Purely Politics

ROTFLMAO! Dumbest analogy I have ever heard.

 

I believe Marbury v. Madison established judicial review but never claimed supremacy for the court. Marshall also said that courts have an equal right, as do the other branches, in challenging a law.

"If the Supreme Court has the power to define in its own decisions the constitutional parameters of its own authority vis-à-vis the other two branches – such as giving itself the last word in American politics -- then there is nothing preventing Congress from defining its Constitutional authority in a joint resolution passed by both the Senate and the House to give themselves the last word, or the President defining his Constitutional authority via an executive order to give himself the last word."

There is such a thing as the separation of powers which prevents the implications assumed in Marbury v. Madison.

And this is why these district courts have no jurisdiction over the Executive branch.

I'm not going to get into a pissing contest with, so this is all I'm going to say.

 

The problem is that now, even the co-founder and former president of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore, no longer believes in man made climate change and has in fact, Moore is now a director for the CO2 Coalition, a nonprofit group that includes scientists devoted to highlighting the benefits of carbon dioxide.

It's funny how only if you claim the sky is falling do you qualify for government grant money!

Meanwhile... we're all still waiting for the oceans to rise and swallow our coastlines!

 

To your credit Tom, at least you're not standing on a chair screaming "Chinese hoax." With that out of the way, i don't live and breath worrying about when the earth will end; i readily admit i'll be long gone before it will. On the other hand, i do pay attention, read a lot of articles regarding what is happening in our society regarding the "insurance crisis." Ignore it at your own peril.

My morning news feeds (thank you algorithms) appear often enough to make me at least mildly curious about what is happening across the country. Major weather events are increasing in both number and severity. Both of which are leaving men and women of average means struggling to make ends meet. I guess worrying about the price of eggs drove some over the edge, but the solution there was simple; too expensive, don't buy them. My instant oatmeal works out just fine and is pretty cheap.

On the other hand, not being able to afford your insurance premium or, being denied coverage once cancelled is cause for sleepless nights and praying for divine intervention. Whatever the reason for the increased weather events, it is a massive problem for many across this country. Maybe the solution is just "drill baby drill," and maybe it will make the matters even worse.

Not my job to figure out. I did a quick search on your Patrick Moore and Greenpeace had this to say about him: “While it is true that Patrick Moore was a member of Greenpeace in the 1970s, in 1986 he abruptly turned his back on the very issues he once passionately defended,” says a Greenpeace statement. “He claims he ‘saw the light’ but what Moore really saw was an opportunity for financial gain.”

Imagine that? Someone selling out for the quick buck.

 

U.S. Tornadoes | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

ATLANTIC HURRICANE NUMBERS BY YEAR

 

I believe many of those so called climate specialist have also sold out their beliefs in order to win government grants.

Do yourself a favor and read Climate Confusion by Roy W. Spencer, Ph.D. Meteorology, Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA and find out the other side of the story.

 

Couple things:

Jobs report +228,000 in March
Oil slid nearly 8% to under $65 a barrel, which if it holds would be the lowest end-of-day settlement price since August 2021
To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam meeting with Trump for talks to lower tariffs to zero
Just for grins Eggland's Best X-Large eggs $5.60/dozen

 

Wow, great news on the price of eggs.

On a more somber note, the four U S soldiers who died tragically in Lithuanian were returned home today. Landing at Delaware Dover Air Force base, the dignified transfer of the four American soldiers bodies is truly a somber moment. Here are the names of the men who lost their lives for their country:
Staff Sgt. Jose Duenez Jr., 25, of Joliet, Illinois.
Staff Sgt. Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, California.
Pfc. Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam.
Staff Sgt. Troy S. Knutson-Collins, 28, of Battle Creek, Michigan.

President Trump was not present for this event and a commenter on X said this: "This evening Trump was supposed to meet the families of 4 fallen US soldiers as their coffins return from Lithuania where they were killed in an accident. He canceled. Instead he dined with Saudi golf execs and sponsors for a golf tournament at one of his resorts."

On social media, many users were critical of Trump reportedly not attending the dignified transfer. Newsweek link here.

The above is from an article in Newsweek and trump was interviewed as well in the article: President Trump did mention the dignified transfer to reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday evening, but said that he would attend "a couple" of golf dinners this weekend. "I'll be speaking tonight. I think I'm making a speech to the players, great players, some of the best players in the world," he said.

Don't shoot the messenger, i'm just copying and pasting what was printed. Far be it from me to suggest the president has his priorities backwards.

Great players, best players in the world, indeed.

 

Tragic indeed. Anytime someone dies it's tragic. This was an unfortunate accident, and they happen everywhere in the world. At least Trump was not responsible like Biden with Afghanistan killing 13 of our men. He should have golfed instead of meeting those men and sent his VP. Old Joe was more interested looking at his watch.

Any bets Trump will call the families of those boys from Lithuania, or invite them to the White House?

Hey did you hear a USC student killed in hit-and-run, suspect illegal wanted by ICE?

 

Look i get it, his golf tournament was more important than being there for those soldiers returning home. This isn't about Biden anymore, sorry. This is about #47 and his need to be at his million dollar a plate fund raiser tonight. That's his priority, always has been always will be.

But thanks for the shout out; gives me a chance to finish the story from Newsweek: "Presidents do not always attend dignified transfers, but are often present. The HuffPost reported in September 2020 that of the 96 dignified transfers that took place from the start of Trump's first term, Trump had only attended four.

Should come as no surprise given what he has said about soldiers his first time in office eh?

 

That was debunked so many times. You should be ashamed for even bringing it up. Your problem is hate. There is nothing you can say about Trump that would be worse than what the Biden Presidency (if you can even call it that) did. You are proud of a demented man. What were his accomplishments? Seriously Bill you should back off regarding people who run our country now. You can't even get a handle on Sun City.

 

You hate me, but you can't remember why. You did get pissed when my pup (7lbs.) peed in your home in 2008 or 2009. I never saw you again after that. You just don't have a clue. I do, and as you well know I save everything. I am sorry for you, but much more so for Lori.

 

Having spent the bulk of my work life representing working men and women of modest/average means, i have always understood the challenges of living paycheck to paycheck. I still do and i have never personally owned a stock in my life. I am vested in pension plans where the stock market plays a role in their ability to continue to provide benefits; as were many of our members.

Anyone following the past 70 days or so, has seen the chaos style of management brought forward by our 47th president. I know many of you fiscal conservatives have long lamented big government and may well be happy to see it dismantled (another debate for another day). Ultimately as all of these services are gutted, only time will tell the impact on them...and on each of us.

Not about any of that though, this post is the big kahuna, the whole enchilada. Before we go there, let's grab a screen shot from the Wall Street Journal, ultimately and intimately controlled by Rupert Murdoch and family (and FOX News). Let this sink it for a second or two: "After the mid-week announcement, Wall Street was plunged into a two-day rout that erased $6.6 trillion in stock-market value."

Wall Street rises and falls, often. The markets love stability and let's be blunt here; there's been none since trump took office. Over time the markets should come back, so rather than agonize over all the little people crushed by that sudden and steep drop in their 401k's, we'll just pass right on by and get to the meat and potatoes of this past election.

It began unfolding last night with the Senate kicking off the first of what will be a long and scary assault on those on the lower rungs of the economic scales. We all know trump loves his billionaire buddies, and they are on track to be rewarded for their support. Rather than taking my word for it, let me just post a few clips from an article regarding the back and forth. It is telling on where we are headed.

* The House and Senate need to resolve their differences. The House’s version has $4.5 trillion in tax breaks over 10 years and some $2 trillion in budget cuts, and pointed at changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other programs.

* The House and Senate are also at odds over increasing the debt limit to allow more borrowing. The House had boosted the debt limit by $4 trillion in its plan, but the Senate upped it to $5 trillion to push any further votes on the matter until after next year’s midterm elections.

* Extending the the 2017 breaks would cut taxes for about three-quarters of households but raise them for about 10%. In 2027, about 45% of the benefit of all the tax cuts would go to those making roughly $450,000 or more, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, which analyzes tax issues.

* One crucial challenge ahead will be for the House to accept the way the Senate’s budget plan allows for extending the tax cuts under a scoring method that treats them as not adding to future deficits, something many House Republicans reject. A new estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation projects the tax breaks will add $5.5 trillion over the next decade when including interest, and $4.6 trillion not including interest. (By the way, the Senate's scoring method is in violation of their own rules/rules be damned).

The next step, now that it is passed out of the Senate, goes to the house. The Senate is far more concerned about the optics of the bill than the House members. House leader mike johnson is focused on giving trump everything he wants and unfortunately includes cuts to medicare, medicaid, food stamp programs to able to give the billionaires their much needed tax cuts (the current cuts were set to expire the end of the year).

In addition to cutting benefits to those who need it the most, it is abundantly clear, the outcome of this "big beautiful tax bill" is going to plunge the US much further in debt. There will be no budget balancing, which sadly there could have been if we weren't so concerned about those billionaires struggling to make ends meet.

So much for caring about the little guy eh?

 

Stop spreading that false rumor. No cuts will be made to those who legitimately receive those benefits.

What don't you understand about fraud and abuse?

 

Interesting response Tom. The Senate was/is actually concerned about those cuts to medicare, medicaid, food stamps and the like in the package they approved and worked hard to not be included in last nights bill. If you've followed the house you know that's not the case. Those so called "entitlements" are front and center for the house so they can take care of the billionaires.

I'm perfectly fine waiting to see the final bill they shove at us, then we can assess the winners and the losers. Knowing your penchant for following the rules (that's a good thing BTW), how do you feel about the Senate ignoring the rules they passed to insure bills are wrongly scored?

Curious Tom, where have you seen the "fraud and abuse" totaling in the trillions? See, the hard pill to swallow is all these "savings" secured by musk's chain saw isn't a pimple on an elephant's ass and the projections for the debt increases include massive run ups to the tune of 7-10 trillion dollars over the next ten years.

I freely admit, i'm not a numbers guy, but it sure looks like the "King of Debt" is getting his wish by piling it on the rest of us poor schmucks who will be paying our taxes while the billionaires get the bulk of the relief.

 

I am very interested in the "fraud and abuse" information regarding our governmental healthcare system, so since this is a crime, how many arrests have been made recently? It seems to me that the way you stop or slow it down is to toss a couple of offenders into jail, even send them to El Salvador, so is that what is being done? Or is it just Musk's 20 somethings going, "Let's push this button and see what happens."

 

Meanwhile in today's email:
"
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) visited the Peace Corps office in Washington, D.C. today, with one individual from the department reported on the premises and more on the way tomorrow. We are waiting to hear the results of the visit and will keep you all informed as we learn more.
What we do know is that, in addition to building international peace and friendship around the globe, the 240,000 Americans who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961 have come home and started businesses, entered local and state government, become teachers and nonprofit leaders, and volunteered in their local communities. Peace Corps Volunteers represent the best that America has to offer, both at home and abroad.
As recent visits by DOGE to federal agencies and organizations have resulted in major cuts across federal agencies working on global issues like foreign aid and the promotion of peace, National Peace Corps Association remains committed to keeping you informed about these developments."

Let's see where this goes. what waste and "fraud and abuse" can be found here.

 

Work | DOGE: Department of Government Efficiency

each post takes you to a detailed description on X

Department of Government Efficiency on X: "Each year, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) receives $55M in congressional (taxpayer) funds. - Prior management would sweep excess funds into its private Endowment (zero congressional oversight). -In the past 10 years, USIP has transferred ~$13M to its private" / X

 

Stupidest comparison I ever heard. Lithuania v Afghanistan. The long and short, Trump as Commander In Chief disrespected four soldiers defending our country to kiss the Saudis ass for dumping money into one of his crappy golf clubs. Yet the people in Vilnius turned in bigly numbers to pay tribute to the soldiers for the dignified transfer. You mean to tell me a cheesy phone call or a photo op is going to make up for disrespect? Trump hates our military and his history of actions show it. He is not fit for office.

 

How’s that stock market working out for your retirement funds? Are we winning yet? Are we great yet? Great economic plan formulated by idiots and sold to Americans by incompetent, moronic boobs.