The Trump Presidency, Season 2

[Veritable Quandry]

It's the same people who are arguing that the 14th Amendment does not apply to undocumented immigrants, so their ability to read into plain text whatever they want it to mean is pretty strong.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Libertarians have always been short-sighted idiots. "Crime's a problem? Get rid of the government labelling things as crimes and let the free market straighten things out! When everyone is acting in their own self-interest equally, we'll all be free! The government that governs least, governs best!"

Their method of fixing a burned out lightbulb is to close the door to that room, lock it, plaster it over and pretend like the room never existed in the first place.

They are a party of useful idiots constantly bickering and eroding defence of our laws and regulations "For Freedom" so that corruption and wealth can form a new hierarchy answerable only to itself, and useless idiots can ride those coattails into a reasonably comfortable life as thugs/lackies/muscle.

I think a lot of US right-wingers actually mean "impunity" when they speak of "freedom" and "liberty."

 

[Veritable Quandry]

American Libertarians have no problem with the government replacing their lightbulb. They are just worried about the government replacing lightbulbs for minorities.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

That's what I thought, but the clever-clever argument (too clever by half, to my mind) is that what the 22n Amendment says is

Doesn't say anything about their being not being able to be elected as Vice President and then becoming President should the incumbent resign/be impeached/be unable to continue in offices.

The 12th Amendment covers that.

There is still a back door Trump could use, though, at least in theory. The House of Representatives could elect him Speaker, and then the President and Vice President could both simultaneously resign. In theory, Trump could be installed as President through the laws of succession. This is constitutional grey area and hasn't been legally tested, at least to my knowledge. I may be wrong in all of this. God, I hope I am!

The one saving grace though, is that the odds of Trump kicking the bucket before the 2028 election (if there is one) are pretty high. So there's that.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

How Donald Trump might steal Christmas

Toymakers are being walloped by tariffs

www.economist.com

Evernote Link

 

[Noodles]

I think it's kind of cute you all think we're ever going to have another election.

I think the local school is probably voting for Prom King and Queen soon.

Unless Trump EOs that he wins all Prom King Votes from now on.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

For a brief time it looked like Work from Home policies were going to help some of those communities. As long as they have the internet infrastructure, people could take advantage of cheap real estate and preferences for living in small communities.

I know of a number of communities in Arkansas that functioned as nurseries and retirement homes, with the bulk of the working age population relocating to cities and then coming to retire near family.

As people are discovering, though, life in small communities is not without its drawbacks (at least in the UK).

Link to Guardian article

I sometimes toy with the idea of selling up and moving somewhere cheaper, thus banking up to half the value of my current apartment, but that's always to a less expensive city, or somewhere near one, so I retain the conveniences of urban life. The idea of living in the middle of nowhere really doesn't appeal, no matter how attractive the view.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

My understanding is that small English villages average a murder a week which must be solved by either a pensioner or a police officer with a Complicated Past.

I've lived in small towns in the US, and I am not cut out for it. I much prefer having a coffee shop, bookstore, and pub in walking distance. Plus a rich international restaurant selection. The city I lived in before we moved to Columbus had a population smaller than the enrollment of the University I work for (granted 50,000 is a big campus by most standards) and we ended up driving to Memphis or Little Rock fairly often.

 

[Isabeau]

I wouldn’t mind middle of nowhere. That, or a big city. I don’t know if I could do village living, though. One extreme or another.

(says the woman who doesn’t drive)

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I now live in Leamington Spa, which is a lovely Victorian spa town (so it looks Georgian, like Regency Bath -- many buildings by the architect William Thomas before he moved on to bigger and better things in Toronto). It's just down the road from the University of Warwick, so a lot of faculty live here, as do the better-off students (or, rather, students with better-off parents), so plenty of coffee shops, bookshops, bars and restaurants etc. All the advantages of a college town, but without the college. I'm within a few minutes' walk from the town centre, but also a few minutes' walk from the river and extensive riverside parks and gardens.

 

[Zaida Gearbox]

I've ordered 100 each of these. I'm thinking 3.00 each plus another $2.00 for shipping. Anyone want one?

 

[Spirits Rising]

I've ordered 100 each of these. I'm thinking 3.00 each plus another $2.00 for shipping. Anyone want one?

If my ass was not severely struggling with end of month expenses I'd order a few for myself, friends and family.

 

[Free]

(Yes, it's AI. But on point!)

 

[Free]

Trump is going after that dangerous online fraudster, Wikipedia.

Trump’s D.C. Prosecutor Threatens Wikipedia’s Tax-Exempt Status (archive.today)

Ed Martin, the firebrand Republican activist whom President Donald Trump picked to be the top prosecutor in D.C., has a new target: Wikipedia.

Martin, the interim U.S. attorney in Washington and Trump’s permanent selection to serve in that role, sent a letter on Thursday afternoon to the Wikimedia Foundation that alleged it “is engaging in a series of activities that could violate its obligations” under 501(c)(3), a section of the IRS code for charities. It is Wikipedia’s parent group.

The letter, which was obtained by The Free Press, accused the largest online encyclopedia of “allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public.” The Wikimedia Foundation, Martin said, is directed by a board “that is composed primarily of foreign nationals” who are “subverting the interests of American taxpayers.”

 

[detrius]

I now live in Leamington Spa, which is a lovely Victorian spa town (so it looks Georgian, like Regency Bath -- many buildings by the architect William Thomas before he moved on to bigger and better things in Toronto). It's just down the road from the University of Warwick, so a lot of faculty live here, as do the better-off students (or, rather, students with better-off parents), so plenty of coffee shops, bookshops, bars and restaurants etc. All the advantages of a college town, but without the college. I'm within a few minutes' walk from the town centre, but also a few minutes' walk from the river and extensive riverside parks and gardens.

Looks like a nice place.

I used to live in Oldenburg, which is much larger, but also a university town. It has a massive pedestrian zone, but also many parks and green space (not in the video).



The surrounding region is great for cycling.


Bad Zwischenahn at 33:50 is a neighbouring town, about 18 kilometers away. "Bad" is the German equivalent to "Spa" - the town is located next to a sizeable lake, it's actually right behind the windmill at 37:50.

 

[Free]

Not that it really matters. But.

Trump has lowest 100-day approval rating in 80 years: POLL

Donald Trump has the lowest 100-day job approval rating of any president in the past 80 years, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll.

abcnews.go.com

Donald Trump has the lowest 100-day job approval rating of any president in the past 80 years, with public pushback on many of his policies and extensive economic discontent, including broad fears of a recession, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll.

The article notes that he still beats Democrats in Congress in regards to dealing with the country's "main" problems.

 

[Beebo Brink]

I used to laugh at my Chilean father’s paranoia about life in the US – not any more | US news | The Guardian

 

[Tigger]

Well it looks like Trump has done a good thing... he's turned Canadians against their right wing party and given an unexpected victory to their liberal party.

The canadian conservative party had a 25 point lead until Cheetolini opened his mouth and started with the threats and trade wars. The man can definitely drive voters to the polls

 

[Cristiano]

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

Well it looks like Trump has done a good thing... he's turned Canadians against their right wing party and given an unexpected victory to their liberal party.

The canadian conservative party had a 25 point lead until Cheetolini opened his mouth and started with the threats and trade wars. The man can definitely drive voters to the polls

YEP. Trump was the best thing that ever happened to left leaning parties all over the world. I ALMOST feel bad for the right wing parties having to disassociate themselves from the evil Cheeto.