• FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca
    16·
    22 hours ago

    Remember when we told people Trump would take people’s rights away and they thought we were delusional?

  • mkwt@lemmy.world
    1021·
    2 days ago

    Reed O’Connor is a totally nutso federal judge in Fort Worth.

    Last month, DOJ subpoenaed a hospital in Rhode Island to obtain the private medical records of certain trans children. Three government went to Reed O’Connor to enforce this subpoena, which he did.

    Within hours of the gov’s motion he ruled ex parte to order the hospital to turn over the docs on a short deadline. He didn’t give the hospital a chance to respond, which is a big judicial no-no. He also ignored venue rules. Venue rules would indicate that the proper place to file this kind of enforcement motion would be the federal courthouse in Rhode Island, where the hospital is. There’s no reason for this case to be in Fort Worth besides the fact that Reed O’Connor is in Fort Worth.

    Anyhow, the hospital filed a motion in Rhode Island Court seeking to quash the subpoena, which the Rhode Island judge did. This caused Reed O’Connor to completely lose his shit. He just flat out ignored the perfectly valid court order to quash from his fellow federal judge in Rhode Island. And he ordered the hospital not to file any other motions, lawsuits, or appeals in any other court besides his own. This is a serious violation of the hospital’s first amendment right to seek redress of grievances by filing motions, lawsuits, and appeals in courts of law.

    Also, earlier this week, Texas and the feds conspired to rewrite immigration rules in Reed O’Connor’s Court. The rule in question allows immigration judges to “administratively” close cases which stops a deportation, but leaves the immigrant in legal limbo. Normally, to change a federal rule, you have to spend years collecting public comments and revising before it becomes final.

    Here’s what happened instead. The state of Texas filed a lawsuit against the federal government that claimed the rule was somehow illegal. The federal government filed a proposed settlement agreement to settle the lawsuit. Then Reed O’Connor filed a final judgement and permanent injunction overturning the rule. This all happened in the span of a few hours instead of years.

    It is also very illegal. Because it’s obvious that both Texas and the feds want the same outcome, there is no genuine dispute or controversy to this lawsuit. If this is not a genuine “case or controversy”, the federal courts have no jurisdiction to do anything.

    And so on, and so on. There’s a long Wikipedia article full of older stuff from the past. But hopefully you get some idea of how crazy this guy is.

  • حمید پیام عباسی@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
    324·
    1 day ago

    You know what is really funny About US Americans and their near religious reverence of their political institutions? You people think that the source of the problem is the solution. The constitution won’t save you. The constitution of the US describes a state that is incapable of operating and leaves open this sort of tyranny. Due the the broken structure of your government you’ve been unable to pass meaningful legislation for decades. There hasn’t been an amendment since the 1992 and that was to give congress a raise. You raise up normal day to day legislation like funding a small amount of infrastructure “build back better” and a right wing guaranteed profits law that only really benefits the insurance industry “america cares act” as major accomplishments.

    The constitution isn’t what is going to fix this. The constitution describes a government written in the preindustrial age to maintain slave owner supremacy and protect the interests of the elite. It describes a system that is subject to a tyranny of the majority that has weakness in the very cultural fabric of Americans like hyper individualism, materialism and anti-intellectualism.

    These aren’t just the rantings of a “tankie” either, this was called out by Tocqueville in 1831 and it has come to pass.

    • CluelessCalls@lemmy.world
      3·
      19 hours ago

      That’s not entirely true, the constitution gives Americans the opportunity to overthrow tyranny. People will exercise that right one day, maybe it won’t be too late.

    • huey_m@reddthat.com
      51·
      20 hours ago

      You know what is really funny About US Americans and their near religious reverence of their political institutions? You people think that the source of the problem is the solution. The constitution won’t save you. The constitution of the US describes a state that is incapable of operating and leaves open this sort of tyranny. Due the the broken structure of your government you’ve been unable to pass meaningful legislation for decades.

      I think this is absolutely true, but as someone living in central Europe, I’m really curious what country you’d cite as having a significantly better structure? Parliamentary systems have their own problems, as we’re seeing play out in Europe now. China certainly has issues with their government.

      I agree with the sentiment, but not with the tone that suggests this is particularly unique to the US.

      • حمید پیام عباسی@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
        2·
        17 hours ago

        What is unique to the US is their civic religion with the saints of the founding fathers and the reverence of the documents themselves. Most modern countries rewrite their constitutions but the US is stuck with theirs because they worship it.

        Many other governments have a better structure, but that isn’t the point of what I wrote. Maybe the US Americans can write something new that is even incrementally better and it would be a positive. I was born and raised in the US but have left it behind.

        • huey_m@reddthat.com
          1·
          9 hours ago

          Most modern countries rewrite their constitutions but the US is stuck with theirs because they worship it.

          Most modern countries organized themselves as constitutional democracies a lot more recently, though… it makes sense there’s less sense of tradition around it. UK and Netherlands are big exceptions, but most of Europe have constitutions that either go back to the mid 19th century or even the 1990’s for the eastern bloc…

          Maybe the US Americans can write something new that is even incrementally better and it would be a positive.

          The US has amendend its Constitution lots of times, though. It’s really only the last 30-40 years deadlock has become such a norm, and we’re seeing globally this problem is happening… I’d contend it has way more to do with all of those countries embracing neoliberalism and that ideology starting to die rather than government structure. And UK/US were the first in on that mess, so it makes sense they seem to be the ones floundering the most right now.

          I dunno, I’m also an American that moved and started a family in Europe years ago, and while living here hasn’t improved my estimation of the US that much, I have definitely been disillusioned of the popular internet opinion that things are much better here. We have very similar structural problems and no political will to fix it.

          • حمید پیام عباسی@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
            1·
            9 minutes ago

            I do not think things are better in Europe. I would never look to Europe or Europeans for inspiration. I would not be welcome in Europe. Not sure why everyone assumes this from my comments. Just because something is bad doesn’t mean that there is something better that exists, especially because the USA goes out of its way to destroy any alternative to itself and its system with a huge monopoly of violence and nuclear weapons.

      • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.netEnglish
        22·
        19 hours ago

        You don’t need to cite another country as having a better structure to point out the one you currently live in is broken.

        the systems that currently exist are not the only systems to have ever existed nor are the the only possibilities to choose from. Other options are possible.

        Lastly, nothing about the tone is suggesting this is specific to the US. They are simply describing the US situation. You’re the only one comparing it to the situation of other nations.

        • huey_m@reddthat.com
          11·
          9 hours ago

          You don’t need to cite another country as having a better structure to point out the one you currently live in is broken.

          I didn’t say you do. I agreed, I just see this as a very international problem among western democracies that all embraced neoliberal politics and economies.

          Lastly, nothing about the tone is suggesting this is specific to the US.

          “You people think that the source of the problem is the solution.” does seem to be applying only to Americans, and the OP came back and did make an argument that this is a uniquely American problem, so I don’t think you were right about this.

    • rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      50·
      2 days ago

      Exactly what’s stated in the meme. A person was sentenced to 3 decades behind bars because he moved a box of leftist literature

      • MightEnlightenYou@lemmy.worldEnglish
        58·
        2 days ago

        To any American who knows a little history, this is your “then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out…”-moment

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
        31·
        2 days ago

        One woman got 30 years, because her husband moved PROHIBITED written material from her car. So he’s in trouble for moving it (Obstruction, or some such happy horseshit) and she’s in trouble for having it in her car. We don’t even know what the written material is, but very, very little written material could be prohibited under the 1st Amendment, and it’s this MAGA administration claiming it, so you KNOW it’s bullshit.

        This is clearly using the brute force of the government to hurt critics, and they WANT us to holler about it. Go ahead, tell EVERYBODY what we did.

        This is no less than a NEW offensive assault on any potential resistance, making it clear what will happen if anyone tries to commit any real act of protest. It is important to keep in mind a new DoJ policy that was revealed this past week:

        The office of the Attorney General, Todd Flintstone, has sole authority over the prisons that inmates get sent to. So Ghislane Maxwell can be sent to a girl’s summer camp, while those people, whose crime was protesting the brutal treatment of the government, will be sent to General Population in the worst prisons in the federal system.

        This is what we can expect from them over the next two years, under Attorney General Todd Flintstone. They just got the news that they can start deporting anyone they want to, so they are going to do that on an industrial scale. But the For-Profit Prison Corps will not tolerate a dip in their daily bed count, so they will need a new boogeyman to go after, and it will be those ANTIFA Terrorists. DHS sweeps out the Immigrants, AG brings in the Commies. Next will be…journalists, gays, people who criticize the government to dozens of people on Lemmy, why not all?

        Eventually, their sentences will be found to be unconstitutional, and they’ll be released, if they live that long. One day in a place like that is too much for any innocent American citizen, and these people are likely to spend months or even years in there before they get justice, and are released. Those Parasites who put those people though that ordeal, not for justice for the American people, but to intimidate the American people into not resisting their corruption and brutal assault on our Citizens, need to be decisively handled, except they will have fully EARNED their long prison sentences.

        • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
          6·
          1 day ago

          The trauma from spending even a month in prison is enough to fully derail a person’s life, even aside from probably losing their job and having it go on their record.

          On a psychological level, it’s just not easy to recover to a sense of normalcy after spending time in prison. The rest of one’s life is haunted by this constant threat, it can make it difficult to participate in social activities, perform basic tasks, or really enjoy doing anything at all. The prison follows you, is a part of you, lives deep within your own mind.

          That’s one of the reasons for high rates of recidivism, aside from the socioeconomic structures that are baked into the system to present barriers to anyone who’s been to prison (or even jail).

          The penal institutions are not designed to help people recover or reform their behavior. They’re there to punish, traumatize, and exclude, and as a threat to hold over people’s heads to keep them in line. And, of course, as a lucrative profit machine with a carve-out for legal slavery…

        • starelfsc2@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          18 hours ago

          One of the things I saw in the article was ACAB with a burning police car, which could be considered a “call to violence,” but 30 years for that? That’s what someone could get if they themselves killed someone…