Judge Michael Kaplan is an '06 Bush appointee, but I gotta say, it tickles me just pink that the rush towards corporatism, plutocracy, oligarchy (whatever you wanna call it) is TO THIS DAY relatively bipartisan. Seems like only the progressive wing of the democrats aren't completely beholden to corporate interests, but, y'know, they kinda are, via the DNC. Even with so much money in politics, the only surefire way to guarantee that the wealthy continue to win this class warfare is throwing out democracy entirely. Is anyone seriously debating this? What is the counterargument, that fascism is secretly hot shit? To de-fang one typical rebuttal: Yes, some wealth inequality is OK. At this point in our species' development, a meritocracy is probably still a good idea, even if it's hella crude. That said, the idea that there's no link between the unraveling of America and record-breaking levels of wealth inequality is hilarious. Also "hilarious" is the notion that there exists a set of skills required to serve as CEO that's on average several hundred times as valuable as the people making minimum wage. "The Market" is not what's allowing the injustice. The neutering of our government by the wealthy is. And (uhhhh see paragraph above) it's only gonna get worse from here unless we form something like superunions and coordinate strikes and demands, probably (regrettably) on social media. LOL, Jan. 6th? Not enough to enact regulatory reforms of big tech, but needing to quash a Labor revolution? Probably insta-reforms. What fun. Zero faith. That's what I have. Zero faith that a single fucking thing will be done. God bless Judd, tho.Plaintiffs suing J&J have challenged LTL Management's bankruptcy filing. In February 2022, a federal bankruptcy judge, Michael Kaplan, ruled that LTL Management's bankruptcy could proceed. Kaplan found "no impropriety in the divisional merger used here to create a special-purpose vehicle to address the talc claims and, thus, perceives no 'absurd or unjust result' produced." Further, Kaplan found that the plaintiffs have not proven "bad faith" because the spin-off of LTL Management was done pursuant to "a long-standing Texas statute."
Both Durbin and Whitehouse said they hope to pursue a bipartisan approach to the legislation. Thus far, no bill has been introduced.