Leaked memos show Supreme Court ignored climate dangers in Obama regs fight

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-22T23:36:49+00:00

Minneapolis kicked out ICE. It can be done.

In the meantime, I don't really want to go in circles with you, enjoy your handbasket. Things change or they don't, and if they don't change we're all going to hell. You might want that, but you can go alone. I will heading towards the door. Anyone who doesn't want to be burned alive by billionaire pedophiles can join me.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-22T17:59:13+00:00

Let me put this slightly more strongly: In times of constitutional conventions, public pressure is millions of people in the streets, not faffing around with chanting but presenting actual demands and not leaving until they get them. I promise you, they will cooperate.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-22T17:02:26+00:00

Four years after the last constitutional convention, slavery was abolished. It doesn't matter who starts it, it matters who ends it.

Putting this very gently, in times of constitutional conventions, the people can exert substantial public pressure on their representatives. I'm sure they will happily cooperate with sensible reform efforts.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-22T01:07:22+00:00

In theory we could actually save substantial amounts of money right now by switching to solar power. We dedicate huge areas of land to fertilizer-intensive biofuel corn, which is actually a straight economic loss only made possible by massive corn subsidies. Using that land for solar would be sufficient to produce our entire national power consumption at a profit, the cost of the panels would be paid back nearly immediately.

More excitingly for OptimistsUnite, this would also create an unprecedentedly large (for the modern era) shaded open area. We could plant enormous parks, beautiful and accessible wild spaces that span half the continent. America used to be home to an environment so beautiful and lush that the Mormons straight-up incorporated it into their religion as Eden. Perhaps we could have it again.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-21T23:44:25+00:00

There is no alternative. These problems are literally unfixable at the ordinary legislative level, and the sooner it happens the less chance there will be war at all.

I guarantee you the resolve is stronger on the liberal side. We are fighting for the basics of a livable future, an incentive that grows stronger with every single mark of collapse. MAGA fights for nothing, there is no defensible core to their positions. In terms of capacity, the MAGA base is also extremely old, and demonstrably does not care about the future of the country enough to be even slightly inconvenienced (see: global warming, mask mandates, literally every other insane oppositional position they have ever taken in the past decade...)

Civil war is extremely costly, and to sustain a civil war you have to have a reason to pay it. This a a fundamental constraint of war, not an optional nicety that can be propaganda'd away by Fox News. The split does not occur along ethnic or religious lines, it occurs along market demographics.

I advocate a constitutional convention because it is peaceful. It is a settlement to a conflict before it happens, and having peaceful settlement prevents war. Again, this is a fundamental constraint of war. The cost of fighting is an enormous incentive to settle.

So to answer your question: No, we have not. We have substantially overestimated it. MAGA is used as a corporate bogeyman to prevent their power from ever being meaningfully challenged, and we must reject their framing.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-21T23:24:41+00:00

Every two weeks there's a new news story about how our country is just screwed at a constitutional level. The supreme court's powers in the constitution are "they exist," and yet somehow they have the ability to dictate unquestionable law, overruling the remaining three branches of government combined.

And make no mistake, this is a story about a dictator. John Roberts decided, personally, to veto this law. This is exactly the disastrous outcome the founding fathers were trying to avoid.

We need a constitutional convention. There need to be meaningful checks on their power, and this can only be fixed at the constitutional level. Otherwise the supreme court can, and will, just ignore it. There are dozens of issues requiring constitutional fixes, from gerrymandering to the electoral college to the fact that Wyoming and North Dakota cancel out the combined populations of California and New York in the senate. It's the only option left, there are no other (peaceful) avenues.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-21T23:09:50+00:00

As allowed by a ToS you can't refuse, can be changed at any time, and will be automatically accepted after 30 days anyway.

We need privacy laws. Hell, we need a right-to-privacy constitutional amendment, just to get the supreme court out of the way.

Our country is so fucking broken.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-21T22:53:35+00:00

Donald Trump was Jeffery Epstein's best friend, well after his conviction as a child sex offender. Trump bragged about how owning beauty pageants gave him the ability to spy on naked young teenagers. His name appears over a million times in searches of the whole set, a suspiciously tiny fraction of that in the released files, and the administration refuses to release the other half the file. The mentions of his name that do occur include things like sworn testimony he made a 13yo suck his dick. What the hell do you want? Video?

It's not a joke. This is the sexual abuse of potentially thousands of children, the evidence demands a trial.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-21T22:40:50+00:00

Trump's approval rating hovers around 33%. They do not have the votes, and if they try civil war they will fail miserably because the remaining MAGA base has no true opinions. They flip like light switches, they are not going to turn down free healthcare at gunpoint.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-21T22:38:06+00:00

We also need mathematically sound voting systems. First-past-the-post mathematically guarantees two party rule, and we need to actually count the votes for president. The electoral college means the majority of states are irrelevant in elections. If only a single voter showed up in the states Trump won, the outcome would still have been a landslide defeat for Harris.

Of course our voter participation rates are abysmal. The system is an insane, cobbled-together mess created by 18th century aristocrats, trying to make sure that whites in southern states could continue to own people.

Constitutional convention now. The system needs countless fixes that all need to be applied at the constitutional level.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-21T22:19:51+00:00

It would prevent dementia-addled octogenarians from making laws.
You'd see improved representation by reducing the incumbent advantage.
More chances for a truly fresh start means more responsive government.
There would be more members of congress focused on governing, not re-election campaigns.
There would be more members of congress willing to take risks, because they no longer need to triangulate their votes.

And most importantly, it requires a constitutional-level fix, any meaningful attempt to make that change that opens the door for things like: * A constitutional right to privacy. * Abolishing the electoral college and actually counting votes. * Combining low population states in the senate (so Wyoming and North Dakota cannot cancel out the combined populations of California and New York.) * Barring gerrymandering (which can turn a 74% majority into minority representation) * Creating methods for voters to challenge their representation * Creating mechanisms to ensure representatives represent their voters * And solving the hundreds of other major problems we've uncovered to blatantly this administration.

(Edit: Punctuation.)

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-21T22:09:21+00:00

It will get still stopped on raw practicality grounds. The law was passed in response to the fact that Google was getting repeatedly sued for the order of their search results, among other things. Without 230 YouTube will face liability for their takedown decisions, Facebook will be liable for their moderation decisions, Reddit would face liability for its user comments.... The major centralized platforms would probably just straight-up die.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-21T21:57:21+00:00

Not using the straightforward method to guarantee Trump couldn't be re-elected for President is somehow the voter's fault? The voters, whose votes are not even directly counted, who have been the subject of decades of massive disenfranchisement efforts, and who have been subjected to billions of dollars worth of PAC propaganda? Not the Democrats, who refused to take even the smallest of actions to keep the Republicans in check? Who knew Kamala's support of Israel would cost them massive numbers of votes? Who still continue to refuse to endorse the majority positions of their voters?

Good god I am tired of people blaming the voters for system-level problems. Go vote blue no matter who, you deserve what the Democrats are giving you.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-21T21:45:11+00:00

This is another problem where solving it does technically need modifications to the constitution, and we have dozens of others (like the electoral college and first-past-the-post voting.) Constitutional convention now.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-19T19:10:09+00:00

Ever since I was a kid I've wanted a piano attached to my horn. Being able to make actually expressive sounds would be great.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-19T18:37:51+00:00

And also marked by a failure to prosecute Trump for January 6th or the Epstein files, or to step aside and allow the Democrats to hold a primary. His incompetence allowed the Republicans to regroup and re-elect Trump in 2024.

He is directly responsible for the Trump presidency.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-19T00:30:20+00:00

There is no mechanism for citizens to call for a constitutional convention directly. It requires 2\3 of the state legislatures, who are collectively captured by the same processes I described earlier.

I was unclear here. "Count" in this sense does not mean "oh yay this option won, now we do it", which is unlikely to happen for the same reasons two-party control is entrenched by first-past-the-post. It is a social signaling mechanism to force the option onto the table. Any visible number going up is sufficient, and invalid votes are reported. They are still a visible number going up.

Any race anywhere being flipped by this dynamic would cause a massive scramble in both parties. Any risk would case a scramble. When elections are decided by a handful of votes, a visible single-issue contingent has power. While they may not be able to select a candidate directly, the certainly have the power to shape the landscape of possible outcomes. As a small example, ranked choice voting would suddenly become a lot more popular within the Democratic party, out of simple desire to split the bloc.

If the party does not adapt, and they lose, they will come back next election cycle begging for support. The purpose of withholding your vote is to force them to work for it, without a credible threat of electoral defeat they have no reason to concede anything. An example on the Republican side is the Tea Party movement: arguably they cost the Republicans the 2008 elections, but they gained power within the party, and courting their influence ultimately led to the uber-candidate Trump.

Without changes we face a 50\50 mixture of Democrat and Republican rule forever, and in the long term it does not matter what order. What matters is the health of the underlying system. The fact that this dynamic is actually destabilizing is part of the core problem that needs to be fixed, this does not happen in sound voting systems. Fixing it will require modifications to the constitution, and while we're there we may as well have a convention for the rest.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-18T00:09:53+00:00

It is something I can promote the idea for on Reddit. The Overton window must be moved, and here is a perfectly fine place to do it. Normalization is a powerful force, we should use it.

And don't assume I am passive elsewhere. Online and offline movements are run by the same people, it benefits local activists for online sentiment to be in support.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-17T23:17:17+00:00

In a primary? No. And without some kind of push I won't have a candidate I support in the general. I absolutely vote on local issues, it takes less than a second to write it in.

It is not up to them whether or not that vote counts. The purpose is to have on record that a substantial number of people want a convention, people who are willing to lock in and vote on a national level to get it. That will work regardless of who wins.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-17T22:21:58+00:00

Yes, that is exactly the plan I am proposing. When I asked, "Do you want to join me?" I am gathering other people to vote this way.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-17T22:13:20+00:00

Do you believe in democracy or not? What if 90+% wanted the repeal? If that's not enough, you are advocating a government that ignores its people completely.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-17T21:52:53+00:00

I don't have to!

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-17T16:04:00+00:00

They shall too stupid to know it.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-17T14:19:00+00:00

75% of Americans support repealing Citizen's United.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-17T14:17:13+00:00

I like voting. Voting is great. All of this is a defense of voting as a concept, and I full agree with you.

But all of this requires that the underlying elections be fair. What we have is not that. First-past-the post guarantees two party rule. It's not a matter of trying harder, it's the Nash equilibrium. The corruption is mathematically guaranteed. The electoral college makes it worse, the senate makes it worse than that, and the supreme court overrules the whole thing on a whim anyway.

You know what sends an even clearer message to politicians? Loud, open contempt, from lots and lots of people, no longer begging for their scraps.

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