You crooked motherfucker

President Joe Biden has suggested he will appoint progressive justices to the Supreme Court if he wins a second term in the White House in November.

"The next president, they're going to be able to appoint a couple of justices... Look, if in fact we're able to change some of the justices when they retire and put in really progressive judges like we've always had, tell me that won't change your life," he said during a campaign rally in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

...on Tuesday, the former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was all over social media for a picture taken of her during a visit to Israel. In the picture, Haley – the one Republican who had been frequently lauded for her smarts on foreign policy – is seen squatting down in front of a row of Israeli artillery shells, likely provided by the United States, with pen in hand. “Finish them,” she wrote on one of the shells.

The evidence indicates that Nikki Haley can write, but one must wonder if she can read.

Amazing jabs by the author aside, the cruelty and the callousness and the bigotry displayed by those deadset on supporting Israel is both astonishing and horrifying.

What makes this genocidal unity of Democrat and Republican all the more horrific and rage-inducing is that, despite the war-mongering messages emanating from America’s politicians and media pundits, all the polls repeatedly show that the American people want a ceasefire in Gaza, not a genocide. One of the latest surveys, a Data for Progress poll published in early May, found that seven out of 10 likely voters “support the US calling for a permanent ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza”. This position was endorsed by majorities of Democrats (83%), independents (65%) and Republicans (56%).

The [Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention] concluded their position this way: “Humanity has a choice: Either we decide that our children can all be killed whenever a superior force alleges that ‘terrorists’ are among us, or we decide that under no circumstances will we allow these superior forces to lay waste to our world any longer. We each must choose and act accordingly. The watershed moment is now.”

The Lemkin Institute exhibits the kind of moral clarity that we must demand from our leaders. If we don’t, the Nikki Haleys of this world will be signing more than bombs. By endorsing the genocide that the people don’t support, these politicians are also signing the death certificate of our own democracy.

In Atlanta, the George Floyd demonstrators are being prosecuted as gang members. The activists of today could be next.

A great writeup on Atlanta's Cop City protests, and the political establishment's wider response to protests in a post-BLM world (hint: it's not to listen to protestors' concerns).

Trump Republicans tried to take over the hall (assisted by the Secret Service confiscating noisemakers) and hijack the Libertarian convention. They lined up early then stole the front row seats marked reserved. It all backfired wonderfully.

Just like Hitler before him, Trump is benefiting from the fact that journalism is an incremental, daily business. Every day, reporters have to find something new to write or broadcast. Trump keeps saying dangerous and crazy things, but that’s not new. He’s said it all before. His impeachments and the January 6 insurrection happened years ago. True, he has been indicted four times and now faces up to four criminal trials, but that’s already been reported. What’s new today?

For political reporters covering the campaign, that means usually treating Trump’s authoritarian promises as “B-matter.” That’s an old newspaper phrase that refers to the background information that reporters gather about a story’s subject. B-matter is usually exiled to the bottom of an article — if not cut entirely to save space or time.

But the horrifying truth is that when Trump’s dictatorial ambitions are left on the cutting room floor as B-matter, America is in trouble.

Autocrats in China, Russia, and elsewhere are now making common cause with MAGA Republicans to discredit liberalism and freedom around the world.

Fascinating little window

• Almost 60% of respondents wrongly believe that the country is in a recession (it hasn’t been since 2020)
• 55% believe the economy is shrinking (it is growing)
• 49% say unemployment is at a 50-year high (it’s close to a 50-year low)
• 58% said the reason the economy is worsening is due to Biden’s mismanagement

On the issue of Gaza, Biden is dramatically out of touch with the voters he needs to win re-election. If he will not be moved by morality to stop his support of this war, he should be moved by vulgar self-interest. Gaza is not a distant foreign conflict: it is an urgent moral emergency for large swaths of voters. Biden will lose those voters – and may indeed lose the election – if he does not cease his support of these atrocities.

Biden has that rare opportunity in politics: to help the country, and himself, by doing the right thing. But he must do so now. Both the Palestinian people and his own election prospects are running out of time.

Found this article from 2016 and thought that it is actually a good theory of where we are now as a society.

The rest are my thoughts on this:

The ultimatum game is an experiment a dealer has a 100$ and they are able to offer you any split of the money they like and keep the rest for themselves. If you reject the offer no one gets any money. It has been shown that after increasingly unfair offers people tend to reject the offer even though it isn't a rational move.

People seem to be in a place where they see the benefits of society are unequally distributed and are becoming more willing to throw out the whole system even if it comes at huge cost to them.

We are seeing the same thing with what is happening in New Caledonia with the riots or with even with just people moving off established social media.

It seems like level of awfulness that makes people willing to just say fuck it all is different for everyone but with more occurrences of this happening I do think we are reaching a tipping point on a global scale.

This is actually a part of the reason why I believe countries are starting to regulate social media is so that people aren't reminded of these problems as often.

For example China recently made a law that is going to repress showing wealth on social media. So this is an attempt to hide the problem instead of actually facing it.

This is also related to the US election. Rationally people should choose Biden over Trump but according to the polls it seems like it being the "rational" choice isn't enough.

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