President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Exactly! It was originally a feast day for a martyred saint.

 

Very interesting thread speculating about what Barr has been up to. The Assange article dates back to Nov. 2018. If Assange tells what he knows trying to work a deal it would hang Roger Stone, for a starter.

Interesting speculation that Trump has gotten the Spicer/Priebus/Hicks band back together with an eye toward being able to claim privilege.

 

If they mess with the sacred sj.com holiday of March 14 ...

 

Cool, cool.

 

'Imminent threat' explanation noticeably absent in White House report justifying Soleimani strike - CNNPolitics

 

A Bipartisan Washington Consensus Emerges: Trump Is Bad, but There’s Nothing That Can Be Done About It, Oh Well

 

Another meeting with Russia that we only find out about because the Russian reporters wrote about it.

 

Daddy's Cuck

 

I strongly suspect you'll see this little manifesto popping up on Twitter and Facebook. It's Stonekettle, if you know him. He's writing about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, about what's in there that history impaired Americans have no clue about.

A sample. It's a long post, lots of meat on this bone.

Stonekettle Station: Those Who Forget History

"But, when you read the whole Declaration of Independence and you look beyond those opening paragraphs and you read that very specific list of grievances, twenty-seven in total, well, then you can see pretty damned quick which part actually mattered to our Founders and which part was just flowery window-dressing.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

That’s the first one.

That’s what started it, the Revolution.

He, King George III, has refused his assent to laws.

What’s that mean? Well, in those days it meant that for legislation to become law, the King had to give his approval. And he often refused, either through pig-headed stubbornness or from neglect of his duty. Even when the legislation was “the most wholesome and necessary for the public good” and was something overwhelmingly desired by the population, the King refused to give assent. When our forefathers were considering bloody violent revolution that might very well end with their own precious selves swinging from a gallows, this was their first complaint.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

When they sent the Declaration to King George III, they wanted him to see this first.

Failure to pass laws necessary for the public good.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

As of January 1st, 2020, there are more than 300 bipartisan bills, legislation most wholesome and necessary for the public good, that have passed the House and are right now gathering dust on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desk.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

McConnell openly refuses to bring this legislation to the floor of the Senate.

McConnell, Trump, and their supporters in Congress, not only refuse to give assent to these laws, they won’t even allow the legislation to be debated by Americans’ elected representatives.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

They openly refuse to do their duty.

And they maliciously prevent others from doing theirs.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

And that – that right there – was the first and most important justification our own forefathers used to throw off their government and declare their independence from it.

I read that list, government refusal to make and pass laws for the public good, representatives who refuse to meet with the people, a tyrant who demands obedience and compliance from state and local governments, leaders who hold themselves unaccountable to the people, and I can’t help but think of Donald Trump’s tweet yesterday: “I’m seeing Governor Cuomo today at The White House. He must understand that National Security far exceeds politics. New York must stop all of its unnecessary lawsuits & harrassment [sic], start cleaning itself up, and lowering taxes. Build relationships, but don’t bring Fredo!”

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, our own ancestors were fighting with a mentally ill xenophobic autocrat who wanted to ban immigration and put conditions on who could be an American and the more things change, right?

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

Trump himself said this morning that even though he supposedly never asked the Attorney General to do anything in a criminal case, “This doesn’t mean that I do not have, as President, the legal right to do so, I do, but I have so far chosen not to!”

 

It's one of the things that always bugs me when conservative legal scholars talk about "originalism" and whatnot. Scalia was a real beaut. The basic argument is the President is tasked with upholding the Constitution, the Constitution implies the President can do anything he wants including ignoring the Constitution.

How Justice Scalia paved the way for Trump’s assault on the rule of law

 

Go read the whole thing. If you believe in the precepts of the rule of law laid out by the founding fathers, it's reassuring preaching to the choir.