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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 27, 2024

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This is a good bit of who/whom.

It is. Republican Politicians want one rule of law for the poor, and another for the powerful. I have trouble feeling sympathy for them when they were mistaken about being the powerful.

I remain hopeful, but not optimistic, that Trump's Trials and Tribulations will lead to a future where some portion of the American people coming to a consensus that centering all power in the Imperial Presidency was a Bad Call, that enabling prosecutors to jail any American was a Bad Call, that enabling the National Security state to spy on everyone all the time was a Bad Call. So far, it seems that both Republicans and Democrats have taken the lesson that it means that we need Our Guy in charge. C'est la vie.

So far, it seems that both Republicans and Democrats have taken the lesson that it means that we need Our Guy in charge.

This is the usual process for democracies sliding into authoritarianism; the Greeks literally had a word, στασις, describing escalating tit-for-tat political prosecutions until one side rules(the one with more guns) forever.

Real civil liberties I think are no-longer possible in America. If every criminal defendant got Saul Goodman (make him a little less of actual criminal) as their defense attorney and fully taking advantage of civil liberties our entire economy would need to be criminal justice.

If we were like Japan with low crime we could implement the US civil liberties by the letter of the law. Unfortunately, we are not.

I hate it. But who/whom is necessary. And in NYC Donald Trump is the who.

I want the system you want because I am basically honest and try to do right. But lower class and upper class both break aren’t.

It’s funny because I know rule breakers. I understand why industries have a thousand regulations where workers spend half their time just being legal and probably still aren’t. SBF is a big example who I think is a proper “who”, but catching him requires a lot of regulations. And now we have a financial system with a thousand rules because at some point someone did something bad and each rule catches one of them. But as a whole it grinds the entire system to a halt.