Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

Reading the comments -- it is amazing how quick it takes to from allegedly a democracy governed by a rule of law to a corrupt oligarchy. I personally understand the reasons, but it's a bit "funny" given all the grand-standing before about the founding fathers, checks and balances etc.

The mercenary values become quite plain sometimes. They have told us who they are, these people who are now brazenly about money and power.

It's up to us not to forget, and to vote accordingly, and to call BS when we see it.

Otherwise we lose our democracy.

> to vote accordingly

too many people are too comfortable - both with not voting, but also to vote blindly.

> we lose our democracy.

it's half-way into the grave imho.

Well, it took a lot of people by surprise that our famed checks and balances turned out to be toothless. Schoolhouse Rock sure didn't teach me that when other branches of government try to tell the executive branch to cut it out, they can just reply "no lol get bent".

The fatal mistake I see people repeatedly making is that it isn't about the system or checks and balances or whatever. It's about the people. The US had a deep bench of mostly reasonable leaders that mostly respected ideas like checks and balances or conflicts of interest.

Those people are mostly gone now. Our society used to elevate people like that, but it just doesn't now.

It all starts with regulatory capture, imo

> all the grand-standing before about the founding fathers, checks and balances etc.

Trump exposed what looks great on paper (checks and balances) as being worthless if you're willing to break all conventions, use the government as a tool against your political enemies, and have a strong enough political base to beat the Senate (ultimately the only ones with the power to stop you) into submission.

What all of this really exposed is that laws and constraints don't mean anything if there's no actual way to enforce them at the highest level.