*Shaving.

I hear Mayor McCheese is on his side though, he helped that greasy bastard out of a legal situation.

Unfortunately. Here’s to hoping him and trump go up on one of his rockets so the world can mourn them like we did the submarine idiots.

If I remember correctly, people assumed that Wheeler had a deep hatred in his heart for the cable company oligopoly in America which stonewalled his company/invention from taking root in the states. A brief look at his wiki page seems to tell some of that story, calling the Nabu Network “the internet, 10 years ahead of its time”. Imagine if you essentially invented the internet, the cable companies prevented your invention from coming to fruition, and then someone went and implemented it on phone lines instead shortly after.

There’s more to the story than just cable oligopoly rat fucks, including technical and arbitrary limitations of the technology, compared to the standardized open web we know.

Meanwhile, this guy is a straight up conservative hatchet man installed to damage and destabilize. He holds no grudges against the folks enriching him.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

There’s already been a couple attempts on his life, so your theory holds ground.

If the justice system worked the same way for everyone as it did for trump, it would be no different than not existing at all.

I mean, if he somehow championed and ushered in a single payer healthcare system, it might offset the awful shit being done elsewhere. He won’t, but that’s because “MAHA” is doing as much to make America healthy as “MAGA” is doing to make America great.

This should make tax season pressure free for new families, given the sudden uptick in octuplets birthed in the previous tax year. It’s nice not to have to worry about getting audited.

Besides, the IRS is definitely going to get turned into a political weapon, given that they’ve already accused Democrats of that, this is one of their next projections.

In this thread I’ve had two separate people mention the major problem with campaign finance or money in politics. And I think I have to agree, part of the reason that the Democrats are so disappointing because they serve the same masters.

Maybe that could be a concentrated goal and and the rallying cry for the Democrats approaching the midterms, that you shouldn’t even try to run on the Democratic ticket unless you’re going to push for campaign finance reform that ends citizens united. That might be a big enough change to start improving our democratic system.

I can certainly agree with the money in politics being an openly corrupt system. Maybe that’s the rallying cry for the midterms? The neo liberal status quo is indeed bullshit, and you’re right that they just toss us breadcrumbs. This is a big enough breadcrumb to make a difference though.

Unfortunately, not much given that this is the framework of the American democratic process. But, I think talking about it, openly and inviting new ideas to the mix, and encouraging people to vote in every election is a needed part of the process, while pessimism without solutions serves nobody and hinders progress.

It’s appropriate to be frustrated, but eventually we have to channel that frustration into action or it will disincentive everyone else from even trying.

Personally, I wish we had the economic freedom and class consciousness necessary to effectively protest. Eventually our economic troubles might be bad enough to completely override our “gotta make ends meet” inertia, but I hope we can improve things before that happens.

Do you have any ideas as to what we could do differently or more efficiently? We joke about it, but even revolution isnt out of the question if you can get enough support, the problem as always is that broad support.

Absolutely. Political funding is broken thanks in large part to citizens United. Campaign finance reform certainly should be a campaign item for any progressive candidate.

I think that’s appropriately cautious. It may be more safe and feasible in solidly blue cities/towns/districts, and it will have to get a lot more support than the tea party did for it to have any hope at spreading to “battleground” elections without serious risk.

I agree on every point, though I do feel like alternative parties to the Democrats can be successful in local and state elections, much like how the tea party has found some successes in more local politics. And I would say if locally people start successfully voting in more progressive alternatives, it will result in irrefutable proof that progressive policies are the winning move.

But, that starts local. It starts small, not big. And it starts where politicians impact you the most, your local community.

1000%, let’s encourage people to vote in democratic primaries anytime we see this “both sides” sentiment. Thank you!

We agree. We have about 3 years until the next presidential election cycle, maybe, and we either need to challenge the Democratic party, or improve it.

Instead of pessimism, do you have any ideas?

I don’t even know if we have to bankrupt them anymore. I think a Biden executive order just stopped or severely limited credit reporting on medical debt, and I don’t think trump or musk has fucked that one back up.

But what they did do is fuck up the CFPB, so these debt collectors are going to get away with more fraud fueled bullshit. But I wonder if you can simply report any medical debt that does show up to be inaccurate based on the Biden EO.

There still are laws in place, the dumb dickheads just fired some of the enforcers. Now, debt collectors are going to have to try to garner your wages, and if you’re smart enough, you’ll go into court with evidence that you have been following the process of law, and they haven’t since the enforcers are gone, and it’ll just further roadblock the debt collecting scumbags.

That is of course, in a just world. In the real world, very few will know about their rights and recourse, and all it takes is one shitty judge with prejudice to ruin lives, as usual.

So let’s get this right.

They currently have care, including preventative care. If we remove them from Medicaid, they will no longer be able to afford care, even preventative care.

The only doctor’s office that can’t turn them down based on their ability to pay is the emergency room, the most expensive form of healthcare in America.

So instead of preventing large medical bills and keeping emergency rooms manageable, we’re going to instead shift the burden onto hospitals, fill emergency rooms, who as usual, shift this burden onto the paying customers (also us, btw), at the most expensive rate possible.

Yep, sounds like a republican plan to me.

I figured as much, I was just wondering if it made any difference since in general law enforcement tends to worship the military. Don’t get me wrong, you certainly should respect voluntary service, but the way they do it… Ew.