1409 replies to this topic

[Mr. Roboto]

It's insidious to me because it's in smaller markets across the country. Sneaky. State run TV. 

 

Everybody should be concerned about this. 

 

But if you already believe that the media is bias and  you're not being told the truth, then  you'll be fine with it. This will allow it to fester. 

[freedom78]

Break up the concentration of media ownership in the hands of a very few mega corporations...problem solved.

[Mr. Roboto]

States rights my ass. 

 

Trump administration moves on two fronts to challenge California environmental protections

[Its Cousin]

Hmmm...

 

[Mr. Roboto]

I hope that's true. Nunes is an absolute traitor to this country. The worst of the worst. 

[Its Cousin]

He is one of the ones that will probably not survive Nov... along with my congressman, Andy Barr. Fun little anecdote, I was at a dinner seated across from Barr, and he wouldn't look me in eyes. haha

[Its Cousin]

The kid got caught with a bag of weed.

 

 

Sent Back To Mexico's Violence, Des Moines Student Dies Within Weeks

 

Manuel Antonio Cano Pacheco should have graduated high school in Des Moines last month. The oldest of four siblings should have walked across a stage in a cap and gown to become a proud symbol to his sister and brothers of the rewards of hard work and education.

 

Instead, Manuel died a brutal death alone in a foreign land, a symbol of gang supremacy in a country plagued by violent drug cartels. It happened three weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement returned him to Mexico, a country he had left at age 3 when his parents brought him here without a visa.

 

The fact that America was the only home he has known made Manuel eligible to apply for and be granted DACA status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program initiated by former President Barack Obama. It exempted from deportation certain young people, referred to as DREAMERS, who were brought to the U.S. without papers as children.

That status didn’t protect Manuel when he came to immigration authorities’ attention after being stopped for speeding last fall. An ICE spokesperson said in a statement that a federal immigration judge terminated his DACA status because of two misdemeanor convictions.

 

https://www.desmoine...tels/680234002/

[freedom78]

Right now in America, you can refuse Muslims entry, gerrymander against the black vote, and deny service to homosexuals on fictional religious grounds.  Let's keep in mind that all of this is coming out of SCOTUS and that all these narrow 5-4 decisions could have gone differently if the GOP hadn't essentially stolen a court pick.  Their theft began when a moderate, Sandra Day O'Connor, was replaced with the court's most constitutionally constipated mind in Samuel Alito.  It continued for eight years under Obama, with the Senate GOP obstructing his US District and Circuit court picks at historic levels, creating a judicial crisis in order to rig the system.  Then of course was the court's lack of willingness to even hold a hearing for the incredibly qualified Merrick Garland, which would have restored the court's moderate center.  Trump then filled that seat and has filled many other lower seats, now that Republicans feel like holding hearings again.

 

I daresay that for the next 30 years, judicial decision making will not be what it ought to have been, based on the fair accounting of nominees from elected Presidents, but will reflect a constitutional theft.

 

In writing for the majority's decision to uphold the travel ban, Chief Justice Roberts wrote that "it is wholly inapt to liken that morally repugnant order [Japanese internment] to a facially neutral policy denying certain foreign nationals the privilege of admission [aka the travel ban]". 

 

While I agree that there are differences, in that Japanese internment was explicit and the travel ban is not, let us make clear the other cases where laws have failed to exhibit an explicit bias, yet have had an unconstitutionally biased effect.  Laws requiring a poll tax to vote applied to all people, in theory.  Laws requiring a literacy test to vote applied to all people, in theory.  Effectively, the Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kennedy wing of the court is endorsing Jim Crow policy, as it was "facially neutral".  They may argue that they would not support such policies, but as they would do so we would surely note that they have struck down major portions of the Voting Rights Act, have allowed Texas's racial gerrymanders, and have decided that corporations have more rights than homosexuals.  We needed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act for these exact reasons...because if your ill intent to discriminate is done so cleverly, through a "facially neutral policy", then it's damned hard to fix and we need an HONEST court to act as a safeguard for our rights in the face of such discrimination.

 

This court has become a pitiful mockery of the great courts of America's past, which stood for justice and rights against popular opinion and against the power of the other branches.  When was the last time we had a court so committed to rolling back rights and shielding those who would abuse the rights of others, albeit in "facially neutral policy"?  This is sad and pathetic.

[freedom78]

And now today's court news...

[TAP]

The entire GOP 'ideology' seems focused on the fact that in 20-30 years white people will be a minority in the USA. Everything is about maintaining or reverting to hierarchies, and making sure wealth is very narrowly held. There is no real debate about policy or society or anything that politics used to be. It's entirely about identity and tribalism for the right...and like you say, it's disguised in 'facially neutral policy that surely everyone sees through by now. Surely not sustainable is it....all that power in the hands of a shrinking minority. Something has to break.

[Mr. Roboto]

 

[freedom78]

Something has to break.

 

True, and that something could be liberal democracy. 

[Mr. Roboto]

True, and that something could be liberal democracy. 

 

 

I feel like we're at a tipping point to be honest. 

[freedom78]

I dunno.  I feel like things generally get better, over time, but in waves.  This is just an ebb.  Look at Germany and Japan.  Who'da thought that back in the late 40s?

[Mr. Roboto]

Congress this week going after Rosenstein was maddening. But it was also just totally blatant in its disregard for the legal process and our COTUS. Very disturbing. But again, just one blip on the radar of all the crazy shit going on 24/7.