SCOTUS - US Supreme Court (and other court stuff)

Who are you, and what did you do with the real SCOTUS?

Supreme Court rules in favor of Black Alabama voters in unexpected defense of Voting Rights Act

Dare we hope for more SCOTUS rulings against states minority voting oppression?

 

The SCOTUS has some huge cases coming up.

https://ml.t-mobile.com/article-con...s&lang=en&item_id=9983744&screen_name=article

It appears most likely state Supreme Courts won't have the power to overturn gerrymandering by state legislatures.

 

Student loan thing...I don't get why ppl don't attack the language in the bill that granted the "forever burden" of a student loan to begin with. Allow default on student loan. Done deal.

That would make banks less open to loaning endless money because the risk is back, it would also force schools to slow the roll on the ever rising price they put on education because they would know the banks won't let endless money flow when the loan is tagged as "student" loans...
seems pretty simple, reverse the the whole game that started the problem !
I can't see how people don't use this avenue of argument unless it's just willfully looking away from the core problem.
Non defaultable loan = guaranteed forever income stream = bank freeforall cash plundering.

As to the whole affirmative action on LGBTQ rights..
Building a website, a cake or flower arrangement isn't art. It's not your heartfelt personal expression period. Just because an activity or a service includes some aesthetic thought you can tag it as "muh art".
That said I don't get why anyone would want an intellectually retarded ass hole hater to bake their cake, build their website, marry them or anything else.
But my point is, even a painting that is made by contract for a book cover isn't art, it's commercial illustration. And I love that stuff as much as actual art that's not used as a sales tool but I don't think it quite fits in the world of "art" it's craft and requires a lot of the same skill but it's not art.

But still, beyond all that there's always that sign in any restaurant "we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone we see fit to" or words to that affect...so why isn't that good enough ?

Why can't these website builders, flower arrangers and cake bakers just say, oh jeez , sorry I'm over booked as it is and I just can't make your timeline...thanks for your inquiry !
How fucking hard is that ? Why make a fucking federal case out of it ?? Because your an attention whore and you want a moment on CNN to say how you hate gays and Jesus told you it's fine to shit on them ?
Those crying weponization are weponizing their Christianity. Jesus is giving these ppl heavy side eye and Satan is loving them and their ignorance.
But ya know church attendance is going down so maybe non believers ought to refuse service to the the believing haters.
Post a sign, flying spaghetti monster rules all or GTFO !

I do feel like affirmative action needs to stay in place in terms of racial disparity but I read that a lot, maybe a majority of people of color feel like it's outdated. I don't know enough about it so I'd rather it be in place.
I've read that it's more about income levels and I just feel like all college should be free, at least state university. It was way cheaper when I went to school (aimlessly for 7 years) before Clinton signed the bill with the non defaultable loan thing...
But yeah, higher ed is for everyone regardless of what Mike Rowe thinks. 2 years of liberal arts would go a long way towards building the thinking skills to avoid a LOT of problems like people being so vulnerable to nonsense conspiracy crap from Trump, the GOP and Wagner. Not to mention televangelists, Alex Jones, Rupert Murdoch's never ending circus of lying ass holes etc.
Higher ed isn't necessarily about your paycheck, it's about how to think !

 

I want to edit this but I can't....
"Just because an activity or a service includes some aesthetic thought you can tag it as "muh art".
I meant to say you CAN'T tag it. In my opinion it's just not art.

 

Considering the student loan thing further, I would guess that a LOT of folks have actually paid back their loans in total dollars spent but refinance, minimum payments etc. have made these loads drag out forever and cost multiple times the original projected cost. So it's a grift and really a legalized form of loan sharking.

 

I used to think affirmative action had outlived its usefulness, generally speaking. Of course there will always be some people looking to make exclusions based on race.

Then NPD Trump came along, & made it OK to openly show prejudices, intolerance, & hatred.

Edit:

I have mixed emotions over student loan debt. The Not Privileged need a way to attend the universities open mostly only to the Privileged, and also to go to college in general. But there needs to be now, and should've been, some eye-opening disclosures about the long-term costs (example $25K per semester x 8 semesters = $200K = $200K + interest).

If Brilliant Kid from a working family wants an education at an elite university they deserve the chance. But the pitfalls of taking out loans to finance that education need to be clear.

The USA is, and always has been, ran by elites. Even most of our leaders from "humble" backgrounds haven't been seriously poor.

It sucks that the debt is a serious burden to many people. But is forgiving that debt outright the correct move? FIIK.

 

https://ml.t-mobile.com/article-con...&lang=en&item_id=10071758&screen_name=article

Yes, appointments to the Supreme Court do effect us, often for decades.

All those decades of fighting for progress, gone in a year.

 

But the debt today is way way more than it was just back in the 70's
The whole unforgivable loan thing completely corrupted the student loan process.
Plus taxes on wealthy were way higher with less loop holes and a society that generally fostered more social investment.
Someone like me who's 60+ grew up in a totally different game in terms of school funding and costs. So in my mind you can't just say, folks need to pay their way, its like saying we're all entrenched with mob loan sharking and we just need to pay up or be a slave to the bank forever. It's a shell game behind a sales pitch of fake Judeo-Christian values of pulling yourself by your bootstraps.
You can't make children and immediately force them into labor camps so they can buy boots to lift themselves by. You've got to invest in your kids enough that they can lift themselves. A society must invest in itself or it'll turn into a shit hole as it is right now with masses of humans living like rats in garbage heaps because drug companies turn patients into income streams for investors, banks and schools turn people into income streams for investors rather than society investing via taxes in itself and its people.

We didn't used to pay for some school and then default on what we didn't want to pay.
Society paid for a lot of school because we all benefit from an educated populace !
It's the danger/incentives of that loan that you can't default on that opened the door to sky high tuition.
Removing the risk of your loan seeker defaulting opened the door to inflating tuition because banks would sell endless loans, knowing they can chase people forever.
It's all wealthy folks gerrymandering systems to create income streams for investors as a priority over the social needs of a civil society.

A lot of this is all from Jack Welch the GE guy who flipped the coin fromm companies who invested in it's work force as it progressed to syphoning off profits to shareholders instead of raises and benefits to the employees, his ideas moved into all of society and we now think of that as the norm and it's not. But to know that we'd need some better education...but Mike Roe is saying most folks can just skip higher ed and he's rich too so he must be right. But he's also old enough to have benefitted from a whole different game ! As Jack Welch did too !
Jack Welch ideas push money to the already wealthy, libertarian ideas foster societies rules to be what wealthy people want because only they can afford to manipulate the law and government via cronyism and pay to play world views. Society is becoming like fiefdoms surrounding wealth centers. We have wealthy downtowns surrounded by ignorant drug addicted rat people living in garbage heaps.

People who remember otherwise are getting old and dying, mid lifers like me mostly don't remember and missed out on the cost balloon by a few years.

It's like the current gen didn't see the horror of industrial accidents so they don't understand why the safety rules are there from actual experience so they skirt the rules and get sloppy. Then the accidents come back...trains crash...what ? You mean I can just keep all this money my train system makes ? I need to invest in new brakes ? I need to repair tracks ? Hey ! Stop pissing on my picnic ! I need a new boat and to feed all my "investors" -cough cough- leeches.

But for now,.let's just put some large rocks in the parking strip so homeless folk can't set up tents of trash tarps and pallets. Prob solved !

 

Brett Kavanaugh: Supreme Court is 'government at its finest' | CNN Politics

I'm not sure which absurdity is worse, "great collegiality" or "government at its finest."

 

“You shouldn’t be in this line of work if you don’t like criticism, because you’re going to get it.”

But it's ok, the absurdly huge gratuity front loading all your decisions will ease that pain...just ask ol' Clarence and John over there. Those guys get more green pain killers than a red state pain clinic doles out fentanyl or oxy.

The other absurdity is the header picture. I've never seen any of these guys with an honest, believable smile, period.
All the conservative judges have a smile that's as honest as any in the Trump clan. D.Jr, Eric, Ivanka Jared and Milania cringe more than smile. It surprises me this isn't seen more than it is cause even a dog recognizes this kind of disconnect.

 

This shit has reached beyond ludicrous.

The Other Billionaires Who Helped Clarence Thomas Live a Luxe Life — ProPublica

There is no way Thomas actually thought these freebies were ethical for a Supreme Court Justice.

There is no way the other Supreme Court Justices didn't know what Thomas was up to.

We need an enforceable strict Code of Ethics (COE) for the SCOTUS. Maybe if we didn't have the Republicans acting like babies having "No! No! No!" tantrums at nearly everything the Dems propose. And the nine justices have denied having a need any type of COE.

 

I agree it is really beyond the pale.
I'm also wondering just how much fabulous power and money erodes and corrupts your moral compass. Like if you can honestly believe your ok doing this stuff youse you really think honestly (but wrongly) that your fine with all this.
Look at Elon with his giant X held in place with -sand bags- sand bags holding a what, 30 foot tall sign on the edge of a 20 story building flashing like airport beacon across the street from residential building ? I mean that also is so beyond any any logical thinking it's just mind boggling, but for the ego boosting of endless money and one would think the endless stream of yes men/woman would just say yes to anything out of fear and the usual psychological process of disfinctional family/ elephant in the room sort of thing.

One becomes blind to ones own fau

 

Faults...I wanted to just edit the 3 letters but I get constant errors here and clearing cache never helped...
Sorry.. ! Back to scheduled programing !

 

Sometimes the software here does really strange things; most of my issues have occurred in the Politics sub-forum. Delayed posting is one thing, having your post turn to jumbled crap trying to make what should be a simple edit is something else.

It's good that @rogue49 is an active moderator who clears up the duplicates.

 

Is it possible to have checks and balances in government given that all branches can be populated by colluding bad people ?

Does power corrupt or is it a magnet to corruptible?
https://blog.apaonline.org/2022/03/...r-is-it-magnetic-to-the-most-corruptible/?amp

I don't think the article settles it completely.
I think that once in government, any branch, one is in the position to make decisions that either way compromise ones ideals which weaken and blur ones moral compass.
I think this rock and hard place position wears on ones psyche and then sort of a 'fuck it' attitude starts to grow and one seeks pleasure as relief like drugs, money and sex. So I still think that the complexity of government can turn one bad just because it's so hard on your moral sense.
So I agree power is a magnet but I also think it can turn good people bad. It's very possible maybe more likely that power is magnetic, or that the force of magnetism to the corrupt is stronger than altruism is on the good people.

So Bernie won't continue to seek the presidency but obviously trump will even as he rots in prison ( hopefully)

Clearly, SCOTUS needs clearly stated rules and probably a yearly financial review of financial gains and losses, including payroll and gifts and and family ties that are relevant like Roberts wife being a groomer for lawyers on specific cases. All this needs to be out and publicly accessible to anyone.
I'm not sure that SCOTUS can't be replaced by a machine really. Even considering that court decision 'machine' would be a human creation it could be done to work in a fair way I think. It would take a while to build it, but maybe soon with a.i. it can build itself =^}
But the main failure point will always be the human factor.

Edit...thanks @rogue49

 

I remember my first job out of highschool, there was a dude who once asked me, he the roach coach is here you want a coke ?
I said no, because I didn't want a coke and I also suspected he was setting me up to ask a favor. He bought me a coke anyway and sure enough later he asked me to take his paycheck so he wouldn't buy cocaine over the weekend.
SMH....Mom, did you send me here to work and learn about social manipulation ?? I'm sure she had no idea.

 

I'm going to need to read the article when I can dedicate more of my focus.

Thresholds vary from person to person. I think being part of a unique group can eventually bring down a higher threshold. I'm sure some of the LEOs with higher morals & ethics who stay quiet about bad LEOs do so because they're all LEOs, and that threshold grows lower with time (this also applies to many other professions).

NPD Trump brought in mostly corrupt people, & easily corrupted them further. Some of the few wide eyed innocents got sucked into the corruption, others were forced to play along.