I mean Amerikkka at this point does kinda feel "post-politics" in the way the average observer tends to understand politics - which is of course extremely limited in scope by design; wouldn't want to give people the idea they can still demand things from their government that some bought and paid for minion on the ballot won't offer, right?
That having been said, Reich is correct on pretty much all points here. I will quote some of the key points below:
"Vought threatened to permanently fire more federal employees if the Democrats didn’t vote to continue funding the government. But nothing stopped Vought from doing it before the shutdown, and the shutdown presents no greater opportunity for him to do so."
Correct. It's honestly what's been tilting me about the media printing OVER AND OVER AND OVER that "a shutdown would let Trump fire X employees" - you been in a coma for 8 months? Nobody needs to LET Trump fire govt workers; he doing it.
"As a practical matter, the US government has been “shut down” for more than eight months, since Trump took office this second time."
Yes. Again, it's been 8 months of shuttering ANYTHING that fucking helps people, open corruption, and mega-funding a fascist police state. The US government does not, in any reasonable sense of the word, exist anymore - only the police state and capital/ists.
"But this shutdown is different.
For one thing, it’s the consequence of a decision, made in July by Trump and Senate Republicans, to pass Trump’s gigantic “big beautiful bill” (which I prefer to term “the big ugly” bill) without any Democratic votes.
They could do that because of an arcane Senate procedure called “reconciliation”, which allowed the big ugly to get through with just 51 votes rather than the normal 60 required to overcome a filibuster."
Yes. More commentary below.
That budget NEVER should have been allowed through the reconciliation process, but because America is a pull-string fake ass democracy its founding slaver oligarchs PURPOSELY DESIGNED to prosecute their interests above all others, those rules don't really mean anything.
This is relevant - not one Democrat voted for that bill, because it's literally designed to murder potentially millions of fucking people so guys like Peter Thiel can buy a 4th yacht.
Drastically put, but exactly, alas.
As I summed up something I had written more than 2 years ago:
👉The #UnitedStates have a built-in systemic error: they were built as a #SlaverNation:👈
[alternative link:]
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/112343700311747554
This error is engrained in virtually all #US institutions. One *could* even argue that the #SystemicRacism is an incurable, possibly even fatal flaw of the #AmericanExperiment..."
@HistoPol @AnarchoNinaWrites the fundamental conceit of asserting "All men are created equal" while simultaneously having some men own other men (don't get me started on where women even fit in here, because they didn't) is wholly and completely incompatible. It's like having a bright dark or a silent noise.
And every action taken to try and reconcile this has been little more than marketing campaigns since then.
(1/n)
Up front: I don't disagree with your statement.
Here's attempt at explaining the cognitive dissonance of the Great American Experiment:
"All men are created equal..."
As Nina, rightly points out, things have to be seen in context. Here, in the respective historical context of the 2nd half of the 18th century:
#ThomasJefferson’s “all men are created equal” is a foundational moral claim: no one has a natural right to rule others;...
(2/n)
... 👉 people share basic natural rights and political equality in legitimacy.👈
The important #FederalistPapers...
@AnarchoNinaWrites @lerxst @az
(3/n)
...show founders translating that moral‑political principle into 👉institutional design that protects rights and stability but does not assume or impose economic/social leveling👈. They therefore treated equality primarily as political/legal equality and as a normative starting point for building a constitutional republic, not as immediate social or material equality.
Also, we all know that genetically, we weren't created equal. And even if, like several @AnarchoNinaWrites @az
identical twins., the The more they grow up, oftentimes the more they become dissimilar. So being born equal does not mean that you end up being the same in the longer run..
//
AnarchoNinaWrites
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
Ludwig Vielfrass