How it got that way
In my last diary, I discussed recent Supreme Court rulings on gun control and abortion. Well, as the commentators have said, it doesn't stop there. We're getting school prayer back. I suppose that after No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top you can't be surprised. I suppose that if you have kids and if their education matters, you can homeschool them and they can always pass a few tests and get into a college that won't care that they have no high school transcripts, like Tara Westover says she did in her book Educated.
So how did it get this way? How did we get a regressive Supreme Court, rampant inflation, unmitigated climate change, medical bankruptcy still common, student debt still overwhelming, an America where school shootings are routine, situation in Ukraine slowly moving toward nuclear war?
I know! Everyone told themselves that "omigod yoyu've got to vote for corrupt candidate A because corrupt candidate B is a FASCIST." And so you get -- surprise, surprise -- corruption, and everyone is afraid to build an alternative to the system of one "fascist" party and one fake alternative to "fascism," because, you know, fascism. Y'all defeated the supposed fascist. Aren't you supposed to be happy now?
The current order, from the Supreme Court all the way down to the cops who didn't act, is there to placate special interests (e.g. the "Christian" right, the NRA, military corporations, the super-rich) who wouldn't give their support to candidates without quid-pro-quo arrangements in place.
Where's your quid-pro-quo arrangement?
Comments
As our dear leader infamously mumbled
nothing is going to change. A slightly more honest line than the last one ..
hopey change you can believe in. Can't vote our way out of this quagmire.
This downward slope of morally bankrupt ethics has been gaining momentum
since Reagan, in my experience. We are the ones who get to see the ride
bottom-out in real time. Somebody stop this trip, I want to get off ..
question everything
Red corruption, blue corruption
I think the stars aligned when W.J. Clinton was elected. The blue yang for the red ying. Government, the one true bothsiderism money machine. He and Trump are so much alike I would laugh if it didn't hurt so much.
Voting for the lesser of "2 evils" still leaves you with evil
and the result is inept monopolies.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCjsMCfOEwk]
Elections can't fix this.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
great rant
hits all the critical points of monopolized and capitalized food sources
and Biden's reply? a toothless portal. Ha!
question everything
I cannot respect any discussion
...of this topic that is not had within the context of Americas sick and twisted form of Christianity, and the worship of stingy Republican Jesus.
Thanks for keeping it real.
That's my quid-pro-quo for all discussions of US depravity. The US makes the Taliban look like hipsters.
Plastic Jesus
question everything
We need an army of brave school teachers
who will stop class at the same time every day to give a shout out to the power and wonder of Thor in prayer form.
That just may nip this in the bud.
Actually the Satanic Temple is doing some pretty cool things with this issue of school prayer, and they have the same status IRS wise as any Christian Church. Look from some mayhem from them.
When the schools started letting the Gideons in on Open School Night to hawk their bibles, I and some local friends requested to have a table to promote atheist books for children. The Gideons were not invited back the next year.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
Isn't there also the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster
“The loyal Left cannot act decisively. Their devotion to the system is a built-in kill switch limiting dissent.” - Richard Moser
And Morgoth the Great Spider :-D
Back when I was an active science fiction fan, which predates my getting involved with the SCA, there was a subset of fans who put out satirical pamphlets mocking the popular Moonie (etc) handouts. The gist of them was something like, "Have you heard the bad news about Morgoth the Great Spider? He sits in his web at the center of the Universe and he DOESN'T LIKE YOU!"
Not all of them viewed the Great Spider as malevolent - many just assumed his existence and that he was indifferent or even (sometimes) benevolent. http://www.fancyclopedia.com/The_Great_Spider
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
SCA ~= Society for Creative Anachronism?
or maybe ..
Supreme Council of Antiquities
Sustainable Community Action
Sexual Compulsives Anonymous
Satanic Church of America
Scottish Conjurers' Association
Society for Creative Acronyms
Scottish Croquet Association
do tell
https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/SCA
question everything
Society for Creative Anachronism n/t
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
lucky guess
most of the rest was just snark, except for sustainable community action,
which sounds good on the surface.
good on you!
question everything
Yes.
I haven't heard much from them in awhile.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
EXTRA INNINGS: David Sirota
Roberts Started A Revolution, Dems Enabled It
“The loyal Left cannot act decisively. Their devotion to the system is a built-in kill switch limiting dissent.” - Richard Moser
EXTRA INNINGS: Thom Hartmann
-- who sadly thinks the "solution" is letting the Democrats sell us out, time and time again:
How Much Money is Worth Killing 212,000 Americans in a Single Year?
“The loyal Left cannot act decisively. Their devotion to the system is a built-in kill switch limiting dissent.” - Richard Moser
Depressing
situation, but there aren't any easy solutions, and some utopian ideas occasionally heard on this board are more of a very long-term solution which seed hasn't even been planted yet. But it's no solution to just give in to cynicism and despair.
Biden, much too old and set in his traditional ways, had a fire lit under him enough to change his stubborn mind and agree to modify the filibuster on right to privacy issues. That's a start at least, though there are a couple more hurdles to get over before tangible legislation is achieved. He apparently wants to run again, improbable though that sounds for someone about to turn 80 and looking every bit as olde as that age suggests.
As he says he wants another term, he's therefore more susceptible to influence from below, and it's grassroots pressure which holds hope for getting him to begin to act with more of a sense of urgency. There's juuust enough there for working with what's available to make me continue to give it a chance, though continued pressure is needed.