Trump's Second Term

[Hercules56]

Trump detains white Aryan immigrant from Scandinavia.

Danish man living in Mississippi detained by ICE at naturalization meeting

A Danish man living in Mississippi for a dozen years has been imprisoned in Louisiana.

www.wlbt.com

Nobody is safe!!!

 

[Hercules56]

Does it matter that much? When would it be true?

Kinda, yeah. What was the conversation about?

 

[Aridas]

i don’t think so. i think the company he’s the face of is over leveraged and in exchange for temporarily getting rid of a bunch of fraud investigations he’s become one of the most hated people on the planet that nobody takes seriously. and he’s outlived his usefulness and been cast out, and the lack of fundamentals at tesla are going to take out the stock, and he’ll see margin calls.

none of this is over yet.

None of this is over yet? Sure. Plenty of damage has already been done, though, and Tesla's not the only company that he supposedly leads.

Another example of something else extremely wrong that the Trump Administration has done for him is -

The Trump Administration Leaned on African Countries. The Goal: Get Business for Elon Musk.

For the moment, incidentally, he's not actually out yet.

Musk to attend Trump's meeting with South Africa's president

 

[arthwollipot]

Kinda, yeah. What was the conversation about?

I suggest that there is no context that makes the statement "the Judicial Branch has no authority over the Executive Branch" good.

 

[Hercules56]

I suggest that there is no context that makes the statement "the Judicial Branch has no authority over the Executive Branch" good.

That doesn't answer the question.

 

[arthwollipot]

That doesn't answer the question.

That is correct.

 

[Hercules56]

Rubio just said that The Regime does not have to abide by court orders. The judicial has no authority over The Regime.

No, that's not what he said.

Marco Rubio Says No Judge Has Authority Over Him in Alarming Testimony

Trump’s secretary of state made a shocking confession in a testy exchange with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen.

newrepublic.com

There is a division in our government between the federal branch and the judicial branch. No judge, and the judicial branch, cannot tell me or the president how to conduct foreign policy,” Rubio said. “No judge can tell how I have to outreach to a foreign partner or what I need to say to them. And if do reach to that foreign partner and talk to them, I am under no obligation to share that with the judiciary branch.”



Rubio is not declaring that Executive actions cannot be deemed illegal or unconstitutional by federal courts. What he is saying is that federal courts cannot dictate how the executive branch seeks to comply with federal courts orders or legal determinations. Which I disagree with.

But this is uncharted territory with no legal precedent so who knows what the answer is.

 

[alfaniner]

Guh... I walked into the VA Hospital yesterday and there was that glaring portrait, huge, at eye level, and face on at a dead end because you had to turn into the hallway. I have never wanted to deface an image before, but that made me think about it.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Guh... I walked into the VA Hospital yesterday and there was that glaring portrait, huge, at eye level, and face on at a dead end because you had to turn into the hallway. I have never wanted to deface an image before, but that made me think about it.

Got a paintball gun?

 

[Blue Mountain]

Rubio just said that The Regime does not have to abide by court orders. The judicial has no authority over The Regime.

[citation required]

 

[Blue Mountain]

There is insider footage of how Trump picked his cabinet and then checked out for good.
___
Meanwhile, are there any bookies offering odds on Taiwan's future? I'd like to bet Trump loses Taiwan in less than three days when it happens, and it will.

YT;DW

 

[bruto]

Kinda, yeah. What was the conversation about?

No, that's not what he said.

Marco Rubio Says No Judge Has Authority Over Him in Alarming Testimony

Trump’s secretary of state made a shocking confession in a testy exchange with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen.

newrepublic.com

There is a division in our government between the federal branch and the judicial branch. No judge, and the judicial branch, cannot tell me or the president how to conduct foreign policy,” Rubio said. “No judge can tell how I have to outreach to a foreign partner or what I need to say to them. And if do reach to that foreign partner and talk to them, I am under no obligation to share that with the judiciary branch.”



Rubio is not declaring that Executive actions cannot be deemed illegal or unconstitutional by federal courts. What he is saying is that federal courts cannot dictate how the executive branch seeks to comply with federal courts orders or legal determinations. Which I disagree with.

But this is uncharted territory with no legal precedent so who knows what the answer is.

The part you quoted suggests the issue is "how," but I think as Rubio goes on, it turns to "whether," and that is quite a different matter. I think you credit Rubio with more intelligence, integrity, and sense than he deserves; and while it may be technically true that we do not know the outcome of uncharted territory with no legal precedent, optimism, at least for the near term, is, I believe, mistaken. To misquote the bard, he is a serviceable villain, as duteous to the vices of his leader as badness would desire.

After all, it is Rubio's contention that process-free imprisonment, masquerading as deportation, to foreign prisons is a protected action of foreign policy, and that evidence promised but not provided is a valid substitute for due process!

 

[Planigale]

I think Musk's association with Trump has been a mixed blessing.

Yes, he seems to have single-handedly destroyed the reputation of Tesla, alienating its main customer base. But I think he did more than just "temporarily get rid of a bunch of fraud investigations". Even if a later administration decides to reverse course and actually go after Musk for bad business practices, the federal government has been so decimated with job cuts that they may not have the manpower to do the work.

Now, was it a worthwhile exchange for Musk? (Tesla's value crash vs. ending various investigations)? Probably not. But its possible that he 1) just incorrectly estimated the backlash he would get from associating with Trump, and 2) Is so wealthy that he just doesn't care. Or maybe he is planning/expecting that if he gets forced out of his position at Tesla, stock values would eventually rebound and his personal value would skyrocket.

On the other hand he is going to make a fortune out of Trump going for Skynet. There is going to be a massive surge in launches to deliver the low earth orbit surveillance satellites needed to detect launches anywhere in the world of ICBMs etc. I suspect that putting the interceptors into space may be done by the Space Force (Trump's creation after all). It'll be interesting who gets to create the AI necessary to process all the data, and respond in the very short window to launches and target interceptors.

This is immensely destabilising as it destroys the MAD balance, weaponises space, the obvious response is to put anti-satellite weapons in space to take out the dome at the time you launch an attack on the US. I look forward to hearing about space cadets participating in flights to check the function of the orbiting interceptors.

 

[a_unique_person]

Rubio just said that The Regime does not have to abide by court orders. The judicial has no authority over The Regime.

“We deported gang members. Gang members, including the one you had a margarita with.

The margarita was put there on purpose for the photo. Of course, they never asked for a margarita nor did they drink it. Rubio knows all that, of course.

 

[Blue Mountain]

Not much happened today.

As of the close of the day on May 22, my positive/negative score on the Trump administration stands at -688.

21 May 2025
-2: Headline: US ‘illegally deported’ Vietnamese and Burmese migrants to South Sudan (The Guardian)
-1: Headline: Trump-backing farmers vent Trump pride is now ‘hopelessness, frustration, anger’ (Raw Story)

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

What I've discovered is the vast number of people living in the United States who have very little idea how their government works, what the Constitution says, how laws work, etc. This forum is not a typical cross section. I would wager that many non-Americans who contribute here actually have a much greater understanding of the U.S. constitutional order than quite a number of U.S. citizens. I'm astonished, however, at how many apparently well-educated individuals are parroting the administration's completely wrong ideas of such things as due process and habeas corpus. So on the one hand, quite a lot of people are ignorant of U.S. government principles. But on the other hand, quite a number of people seem very intent on making it sound like what they want it to be rather than what it really is. They can't all be Elon-bots.

Nazis always find their best support in the upper echelons of society. Scum always rises to the top.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

Trump: "Think of it -- you're shooting bullets out of the air. I'm also pleased to report that the one big beautiful bill will include $25 billion for the golden dome to help construction get underway. That's the initial sort of down-posit. We're talking about $175 billion total cost of this when it's completed."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1924920140451225791

More like $175tn, and it won't work. Things like this work (barely) for geographically compact countries like Israel. Large, spread out ones? Not so much.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

i don’t think so. i think the company he’s the face of is over leveraged and in exchange for temporarily getting rid of a bunch of fraud investigations he’s become one of the most hated people on the planet that nobody takes seriously. and he’s outlived his usefulness and been cast out, and the lack of fundamentals at tesla are going to take out the stock, and he’ll see margin calls.

none of this is over yet.

From your lips to the market's ears.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

I think Musk's association with Trump has been a mixed blessing.

Yes, he seems to have single-handedly destroyed the reputation of Tesla, alienating its main customer base. But I think he did more than just "temporarily get rid of a bunch of fraud investigations". Even if a later administration decides to reverse course and actually go after Musk for bad business practices, the federal government has been so decimated with job cuts that they may not have the manpower to do the work.

Now, was it a worthwhile exchange for Musk? (Tesla's value crash vs. ending various investigations)? Probably not. But its possible that he 1) just incorrectly estimated the backlash he would get from associating with Trump, and 2) Is so wealthy that he just doesn't care. Or maybe he is planning/expecting that if he gets forced out of his position at Tesla, stock values would eventually rebound and his personal value would skyrocket.

The thing is, the Galaxy Nazi's wealth is mostly Tesla shares and his cash is mostly debt secured on those shares. If the price of Tesla shares floors, he's swiftly back to his true calling, begging for change.

 

[Norman Alexander]

I'm wondering which nation is close enough to the USA to launch enough missiles or drones or ballistas of whatever to make a Golden Dome even necessary.

The Norks? They have barely made it out over the Sea of Japan with test shots.

Russia? Attacking the USA? Really?? While fighting a full-blown knock-down drag-out stalemate of a war in Ukraine and posturing to start another fracas with Finland and the Baltic states?

So................Mexico??? Canada???? Surely not Greenland...??!

Much more likely this is yet another Trump grifty-grifto scheme to funnel billions in taxpayer money into his untouchable offshore bank accounts via "defense contracts" to "make concepts of a plan to evaluate how to build" the stupid thing that will never eventuate.