author thought black people were. But it didn't matter, because they wont read this even if its right in their face. 

 

I approached him about it once laughing about how long it had been up there without him getting in trouble. And he said in the last 3 years since he had it up only 8 people had said anything. Most of them were teachers. **** made me sad but I have never forgotten it and I probably never will. I wish I could find it. I'm pretty sure the entire point of the story was to make people like me think exactly what it did. Its one of the first times I ever read something that stuck with me my entire life. 

 

 

[Dan T.]

 

[Dan T.]

 

[Chew]

This is an older clip about abortion, but man, is it relevant this week.  I could not agree with her more.

 

There's no sensible argument against what she's saying, her point is bulletproof.  

 

 

 

[86 Snyder]

2 hours ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

 

I think the article was updated since I linked to it.

 

 

for example, I’m pretty sure this excerpt was not in the article when I posted it:

 

‘Audible prayers’ on the field

Kennedy began his prayer ritual soon after he was hired in 2008, but the school district grew concerned when Kennedy’s short, quiet prayers grew in 2015 as players began joining him on the field all while the crowd was still in the stands.

The school district said it never restricted him from offering silent, private prayers, and offered him an alternate place to pray off the football field after games. Kennedy refused the accommodations and was ultimately placed on paid administrative leave and suspended from the program. After the season, he was given a poor performance evaluation.

The story definitely has revealed more details than earlier reports indicated.   This has pretty far reaching implications.  Essentially, there’s nothing to stop a teacher from leading class in prayer with this as precedent.  Ridiculous.

[Llevron]

13 minutes ago, Chew said:

There's no sensible argument against what she's saying, her point is bulletproof.  

 

Wanna know where you ****ed up?

 

You should adhere to the Christian values this country was founded on. Oh what's that? The constitution specifically states that no law should be formed respecting an establishment of religion? Well then its murder. Murder bad. What's that? Science? Oh like the dinosaurs and the earth being round?? 

 

That's the problem with her point. 

[China]

Clarence Thomas Says He Would Hear ‘Hate Group’ Appeal, Revisit Libel Law

 

US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas renewed his call to roll back the constitutional protections against defamation lawsuits, saying he would have heard arguments from a Christian ministry labeled an “anti-LGBT hate group” because of its dissemination of sermons condemning homosexuality.

 

The court Monday turned away an appeal from Coral Ridge Ministries Media Inc., which said it was defamed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that monitors organizations it considers to be hate groups. Thomas was the lone justice to say he would have heard the case.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[The Sisko]

 

20 hours ago, PeterMP said:

 

This is false and talking like this makes the situation seem like it worse than it is and (potentially) excuses extreme actions.

 

An oligarchy is not defined who gets the money.  It is defined by who has the power.

 

And you may not like or agree with how a large number of people in this country vote, but they do vote.  And they sometimes vote people out of office.

 

It is easy to adopt an attitude of they don't know what they are doing or they are being manipulated, but there is every reason to believe they are voting based on what is important to them.

 

And on both sides of 

Thanks for your condescension and educating me about this. I just throw **** out there with no idea what it means.🙄 So, given this and your subsequent posts about how all we have to do is vote, please explain how voting fixes corporations being "people" too which leads to a host of rights for them that they shouldn't have. To fix that, you need to fix the garbage SCOTUS. How about Citizens United? Please explain how we fix that with voting. We could potentially replace legislators with voting, but you're right back to the garbage SCOTUS again because they'll just overrule the legislation.

However, that's not exactly oligarchy you say? Well, where do you think the fascist judges came from? The Heritage Foundation, right? So how do we elect the membership there? How about ALEC, which actually writes the legislation that the elected representatives then just sign on to. How do we vote for the people that run ALEC? Fortunately for the fascist legislators, not having to spend time drafting legislation gives them more time to use on more important things like fundraising.

So, when the fascists have an entire network devoted to propaganda and ridiculously rich people like the Koch Bros., Sheldon Adelson, the Publix woman and so on are spending literally billions of dollars on elections, think tanks/lobbying groups like ALEC, the Heritage Foundation, etc. are  you trying to tell us that my little letter or email to my representative makes a difference?

The fact is, the U.S. has been an oligarchy from the beginning with short breaks after certain major events like the Great Depression. After all, the founders set up a system in which only landowning white men could vote, and unpaid, slave labor formed the basis of the economy. The Grand Oligarch's Party is doing its best to essentially re-create the southern aristocracy or, as I call it, Robber Barrons 2.0, and most poor and non-college educated whites are happily willing to go along with it for a variety of reasons like the culture war stuff you mentioned in a later post. However, the oligarchs don't really care much about that stuff. It's typically just used as a way to manipulate their ignorant base. Add the votes and financial support of the Dream Hoarders to the ignorant base and you've got a coalition that is happy to look the other way while wealthy elites rule the country as long as their narrow interests are catered to.

Finally, while the issues I mention above are attributable to the Grand Oligarch's Party, the Dems are only slightly better. They do some complaining and pushing back but when they get power, they rarely if ever do anything to reverse the gains of the other side. Instead, they try to come up with silly accomplishments like the recent toothless gun control legislation to run on. In the end, they too need money to get elected so they're just as beholden to the wealthy. So in the end, they're just a slightly lesser evil than the Grand Oligarch's Party.

 

3 hours ago, Llevron said:

They aint even hiding it, because the ones that don't like them already know, and the ones that do don't read anyway. Reminds me of this short story my band director in school had on his door. Basically it said I don't have to lie or hide anything to the negro because they wont read it anyway. Only it didn't say negro. And it was very vile and explicit in how stupid the author thought black people were. But it didn't matter, because they wont read this even if its right in their face. 

 

I approached him about it once laughing about how long it had been up there without him getting in trouble. And he said in the last 3 years since he had it up only 8 people had said anything. Most of them were teachers. **** made me sad but I have never forgotten it and I probably never will. I wish I could find it. I'm pretty sure the entire point of the story was to make people like me think exactly what it did. Its one of the first times I ever read something that stuck with me my entire life.

The pernicious thing about this moron's reasoning is that it assumes that the only reason someone wouldn't object is that they haven't read the sign. Of course it's impossible that many of them read it and/or heard of it via word of mouth but were afraid to object to it for the obvious reasons. Yay freedom!🙄 Too bad I didn't work there. I'd have made my objections known to him in other ways.