Welcome To The New Gilded Age

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by merrylander

In other words Lincoln made a big mistake and Polk was a thief. The south would be on its own and Mexico would still have had enough arable land to make it richer.

And maybe the U.S. would be governable.

Fifty-four forty or fight!

John

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Fifty-four forty or fight!

John

Yeah and whose arse got kicked in that one?

[icenine]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

Is it too late to give Texas back to Mexico?

Well the health care coverage in Texas is already so low maybe the point is moot. Sadly.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by merrylander

Yeah and whose arse got kicked in that one?

I did.

That part of BC, between the 49th parallel and 54' 40", is my favorite part of this entire continent. I'd love to live up there, maybe on VI or maybe up toward Squamish.

John

[piece-itpete]

Originally Posted by Boreas

The problem is that we have 9 unelected "lords" sitting on the Supreme Court. They have the power to revise, repeal or make law as they, and they alone, see fit. These powers aren't granted to them in the Constitution. They're ones that they arrogated to themselves in Marbury v. Madison. They are totally unaccountable. They serve for life unless impeached, a thing we have never tried in the entire history of this misbegotten country. Do you really think they would give a shit if we took to the streets? I don't.

John

We are in perfect agreement John - again! I think hell frozen over

Originally Posted by finnbow

While true, I still trust the robed cabal more than I do the Executive or Legislative branch.

Thus ends the great experiment?

Originally Posted by Boreas

I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that large, populous nations are ungovernable. The problem is that a world consisting of hundreds or thousands of small well-administered countries would need to form alliances, entities like the EU or the UN and these entities seem ineffectual at best and counter-productive at worst.

That was what the whole State in their sphere/Federal in theirs was hoping to do, to govern large areas of diverse people. However slavery killed it, if it wouldn't have been doomed for other reasons.

Pete

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

That was what the whole State in their sphere/Federal in theirs was hoping to do, to govern large areas of diverse people. However slavery killed it, if it wouldn't have been doomed for other reasons.

Pete

Confederation never works. The member states have too much power relative to the central authority. They will always try to go their own way or form coalitions with other member states to resist central power. In turn, the central authority, feeling marginalized or even threatened, will try to increase control of the states.

Can you imagine if the Articles of Confederation were still in force? We'd have one hell of a mess here with 50 little countries with 50 little tin pot dictators, all trying to subvert the central government and trying to "one-up" their neighbors.

John

[merrylander]

What has doomed it is that there is no requirement that justices of SCOTUS be conversant with the English language. How anyone with an IQ somewhat greater than his age could state that money equals speech is incomprehensible. When was the last time a dollar bill spoke to you? E.J Dionne blasted the Farting Five in his OpEd today then for comic relief the WaPo editors put Robert Samuelson's OpEd below Dionne's. Now if you have never read Samuelson suffice to say he is one of the 1%ers lapdogs.

The Declaration of Independence claims that all men are born equal, but the FF will quickly see to it that does not last for long. One man one vote my arse.

[icenine]

Basically Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, et al on the right side of the court are codifying Orwell's dictum that everyone is equal, but some are "more equal than others."
Napoleon the pig wins this one. He can now give as much money as he wants.

Call me paranoid, but I can see reckless campaign corruption and voter suppression sort of dovetailing into a threat against our democracy.

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by icenine

Basically Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, et al on the right side of the court are codifying Orwell's dictum that everyone is equal, but some are "more equal than others."
Napoleon the pig wins this one. He can now give as much money as he wants.

Call me paranoid, but I can see reckless campaign corruption and voter suppression sort of dovetailing into a threat against our democracy.

Sorry, what democracy would that be.

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

Is it too late to give Texas back to Mexico?

No, it isn't.