Trump's Second Term

junkshop said:
I am not a fan of the filibuster. It is not, in my opinion, an honest way to win an argument.

Victory by exploitation of procedural loophole is a hollow and shameful victory. I'm not saying that it isn't ever necessary, if it's the only option available, but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
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It was good enough for Strom Thurmond.
 
Leavitt: "There have been bureaucrats at some of these agencies that have been trying to act independent. They need to remember who they work for. It's the executive of the executive branch. You look at the US Institute of Peace for example. There was a bit of standoff with bureaucrats who didn't want to realize who they work for, and that is Donald Trump."

The United States Institute of Peace is a private, independent nonprofit not a federal agency.
Trump has as much right to take it over as I do to take over the Local RSPCA branch.
 
DOGE Is Trying to Gift Itself a $500 Million Building, Court Filings Show
The documents reveal a DOGE affiliate is attempting to transfer the headquarters of an independent think tank, the United States Institute of Peace, to the government at no cost.

www.wired.com

DOGE Is Trying to Gift Itself a $500 Million Building, Court Filings Show

The documents reveal a DOGE affiliate is attempting to transfer the headquarters of an independent think tank, the United States Institute of Peace, to the government at no cost.
www.wired.com www.wired.com
 
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Andy_Ross said:
Leavitt: "There have been bureaucrats at some of these agencies that have been trying to act independent. They need to remember who they work for. It's the executive of the executive branch. You look at the US Institute of Peace for example. There was a bit of standoff with bureaucrats who didn't want to realize who they work for, and that is Donald Trump."

The United States Institute of Peace is a private, independent nonprofit not a federal agency.
Trump has as much right to take it over as I do to take over the Local RSPCA branch.
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No Ms. Leavitt, they do not work for Trump. You do however, and that's why you sound so stupid.
 
Resume said:
View attachment 59763

No Ms. Leavitt, they do not work for Trump. You do however, and that's why you sound so stupid.
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No, she sounds so stupid because she is so stupid. I'm amazed she managed to get a degree from Saint Anselm College, a pretty good school here in New Hampshire. I know a few of their graduates, and none are stupid.
 
junkshop said:
I am not a fan of the filibuster. It is not, in my opinion, an honest way to win an argument.

Victory by exploitation of procedural loophole is a hollow and shameful victory. I'm not saying that it isn't ever necessary, if it's the only option available, but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Click to expand...
I don't like the filibuster either,but you will never have a parliamentary system where procedural loopholes of some kind do not exits.
 
In the off off year elections the GOP keeps two solid red house seats, but the Dems were very competivie in what should have been an easy win for the GOP.
BUt in Wisconsin, Musk lost his attempt to buy a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat for a right wing candidate. Guess wearing the Cheese hat did not impress the Cheesheads.
 
Technically it wasn't a filibuster because it wasn't done in order to block a bill. It was a piece of congressional procedure leveraged to disrupt the normal business of the Senate.

www.theguardian.com

Cory Booker breaks record for longest Senate speech with Trump condemnation

In speech that began Monday night, Democratic senator warns of ‘grave and urgent’ danger of Trump administration
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Andy_Ross said:
DOGE Is Trying to Gift Itself a $500 Million Building, Court Filings Show
The documents reveal a DOGE affiliate is attempting to transfer the headquarters of an independent think tank, the United States Institute of Peace, to the government at no cost.

www.wired.com

DOGE Is Trying to Gift Itself a $500 Million Building, Court Filings Show

The documents reveal a DOGE affiliate is attempting to transfer the headquarters of an independent think tank, the United States Institute of Peace, to the government at no cost.
www.wired.com www.wired.com
Click to expand...

It's even worse than the headline says:

wired said:
To state this plainly: DOGE forced out the directors and staff of a nonexecutive agency and installed one of its own GSA staffers as president, and that person is now attempting to hand the institute’s $500 million headquarters over to the agency he came from, at zero cost.

“The effort to transfer the building to GSA is part of the DOGE playbook to run agencies through a wood chipper. That’s what they’re trying to do,” claims George Foote, longtime outside general counsel to USIP. “They’re trying to kill the agency, which they have no right to do.”
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Bolding mine.
 
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As of the close of the day on April 1, my positive/negative score on the Trump administration stands at -406.

1 April 2025
-2: Headline: "DOGE Is Trying to Gift Itself a $500 Million Building, Court Filings Show" (-2 for two distinct actions)
-1: Trump posts another rant, this time in ALL CAPS, about NPR and PBS [124]
-1: Karolyn Leavitt misrepresents who employees at private (but Congressionally funded) non-profit agency woprk for [125]

References

124. Trump: "REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT “MONSTERS” THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!"

125. Leavitt: "There have been bureaucrats at some of these agencies that have been trying to act independent. They need to remember who they work for. It's the executive of the executive branch. You look at the US Institute of Peace for example. There was a bit of standoff with bureaucrats who didn't want to realize who they work for, and that is Donald Trump."
The United States Institute of Peace is a private, independent nonprofit not a federal agency.
 
Exploiting a flaw in the Perpetual Lawsuit Machine that is the US - if you have the resources it will always be more profitable to litigate the outcome of a probably illegal action than making sure what you do is in line with laws and regulations.
 
It’s interesting that Australia is not planning retaliatory tariffs. Why? Because it would harm Australian citizens. And we are in a position to know. We had large tariff barriers attempting to protect our manufacturing industries for decades. They crippled the country. Since they were largely abolished in the 1980s we have never looked back, being recession free and climbing up the GDP ladder.

Trump will back down, finding a way to blame Biden.
 
Blue Mountain said:
As of the close of the day on March 31, my positive/negative score on the Trump administration stands at -402.

31 March 2025
+1: Trump takes action against Houthi rebels disrupting shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden
+1: Executive Order: Combating Unfair Practices In the Live Entertainment Market
0: Executive Order: Establishing the United States Investment Accelerator (potentially -1 for reducing regulation)
-1: Trump falsely claims his loss of Wisconsin in the 2020 election was the result of rigged polling
-1: Headline: First-quarter GDP growth will be just 0.3% as tariffs stoke stagflation conditions, says CNBC survey (CNBC)
-1: Trump on emissions standards for cars: "It doesn't mean a damn bit of difference to the environment. It doesn't matter."

I gave a positive score to “Combating Unfair Practices In the Live Entertainment Market,” as a quick reading indicates it's taking action to prevent scalpers from swooping up tickets to live entertainment events such as big pop-star concerts and reselling them to the real fans at exorbitant mark-ups.

I believe his attack on the Houthi rebels is a positive action. It's something I think Biden should have done, but for some reason decided it wasn't in his or America's interest to do so.

References

122. Trump: "The Iran-backed Houthi Terrorists have been decimated by the relentless strikes over the past two weeks. Many of their Fighters and Leaders are no longer with us. We hit them every day and night — Harder and harder. Their capabilities that threaten Shipping and the Region are rapidly being destroyed. Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation. The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at U.S. ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran."

123. Trump on Wisconsin: "I actually probably won it three times, to be exact. Not probably. I won it three times. We had a rigged election." (Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020.)
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Given that the Houthis only rebelled because they were being heavily oppressed by the Saudi backed Yemeni government for decades, and that they've been more heavily bombed by the Saudis for the length of the civil war, Trampy's actions are neither good nor effective.

The problem with US intervention in the Middle East is that they keep missing the biggest warmongers, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
 
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