Rottcodd

@Rottcodd@lemmy.world

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Rottcodd ,

Transparent astroturfing.

The staff is laying a foundation so that when Trump - an arrogant, oblivious nitwit with the attention span of a five-year-old - inevitably comes out of it the obvious loser - they will already have the base primed to believe that that somehow reflects poorly on... Biden.

Rottcodd ,

Literally, officially, it's now entirely legal under federal law for officials to accept and even solicit bribes for specific services rendered, just so long as they do it after, rather than before, the service is rendered.

They aren't even pretending to be a legitimate court of law any more - they're just a rubber-stamping service for the oligarchy.

Rottcodd ,

Right. Go back and reread it - that's what I said.

Rottcodd ,

The Supreme Court basically just ruled that it's perfectly acceptable for officials to accept and even ask for bribes, just so long as they wait a few weeks after the service for which the bribe is meant to pay.

Seriously. That's exactly what this ruling in effect says - that bribes are only bribes if they're paid before the service is rendered, and if they're paid after, that's perfectly fine.

And people still wonder why I'm such a cynic...

Rottcodd ,

They called it a gratuity to try to divert attention from the bludgeoningly obvious fact that it's just a postdated bribe.

This is what this country has come to. In the face of an ever-growing failure of the government to represent the will of the people because their influence has been bought and paid for by moneyed interests, the Supreme Court is legalizing bribery.

Of course, it's certainly not a coincidence that one of the institutions that's been bought and paid for is the Supreme Court itself.

Rottcodd ,

I don't see any possible way it couldn't. Every official is going to expect a "gratuity" in exchange for approving a contract, and every contractor who expects to succeed is going to go into every deal with the understanding that they're going to be expected to pay a "gratuity" after the deal is finalized.

The upshot of it all can only be wholly institutionalized pay-to-play, with only the ultimately entirely meaningless requirement that the payment has to be deferred instead of up front.

Supreme Court wipes out anti-corruption law that bars officials from taking gifts for past favors ( www.latimes.com )

The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down part of a federal anti-corruption law that makes it a crime for state and local officials to take gifts valued at more than $5,000 from a donor who had previously been awarded lucrative contracts or other government benefits thanks to the efforts of the official....

Rottcodd ,

So as near as I can tell, the Supreme Court's goal is to create some vague illusion that corruption is not to be tolerated by making it a crime if and only if people with a specific interest in a specific ruling or piece of legislation offer a substantial amount of money or something of equivalent value while clearly communicating their intent to buy the influence of an official and said official then accepts the bribe, clearly announces their intent to act according to the bribe-payer's wishes solely because they've been paid to, then does so.

And in literally ALL other cases, it somehow won't count and will be entirely legal.

Rottcodd ,

Yes - it's pretty much a given, cynically, that a corrupt court is going to rule that corruption is legal.

As I often do, I wonder if this is going to be one of the things that future historians will point to as a notable event in the days leading up to the collapse of the US.

Rottcodd ,

Already did, though instead of the bot, I blocked the entire instance.

GOP resolution calls on SCOTUS to ‘intervene’ in Trump’s hush money case ( www.politico.com )

Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution Friday urging the Supreme Court to “intervene” in the hush money case against former President Donald Trump before the 2024 election — a move that experts say is a political stunt that faces significant legal obstacles....

Rottcodd ,

I would agree that Americans need to make "informed decisions" in the upcoming election - for instance, they need to be "informed" of the fact that one of the candidates is a convicted felon.

And on another note, here's that "politically motivated" thing again.

Just as I noted the other day, when Alito trotted it out, how is there even a notion that it matters?

Let's just run with the assumption that the prosecution was "politically motivated." So what? The trial worked exactly the way a trial is meant to work - the jury heard the evidence and rendered a verdict based on the evidence.

What on earth does the supposed motivation of the prosecutor have to do with anything?

Rottcodd ,

Curiously enough, I didn't delete it. I was just scanning back through my posts when I saw "deleted by creator" on one of them, and since I know I haven't deleted anything, I came to see what that was all about.

There's an option to undelete, so I did that, though unfortunately that means that yours is now the post without context. Sorry. 😅

Rottcodd ,

Of course he wants immunity for cops - he dreams of the day when he'll have his own murder squads and be able to simply have anyone who might dare to oppose him killed.

And so do his supporters.

And so do cops.

Rottcodd ,

Trump is owned by Russia.

It really is just that simple - Putin and his oligarch cronies have bought and paid for him.

Rottcodd ,

The whole "politically motivated" complaint is such a brazenly dishonest diversion that it just astonishes me that people use it, much less get away with it.

Alito told a filmmaker posing as a conservative activist that ProPublica “gets a lot of money” to dig up “any little thing they can find,” suggesting the reporting was politically motivated.

How does that even matter?

The simple fact of the matter is that, whatever their motivations might be, people either are or are not going to find evidence of corruption, and the one and only thing that determines that is whether or not such evidence exists.

Alito, were he so inclined, could've very easily have made it so that nobody, no matter how determined or for what reason, could've uncovered evidence of his corruption. All he had to do was not be corrupt.

If there was no corruption there could be no evidence of corruption, and then even the most sinister and underhanded attempt to make him look bad would fail.

On the other hand, if there is evidence there to be found, then the motivations of the people who uncover it are entirely irrelevant - the ONLY thing that matters is what they uncovered.

Seriously, how does the assertion that something like this is "politically motivated" even have the illusion of credence? How is it met with anything other than a blank look and a "So what?"

Rottcodd ,

The system as a whole.

Rottcodd ,

Huh.

It took me a while to sort out that meme, then it suddenly hit me - I've not only succeeded in eliminating the tankies from my Lemmy experience, but have done so so effectively that I started to forget that they even exist.

At this point, the only people I see trying to defend Russia are a handful of angry right-wing morons who have bought in to the propaganda spread by Russia's assets in the GOP, and they're few and far between.

Rottcodd ,

Not at all.

For instance, I also don't like petulant techbro libertarians with political views that are warped by their desperate, yearning need to try to compensate for their inferiority complexes.

Rottcodd ,

I know you are but what am I?

Rottcodd ,

How thoroughly bizarre.

Does this guy actually live in a fantasy world in which, to him, the US supplying arms to Ukraine to aid Ukraine in fighting a defensive war in response to a Russian invasion of their country equals American aggression? How does that even work?

Russia invaded Ukraine.

It's just that simple. That's not an interpretation or an opinion - it's an undeniable fact.

Russia invaded Ukraine.

That's a clear, obvious, blatant act of aggression. In fact, it could likely be said that, internationally, there is no single thing that's more clearly an act of aggression than one country invading another one. The exact thing that Russia did.

So how on Earth does this guy spin that into US aggression?

Quite seriously, I can only conclude from this that this guy, and whoever else is behind this, is literally insane. That must be the case pretty much no matter what. Either he's so insane that he genuinely believes that defending a country against a foreign power's invasion is "aggression," or he's so insane that he'll brazenly (and at great length) lie and claim that that's what he believes.

How did it come to this? How is it even possible for literal insanity to be presented as valid political opinion?

It's just so... bizarre.

Rottcodd ,

Ah yes - the man who still has to have the vote rigged even after arranging for the murders of his opposition speaks on democracy...

Rottcodd ,

Israel has rather obviously been using the attention on Gaza as cover for stepping up their efforts in the West Bank, even going so far as distributing automatic weapons to the illegal settlers, with which the settlers then entirely unsurprisingly went on a murderous rampage.

Just another aspect of the profound evil of Zionism.

Rottcodd ,

Seriously - how can any person be so brazenly and thoroughly warped?

I can only assume that, like so many of the fabulously wealthy, she's profoundly mentally ill, such that she really can't grasp the enormous human cost that fulfilling her petty, selfish and ultimately pointless desires would entail. It can only be the case that she genuinely can't grasp the fact that the millions of people who would be made to suffer or die for this are actual people - actual beings with lives and loved ones who are every bit as important to them as hers are to her.

It's either that or she's genuinely evil, in the purest sense of the word, and on a scale the world has rarely seen.

So which is it Ms. Adelson? Are you insane or simply evil? There's absolutely no doubt - none at all - that it's one or the other.

Rottcodd ,

So basically the US government is a gigantic Trump - rising up in self-righteous fury at the very idea that anyone might dare to charge them for the crimes they've brazenly committed.

Rottcodd , (edited )

It seems to me that the most likely explanation - since there's no notable difference between their campaigns on the surface - is that Elfreth's simply lying, and if she's elected she'll reveal herself as another Sinema or Manchin - another supposed Democrat who will blatantly work for the benefit of the Republicans. And that's exactly why AIPAC (and a number of other groups and individuals who customarily support Republicans) are supporting her - to them, it's not seemingly arbitrarily one Democrat over another more or less identical Democrat, but a fake Democrat over a real one.

'Horrific' violence at UCLA after counter-protesters attack pro-Palestinian camp ( www.bbc.com )

Violence erupted at the University of California, Los Angeles after pro-Israeli counter-demonstrators attacked a pro-Palestinian campus encampment. Bubbling tensions on the campus boiled over following the alleged breach of a "buffer zone" between the rival groups.

Rottcodd ,

On brand.

Senior Democrat calls for arrests of ‘leftwing fascists’ urging Gaza ceasefire ( www.theguardian.com )

Protesters calling for Israel to cease fire in its war with Hamas who have disrupted US public events and infrastructure are practicing “leftwing fascism” or “leftwing totalitarianism”, a senior US House Democrat said, adding that such protesters are “challenging representative democracy” and should be arrested....

Rottcodd ,

So... is he desperately dishonest or insane?

Because none of that hysterical gibberish made even the slightest bit of sense.

Rottcodd ,

It's so bizarre to me that a politician saying that the grotesquely corrupt psychopath in charge of an apartheid nation that's carrying out a genocide on one front and an incremental land grab on another while they also try to provoke yet another nation into attacking so they can play the victim as they continue their egregious crimes "should resign" is a newsworthy event.

The world is in the hands of insane monsters.

Rottcodd ,

Exactly, and that's bizarre.

We actually live in a world in which politicians are expected to be dishonest, amoral and corrupt fuckwads and the few in Washington who aren't are outcasts even in their own party. And we just accept that. It's insane.

Rottcodd ,

...a revolt from the far right over the exclusion of restrictions they had sought to abortion access, transgender care, and racial diversity and inclusion policies at the Pentagon.

That's all just smoke and mirrors - emotive fodder to feed to the base to obscure their actual goal, which is simply to serve Russian interests by denying aid to Ukraine.

The strategy's simple and obvious - insist on tacking on (entirely irrelevant) things that the Democrats will never vote for, then self-righteously vote against the bill when those things are inevitably not included.

And the goal is simple and obvious too - to conjure up a justification for voting against the aid that they can sell to the base, since, Tucker Carlson's efforts notwithstanding, the base isn't yet ready to join the MAGA politicians in swearing fealty to Russia.

Secret Russian foreign policy document urges action to weaken the U.S. ( www.washingtonpost.com )

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has been drawing up plans to try to weaken its Western adversaries, including the United States, and leverage the Ukraine war to forge a global order free from what it sees as American dominance, according to a secret Foreign Ministry document....

Rottcodd ,

Russia is seeking to subvert Western support for Ukraine and disrupt the domestic politics of the United States and European countries, through propaganda campaigns supporting isolationist and extremist policies...

And it's certainly not a coincidence that those isolationist and extremist policies are being actively promoted by the MAGA Republicans.

Rottcodd ,

...the decision to support Ukraine at all has angered populist conservatives in the House

They self-evidently aren't populists, since handing Ukraine to Russia isn't the populist position.

They're Russian assets.

Rottcodd ,

law enforcement officials who support the law say that the boards subject their officers to unwanted scrutiny.

Exactly. The thugs, thieves, murderers and rapists are uncomfortable with the fact that the public is becoming aware of the fact that they're thugs, thieves, murderers and rapists, and they want to go back to being able to beat, steal, murder and rape with impunity, and that requires eliminating oversight. So they're actively moving to eliminate meaningful oversight.

It really is just that simple.

Rottcodd ,

I continue to wonder how it is that anyone holds to the belief that the election was stolen when every single actual investigation - even by Trump's most determined supporters - into every single accusation regarding it has failed to provide sufficient evidence to support the claim.

I mean - yeah - obviously it's some combination of a desperate desire to believe and affirmation through the constant barrage of bombastic headlines over stories that don't actually say anything of substance, but isn't there an upper limit to credulity? It just seems ro me that any reasonable person has to conclude that even to the extent that there was near certainly some fraud, it still wasn't and couldn't have been sufficient to change the results.

And yeah - I know that a lot of these people simply aren't reasonable, but it seems that the number of people who (claim to) believe that the election was stolen far exceeds the number of people who could possibly be that unreasonable, even in this benighted country in this benighted century.

Just another of those instances in which I find myself looking around in dismay, wondering how it is that I came to be in a world that's so blitheringly insane, and how it is that seemingly no one else recognizes how insane it is.

Rottcodd ,

Ah...

Yes - that tracks.

Rottcodd ,

A white cat to go with the blue horses...

I'd never seen this before - thanks.

Rottcodd ,

I never really liked Reddit. I avoided it for a long time, but finally relented and grudgingly signed up in 2011.

I was always on the lookout for a new home, and would follow links to any place that looked promising, but none of them ever panned out - they were always too dead or too narrowly focused or too shitty or behind a paywall or something. And I'd go back to Reddit.

Immediately after Spez's petulant AMA, I happened on a link to join-lemmy.org. I was especially eager to find a different forum then, just because Reddit was set to get much worse much more quickly and the CEO is a twat, but I really didn't expect anything of lemmy. I assumed that, just as with all the others over the years, I'd browse around a bit, be unimpressed, and leave.

Instead, I looked around and liked what I saw. And the more I looked, the more I liked it. And I just never went back, and have been here ever since.

samxavia , to Asklemmy
@samxavia@mastodon.social avatar

@asklemmy What do you think it would take for people to drop Twitter & Reddit and move to the Fediverse?

Rottcodd ,

Everybody else doing it.

Rottcodd ,

Why on Earth would we want to do that?

The last thing in the world the fediverse needs is a bunch of idiots blundering around in it.

Rottcodd ,

I don't think we can gatekeep it either.

But we can, or not, encourage it. I'd rather not. I've never - not even once in more than 30 years online - seen a forum get notably popular without it also, and obviously as a direct result, going to shit.

The great thing about the fediverse is that people have control over which instances they are around, and there will always be some more isolated ones if that’s what you prefer.

If the masses discover the fediverse and move here, that's not going to remain the case, guaranteed.

They'll bitch and moan because content isn't centralized (we've already seen that), and the rent-seeking fuckwads will, one way or another, rearrange things so that it is centralized, and specifically so that they can then squat on top of it and suck profit out of it, and it'll end up just another facebook/twitter/instagram/reddit.

Count on it.

Rottcodd ,

https://lemmy.world/u/phreekno

joined 43 minutes ago

Rottcodd ,

Every spoiled five year old thinks they're the most persecuted person ever. This one is no exception.

Rottcodd ,

Note to future historians, analyzing the collapse of the US:

In the latter days, the US federal government did not in fact in any meaningful sense govern.

Instead, the brazenly corrupt fools, puppets and psychopaths who made up the government spent their time alternately funnelling taxpayer money to their rich cronies and patrons and diverting attention from that by posturing over emotive manufactured issues, while the nation's economy, social fabric and infrastructure all disintegrated.

Rottcodd ,

Probably the weirdest thing about modern American politics, to me, is the fact that the myth that left-wingers favor government intervention and right-wingers favor individual liberty still holds, when it's so bludgeoningly obvious that the opposite is in fact true.

At this point, it's pretty much just a given if you read an article about some government banning something - denying some right or another - that it's the right that's doing it. That's become their response to everything - whatever it is, we need to ban it. We need to get the government to interfere in everything, all the time.

Yet somehow, dunderheads continue to hold to this brazenly inaccurate myth that the left is the big government side and the right is the individual liberty side.

It's just weird to me, and not weird in a scoffing, cynicsl way - weird in an entirely alien, this doesn't even begin to even make sense way. It's as if right-wingers are running around, alternately billing themselves as the "don't get punched in the mouth" party and punching themselves in the mouth.

"See?! [Punch] If you vote for us [Punch] you won't get punched! [Punch] We're the party [Punch] that takes a stand against [Punch] punching! [Punch]."

Rottcodd ,

I think Hardwired is still one of the purest cyberpunk experiences out there, and if anything, the story is actually more relevant now than it was then. We draw closer to that dystopia every day.

And yeah - that reprint cover is awful.

The weirdest thing about it to me is that it appears that part of the goal was to try to tone it down a bit and make it more "realistic," but the original cover, cheesy though it is, is actually the more realistic of the two. Cowboy and Sarah, on the original, actually look pretty much exactly like they were described in the book. Sarah isn't even on the reprint, and Cowboy looks nothing like the way he's described.

Rottcodd ,

Amusingly enough, I would tend to think that the desire to ascribe belief in conspiracy theories to some specific and limited set of nominal causes is actually an example of the same sort of thinking that leads to belief in conspiracy theories in the first place. It's trying to stuff some inherently very complex and nuanced dynamic into a simple, one-size-fits-all box.

Rottcodd ,

That quote actually supports my point.

Exactly what is being said there is that the researchers did fall into just the trap I'm talking about, then were "surprised" when the study demonstrated that the matter was more complex and nuanced than they expected.

Rottcodd ,

What?

Where on earth did you get the idea that I'm trying to ascribe conspiracy theory belief to any specific cause, much less a single one? That's the exact dynamic I'm criticizing.

Rottcodd ,

...Iron Truth volunteers conflating Palestinian advocacy with material support for Hamas...

So Iron Truth lies.

How unsurprisingly Orwellian...

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