Good that @Morning_Joe opened the show with the appalling story of The Worst Justice (tough competition) displaying the insurrectionist (anarchist) symbol at his house (and blaming it on his wife, blaming it in turn on a neighbor's yard sign). This Court is ruined. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/us/justice-alito-upside-down-flag.html
@jeffjarvis
The #FoundingFathers believed giving SC Justices lifetime tenure would mitigate partisanship (loyalty to a particular president/party) b/c once they had the job, they couldn't lose it, and therefore had no reason to show favoritism.
Wenhold led the class through a lesson that discussed how the country was abandoning the #FoundingFathers’ egalitarian vision— initially limited to #WhiteMales —of a govt that existed to protect #Americans’ “inalienable rights” as individuals. Instead, the govt was providing special rights & benefits to groups based on their race, class, sexual orientation & countless other categories.
"History will teach us, that … of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics the greatest number have begun their carreer [sic], by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing Demagogues and ending Tyrants."
— Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1 —
"The key to the Founders’ fear of the demagogue was not merely that he might secure high office, but that the means by which he would attain it – appeal to the mob – would allow him to corrupt or overthrow the Republic in order to transform himself into a dictator. The source of the demagogue’s power does not expire if he is expelled from office; so long as he retains the loyalty of the mob, he may return to power.
...
Trump was the man against whom the founding generation armed the constitution with the disqualification clause. They would surely think anyone quite mad for suggesting that a president who actively sought the overthrow of democracy could not be disqualified from trying again because the failed plot reached its crescendo too close to the expiration of his term."
The Founders would've found the madmen suggesting, that a president, who actively sought the overthrow of democracy could not be disqualified from trying again in the majority of contemporary Senate "Republicans" & the majority of their House "Republican" accomplices.
Studies of various historical forms of governments & their respective leaders enabled Hamilton & other Founders to identify & even foresee worse & worst examples of self-centered reckless sociopathic ruling figures like Trump, Putin, Stalin, Hitler & other tyrants the empires of whom thankfully were never allowed to make it to eternity.
I have not always been a fan of Nietzsche's ideas on government, but I think the persistence of Donald #Trump and his tens of millions of moronic supporters have given new life to the #atheist German philosopher's opinions on the subject. For #Nietzsche, democracy was an undesirable dumbing down and leveling of human potential to the lowest common denominator. It gave rise to mass deception, ineptitude, squandering resources, & the general governance of fools.
Unfortunately, Nietzsche's solution was a return to a nobility model where the educated, landed (supposedly virtuous) elite made all the decisions. Because, gee, that could never go wrong, right?
Ironically, while most people gloss over this fact, #Nietzsche's thinking isn't completely antithetical to what the United State's #FoundingFathers believed regarding who should and should not hold the power to vote.
Spoiler alert: They didn't want everyone to vote, especially not women or slaves. 🤦🏼
I think about the Roman Empire a lot because most of our worst social institutions can be traced directly back via direct chain of transmission or self-conscious aping of it.
“My Sugardaddy”: sexueller Missbrauch Minderjähriger durch Deutschlands High Society #EatTheRich
"Auf sogenannten “Sugardating” Plattformen wie “My Sugardaddy” suchen reiche Männer gezielt nach Sex mit minderjärhrigen Mädchen. Zu diesem Ergebnis kam eine Recherche des SWR. Auch im Zusammenhang mit Menschenhandel und Zwangsprostitution sind die Seiten bekannt."