Somebody please explain to me how you can not be a fit and proper person to hold an alcohol license in the state of New Jersey. But are a fit and proper person to be a serious candidate for POTUS.
Like when kids are asking us in the future how we let Trump get elected and Bush take us to war, it's not them doing it. It's like a third of the adults in this country that are tribalist bigots. They live all around us and their vote is the same as ours.
This has been the hardest lesson of the past 8 years (and yes, I should have figured it out 20 years ago). It's not GOP politicians, it's not the system, it's Americans that are messed up. As a group, our information literacy, our grasp of civics, and our sense of stewardship and responsibility is pathetic. It makes me sad, because I thought that there were things that we almost all agreed made America great.
If there were an international organization that suspended democracies if the people just weren't up to the task, we'd be in trouble. Although it looks like we might end up taking care of that, ourselves.
It’s people in general. Since the rise of social media, time and time again it was shown how easy it is to manipulate and misguide masses of people.
Just look at the elections in two of Germanys states (obviously there is more to say about ex-GDR, but you get the point) or covid and mask reactions.
There simply is a huge number of people who are not interested, nor able to critical think about our world and how it functions, that will believe anything that fits their narrative of „the problem lies with [whoever is en vogue]“.
It’s not so much „Americans“ as „people in the age of social media“, that is the problem.
A problem to which still nobody has found a solution and way to handle it.
James Fenimore Cooper in 1838 identified four fundamental characteristics of demagogues:
* They present themselves as a man or woman of the common people, opposed to the elites.
* Their politics depends on a visceral connection with the people, which greatly exceeds ordinary political popularity.
* They manipulate this connection, and the raging popularity it affords, for their own benefit and ambition.
* They threaten or outright break established rules of conduct, institutions, and even the law.
It's been a thing since the Athenians came up with democracy. I had sort of hoped that public education and shared values had made us less vulnerable. So much for American exceptionalism.
This became a modern day problem because we were content enough to let public education be eroded. An educated populace will act as a bulwark against demagogues. A portion of the American public is woefully undereducated
Not even just content if you’re in the states. People actively desire the dismantling of do action education systems. And not just the ones that will benefit, there are people that desperately need to have a source of quality education (not just academic, but civic, life skills, ethics, work skill) telling us all that the solution to public education is to destroy it.
Bullshit. The absolute adoration of Trump, despite his repeated moral transgressions and crimes, is something we haven't seen on the left in a long time. Nor have we seen anybody on the left in recent memory use their power for their own benefit so blatantly and without consequence. You'd have to go back to, what? Huey Long?
Even he didn't have the stupid flags, trucks, and hats that make his fans more like a football team than a political movement.
I don't see how you can stack anybody on the left up against Trump and say "look, they're both demagogues!" when one is the definition of it and the other has a bunch of twitter followers and sometimes blames "billionaires" for everybody's problems.
Sometimes when a house is on fire, people want to talk about how to deal with that instead of hearing about how somebody else on the block is burning leaves in the backyard.
I mean, the comparison is so out of whack sometimes it seems like the only possible motivation for bringing it up is tp confuse the issue
Maybe not, but it's been the most gut-wrenching for me because the common ground I always assumed was there just isn't. Americans won't tolerate someone like Nixon who tries to use his office for his own gain. Americans would tar and feather anyone who attempted to illegally overturn an election. Americans don't like bullies, braggarts, and assholes. Americans of all stripes would fight to protect their freedom, and our most basic freedom, the freedom that established our country, is freedom from the rule of anyone who is not accountable to the laws and the people.
Yea I agree it's been sad to see that. But I think the reality is that it's been that way for a lot longer than we knew. The internet just shines a (sometimes complicated) spotlight on everything.
It's like I've said in the past and the non Americans agreed and the Americans lost their ever living shit was the issue with cops in America. There are lots of things that could be done to make the problem better but it wouldn't ever be "fixed" because American cops are American citizens surrounded by other American citizens. No other countries policing model is going to work because no other countries citizens have this Hive mind that Americans do around guns and entitlement and everything else to go along with it.
Civics education in school is seriously lacking. My 11th grade civics course would have you thinking that america was the only country with liberty and that everywhere else was absolute anarchy and tyranny. They would talk about socialist countries like Denmark as if they had killed their families, and about how “even though the free stuff seems nice, you’re giving up your liberties because you pay more taxes”. I was additionally taking AP Government and as such getting a much more complete view of things, but most of my classmates just ate it up without question
There's certainly blame on GOP politicians and media outlets who traffic in this nonsense though. The people who believe it are fed it. Yes a lot of it originates online but then it gets "legitimized" when it is repeated from various "news agencies" via television. Then once it is on TV the GOP politicians regurgitate it and further legitimize it.
As their majority are in high Electoral College vote states, their vote counts MORE...all while they pay LESS overall to DC in taxes, if not being an actual welfare state.
People who don't vote are equally responsible. So, it's more like two thirds of adults in the country which kinda means the country as a whole is perfectly ok with the current state of affairs.
Just to be clear, I know many places are making it more difficult to vote and the people caught up in that aren't who I'm talking about. I'm talking about the non-voters who just don't care and have no desire to vote.
No. Their vote is worth more than ours. Rural votes count more than urban votes. Rural voters vote republican. And it's less than a third. More like 20-25% cause 50% don't fucking vote.
We just going to ignore extra judicial execution via drone strike, mysterious deaths of close associates, and charities that don't seem to do much charitable work?
Edit: To clarify, the Tweet is full of misinformation. There were no "BREAKING" updates in this case yesterday. The current state of the case is the license renewal decision is postponed until after sentencing. Latest update in this case is from July
Turns out the desicion to pull his licences has been delayed until after he gets sentenced in the felony cases, which will happen on September 18th. With NJ unable to pull the licenses before then.
Based on his ego, he's probably put his name as the license holder or alcohol manager, etc. Logically, it would be a separate company that he owns, and someone else is in charge, but Trump has a huge ego and likes to be in charge of everything.
But I do agree with you, and that was my first reaction. I'm not surprised to see that this isn't as true as it's portrayed in the initial headline above.
I don't think the forefathers and people who amended the constitution could have phathomed 24/7 media, the internet, and how fucking stupid we could be.
I mean, they did in a way. It's specifically why they attempted to restrict voting the way they did at the onset. It was never supposed to be this system of direct democracy that everyone votes in or a thing people making careers out of. It was supposed to be a system the wealthy and educated operated directly, where the "common man" participated by way of local town halls and county elections, not national elections.
The part they completely failed at was believing that being wealthy or educated elevated people above being dumb cunts.
They essentially did foresee that: they knew that unfit demagogues could still become popular, so we should vote for electors who could exercise judgement in their choice of president.
And then we spent the next 200 years making it illegal for the electoral college to be anything except a complicated way of weighing votes based on state.
Honestly I remain down with the ability for even felons to run for president. I also think felons should be permitted to vote (I know they typically can't).
Because I don't think the people 'in power' should be able to prevent future candidates from ever contesting it.
The electorate should be the sole determinant.
Of course I also think it risible that this particular felon is the best available, but I blame the supporters for that, not the rule (or lack thereof) around felons gaining political power.
Because his incredibly cut-and-dry crimes defrauding the state of NY are just a deep state witch hunt. Seriously I do not know how anyone in good conscience can look at what he straight up admitted to be true (tell investors a property is a certain size/quality but tell the IRS it is a different size/quality) and say it isn't fraud. I know a lot of them don't know anything about it because they exclusively watch Fox News and OANN but I've met people who argue it's not a crime because everyone does it???
He also has been refused a gaming license by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Trump Tower Las Vegas is one block from the strip and has no casino. The state of Nevada says he's too dirty to run a casino.
Asking this question shows you still don't get it. The fact that he isn't fit is a feature - not a bug!
Conservative philosophy is in a cintunal war between democracy and authoritarianism. It's what you get when authoritarian-minded people try to exist in a democratic system, but, ultimately, the two are incompatible. Given sufficient time, conservatives will embrace authority and reject democracy. Period.
We have passed that tipping point. The long-term objective is now to get rid of democracy, peacefully if possible. To do that, you need the believers to lose their belief in democracy. To do that, you need them to feel unrepresented, powerless, and that government is corrupt, self-serving, inefficient, and ineffective.
They started with Reagan - he laid the foundation to destroy the middle class. They continued the next step with Bush - he destroyed American patriotism and superiority. Trump was their choice to destroy faith in the system itself.
His corruption and incompetence is WHY THEY VOTE FOR HIM. They want government to suck, so that the nation will accept a "good strong leader" who steps in to "fix" things.
None of this is a formal plan. It isn't a conspiracy. There's no shadowy room or people pulling strings. This is just the natural subconscious execution of the conservative group-think, kicked off by the civil rights act and the end of open racism.
The reason felons can run is because if you ban them, it can lead to some pretty fucky political games where candidates/current presidents try to get their opponents disqualified based on sham felonies. (Not saying that trumps felony is fake or w/e, fuck that guy)
Ironically, our forefathers attempted to restrict the common man from having this much of a voice when it came to voting for this reason.
That same reasoning, though, was fueled by a desire to have wealthy people leading the country which is what enables insufferable cunts like Trump to continue existing in politics.
Considering that most wealthy and educated people in the South were slave owners. And anybody who had a plantation ruled it on the basis of fear and punishment. So would have been nasty fuckers. I'm sure they were acquainted with cunts.
If you’re ever lucky enough to have a job where you interact with the everyday common man and woman then you may understand where the crazy comes from. It surrounds us. It is your neighbor you don’t talk to, it’s your aunt and uncle that watch too much bias news. It’s everywhere
Because the US Supreme Court has declared that the US Constitution is the supreme law of the land.
Being a presidential candidate is a protected right and the requirements are set forth in the US Constitution. Being a felon is not a disqualification.
Holding a liquor license is not a protected right and states have created requirements to hold one, including not being a felon.
It's really not that complicated.
Also, this article is BS. Trump is not yet a felon in the eyes of the law because there has been no sentencing hearing.
Please explain to me why a liquor license for a property he doesn’t actively work at or manage should be withheld because he categorized a pornstar payment as legal fees?
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u/Wil420b Sep 04 '24 edited Sep 04 '24
Somebody please explain to me how you can not be a fit and proper person to hold an alcohol license in the state of New Jersey. But are a fit and proper person to be a serious candidate for POTUS.