Doctor Memory
Brilliant system we've got here. A racist game show host flukes his way into the presidency by losing the popular vote by three million and so he gets to install three Supreme Court justices and they get to un-do the last 50 years of legislation and jurisprudence. Wow, such popular mandate, very democracy.
Jun 30, 2023 at 4:06pmWeb
Show threadDoctor MemoryJun 30, 2023

Of the many, many depressing counterfactuals from my lifetime watching and being subject to american politics that I sometimes contemplate while drinking heavily, the world where Thurgood Marshall managed to hold on for 18 more months and have his successor appointed by Bill Clinton is one of the most agonizing to realize we missed by inches.

(In fairness to Marshall himself, this was not at _all_ an obvious or even plausible scenario in October 1991.)

Show threadDoctor MemoryJul 2, 2023
Okay, 24 hours after this post started doing numbers and I have to say, fediverse, I’m happily surprised. I did get one deranged fucknut going on about “communism” but so far at least none of you have felt the urge to demonstrate your mastery of elementary-school civics lessons by portentously informing me that the US is “a republic, not a democracy.” (Inevitably with a marble bust avatar.) Gold stars all around, please keep up the good work.
Show threadAndresJun 30, 2023

@memory Don't forget The Other Guy who managed to luck* into the presidency despite losing both the popular vote and the electoral college, and then used 9/11 as an excuse to kill lots of people, roll back a bunch of rights, and also installed two more terrible justices.

* I guess a partisan SCOTUS isn't really "luck", but you know what I mean

Show threadJohn ShirleyJul 1, 2023
@Andres4NY @memory yeah the supreme court gave the election to Bush...
Show threadNathanael NerodeJun 30, 2023

@memory Has nothing to do with the law or the Constitution, either. The Constitution says:

"Judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour."

This is written as a self-executing provision.

Constitutionally, Thomas and Alito are not judges -- they've actually confessed to taking bribes. Why does Biden pretend that they're judges, rather than arresting them for their crimes?

Show threadNathanael NerodeJun 30, 2023

@memory The people who wrote the Constitution were lawyers. They could have said "Judges shall hold their offices until impeached". They didn't. They could have said "Judges shall hold their offices until found guilty of bad behavior." They didn't.

They knew what they wrote. "shall hold their offices during good behaviour". It's self-executing.

Thomas and Alito aren't judges, Constitutionally. People are just pretending that they are for some reason.

Show threadHello, yes, this is GreglyJun 30, 2023
@neroden I mean, they’re such strict constitutionalists, you’d think they’d want to stick to the exact letter of the text, right? 😅
Show threadMark TomczakJun 30, 2023
@neroden It’s not up to him. Congress, however, can definitely impeach them. Well within their purview.
Show threadMidwest BobJun 30, 2023
@memory And remember that the game show host really did not understand a thing of what he was doing, but merely following orders from Moscow Mitch and Putin.
Show threadInfosec V'gerJun 30, 2023
@memory @Nonya_Bidniss I seem to remember the orange menace saying during the 2016 campaign “what do you have to lose?” Quite a lot, it turns out.
Show threadMrShoggothJun 30, 2023
@memory - On the other hand we get a day off to eat wieners and drink beer every year… 🤷🏽‍♂️
Show threadtoxtethogradyJun 30, 2023
@memory Actually, the fact that they undid precedent means the next Court can undo everything they just did. And claim it was done in error...
Show threadMycotropicJul 1, 2023
@toxtethogrady @memory
#604 am I right!
Show threadLevkaJun 30, 2023
@memory
#oligarchs
(thread)
https://twitter.com/intercepts1a/status/1223429318065315840
Open Source Intel on Twitter

“America isn't a democracy. It's not even a republic. It's an #oligarchy. We're ruled by #oligarchs. They *own* us. We're their livestock. Politicians are their puppets.”

Twitter
Show threadNiels Nielsen, geographerJun 30, 2023
@memory USA must have very strong rule of law (or is it Constitution?), since the highest court has so much power.
Show threadNed YeungJun 30, 2023

@memory

My fellow Canadians in Alberta are watching the very same thing unfold before our eyes. :( #abpoli

Show thread🇺🇦 Johnydon  he/himJul 1, 2023
@ned @memory
Pierre is also watching.
Show threadleemeadeJun 30, 2023
@memory
*70 years... and counting.
Show threadMcWabbit🐰 has movedJul 1, 2023
@memory So, if proven that TFG not only is a national security threat, but also turned out he was a sock puppet of russia (let's be honest here, he was and still is): Would that illegitimate his presidency and all his policies and appointees, like SCOTUS?
I know this is a complicated and unprecedented matter and lawyers will make mincemeat of my simple minded brain fart.
But it *should* be as simple as that. Traitor president = all the decisions he made did should be overturned.
Show threadJefJul 1, 2023
@memory
That court that will undo 75 yrs of progress in one term …
Show threadFrankJul 2, 2023
@memory correct me if I’m wrong, but a republican hasn’t won the popular vote in the last four decades. They basically only have power ever because our system is designed to subvert the will of the people to keep a minority of regressive aasholes from flipping out. In any functional democracy the Republican Party would have lost its political power and influence almost fifty years ago.
Show threadDoctor MemoryJul 2, 2023
@frankmseattle I'm afraid that's not correct: 40 years takes us back to 1983 -- Reagan won the popular vote by a landslide in 84, GHWB by a smaller but still substantial margin in 88, and while GWB lost it in 2000 he won the popular vote handily in 2004. The fluky elections were 2000 and 2016, not that those weren't bad enough.