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#41 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 48,490
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#42 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 48,490
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I'll give you that. On the other hand: Yet. Isn't one of the lessons learned from Trump that it's better to block them before they get that kind of power?
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#43 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 3,350
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I'm reminded of a post of facebook after the State of Union address. Praising that guy for yelling at trump as what a brave citizen of a fascist state does. You know, because he's probably dead and dumped into a mass grave already, along with my associate who posted about it.
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#44 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 4,327
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#45 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 48,490
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#46 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 48,490
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Caesar dominated a Senate. He subverted a Roman army, invaded Roman soil, marched on the capital, abolished the Republican system, installed himself as dictator, and then worked with a cooperative Senate. He didn't get elevated from consul to emperor because the Senate one day decided to go along with his dreams of power.
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#47 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Nelson, New Zealand
Posts: 16,386
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But he can, and he has.
Trump signed 24 executive orders in his first 100 days, the most executive orders of any President since World War II. He has also declared a national emergency on false pretenses so that he could illegally divert funds, lawfully allocated by Congress for specific purposes, so that he could build his vanity project on the southern border, a vanity project that he promised would be paid for by Mexico. |
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I want to thank the 126 Republican Congress members for providing a convenient and well organized list for the mid-terms. - Fred Wellman (Senior VA Advisor to The Lincoln Project) ![]() |
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#48 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 48,490
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Exercising the constitutional authority of the presidency, even corruptly or incompetently, does not make the president a dictator. Because the presidency is not a dictatorship. It wasn't designed that way, it doesn't function that way, and Donald Trump is not using it that way.
It could be replaced by something that does work as a dictatorship, but it hasn't. And there's no indication that Trump is even trying to do so. |
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#49 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Sep 2001
Posts: 31,686
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1. He'd never do that. 2. Okay but he's not currently doing it. 3. Okay but he's not currently technically doing it. 4. Okay but everyone does it. 5. He's doing it, we can't stop him, no point in complaining about it. 6. We all knew he was going to do it which... makes it okay somehow. 7. It's perfectly fine that's he's doing it. |
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#50 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Sep 2001
Posts: 31,686
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__________________
1. He'd never do that. 2. Okay but he's not currently doing it. 3. Okay but he's not currently technically doing it. 4. Okay but everyone does it. 5. He's doing it, we can't stop him, no point in complaining about it. 6. We all knew he was going to do it which... makes it okay somehow. 7. It's perfectly fine that's he's doing it. |
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#51 |
Orthogonal Vector
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 50,121
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Sufficiently advanced Woo is indistinguishable from Parody "There shall be no *poofing* in science" Paul C. Anagnostopoulos Force ***** on reasons back" Ben Franklin |
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#52 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Sep 2001
Posts: 31,686
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__________________
1. He'd never do that. 2. Okay but he's not currently doing it. 3. Okay but he's not currently technically doing it. 4. Okay but everyone does it. 5. He's doing it, we can't stop him, no point in complaining about it. 6. We all knew he was going to do it which... makes it okay somehow. 7. It's perfectly fine that's he's doing it. |
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#53 |
Orthogonal Vector
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 50,121
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__________________
Sufficiently advanced Woo is indistinguishable from Parody "There shall be no *poofing* in science" Paul C. Anagnostopoulos Force ***** on reasons back" Ben Franklin |
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#54 |
Scholar
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 53
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Oh, I don't know...I really think Trump could have avoided being impeached by not violating the emoluments clause, or abusing his office for personal gain, or generally not doing anything impeachable. Of course, this is operating on the same theory that suggests that water could stop being wet, if it really wanted to.
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#55 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 48,490
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#56 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Sep 2001
Posts: 31,686
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Sadly, it's true. They love the authoritarianism because with that comes the hierarchy that places white males towards the top of the pyramid with all others having less rights/power than they do. They love how homosexuals, women and minorities are 2nd class citizens in Russia. That's what they want for the USA.
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1. He'd never do that. 2. Okay but he's not currently doing it. 3. Okay but he's not currently technically doing it. 4. Okay but everyone does it. 5. He's doing it, we can't stop him, no point in complaining about it. 6. We all knew he was going to do it which... makes it okay somehow. 7. It's perfectly fine that's he's doing it. |
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#57 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 48,490
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#58 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Sep 2001
Posts: 31,686
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__________________
1. He'd never do that. 2. Okay but he's not currently doing it. 3. Okay but he's not currently technically doing it. 4. Okay but everyone does it. 5. He's doing it, we can't stop him, no point in complaining about it. 6. We all knew he was going to do it which... makes it okay somehow. 7. It's perfectly fine that's he's doing it. |
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#59 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 48,490
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Again, that's not what makes a dictatorship. Simply put, it's about the amount of power vested in the office, and the amount of power actually wielded by the officeholder. The office of the president isn't vested with dictatorial power. Donald Trump does not wield dictatorial power. The Senators don't put up with Trump because they're afraid of what he'll do to them, but because they're afraid of what their voters will do to them. That's pretty much the opposite of a dictatorship.
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#60 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 4,327
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As the weakling does with these cretins.
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#61 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 3,350
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#62 |
Penultimate Amazing
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#63 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 47,859
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Why is the number of executive orders a good metric for this? Many executive orders are quite mundane. Which of those 100 orders do you consider a problem? I'm not talking about orders you disagree with from a policy perspective, but which ones do you think overstepped the bounds of proper executive authority?
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"As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose -- that it may violate property instead of protecting it -- then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. Political questions will always be prejudicial, dominant, and all-absorbing. There will be fighting at the door of the Legislative Palace, and the struggle within will be no less furious." - Bastiat, The Law |
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#64 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Sep 2001
Posts: 31,686
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Dictators have no power without people. Trump is breaking laws and doing whatever he wants and the Senate is afraid to stop him. They have given the Senates power to Trump. They have given the Judiciary to Trump. That is a dictatorship. Just because Trump's base happen to be voters doesn't mean that it's any less of a dictatorship.
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1. He'd never do that. 2. Okay but he's not currently doing it. 3. Okay but he's not currently technically doing it. 4. Okay but everyone does it. 5. He's doing it, we can't stop him, no point in complaining about it. 6. We all knew he was going to do it which... makes it okay somehow. 7. It's perfectly fine that's he's doing it. |
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#65 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: United States
Posts: 4,819
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#66 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 47,859
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__________________
"As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose -- that it may violate property instead of protecting it -- then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. Political questions will always be prejudicial, dominant, and all-absorbing. There will be fighting at the door of the Legislative Palace, and the struggle within will be no less furious." - Bastiat, The Law |
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#67 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 3,350
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#68 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 48,490
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Well, two pages in and this thread seems to have covered everything it was going to cover. It'll be interesting to see if Page 3 contains anything new.
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#69 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 4,327
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__________________
SuburbanNerd A blog for making tech make sense |
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#70 |
Banned
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 2,598
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#71 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Posts: 48,490
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#72 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 20,082
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On this one all you need to do is go back and look at Obama's first two years. In theory with both the house and senate the Dems should have been able to push anything they wanted through, but because the Republicans weren't even willing to deal at all, Obama had to juggle the progressives and the conservatives of the Democratic Party, and ended up making a number of compromises to get something most of his own Party would be happy with. A President Sanders would have the same issue, with some of the members of his own party not agreeing with his policies.
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![]() It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. -- JayUtah I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. -- Charles Babbage (1791-1871) ![]() |
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#73 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
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#74 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,465
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#75 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 20,082
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It does actually. Just not the answer you like. Democrats have shown repeatedly that they will stand up to a President in their own Party if they disagree with him. As a result you get your answer, that with a Democratic Party President, you'll always see a Senate that balks at the President and serves to check his power, regardless of if that Senate is Democratic or Republican. The Democrats simply don't play the game the same way as the Republicans where everyone in the party has to be in lockstep or be vilified.
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![]() It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. -- JayUtah I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. -- Charles Babbage (1791-1871) ![]() |
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#76 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
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#77 |
Maledictorian
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 14,265
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If you start fighting for Democracy only after you have lost it to a Dictatorship, you obviously didn't care for democratic rule in the first place.
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Ceterum autem censeo fox et amicis esse delendam. |
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#78 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 3,350
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#79 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 20,082
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If you have been paying any attention for the past 12 years you should be aware of plenty The ACA ended up being a compromise to get conservative Democrats on board and still had 39 House Democrats vote against it. Even the Impeachment of Trump had 2 and 3 Democrats vote against the Articles. And these are just some two of the biggest in that time. Go look at how the Dems reacted to accusation about Al Franken.
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![]() It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. -- JayUtah I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. -- Charles Babbage (1791-1871) ![]() |
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#80 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Port Townsend, Washington
Posts: 30,545
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Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant. |
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