Trump's Card

[ursus arctos]

[URL]https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1095425658111569921?s=21[/URL]

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1...111569921?s=21

[San Bernardhinault]

I've actually encountered people in real life this week who have been parroting right-wing lines about the green new deal. About how they want to completely ban air traffic, for instance. I now expect someone at the weekend to tell me that they intend to ban burgers and ice cream, and that we'll all have to live off moong beans and seaweed if AOC gets her way.

[ursus arctos]

The temperature in the fever swamps continues to rise.

[San Bernardhinault]

That's one of the first times that the fever swamp has overflowed into my direct personal experience* rather than just my viewing and reading experience.

* excluding the incidental stuff, like reading it on bumper stickers and seeing confederate flags on peoples houses in West Virginia.

[Satchmo Distel]

Copied from another forum:

[WOM]

Judge Amy Berman Jackson has ruled that Manafort lied on multiple occasions to the FBI, the Grand Jury and the Special Counsel, thus voiding his plea deal.

https://us.cnn.com/2019/02/13/politi...ler/index.html

[ursus arctos]

A pedant writes:

It is important to make clear that he can’t withdraw the plea. He’s still guilty of each of the charges. What has been voided are all of the government’s obligations with regard to that.

This is the same sanction that AMI opened itself to by attempting to extort Bezos after agreeing their plea.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Has there been any advance on that? I must admit I still can't believe they tried to blackmail the richest man in America. Did they learn nothing from Gawker?

[ursus arctos]

It’s barely been a week.

It isn’t as if there are squads of federal prosecutors just sitting on their hands waiting for the likes of Pecker to do crimes.

[Nefertiti2]

[URL]https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1095777138328961024?s=21[/URL]

[Satchmo Distel]

It's hard for me to see how that exchange makes her look good. The witness is a total scumbag and probably an accessory to war crimes but there are more subtle ways of exposing that in a hearing. For example, closed questions are poor tactics there. Instead, ask him to what degree it is permissible to look the other way when your side commits crimes. Bring up his previous perjury after he's answered.

[anton pulisov]

shades of high school debate team there

even though she is right

[San Bernardhinault]

So, it looks like we're going to get the government funded, and Trump will declare a "national emergency".

The Republicans have really not thought this through properly, unless they actually want it to get overturned in court. Because they are the ones who're always desperate to cut government. If a President can use a non-emergency like a handful of immigrants arriving to choose to spend tens of billions of dollars, then in the future Democratic Presidents would be able to bypass Congress to get funding for actual emergencies, like - say - the terrible healthcare in the US. The existence of the Senate filibuster is basically the Republicans' guarantee that it's almost impossible to increase the size of the federal government. The existence of a bypass is way more damaging to the Republicans in the long run.

[ursus arctos]

McConnell and friends believe that it will be overturned and are likely correct.

[San Bernardhinault]

Well, I'd guessed as much. It's purely optics for the Trump base. The only question is whether Trump actually believes it will get through.

[ursus arctos]

He doesn’t think that far ahead.

And he will be able to scream about judges when it gets blocked.

This was the only possible denouement since he blew up the deal in December.

The key is keeping the screaming heads at Fox onside.

[ursus arctos]

[URL]https://twitter.com/adamgoldmannyt/status/1096207023555915776?s=21[/URL]

https://twitter.com/adamgoldmannyt/s...555915776?s=21

[ursus arctos]

[URL]https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1096223856325468160?s=21[/URL]

https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1096...325468160?s=21

[anton pulisov]

Did Lou Dobbs fall on his head a few years ago or something?

I remember when he was at CNN and he seemed pretty sane. Although, granted, I wasn't really listening to what he was saying.

[Satchmo Distel]

It doesn't even make sense on his own terms. Dobbs says he's not accusing him of anything but still wants him investigated because something's fishy. Some fantasy about lots of left-wing judges, as if.

[ursus arctos]

I honestly think it is dementia, though I am also of thee view that 45 suffers from the same malady.

As Dobbs was primarily a purveyor of the press release reading and CEO fluffing view of bossiness “journalism”, it is at least possible that he has long been a reactionary nutcase on matters of broader policy.

[Incandenza]

Trump has signed the declaration.

[ursus arctos]

This freestyle will be helpful to opponents in the litigation

[Incandenza]

It's so bizarre how he sometimes doesn't say "the wall," but just "wall." "We need wall." Part of his rotting brain, I suppose, but there seems to have been a push for that to be used by others when discussing it. There was the DHS press release that used it, then Nielsen used it like that in some testimony.

[Satchmo Distel]

Maybe to distinguish it from "the wall that Mexico will pay for"? Trump can point to any old fence that gets built on only a portion of the border and pretend that's what he meant.

Are there any previous examples of such extreme executive over-reach by a POTUS (excluding clandestine ones like Nixon bombing Cambodia)?

What happens if SCOTUS upholds the declaration? GOP will be fucked. Has Mitch done that calculus?