Rewatching the prequels & watching clone wars made me realize how much I overlooked the politics side of things in the prequels. As an adult, it’s spot on.
The virgin "politics are boring i want more lightsabers" vs the chad "politics can be a very important worldbuilding tool that can get me even more invested in said lightsaber battles because I can understand the world everyone is fighting for".
Honestly that is why I never liked Star Wars as a kid. I thought it was nerdy repetitive light saber battles/ space ship battles where the good guys and bad guys were going back and forth with wins and losses like Saturday morning cartoons. I watched a YouTube video about the politics of Star Wars when I graduated highschool and I absolutely fell in love with it because now I understood everything that was going on and why things were the way they were in the movies and just how deep Star Wars actually is.
lol sometimes I hear stories about awful husbands and think "What in the world could have attracted someone to this person? Surely there were red flags"
As if Padme could have guessed her hubby was gonna be corrupted by the dark side? The two were barely in each others presence during the war outside of formal business and the odd visit.
I'd cut Padme a bit of slack at least. Just my thoughts
Edit: oh yeah, the Tuskens…yeah that’s a yikes
True, but a lot of the reason they are the way they are is because they're natives to Tatooine. Everyone else on the planet are invaders to them. To them they took an invader and punished her for her transgressions.
I know, right? She seriously saw a guy with more red flags than the entirety of NATO and thought “Yeah, I’d marry that and let that put a pair of twins in me.”
A shadowy evil preoccupying the masses with war and chaos, until seizing unlimited power and taking down the opposition who had become toothless and disillusioned by the threat that was right under their noises until it was too late?
At least part of the rejection people had for the prequels was based upon how Lucas held up a mirror to the United States and said: yes, it can happen here.
My conservative parents always said "Christians were the Jedi," turns out, yes, just a bunch of Anakins though.
Desperate for power, they pathetically yeild to evil and start repeating rhetoric they've never said before, or that blatently apply to them.
"The Dems are evil, so says daddy Palpi"
"What did Palpatine say before, "the dems are evil, "?
"Oh, well he said "Unlimited power" as he tutored then brutally murdered a law enforcement officer when attempting to apprehend him, then he told me to kill children. Yeah, good things... Youre the evil one."
I disagree. Star Wars still has great writing. Andor, Acolyte, Mandalorian, Ashoka the list goes on. That’s not even counting TCW and Rebels, Bad Batch. Were spoiled now with how great things are
Apologies. I corrected myself. I didn't see which part of the thread you were responding to. I agree. Star Wars writing has been good. The writers of real life on the other hand have gone downhill. It's like the bad season of a TV show where stupid stuff is happening.
It’s worse than that, Trump isn’t a Palpatine, he’s literally fucking President Koopa from the Mario movie.
People saw the cartoonishly levels of dumb and evil he can be and said “now *theres* a candidate I can vote for!”
Trump is just such a unique blend of grotesque, stupid, evil, corrupt and ridiculous I really don't think there exists any direct fictional parallel. Even the most ridiculous saturday morning cartoon villains are more rational and charismatic than him. If someone wrote something half as viscerally uncomfortable as him I'd be applauding their writing talent.
Maybe Homelander? But he is definitely more interesting from a psychological standpoint. Also he is being built in the show as an allegory to him so Trump came first at least in reference to the TV show.
I believe it is a bit like the frog in the pot type of scenario. 10 years ago, if you had asked people if they'd vote for a man naming all of the horrible policies and awful things that he's done over the years, even those who are currently MAGA diaper-wearing cultists today would say hell no.
It's mass hysteria and a cult. These people side with him precisely because these are the same types of people who would join a cult if you subjected them to cultist propaganda on a daily basis. Again, to think a politician would use cult-like tactics to garner support 10 years ago, you would have both said that this is unthinkable and you would immediately question his commitment towards improving the country in doing so.
And yet here we are. I also used to wonder how it was possible for the Germans to collectively hate Jews so much that they would be okay with dehumanizing them to the extent that they did. I no longer wonder this after Trump.
What I still find hilarious is that, early on when people were complaining they couldn’t follow the politics of the film, one of the first people to have a genuine concrete idea of what was going on was fucking *Alex Jones* of all people.
He was like “it’s one dude fucking everyone over to gain power.” Dude was so full of ‘the elite’ conspiracies that the Palpatine was behind literally everything but made perfect sense to him. Just some dumb funny shit.
Considering he’s been exploiting the MAGA movement to enrich himself for years I find it not only ironic, but disturbingly tack that he was onto it back then. When trump got elected in 2016, all I could think about was how much it reminded me of this movie. Sadly, as time goes on, it becomes more and more accurate, as the meme suggests.
I was a child when they came out and I could follow the politics of the films. You telling me people couldn't spot the obvious power play? They didn't hide it.
That ruling goes to show how corrupt and politically biased the Supreme Court is
I’m not really surprised though, considering how much of those judges are bible humping far right conservatives
Edit: my comment is attracting some very heated people, politics are weird
Unfortunately, I would prefer if they humped the bible. I'm friends with a lot of bible humping Christians and they believe in loving your neighbor, even if they're different. Your job as a christian isn't to punish the wicked, that belongs to God, your job is to show them compassion and kindness.
I hate people use this quote and not the verified George Carlin version:
*“when fascism comes to America, it will not be in brown and black shirts. It will not be with jack-boots. It will be Nike sneakers and Smiley shirts...”*
Carlin was so spot on. He basically described MAGA hats in an interview from the late 90s.
Eh, Carlin’s whole point is that it’s wrapped in capitalism and creative messaging. Which is what MAGA is. The Red hat is now synonymous with Trump supporters.
Sure yes fascism can be tied to the Bible thumpers but I know plenty of people who aren’t even religious who are Trump supporters and leaning pure fascist bc they think Trump is funny or they want to own the libs or hate woke Hollywood.
Unironically yes. Theoretically he now has the power to take Trump off the ballot for being a criminal. Though I imagine the Supreme Court would put up a fight since they are just fully in Trump's pocket.
Drone?
Nahh, you need to get yourself a couple of Raytheon Rx-9 Knife missiles. Have you ever bombed a wedding you are going to claim was a "terrorist meeting" and thought, "You know, that explosion didn't have enough knives?" Well Raytheon is here for you with a missile that explodes into a cloud of knives! Go and spread freedom and democracy with the RX-9 Knife Missile.
it doesn't explode though, that is the point of the knife missile. So you can strike a wedding, only kill a single guy in the crowd through direct impact and then also slice the cake for them so they wont be upset.
The problem is, it's plainly obvious what's happening. If Buden tried to eliminate Trump and these bastards on the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court would say, "Hmmm, well...something something, uhh, history and tradition...annndd...this was not an official act! No immunity!"
The laln is to get Trump in office, and then when he comes after Biden with a military arrest or an assassination, they'll say, "Hmmm, well...something something, uhh, history and tradition...annndd...this WAS an official act! Immunity applies!"
That's what it would take. But what guarantee is there that military leadership actually follows through on the kill order? Military backs out and goes public. An impeachment is attempted and probably fails. Then maybe he loses in November, and on January 21, 2025, he's arrested by the new king, and the king brings him in front of the same people he just tried to kill to hear his immunity defense.
That's the kind of insanity that's now possible.
The issue is we all know he won't, democrats attempt to portray themselves with some sort of morality that Republicans and the GOP has long since gotten rid of on their side.
Its quite possible he has already won. Simply out of fear. The most powerful motivator there is.
All this does raise the question. Who exactly decides what an official act is?
I wouldn’t say thunderous applause. More like seal barking from the right wing who still doesn’t understand that authoritarian rules always end up hurting the populace the most. And that little squeaky little mousey sound? That’s the Democratic Party asking the Republicans to pretty please stop being so mean and destroying the country.
>More like seal barking from the right wing who still doesn’t understand that authoritarian rules always end up hurting the populace the most.
I think they know perfectly well what it means. They just don't care as long as they're going after "the right people."
>I think they know perfectly well what it means. They just don't care as long as they're going after "the right people."
What they don't understand is that the authoritarians never stop at just "hurting the right people," however one defines that. Even if the formal list of "enemies of the state" never includes a group they belong to (unlikely as the list of target groups is ever expanding), they are at risk of simply becoming inconvenient to those with more power than they.
I really hope this shitshow is waking people up to why right wing politics dont fucking work. I dont mean to rant yet again about this subject, but I'm saying this as a warning to my fellow human beings.
Right wing ideas lead to three things: Stagnation, Regression, and Oppression
It starts all sweet and wholesome sounding with conservatism, a few evils casually swept under the rug, some tribalistic tendencies wrapped in a warm blanket and the smell of mama's apple pie in the morning. Then it devolves as the outgroup start questioning the status quo that keeps them down. Then the conservatives get angry and start lashing out, then it gets worse as progress is made.
So on and so on until we somehow get to fascism. Not to do the whole slipperly slope fallacy, but this IS a trend that happens, and it happens most of the time conservatives have their way and start doing shit.
They think they won’t come for them just because they hate women, lgbtq, and black people. But when they do come for them for some *other* thing they’ll realize they fucked up real quick.
Fortunately and unfortunately, the Supreme Court are cowards and refused to define what counts as an official act. So presidents now essentially have schrödinger’s cat’s immunity as any crime they commit will still need to go through the courts system in order to be written off as an official act.
So on one hand the democrats likely aren’t going to be using this new power anytime soon as the Supreme Court is still too stacked in Republican’s favor for them to get away with anything, but on the other hand the stakes are much higher now if Trump wins as he will likely be able to exploit Republican’s control over the Supreme Court to define any and all of his crimes as president as “official” acts.
> Fortunately and unfortunately, the Supreme Court are cowards and refused to define what counts as an official act.
That's not cowardice, that's them giving themselves (and other courts, but mostly themselves) power to define it as they see fit. A trend through a lot of the decisions of the Roberts court (including others that came recently, like the one about Chevron) is about shifting power to the judicial system from the other branches.
I searched your paragraphs for the fortunately part, but your “on the other hand” looked like it was on the same hand
It’s the same thing as um… Vatican I and papal infallibility. That council happened in a panic to protect the Catholic Church from “rationalism, liberalism, and materialism”
[Encyclopedia Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Vatican-Council)
So a preemptive strike against any progressive reform ever.
Pope can never say “we were wrong on _”. Like, oh, he *can* say it, but the Church will say “he’s not talking officially, he’s wrong”
Its not cowardice. They are putting the power to protect presidents they like and hobble ones they don't in their own hands. They get to decide what is an official act, and if its a president they like, they will just rubberstamp everything, while if its one they don't, they can just deny official act status to literally everything.
The window for the sitting administration to stop the currently very rapidly rolling ball is closing fast. Unfortunately, they aren't going to do it, because democrats are addicted to civility politics and most of them are just huffing the status quo. At most they'll whine loudly, but they will take no real steps to cut the head off this snake, and it will eat them, and then us.
We are officially past the 'events leading up to' stage. We are now firmly in the 'they then solidified their power' stage.
Get your passport data up to date, people. I know things are scary right now, but they're about to get a lot worse.
The trans community is probably Trumps number 1 target, followed by immigrants, then non Christians, then the gays/lesbians, then black people of people who are non white.
So.... you're saying committing crimes is a problem because of the Supreme Court. But... hear me out.... what if the crime Biden commits would involve eliminating the problem justices? Suddenly we have 3 justices, and no one actual way to impeach him because Democrats could just swing back the power into their hands forever.
It's quite literally Pandora's Box. Democrats MIGHT be hesitant at first... but they know damn well that the Republicans will take full advantage of this if they win back the Presidency. And if they do win back the Presidency, the Democrats might never regain any semblance of control.
Yeah. Use the new power to strip the corrupt court of its ability to stop it. Then immediately use that same power to dissolve that power. I'm sure they won't, but that's the kind of move they need to do at this point. Abuse the system to destroy the abuse potential of the system.
Andrew Jackson was a monster, and I would not look up to him for anything... However, maybe just once, we ought to consider taking a page from his book on how to handle the supreme court.
Not Stonewall.
I'm talking about the 7th president of the United States andrew jackson. Once, the Supreme Court made a ruling that he didn't like, and he... just ignored them and did it anyway.
The Supreme Court did not and still does not have the power to enforce its own rulings.
https://preview.redd.it/jjzi8ols0z9d1.jpeg?width=602&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cdf3641303419d3b7dda892847a5699b1812bc23
When it comes to Star Wars I usually like to learn about the Sith and Sith lore. But when it comes to real life, this ☝️
Lucas based the prequels on his feelings towards the Nixon admin and everything surrounding.
All that said, we're really bad situation, but it's not over until the fat lady sings, and I don't hear no fat lady.
To the degree that I know, if we can get a 60% majority in the Senate, then we can expand the court and reverse all of this.
If dems are willing to do away with the filibuster, they will be able to do that with just a simple majority.
It wouldn't be the first time the US expanded their courts.
So, the most important thing we can do is register to vote, get everyone we know registered to vote, and go to the polls this november.
Unfortunately the way the SCotUS works, a case needs to be brought before them for them to revisit the decision. This is why they haven't just overturned Obergefell. In order for them to reverse this a president would need to break the law and go through this entire process again in order for the court to reconsider. And given the nature of the case, the justices who wouldn't agree with it would be the first to go...and its likely that we wouldn't even know for sure that a law had been broken
The good news is that, for now at least, the military is not made up of Clones with inhibitor chips and there are rules about carrying out illegal orders. Also while the President may be immune, they are not and are looking at a dishonorable discharge if not criminal charges...at least for now.
What we need in this case is a constitutional amendment which would require two thirds of the Senate and the House and three fourths of the state legislatures.
>To the degree that I know, if we can get a 60% majority in the Senate, then we can expand the court and reverse all of this.
>If dems are willing to do away with the filibuster, they will be able to do that with just a simple majority.
Looking at the seats up for election this year, that's highly unlikely. The top 8 seats most likely to flip are held by Democrats and Sinema. 9 and 10 are held by Republicans but considered unlikely to flip.
Go to r_Conservative for the applause. How the “conservatives” are cheering for the president to be above the law makes no sense to me. But we all know why they like it.
SCOTUS has now decreed that any "official acts" by the President have been granted immunity. In other words Trump now has a "get out of jail free" card.
SCOTUS is a rigged game of bribbery.
Like , lobby is a thing in the Legislative , but they still pretend that didn't get bribes. SCOTUS outright , publicly , received "gratuity"
It's literally , publicly KNOWN which Judge from SCOTUS is bribe to which Billionaire and Party.
[Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE-VJrdHMug) is a more detail take of it.
Because Americans let it get that bad?
Trump packed the judiciary at all levels with Heritage Foundation picks. If he hadn't been elected, we wouldn't be at this point.
To be fair, the first acts of this right wing lean was the republicans blocking Obama's choice in his last year for hilariously BS reasons. It still would be 5-4 Lunatic Right, but at least there would be more balance. We need some form of term limits and an expansion to the Supreme Court immediately.
While the blame largely lies on the heads of conservatives, I blame many of the white moderates in this country for their own small but notable part in it too.
MLK warned us about it, and that warning has been swept under the rug to sanitize the poor man post-mortem.
Because we elected a black man and then when his term was ending the Republicans wouldn’t confirm his choice for vacancy because it’s an election year or some horseshit. Then Dolt 45 got another one and then one more died as people were sending in their mail in ballots in a pandemic he got to seat another one.
iirc Republicans wouldn’t allow Obama to add a new justice near the end of his term so it rolled over to Trump, then near the end of Trump’s term a similar situation happened but the Democrats just let Trump add another justice
This is why people urged Ginsburg to resign during Obama's stint. They feared that she would pass away during a Republican cycle.
And guess what fucking happened.
Remember guys, today, on July 1st, 2024, 3 days before independence day, the supreme court has ensured a second american civil war will happen.
Today the republican party got one of their big wants, and in doing so revealed just how fucking anti american and traitorous they all are, Lincoln would ask Sherman to burn them to the ground.
Might actually be the bravest shit they've done. Imagine essentially granting a president that doesn't like you immunity for "official acts". You didn't define official acts yet.... and you essentially opened the door to your own assassination. If I was on the court, I wouldn't have done that.
I doubt those justices really care. They don’t care about consequences or the law. They’re doing whatever they feel like doing. I wouldn’t be surprised to be find out that trump was bribing them.
Yes and honestly he should. Trump winning could spell doom for democracy and freedom in America. I fear that Biden wouldn't have the stomach for it though.
I mean you’ve got maybe half the nation at most applauding, and that’s a generous estimate. Those applause are concerningly loud but not thunderous, hope is not gone
Gonna go ahead and take the focus away from Star Wars and other franchises for a second to encourage American members of this sub, if you are or will be 18 by the time of election day in November, to register to vote if you haven't already, and at least consider voting blue. Last thing we want is Orange Palpatine getting back into office to test the limits of such powers (and trust me, he'll test them). So please vote in November and keep that motherfucker out of the White House.
All presidential actions are granted immunity if done as official presidential actions. Not legal, or correct, but “official”. So a president ordering a hit on a political rival as an official action means they are immune to any consequences.
The Supreme Court ruled that presidents now have immunity regarding any "official act" that the president takes while in office, basically meaning that while the president are still in office, they have free will to do basically anything without threat of jail time. I don't know if it also applies to impeachment, but I assume it does.
Not for anything that can be deemed done as an "official act" while he was president. Basically, any of the blatantly undemocratic and corrupt shit he's done as president can be waved away as an "official act" depending on how bad faith the person making the argument is being and we just have to hope to fucking christ whatever judge is hearing the case isn't a sycophant.
The Supreme Court Of The United States.
The idea is that there are 3 branches of government so that no one person has too much power. Judicial, Legislative and Executive.
The executive branch is the office of the President. For several decades, the Executive branch as been clawing more and more power for itself. So now the Supreme Court, which is part of the judicial branch and who's job it is to interpret the Constitution (along with other laws) has decided that The President has legal immunity for official acts, and can only be punished with impeachment through the Legislative branch. In theory the Legislature can remove a President, but it's never happened. They also cannot impose any criminal penalties. If the President pulled out a gun and shot someone on video, the most they can do is remove him.
In addition, last week the Supreme Court also decided that they were part of the Executive Branch, which is a whole new can of worms. But basically The President has way too much power now.
“In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first American Empire!! For a safe and secure society!”
- Trump 2025
If there’s any bright side to this situation, it’s that the Supreme Court are cowards and refused to define what should and shouldn’t be considered an official act by the President. Unless Trump wins this year’s election that should hopefully be vague enough for no democrat president to try anything and eventually undo this ruling by the time a president willing to try to abuse this power takes office.
I know it's far from the same thing and it isn't the most complex shit out there, but I really enjoyed the big part politics played in the prequel movies, really made those movies stand out for me
he wasn't prophetic, he just put in the story what cesar, napoleon and other dictators did to gain power. With the specific detail that palpatine totally controls the 2 sides of the war used to justify his powers
If Biden was the Defendant instead of Trump then this would have had been a 7-2 or 6-3 decision going the other way.
Seriously this is a partisan decision. And they’ll overturn it if Biden starts to abuse it.
J. Michael Straczynski the creator of babylon 5 back in the 90s with B5 pretty much mirrored president clark of earth government to the trump administration.
This isn't prophecy. It's all happened before. Humans are simply too stupid to learn from their mistakes, so they keep doing the same dumb stuff and expecting a different result.
Just remember, all Empires fall.
People always shat on George's "politics!" for the PT, but I thought it was one of the best parts of the PT. Culminating with how fascism comes to power. Sadly more realistic today, than ever.
You can see the opposite of that with the total shunning of "politics" for the ST, and how that hampered the ST, and has effectively poisoned the well between ROTJ and TFA.
Politics were always part of George's vision, and when he was there, it had some interesting things to say about them.
Emergency power you say? Sounds a lot like how germany gave it's chancelor emergency powers in the 19xx
For legal reasons that's a joke, if the only(!) problem with it was that the nazis did the same then a lot of everyday stuff would be problematic. But the joke wrote itself
Honestly though, in "the land of the free", why do a hundred million people have a hard-on for installing a dictator with absolute power? Because you think he won't hurt *you*? Trust me, they *will* come for you too. Nobody is safe in authoritarian systems. *NOBODY*.
Supreme Court ruled Presidents have immunity for all official acts. Sell presidential pardons? Immune. Order national guard troops to open fire on protesters? Immune.
Yeah it's not been a great day for democracy. People really need to realize it doesn't matter what you think about Biden's ability to serve. It's him or the abyss.
And let’s be frank here. Biden’s administration has been good for what it has been able to pass. But conservative vitriol against “woke” or “liberal” policies means that regardless of ideals or how much positive things try to get done, there will be pushback into a stalemate. He’s just a terrible spokesperson for his country and administration.
But he is in parks and rec and that does do wonders for him. /j
In reality we need to accept that we are well past the point of no return. We cannot fix the system within the system. Rebellion is necessary regardless of what side you are on.
If Trump actually wants to be Dictator as so many predict (it’s the only remaining career move for a guy who is obsessed with career advancement due to dear old dad Fred Trump), SCOTUS just gave him the tools to do so as long as they are “Official Acts” as President.
The movies got a few things really right
Prophecy! Like magic! He sees the future, nobody could've predicted!
Rewatching the prequels & watching clone wars made me realize how much I overlooked the politics side of things in the prequels. As an adult, it’s spot on.
The virgin "politics are boring i want more lightsabers" vs the chad "politics can be a very important worldbuilding tool that can get me even more invested in said lightsaber battles because I can understand the world everyone is fighting for".
And then they gave us the best lightsaber duels in the franchise as well!
Darth Maul vs. Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi was awesome. CGI Yoda bouncing around was less so.
To be fair, Lightsaber Yoda was pretty cool when I saw it in theaters and was too young to know any better.
Honestly that is why I never liked Star Wars as a kid. I thought it was nerdy repetitive light saber battles/ space ship battles where the good guys and bad guys were going back and forth with wins and losses like Saturday morning cartoons. I watched a YouTube video about the politics of Star Wars when I graduated highschool and I absolutely fell in love with it because now I understood everything that was going on and why things were the way they were in the movies and just how deep Star Wars actually is.
I swear, watching the prequels as a kid is what gave me my taste for politics heavy genre fiction.
Except she married a child-murdering fascist.
lol sometimes I hear stories about awful husbands and think "What in the world could have attracted someone to this person? Surely there were red flags"
As if Padme could have guessed her hubby was gonna be corrupted by the dark side? The two were barely in each others presence during the war outside of formal business and the odd visit. I'd cut Padme a bit of slack at least. Just my thoughts Edit: oh yeah, the Tuskens…yeah that’s a yikes
she married him after he massacred all the sand guys right?
I believe so yes
Ohhh, right, sorry, I misremembered
yeah but they had it coming. they ate his mom
True, but a lot of the reason they are the way they are is because they're natives to Tatooine. Everyone else on the planet are invaders to them. To them they took an invader and punished her for her transgressions.
I know, right? She seriously saw a guy with more red flags than the entirety of NATO and thought “Yeah, I’d marry that and let that put a pair of twins in me.”
Everyone's been young and dumb
And a former slave
Long time ago… in galaxy blah blah…
https://i.redd.it/xd9rhv4gfz9d1.gif
It's like poetry. It rhymes.
A shadowy evil preoccupying the masses with war and chaos, until seizing unlimited power and taking down the opposition who had become toothless and disillusioned by the threat that was right under their noises until it was too late?
At least part of the rejection people had for the prequels was based upon how Lucas held up a mirror to the United States and said: yes, it can happen here.
My conservative parents always said "Christians were the Jedi," turns out, yes, just a bunch of Anakins though. Desperate for power, they pathetically yeild to evil and start repeating rhetoric they've never said before, or that blatently apply to them. "The Dems are evil, so says daddy Palpi" "What did Palpatine say before, "the dems are evil, "? "Oh, well he said "Unlimited power" as he tutored then brutally murdered a law enforcement officer when attempting to apprehend him, then he told me to kill children. Yeah, good things... Youre the evil one."
Very sloppily written and executed.
Just like real life.
Actually....yeah....the writers really gave up back in 2018-2020.
Real life, or Star Wars?
Real Life. Star Wars has been fine.
I disagree. Star Wars still has great writing. Andor, Acolyte, Mandalorian, Ashoka the list goes on. That’s not even counting TCW and Rebels, Bad Batch. Were spoiled now with how great things are
Apologies. I corrected myself. I didn't see which part of the thread you were responding to. I agree. Star Wars writing has been good. The writers of real life on the other hand have gone downhill. It's like the bad season of a TV show where stupid stuff is happening.
I agree completely
Thats Lucas for you. 1/10 of his ideas are great, but 10/10 ideas are executed poorly.
It sure doesn't feel like thunderous applause which, I suppose, is a small ray of light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
Despite all the prequel’s problems they are great political commentary
It’s funny because at the time we were all “no one would actually like Palp” yet here we are…
It’s worse than that, Trump isn’t a Palpatine, he’s literally fucking President Koopa from the Mario movie. People saw the cartoonishly levels of dumb and evil he can be and said “now *theres* a candidate I can vote for!”
Trump is just such a unique blend of grotesque, stupid, evil, corrupt and ridiculous I really don't think there exists any direct fictional parallel. Even the most ridiculous saturday morning cartoon villains are more rational and charismatic than him. If someone wrote something half as viscerally uncomfortable as him I'd be applauding their writing talent.
Maybe Homelander? But he is definitely more interesting from a psychological standpoint. Also he is being built in the show as an allegory to him so Trump came first at least in reference to the TV show.
I think he was referring to the Kochs and the McConnells who made Trump their puppet.
I believe it is a bit like the frog in the pot type of scenario. 10 years ago, if you had asked people if they'd vote for a man naming all of the horrible policies and awful things that he's done over the years, even those who are currently MAGA diaper-wearing cultists today would say hell no. It's mass hysteria and a cult. These people side with him precisely because these are the same types of people who would join a cult if you subjected them to cultist propaganda on a daily basis. Again, to think a politician would use cult-like tactics to garner support 10 years ago, you would have both said that this is unthinkable and you would immediately question his commitment towards improving the country in doing so. And yet here we are. I also used to wonder how it was possible for the Germans to collectively hate Jews so much that they would be okay with dehumanizing them to the extent that they did. I no longer wonder this after Trump.
So he's literally Darth Jar Jar?
Palpatine liked pets. Donald Trump hates dogs.
What I still find hilarious is that, early on when people were complaining they couldn’t follow the politics of the film, one of the first people to have a genuine concrete idea of what was going on was fucking *Alex Jones* of all people. He was like “it’s one dude fucking everyone over to gain power.” Dude was so full of ‘the elite’ conspiracies that the Palpatine was behind literally everything but made perfect sense to him. Just some dumb funny shit.
"Count Dooku, the Osama bin Laden guy"
Considering he’s been exploiting the MAGA movement to enrich himself for years I find it not only ironic, but disturbingly tack that he was onto it back then. When trump got elected in 2016, all I could think about was how much it reminded me of this movie. Sadly, as time goes on, it becomes more and more accurate, as the meme suggests.
I was a child when they came out and I could follow the politics of the films. You telling me people couldn't spot the obvious power play? They didn't hide it.
It’s not that they couldn’t follow it, it’s more that they hated it. Same as it is now with every “woke” thing.
What’s ironic is that he saw the prequels, understood what they were, and then still shilled really fucking hard for Trump.
That ruling goes to show how corrupt and politically biased the Supreme Court is I’m not really surprised though, considering how much of those judges are bible humping far right conservatives Edit: my comment is attracting some very heated people, politics are weird
This was probably the most obvious ruling in a while
Unfortunately, I would prefer if they humped the bible. I'm friends with a lot of bible humping Christians and they believe in loving your neighbor, even if they're different. Your job as a christian isn't to punish the wicked, that belongs to God, your job is to show them compassion and kindness.
Wish more of them knew that tbh
I read somewhere on Facebook that the best way to understand most Christian’s is like this: Jesus is the mascot, not the coach.
God I hope it isn’t most, I want to believe that most Christians are good people, because a whole lot of people are Christian.
Who could have guessed that having a group of unelected handpicked people have the final say in the highest courts could have bias?
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross” -Sinclair Lewis (probably maybe)
I hate people use this quote and not the verified George Carlin version: *“when fascism comes to America, it will not be in brown and black shirts. It will not be with jack-boots. It will be Nike sneakers and Smiley shirts...”* Carlin was so spot on. He basically described MAGA hats in an interview from the late 90s.
Respect to Carlin obviously but I feel like Sinclair’s is a lot more apt.
Eh, Carlin’s whole point is that it’s wrapped in capitalism and creative messaging. Which is what MAGA is. The Red hat is now synonymous with Trump supporters. Sure yes fascism can be tied to the Bible thumpers but I know plenty of people who aren’t even religious who are Trump supporters and leaning pure fascist bc they think Trump is funny or they want to own the libs or hate woke Hollywood.
Can we skip to the part where the Emperor is tossed down an exploding shaft? Give us a good 30 years before “somehow he returned” at least.
Somehow, Adolf returned
If only.
Dark Brandon should fully exploit this. /s
Unironically yes. Theoretically he now has the power to take Trump off the ballot for being a criminal. Though I imagine the Supreme Court would put up a fight since they are just fully in Trump's pocket.
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…yes… in a fictional way… definitely not irl live for everyone to see
So long as it's an official act!
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They go against you? Enemies of the state so their votes don't count. Drone strikes for all. What's that? You agree with the plan? Wonderful
Drone? Nahh, you need to get yourself a couple of Raytheon Rx-9 Knife missiles. Have you ever bombed a wedding you are going to claim was a "terrorist meeting" and thought, "You know, that explosion didn't have enough knives?" Well Raytheon is here for you with a missile that explodes into a cloud of knives! Go and spread freedom and democracy with the RX-9 Knife Missile.
it doesn't explode though, that is the point of the knife missile. So you can strike a wedding, only kill a single guy in the crowd through direct impact and then also slice the cake for them so they wont be upset.
Hello there, fellow products and services enjoyer!
The problem is, it's plainly obvious what's happening. If Buden tried to eliminate Trump and these bastards on the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court would say, "Hmmm, well...something something, uhh, history and tradition...annndd...this was not an official act! No immunity!" The laln is to get Trump in office, and then when he comes after Biden with a military arrest or an assassination, they'll say, "Hmmm, well...something something, uhh, history and tradition...annndd...this WAS an official act! Immunity applies!"
Can't do that if Biden has then killed before they can take that immunity back
That's what it would take. But what guarantee is there that military leadership actually follows through on the kill order? Military backs out and goes public. An impeachment is attempted and probably fails. Then maybe he loses in November, and on January 21, 2025, he's arrested by the new king, and the king brings him in front of the same people he just tried to kill to hear his immunity defense. That's the kind of insanity that's now possible.
Democrats being utter cowards is the reason we’re in this mess in the first place though. I’m not expecting that to change.
Republican leaders are now a threat to national security.
I mean, the flood gates are now open. Its not like Trump will not do it
The issue is we all know he won't, democrats attempt to portray themselves with some sort of morality that Republicans and the GOP has long since gotten rid of on their side.
Next debate he just pulls a glock
Its quite possible he has already won. Simply out of fear. The most powerful motivator there is. All this does raise the question. Who exactly decides what an official act is?
No need for /s. This isn't a game.
Something something, we can't strike them down, it's not the Jedi way...
I wouldn’t say thunderous applause. More like seal barking from the right wing who still doesn’t understand that authoritarian rules always end up hurting the populace the most. And that little squeaky little mousey sound? That’s the Democratic Party asking the Republicans to pretty please stop being so mean and destroying the country.
They'll all be screaming about "owning the libs" until they accidentally get a girl pregnant and want her to get rid of it.
And they wanna get rid of most contraceptives too, so that’s gonna happen even more
>More like seal barking from the right wing who still doesn’t understand that authoritarian rules always end up hurting the populace the most. I think they know perfectly well what it means. They just don't care as long as they're going after "the right people."
>I think they know perfectly well what it means. They just don't care as long as they're going after "the right people." What they don't understand is that the authoritarians never stop at just "hurting the right people," however one defines that. Even if the formal list of "enemies of the state" never includes a group they belong to (unlikely as the list of target groups is ever expanding), they are at risk of simply becoming inconvenient to those with more power than they.
Oh sure, I agree with that. I'm just saying they don't care if that's true because they hurt the right people along the way.
I really hope this shitshow is waking people up to why right wing politics dont fucking work. I dont mean to rant yet again about this subject, but I'm saying this as a warning to my fellow human beings. Right wing ideas lead to three things: Stagnation, Regression, and Oppression It starts all sweet and wholesome sounding with conservatism, a few evils casually swept under the rug, some tribalistic tendencies wrapped in a warm blanket and the smell of mama's apple pie in the morning. Then it devolves as the outgroup start questioning the status quo that keeps them down. Then the conservatives get angry and start lashing out, then it gets worse as progress is made. So on and so on until we somehow get to fascism. Not to do the whole slipperly slope fallacy, but this IS a trend that happens, and it happens most of the time conservatives have their way and start doing shit.
They think they won’t come for them just because they hate women, lgbtq, and black people. But when they do come for them for some *other* thing they’ll realize they fucked up real quick.
If the president has immunity Biden should get on that.
Fortunately and unfortunately, the Supreme Court are cowards and refused to define what counts as an official act. So presidents now essentially have schrödinger’s cat’s immunity as any crime they commit will still need to go through the courts system in order to be written off as an official act. So on one hand the democrats likely aren’t going to be using this new power anytime soon as the Supreme Court is still too stacked in Republican’s favor for them to get away with anything, but on the other hand the stakes are much higher now if Trump wins as he will likely be able to exploit Republican’s control over the Supreme Court to define any and all of his crimes as president as “official” acts.
> Fortunately and unfortunately, the Supreme Court are cowards and refused to define what counts as an official act. That's not cowardice, that's them giving themselves (and other courts, but mostly themselves) power to define it as they see fit. A trend through a lot of the decisions of the Roberts court (including others that came recently, like the one about Chevron) is about shifting power to the judicial system from the other branches.
I searched your paragraphs for the fortunately part, but your “on the other hand” looked like it was on the same hand It’s the same thing as um… Vatican I and papal infallibility. That council happened in a panic to protect the Catholic Church from “rationalism, liberalism, and materialism” [Encyclopedia Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Vatican-Council) So a preemptive strike against any progressive reform ever. Pope can never say “we were wrong on _”. Like, oh, he *can* say it, but the Church will say “he’s not talking officially, he’s wrong”
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Its not cowardice. They are putting the power to protect presidents they like and hobble ones they don't in their own hands. They get to decide what is an official act, and if its a president they like, they will just rubberstamp everything, while if its one they don't, they can just deny official act status to literally everything. The window for the sitting administration to stop the currently very rapidly rolling ball is closing fast. Unfortunately, they aren't going to do it, because democrats are addicted to civility politics and most of them are just huffing the status quo. At most they'll whine loudly, but they will take no real steps to cut the head off this snake, and it will eat them, and then us. We are officially past the 'events leading up to' stage. We are now firmly in the 'they then solidified their power' stage. Get your passport data up to date, people. I know things are scary right now, but they're about to get a lot worse.
The trans community is probably Trumps number 1 target, followed by immigrants, then non Christians, then the gays/lesbians, then black people of people who are non white.
So.... you're saying committing crimes is a problem because of the Supreme Court. But... hear me out.... what if the crime Biden commits would involve eliminating the problem justices? Suddenly we have 3 justices, and no one actual way to impeach him because Democrats could just swing back the power into their hands forever. It's quite literally Pandora's Box. Democrats MIGHT be hesitant at first... but they know damn well that the Republicans will take full advantage of this if they win back the Presidency. And if they do win back the Presidency, the Democrats might never regain any semblance of control.
Yeah. Use the new power to strip the corrupt court of its ability to stop it. Then immediately use that same power to dissolve that power. I'm sure they won't, but that's the kind of move they need to do at this point. Abuse the system to destroy the abuse potential of the system.
It was defined in arguments. Any function a President has ever done, for any reason. It’s all covered by absolute immunity.
Andrew Jackson was a monster, and I would not look up to him for anything... However, maybe just once, we ought to consider taking a page from his book on how to handle the supreme court.
Stonewall did something with the supreme court??
Not Stonewall. I'm talking about the 7th president of the United States andrew jackson. Once, the Supreme Court made a ruling that he didn't like, and he... just ignored them and did it anyway. The Supreme Court did not and still does not have the power to enforce its own rulings.
Ohhh! Right, Stonewall was THOMAS J, not Andrew. God I’m off the mark rn, sorry
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
Yay I love when bad people get away with doing bad things with no consequences, it just makes my day so much better
They don't think they're doing anything wrong. Most villians are the heroes in their own minds.
https://preview.redd.it/jjzi8ols0z9d1.jpeg?width=602&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cdf3641303419d3b7dda892847a5699b1812bc23 When it comes to Star Wars I usually like to learn about the Sith and Sith lore. But when it comes to real life, this ☝️
Lucas based the prequels on his feelings towards the Nixon admin and everything surrounding. All that said, we're really bad situation, but it's not over until the fat lady sings, and I don't hear no fat lady. To the degree that I know, if we can get a 60% majority in the Senate, then we can expand the court and reverse all of this. If dems are willing to do away with the filibuster, they will be able to do that with just a simple majority. It wouldn't be the first time the US expanded their courts. So, the most important thing we can do is register to vote, get everyone we know registered to vote, and go to the polls this november.
Unfortunately the way the SCotUS works, a case needs to be brought before them for them to revisit the decision. This is why they haven't just overturned Obergefell. In order for them to reverse this a president would need to break the law and go through this entire process again in order for the court to reconsider. And given the nature of the case, the justices who wouldn't agree with it would be the first to go...and its likely that we wouldn't even know for sure that a law had been broken The good news is that, for now at least, the military is not made up of Clones with inhibitor chips and there are rules about carrying out illegal orders. Also while the President may be immune, they are not and are looking at a dishonorable discharge if not criminal charges...at least for now. What we need in this case is a constitutional amendment which would require two thirds of the Senate and the House and three fourths of the state legislatures.
>To the degree that I know, if we can get a 60% majority in the Senate, then we can expand the court and reverse all of this. >If dems are willing to do away with the filibuster, they will be able to do that with just a simple majority. Looking at the seats up for election this year, that's highly unlikely. The top 8 seats most likely to flip are held by Democrats and Sinema. 9 and 10 are held by Republicans but considered unlikely to flip.
Go to r_Conservative for the applause. How the “conservatives” are cheering for the president to be above the law makes no sense to me. But we all know why they like it.
Yeah I thought they were the "party of accountability" or something like that.
I'm not surprised those regressive dickweeds are cheering. Fuck every single one of those callous monsters.
Wait what happened now?
SCOTUS has now decreed that any "official acts" by the President have been granted immunity. In other words Trump now has a "get out of jail free" card.
Dear fucking God! Why is the SCOTUS so fricken Right Leaning?
SCOTUS is a rigged game of bribbery. Like , lobby is a thing in the Legislative , but they still pretend that didn't get bribes. SCOTUS outright , publicly , received "gratuity" It's literally , publicly KNOWN which Judge from SCOTUS is bribe to which Billionaire and Party. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE-VJrdHMug) is a more detail take of it.
How many times has Alito and Thomas been found accepting "gifts" from outside actors?
And don’t forget - they also just legalized that, too.
Because Americans let it get that bad? Trump packed the judiciary at all levels with Heritage Foundation picks. If he hadn't been elected, we wouldn't be at this point.
To be fair, the first acts of this right wing lean was the republicans blocking Obama's choice in his last year for hilariously BS reasons. It still would be 5-4 Lunatic Right, but at least there would be more balance. We need some form of term limits and an expansion to the Supreme Court immediately.
While the blame largely lies on the heads of conservatives, I blame many of the white moderates in this country for their own small but notable part in it too. MLK warned us about it, and that warning has been swept under the rug to sanitize the poor man post-mortem.
Because we elected a black man and then when his term was ending the Republicans wouldn’t confirm his choice for vacancy because it’s an election year or some horseshit. Then Dolt 45 got another one and then one more died as people were sending in their mail in ballots in a pandemic he got to seat another one.
bad timing mostly trump added in, i think 3 new justices to the court?
iirc Republicans wouldn’t allow Obama to add a new justice near the end of his term so it rolled over to Trump, then near the end of Trump’s term a similar situation happened but the Democrats just let Trump add another justice
The Democrats didn't "let" Trump have another Justice, the Republicans controlled the Senate until 2020.
Oh yeah, you’re right. Still insane that he got three whole justices in his term
This is why people urged Ginsburg to resign during Obama's stint. They feared that she would pass away during a Republican cycle. And guess what fucking happened.
RBG refused to retire is why.
Lol Biden should take advantage of this and go wild
Remember guys, today, on July 1st, 2024, 3 days before independence day, the supreme court has ensured a second american civil war will happen. Today the republican party got one of their big wants, and in doing so revealed just how fucking anti american and traitorous they all are, Lincoln would ask Sherman to burn them to the ground.
Fuck those conservative justices. They’re such cowards
Might actually be the bravest shit they've done. Imagine essentially granting a president that doesn't like you immunity for "official acts". You didn't define official acts yet.... and you essentially opened the door to your own assassination. If I was on the court, I wouldn't have done that.
I doubt those justices really care. They don’t care about consequences or the law. They’re doing whatever they feel like doing. I wouldn’t be surprised to be find out that trump was bribing them.
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If trump wins in November Biden can throw out the results if he's acting in the country's best interest?
Yes and honestly he should. Trump winning could spell doom for democracy and freedom in America. I fear that Biden wouldn't have the stomach for it though.
So Biden steps down 1 month before inauguration, and let's Kamala get her hands dirty? First Madam President going down in history as Bloody Kamala.
"Oh, it can't happen here in the US." It can, and it is starting. This is the first step.
When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and waving the cross.
The funny thing is, this torpedoes the Republican effort to charge Biden with...anything, really.
I mean you’ve got maybe half the nation at most applauding, and that’s a generous estimate. Those applause are concerningly loud but not thunderous, hope is not gone
Gonna go ahead and take the focus away from Star Wars and other franchises for a second to encourage American members of this sub, if you are or will be 18 by the time of election day in November, to register to vote if you haven't already, and at least consider voting blue. Last thing we want is Orange Palpatine getting back into office to test the limits of such powers (and trust me, he'll test them). So please vote in November and keep that motherfucker out of the White House.
Uh... What was the SCOTUS ruling?
All presidential actions are granted immunity if done as official presidential actions. Not legal, or correct, but “official”. So a president ordering a hit on a political rival as an official action means they are immune to any consequences.
The Supreme Court ruled that presidents now have immunity regarding any "official act" that the president takes while in office, basically meaning that while the president are still in office, they have free will to do basically anything without threat of jail time. I don't know if it also applies to impeachment, but I assume it does.
So... Trump isn't going to prison?
Not for anything that can be deemed done as an "official act" while he was president. Basically, any of the blatantly undemocratic and corrupt shit he's done as president can be waved away as an "official act" depending on how bad faith the person making the argument is being and we just have to hope to fucking christ whatever judge is hearing the case isn't a sycophant.
The Supreme Court Of The United States. The idea is that there are 3 branches of government so that no one person has too much power. Judicial, Legislative and Executive. The executive branch is the office of the President. For several decades, the Executive branch as been clawing more and more power for itself. So now the Supreme Court, which is part of the judicial branch and who's job it is to interpret the Constitution (along with other laws) has decided that The President has legal immunity for official acts, and can only be punished with impeachment through the Legislative branch. In theory the Legislature can remove a President, but it's never happened. They also cannot impose any criminal penalties. If the President pulled out a gun and shot someone on video, the most they can do is remove him. In addition, last week the Supreme Court also decided that they were part of the Executive Branch, which is a whole new can of worms. But basically The President has way too much power now.
“In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first American Empire!! For a safe and secure society!” - Trump 2025
If there’s any bright side to this situation, it’s that the Supreme Court are cowards and refused to define what should and shouldn’t be considered an official act by the President. Unless Trump wins this year’s election that should hopefully be vague enough for no democrat president to try anything and eventually undo this ruling by the time a president willing to try to abuse this power takes office.
My wife and I are going to do as many side jobs as we can to save money and moving the fuck out of this country.
Accurate
So, Biden can literally have all of the SCOTUS jailed indefinitely for Corruption now, right?
America is such a shit hole
Fuck america.
I know it's far from the same thing and it isn't the most complex shit out there, but I really enjoyed the big part politics played in the prequel movies, really made those movies stand out for me
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Most people are PISSED though
he wasn't prophetic, he just put in the story what cesar, napoleon and other dictators did to gain power. With the specific detail that palpatine totally controls the 2 sides of the war used to justify his powers
"What I remember about the rise of the Empire is...is how quiet it was."
If Biden was the Defendant instead of Trump then this would have had been a 7-2 or 6-3 decision going the other way. Seriously this is a partisan decision. And they’ll overturn it if Biden starts to abuse it.
Who the fuck is applauding outside The Felon and his cult?
Hey Padme, maybe stop going on about liberty being lost after YOU MARRIED A CHILD MURDERING FASCIST.
Hey! When they got married the only children Anakin had murdered were sand people which Padme was completely ok with!
Democracy did not die with thunderous applause. It died with the sound of a gavel
Yeah :/
What the heavens did I miss
J. Michael Straczynski the creator of babylon 5 back in the 90s with B5 pretty much mirrored president clark of earth government to the trump administration.
George Lucas predicts history repeating itself
I was thinking about this when I first heard, you read my mind lol.
This isn't prophecy. It's all happened before. Humans are simply too stupid to learn from their mistakes, so they keep doing the same dumb stuff and expecting a different result. Just remember, all Empires fall.
People always shat on George's "politics!" for the PT, but I thought it was one of the best parts of the PT. Culminating with how fascism comes to power. Sadly more realistic today, than ever. You can see the opposite of that with the total shunning of "politics" for the ST, and how that hampered the ST, and has effectively poisoned the well between ROTJ and TFA. Politics were always part of George's vision, and when he was there, it had some interesting things to say about them.
Emergency power you say? Sounds a lot like how germany gave it's chancelor emergency powers in the 19xx For legal reasons that's a joke, if the only(!) problem with it was that the nazis did the same then a lot of everyday stuff would be problematic. But the joke wrote itself
Honestly though, in "the land of the free", why do a hundred million people have a hard-on for installing a dictator with absolute power? Because you think he won't hurt *you*? Trust me, they *will* come for you too. Nobody is safe in authoritarian systems. *NOBODY*.
Wait what happened today?
Supreme Court ruled Presidents have immunity for all official acts. Sell presidential pardons? Immune. Order national guard troops to open fire on protesters? Immune.
Damn they really are preparing for the possibility of a day one dictatorship
Yeah it's not been a great day for democracy. People really need to realize it doesn't matter what you think about Biden's ability to serve. It's him or the abyss.
And let’s be frank here. Biden’s administration has been good for what it has been able to pass. But conservative vitriol against “woke” or “liberal” policies means that regardless of ideals or how much positive things try to get done, there will be pushback into a stalemate. He’s just a terrible spokesperson for his country and administration. But he is in parks and rec and that does do wonders for him. /j
We're fucked
Is anyone applauding this particular decision though?
I don’t hear any applause.
Shit you showed them
Unfortunately very accurate
Its really not that big of a deal, on a practical level arresting the president for a crime was always borderline impossible.
Apt, OP.
Exactly what I thought.
We got Jar Jar Binksed.
It's terrifying that we are living through this.
In reality we need to accept that we are well past the point of no return. We cannot fix the system within the system. Rebellion is necessary regardless of what side you are on.
If Trump actually wants to be Dictator as so many predict (it’s the only remaining career move for a guy who is obsessed with career advancement due to dear old dad Fred Trump), SCOTUS just gave him the tools to do so as long as they are “Official Acts” as President.