He knows all too well what happens if the people don’t stand up. And how fast it can happen. I’m not a confrontational person by nature - I’m a “we can work it out” type who looks for workable compromises when possible.

But basic human rights are not negotiable. And it’s time to fight.

He didn’t become a billionaire by not speaking up when he wasn’t paid what he was owed. Billionaires have teams of lawyers (and accountants, and advisors) looking out for their rights.

Shame on him for suggesting that people who have rights they *earned* shouldn’t also look out for themselves.

Judge Howell is one of the most fair-minded people on the federal bench. Also, I don’t think they’re likely to get a terribly warm reception from other judges at the DC District Court, either. None of those judges are fools, and they do not appreciate being treated as such.

Dude. What kind of man worries this much about whether other men drink milkshakes, out of a straw or otherwise? That’s just weird.

Because I’m sure Mr. Billionaire just sits back and hopes things fix themselves when HE doesn’t get paid what he’s owed. Of course not - he’s got an army of lawyers all over it. He apparently doesn’t think SS recipients have the same right to demand what they are owed.

I keep waiting for someone to be monomaniacal for *the people* - both Palestinians and Israelis - because their governments sure aren’t. People should not still be dying in 2025 because neither side’s leaders will accept reality, set and respect an effing border and move on.

Yup. And yet I saw some of my son’s special ed teachers high fiving each other the morning after the election. I don’t know what it’ll take to get through to some of these people, because the cognitive dissonance is strong.

I don’t think you have to excuse the abuses of 19th Century capitalism to acknowledge Carnagie did some significant good by trying to make education and cultural enrichment more widely available, especially to the poor. He had been poor, and understood very well that education opened doors.

Carnagie was not a saint - but he did come up from “nothing,” and so he believed in making it possible for other poor kids to obtain an education, have access to cultural enrichment, etc. It really shouldn’t be up to rich people to do that for us - but he saw the need and he set out to fill it.

But… it wouldn’t, even if he spent it all. People richer than him have tried, but it’s a big problem that will take more than one person - even a very rich, committed one - to solve. It’s going to have to become a priority for all of us. And right now, we have people who want to end school lunches.

It’s been a thing for a while - when Obama nominated Sotomayor, one of the things he said was that she had “that quality of empathy” that we want in our jurists. And the Right *lost it.* Of course, they took it to mean not punishing criminals enough… even though she had been a (tough) prosecutor.

Exactly. “Do unto others…” is literally a call to empathy - to put yourself in others’ shoes and treat them accordingly. That one precept is at the heart of everything Jesus taught. I don’t see how one even can BE a Christian without it. But there have always been un-Christlike Christians.

I wish I knew. It’s like a nightmare we can’t wake up from.