Republicans are pushing our country: no social safety net, corrupt regulatory and police agencies, politicians and legislation for sale, and absolute immunity for the morbidly rich…
Wow! It is hard to believe that this is America anymore. Since the Civil Rights Movement and Roe v Wade I was proud of America for standing up for the rights of people here. Today is just a total focal mess, a mental minefield to behold. If we don't do something about it, tomorrow will be a shit show show with horrendous consequences.
If you believe in physics, Archimedes third principle, time for an equal and opposite reaction. 40% of the electorate, Gen Z, if properly motivated can swing the pendulum back. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Disgusting and too true. Unfortunately the UK ruling class has already become a corrupt oligarchy so desired for America by the MAGA Trump cartel. Hence the continuing protection from any investigation of Epstein’s good friend in the Murdoch supported Blair/Starmer New Labour Party, the grandee Lord Mandelson and the continuing amnesty for Prince Andrew from criminal prosecution for proven past sexual assaults on underage trafficked individuals brokered by Epstein & Co. It is all about indulging in abuses of power for such people.
At a daily White House briefing last week, Karine Jean-Pierre schooled one of the right-wing whiners about the source of our 34 trillion dollar debt. A FULL 90% OF IT IS FROM THE REPUBLICAN TAX CUTS!
What the billionaires' big-bang-for-their-buck has gotten the rest of us is debt that poses a national security threat, at least according to them. And to add insult to injury, the Republicans only bitch about it when trying to scapegoat the Democrats.
I also tuned into a rally MTG was doing, and she said America should be run like a business. She talked about how stupid people in Congress are; she should know---it takes one to know one.
Many have been telling us for decades this country we love, cherish, and bleed for is a business. It's time to show the "business" people we are a country, not a bunch of employees they can treat like they own and can abuse.
Personally, I love the young people giving the finger to corporate America and the billionaires. Rich manipulators created a gig-economy, bitched about immigration, and now they can't get people to take or stay in the shitty jobs they offer them.
No more business BS. Make the bastards pay their share of the taxes. Rest assured Karine's statistic is right.
But what are "we" going to do about the rational young now catching up with Vanessa Redgrave, demonized decades ago for daring to notice the wrong done to Palestinians ab initio "Israel?" Does anybody have the answer to the ingrained habitual politics that America is Israel's friend, when now there's a (belated ) schism, not that simple? I guess my context is, how does Biden split that baby so a bunch of his "base" don't quit?
The Hamas terrorist attack of Israel was morally obscene, but so is the total disregard for civilian casualties in Netanyahu's response. Simple-minded and one-sided responses only do harm. As a balance in few words, may I suggest as a moral posture: pro-Palestinian people, anti-Hamas, pro-Israeli people, anti-Netanyahu (and his settler expansion, two-state opposition coalition). Unfortunately, Biden will lose no matter what he does. The Hamas attack created the worse loss of life for Israel since World War II. Denying military support for Israel in this situation is not an option. But Netanyahu desperately wants a Trump victory this November (as does Trump's other soulmate, Vladimir Putin), so he will do nothing to lessen civilian casualties, no matter what pressure America applies. A Trump victory would be an unspeakable tragedy.
When morality and humanity are already for sale, when politicians are excused for crimes against humanity by "progressive" media due to fear of "the other," and when nationalist propaganda, whether it be McCarthyism, Zionism, Bidenism, Trumpism or fascism, is the rallying cry for both political parties the sale is inevitable.
Putin is not the cause of our problems here in the US. I am speaking of the contagions that domestic propaganda and the inhumanity they wreak, which would include fellow citizens who do not even know each other calling names and making McCarthyist accusations.
Ah but he is. Without Putin there would have been no Trump 45, and Putin is destabilizing the world, and imperaling our fragile democracy. One of the items on the top of the list of Trump and his MAGAts, is defunding the defense of Ukraine, and that has the Baltic States, Poland and Romania worried, they know that once he incorporates Ukraine and punishes them, like Trump intends to do his opposition and detractors, rests, recovers, rebuilds the other former satrapy's of the Russian state will be knocked off one by one.
And what McCarthyist accusations, the fact that you even make that accusation is evidence that you are a Putinist, and the fact the you defend Putin is proof positive.
One other thing Boris. You ignored my question. What progressive media? There is only one, Free Speech TV, and they are solidly pro Arab and anti Israel, as is the Nation which might qualify as progressive, but not cable or broadcast, only a monthly magazine, there is also Mother Jones of the same genre, but no progressive media with any reach, certainly not on TV, other than Free Speech TV.
It seems that almost all of the countries you have mentioned that operate on bribery are some form of corrupted democracies. The root problem is that American style democracy, and those that try to copy it is out of date. We need a better form of government where everyone gets a piece of the pie, and every vote counts.
In my research I keep coming up with something called “economic democracy” which turns the model we are following upside down. Instead of a political democracy, it advocates an economic approach to democracy. .
Economic Democracy is based on localized economies and cooperatives. This form of economy and governance focuses on local economic activity, where the products and profits generated within a region stay within the region, and are owned by the local people. The governance of the region is local and then act in coordination with other regions to form a national structure.
In economic democracy most businesses are owned by the workers in a cooperative model. Utilities are owned by the customers as is so common in many parts of the United States. Currently there are over 40,000 cooperatives functioning in the United States. Some of them are worker owned cooperatives, and some are customer owned cooperatives, such as many electric cooperatives. Small businesses up to 20 employees would be individually owned by small business owners, and entrepreneurs.
In other words, first, we re-engineer the economy, so that everyone has sufficient purchasing power, and then from that the governance comes. This removes the class of professional politicians and emphasizes the common citizens having control over their own destiny and the destiny of the country.
There are as many versions of savior governments as I have fingers and toes, it seems that every tom,dick and Jane has their own version, the problem is forming them and instituting them. Anything that even sniffs as a threat to the powers that be, will be ignored, infiltrated, ridiculed and turned into the opposite of it's intentions.
One needs a blueprint to activation or power that circumvents the money powers
America is not a "democracy" in fact the founding fathers, including Jefferson and Madison, were leery of a democracy, because it meant mob rule, and they were afraid of the mob, the people. Their final product was a democratic Republic and that is the name of the first Political party founded by the two.
A Republic is rule by the elite, the property class who have an investment in the economic well being of the Republic. And so it stood, until state by state, amendment by amendment, the "mob" were allowed to vote, first white men that were not propertied, then black men, then women, then 18year olds.
History shows that the only way to turn the ship (of state) around is by revolution, but be careful for what you wish, the revolutions of 1789 and 1917, ate their own., the revolution of 1775 was different because it was started and led by the ruling class against a remote sovereign., one who they could not capture, hang, behead or shoot.
The Swiss have found that the tyranny of the masses is an issue in their democracy, which is much more robust that that of the U.S. Each system needs checks on mass movements that tend to oversimplify complex issues, e.g. the ongoing Brexit disaster.
Civic engagement and involvement have no substitute. I can recall having a very reasoned conversation with a cross Rhine ferry driver in Basel about the Swiss referendum on joining the EU. Our short 5-minute conversation showed that he had done his homework on the issues of the EU and how it might damage Switzerland's direct democracy.
Agreed no person is perfect and but what is a democracy. A mob of imperfect people, each with their own gripes, concerns, fears, needs
Birds of a feather flock together, and factions are created. Thomas Jefferson warned about factions. There is no solution, thus a dilemma. I don't want to live in an autocracy.
Paradoxically look what a n autocracy can do. Like China. It can build a city of high rises in a month, drag itself out from a backwater in a generation, build the massive three gorges dam, and squat on, not be ruled by wealthy entrepreneurs. 2 decades ago, you could have slept on a street, now they have highways and traffic jams, which produced smog,but now has the world's third largest smog problem
Two decades ago it had a laughing stock navy, today it has the world's largest navy, and it is growing, and Americas navy has shrunk, because elected representatives, have other priorities.
Russia, China, India and Saudi Arabia are on the verge of world domination, China and Saudi Arabia own our debt and a major part of our economy and real property. And here we squabble, even factions like the left, squabble amongst ourselves, because we are stupid and easily distracted by partisans of irrelevant actors.
For example Oct 7th was Putin's birthday, and HAMAS gave him a gift, with a major assist from Putin's ally, (for the moment) Ayatollah Khameini. With the result that we are distracted from Putin's goal of ethnic cleansing, and because of emotional brainwashing, distracted and divided by a religious conflict of which we have no national or rational interest.
Even an ideological faction is divided among itself. And thus divided guess who wins.Putin and his American Chain dog.
In America our government lives in terror of Facebook and Twitter, in China Facebook and Twitter live in terror of government,
The minority has learned the age old lessons of how to create an emotional issue and create a tyranny of a majority.
That is why there are buffers in nearly all direct democracy systems. The Swiss have a dual majority for national referenda--majority of the votes and a majority of the Cantons (14 of 26) both on the yes side. In Colorado we put in a 55% threshold for constitutional amendments but not statutory initiatives.
Marc--My paraphrased quote of Lincoln's Gettysburg address is "an economy and a government by the people and for the people".
Cooperatives are part of the solution and there are some new models that allow investment, e.g. the LCA in California and Colorado. And we can do more with co-determination in large companies (e.g.mandatory worker seats on the board of directors and prohibiting the Chairman and CEO joined role) and tools such as Sociocracy / Holacracy (used at Zappos).
The way I look at it, kleptocracy should be a window of opportunity for plaintiffs' attorneys. I wonder where organizations like the American Association for Justice stand? Maybe Thom should have segments on his show advising people how to look for economic crime. They should be like sharks in the water looking for blood. https://www.justice.org/community/litigation-groups/qui-tam-litigation-group
It seems to me that there is a lawyer class that would make the world a better place with lawsuits. If lawyers and judges were perfect and not subjects that can be bribed, and the system weren't so disgustingly slow, it could work in a limited way. Maybe it's where i live, but my experience with lawyers is that they intentionally drag out cases until they have all your money, then they drop you.
Plaintiffs' lawyers usually operate on contingent fee contracts. No recovery, no fee.
Another demagogued minority group.
Most of the time, before they take a case lawyers make sure that defendants have insurance. Insurance companies have risk managers, statisticians that estimate the exposure, the odds, etc. Most cases get settled before a complaint needs to be filed.
In the criminal arena, every jurisdiction has speedy trial rules.
Daniel, one of my post retirement salaried jobs was as a law firm administrator, and there is a thing as billable hours, which are open ended. One of the lawyers even said that he billed a client for the time he spent thinking about a case in the shower.
I was interviewing a lawyer to write my will, Medical and Financial Power of Attorney, End of life, Health Care Directive, but when I asked her about billing, and let her know that I had experience as a law firm administrator, she lost interest because I want to work on an ad hoc (as needed) basis and that was not the way she operated.
However thanks to my computer, scanner and printer, I was able to scan an older will, update it and have two witnesses sign it. The other documents did not require updating.
Plaintiffs generally take a third of the recovery, a quarter if the defendant is a government entity.
I passed on fees all the time. Most of my cases had "fee shifting" statutes, so that if the claimant won., the defendant had to pay the fee.
I caught a lot of people padding the bill but on the other hand the defense counsel were billing by the hour and made more if they generated more time. Some had "standard" time charges. Boiler plate interrogatories may have taken hours to initially draft, but after that only required minor alterations. They'd charge as if they were created from scratch. Fee cases made it to the Supreme Court, but they shouldn't be considered to be major litigation.
Some cases require a "lodestar" analysis. The number of hours reasonably expended by the attorney multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate produces the federal lodestar, which may then be adjusted upward or downward based on a number of factors, including the time and labor required, the amount of the fund, the attorney's time and efforts on the clients' behalf,
Some defense firms want to maximize their fees more that get the best deal for their clients. Some will settle after performing every conceivable kind of discovery, even when it was in their best interest to close the case ASAP.
It was certainly in the government's best interest to devote my time to cases at trial rather than play around with questionable discovery ruses.
I heard thousands of cases. Before that tried a lot -- on all sides. As my 'ol pappy used to say, justice gets a kick in the ass once in a while. But there are a lot of lawyers making a good living bringing justice.
The main reason there aren't more is that law school faculties are full of corporate lawyers. That's a gripe I've had about SCOTUS for a long time. All corporate oriented. The last person on the court who had the feel for the individual was ironically a Republican - Stevens.
I'm not an attorney, though my son is a judge. But what strikes me is how in recent generations so few members of the Supreme Court have come from "ordinary" law schools or have experience in "real life" law. Many years of graduates from Harvard and Yale, with their clerks from the same schools, leads to an ingrown system totally oriented towards the wealthy. It also makes for people without any sense or experience in how most citizens actually live and work. That's dangerous on so many levels.
I saw a replay today of Trump, dissing some business initiative about magnetic elevators (?) (Caterpillar?) saying, "The one thing I know about magnets is, you throw a glass of water on the magnet, and that's the end of your magnet..." I was sitting in my room, going "Whaaaat?" "The one thing he knows...." My god. How many of his guys are hands-on people, do they realize how stumped he would be if they said "righty-tighty/lefty-loosey" to him? The clip on MSNBC was to juxtapose Trump's cluelessness compared to, we're supposed to worry about Biden dementia? Probably neither one of them ever lifted a hammer to nail, but how do you compare a guy who will respect a guy who knows which way to install an outlet, vs a guy who just cares about not writing a check.
A lot of SCOTUS judges, that proved to rule progressive, were actually Republicans, until Reagan.,now we have a bought SCOTUS, and one that is religiously driven.
Tis indicative that the FCPA was never applied by Garland to Trump and his family. Nor as far as I can ascertain to Sen Menendez, but the common citizen trying to get a visa, avoid phony imprisonment, or achieve a humanitarian goal can be prosecuted.
This country is being shaped by Trumps Thugs and he is the chief Thug.
Just his ignorant refusal to abide by free and fair elections and the Constitution have allowed him to think he is above the law.
The moneyed people , the wealthiest are also thugs. Their money comes before everything. Clean air, sound environment, healthy populations, education .
If people die from their tactics , which they do , it’s not even worth a nod by them . They care nothing for others obviously.
‘Of the Empire’ By poet Mary Oliver
We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We will be known as a culture
that rewarded the amassing of things,
that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for people( other people)
for dogs for rivers. All the world in their eyes, they will say , was a commodity.
And they will say that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also, that our politics
was no more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and the heart in those days , was small, and hard, and full of meanness.
So sad but so true! Trump was only (is) one part of the billionaires plan, that really started a long time ago. If those vampires win in november chaos will follow and 3rd WW too. Of course wars bring much much money into their pockets. Shameful! A word they do not have in their dictionary.
What is so scary is, if Trump DOESN'T win in November, things look just as dire. You are so right that "war is good for business." Not alone, but Stefanik has to be top contender for the all-time encyclopedia illustration of "shameless,"
In 1975 I left the Texas Mexico border to drive to Panama via the Pan American Hiway, in a 1970 Maverick. When I drove through Mexico City, a cop had me pull over and open my trunk. Sitting on top of the luggage was an Officers wheel cap (the one with a broad bill) he saw that and said "Oh officer, then asked for my passport, it said Official, with that he let me go. If not for the passport and wheel cap, no telling what happened next, As I drove through each countries borders, the Official passport served me well, while tourists were relieved of cash, and a VW van had to unpack every item for inspection in Guatemala.
The poison of the state of mind that you must be one of those that have more than almost everyone else and those unable or unwilling to be of that state of mind deserve to have nothing including the basic necessities. Any hive taking this mindset and allowing the majority of the bees to not be able to thrive and support the hive itself is playing with hive collapse and extinction. A healthy hive insures that all worker bees have enough to thrive as that is the best for the hive as a functioning society.
This is confusing? Most of the developed countries have universal healthcare, free college tuition, welfare programs?
"Most of the world already operates the way Republicans are pushing our country: no social safety net, corrupt regulatory and police agencies, politicians and legislation for sale, and absolute immunity for the morbidly rich"
I honestly think that Putin has moved into the trillionaire category. I mean I’m sure he’s been able to all of the Kleptocrats to kick in a total of a 1000 billion over the years.
Thom is like no other at connecting the dots. Back to the dark ages with the right wingers in charge! The GOP should be banned as a terrorist organization that is funded from foreign money now that Trump has been outed as taking funds from our enemies and sharing our military secrets.
How deep does the GOP go? Do they own the Democratic leadership? Do they own Biden and Garland? After listening to Biden's last campaign speech, I was personally disappointed although many thought it was great? I would have liked Biden to have attacked dictatorship for about 60% of the time and Trump for about 40%, instead of attacking Trump 90% and dividing America and mentioning a few minor things bad about a dictatorship. Every Nation with unlimited greed will end in a train wreck including China! Plato was correct about having a maximum wage. Taxing the wealthy 95% will just slow them down, but inevitably, they will corrupt the nation. Starving people will do anything for food, shelter, clothing or medicine, or drugs.
America has been at this place before where democracy collides with capitalism. Democracy has survived only because democracy has flexed the regulatory muscles of We The People to curtail the “natural” side effects of capitalism gone amuck - greed, avarice, whatever term you’d like to use. Capitalism is not a political system, although it quite obviously can hold sway over such. It seems to me that we are at an intersection, once again, where our system of government must arise to control our system of economy. It is only the former that can embody and enforce the common good and the rights of all our people. We have done it before. We can do it again.
Most Americans do not understand what it will mean to lose Democracy. THIS is it! Rich people can do whatever they want and use working people to make themselves even more wealthy. This is the message! It’s the rich using the working class!
Wow! It is hard to believe that this is America anymore. Since the Civil Rights Movement and Roe v Wade I was proud of America for standing up for the rights of people here. Today is just a total focal mess, a mental minefield to behold. If we don't do something about it, tomorrow will be a shit show show with horrendous consequences.
If you believe in physics, Archimedes third principle, time for an equal and opposite reaction. 40% of the electorate, Gen Z, if properly motivated can swing the pendulum back. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Yes! Support David Hogg! And where is Justin Pearson? Such a powerful young voice!
Disgusting and too true. Unfortunately the UK ruling class has already become a corrupt oligarchy so desired for America by the MAGA Trump cartel. Hence the continuing protection from any investigation of Epstein’s good friend in the Murdoch supported Blair/Starmer New Labour Party, the grandee Lord Mandelson and the continuing amnesty for Prince Andrew from criminal prosecution for proven past sexual assaults on underage trafficked individuals brokered by Epstein & Co. It is all about indulging in abuses of power for such people.
At a daily White House briefing last week, Karine Jean-Pierre schooled one of the right-wing whiners about the source of our 34 trillion dollar debt. A FULL 90% OF IT IS FROM THE REPUBLICAN TAX CUTS!
What the billionaires' big-bang-for-their-buck has gotten the rest of us is debt that poses a national security threat, at least according to them. And to add insult to injury, the Republicans only bitch about it when trying to scapegoat the Democrats.
I also tuned into a rally MTG was doing, and she said America should be run like a business. She talked about how stupid people in Congress are; she should know---it takes one to know one.
Many have been telling us for decades this country we love, cherish, and bleed for is a business. It's time to show the "business" people we are a country, not a bunch of employees they can treat like they own and can abuse.
Personally, I love the young people giving the finger to corporate America and the billionaires. Rich manipulators created a gig-economy, bitched about immigration, and now they can't get people to take or stay in the shitty jobs they offer them.
No more business BS. Make the bastards pay their share of the taxes. Rest assured Karine's statistic is right.
But what are "we" going to do about the rational young now catching up with Vanessa Redgrave, demonized decades ago for daring to notice the wrong done to Palestinians ab initio "Israel?" Does anybody have the answer to the ingrained habitual politics that America is Israel's friend, when now there's a (belated ) schism, not that simple? I guess my context is, how does Biden split that baby so a bunch of his "base" don't quit?
The 2024 travails have just begun. Sure not expecting any biblical wisdom worthy of Solomon to solve that disaster, especially with Bibi still around.
The Hamas terrorist attack of Israel was morally obscene, but so is the total disregard for civilian casualties in Netanyahu's response. Simple-minded and one-sided responses only do harm. As a balance in few words, may I suggest as a moral posture: pro-Palestinian people, anti-Hamas, pro-Israeli people, anti-Netanyahu (and his settler expansion, two-state opposition coalition). Unfortunately, Biden will lose no matter what he does. The Hamas attack created the worse loss of life for Israel since World War II. Denying military support for Israel in this situation is not an option. But Netanyahu desperately wants a Trump victory this November (as does Trump's other soulmate, Vladimir Putin), so he will do nothing to lessen civilian casualties, no matter what pressure America applies. A Trump victory would be an unspeakable tragedy.
When morality and humanity are already for sale, when politicians are excused for crimes against humanity by "progressive" media due to fear of "the other," and when nationalist propaganda, whether it be McCarthyism, Zionism, Bidenism, Trumpism or fascism, is the rallying cry for both political parties the sale is inevitable.
What progressive media Boris? There is no such thing. I notice that you don't mention Putinism Boris.
Putin is not the cause of our problems here in the US. I am speaking of the contagions that domestic propaganda and the inhumanity they wreak, which would include fellow citizens who do not even know each other calling names and making McCarthyist accusations.
Ah but he is. Without Putin there would have been no Trump 45, and Putin is destabilizing the world, and imperaling our fragile democracy. One of the items on the top of the list of Trump and his MAGAts, is defunding the defense of Ukraine, and that has the Baltic States, Poland and Romania worried, they know that once he incorporates Ukraine and punishes them, like Trump intends to do his opposition and detractors, rests, recovers, rebuilds the other former satrapy's of the Russian state will be knocked off one by one.
And what McCarthyist accusations, the fact that you even make that accusation is evidence that you are a Putinist, and the fact the you defend Putin is proof positive.
One other thing Boris. You ignored my question. What progressive media? There is only one, Free Speech TV, and they are solidly pro Arab and anti Israel, as is the Nation which might qualify as progressive, but not cable or broadcast, only a monthly magazine, there is also Mother Jones of the same genre, but no progressive media with any reach, certainly not on TV, other than Free Speech TV.
Who said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone?"
Wasn't Putin, Hamas, Assad, Hezbollah.
Exactly which is why it's important to have more party's not funded.
It seems that almost all of the countries you have mentioned that operate on bribery are some form of corrupted democracies. The root problem is that American style democracy, and those that try to copy it is out of date. We need a better form of government where everyone gets a piece of the pie, and every vote counts.
In my research I keep coming up with something called “economic democracy” which turns the model we are following upside down. Instead of a political democracy, it advocates an economic approach to democracy. .
Economic Democracy is based on localized economies and cooperatives. This form of economy and governance focuses on local economic activity, where the products and profits generated within a region stay within the region, and are owned by the local people. The governance of the region is local and then act in coordination with other regions to form a national structure.
In economic democracy most businesses are owned by the workers in a cooperative model. Utilities are owned by the customers as is so common in many parts of the United States. Currently there are over 40,000 cooperatives functioning in the United States. Some of them are worker owned cooperatives, and some are customer owned cooperatives, such as many electric cooperatives. Small businesses up to 20 employees would be individually owned by small business owners, and entrepreneurs.
In other words, first, we re-engineer the economy, so that everyone has sufficient purchasing power, and then from that the governance comes. This removes the class of professional politicians and emphasizes the common citizens having control over their own destiny and the destiny of the country.
There are as many versions of savior governments as I have fingers and toes, it seems that every tom,dick and Jane has their own version, the problem is forming them and instituting them. Anything that even sniffs as a threat to the powers that be, will be ignored, infiltrated, ridiculed and turned into the opposite of it's intentions.
One needs a blueprint to activation or power that circumvents the money powers
America is not a "democracy" in fact the founding fathers, including Jefferson and Madison, were leery of a democracy, because it meant mob rule, and they were afraid of the mob, the people. Their final product was a democratic Republic and that is the name of the first Political party founded by the two.
A Republic is rule by the elite, the property class who have an investment in the economic well being of the Republic. And so it stood, until state by state, amendment by amendment, the "mob" were allowed to vote, first white men that were not propertied, then black men, then women, then 18year olds.
History shows that the only way to turn the ship (of state) around is by revolution, but be careful for what you wish, the revolutions of 1789 and 1917, ate their own., the revolution of 1775 was different because it was started and led by the ruling class against a remote sovereign., one who they could not capture, hang, behead or shoot.
No system is perfect.
The Swiss have found that the tyranny of the masses is an issue in their democracy, which is much more robust that that of the U.S. Each system needs checks on mass movements that tend to oversimplify complex issues, e.g. the ongoing Brexit disaster.
Civic engagement and involvement have no substitute. I can recall having a very reasoned conversation with a cross Rhine ferry driver in Basel about the Swiss referendum on joining the EU. Our short 5-minute conversation showed that he had done his homework on the issues of the EU and how it might damage Switzerland's direct democracy.
Agreed no person is perfect and but what is a democracy. A mob of imperfect people, each with their own gripes, concerns, fears, needs
Birds of a feather flock together, and factions are created. Thomas Jefferson warned about factions. There is no solution, thus a dilemma. I don't want to live in an autocracy.
Paradoxically look what a n autocracy can do. Like China. It can build a city of high rises in a month, drag itself out from a backwater in a generation, build the massive three gorges dam, and squat on, not be ruled by wealthy entrepreneurs. 2 decades ago, you could have slept on a street, now they have highways and traffic jams, which produced smog,but now has the world's third largest smog problem
Two decades ago it had a laughing stock navy, today it has the world's largest navy, and it is growing, and Americas navy has shrunk, because elected representatives, have other priorities.
Russia, China, India and Saudi Arabia are on the verge of world domination, China and Saudi Arabia own our debt and a major part of our economy and real property. And here we squabble, even factions like the left, squabble amongst ourselves, because we are stupid and easily distracted by partisans of irrelevant actors.
For example Oct 7th was Putin's birthday, and HAMAS gave him a gift, with a major assist from Putin's ally, (for the moment) Ayatollah Khameini. With the result that we are distracted from Putin's goal of ethnic cleansing, and because of emotional brainwashing, distracted and divided by a religious conflict of which we have no national or rational interest.
Even an ideological faction is divided among itself. And thus divided guess who wins.Putin and his American Chain dog.
In America our government lives in terror of Facebook and Twitter, in China Facebook and Twitter live in terror of government,
Amen William! Error, I mean, right on!
OT, but do you know the origin of Amen?
The solar god worshiped by Amenhotep'
Dr Doug Gilbert, in America we don't have the problem with tyranny of the masses, we have the problem of tyranny of the minority and the autocrats.
The minority has learned the age old lessons of how to create an emotional issue and create a tyranny of a majority.
That is why there are buffers in nearly all direct democracy systems. The Swiss have a dual majority for national referenda--majority of the votes and a majority of the Cantons (14 of 26) both on the yes side. In Colorado we put in a 55% threshold for constitutional amendments but not statutory initiatives.
Marc--My paraphrased quote of Lincoln's Gettysburg address is "an economy and a government by the people and for the people".
Cooperatives are part of the solution and there are some new models that allow investment, e.g. the LCA in California and Colorado. And we can do more with co-determination in large companies (e.g.mandatory worker seats on the board of directors and prohibiting the Chairman and CEO joined role) and tools such as Sociocracy / Holacracy (used at Zappos).
The way I look at it, kleptocracy should be a window of opportunity for plaintiffs' attorneys. I wonder where organizations like the American Association for Justice stand? Maybe Thom should have segments on his show advising people how to look for economic crime. They should be like sharks in the water looking for blood. https://www.justice.org/community/litigation-groups/qui-tam-litigation-group
On Thom's trip. Under the the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) offering anything of value as a bribe, whether cash or non-cash items, is prohibited. This can even include paying for travel for foreign government officials, when it considered "excessive." The FCPA also requires companies whose securities are listed in the U.S. to meet its accounting provisions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act#:~:text=Offering%20anything%20of%20value%20as,to%20meet%20its%20accounting%20provisions.
Attached is the DOJ manual for commercial litigation. https://www.justice.gov/jm/jm-4-4000-commercial-litigation
It seems to me that there is a lawyer class that would make the world a better place with lawsuits. If lawyers and judges were perfect and not subjects that can be bribed, and the system weren't so disgustingly slow, it could work in a limited way. Maybe it's where i live, but my experience with lawyers is that they intentionally drag out cases until they have all your money, then they drop you.
Plaintiffs' lawyers usually operate on contingent fee contracts. No recovery, no fee.
Another demagogued minority group.
Most of the time, before they take a case lawyers make sure that defendants have insurance. Insurance companies have risk managers, statisticians that estimate the exposure, the odds, etc. Most cases get settled before a complaint needs to be filed.
In the criminal arena, every jurisdiction has speedy trial rules.
Daniel, one of my post retirement salaried jobs was as a law firm administrator, and there is a thing as billable hours, which are open ended. One of the lawyers even said that he billed a client for the time he spent thinking about a case in the shower.
I was interviewing a lawyer to write my will, Medical and Financial Power of Attorney, End of life, Health Care Directive, but when I asked her about billing, and let her know that I had experience as a law firm administrator, she lost interest because I want to work on an ad hoc (as needed) basis and that was not the way she operated.
However thanks to my computer, scanner and printer, I was able to scan an older will, update it and have two witnesses sign it. The other documents did not require updating.
Plaintiffs generally take a third of the recovery, a quarter if the defendant is a government entity.
I passed on fees all the time. Most of my cases had "fee shifting" statutes, so that if the claimant won., the defendant had to pay the fee.
I caught a lot of people padding the bill but on the other hand the defense counsel were billing by the hour and made more if they generated more time. Some had "standard" time charges. Boiler plate interrogatories may have taken hours to initially draft, but after that only required minor alterations. They'd charge as if they were created from scratch. Fee cases made it to the Supreme Court, but they shouldn't be considered to be major litigation.
Some cases require a "lodestar" analysis. The number of hours reasonably expended by the attorney multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate produces the federal lodestar, which may then be adjusted upward or downward based on a number of factors, including the time and labor required, the amount of the fund, the attorney's time and efforts on the clients' behalf,
Some defense firms want to maximize their fees more that get the best deal for their clients. Some will settle after performing every conceivable kind of discovery, even when it was in their best interest to close the case ASAP.
It was certainly in the government's best interest to devote my time to cases at trial rather than play around with questionable discovery ruses.
I know the way things are supposed to work, but I live in the real world. That's what Hartmann is talking about today.
I heard thousands of cases. Before that tried a lot -- on all sides. As my 'ol pappy used to say, justice gets a kick in the ass once in a while. But there are a lot of lawyers making a good living bringing justice.
The main reason there aren't more is that law school faculties are full of corporate lawyers. That's a gripe I've had about SCOTUS for a long time. All corporate oriented. The last person on the court who had the feel for the individual was ironically a Republican - Stevens.
The media is corporate, also.
I'm not an attorney, though my son is a judge. But what strikes me is how in recent generations so few members of the Supreme Court have come from "ordinary" law schools or have experience in "real life" law. Many years of graduates from Harvard and Yale, with their clerks from the same schools, leads to an ingrown system totally oriented towards the wealthy. It also makes for people without any sense or experience in how most citizens actually live and work. That's dangerous on so many levels.
I was rejected by those schools and I think that my inferiority complex made me tougher, better qualified in a fight.
It's amazing how many graduates of those schools flunk the bar. Some pass but can't get a security clearance.
If you've read my stuff, you know I believe in "merit selection." They all took LSATs. IQ tests. For president and members of Congress I like the foreign service exam. https://careers.state.gov/career-paths/foreign-service/officer/fso-test-information-and-selection-process/The MMPI has a "liar scale" and in high security jobs, lie detector tests are used.
How do Thomas and Alito deserve top secret clearances?
I saw a replay today of Trump, dissing some business initiative about magnetic elevators (?) (Caterpillar?) saying, "The one thing I know about magnets is, you throw a glass of water on the magnet, and that's the end of your magnet..." I was sitting in my room, going "Whaaaat?" "The one thing he knows...." My god. How many of his guys are hands-on people, do they realize how stumped he would be if they said "righty-tighty/lefty-loosey" to him? The clip on MSNBC was to juxtapose Trump's cluelessness compared to, we're supposed to worry about Biden dementia? Probably neither one of them ever lifted a hammer to nail, but how do you compare a guy who will respect a guy who knows which way to install an outlet, vs a guy who just cares about not writing a check.
A lot of SCOTUS judges, that proved to rule progressive, were actually Republicans, until Reagan.,now we have a bought SCOTUS, and one that is religiously driven.
Tis indicative that the FCPA was never applied by Garland to Trump and his family. Nor as far as I can ascertain to Sen Menendez, but the common citizen trying to get a visa, avoid phony imprisonment, or achieve a humanitarian goal can be prosecuted.
This country is being shaped by Trumps Thugs and he is the chief Thug.
Just his ignorant refusal to abide by free and fair elections and the Constitution have allowed him to think he is above the law.
The moneyed people , the wealthiest are also thugs. Their money comes before everything. Clean air, sound environment, healthy populations, education .
If people die from their tactics , which they do , it’s not even worth a nod by them . They care nothing for others obviously.
‘Of the Empire’ By poet Mary Oliver
We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We will be known as a culture
that rewarded the amassing of things,
that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for people( other people)
for dogs for rivers. All the world in their eyes, they will say , was a commodity.
And they will say that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also, that our politics
was no more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and the heart in those days , was small, and hard, and full of meanness.
So sad but so true! Trump was only (is) one part of the billionaires plan, that really started a long time ago. If those vampires win in november chaos will follow and 3rd WW too. Of course wars bring much much money into their pockets. Shameful! A word they do not have in their dictionary.
What is so scary is, if Trump DOESN'T win in November, things look just as dire. You are so right that "war is good for business." Not alone, but Stefanik has to be top contender for the all-time encyclopedia illustration of "shameless,"
In 1975 I left the Texas Mexico border to drive to Panama via the Pan American Hiway, in a 1970 Maverick. When I drove through Mexico City, a cop had me pull over and open my trunk. Sitting on top of the luggage was an Officers wheel cap (the one with a broad bill) he saw that and said "Oh officer, then asked for my passport, it said Official, with that he let me go. If not for the passport and wheel cap, no telling what happened next, As I drove through each countries borders, the Official passport served me well, while tourists were relieved of cash, and a VW van had to unpack every item for inspection in Guatemala.
The poison of the state of mind that you must be one of those that have more than almost everyone else and those unable or unwilling to be of that state of mind deserve to have nothing including the basic necessities. Any hive taking this mindset and allowing the majority of the bees to not be able to thrive and support the hive itself is playing with hive collapse and extinction. A healthy hive insures that all worker bees have enough to thrive as that is the best for the hive as a functioning society.
This is confusing? Most of the developed countries have universal healthcare, free college tuition, welfare programs?
"Most of the world already operates the way Republicans are pushing our country: no social safety net, corrupt regulatory and police agencies, politicians and legislation for sale, and absolute immunity for the morbidly rich"
I honestly think that Putin has moved into the trillionaire category. I mean I’m sure he’s been able to all of the Kleptocrats to kick in a total of a 1000 billion over the years.
Thom is like no other at connecting the dots. Back to the dark ages with the right wingers in charge! The GOP should be banned as a terrorist organization that is funded from foreign money now that Trump has been outed as taking funds from our enemies and sharing our military secrets.
How deep does the GOP go? Do they own the Democratic leadership? Do they own Biden and Garland? After listening to Biden's last campaign speech, I was personally disappointed although many thought it was great? I would have liked Biden to have attacked dictatorship for about 60% of the time and Trump for about 40%, instead of attacking Trump 90% and dividing America and mentioning a few minor things bad about a dictatorship. Every Nation with unlimited greed will end in a train wreck including China! Plato was correct about having a maximum wage. Taxing the wealthy 95% will just slow them down, but inevitably, they will corrupt the nation. Starving people will do anything for food, shelter, clothing or medicine, or drugs.
America has been at this place before where democracy collides with capitalism. Democracy has survived only because democracy has flexed the regulatory muscles of We The People to curtail the “natural” side effects of capitalism gone amuck - greed, avarice, whatever term you’d like to use. Capitalism is not a political system, although it quite obviously can hold sway over such. It seems to me that we are at an intersection, once again, where our system of government must arise to control our system of economy. It is only the former that can embody and enforce the common good and the rights of all our people. We have done it before. We can do it again.
Most Americans do not understand what it will mean to lose Democracy. THIS is it! Rich people can do whatever they want and use working people to make themselves even more wealthy. This is the message! It’s the rich using the working class!
well, who you got?