The number of true facts is effectively infinite. The number of facts that fit in an article is limited. The choice of which facts are relevant and worth mentioning is subjective. The framing around those facts is, too.
This whole passive "news just IS, it just sort of happens" line wears thin.
sort of a side note but it's vaguely offensive how low quality our enemies are as individuals. "i'll publish a piece in the paper of record that says i don't vote, no one will check the publicly available information about that." bottom of the barrel stuff here
Honestly still in shock that the most crooked American President in history said "I need immunity" and the GOP Supreme Court said "well, it's nowhere in the constitution, but sure, why not? Whats the worst that could happen?"
ordering the release of every tax return ever filed by current Supreme Court justices and their spouses
ordering IRS audits of the same
crowd-sourcing any undeclared sources of income or gifts
ordering the DOJ to vigorously prosecute any hint of tax evasion or evidence of bribery revealed
Henry II: "Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?"
General Counsel: "We interpret the King's query as an official act of his office, and therefore immune from persecution"
a thing to remember, in all of this horror, is that these are not the actions of a political party that is confident it represents the will of the people, and who is currently out of power and enslaved to a deeply flawed avatar. the struggle is not over and they have not won
i have so much boundless contempt for these pathetic white men, who were blessed enough to be born in one of the few attempts at multiracial democracy in the world, and who panic at being no more valued than anyone else to the extent that they'd blow it all up and go back to divine right of kings
A country where a minority of voters can elect a president with king-like authority and impunity and federal agencies that lack the power to do any of the things they are meant to do if big rich companies say they don't like it. Culmination shit for the right wing project.
In a lot of ways the entire Republican establishment since the 70s has been dedicated to making sure that what happened to Nixon would never be allowed to happen to one of theirs again
john yoo understood better than most that even a frivolous constitutional argument is all the permission the right needs to pursue its autocratic ambitions and the legal establishment still hasn't come up with a good response
just finished gary wills’ “Bomb Power” and the chapters on the dubya administration are a good reminder of a) the horror show of those years and b) the remarkable fact that in an administration of degenerates, john yoo stands apart as the absolute worst
Yeah it’s not like we’ll see a repeat of 1968, when the Democrats downshifted to a Vice President at a convention in Chicago that was plagued by protests against the party’s support for an unpopular foreign war and wound up creating an opening for a candidate they’d beat before.
Totally different!
YES THAT WORKED SO WELL AND DID NOT AT ALL THROW THE PARTY INTO A DIVISIVE NOMINATION CONTEST AND LOST ELECTION THAT WOULD HAUNT IT FOR THE NEXT HALF CENTURY
I can’t believe that under a system that awards unlimited power to unlimited capital, and unlimited capital to those most willing to exploit others, the side that capital favors more is pure evil and achieves its most despicable aims, and the side that capital favors less is foundering beyond parody
Pensioners recoil at being called benefits claimants but the truth is that there is not only nothing shameful in being a benefits claimant, but it in fact shows that even the very grubby neoliberal state has agreed that you have suffered enough to be entitled to compensation.
the 9th Circuit never said that you can’t, e.g., bust up homeless encampments. They just said that before you do, you need to provide shelter beds, otherwise you’re just being punitive and cruel. An extremely basic a call for decency, but many West Coast city leaders were outraged
It was a radicalising experience, in that from then on I really do think that anyone who starts from a less radical perspective on borders than "they are always better open than closed" is an ignorant fuck.
Clarence Thomas the last 20 years:
2005 - Chevron is correct
2005-2024 - receives $4 million in secret gifts from real estate developers and polluters and other right-wingers who’ve made reversing Chevron one of their highest priorities
2024 - Chevron is wrong
This is beyond the normalization of publications like the Times at the time. But the Times specifically was wrong on Hitler, wrong on MLK Jr, wrong on Ida B Wells, wrong on the famine in ukraine, wrong on weapons of mass destruction. Being wrong somehow isn't disqualifying.
To me this reads as “the responsible circuits should use stare decisis to uphold prior rulings, the 5th will do their 5th circuit thing, and we’ll take up and do whatever we want when ‘circuit splits’ arise”
Reminder that there are five ways to address the current SCOTUS problem.
1. Impeach some justices
2. Impose term limits
3. Expand the courts
4. Pass legislation limiting court prerogatives
5. Keep winning the presidency for the next 16 years or so while periodically also holding the senate.
The Overton window has shifted so far that SIX members of the Court are ow willing to scrap Chevron, something even Scalia would not have done. Here is Scalia defending it in 1989 (before affirming it again as recently as 2013 in Arlington v FCC): biotech.law.lsu.edu/blog/Judicia...
I guess the sad thing about all this is the realization that not only is the media not a defense against fascism but with its current incentive structures in 2024 is actively helping to usher it in
