I'm a believer in the theory that no American has any moral or ethical duty to follow the law. Unless they swore an oath of office for public service, in which case their adherence has to be absolutely punctilious, because that was the whole point of the oath.

It's kind of hard to correlate the "before" and "after" pics when you do batches that take months to get through the coarse grinding stage. I seen a few people attempt it.

I think the explanation might be that average people are not willing to give ICE officers the courtesy of assuming that they're not lying their asses off about everything every time their mouths open.

The people who can wind up as jurors usually have some deference to the police.

'Knowing cynicism' might also be "defensive irony," a reaction to the patent insincerity of at least half of the political spectrum.

When one of your major political factions is intent on weaponizing appeals to patriotism and tradition, you need a way to not be taken in.

How old was this turd

Inability of Union commanders to close for the kill was a huge problem for Lincoln, until he found Grant
Or such is my amateur understanding

Sometime before '28 Ds have to come up with some wartime leaders
In particular they need somebody for the FDR slot in '28
And some idea people who have ideas that aren't "restore the status quo ante"

Let that be a caution against too much faith in credentials

I'm so old I remember when these were called "tiger cages" and were the prime symbol of inhumane treatment of American POWs by the North Vietnamese

You're not pricing in the extent of the damage that has already happened, let alone what's coming before there's an opportunity to stop it from getting worse?

I'm replying with "it *will* take decades, if it happens at all" and also "why try to 'recover' to the status quo that produced MAGA?"

"Build back better" was always a good slogan but now it's imperative. Any opportunity for a Restoration will be an opportunity for a Reformation.

✅ triple budgets.

To be Scrupulously Fair, the reason the US has such an incredibly high prison population is not the fault of the Xtians. Americans generally support gratuitously punitive treatment of criminals, and offer broad support for capital punishment.

OTOH we have a written Constitution, the sworn guardians of which are using it as ass-wipe. Advantage where?

My hopium is that MAGA is on cruise to repro the electoral conditions of 1930-38 starting next year
We just need to find some people who can put together the right agenda for 100 Days to start on Jan 21 2029
And hope we get enough really pissed off freshmen Congresspeople to pass it

I can identify
He's probably pissed because he has to wear a jacket and a shirt that buttons up and shoes that aren't sneakers

Do you also do arrow venom frogs? Coral snakes?

Congress has the power, with a majority vote and the President's signature, to increase the size of the Court to 27 Supremes, and to appoint minority women DEI activists to all the new seats.

That would be a reasonable starting point: reduce the Illegitimate Six to a risible afterthought.

If MAGA succeeds at its apparent goal of making 2026-34 into a recap of 1930-38, and R Congressional losses are proportional in the two periods, there will be 67-69 D Senators in January of 2029.

Whether all of them would vote to convict Supremes of impeachment seems implausible.

By 2031, maybe.