You must log in or # to comment.
It has not collapsed yet. Democrats are electing a new chair RIGHT NOW (I don’t know the date, but in the next few weeks).
They are going to elect a centrist. We can stop them. Now is the time.
If the new DNC is progressive and inspires people, it will prevent reluctant Republicans from going full scorched earth.
A progressive platform will win Democrats the white house for the next 20 years. Ask FDR how I know.
This, right now, is the final chance we have to prevent collapse.
Spread the word, share & cross post.
Clearly most people don’t consider forced labor slavery in a prison environment. At least not in California or any of the other states that allow it.
I voted against it because I think they are plenty of prisoners that want to work, so we don’t need to be forcing people, but I also understand how people could just consider it a part of the punishment too. I mean, you take away so many rights of a person when you imprison them. What makes this facet special? Is it because we used the magic word slavery and so people suddenly feel guilty because of America’s past?
The prisons themselves litreally didn’t care enough to even argue against it, which should tell you how little this actually impacts their workforce. My understanding was that people were just getting upset at having to do wildfire related work when things started getting dangerous after they reaped all the rewards and training for that job.
It’s like being a firefighter for the pay, chili, and comradery, then balking when you are told to go fight a fire. Your average person could do that and probably be fired on the spot. Prisoners don’t get to make that decision.
You understand they weren’t paid for that training or job, right?
You understand they weren’t allowed to do that job when they were out of prison, right? Even as a volunteer they’d be disqualified. They received no benefits for risking their lives, but we’re punished if they did not. They were not sentenced to death.
To your main point, slavery is bad in all contexts. Corporations shouldn’t get to have slaves because they pay their workers so badly they turned to crime.
I’ve voted blue for decades, just so I can say I did the right thing: harm reduction.
This nation’s last, last, last chance to improve its course would have been to soundly reject the supply side, trickle down Reaganomics grift, but when they lied that YOU could be one of the rich ones one day, Americans giggled like schoolgirls and the former party of labor went full neoliberal to take the larger corporate bribes unions just couldn’t match. That is when any hope for the US to become the benevolent nation it never was but claimed to want to be died.
Citizens United was just a victory lap for the capitalists to piss on its decomposing corpse.
Anyone who wants to claim this country was over a couple of Tuesdays ago, hasn’t been paying attention.
And it wasn’t the Neonazi scum that killed it either, they just see opportunity in the cultural vacuum and chaos. Twas unchecked capitalist greed that killed the beast.
Wasn’t the ballot initiative also deliberately confusing? I remember seeing something about it and reading it myself and going “what the fuck is the answer for no slavery?”
No, it wasn’t. It had no argument against, no supporters against, and the text was extremely simple.
Yes/No Statement
A YES vote on this measure means: Involuntary servitude would not be allowed as punishment for crime. State prisons would not be allowed to discipline people in prison who refuse to work.
A NO vote on this measure means: Involuntary servitude would continue to be allowed as punishment for crime.
Although I can’t seem to find if this text is on the ballot to explain it
Yep that’s what’s on the ballot too. Very simple. I’d argue middle-school level or below.
This was a result of election night that is underreported, but hugely telling and frustrating.
All this noise about California being liberal, progressive, and the resistance to Trump. But they kept slavery in prison legal. And I think the people who are predicting prison “labor” will be used to replace migrant labor if mass deportation does happen have it right. And California had a chance to make that impossible and decided not to.
This is why we need a “New California Republic”, with rangers to protect the population, just don’t listen those anti-mutties bigots…
They also still have the death penalty.
Inmates shouldn’t have rights. They are worse than animals, have no conscience, no reform measures have actually worked in terms of reducing recidivism, and victims matter more than offenders.
Having them do “Slave labor” is justified.
You do know that countries focused on rehabilitation over punishment have low as hell crime rates right?
What race are they?
Objection: Relevance
I wouldn’t feed the troll if I were you, that’s what they are after.
Trolling used to mean something, man.
It was an art form, subtle and truly beautiful to behold. Now look at what it has become. Truly makes you cry
The crime: smoked a joint
Do you… do you really rhink that way?
And all because 1950s McCarthyism incepted America with a seed that may eventually destroy it long after the USSR’s dissolution
I’d zoom out, Capitalism has a growth phase and decay phase, we are at the tail-end of the decay phase and need to jump to Socialism.
The only thing that pissed me off more than Trump winning, was seeing how many good Props failed, and bad ones passed.
I’m glad we made LGBT marriage part of our constitution, but jesus christ the voting base here is NIMBYs, NeoLibs, and Conservatives.
My guess is that all those people who didn’t show up to vote dem weren’t around to vote for the other dem items.
There was a certain irony in ranked choice ballot initiatives failing while the same people that didn’t show up complained about both candidates being “exactly the same” or to punish the Democratic party.
Can you expand on that? Good news in American politics would be a nice change.
- California made it in the constitution that marriage is between two people, gender or sex is not considered what counts
- And we also made it so Medi-Cal gets a permanent chunk of funding no matter what the budget is doing.
Exactly right
“Scratch a liberal, and a fascist bleeds.” Makes you question if Californians really care for the marginalized.
I don’t understand your first sentence. California is way more evenly matched than people would like to believe. There’s also a bit of selection bias where the super racists leave after a few years because what is objectively not a particular caring state is still too “woke” for them so they try Texas/Colorado.
I mean given what I’ve seen of their treatment of the homeless it’s very obvious many if them don’t.
America is falling apart, but not because some people’s pet issue is miscasting prison convict work as “slavery”. Fasten your seat belts.
Yep, we know those workers have a choice of employers and get at least minimum wage, regular increases for merit, regular holidays and personal days, the right to organize, and an assortment of benefits. Their pay is commensurate with anyone doing similar jobs, right? There’s no way that’s space labor
Correct, prison labor is a form of involuntary servitude the 13th Amendment explicitly doesn’t apply to. Bear in mind, all this time I haven’t even argued in favor of prison labor. I’m saying calling it slavery is inappropriate, no matter how passionate you are about it.
It can be called slavery while still being permissible under the constitution. It’s not illegal slavery, just like pre-civil war slavery in the south wasn’t illegal… But it’s still slavery.
Slaves have owners, but call it flapjacks or pudding or whatever makes you feel like a keyboard justice warrior.
If “has an owner” is what everything hinges on, and the Department of Corrections or whoever has full custody and control doesn’t count, fine. I guess that’s technically in the first definition that came up. But Jesus Christ, when the vast majority of conditions match up, you sure spent a hell of a lot more time puffing your chest and acting high and mighty instead of, you know, explaining why it isn’t. You had to go through a few responses before any explanation at all!
“It’s not slavery, its involuntary servitude.”
This guys is either trolling or dumb as a bag of dumb cunts
Name-calling - a time-honored way to win any argument. Respect!
Semantics isn’t an argument, it’s a waste of time.
if it’s not slavery, then why is it specifically an exception under the constitutional ban on slavery?
miscasting prison convict work as “slavery”
Found the asshole voting against human rights, gross
Always enjoy your posts, ozma.
Thank you. I try.
If we had 50 million more like you, this nation would be lovely.
I thought the bear in their logo had two heads
Soon
The bear in the flag was over-hunted and had its habitat destroyed so it’s no longer found in California. It’s a great metaphor.
Same here, the only bears still in Toronto are all on Church Street
Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter
I bet the mutated Canada Geese look the same, they couldn’t get any fiercer
That comes after 2077
Land of the
free
Land of the fee,
Home of the slave.
