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The Supreme Court - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (and how American democracy is a f****** sham)

Keasar

Keasar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,724
Umeå, Sweden
Official link:


Not as official link to full show, I just don't fucking care anymore:
www.youtube.com

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver September 27, 2020 | HBO John Oliver News Today 09/27/2020

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver September 27, 2020 | HBO John Oliver News Today 09/27/2020
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

May the workers of America rise and fucking rip these Republican assholes a new one and A LOT more unspeakly things that would get me banned, but you know what, FUCK THEM.

A plug for an excellent book:

[Book] What is Marxism? | Published books

Marxist website defending the ideas of Marxism as a tool for workers and youth today - by the International Marxist Tendency.
www.marxist.com www.marxist.com
I highly recommend getting yourself a copy of this, especially if you live in America. Heck, you can basically just read it online right there, do it.
11d708c984e0d4807f8a017b9e050d50--political-images-political-art.jpg


This is important too:
samred said:
seriously, fill out your census forms. do not wait. (this guidance is from the very end of the episode but ties into the rest of what he's talking about.)

my2020census.gov

my2020census

my2020census.gov my2020census.gov
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KDR_11k

KDR_11k

Banned
Nov 10, 2017
5,235
One big problem is that the US constitution is a complete mess. It's not a law as much as a form of scripture with high priests that interpret the intentions of the creators. Take the first amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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Okay so why the fuck does it say "Congress" when it's being interpreted to mean "any government entity"? This somehow gives a right to freedom of association which some argue somehow means you cannot be told to buy health insurance? WHAT? No wonder the Supreme Court is so powerful, when your laws don't mean what they say then it's all a big game of Calvinball and the court can reinterpret the law to mean a shitload of things and of course citizens cannot figure out whether something is constitutional before the court gets involved.
 
OP
OP
Keasar

Keasar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,724
Umeå, Sweden
KDR_11k said:
One big problem is that the US constitution is a complete mess. It's not a law as much as a form of scripture with high priests that interpret the intentions of the creators. Take the first amendment.

Okay so why the fuck does it say "Congress" when it's being interpreted to mean "any government entity"? This somehow gives a right to freedom of association which some argue somehow means you cannot be told to buy health insurance? WHAT? No wonder the Supreme Court is so powerful, when your laws don't mean what they say then it's all a big game of Calvinball and the court can reinterpret the law to mean a shitload of things and of course citizens cannot figure out whether something is constitutional before the court gets involved.
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The founding fathers of America were never any champions of democracy. They didn't fight for the right of the common folk. The entire American Revolutionary war as essentially just a elaborate and life costly (on part of the peasants and workers) tax evasion plan for the rich. They laid the foundations for the biggest enrichment scam in the world and it has followed through since. The constitution of America is written to serve the rich, not the people, and the Republicans use it to it's full extent and every opportunity in the government to keep it that way. The Electoral College is set up to "fix" any "wrong voting" by the people. The Senate is CLEARLY set up to represent a minor and conservative part of the country rather than the progressive majority with tiny, rural states together having more representation than equally sized -actually- populated states of the country.

All of Americas "democracy" is complete, pure and utter bullshit! It truly needs to be torn down and replaced with one designed by the people, for the people! Not dictated by some racist, slave owning, sexist, women hating cunts from over 200 years ago!

If someone came up to me and said that Sweden is not being built on the will of Gustav Vasa, I would yell at them that the fart has been dead for about 500 years and then proceed to repeatedly slap them until they start fucking running!
 
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jakomocha

jakomocha

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,574
California
Keasar said:
The founding fathers of America were never any champions of democracy. They didn't fight for the right of the common folk. The entire American Revolutionary war as essentially just a elaborate and life costly (on part of the peasants and workers) tax evasion plan for the rich. They laid the foundations for the biggest enrichment scam in the world and it has followed through since. The consitution of America is written to serve the rich, not the people, and the Republicans use it to it's full extent and every opportunity in the government to keep it that way.
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yup
 
samred

samred

Amico fun conversationalist
Member
Nov 4, 2017
2,586
Seattle, WA
seriously, fill out your census forms. do not wait. (this guidance is from the very end of the episode but ties into the rest of what he's talking about.)

my2020census.gov

my2020census

my2020census.gov my2020census.gov
 
samred

samred

Amico fun conversationalist
Member
Nov 4, 2017
2,586
Seattle, WA
Keasar said:
Official link:


Not as official link to full show, I just don't fucking care anymore:
www.youtube.com

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver September 27, 2020 | HBO John Oliver News Today 09/27/2020

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver September 27, 2020 | HBO John Oliver News Today 09/27/2020
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

May the workers of America rise and fucking rip these Republican assholes a new one and A LOT more unspeakly things that would get me banned, but you know what, FUCK THEM.

A plug for an excellent book:

[Book] What is Marxism? | Published books

Marxist website defending the ideas of Marxism as a tool for workers and youth today - by the International Marxist Tendency.
www.marxist.com www.marxist.com
I highly recommend getting yourself a copy of this, especially if you live in America. Heck, you can basically just read it online right there, do it.

This is important too:
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that URL is wrong, sigh. why they didn't buy multiple domain names for the same-sounding thing is beyond me. fixed in my post.
 

Deleted member 1570

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,947
Assuming Biden wins the election and Democrats take the Senate, the bare minimum they should do is grant state hood to Puerto Rico and DC, and expand the Supreme Court. Do both of those things, and not only do those territories finally get representation in Congress, but it makes it harder for Republicans to take back the Senate and tip SCOTUS back in their favor.

It will be a lot of work. It will take a lot of pressure from us. It will take a lot of political will from the Democrats. But should they gain control of all 3 branches this election, no more half-measures. We need to be in do-or-die mode from here on out.
 

Deleted member 46493

User requested account closure
Banned
Aug 7, 2018
5,231
Hamilton wanted life terms for the senate and president and hated the common people - a country ruled by the elite was his goal. I doubt he was alone among the founding fathers.
 
Foffy

Foffy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,389
The "will of the people" shit is always used by a minority to justify their imposition on the majority. Why is it every major position of the GOP has minority support, and they oppose literally everything that does.
 
PunchyMalone

PunchyMalone

Member
May 1, 2018
2,249
Filled out the census because of this episode. But yeah, we are irreparably fucked for the foreseeable future unless we get leadership that's somehow magically able to change the entire system. Getting rid of the electoral college, term limits for SC justices + stacking the court, and adding two states will help out a lot in the long term. But I have absolutely no faith the Dem leadership will do any of that. I hope I'm wrong.
 

Deleted member 14518

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,731
One of the safeguards against repubs packing the court in response is to unlock the House cap. increasing the amount of reps will probably lock the House for the Dems unless the Rs do some serious reform or split.

It means a split congress or a Dem congress for the foreseeable future. DC and PR getting senators would probably tip the balance as well but not necessarily. I think they need to go full tilt with reform.
 
Sec0nd

Sec0nd

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,058
One of the most baffling things about America to me is how broken and corrupt the entire system is and how it just seems to be accepted, at least to me as an outsider.

Stuff like gerrymandering, voter suppression, rigging the courts, the electoral college. It's all so extremely obvious, spelled out and discussed. But yet, they seem to be accepted as just a dirty tactic. As an outsider in general everyone feels so complacent. Like you're sitting in your house drinking your coffee while a fire is spreading through it, and instead of reaching for the extinguisher or getting help you are sitting there continuing to drink your coffee.

I guess the same thing could be said about the entire population of Earth regarding global warming, but it seems even more obvious with America and their broken political system.
 
Kain-Nosgoth

Kain-Nosgoth

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,574
Switzerland
As a non-american, this system always baffled me, it's so fucking on so many levels

Good thing he called out joe biden on the bipartisan bullshit too
 
Kill3r7

Kill3r7

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,444
KDR_11k said:
One big problem is that the US constitution is a complete mess. It's not a law as much as a form of scripture with high priests that interpret the intentions of the creators. Take the first amendment.



Okay so why the fuck does it say "Congress" when it's being interpreted to mean "any government entity"? This somehow gives a right to freedom of association which some argue somehow means you cannot be told to buy health insurance? WHAT? No wonder the Supreme Court is so powerful, when your laws don't mean what they say then it's all a big game of Calvinball and the court can reinterpret the law to mean a shitload of things and of course citizens cannot figure out whether something is constitutional before the court gets involved.
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While I agree that our constitution has many problems what you listed as an example isn't particularly egregious. Any agency that makes "laws" derives its power from Congress. So it makes sense that a broadly written document would focus on Congress, the branch of government responsible for drafting new laws and amending/updating old ones. As far as freedom of association being used to challenge that's just lawyers trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Every decision the courts make impacts how the law is interpreted. Hence SCOTUS affirming the right of freedom of association to allow the NAACP to operate in Southern states in the 50s along with Ralph Nader's major consumers rights litigation victory in the 70s were used to make Citizens United a reality.
 
Starphanluke

Starphanluke

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Nov 15, 2017
7,336
You know shit is bad when even Last Week Tonight is depressing. I appreciate that they were honest about how bad this all is, though. Now is the time to fight.
 
Blader

Blader

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,620
IpKaiFung said:
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I don't watch Oliver nearly as much as I'd like to but I don't think this is really true at all...for a second I thought this was an actual ad, because "corporate media product" sounds like something he has regularly said re: AT&T lol.

Wilsongt said:
John Oliver was big mad, but pushing Marxism in the OP is lol
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It's funny to me that marxist.com has a "In Defense of Marxism" article...wouldn't that be the whole premise? haha
 
OP
OP
Keasar

Keasar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,724
Umeå, Sweden
Wilsongt said:
John Oliver was big mad, but pushing Marxism in the OP is lol
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Blader said:
It's funny to me that marxist.com has a "In Defense of Marxism" article...wouldn't that be the whole premise? haha
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No idea why the preview link calls it that since it's supposed to be a link to a book called "What is Marxism?" I got recently the Swedish edition of the book and have been reading it. It is a great introduction to the concepts and I just ordered the Communist Manifesto to read myself and probably will get a copy of Das Kapital as well, cause what Marx and Engels predicted back 150 years ago looking at the system of capitalism itself and saying "This is not going to work out as you may want to" is absolutely remarkable. And despite Wilsongt thinking that pushing this is "lol", I honestly don't see what else, cause this shit we have now clearly doesn't fucking work for us the people, the environment or the well-being of humanity overall.

We are being fucked. Innocent people are being fucked. I'd like that not to be the case.
 
Starphanluke

Starphanluke

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Nov 15, 2017
7,336
IpKaiFung said:
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How's the weather up there?

The show is by no means perfect, but it does illuminate to a LOT of people deep flaws in our society and often goes into detail about how we can change them. I'm sure the show has done more to pull people to the left than any of the Twitter leftists who shit on it constantly.
 
BY2K

BY2K

Membero Americo
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,682
Québec, Canada
Channel is blocked in Canada for some stupid ass reason, so when I search for the episode this is what I get.

EjBHePXX0AUbZJX


Go fuck yourself, YouTube, you and your right-wing brainwashing bullshit.
 
OP
OP
Keasar

Keasar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,724
Umeå, Sweden
ExInferus said:
the fact that every state has the same amount of senators is just baffling
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That does blow my mind, some defenders say its not to let the big states "bully" or "rule" the smaller states but instead we literally have a conservative minority bullying and oppressing a large part of the country. People in states like New York and California have less power with their votes than someone in the middle of nowhere mid USA.
 
Kill3r7

Kill3r7

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,444
ExInferus said:
the fact that every state has the same amount of senators is just baffling
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How so? What's the function and purpose of the Senate?


Keasar said:
That does blow my mind, some defenders say its not to let the big states "bully" or "rule" the smaller states but instead we literally have a conservative minority bullying and oppressing a large part of the country. People in states like New York and California have less power with their votes than someone in the middle of nowhere mid USA.
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Long before CA and western expansion were a dream Maine and Rhode Island had two senators each.
 
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thediamondage

thediamondage

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,277
KDR_11k said:
One big problem is that the US constitution is a complete mess. It's not a law as much as a form of scripture with high priests that interpret the intentions of the creators. Take the first amendment.

Okay so why the fuck does it say "Congress" when it's being interpreted to mean "any government entity"? This somehow gives a right to freedom of association which some argue somehow means you cannot be told to buy health insurance? WHAT? No wonder the Supreme Court is so powerful, when your laws don't mean what they say then it's all a big game of Calvinball and the court can reinterpret the law to mean a shitload of things and of course citizens cannot figure out whether something is constitutional before the court gets involved.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Because Congress is the only federal body government that can create laws? The President nor the Supreme Court can actually create laws / pass legislation, only overturn them and send them back to Congress for rewrite.
 
Heart of Poumn

Heart of Poumn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,355
Nice to have some things that can be done to fight back, but sad to know that even if democrats get power, they likely won't do any of it.
 
jakomocha

jakomocha

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,574
California
ExInferus said:
the fact that every state has the same amount of senators is just baffling
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Yeah, we really need to either abolish the senate or turn it into national proportional representation by party (so if 50% of the country votes "Dem" 50% of senators are Dem, etc). Then we'll have both geographic and proportional representation in Congress.

Of course, making widespread systemic changes like that is basically impossible in America :(
 
KDR_11k

KDR_11k

Banned
Nov 10, 2017
5,235
thediamondage said:
Because Congress is the only federal body government that can create laws? The President nor the Supreme Court can actually create laws / pass legislation, only overturn them and send them back to Congress for rewrite.
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But it's held to also apply to state governments and also held to cover things like policies in public schools.
 
HOUSEJoseph

HOUSEJoseph

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,320
I watched this as it aired and man. The show made me sick. I knew this country is a republic and not a democracy but all the stuff I didn't even think about just blew my mind.
 

Coiote

Member
Oct 25, 2017
234
jakomocha said:
How so? What's the function and purpose of the Senate?
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Not an american, but usually the purpose of the Senate is to represent the States in the Congress when the state takes the form of a federation. In a federation, States, Union, DC and cities are autonomous and equals, they only have different competencies/jurisdictions, that's why States have the same number of senators, even if there are huge differences in population. Obviously, the Senate isn't enough to represent the people, so in federations the Congress is usually bicameral. The House of Representatives is the one that actually represents the people of the country, so a more populous State should have a bigger number of representatives. There are good reasons for this number to be capped though. One of them is because the House is likely(not sure in the USA) to be the one responsible for budget oversight and taxes transfers to the States. You have to keep in mind that the Government is a human construction and therefore flawed. It can and should be improved, but people and bad faith actors will always find a way to exploit it.

In my eyes, the biggest problem of USA politics and the reason it will always suck is this biparty system of yours, but good lucky getting the beneficiaries of the this(reps and dems) to get rid of it. The electoral college also sucks and doesn't make sense.
 
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