U.S. Politics: From Russia, With Love

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

29 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

What is dead may never die. 

Except for this one time of course. Damn those Iron Islanders really need to get their shit together, or they'll never have the healthcare they want. 

I don't know. They seem to be pretty clear on what price they are willing to pay for it.

[TheKitttenGuard]

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN17U0CA?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter

Quote

He misses driving, feels as if he is in a cocoon, and is surprised how hard his new job is.

President Donald Trump on Thursday reflected on his first 100 days in office with a wistful look at his life before the White House.

"I loved my previous life. I had so many things going," Trump told Reuters in an interview. "This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier."

statement like these should allow for one at least one hour of Ren sceaming "you idiot".

[Jace, Extat]

43 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

I don't know. They seem to be pretty clear on what price they are willing to pay for it.

Republican greenlanders... thinking healthcare can be bought with gold!

[denstorebog]

33 minutes ago, TheKitttenGuard said:

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN17U0CA?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter

statement like these should allow for one at least one hour of Ren sceaming "you idiot".

This actually brings up something I've been wondering about.

We know that Trump has already filed for reelection, but that could just be a financial thing. Or out of principle. But after just a 100 days, Trump must be the most hands-off president in history. He is frequently absent, he leaves a lot of the technical work to his administration, and his passion lies mostly with rallies and appearances. According to insiders, this is a man who is totally dependent on his inner circle to boost him psychologically, explain everything to him like he was 8 years old, and generally carry him through each day because he's so clearly out of his element. Which must be torture for a man who comes from a completely different background where he used to be in control and had complete freedom.

Again, this is one hundred days down the line. Now imagine 1300 days later, provided nothing extreme happens. Trump is 74 years old. For the last four years, he's been legally prohibited from doing what he really wants to do with his life. Every single day has been a constant reminder of how incapable and ignorant he is in the world of politics. He's been mocked, opposed at every turn, boxed in by archaic rules that he doesn't and never will understand a fraction of.

Now the primaries roll around. He might get satisfaction from the promise of another 1 on 1 fight against a Democratic contender. This is what he loves. Lots of rallies, lots of praise, lots of support. But after that ... it's another 1400+ days of the same thing. 1400 freaking days.

So the question is - can this man, who just admitted to missing his old life and who is obviously ill at ease in his new one, stand eight years of this? How? Is this something that he even considers, or will he stumble through, day to day, until he's suddenly 78 years old and miserable as fuck?

Because if he does think ahead, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him come up with some outlandish excuse to not run in 2020 ("Washington can't be fixed! I tried, but Democrats are impossible to work with!") and go back to what he lives and breathes for - his brand.

[Kalbear]

The real reason is that he's making a shit-ton of money exploiting the presidency, and that's one of the things that really matters to him. 

[Maithanet]

3 minutes ago, denstorebog said:

So the question is - can this man, who just admitted to missing his old life and who is obviously ill at ease in his new one, stand eight years of this? How? Is this something that he even considers, or will he stumble through, day to day, until he's suddenly 78 years old and miserable as fuck?

Because if he does think ahead, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him come up with some outlandish excuse to not run in 2020 ("Washington can't be fixed! I tried, but Democrats are impossible to work with!") and go back to what he lives and breathes for - his brand.

I think Trump deciding not to run for reelection is a real possibility.  I think it's safe to say that Clinton, Bush and Obama all enjoyed being President, particularly in their first terms.  Yet all three of them wore down by the end of 8 years as pressure and scandal and frustration go to them.  In contrast, Trump doesn't seem to be having a lot of fun.  He loves adoration, and the Presidency is proving to provide less of that than he'd expected. 

If he does decide not to run, it would be "Washington can't be fixed"!  Trumps MO has always been to declare victory in the face of defeat.  If he doesn't want another term, he'll latch on to a couple talking points of achievements and say "America is great again, thanks to me!"

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

The AHCA is Still Dead. Again.  

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/04/28/the_ahca_is_still_dead.html

Careful now, we don't want to risk a Bradley Beal situation. It's unwise to trifle with an undead wizard!

[Swordfish]

21 hours ago, r'hllor's reformed lobster said:

ah, cool, gotcha. thought you were referring specifically to the sancturary city thing

Nah.  Not directly.  

Though the notion that they didn't need the written order for that is interesting,and likely another example of just how inept this administration is.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Maithanet said:

I think Trump deciding not to run for reelection is a real possibility.  I think it's safe to say that Clinton, Bush and Obama all enjoyed being President, particularly in their first terms.  Yet all three of them wore down by the end of 8 years as pressure and scandal and frustration go to them.  In contrast, Trump doesn't seem to be having a lot of fun.  He loves adoration, and the Presidency is proving to provide less of that than he'd expected. 

 

Yes and no. He clearly hates that actual work, but he loves being the President. That said, I think the most likely reason he won't seek a second term is because he fears losing. But that's a long ways away. 

Also, the shut down has been delayed....by a week. To steal a line I heard earlier, "Wouldn't it be ironic if the government shuts down on Cinco de Mayo over a boarder wall with Mexico."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/us/politics/congress-government-funding-stopgap.html

 

[Martell Spy]

Quote

Yes and no. He clearly hates that actual work, but he loves being the President. That said, I think the most likely reason he won't seek a second term is because he fears losing. But that's a long ways away. 

I think he survives by increasing Jared Kushner's portfolio until he is President in all but name. The King eats the meal, and the Hand takes the shit. Looks like Howard Stern called it though.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

I think he survives by increasing Jared Kushner's portfolio until he is President in all but name. The King eats the meal, and the Hand takes the shit.

To be fair that's probably already happening, hence all the chaos. 

[all swedes are racist]

1 hour ago, denstorebog said:

This actually brings up something I've been wondering about.

We know that Trump has already filed for reelection, but that could just be a financial thing. Or out of principle. But after just a 100 days, Trump must be the most hands-off president in history. He is frequently absent, he leaves a lot of the technical work to his administration, and his passion lies mostly with rallies and appearances. According to insiders, this is a man who is totally dependent on his inner circle to boost him psychologically, explain everything to him like he was 8 years old, and generally carry him through each day because he's so clearly out of his element. Which must be torture for a man who comes from a completely different background where he used to be in control and had complete freedom.

if this is what running a business looks like, why the fuck do we allow ceos to get paid so much again?

[Fragile Bird]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

To steal a line I heard earlier, "Wouldn't it be ironic if the government shuts down on Cinco de Mayo over a boarder wall with Mexico."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/us/politics/congress-government-funding-stopgap.html

 

Trump wants to put a wall around the Board??? Man, we have a lot more influence than I ever dreamed possible!

[Tempra]

10 hours ago, Fez said:

Yep. Either extremely conservative or simply doing their job (Federal lawyers don't get to decide the positions they have to argue). Or, in the case of the other circuit judges, likely overworked and unwilling to get involved on something they didn't deem important enough; en banc reviews are extremely rare.

And you're wrong; the legal decisions that SCOTUS reviews that are extremely complex and don't have neat partisan splits are almost always unanimous rulings; and last term 54% of their rulings were unanimous. But when that's not the case, the splits are almost always the same, following the same partisan lines. When Scalia was alive it was 5-4 in either direction depending on Kennedy, or 6-3 if Roberts also went left (and rarely 5-4 with Roberts going left); and sometimes 8-1 when Thomas was being difficult. When there were 7-2 decisions it was almost always a compromise ruling that Roberts crafted, and it'd almost always be some combo of Thomas, Alito, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor who'd be objecting (aka the two most liberal and two most conservative judges; and those most likely to objec to a compromise, depending on what it was)

In general, the only time things got weird was 4th amendment cases, where sometimes you'd get things like Scalia and Breyer switching places. And one time there was a 5-4 decision where Thomas sided with the liberals; but that was a very esoteric case about maritime law.

Uh, federal lawyers  (one's with litigating authority) have very broad prosecutorial discretion in all but a few hot button topics. 

I would also suggest that you review the voting alignments in 8-1, 7-2, and 6-3 cases because they don't line up to your suppositions.  For example, Roberts drafted the opinion for only 1 of the 8 cases decided 7-2 during the October 2014 term (the last full term in which the Court had nine justices). And Roberts "went left" in the way you describe in  only 2 out of 11 cases decided 6-3.  Even for 5-4 decisions, over 30% didn't involve the typical 5-4 split with Kennedy being the swing vote. 

[Fragile Bird]

Donald Trump spoke at the NRA's annual meeting, and they banned guns.

I don't understand.

Shouldn't every person there have been armed, in case there was an assassination attempt? Theh could have protected him and saved rhe day!

 

[LongRider]

Can't you just feel the (Russian) love?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/28/trump-russia-intelligence-uk-government-m16-kremlin

Quote

It was not previously known that the UK intelligence services had also received the dossier but Steele confirmed in a court filing earlier this month that he handed a memorandum compiled in December to a “senior UK government national security official acting in his official capacity, on a confidential basis in hard copy form”.

The court papers say Steele decided to pass on the information he had collected because it was “of considerable importance in relation to alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election”, that it “had implications for the national security of the US and the UK” and “needed to [be] analysed and further investigated/verified”.

The December memo alleged that four Trump representatives travelled to Prague in August or September in 2016 for “secret discussions with Kremlin representatives and associated operators/hackers”, about how to pay hackers secretly for penetrating Democratic party computer systems and “contingency plans for covering up operations”.

 

 

[maarsen]

1 hour ago, Nasty LongRider said:

Can't you just feel the (Russian) love?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/28/trump-russia-intelligence-uk-government-m16-kremlin

 

Any day now the pissing video will turn up.

[LongRider]

June 14 would be a good day.   Flag day and Trump's birthday!   What a pisser of a day that would be.   

[Lykos]

54 minutes ago, maarsen said:

Any day now the pissing video will turn up.

"Trickle down" at work ;).

[Martell Spy]

Quote

 

Last Thursday, Republican Sen. Mike Enzi spoke to a group of middle and high school students in Greybull, Wyoming. During Q&A, a sophomore named Bailee Foster asked Enzi what he was doing “to improve the life of the LGBT community in Wyoming.” Enzi responded by explaining that “in Wyoming you can be just about anything you want to be, as long as you don’t push it in somebody’s face.” He continued:

I know a guy who wears a tutu and goes to bars on Friday night and is always surprised that he gets in fights. Well, he kind of asks for it. That’s the way that he winds up with that kind of problem.

 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2017/04/28/mike_enzi_and_erick_erickson_want_to_police_our_gender_expression.html

Why Some Conservatives Think LGBTQ People Deserve to Get Beaten Up

So, you can't punch Nazis apparently, but you can punch guys in tutus.It's all about the biggest threat levels.