Trump's Card

[ursus arctos]

What's the bar for Treason in the US? I mean just so we know where it is?

It's actually quite high, with a particular barrier being the requirement that the person charged provided "aid and comfort to the enemy".

There have only been about 30 cases prosecuted in US history, and none since the 1950's. For example, none of Snowden, Manning, or Al-Awlaki were ever charged with treason.

[caja-dglh]

Ah, right. Emergency work, that won't be nice.

I'm trying to work out how these various transport authorities work.

It isn't too far off the UK. Amtrak own the lines, LIRR and NJT run the service. Ultimately the problem has been dragging feet for too long. There are too few tunnels, particularly to NJ, a fact that has been recognized for decades. Then a hurricane came through and damaged one, plus derails on LIRR lines and NJT lines... they basically created their own disaster. The Governor has declared a state of emergency to try and get it fixed because they are all blaming each other.

[ursus arctos]

Though the multiplicity of jurisdictions makes it more difficult.

The LIRR, for instance, is controlled by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which includes representatives from the state, city, suburban counties and Connecticut (because it also controls Metro North), but the single most important individual is the New York Governor, who is concerned that being too mass transit / big city friendly will harm his national political ambitions (and help the NYC Myor, whom he hates).

That is, of course, the exact same dynamic that scuppered the construction of new tunnels under the Hudson, which Chris Christie vetoed to improve his presidential primary chances. Christie has now reversed himself, but they've lost ten years on a 20+year project, and the funding that was once in place he as largely disappeared.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Thanks to both of you.

Didn't Chris Christie take a load of money out of a transit authority, and fuck it all up? I was confused because I couldn't imagine the mayor of London being able to take a load of money out of TfL. I probably didn't understand it correctly though.

We're trying to move towards more local accountability for rail here, I think. London has the most developed devolution of rail, as you'd expect, but it gets into problems when commuter lines go outside the city boundaries. The Kent, Surrey commuters don't trust the London mayor not to make their train stop at all the London stops and make their commutes take longer.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It's actually quite high, with a particular barrier being the requirement that the person charged provided "aid and comfort to the enemy".

There have only been about 30 cases prosecuted in US history, and none since the 1950's. For example, none of Snowden, Manning, or Al-Awlaki were ever charged with treason.

Lets say you were interested in Helping the russians interfere in the US elections and gave them leverage over the US president. Where would the bar be for aiding and providing comfort to the enemy?

[ursus arctos]

Christie essentially refused a massive amount of federal funding for the tunnels (which all the other relevant parties had accepted). That's somewhat different than actually taking money, though Christie has used the Port Authority (jointly controlled by New York and New Jersey) as a patronage pot and weapon against his opponents (see Bridgegate).

In that role, Christie also enabled the pharaonic rebuilding of "Ground Zero" including our USD 4+ billion Calatrava-designed "transit hub" that is already leaking badly, but in that excess he was very much in line with all of the other politicians involved.

[ursus arctos]

Given that we haven't declared war since WWII, it isn't clear that Russia is an "enemy" within the meaning of the statute.

The calls of "Treason!" are really a sideshow. There is more than ample evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors by 45 and felonies by lots of his associates. What is lacking is the political will to do anything about the first, and the second is subject to Mueller's correctly methodical process.

[ad hoc]

Given that we haven't declared war since WWII.

Hang on how can that be? The US has gone to war regularly since then

[Ginger Yellow]

We're trying to move towards more local accountability for rail here, I think. London has the most developed devolution of rail, as you'd expect, but it gets into problems when commuter lines go outside the city boundaries. The Kent, Surrey commuters don't trust the London mayor not to make their train stop at all the London stops and make their commutes take longer.

Yeah, which meant Grayling, whose constituency is in Surrey, blocked the obvious move of having TfL take over Southeastern.

[Tubby Isaacs]

In fairness, it's not that obvious, as things stand. Trains are run to Dover, Thanet, Swale etc. It's not just stuff terminating at Dartford.

[ursus arctos]

Hang on how can that be? The US has gone to war regularly since then

None of them have been "wars" declared by Congress. They've been variously "police actions", "multi-national forces", and exercises of the Commander-in-Chief's powers, sometimes pursuant to a Congressional "authorisation for the use of military force".

Everything in the Middle East and Afghanistan since 9/11, for instance, has been pursuant to a 2001 resolution authorising the use of force against "those responsible" for the 9/11 attacks and any "associated forces" (though a number of presidents have claimed the right to act even without such an authorisation).

[Ginger Yellow]

It's obvious in that TfL has a good record of running services terminating in London and Govia doesn't. And it was only the suburban stuff that TfL wanted to operate. Dover wasn't in the takeover plans.

[Tubby Isaacs]

You said South Eastern, I thought you make take the whole franchise over. TfL don't run rail services though.

It's funny that there's been, per London Reconnections, support from Tory administrations outside London (Kent, Herfordshire, Sevenoaks) for devolving more to London. If Surrey had backed it that could have been awkward for Grayling.

[Ginger Yellow]

This was what they proposed.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Cheers. Looking at the map on there, the furthest it goes is Sevenoaks (who have supported devolution) and Dartford (who for some reason, haven't). I thought the concern for places outside London was that their fast trains would be made to stop everywhere in London to please the Mayor of London's electorate. Sevenoaks has lots of fast trains, but I didn't think Dartford did.

There's nothing to Surrey in the plans. So Grayling's not even playing nimby here.

[Ginger Yellow]

Well, not for Southeastern, directly. But long before this consultation, he wrote a very nimbyish letter to Boris warning him against London rail devolution in general. It came out after he rejected the Southeastern plan. Presumably he feels if Southeastern goes to TfL, it would be harder to block SWT and Southern.

[WOM]

In non-train news, this is quite good on the implications of the Trump Kid Russian Lawyer Meeting(TM)

https://www.justsecurity.org/42956/o...nation-russia/

[Tubby Isaacs]

He's the Government, he or one of his pals can block it. And he's sitting on a majority of 20,000.

I don't know if it's changed much from when I lived there (mid 90s) but Epsom had lots of trains terminating there and is the first borough outside London. Nor were the trains from there particularly "fast" in general.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Apologies, GY. I'm guessing you've got better things to do than rationalize Chris Grayling.

[ursus arctos]

I was just going to post the piece that WOM linked.

It is very good.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Interesting Article in Slate that is pretty illuminating, and could do with being three or four times as long.

[Sits]

a self-interested actor seeking their own advantage

Sounds like 45's take on America's place in global affairs.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The Donald Trump Jr Story is so fucking funny. What kind of fucking criminal conspiracy uses emails?

[ursus arctos]

He's dumber than his father

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Donald Trump Jr needed a Roy Cohn Jr in his life to teach him the basics of staying out of jail. Sadly Roy died without issue.