https://time.com/7280045/voters-should-pick-their-candidates-not-party-bosses/

“Every single” is the kind of lazy shit that gets us into this mess. It’s going to take more thought than that.

Well, that part of the system is fixed. There was a cost to that fix, so please make it worth it.

It makes the damage that’s being done loud and visible instead of quietly having our country dismantled without people noticing because “they don’t follow politics” and the lack of Due Process hasn’t affected them personally yet.

I generally agree, but part of the reason Schumer can’t whip votes is that he no longer controls the DNC.

He can’t direct DNC money towards the candidates that vote the way he wants, and he can’t direct money to their opponents to punish them when they break ranks.

I think this would be good for democracy, in the same way that anti-gerrymandering laws are good for democracy. … You know, except when.

Yeah. We need to fight that in a smart way.

You can’t just say all Dems are bad. You can’t just say all incumbents are bad. Term limits aren’t the answer, and probably wouldn’t help with most of these.

We need to get good candidates in primaries and support those candidates. Now is the time to be doing this. We need someone to step up for that seat, ideally this month, and we need to get behind them.

Ideally it’d be someone with enough history to show they’re not a Sinema.

Yeah. They would have caved. It was the epitome of how Republicans are destroying government.

They would have caved or there would have been consequences.

And it’s better to lose all of our airports, publicly, loudly, and visibly, than it is to lose our entire Judicial branch of government.

They’re all retiring at the end of their terms if they like it or not.

Just make sure we have a good candidate in the primary. And we need to actually support people who are better before their primaries.

Well, it wasn’t just billionaires. It was anyone trying to fly for the holidays.

I, for one, was willing to endure for healthcare. It was a fight that was worth it. It’s not Medicare for All, but it was something.

Note that impersonating police is a crime. I expect this would also be a crime.

Just pointing out the issues with unidentified, masked police.

It can’t be that hard to get a couple ICE vests. Then you can do whatever you want.

One 2k check is not ubi.

We might. He owns the Supreme Court and Congress. For some reason they’ve abdicated all of their power and have no mind of their own.

And who’s gonna vote no?

You know, at the time I considered it a silver lining that despite all this shit being selective and hypocritical as fuck, at least it would clean up our government a bit going forward.

Now…

It was her IT consultant, Platte River Networks (PRN).

The PRN technician then had what he described to the FBI as an “oh shit moment,” realizing he had not set the personal emails to be deleted as instructed months earlier. The technician then erased the emails using a free utility, BleachBit, sometime between March 25 and 31.

The lawyers had likely instructed them to regularly delete personal records older than X. IT dude didn’t do his job. Tried to do it after the subpoena, which of course is highly illegal. But Hillary didn’t order it, and when the lawyer ordered it it was almost certainly legal.

W’s case was more egregious because the emails were just deleted. Hillary had someone review which emails were personal and which were relevant and turned over all government related emails.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_White_House_email_controversy

And that needs to start with electing representatives and a President that respects and will restore our Constitution.

This goes farther than Trump. Our Constitution was damaged and tattered well before that, which is part of what enabled Trump and his admin to rip it to shreds.

The President getting to decide what laws are enforced and which aren’t is kind of insane. The pardon power was generally fine before this, but was clearly open to abuse.

Hillary broke the law with her private email server, but everyone else, including W and Trump and Hegseth broke that same law. It just wasn’t enforced until they decided to hit Hillary with it specifically.

If there are laws we shouldn’t enforce, we should just get those laws off the books. And clearly we need to rein in Presidental power. We left a whole lot of trust that the office would be run in good faith, and regardless of party that’s generally been true, with exceptions. The is the first administration that hasn’t given a single fuck about the American people.

I feel like every previous President was brought in and made to understand that it’s a china shop, and they need to not act like a bull, and then were given very specific and explicit reasons why for each situation. There’s a reason each predecessor did what they did, and those actions were generally done under the advisement of some very smart people with solid research, and if you’re going to break with that previous decision, you better be really damn sure of what you’re doing.

This is the first administration that’s come in and told each of those advisors to fuck right off. The biggest plate to break so far is the idea of Due Process. When I Google the phrase “Due Process”, the first thing that comes up should absolutely not be about immigrants. This isn’t a law centered on immigrants or anything about immigration specifically. You know the reason that immigration comes up as the top result for “due process” in 2025.

The easier way would be to make a law that mimics Robinson-Patman and actually enforce it within the confines of NYC.

But hey, I’m willing to see what happens.

The other issue is what’s going to keep prices low at these stores?

A hugely important piece of history here is the Robinson-Patman Act. I’ll throw a bit of AI slop for context, but it’s consistent with what I know. Basically, the direction to the FTC to stop enforcing this act is what created food deserts and Walmart.

From the 1930s until the early 1980s, the Robinson-Patman Act was enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), ensuring that suppliers offered similar pricing to all retailers, regardless of size. This allowed independent grocers to compete effectively with large chains.

No, the Robinson-Patman Act was not repealed, but its enforcement by the government was virtually non-existent for decades until the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently began reviving its enforcement in 2021. While the act remains on the books, it was largely unenforced for a period, but recent actions by the FTC indicate that it is still considered a live statute, say Norton Rose Fulbright, American Bar Association, and Every CRS Report.

• History of non-enforcement: The Department of Justice announced it would stop enforcing the act in 1977, and the FTC had not brought an enforcement case since 2000.
• Reasons for non-enforcement: Enforcement agencies largely abandoned the act due to concerns that it could harm consumers by punishing legitimate volume discounts and that it was anticompetitive, say The Federalist Society, Anderson Kill P.C., and American Economic Liberties Project.
• Recent revival: In recent years, including under the Biden administration, the FTC has signaled renewed interest in enforcing the act and has initiated investigations into potential violations.

A classic example of this is the story where Walmart almost put Vlassic pickles out of business.

https://www.fastcompany.com/47593/wal-mart-you-dont-know-2