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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • The DOJ is not an independent branch though. It’s part of the executive branch.

    Structurally, no. In spirit it is. That’s why 75% of the DOJ left over 2025, because they do not want to deal with the eventual fallout of how Trump is managing this DOJ. It’s not a case they are confident they will get out of cleanly (with their license to practice law).

    To me this is one of the biggest flaws of the constitution

    Yes, the constitution was kept small on purpose and a lot was left to the honor system. Under the logic that a truly tyrannous leadership could tear it down no matter how many loopholes it tries to close. Was that the right call? I can’t really say.


  • These can be interpreted as contradictory statements.

    Sure, if you never worked at a large structure. They are professionals who talk. They are not intimate nor buddy-buddy with each other.

    And they’re the same branch. That’s the point.

    The same way Congress has various agencies it delegates powers to, yes. You are very technically correct.

    Like those agencies, the DOJ is a non-partisan part of the otherwise partisan executive branch whose job is to represent the US in its court cases. It is not the president’s personal law firm.

    but I was speaking to the specific statement.

    I’m speaking generally. Becsuse this specific situation is so sleazy and utterly corrupt that it’s barely even worth analysis. But for those who don’t know: no, this is not normal, business as usual.


  • . I would expect if a President had a legitimate concern that they would voice that concern to the AG to investigate

    Yes. The branches communicate with each other, but ultimately work independently except for very specific sync points. Or if one branch needs to check and balance another.

    That is very different from meeting up with an AG for a private meeting. Let alone the conflict of Interest of being the president’s personal lawyer. This isn’t normal.

    promising not to ever do it would just get them in hot water later down the road.

    Yes, I’m sure it will for Todd. Much later than I wish, but later down the road indeed.



  • For those who do not know history; it was once a huge scandal for Clinton to be seen talking with the AG. 16 years after he was president. Those so concerned about “her emails” would know this well.

    And that’s not even going into “Nannygate” if you want a small rabbit hole to go down. A very tame controversy that would be cast off as a “nothing burger” today as I’m sure Trump’s cabinet have had controversies every other day at this point.

    This is all to say that: no, this is not normal. It is not normal for the DoJ to be so closely affiliated with the executive branch. And watch the hypocrisy when the US magically rememberes this after Trump leaves.



  • No chance they do it now. They’ll do it when Trump is likely already dead, if (and only if) a proper democrat and congress comes into power, and when the sentiment tides signifigantly shift. To the point where that MAGA neighbor suddenly pretends he never voted for Trump (he voted for him 3 times. maybe 4).

    Then they will probably get 1-2 lawyers on the hook, take their license, and give them a consultant role elsewhere in government as an olive branch. Justice. I sure hope to be proven wrong, but something tells me we won’t learn from Reconstruction.




  • Yes, those things are true, but it’s kind of like an ACAB situation.

    Cops are unionized and work as a team. Ultimately, most therapists work by themselves. Not to mention that systematic abuse of power gives cops that reputation. Which is a hard argument to make for therapists.

    So I don’t really think the comparison applies here. If you feel you were wronged: since it’s a licensed profession, there is a board you can report to. It varies by state, though. If what they did was especially egrigious in terms of the rules in your state, you can get their license revoked.

    Short of that, you can be as terrible a therapist as long as you can keep getting clients.

    A license is to make sure they follow the laws and regulations of their state. Not to make sure they are “a good therapist”. The license is to meet a minimum bar of quality and from there make sure they stay in good standing with laws. Just like how a driver’s license can be given to people of varying skill levels.

    The closest aspect to your scenario is a therapist’s rating and testimony. Most services (if not, a 3rd party website) will have a review board for such thigs to read and a scathing review can be a softer way to damage their reputation than the licensing board.

    That tells me that professionalization of therapy isn’t being done to help and protect clients, but to help and protect therapists.

    If you look at any job cynically enough, you can apply this to anything, and anyone. A firefighter doesn’t want to put out fires, they want to protect their job. An athlete doesn’t care about the game, they just want to be famous and get sponsors. [insert literally any job ever] is only doing it for the paycheck.

    At the end of the day, it come down to trust. if you can’t trust your professional, you shouldn’t hire them. That’s for all of life. But your lack of trust alone isn’t enough to invalidate an entire field.




  • I will:

    “The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.

    There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”

    ― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

    I didn’t read this Steinbeck in school (I read Of Mice and Men), but I thought back then “I’m glad we moved past this. We wouldn’t allow such work today so blatantly”.

    Well, education definitely isn’t wisdom. And it sure isn’t experience.





  • There are ways in which therapy can disempower you: it can teach you to ignore your instincts, paper over your concerns

    Any therapist telling you to “ignore your instincts” without diagnosing you with a relevant condition (e.g. PTSD, OCD) isn’t worth their salt. And not all therapists are licensed to diagnose you, so you’d need to be referred to a potentially different professional.

    It’s like any other professional. You try stuff they suggest, and sometimes it doesn’t work out or you simply want 2nd opinion on a matter. It’s not perfect, but generally it helps.

    so I’m really hesitant to recommend it to people blindly with no caveats.

    Worst case, they waste a few hundred dollars and learn its not for them. I’ve wasted more money with worse things. I think the risk of getting “addicted to therapy” is much smaller than gambling or drugs.