Elections; 2024
POSTED BY: THG
UPDATED: Friday, November 21, 2025 00:12
VIEWED: 206031
PAGE 510 of 514
Quote:Pope Francis says Donald Trump is not a Christian because Christians build bridges, not walls.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm fine with it.
If we're going to spend money on the military, we might as well spend it fighting an actual enemy.
You gotta be pretty goddamn evil to be denounced by the Pope.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/pope-says-trump-is-not-christian
-for-plan-to-build-a-wall-on-u-s-mexico-border
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Pope Francis says Donald Trump is not a Christian because Christians build bridges, not walls.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm fine with it.
If we're going to spend money on the military, we might as well spend it fighting an actual enemy.
You gotta be pretty goddamn evil to be denounced by the Pope.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/pope-says-trump-is-not-christian
-for-plan-to-build-a-wall-on-u-s-mexico-border
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Pope Francis is a DEI, kid-fucking plant.
Nobody cares.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:You are special, 6ix.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Pope Francis is a DEI, kid-fucking plant.
Nobody cares.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:You are special, 6ix.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Pope Francis is a DEI, kid-fucking plant.
Nobody cares.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Maybe we should put it in the predictions thread.
You're not Catholic. No shame in admitting that you think the chances are greater than a coinflip that he's had more than his fair share of altar boys.
Besides... Nobody's given one single shit what any pope had to say about anything since Sinead O'Connor ripped up John Paul's glamour shots. Especially not any of you godless Democrats.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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The problem of pardons
Kurt Gödel, the great logician and philosopher, claimed that a loophole exists in the US Constitution that would allow the president to establish himself as dictator. The story goes that he was about to expound on this theory at his hearing to obtain US citizenship but was cut off by Albert Einstein, lest his speculations ruin what should have been a routine proceeding.
I’ve been interested in this question since I first heard the story in college.
And to me it seems that Gödel must have been thinking of the pardon power. This has frequently been abused, mostly in banal ways, by lame-duck presidents to pull selfish stunts with no grounding in the public interest. Nothing particularly terrible has ever occurred due to presidential pardons. And yet, it is an extraordinarily broad power with no real checks or limiting principles.
Suppose Kash Patel shows up at FBI headquarters and says he wants to identify the most hardcore MAGA special agents and recruit them to a small elite team. What’s their job? To do illegal wiretaps against Trump’s political enemies in order to blackmail them. Someone on the team says, “Director that’s illegal! I’m all for egregious abuses of power, but I also don’t want to get in trouble.” And he says,” don’t worry, POTUS has you covered with pardons.”
Meanwhile, DC is not a state, which means that we technically don’t have any state laws or state court system. Of course, in practice, we do have a local criminal code and local courts that enforce it. But constitutionally speaking, these are federal laws and federal courts, and all our local prosecutions are handled by a US attorney rather than an elected district attorney. And this means the president could pardon people for random muggings or assaults or murders in DC. Which is to say that if one of the president’s aides were to shoot an opposition member of Congress (or just an intra-party critic) on the street, the president could pardon him. It’s not just that the country could become a dictatorship in this way (any country can become a dictatorship), but it would be perfectly within the bounds of the constitution.
Needless to say, I would be extremely surprised if Trump has Hakeem Jeffries assassinated later this month. But bad actors (as Republicans know better than Democrats when talking about “normal” crime) probe boundaries to see what they can get away with. Trump got in hot water after 1/6, but ultimately he got away with it. He won the nomination, and he won the general election. He’s stated his intention to pardon the perpetrators, and by all accounts, he’s going to do it. If he gets away with that with minimal intra-party pushback or criticism, he’ll try more stuff. And we’ll see what happens.
More at https://www.slowboring.com/p/four-years-later?r=87ery&utm_campaign
=post&utm_medium=web
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Elon Musk: A trillion here, a trillion there; whatever
By Tami Luhby | January 9, 2025
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/09/politics/elon-musk-backtracks-federal-b
udget-cuts/index.html
Elon Musk’s claim that he could cut $2 trillion from the federal budget showed he couldn’t do arithmetic. Elon has finally acknowledged this, but he tries to make a virtue of necessity:
Quote:Look, here’s what’s gonna happen. Congress will eventually pass a bill that will cut a few billion from federal programs while making earlier tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses permanent. As a result, the deficit and debt will skyrocket. When the GOP loses their Congressional majorities in the midterms, they can go back to flogging Democrats for the deficits they created. Rinse and repeat.
Elon Musk has walked back his previous claim that he could cut at least $2 trillion from the federal budget, saying Wednesday that half that amount would be “an epic outcome.”
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The problem of pardons
Kurt Gödel, the great logician and philosopher, claimed that a loophole exists in the US Constitution that would allow the president to establish himself as dictator. The story goes that he was about to expound on this theory at his hearing to obtain US citizenship but was cut off by Albert Einstein, lest his speculations ruin what should have been a routine proceeding.
I’ve been interested in this question since I first heard the story in college.
And to me it seems that Gödel must have been thinking of the pardon power. This has frequently been abused, mostly in banal ways, by lame-duck presidents to pull selfish stunts with no grounding in the public interest. Nothing particularly terrible has ever occurred due to presidential pardons. And yet, it is an extraordinarily broad power with no real checks or limiting principles.
Suppose Kash Patel shows up at FBI headquarters and says he wants to identify the most hardcore MAGA special agents and recruit them to a small elite team. What’s their job? To do illegal wiretaps against Trump’s political enemies in order to blackmail them. Someone on the team says, “Director that’s illegal! I’m all for egregious abuses of power, but I also don’t want to get in trouble.” And he says,” don’t worry, POTUS has you covered with pardons.”
Meanwhile, DC is not a state, which means that we technically don’t have any state laws or state court system. Of course, in practice, we do have a local criminal code and local courts that enforce it. But constitutionally speaking, these are federal laws and federal courts, and all our local prosecutions are handled by a US attorney rather than an elected district attorney. And this means the president could pardon people for random muggings or assaults or murders in DC. Which is to say that if one of the president’s aides were to shoot an opposition member of Congress (or just an intra-party critic) on the street, the president could pardon him. It’s not just that the country could become a dictatorship in this way (any country can become a dictatorship), but it would be perfectly within the bounds of the constitution.
Needless to say, I would be extremely surprised if Trump has Hakeem Jeffries assassinated later this month. But bad actors (as Republicans know better than Democrats when talking about “normal” crime) probe boundaries to see what they can get away with. Trump got in hot water after 1/6, but ultimately he got away with it. He won the nomination, and he won the general election. He’s stated his intention to pardon the perpetrators, and by all accounts, he’s going to do it. If he gets away with that with minimal intra-party pushback or criticism, he’ll try more stuff. And we’ll see what happens.
More at https://www.slowboring.com/p/four-years-later?r=87ery&utm_campaign
=post&utm_medium=web
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Well you just laid out the exact actions of the Democratic party under Clinton/Obama/Biden* leadership.
Thanks for that.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Elon Musk: A trillion here, a trillion there; whatever
By Tami Luhby | January 9, 2025
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/09/politics/elon-musk-backtracks-federal-b
udget-cuts/index.html
Elon Musk’s claim that he could cut $2 trillion from the federal budget showed he couldn’t do arithmetic. Elon has finally acknowledged this, but he tries to make a virtue of necessity:Quote:Look, here’s what’s gonna happen. Congress will eventually pass a bill that will cut a few billion from federal programs while making earlier tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses permanent. As a result, the deficit and debt will skyrocket. When the GOP loses their Congressional majorities in the midterms, they can go back to flogging Democrats for the deficits they created. Rinse and repeat.
Elon Musk has walked back his previous claim that he could cut at least $2 trillion from the federal budget, saying Wednesday that half that amount would be “an epic outcome.”
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Nobody is a fan of Tami's fan-fiction.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Trump’s Obsession With Greenland Is Funny. But It’s Sending a Dangerous Message to the Exact Wrong People.
Putin and Xi are listening.
By Fred Kaplan | Jan 10, 2025 5:45 AM
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/01/trump-greenland-gulf-of-am
erica-panama-canada-putin-xi.html
Trump’s rants have a dangerous effect. His rhetoric is not different from Vladimir Putin’s on Ukraine or Xi Jinping’s on Taiwan. Russia and China arguably have sounder — more historically and culturally grounded — claims on Ukraine and Taiwan than the United States has on Greenland, Canada, or Panama. Trump probably won’t send an army to intimidate or conquer foreign lands, but his implicit claim that he has the right to do so sends a message to Putin and Xi that Trump wouldn’t mind if they went ahead and enacted their claims on Ukraine and Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the once and future president alienates Canada and Mexico, our democratic neighbors and two of our closest trading partners. He is alienating all of South America by invoking horrible (and not so ancient) memories of gringo domination. He insults two charter members of NATO who have long stood as reliable strategic partners. And he is emulating — and flashing what could fairly be interpreted as a green light to — the world’s two dictators who are most able and tempted to upset the international norms about preserving sovereign borders.
And his second term in office hasn’t even begun.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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No immigrant has taken your job. You were laid off by a capitalist who required cheap labor and took advantage of that immigrant to increase his profits, and nothing makes him happier than to hear you blame the immigrant and not him.
https://x.com/mhdksafa/status/1575493724368273409
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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