Today in Fascism

I have to say I really enjoyed the benefits of Trump's tax cuts this year. In particular, the higher cap on the SALT deduction which is a huge win for middle-class Californians, especially new home buyers.

I'm sure Dems now hate paying less taxes.
 
watfly said:
I have to say I really enjoyed the benefits of Trump's tax cuts this year. In particular, the higher cap on the SALT deduction which is a huge win for middle-class Californians, especially new home buyers.

I'm sure Dems now hate paying less taxes.
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Did that offset the price of, well, everything?
 
Hüsker Dü said:
It’s not every day a sitting Supreme Court justice steps out from behind the bench, walks onto a public stage, and delivers what sounds less like a legal lecture and more like a political warning.

That’s what Clarence Thomas just did.

At a university law event, he didn’t talk about a specific case or a narrow legal principle. He went big. He warned that progressivism is an existential threat to America. Not a disagreement. Not a debate. A threat.

That alone is unusual.

Supreme Court justices are supposed to project neutrality. They can have philosophies, of course. They all do. But openly framing one broad political ideology as dangerous to the nation while actively serving on the Court? That’s not typical judicial small talk. That’s stepping into the arena with a jersey on.

And the speech itself? Well… it gets even better.

Because there’s something almost beautiful about Clarence Thomas warning that progressivism is a threat to America.

Beautiful in the way a guy climbs onto the roof using a ladder, pulls it up behind him, and then starts a lecture on why ladders are dangerous and should probably be restricted.

Because the version of America that made Clarence Thomas possible didn’t just appear out of the founding documents like a fully baked pie. The original system had some… structural omissions.

When the Constitution was written, slavery was legal. Black Americans were not treated as citizens. Voting, education, property ownership, basic legal protections… all restricted depending on who you were. The law didn’t malfunction. It was working exactly as designed.

That only began to change because people forced it to change.

Amendments after the Civil War technically granted citizenship and voting rights, but those were ignored or undermined for nearly a century. Segregation was legal. Schools were separate and unequal. Entire communities were locked out of opportunity by law and policy.

It took court decisions, federal laws, and massive public pressure to crack that system open. Things like the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act didn’t fall out of the sky. They were fought for. Hard.

And along the way, something else happened. Universities opened their doors wider. Hiring practices changed. Federal protections expanded. The idea that the Constitution should apply equally to everyone started being taken seriously instead of treated like decorative language.

That broader push… expanding rights, access, and protections… that’s what gets labeled “progressivism.”

Fast forward to now.

You have a Black man sitting on the Supreme Court with a lifetime appointment. One of the most powerful legal positions in the country. A seat that, not all that long ago, would have been legally and culturally out of reach.

And from that seat, the message is that the movement responsible for expanding those opportunities is the real threat. That’s not subtle irony.

The “natural rights” argument he leans on sounds noble. Rights come from God, not government. But here’s the part that tends to get skipped: for most of American history, the people in power were very comfortable deciding who those God-given rights actually applied to… and who they didn’t.

So in practice, rights didn’t just exist. They had to be recognized, enforced, and protected by law. Without that, they were more of a suggestion than a reality.

Progressivism’s core argument has been pretty simple………if rights exist, they should apply to everyone, and the law should reflect that.

That’s where the friction comes in.

Because expanding rights always feels disruptive if your idea of order was built around limiting them. When more people gain access, power shifts. Systems change. And people who were comfortable with the old balance start calling the change itself the problem.

So the story gets flipped.

Now universities are “corrupting minds.” Intellectuals are dangerous. Modern interpretations of the Constitution are the threat. All delivered from a university podium, to a room full of students training to enter those very systems.

It’s like standing in a hospital and warning everyone about the dangers of medicine. But the most telling part isn’t the speech. It’s where it’s coming from.

This isn’t someone on the outside fighting to get in. This is someone at the absolute top. Lifetime appointment. No elections. No real accountability. A direct hand in shaping the law of the land.

And from that position, the argument is that the forces that expanded access to rights and opportunity are undermining the country. Because once you label progress as the danger, something else becomes possible.

Rolling things backward starts to sound like “restoring order.” Limiting protections becomes “returning to principles.” Shrinking who is included in the promise of the Constitution gets framed as preserving it.

That’s the pivot.

Dress it up in originalism. Wrap it in reverence for the founders. Use language about moral decay and lost values. And suddenly, moving backward doesn’t sound like regression. It sounds like responsibility.

But strip away the setting, the tone, and the philosophy, and what’s left is much simpler:

The system expanded enough to let more people in… and now expansion itself is being called the threat.

That’s not a warning.

That’s someone standing at the top of the ladder, explaining why no one else should be allowed to climb it.

And in a final, almost poetic touch, he made sure not to forget a public nod to Harlan Crow… because nothing underscores a lecture on threats to democracy quite like remembering the benefactors who helped make the view from the top so comfortable.

~ Kat Romenesko

Also, Thomas wouldn’t be married to who he is without progressivism.
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Was he able to define the difference between a man and a woman?
 
Leo claims he’s “not political”. Old tweets never die - even when they are deleted. He and the Lord will have some squaring up to do around this statement. I wonder if he believes the Lord won’t remember? 😂😂😂😂😂 The clowns in MSM should ask him if deleting them was an attempt to deceive people so he could gain power. No wonder he was meeting with Obama’s advisor. Just another day of the Left doing what the Left does. There’s a very good reason they lie all the time. If they told the truth, they’d lose power. Here’s a “thank God” for Musk buying Twitter.

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Hüsker Dü said:
Did that offset the price of, well, everything?
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Depends where you draw the line. Gas is down overall compared to the Biden years. It's up now, but significantly lower than 2022. Grocery prices are lower. Most of the higher costs I pay are California driven (energy in particular), no way to offset that without moving, which will happen at some point, but not in the next 5 years. Of course, then I won't have as big of SALT deduction, which is why Trump's increased cap is so important for California residents and other high cost states like NY. So while it might not offset the cost of living in California, its nice to mitigate some of those costs.

The price increases I find crazy are dining out costs, especially fast food, which I don't indulge often, mostly just when I'm road tripping or on the way to the launch. The cost/increase is due in part to unrealistic minimum wage requirements and the cost of complying with California's overwhelming regulations.
 
Hüsker Dü said:
“What’s a corner store?”
“Groceries? What an old fashion term!”
He’s led a sheltered life.
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You do you, but have you ever thought about a little self-reflection, instead of fixating on Trump's every word going on 8 years now. Maybe the Democrats are to blame for Trump? If he is so bad, he should have been easy to beat, but after an abysmal Biden administration your party put up a completely unqualified and unintelligible candidate in Kamala. As much as you want to blame the intelligence of Trump voters, he won, not because of MAGA voters, but because of independents and a big shift in minority voters. You should consider that the Democrat party needs to get their shit together and maybe stop fighting so hard for 20% issues. You only lose moderate voters by doing so.

Proof is in the pudding...Trump's approval rating is 13 percentage points higher than the Democrat party. Its so bad that far-left California may get a Republican governor, although that has more to do with Newsom's abysmal leadership.
 
watfly said:
Depends where you draw the line. Gas is down overall compared to the Biden years. It's up now, but significantly lower than 2022. Grocery prices are lower. Most of the higher costs I pay are California driven (energy in particular), no way to offset that without moving, which will happen at some point, but not in the next 5 years. Of course, then I won't have as big of SALT deduction, which is why Trump's increased cap is so important for California residents and other high cost states like NY. So while it might not offset the cost of living in California, its nice to mitigate some of those costs.

The price increases I find crazy are dining out costs, especially fast food, which I don't indulge often, mostly just when I'm road tripping or on the way to the launch. The cost/increase is due in part to unrealistic minimum wage requirements and the cost of complying with California's overwhelming regulations.
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Are you waiting until the kids are out of school to move? We’ll be gone in 3 years, tops, as we are having a place built in Texas. It’s possible we’ll move sooner and rent somewhere depending on my wife’s work and the options.

I’m thinking when we get a new guy in at the Fed in May, rates could drop considerably and the housing market might improve.
 
watfly said:
You do you, but have you ever thought about a little self-reflection, instead of fixating on Trump's every word going on 8 years now. Maybe the Democrats are to blame for Trump? If he is so bad, he should have been easy to beat, but after an abysmal Biden administration your party put up a completely unqualified and unintelligible candidate in Kamala. As much as you want to blame the intelligence of Trump voters, he won, not because of MAGA voters, but because of independents and a big shift in minority voters. You should consider that the Democrat party needs to get their shit together and maybe stop fighting so hard for 20% issues. You only lose moderate voters by doing so.

Proof is in the pudding...Trump's approval rating is 13 percentage points higher than the Democrat party. Its so bad that far-left California may get a Republican governor, although that has more to do with Newsom's abysmal leadership.
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He’s like the rest of us, @watfly. How could it be anything but the MAGA cult that overcame this kind of support for Harris?

1776532399843.png


 
watfly said:
Depends where you draw the line. Gas is down overall compared to the Biden years. It's up now, but significantly lower than 2022. Grocery prices are lower. Most of the higher costs I pay are California driven (energy in particular), no way to offset that without moving, which will happen at some point, but not in the next 5 years. Of course, then I won't have as big of SALT deduction, which is why Trump's increased cap is so important for California residents and other high cost states like NY. So while it might not offset the cost of living in California, its nice to mitigate some of those costs.

The price increases I find crazy are dining out costs, especially fast food, which I don't indulge often, mostly just when I'm road tripping or on the way to the launch. The cost/increase is due in part to unrealistic minimum wage requirements and the cost of complying with California's overwhelming regulations.
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Your selective outrage is illuminating.
 
watfly said:
You do you, but have you ever thought about a little self-reflection, instead of fixating on Trump's every word going on 8 years now. Maybe the Democrats are to blame for Trump? If he is so bad, he should have been easy to beat, but after an abysmal Biden administration your party put up a completely unqualified and unintelligible candidate in Kamala. As much as you want to blame the intelligence of Trump voters, he won, not because of MAGA voters, but because of independents and a big shift in minority voters. You should consider that the Democrat party needs to get their shit together and maybe stop fighting so hard for 20% issues. You only lose moderate voters by doing so.

Proof is in the pudding...Trump's approval rating is 13 percentage points higher than the Democrat party. Its so bad that far-left California may get a Republican governor, although that has more to do with Newsom's abysmal leadership.
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Oh so now we are “victim blaming”.

Your lexicon seems chock full of, could, should, maybe, might, what he meant was, eventually, it’s someone else’s fault. Grow a pair, man up, take responsibility and, something novel to maga, demand responsibility.
 
Hüsker Dü said:
Your selective outrage is illuminating.
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Stephen Miller on FIRE

🔥🔥The Democrats have a BLACKMAIL FILE on ALL of its politicians…and they use it to leverage and control them until it's time to release it. That’s how SICK AND TWISTED they are🔥🔥
Liz Churchill

‼️This Is Why DEMOCRATS VOTE In SYNC!! The Party is like the MAFIA, A Secret Criminal Society! The DEMOCRAT PARTY Needs To Be INVESTIGATED ‼️

47 second clip
#XTeam #agl #PBG3 #Murch
 
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