David August βŒπŸ‘‘Feb 21
#USpol #Norway #taxes #tax
Show threadMichael Collins / Mr. 30㎝ / πŸ†πŸ’¦  πŸ”žFeb 21
@davidaugust
I don't think Americans pity anybody else's tax rate. You don't think most Americans don't know our for-profit healthcare system sucks? Do you think Americans honestly want to launch GoFundMes? SCOTUS has made it all but impossible for actual Americans to do fuck-all about anything. Citizens United basically allowed every politician to be openly bought and paid for.

Edit for the benefit of my European brothers and sisters:

We do not have a parliament. We are not even a democracy.

We are a Constitutional Republic. Our President isn't even democratically elected!

We elect State "Electors" that in-turn ELECT the President.

And there is FUCK-ALL any American citizen (or even group of Americans) can do to change or fix things WHEN WE HAVE A SUPREME COURT THAT IS ACTIVELY WORKING AGAINST US.

I think that's the biggest thing Europeans dont have a grasp on.
Show threadKen M Sweeney
@mike @davidaugust you can always put those armalites to use? I mean a hell of a lot of you did it before so you can keep profiteering from slavery so surely a insurrection to keep some semblance of freedom is a worthy cause?
Feb 21 at 2:08pmMastodon for Android
Show threadMichael Collins / Mr. 30㎝ / πŸ†πŸ’¦  πŸ”žFeb 21
@davidaugust @TheComfortableSpotPodcast
Have you seen our American Military? They no longer have muskets and bayonets any more. They have tanks and MRAPs and an unlimited supply of weapons and ammunition.

Do you honestly think any American, let alone even a "well armed milita" (words in the 2nd Amendment) can honestly stand up to the US Military? ISIS tried. Al Qaeda tried. The Taliban tried. And they were a helluva lot better armed (not to mention their home-turf advantage) and they couldn't.

So what makes you think any American citizen can?

This is no longer the 18th Century.
Show threadKen M SweeneyFeb 21
@mike @davidaugust to be honest, my original comment was in jest, but history does show that nations built on fragile democratic systems and deep internal divisions can unravel quickly β€” and when that happens, institutions, including the military, don’t always remain unified. 1)
Show threadKen M SweeneyFeb 21
@mike @davidaugust Comparing this to ISIS, Al-Qaeda, or the Taliban misses the point. Those weren’t conventional wars, and in the case of the Taliban, the outcome after 20 years is an even stronger Taliban in Afghanistan. The real risk in a constitutional crisis isn’t a militia β€œbeating” the U.S. military in open combat β€” it’s political fracture and divided loyalties within institutions themselves. History suggests that kind of breakdown is far more plausible than a Hollywood-style showdown. πŸ”š