Ha ha ha, democracy, sure.

I’m pretty sure that Melania doesn’t issue statements at all. She just licenses her likeness to the campaign for use in specific instances.

Boycotts are speech. Calling for boycotts is speech. I’ve been told by every corporate leader and the Supreme Court that spending money is a form of speech. I would think that a free speech advocate would appreciate these things. Of course, like all outspoken libertarians, Musk’s positions are not well considered, consistent, nor actually libertarian when it doesn’t suit his own business or ideological* interests. This dude sucks at everything he does and his success perfectly demonstrates the fallacy of meritocracy in this society.

• usually racist

I am as enthusiastic about replacing Biden as the nominee as anyone for so many reasons. But could the press devote just a portion of the attention currently covering the ‘oh look, Joe farted!’ beat to dissecting the pathologically misleading, violent and un-American rhetoric broadcasting at full volume from nearly every Republican party orifice every day? Like, the stakes are really high here. If not for the sake of our democracy, then just cover their fascism from a pure self-preservation point of view. And when I say ‘self preservation’, I don’t just mean preserving their press careers (which are absolutely in danger if authoritarian fascists take full control). I’m talking about preserving their very lives since reporters tend to be pretty big targets for violence in fascist states. Wake up, this isn’t just some horse race media cycle bullshit people.

Remember that these despots’ views are really unpopular. That’s why the constantly feel the need to lie to and misdirect their supporters. It’s also why their success depends on their ability to undermine the notion of popular democracy. Their biggest enemy is an aware populace. We should never let them get away with it. Expose them, confront them, shame them, and do it over and over until they crawl back into their holes. Fascists deserve no refuge or respite.

I’d love to confront an otherwise normal, conventionally Republican voter who is planning to vote for this shit. I’m sure some of my coworkers or neighbors or acquaintances fall into this category. However, I see no outward projection about their support of this garbage. I assume that they must be ashamed to advertise what garbage views they have or at the very least have no confidence that they could defend such positions when confronted. Again, I’m just assuming their presence in my immediate social vicinity given all the polling. I of course can see the nut job on the corner with adrenachrome signs, but that asshole isn’t representative of most Republicans. Fucking cowards, the lot of them. Ignorant, self-hating cowards.

I promise you that trump and the Christo-fascist movement that he represents will be very creative and forceful wielding this power. For Biden and the Democratic leadership to asymmetrically disarm is yet another example of why the fascists keep advancing despite being unpopular on nearly every issue. The allegiance to decorum and gentlemanly procedure is killing us. Remember when Obama just let them steal a Supreme Court seat, without any fight at all? Hell, remember when Gore just cowardly backed down and ceded his win for the good of the country? I’ll say it again. Every bit of awfulness that Republican authoritarians are successfully persecuting is actively enabled by a pathologically cowardly, ineffective Democratic Party. Biden is exactly the wrong leader for this moment in history.

I finally understand what ‘make America great again’ means. The America they are trying to return us to is the one where we had a king.

I’m sure trump’s funeral will get great ratings. Can someone let him know that?

Earlier today I was writing about how we are in a full blown constitutional crisis now. Then I realized that we aren’t. The crisis is over and the Supreme Court chose to abandon the constitution. The crisis was happening before this decision was made, but very few people were aware or alarmed about it. We are now in a state where I doubt there’s any legal recourse. We’ve moved on to another stage and that terrifies me.

Exactly this. It’s critically important that we prevent trump and his fascist goons from getting control of this power. But that in itself doesn’t address the really big problem here. Living at the whim of a benevolent king is still living under a king. I honestly think this is it. The constitutional republic is over in every meaningful way beyond window dressing. Given the authority of the Supreme Court, I don’t see a legal fix for this. This is dark AF.

I get it. This is how government functions according to the constitution. Please understand however, under this new interpretation there is no effective legal check on the executive doing anything at all. Yes, it’s not official for the president to do that, but there is no enforcement mechanism, and the president now has authority to coerce anyone or any institution. I know it is difficult to grasp the implications of that, but that is in fact what the Supreme Court did today.

Like, why even bother with the election at all? Biden can just not participate in it, and stay in power as long as he does it as an official act. The Supreme Court just ruled that he’s allowed to do that.

You are confusing the United States that existed until this decision with the United States that exists after this decision. As long as it’s an official act, the president can now do whatever it wants. If the supremes court objects, the president and threaten or assassinate the justices as long as it’s an official act. The President is now effectively a king. Read Sotomayor’s dissent in this decision. She explicitly states this.

Sotomayor’s written dissent explicitly says that this decision makes the US President a king that and can now act with impunity. This is effectively the end of the republic as described by the constitution.

Some in this thread think that ‘chaos’ would emerge if the party replaced Biden and that would hurt the party’s chance of defeating trump. You are correct that there would be a media frenzy, and weeks of exhaustive, drama chasing coverage. It would absolutely dominate the media narrative, and be pounded into the entire voting population’s psyche. You know what else? That would be a wonderful, wonderful thing. It would totally disarm trump’s ability to drive the media narrative for much of the rest of the election. Whatever deficit that exists of national awareness for the new candidate would be erased very quickly. That candidate would be gifted months of desperate, free, media coverage. It’s actually a great strategy. That being the case, I’m sure the DNC and the party elders will never attempt something so obviously effective since they are terrible at politics and their cowardly approaches to both campaigns and governing are ultimately the reason our democracy is in such an existential crisis to begin with.

And…the rest of us have to pay the price of his hubris. Just like we’re paying the price for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s hubris. And Feinstein’s hubris. And Hillary’s hubris.

The Republicans are pure, self-interested evil. But, all of consequences of their awfulness is actively fueled by the Democratic Party’s unwillingness to mount a meaningful opposition.

The only silver lining to Biden’s pathetic display yesterday, is the prospect that this moment may represent the last few stammering gasps of boomer domination in the US. Thanks for the music and the computers, now get the fuck out of the way so younger people can start cleaning up the mess you made.

Ok, sounds like the Supreme Court is just sorta all-in on institutional corruption. Got it.

I had very modest needs for Windows. It was not my primary computing device, but there was one application that I ran on an older laptop all the time. All the recent drama pushed me to investigate a bit and I learned that the app is also on Linux. I was able to wipe and install Linux Mint easily despite not really knowing much about either OS. There are a lot of guides on youtube about the process that helped make it easy. Laptop is running well so far. I’m also using this as as a test to see if I can replace much of my Apple stuff with Linux as those devices start to age out. Thanks for the little push Microsoft.