@kentwillard they are, if they continually elect incumbents. turn-taking is non-negotiable if you want any governance system that is not the mere oppression of some factions by others. the US two-term limit is fantastic, or at least it was while Presidents still had to respect it.
@Hyolobrika they've made the President immune from prosecution for any and everything that might colorably be described as an "official act". so, if a President were to unilaterally declare that, due to say a pandemic, any Federal election must be delayed, and orders enforcement of that edict, even if courts agree it would be illegal, he could not be prosecuted, while President, or after (if there is any after). an official act can be illegal still, but the President can't be prosecuted.
@realcaseyrollins our government is doing fine. our Supreme Court has torn away the guard rails that help insist it will continue to do so.
If the Supreme Court has legalized tyranny, is it dumb to risk holding an election and giving their guy the opportunity to indefinitely suspend them when your guy has the scepter and the opportunity now?
This is the kind of dilemma the Supreme Court has just interpreted into the US Constitution.
No windows were broken in the US Capitol. But today was the coup. The rest is just events, unless we dethrone this court and reverse today's madness soon.
"The incredibly cynical and lawless two-step the Republican Party engaged in — Trump shouldn’t be impeached because he can be prosecuted, and he can’t be prosecuted because he could have been impeached — has been enshrined into 'constitutional law.'" #ScottLemieux https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/07/john-roberts-and-the-republicans-on-the-trump-court-massively-fail-the-test-even-warren-burger-was-able-to-pass
@rst i'm fine with it, love the symbolism! but it's unlikely to succeed. remedying Constitutionalized immunity claims will require a Supreme Court reversal (which can happen if we reform the Court!) or an Amendment.
but lots of the shit this court has done can be remedied by statute. Codify Chevron deference as Congressional intent, explicitly ban gratuities.
Can Democrats run on codifying the criminalization of any substantial gratuity to public officials at every level please?
I mean, this stuff is too basic even for Schoolhouse Rock.
who presides over a trial in the Senate subsequent to an impeachment when it's the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who has been impeached?
Plutocracy is an equilibrium.
Once who plutocrats pay determines who gets to be affluent—indirectly of course, via sinecures or lobbyists on "philanthropic research organizations"—politicians have to legalize getting paid (as the Supreme Court just did for "gratuities") or be left behind.
Govt action becomes a market good, like all market goods, subject to appropri8n at will by plutocrats, except when other plutocrats bid in competition.
Plutocrats share an interest in entrenching plutocracy.
"Developing Java Applications with Scala-CLI" #Yadukrishnan https://yadukrishnan.live/developing-java-applications-with-scala-cli
you have to own the mistakes you make even by following someone else's advice.
in ten years the word “automate” will most commonly be a noun, referring to a product whose immense popularity is somewhat bittersweet.
In 2016, the political science book you couldn't stop hearing about was "The Party Decides".
In 2024, the political science book you can't stop hearing about is "The Hollow Parties".
@kentwillard We are! That's ordinary in our style representative democracy, where we elect representatives but reserve the right to weigh in continually despite being much less informed than those we've elected and the staff they hire. 1/
@kentwillard I have no insight into what Joe Biden the person knows or doesn't know. But the Biden Administration has so far behaved very rationally and competently ( except on Israel/Gaza, unless you buy something like the theory I invented to try to make sense of that https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2024/05/08/the-long-fistbump/index.html ). 2/
@kentwillard Whatever else you might think of Jill Biden, she does not seem addled, and she understands the stakes. I think there are grounds for some optimism this, like all the rest, will ultimately be handled competently, which doesn't necessarily mean what you and i might want, but does mean evaluating and if necessary negotiating a good alternative when they have staunched a public panic that renders them incapable of acting carefully and strategically as long as it continues. /fin
@kentwillard I guess I think getting Manchin on-board with IRA after he tanked BBB, getting Eric McCarthy to join a debt-ceiling deal that (unintentionally of the Biden Administration) became his political death warrant, getting Mike Johnson to authorize Ukraine aid despite very credible threats to his career for acceding all go way beyond deference to trusted experts. Different people for sure, but similarly ambitious and vain people. And here, there really is a lot more mutual interest.
@kentwillard i'm in the weird position of having more faith in this administration than most people. somehow these people overcame a ridiculously bad hand during debt-ceiling "negotiations", turned humiliation over build-back-better into the most important climate change legislation in history, got Ukraine aid done (shamefully, consequentially late!) despite Trumpist sabotage. if they can negotiate all this, surely they can negotiate a right thing among high-ranking Democrats, including Harris.
suddenly, i have ads from Gretchen Whitmer on the horrorsite. i don’t recall seeing those before.
the most amusing scenario is Biden drops out and endorses New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
@notroot @djc Of course I'm voting for Joe Biden if he is on the ticket. And it's fine with me if the day after, he resigns in Kamala's favor. I would just hope she continues the administration's great domestic policy work. The difficulty is what the best path is in actual political reality to defeat Donald Trump. I do think the debate performance renders that reality less favorable. I'm arguing the best we can do is place it in the administration's hands to decide the best way forward from that
@mir having grown up during them, sometimes i wonder how everything since possibly could be.