American Politics from 2019 on

[Tero]

"Washington Post" roster of columnists and include the latest by Fareed Zakaria. The headline reads, "Trump flouts the rules. What happened to our checks and balances?"

"Steven Levitsky, one of the foremost scholars of democratic collapse and co-author of “How Democracies Die,” told me that perhaps the most important reason for the institutional decay is that America has been so successful over the years that it has never seen the need to change. It’s a truism in business and life that one rarely learns from success, only from failure. And America has won the Cold War, pioneered the information revolution and continues to stand atop the world by many material measures — so we don’t see the need to examine our own system, consider its flaws and improve it. “American exceptionalism has blinded us to weaknesses in our constitutional and political system,” Levitsky said."

"Alongside this lack of introspection, Levitsky described as crucial the failure of leadership. “We have no memory of democratic collapse or authoritarian rule,” he noted. “In places like Poland and Brazil, generations know what it is like to have lost the rule of law and constitutional safeguards. But Republican leaders, business leaders, Supreme Court justices don’t seem to think that we could actually watch democracy decay and even die. This is America, they seem to think. We’re different.” That failure of imagination is creating a complacency that might prove deadly."

WP

[Tero]

marco.foster
7h
Pete Buttigieg: “Things are probably going to get worse before they get better. And yet I’m optimistic. Because things have reached the point where we will have to fashion something entirely new”


lavaskie
7h
He is spot on! This is an opportunity to shake this whole country up for the better. That means, free healthcare, increased minimum wage to a livable wage, some type of reparations for African Americans, some form of assistance for childcare, a program for free lunch for kids during the summer, a crackdown on the Dept of Agriculture for equality for ALL FARMERS, living space for homeless people and a premium on healthcare for our Veterans. Oh and lastly, take lobbyists out of politics!

ash_carmich
7h
He is so right. After this nightmare, this country needs to re-examine a lot of the ways we do things. More protected rights for all people. New and better ways to run the government. It’s time to go forward.

[Brian Peacock]

Cope not hope.

[Sean Hayden]

That’s not optimism, it’s insanity. From the ashes we’re going to get free healthcare, a living wage, equal rights, oh my! —sigh, completely backwards.. Those things were supposed to be built using our success, from the momentum we thought we had. But it didn’t happen. Still, now, in Trump’s America we’re on the verge of a major restructuring in our favor… Nah, we’re much more likely to experience a complete failure. The only people about to win are criminals.

[Tero]

Post

Because Democrats have been part of what governement does for so long, there is always some weird suspicion that independent voters have. "We must punish Harris for hiding senile Biden. Therefore we vote Trump, he can't be worse than 2016." That was it? That was all your thinking? What exactly have Democrats ever done to you? Nobody made you take a vaccination unless you were in the military. We gave you Affordable Healthcare, soon gone.

see if it gets people I have to block
https://www.threads.com/@tero55jarvi/po ... Ipzb76TfIg

[Brian Peacock]

Do these random people really think their 'observations' are winning and changing the political landscape?

[Tero]

Do these random people really think their 'observations' are winning and changing the political landscape?

It's difficult to have any political landscape. There is so little in a vote that has anything to do with politics. They simplify it to "they are eating our cats and dogs." From there the person looking at the post on Twitter or Threads or any media hears only the words "they" and "our." The typical voter votes and then votes 4 years later. They have no idea what happened in between. If they lost a job, they vote for the other party. If not, the same idiots as last time.

[Tero]

As far as social media, they are what they are. The morectrivial the matter, the more it will spread. My Threads post on King Charles failing to use Windsor knot at Windsor castle was seen 500 000 times.

[L'Emmerdeur]

'I see you do excellent work. Unfortunately for you I consider pride flags to be a political statement. You had one on your desk a while back, so we're letting you go.'

'Kash Patel fires FBI agent trainee for displaying gay pride flag'

FBI Director Kash Patel on Wednesday fired an agent in training for displaying a gay pride flag on his desk while appointed to a field office in California last year, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The trainee, who previously worked as an FBI support specialist in Los Angeles, received a letter — dated Oct. 1 and signed by Patel — claiming he had displayed an improper “political” message in the workplace during his assignment in California under President Joe Biden, according to a copy of the letter shared with MSNBC.

The letter cited President Donald Trump’s Article II powers under the Constitution to dismiss federal agency career personnel, a justification used in several recent firings at the Department of Justice and FBI. The terminations are currently being challenged in several lawsuits.

...

The agent trainee, who had most recently been assigned to the FBI Academy in Quantico, won an Attorney General’s Award in 2022 in recognition of his work, according to a Justice Department news release.

News of the trainee’s firing spurred some agents in the FBI’s Washington field office to scour their work stations and social media accounts for signs or comments — anything that could be viewed as offensive to Trump, his top appointees and MAGA supporters, according to one person familiar with the reaction within the government.

[JimC]

Straight white men are the only possible saviours of Amerikka...

[pErvinalia]

The government would get the shit sued out of itself if it did that in Australia.

[Brian Peacock]

Hope the colleague who ratted on them gets that promotion.

[Svartalf]

Straight white men are the only possible saviours of Amerikka...

gay white men are better warriors, ask the greek

[Svartalf]

The government would get the shit sued out of itself if it did that in Australia.

well, AFAICT, it would also in the US, except thatSauron frump is protected from the consequences of any acts of his or his administration by his enslaved Nazgûl

[Tero]

We have a gov't center that issues passports, visas etc. It is a regional office that had up to 1000 people.
https://www.klkntv.com/lincoln-immigrat ... f-layoffs/
outside contractors are gone. We don't need immigrants anymore.