I write a blog that focuses on public information, public health, and policy: https://pimento-mori.ghost.io/
🙄 reconstruction was a response to oligarchs who wanted to ignore progress. They have always fought laws and regulations that threatened their power. There was literally a civil war fought over this.
America's unending struggle between Oligarchy and Democracy
Even after losing a war, they continued to scheme and manipulate others to stack the decks in their favor. They continued to do it after the first reconstruction, and the second reconstruction, and they will certainly do it again after the 3rd.
That's why it is (and always will be) a completely bullshit argument that the safety nets, laws, and regulations created to keep these assholes in check, allegedly no longer serve a purpose and only serve to place an unfair burden on society based on the mistakes of the past.
The callousness, selfishness, and greed that fueled the "mistakes" of the past were never unique to the time period. They have always just been human flaws, and should serve as reminders that every human is corruptible. The worst traits of humanity are never just magically going to disappear someday. They exist in every corner of the world, under every government. They always have and they always will.
USSR
Uhh....
History should teach you that the co-founder of the Heritage Foundation was traveling around Moscow and Eastern Europe when the Soviet Union collapsed, but it never really gets talked about for some reason.
A conservative who essentially birthed Project 2025 and is famously quoted as saying "I don't want everyone to vote," was sneaking in computers and other electronics to Soviet dissidents while teaching soviet politicians all about American "democracy" just prior to the collapse.
Then he and several other members of Heritage were ready to fill the power vacuum and help establish the first go between for U.S. and Russian capitalist businesses.
"You capture the Soviet Union --I'm going to capture the states."-Thomas Roe, Heritage Foundation board member and founder of the State Policy Network to fellow Heritage Foundation board member Robert Krieble.
In 1989, the Krieble Institute was created "to promote democracy and economic freedom in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe."
1989: A Republican in Moscow (WaPo article about Weyrich holding mock elections)
PBS Documentary about Weyrich and Krieble involvement in Collapse of USSR Playing For Power (2012)
•to move us from our undemocratic present to a more democratic future, we need to institutionalize our commitments to a more inclusive and responsive democracy in more durable forms. These might encompass everything from alternative economic regulatory institutions and new approaches to anti-discrimination to a more universal safety net that secures the essential guarantees of health, housing, and income that individuals and communities need to thrive.
•A second reconstructionist strategy lies in containing reactionary power and backlash. We should presume that there will always be efforts to roll back egalitarian expansions of democracy. Part of how democracies survive and thrive is through institutions that contain the potential resurgence of anti-democratic policies and forces. The democratic institutions of the future will similarly need to develop ways to contain authoritarian power. This will require laws and institutions that respond to techniques that are emerging in the current moment, such as new forms of state and private surveillance, or the weaponization of presidential control of funding flows.
•The third institutional transformation strategy is to democratize our governing institutions, making policymaking more directly responsive to and shaped by ordinary constituents. One important area is the balance of power between the branches. Even before Trump, the trend has been to centralize power in an imperial presidency. The legislature, by contrast, has been central to past moments of democratization. Any future reconstructionist agenda will need to be built on congressional majorities and a legislature willing to check and permanently shift away from the overreliance on presidential power.
Which socialist country would be the best example?
Capitalists only have the power they do because of the state, if we smash and replace it they have no power.
The state, as well as the public and private military and resources they hoard and control.
Like which countries specifically? Bc I can almost guarantee there is currently a far right disinformation campaign targeted at undermining that country's government.
Ok, but how do we get there? How do we keep oligarchs, (like the ones who own Palantir and work with other oligarchs like Netenyahu using remote weapons of mass genocide to fight for them and gain ground in order to control others), from taking advantage of the power vacuum left by destabilization?
What makes you think oligarchs haven't been continuing to undermine and dismantle the second reconstruction this entire time, and aren't using their established global institutions (like banks, corporations, and conservative think tanks) to do exactly what they've been projecting and accusing progressives of doing?
Do you honestly think there isn't a good chance a global cabal of far right conservatives might be ready to use their collective wealth and resources they hoard and pass down for generations to take full global control?
Or Steve Kangas on the Origins of the overclass and the crimes of the CIA
I don't really get how that contradicts needing a 3rd reconstruction that dismantles the government agencies that carry out that kind of shit and didn't even exist until WWII rather than dismantling a democracy?
you guys are just upset it is happening at home now and not Iraq.
Can't argue with you there, but that's also part of what makes me question who's best interest would be dismantling U.S. democracy instead of dismantling specific agencies within the government, with no plan for where we go next?
Because it kinda seems like those agencies would carry on doing whatever they want even after a union fully dissolves. They would just have fewer obstacles in their way.
When you think about how an American agency, for example, the CIA operates this playbook in other countries, what is their intended goal?
Their goal is to destabilize a country in order to remove any obstacles to taking full control. They usually achieve destabilization by undermining public trust in a system and the leaders of that system, so that the public will either dismantle the government for them or be less resistant once it is dismantled (see the Soviet Union in the late 80s). Once that happens, they already hold all the resources and power, and install somebody they already have lined up.
Considering that there seems to currently be a global campaign to spread disinformation and install far right leaders across the globe, it makes me question if this is happening everywhere bc global destabilization is the goal.
Currently, just about anywhere in the world, who holds the majority of the resources? The people or a small group of oligarchs? When destabilization happens and a local government collapses who has the upper hand when it comes to filling the power vacuum?
The Case for a Third Reconstruction
The scale and depth of the attack on our institutions means that there is no simple way for a pro-democracy coalition to flip the lights back on after Trump. We need transformative thinking.
Idk shits really crazy right now, and I think everybody is kind of dissociating to some extent.
It might not be that your friends don't want to see you, but just that everyone is so overwhelmed that it makes normal feel impossible.
It's just kind of like everything feels like it's barely hanging on by a thread, and it makes focusing on anything very difficult. Then that turns into a cycle of fuck I forgot to reply to this person 2 days ago, I can't just reply now like nothing happened. Then that gets added to the ever growing list of things you're avoiding bc you didn't even mean to avoid them in the first place
It's the size of the box not the fact that there's no information about the candidates jfc
The size of the text for the names of the candidates is smaller than even the text of the small individual Yes/No boxes for the propositions.
It's not that they're less important. These were very important propositions, but normally the election and proposition boxes are the same size.
This was an election where an incumbent candidate from a local political family had already done some things that seemed to undermine getting people to vote in the election.
There is a common misconception in Louisiana that if you have a felony conviction that you cannot vote – this is wrong (check out if you are eligible). Mr. Lombard promised to update the Clerk of Court’s website with the eligibility criteria a potential voter must meet if they have a felony conviction. As of today, the Clerk’s Website fails to share this essential voting information. This is not a great look for the City’s Chief Election Officer.
Up until September 5, 2025, under Mr. Lombard’s leadership, the Clerk of Court’s website listed wrong dates for the next election, and listed the wrong voter registration deadlines.
It's either coincidental incompetence of the guy up for re-election, or more examples of the much bigger problem Louisiana has historically had when it comes to undermining the democratic process.
Nobody is (usually) standing at polling booths armed in order to intimidate people, but can you really call these passive aggressive attempts to test the boundaries and undermine equal participation "respect" for democracy?
I think it says a lot that they keep bothering with this passive aggressive shit. Why bother trying to stack the deck in your favor if you truly didn't need to worry about how it's stacked?
Democracy is trapped under the boot of oligarchy and corruption, but I don't believe it's quite dead yet. Looks like Duncan won by ~67%
Calvin Duncan projected to win hotly contested criminal court clerk race against Darren Lombard
Mildly Infuriating @lemmy.world New Orleans ballot for clerk of criminal court runoff election today. Large boxes are city propositions. Tiny box in the top left corner is for the actual runoff...🔎
Land owning isn't meant to be for serfs lol.
I had a friend from Germany who mentioned once that owning property there is very rare for most people unless they're from very old conservative generational wealth. He said that houses and property often end up passed down in the same families over and over. He was well educated and happy with his career, but he never had any kind of expectation he would get to own property at some point in his life.
Not sure where you're from, but it kind of feels like the U.S. is becoming more and more like that. Except, we also don't get healthcare, and to even get the privilege of an education people are increasingly having to take on a level of debt that one would expect to take on as an investment in property even though there is no guarantee your investment will pay off. It's concerning though, that when this is pointed out to people, it's often cited as a reason you just shouldn't bother with college.
Owning private property is becoming more and more a privilege reserved for only the elite, not an expectation or "entitlement." Ok, well that kind of sucks, but I guess you don't have to own property to have a decent life.
But, then it's clear we're supposed to accept that healthcare is somehow also becoming a privilege reserved for the elite and not an expectation or "entitlement?"
And, we're hearing conservatives, often from backgrounds of generational wealth, talk more and more about abolishing the department of education. So, that means that soon we could be expected to view education of any kind (not just college) as something we're not "entitled" to.
It's also clear that many of the people creating these policies, and encouraging other people not to waste their time on worthless college degrees, were born into lives where our "entitlements" are simply their default expectations.
However, when they address their voters, it's always the "entitled" and the "educated elites," who are somehow responsible for their hardships, the overall decline in their quality of life, and the lack of opportunities and resources that have gradually become the default expectation for most Americans.
The "entitled" takers who want to be handed what can only be obtained through hard work and sacrifice that will pay off as long as you really try. And if it doesn't, you shouldn't start asking questions of "why," like those educated elites, you should just accept that you must have done something, that those who have what you don't, would have done differently, in order to rise to the top.
I'm smart enough to know that the reason I don't own property and probably never will, isn't because I haven't tightened my belt enough, or pulled myself up by my bootstraps, or because of my worthless college degree that has brainwashed me into believing I'm entitled to something I'm not.
Neither of my parents went to college, yet they were always told the same bullshit when they asked too many questions about why the game always felt so rigged no matter how hard you tried.
I agree that the money is either going back; one way or another; to either the military industrial complex or silicon valley and aoc is guilty of more than indirectly helping isreal avoid criticism.
Except that in this case, as a House representative, AOC was presented with 2 options. Neither option was to take away funding from the military industrial complex, which relies on technology developed by billionaires in silicon valley who invest in start ups and new technology that is then fed back into the complex.
Her options were to vote yes or no on a proposal by MGT to reroute funding from Israel for the iron dome (which the U.S. has been funding since it's creation in 2011) to U.S. border security, where it would then be given to Peter Thiel to invest and help develop more war tech. Somehow she's a villain for not voting to reroute the money from existing defense technology that literally just acts a shield for Israel, into Thiel's new technology developments.
That was what MGT was actually offering. That is what is being defended and used as propaganda, as if AOC supporting it would have meant fewer lives would be lost in the genocide. It wouldn't.
AOC did indeed fuck up with how she voted on the resolution about antisemitic language, specifically because it allows Israel to claim that comparisons of Israel to Nazis is antisemitic. I strongly disagree with her, and I don't know why she supported it, but I am not seeing how her fucking up in this case makes her guilty of anything other than indirectly helping Israel avoid criticism?.
The iron dome is a fucking dome that keeps weapons fired from outside of Israel from entering Israel.
It really doesn't matter how you try to rationalize it. The funding would have gone back into the company that has enabled genocide to happen.
You're supporting something that was meant to redirect money to Peter Thiel, but disguised as somehow being helpful for Palestine because it was taking money from the Israeli defense shield that Peter Thiel is in the process of copying.
It's a fucking scheme. More money for Thiel/Palantir means more money for the campaign contributions and/or the investments of the hypocrites in congress (MTG, Massie, Kahnna, probably many more) that do his bidding by peddling this bullshit. AOC may be guilty of indirectly helping Israel avoid deserved criticism, but every time you fall for this dumb shit you're being sold, you're directly helping Peter Theil continue to enable the fucking genocide to happen. And since he continues to be so successful, it's not stopping with Israel and Gaza. It's spreading around the fucking globe like a disease. Congratulations 👏
Do you actually know what the iron dome is? Hint: it's not a weapon.
Coincidentally, given that you're ignoring everything else about the proposal redirecting funding, and especially the dark money that's also funding the person that created the proposal,, do you know who just happens to be in the process of building a competitor to the iron dome? And who also would be receiving that redirected money through the government contracts one of his companies has with U.S. immigration customs enforcement? The same company that is providing Israel with the AI being used to carry out genocide.
And yeah I do think it was a shitty thing for AOC to vote in favor of a definition that gives Israel too much protection, but it's more than a bit of a stretch to call that greenlighting genocide, especially given what you're criticizing her for not supporting.
Pointing out the truth behind her not voting to stop funding going into the iron dome, given that the funding would be directed back to Palantir isn't a deflection. It's just the reality of what's beneath the surface of the bullshit that you're apparently falling for.
Sick burn.
Not to mention that MTG wanted that funding redirected to the fascist bullshit she supports at the U.S. border. It's interesting that Thomas Massie also voted in favor of this bill given he and MTG are part of the Thiel dark money "progressive" team along with hypocrites like Ro Kahnna, who pretend to support Palestine, yet hold investments in fucking Palantir.
Funny @sh.itjust.works I can't really explain it, but the combination of all the details in this one screen shot is just really funny to me
Mildly Infuriating @lemmy.world 6 AM Monday. Dreading whatever fresh hell awaits this week. Cranky, definitely getting a cold. Barely awake. Husband starts blasting this song that is now stuck in my head for all eternity.
They are attempting to undermine and dismantle it. It took over 50 years of scheming and clawing their way into government to gain enough power to try and tear down from the inside out.
And they will continue to attack and try to dismantle it. That's what enemies and bad actors will always do. That's why the article lays out a strategy for creating a system that allows more flexibility in response to these attacks.