comment: >
  
  The Marshall plan was a strategic military program, I'm sure it would have little trouble passing today so long as the right companies profited an it could be sold as whatever the modern global equivalent of "anticommunism" is today. We didn't institute it out of the goodness of our hearts, and the opening line of the bill makes that perfectly clear:
  
  An Act 
  To promote world peace and the general welfare, national interest, and foreign policy of the United States through economic-financial and other measures necessary to the maintenance of the conditions abroad in which free institutions may survive and consistent with the maintenance of the strength and stability of the United States.
  
  An economic collapse in Europe would be terrible for the US, and helping them financially was a huge geopolitical win. I think even in our broken political climate this would be a no brainer
context: It's difficult to see how Clarence can with a straight face participate in any politics-related issues put before the court. >
  
  We call this "corruption" when it happens in countries we don't like. >
  
  Those are called shithole countries, mind you. >
  
  United Shitstain of America? >
  
  United ShitHOLE of ‘Murica, get it right or pay the price. >
  
  "Now we will share a lifetime of the fondest memories..." 🎶 >
  
  This thing came apart >
  
  Did not expect a Salute Your Shorts reference here of all places, but I’m happy nonetheless >
  
  This is the second SYS reference I've seen in under 24 hours - the other being in the megathread yesterday evening. >
  
  I love how these extremists love to use the term CONSERVATIVE, but they never explain what the fuck that means.  Fiscal Conservative, Religious Conservative? Authoritarian conservative?  And WTF is a SCOTUS wtfe involved in any of the politics?  Such a total conflict of interest . >
  
  “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
  
  John Galbraith >
  
  Precisely. Selfishness recast as virtue.
  I watched It's a Wonderful Life, at Christmas and it's so sad, because the world of miserly greed and selfishness, masquerading as "realism", that the antagonist inhabits (and is counterposed with the generosity and community spirit of James Stewart's character) is now the world we now all live in.
  Selfishness is winning. >
  
  Don't kid yourself, it was the world they lived in as well. There's a reason it's set in a fictional town >
  
  I'm not so sure. The film was released in 1946, two years before the Marshall plan in the US and the establishment of the NHS in the UK.
  It would be difficult to imagine programmes such as these being delivered today, because of, frankly, ingrained societal selfishness.