3 ms·

The US is trending towards a Russian style oligarchy and these latest moves are just one of a wider pattern of trying to suppress academia, freedom of speech, p

The US is trending towards a Russian style oligarchy and these latest moves are just one of a wider pattern of trying to suppress academia, freedom of speech, personal freedoms.

pocksuppet 5mo ago
> The US is a Russian style oligarchy FTFY. From the outside, people can easily see it.
- DANmode 5mo ago
  Even Russian people? Anyway, I wonder what comes after the USAA.
  - cyberax 5mo ago
    As a Russian national: no, the USA is not yet at nearly the same level of corruption. The main bulwark against Russianification is not the Congress or the SCOTUS, it's the true federative nature of the US. States have a lot of very real autonomy and they limit the amount of corrupt overreach.
    - DANmode 5mo ago
      Watching their effectiveness against Google closely. As are many, I’m sure.
    - vkou 5mo ago
      States have autonomy on paper. In practice, it turns out otherwise.
      - cyberax 4mo ago
        States absolutely have autonomy. And not just on paper. And a lot of it is just in the amount of friction that the federal government can get. E.g. Trump sent ICE goons to MN and now he's embroiled in dozens of lawsuits because of that. Yes, he probably will win most of them eventually, but they all take time and energy. With a lot of negative PR along the way.
        vkou 4mo ago
        MN can't even give two murderers a fair trial because apparently Trump's goons can kill anyone they want, and then go scurry off like roaches. If states had autonomy, those animals and their accomplices would be behind bars right now.
        cyberax 4mo ago
        > MN can't even give two murderers a fair trial because apparently Trump's goons can kill anyone they want, and then go scurry off like roaches. Give it time. > If states had autonomy, those animals and their accomplices would be behind bars right now. So that southern states could just shoot the Federal agents de-segregating schools, right? It's always a balancing act. The key here is that the power is _distributed_. Nobody has the absolute power, even if it seems so. And it doesn't even matter that much that individual states are less than incorrupt (see: TX, WA, IL). All that matters is that they have their own agendas that don't necessarily align with the Federal one.
        vkou 4mo ago
        Murder is a capital crime regardless of who you work for. Those fucks were violating both federal and state law. 'Give it time' will only work if the GOP is removed from power. Otherwise, not a single thing will happen. Otherwise, you are demonstrating that states are in practice fully subservient to the federal government. Because the latter can, de facto, do whatever it wants in them.
        pocksuppet 4mo ago
        > Murder is a capital crime regardless of who you work for. Not true btw, the military can do it.
        vkou 4mo ago
        Homicide is not always murder, but what we saw in Minnesota was murder by any definition.
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
Animats 4mo ago
> The US is trending towards a Russian style oligarchy There's a step after that. There's an article in the current Economist about how the Russian oligarchs are being crushed by Putin's cronies and losing their assets.

The US is trending towards a Russian style oligarchy and these latest moves are just one of a wider pattern of trying to suppress academia, freedom of speech, personal freedoms.

pocksuppet 5mo ago

> The US is a Russian style oligarchy FTFY. From the outside, people can easily see it.

DANmode 5mo ago
Even Russian people? Anyway, I wonder what comes after the USAA.
- cyberax 5mo ago
  As a Russian national: no, the USA is not yet at nearly the same level of corruption. The main bulwark against Russianification is not the Congress or the SCOTUS, it's the true federative nature of the US. States have a lot of very real autonomy and they limit the amount of corrupt overreach.
  - DANmode 5mo ago
    Watching their effectiveness against Google closely. As are many, I’m sure.
  - vkou 5mo ago
    States have autonomy on paper. In practice, it turns out otherwise.
    - cyberax 4mo ago
      States absolutely have autonomy. And not just on paper. And a lot of it is just in the amount of friction that the federal government can get. E.g. Trump sent ICE goons to MN and now he's embroiled in dozens of lawsuits because of that. Yes, he probably will win most of them eventually, but they all take time and energy. With a lot of negative PR along the way.
      - vkou 4mo ago
        MN can't even give two murderers a fair trial because apparently Trump's goons can kill anyone they want, and then go scurry off like roaches. If states had autonomy, those animals and their accomplices would be behind bars right now.
        cyberax 4mo ago
        > MN can't even give two murderers a fair trial because apparently Trump's goons can kill anyone they want, and then go scurry off like roaches. Give it time. > If states had autonomy, those animals and their accomplices would be behind bars right now. So that southern states could just shoot the Federal agents de-segregating schools, right? It's always a balancing act. The key here is that the power is _distributed_. Nobody has the absolute power, even if it seems so. And it doesn't even matter that much that individual states are less than incorrupt (see: TX, WA, IL). All that matters is that they have their own agendas that don't necessarily align with the Federal one.
        vkou 4mo ago
        Murder is a capital crime regardless of who you work for. Those fucks were violating both federal and state law. 'Give it time' will only work if the GOP is removed from power. Otherwise, not a single thing will happen. Otherwise, you are demonstrating that states are in practice fully subservient to the federal government. Because the latter can, de facto, do whatever it wants in them.
        pocksuppet 4mo ago
        > Murder is a capital crime regardless of who you work for. Not true btw, the military can do it.
        vkou 4mo ago
        Homicide is not always murder, but what we saw in Minnesota was murder by any definition.

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

Animats 4mo ago

> The US is trending towards a Russian style oligarchy There's a step after that. There's an article in the current Economist about how the Russian oligarchs are being crushed by Putin's cronies and losing their assets.