dagblog - Comments for "Lizzie Worden's 40 Whacks"

Emoluments sounds like

NCD — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 16:47:21 +0000

Emoluments sounds like something you rub on after a bath. It will go nowhere.

Driftglass just reposted his blog from 2008 on the 'trip' America went on from 2000-2008 with Dubya:

Dubya was meth with a ketamine chaser delivered hammer-and-anvil directly to the lizard brain. Dubya was 40 million Pig People tired of the hard, fussy job of being a tolerant, powerful democracy finally once-and-for-all blowing America’s family inheritance on an eight-year, blood-drunk bender.

He called Clinton 'methadone maintenance' for the crazies, policy wonk, greatly improved economy, entered and ended the Bosnia conflict, budget deficit way down etc. Similar to Obama.

The Trump administration stands a very good chance of being even worse than the Dubya administration. From a NYT comment on the appointment by Trump of his bankrupcy lawyer to be ambassador to Israel: Trump "is silly putty that is molded by those around him and those closest are right wing nut jobs. Flynn is a crackpot....Between him and Bannon, moderation is a lost concept."

Trump will drive the bus over the cliff, and it "Doesn’t matter who was trying to douse the conflagration with hoses shredded by 20 year of Reaganism, and who was lobbing milk cartons full of jellied gasoline onto the bonfire." The bus will go over the cliff, and only then will Trump voters crawl back under the rocks. For at least one election, hopefully forever.

Last night, Friday, Trump had another Victory Rally in Florida where he attacked the press.

Trump called the seizure of the underwater drone by China "unpresidented".

For emoluments it's either a

PeraclesPlease — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 15:45:32 +0000

In reply to From the article http://www

For emoluments it's either a ruling by the Supreme Court (from someone who has standing or any citizen?), which would likely result in him telling the SC to get stuffed, and then it's a matter of Articles of Impeachment. Presuming the GOP doesn't care about the Constitution, it then just dies an ignoble stalemated death. I believe Andrew Jackson also told the Court "go ahead and make me" and survived.

From the article http://www

CVille Dem — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 15:28:08 +0000

In reply to While everyone talks about

From the article http://www.salon.com/2016/12/15/elizabeth-warren-leads-democrats-push-to... and from what you said, I agree that the d is already in violation. Because he doesn't care whether he is or not, probably nothing will happen about it, as recent events have shown.

What I don't understand is that this issue is not (or should not be) based on a law that Congress can pass or not, and the President can sign or veto. It is in the Constitution. What is the procedure to deal with a sitting president who is flagrantly defying the freaking Constitution? Does someone have to mention it to the Supreme Court and ask them to rule on it?

This is a crazy precedent, and since Lizzie's bill has a snowball's chance in hell of going through, and if I understand correctly, shouldn't need to, what is the next step?

While everyone talks about

PeraclesPlease — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 12:45:33 +0000

In reply to Lizzie Worden's 40 Whacks

While everyone talks about Jan 20, it's likely that Trump is already in violation of the Emoluments clause and other government regulations, in much the same way someone already winning a tender can't go against the conditions of that tender in the days preceding contract signing without voiding that award.

Especially since US law basically works under expectations of precedent, and precedent says overwhelmingly that the Electoral vote is a formality, and that the winner of first Tuesday in November is immediately endowed with all the rights of the presumptive new President, including security briefings, assistance with the transition, a secret service detail, etc.

The government is paying $9.5 million for the transition plus other fees like secret service, so Trump is already receiving federal dollars (since he doesn't pay taxes, obviously the only part he pays is anything he explicitly picks up). Elizabeth Warren already flagged the GAO a month ago about potential problems with conflict of interest and such (expressing implicitly that these violations might be hidden under the "chaos" of the transition).

Expect of course that the Republicans will give Trump a free ride, and contrast with the fury and obsession over the vandalism or pranks on Clinton's departure of a whopping $15,000 damage, which among others took a full time GAO employee 9 months to investigate, so guess government cost of at least $100K to put to rest the obvious. Similar to Comey's obsession over Martha Stewart's $40K trade while hundreds of billions went missing. BTW, for those who think Comey's just a misunderstood public servant, he was a hedge fund trader among other activities with net worth of $11 million and a cherry $3 million home in Connecticut. And he previously investigated the Clintons on Whitewater and the Marc Rich pardons (along with the original Marc Rich case). Seems 3rd time on emails was the charm - not for proving anything, but the desired effect.