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0 pointsSpooky231y ago0 comments

JFK wrote a book called “Profiles in Courage” - no courageous people are around.

The “coup” happened a long time ago. The US has demonstrated that there’s no rule of law at the federal level for some time now. Once the Chief Justice leaned back and tolerated the open sale of the court, that was basically it.

We don’t have the same system of governance anymore… we’re like Italy 1936 or Argentina in 1948 now. We’ll invade Greenland instead of Ethiopia, and skip the funny hats.

The question is do we continue on this trajectory or is there a real coup with tanks on DC streets at some point.

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davidw1y ago

This piece sums it up pretty well:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/opinion/trump-musk-federa...

The world as we knew it is gone and we're not going back.

rocky_raccoon1y ago

> skip the funny hats.

I don't know about that part... those red ball caps are pretty goofy looking.

Integrape1y ago

The mark of the beast

rayiner1y ago

I’m pretty sure the coup happened in the 1930s when the government created the modern system of unaccountable executive agencies and a Supreme Court, under duress, approved it.

Spooky23OP1y ago

For nearly a hundred years, the people have voted for those reforms. That’s called governance and democracy. Reactionary people have always been upset about any change.

This using an unaccountable fall guy to break the law at will, so that congress can avoid accountability is gross. Folks with your opinion like to wax on about constitutional principles, blah blah blah, as we stand by and watch the shitshow that is happening right now.

rayiner1y ago

Ignoring the constitution isn't a "reform" it's lawlessness. There's no other developed country in the world where the government's actual structure is so divorced from its written constitution.

People voted for the administrative state in the 1930s, and they've been voting to cut back on it since 1980. Since then, the only President who won elections without promising to shrink government were Obama (in response to the disaster of Iraq and the Great Recession) and Biden (in response to COVID).

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oramit1y ago

Why this amorphous "the government" wording? The people elected Congress and Presidents, who did this over decades with popular support. Executive agencies are not unaccountable. They have specific charters and there is a huge volume of rules they have to follow. eg:(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_Procedure_Act). Congress writes their budgets every year and the heads of those agencies are reviewed at congressional and presidential levels.

rayiner1y ago

> unaccountable

Accountability means democratic accountability. The APA is not meaningful democratic accountability--it just means that lawyers like me end up running the country.

MichaelZuo1y ago

Yeah it’s hard to reconcile a permanent layer of unelected officials, that can’t be sacked by either the President or Congress, with many parts of the constitution.

And I’ve never seen a clear explanation of how that change was constitutionally justifiable.

daveguy1y ago

Congress has the power to impeach any federal official.

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Spooky23OP1y ago

They can be fired, there’s a variety of processes to do so.

The obsession with firing people is this weird narrative the right wingers are always obsessed with. The cognitive dissonance between these high and mighty principles and what our principled republican colleagues have and will do is beyond ridiculous.

Functional government is the goal of any mature stakeholder. We have 100+ years of spoils system that aptly demonstrates why that methodology doesn’t make sense in a modern society.

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davidw1y ago

This piece sums it up pretty well:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/opinion/trump-musk-federa...

The world as we knew it is gone and we're not going back.

rocky_raccoon1y ago

> skip the funny hats.

I don't know about that part... those red ball caps are pretty goofy looking.

Integrape1y ago

The mark of the beast

rayiner1y ago

I’m pretty sure the coup happened in the 1930s when the government created the modern system of unaccountable executive agencies and a Supreme Court, under duress, approved it.

Spooky23OP1y ago

For nearly a hundred years, the people have voted for those reforms. That’s called governance and democracy. Reactionary people have always been upset about any change.

rayiner1y ago

Ignoring the constitution isn't a "reform" it's lawlessness. There's no other developed country in the world where the government's actual structure is so divorced from its written constitution.

1 more reply

oramit1y ago

rayiner1y ago

> unaccountable

Accountability means democratic accountability. The APA is not meaningful democratic accountability--it just means that lawyers like me end up running the country.

MichaelZuo1y ago

Yeah it’s hard to reconcile a permanent layer of unelected officials, that can’t be sacked by either the President or Congress, with many parts of the constitution.

And I’ve never seen a clear explanation of how that change was constitutionally justifiable.

daveguy1y ago

Congress has the power to impeach any federal official.

1 more reply

Spooky23OP1y ago

They can be fired, there’s a variety of processes to do so.

Functional government is the goal of any mature stakeholder. We have 100+ years of spoils system that aptly demonstrates why that methodology doesn’t make sense in a modern society.

1 more reply

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