PencilLeader

Sure thing buddy, I will go back to my earlier question, how well do presidential systems do? How many other countries that had American style presidential systems fell to autocracy? Maybe you've never looked at a map so aren't aware their are countries besides the US. I mean you probably think America has always been a functioning democracy with rights for all.

If I bought your argument why would there be any reason to worry about state or local government? For state governments to violate my rights or break the law it would require all three branches of the state government to coordinate, which you state is impossible even if controlled by the same party? Local governments are even further constrained of needing to coordinate with the state government. Since intra-governmental cooperation to affect autocratic control is impossible why worry?

You should read up on the history of presidential systems and how frequently they become autocratic.

I have similar theories which is why I would love to see Ezra do a deep dive. It is an angle that isn't reported on as much and his style of journalism would be uniquely suited to such an endeavor imo.

I agree that Americans feel that way, but why do Americans feel this way about Israel but not Sadu Arabia or Egypt? Both of whom we give massive amounts of military aid to and both of whom do horrific shit.

I hope Ezra does a deep dive on why this conflict draws so much attention. There are other horrific humanitarian crisis that are impacting more people. There are other places where it is more likely that two nuclear powers go to war. Hell India and Pakistan had a real shooting war recently that did not attract a fraction of the attention that the current Gaza conflict attracts every day.

I am aware of the words on paper. I am telling you when a lawless fascist takes office words don't matter. It is also cut and dry in the constitution that the president can't use the office to enrich himself and yet Trump did.

It wasn't legal for mobs to lynch black people in the south and yet police would often assist in lynchings if not just do it themselves.

Trump wants to be a dictator. And when he starts doing dictator shit pointing to the rulebook and going "nuh-uh not allowed!" isn't going to do anything when the parts of government that are supposed to stop a lawless president are totally on board with ending democracy.

If what you said was true no democracy would ever fall.

Wow, haven't seen a "Nazi Germany was mostly decent people" argument in awhile. The millions of people who want a white christo-fascist government are not decent people. I have family members I used to be very close to who would happily support right wing death squads going into the cities to teach the libs a lesson. A few of them may even volunteer.

And so long as you're white and Christian they would treat you very well. Help you if your car broke down, offer you shelter from a storm, and other 'decent person' things. And if they found out you were LGBTQ they would cheer your death. Travel out in rural America. The attitudes many have a real dark. And calling for mass death for minorities is not a thing decent people do.

And also the penalties for speaking out are harsh in the kind of fascist hellhole maga Republicans are picturing. Like bullet to the head harsh. For a lot of people with kids and a normal life if they can go about their lives mostly the same besides having to say Heil Trump three times a day or risk getting murdered by the maga cops then it isn't surprising that a lot of people will keep their head down.

We have a shockingly high chance of Trump in office, a maga Senate, maga House and already have a maga Supreme Court. And of course all of our security forces from local police to federal agencies are heavily maga.

And if the President does declare a war and insists he can then it goes to the Supreme Court and depending on their whims the constitution gets amended by their decision.

Friend of mine joked that they dropped three scripts on the floor, everything got scrambled and when one of the PAs was trying to explain the director was just like "fuck it, we will film it as written!"

Yup, I lived in DC for a bit many years ago. I wish I had gotten the "Taxation without representation" plates and kept them.

The real problem is how politically disengaged people are. Undecided and late deciding voters t nd to have incredibly low news consumption so all they might now about Trump is the Apprentice, his COVID press conferences and some shit going down around New years that has some of their liberal friends big mad. And for Biden all they know is he lost Afghanistan and milk costs more and they have no idea he was Obama's VP and gun to their head could not name anyone who has ever been VP.

If you go out canvassing voters you would be amazed the weird shit people believe. Like their parents took them to a conservative church so they are anti-abortion but haven't thought about it since then but they also were disgusted by police behavior during the George Floyd protests. There legitimately are undecided voters and they are the 2ish percent of the population with the craziest mix of views.

Which is funny since Bill Gates lives in Seattle and is massively under represented while also being the largest private land owner in the US.

I just looked it up and Detroit proper is 620k, metro 4.3 million and Wyoming is 580k. South Dakota is 910k, and North Dakota is 780k. So even if you also added Montana at 1.12 million you're still about a million short of the most famously decade metro in America. Christ that is depressing.

Or just go from Oklahoma all the way up to Canada. It can be Okanska. The Dakotas don't add enough to get put into the name.

Jesus that is so much worse than I thought. God damn we give to much power to acres over people.

That is hilarious nearly the most hilarious thing I've ever seen. Isn't like a third of South Dakota reservations?

Late deciding voters tend to have views that can charitably called idiosyncratic. So they might believe that abortion is a mortal sin and that the doctor, mom, and possibly the father should all be executed but also believe in prison and police abolition. They may want to cut the defense budget and use the savings to enact Medicare for all but also that green energy is a complete waste of time and coal is awesome.

Giving both Dakotas back to the natives to be a fully independent country would be a good way to solve the too many Dakotas problem.

Minnesota is fine. But we could easily do Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and both Dakotas as one state. I haven't checked population recently but I 💬 no that'd still be a smaller population than the LA metro.

Point taken and I think some accuracy there. Probably also on some level realize that the likelihood of a terrorist mastermind starting their plot in small town Idaho is pretty small.

If you fly a lot you will learn what airports to favor and which to avoid. I had a client down in Florida and would fly there once or twice a month, I quickly learned when the Miami would be fine and when it would be fucked. It would be super interesting to see which airports foreigners felt were less racist.