For those who are looking for a June 14 NO KINGS protest, check out www.nokings.org. If there isn't one near you, start one! It takes you, a few others, a few signs, and visibility. More ideas on the NO KINGS website.
Pope Leo is doing his bit with his video message at Rate Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, to the youth of the world. On the same day as Twumpy's birthday and the completely repugnant use of the military's celebration of their inception for Twumpy's own self-glorification. Hopefully the protests will be YUGE--big enough to capture 'some' of the disgustingly biased legacy news media's coverage--although I don't hold out a lot of hope for the coverage to be overly supportive.
Ah, TLM, give the media a chance to let you down before condemning them. First, let's hear it for the recent heroism of "60 Minutes," George Stephanopolis, the nyTimes, and plenty of others. Credit where due—and not least to Pope Leo. Francis left us with a forever debt.
MSM will no doubt publicize the vulgar display trump intends on the 14th, so I hope there are thousands and thousands of people there peacefully protesting simultaneously that day for the cameras to see. The world needs to know Americans are against the lawless regime and want it taken down.
The effect of DOGE and Musk has not been lame. It has been a big success in achieving its goal of killing people. Heather Cox Richardson wrote, "Internationally, Musk’s destruction of the United States Agency for International Development, slashing about 80% of its grants, is killing about 103 people an hour, most of them children. The total so far is about 300,000 people, according to Boston University infectious disease mathematical modeller Dr. Brooke Nichols. Ryan Cooper of The American Prospect reported today that about 1,500 babies a day are born HIV-positive because Musk’s cuts stopped their mothers’ medication."
HCR is usually the first email of my day. Though I had read the statistics about deaths due to lack of funding, reading it today packed a horrifying wallop. Is it possible that Trump and Musk could, at some point, be tried for crimes against humanity?
I believe not under U.S. law but only in an international tribunal. Don't hold your breath. Actually, even under international law, it might not be possible. I'm only speculating, but I doubt that any nation has an obligation to provide food or medical care to people of other nations. But can a nation stop providing it when people are relying on it -- when they are in the middle of a course of medical treatment, for example? I'm not knowledgeable about international law.
They have taken away what Congress has allocated without the authority. They SHOULD be prosecuted for mass murder in the United States, for that is where the crime occurred.
I recommend watching the BBC series on PBS about Henry VIII, especially the third season, "The Mirror and the Light." Talk about infighting, cruelty, corruption, religious bigotry, men stuck in adolescence running things, medical ignorance, loyalty tests, rage and retribution governing policy, and more! It's Trump and his thugs, but with better clothes and a larger vocabulary.
We're liking the series very much,Laurie! I haven't read this 3rd book in her series, but Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies are truly masterful. RIP, Hilary Mantel🙏❤️
This is a great summary of how much Trump and his cast of incompetents are losing on the law 4 1/2 months into his 2nd term. I agree with the previous commenter that his ineptitude comes at a great cost in human lives and in many other ways.
Your essay is like seeing a ray of sunlight break through an ominous sky, while contemporaneously watching the snake on the Gadsden Flag sinking its fangs deep into presidential ass territory.
After many years, I had to give my Gadsden flag to Goodwill a while back, because the right wing and militia-types have so thoroughly co-opted it, I didn't dare display it anymore lest I be taken for one of these neo-Nazi trumpistas.
Yes I totally hear you about the right co-opting the Gadsden Flag like they have so many other historical symbols from the American Revolution . And I thought for a moment about whether to refer to it just for that reason, not wanting to confuse people about where I’m coming from.
But then I thought, fuck ‘em, I’m taking it back, along with everything else associated with all of our collective history in this 250th Anniversary Year of our great political experiment.
Also, more irony thinking of the Gadsden rattlesnake attacking the greatest threat to our country since George III!
Yep! It's sad to think how a symbol of resistance to King George has now been perverted into a sign of support for King Trump. I'd rather we'd stayed with King George III personally, and been part of Canada today -- the 11th province?? Haha!
Hindsight and all that. We were deeply divided then between loyalists and revolutionaries and we are deeply divided now between those loyal to our democracy and the vengeful MAGA with an outline of a plan.
I carry a 3x5 ft Stars and Stripes at protests now, as my dad (anti-Vietnam organizer and protester, WW2 vet) would say, “don’t let the bastards steal our flag.” The Gadsden Flag is farther down the rabbit hole, unfortunately but the Stars and Stripes is ours, too!
I'd like to see the Green Mountain Republic flag start to be carried and displayed again!
Vermonters had their own independent republic for longer than Texas, only you don't hear them insufferably brag about it all the time like those Texas yahoos. (I get to call 'em that cause I lived in Texas most of my adult life.)
I'd feel better if his royal malignancy's ICEtapo would evaporate. Their NYC hq is, or at least used to be, in the federal building*[photo] that occupies a full city block a couple blocks south of me that I walk past en route to and from TJ's along with the ex-Trump Soho** and Disney's dark, ugly NY hq***, which Cinderella's wicked stepmother must have designed. The fed bldg houses State, Immigration, Passport, V.A., and several other offices including that of Jerry Nadler in addition to my neighborhood P.O. It is also where ICE just busted a Nadler aide in the Congressmember's office. The people tasked with justifying these storm troopers' actions to the public engage in truth-telling as rarely as the White House press office. Having those goons this close to home makes me wonder if writing this will get my door broken down before dawn.
[As green glass towers go, I saw Trump Soho as easily the best of a bad lot. But this photo shows the Up Yours, Neighborhood contempt that made neighbors loath it.]
He has never disappointed those who thought the least of him. The man thrives on the naïveté, ok, I'm being kind, the gullibility of too many both politicians and ordinary folk. Those who think they have his number and outsmart delusional narcissist? They suffer from that same naïveté. He will threaten, even if, in the end the threat doesn't occur? The damage has been done. The only way to end this madness is for all of us to keep on calling the TACO out.
As for Musk? I think it is safe to say he can no longer be considered the wealthiest man in the world. Easy coming? Easy go. Would love to know how he got that black eye. Bruise is too large to have been done by a little kid....
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo did not overturn the major questions doctrine; it overturned the Chevron doctrine, which required courts to defer to federal agencies when interpreting complicated and ambiguous laws.
The Supreme Court adopted the major questions doctrine in 2022. It held, to quote Wikipedia, "that questions of major political or economic significance may not be delegated by Congress to executive agencies absent sufficiently clear and explicit authorization." Like the overturning of the Chevron doctrine, it was a power grab by the Court, taking for itself powers that had resided with federal agencies.
My saying that, by creating the major questions doctrine, the Court took powers for itself that had resided with federal agencies, caused confusion, which is my fault. I should have said that the Court took the power to stop federal agencies from doing what Congress had authorized them to do. The Court didn't take the power to do what the federal agencies were doing.
Please forgive me. I’m not a lawyer. I definitely understood and understand the Chevron doctrine and the foolishness and power grab of the overturning of the Chevron doctrine.
I’m confused by your second paragraph, so I’m going to go back and reread what Lucien wrote today.
“…questions of major political or economic significance may not be delegated by Congress to executive agencies absent sufficiently clear and explicit authorization."<<< This sounds like a good thing and it sounds like what underscores the illegality of almost all of Trump’s tariff actions.
He declared an emergency and started dictating, tariffs right and left. Then the House passed (by one vote!) their big beautiful bill, and included a new definition of what a day is… But they never overtly assigned to him what is their role, to impose tariffs. OK… I’m going to go read again and see where I’m getting something wrong.
Congress did not delegate to the president the power to set tariffs, except in national emergencies. Congress did delegate various powers to federal agencies and did not make an exception for major questions. The Supreme Court created that exception with no legal basis. What is a major question under the Supreme Court's doctrine? Anything it wants to stop a federal agency from doing.
To put it another way, Trump's tariffs are illegal because Congress didn't give him the power to set them, except in national emergencies. Federal agencies' power to deal with major questions was legal because Congress gave it to them, at least implicitly, by not creating an exception for major questions. The Supreme Court overruled what Congress had done.
This thread became quite long and I won’t call it convoluted, but there are many separate but related explanations and I just want to thank you again for taking the time. You are quite clear and it’s a lot to tease apart and sort out. Thank you for forgiving me for not being a lawyer. :-) While I could’ve been an accountant, I would’ve had to work hard for an office with a window and extra hard for an office in the corner with two windows. (Just kidding.) Instead, I trained to teach and spent the preponderance of my career with kids seven, eight, and nine years old… I was widowed two years ago, but some of my closest friends are approaching 60 but we met when they were eight and we’re very good friends, for going to concerts, and several spoke at my husband’s service… Truly a blessing. I know of four or five jazz singers who were in law school, did jazz singing as a respite, and then fell in love with it, and while they probably each finished their law degrees, they didn’t go for passing the bar, but instead turned to a life of making music. Love all the Substackers who are lawyers. I learn so much. Thank you again for taking the time today.
OK, I reread and like other readers here, I’m thrilled to see such a great summary of good news all in one place. Lucien, you’re good at that! So where I’m still confused is the “major questions doctrine of 2022”…Maybe that is Logan… Where you pointed out to Lucian that he confused two cases… But you seem to imply a power grab by SCOTUS and I’m confused what power they grabbed, because from everything I read, Congress still is the only Government Branch that can impose tariffs, and no one else can unless Congress grants “…clear and explicit authorization…” which I don’t think they did. Trump just declared an emergency and took it. I think I’m stuck on a detail somewhere somehow…
Congress did give the president the power to set tariffs in a national emergency. True, the Constitution gives the power to set tariffs only to Congress. But exceptions are sometimes permitted in emergency situations, even if they are not explicitly provided for. For example, the First Amendment's prohibition of laws that abridge the freedom of speech has no explicit exceptions, but you could get in trouble if you falsely shout fire in a theater.
Hello, Henry… Thank you. And somewhere in there is there a power grab by Scotus? I know definitely that’s the case with the ridiculous overturning of the Chevron doctrine… But it’s after that that I got confused.
The case in which the Supreme Court invented the major question doctrine was West Virginia v. EPA (2022). In that case, the Court limited the extent to which the EPA could regulate carbon dioxide emissions. Congress had given the EPA this power, but the Court (the six Republican justices, that is) took it away, presumably because they don't believe in global warming. Perhaps you don't see that as a power grab because it is a negative one, in that the Court did not grab the power to regulate but rather grabbed the power to stop federal agencies from regulating.
Unless it's a line in a play, but even then you might be well advised to have a notice in the playbill and even an announcement warning it's in the script.
Do not intentionally cause panic, ever, seems to be good advice.
Lucian, we're still in a tight squeeze. He could still declare Martial Law and lockdown the internet and prevent every damn thing. I heard, through a friend, that he's going to attempt to shut down NBC or CBS - And now, they have to 'hire' a video guy to make the PDB's (President's Daily Briefs) more palatable so that illiterate Donny can fully understand what's going on (maybe they should have tried that with Duyba in August, 2001). Of course, the production team will come from False Noise. Geeze.
A video of a guy reading the briefing like it's a newscast? So as not to embarrass him by having an actual live human read it to him in person?
I do believe he's profoundly dyslexic and actually can't read. Not that I have evidence, it's just gone on so long. Probably didn't create the workarounds that others create to maintain their independence, because he thinks hiring someone to do his work for him means he's still independent (I disagree on that. He's profoundly dependent on others.)
No, I don't think he's profoundly dyslexic. My husband didn't learn to read until he was 29, and even now his reading is limited to pages printed in columns. He can read three or four words in a row, but not a sentence across a whole page. As soon as I found this out, I started subscribing to car and music magazines, these being what interested him the most. Now he will read books written by friends about sound technology that are not always written in columns, but he can work his way through them. Trump strikes me as severely mentally ill, and apparently cannot conceive that anyone else may have any valid opinions, because only he knows everything. He gives new meaning to the term narcissism.
There are all kinds of dyslexias, and Trump's avoidance of print seems to me to go beyond laziness and/or narcissism. He grabs new information in morsels, he clings to his main idea like a lifejacket... I agree with you, but I think there are other layers as well. Not that it matters.
One of the things TACO depends on to keep us all on edge, is gossip. "I heard it from a friend...." "Fox News said..." Or the sludge found on his Truth Social.
It used to be no article making a major claim would be printed without two (2) independent sources. Well those days are long gone.
To quote Edgar Allan Poe, "Believe nothing you hear, and only half that you see." Or was it Ben Franklin?
Thank you for this. As for your friend in Ukraine? I wish her well and continued safety. The strike into Russia yesterday? Was brilliant. Somehow, with a Sec Def who favors makeup and booze over a well ordered and running military and the TACO who favors makeup and fascism, I don't think we could pull it off. Not now, anyway.
Is the Administration abiding by the Courts' decisions? Trump is so fast and loose with his tariff deals that he can always find a self-serving way to comply with those rulings. And business dealings are all he understands and really cares about. But -
Are civil servants being rehired?
I don't see changes in immigration procedures or illegally expelled immigrants being returned to their lives and families.
I don't see USAID programs reopening.
If all these rulings are simply ignored, where are we?
I agree wholeheartedly. If there is no enforcement of judicial rulings, or accountability enforced by contempt proceedings, it's all just noise. Unfortunately, the US Marshals are DOJ controlled.
Another issue is the language in the latest 'feed the rich' bill:
"No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued," the provision in the bill, which is more than 1,000 pages long, says. This means unless a bond was posted at the time of the petition, there's no way to enforce the result.
The courtroom is demanding. You gotta have facts which must be established according to the rules of evidence. Then the law has to support your position. Donny not doing so well suggests he doesn’t get it. Who could have foreseen this? Maybe his top legal team is not so top notch. Maybe he doesn’t have any respect for the law, the courts or the constitution. How long will it take before we get rid of maybe?
One additional small item in the news that might have been missed is that the Senate in the process of formulating the rules around crypto legislation plan to exclude Trump from such laws.
In other words in my opinion he will be the only citizen in the history of the United States granted a license to steal if he so chooses by convincing small investors to part with real money for 'money' he has essentially printed himself that will increase in value based on the bigger fool theory.
I hope June 14 with the resistance March will be the beginning of the end! I hope it rains on his parade but not ours!
For those who are looking for a June 14 NO KINGS protest, check out www.nokings.org. If there isn't one near you, start one! It takes you, a few others, a few signs, and visibility. More ideas on the NO KINGS website.
Pope Leo is doing his bit with his video message at Rate Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, to the youth of the world. On the same day as Twumpy's birthday and the completely repugnant use of the military's celebration of their inception for Twumpy's own self-glorification. Hopefully the protests will be YUGE--big enough to capture 'some' of the disgustingly biased legacy news media's coverage--although I don't hold out a lot of hope for the coverage to be overly supportive.
Ah, TLM, give the media a chance to let you down before condemning them. First, let's hear it for the recent heroism of "60 Minutes," George Stephanopolis, the nyTimes, and plenty of others. Credit where due—and not least to Pope Leo. Francis left us with a forever debt.
MSM will no doubt publicize the vulgar display trump intends on the 14th, so I hope there are thousands and thousands of people there peacefully protesting simultaneously that day for the cameras to see. The world needs to know Americans are against the lawless regime and want it taken down.
The Pope's troll game is on point....even if his brother is a trumphumper.
The effect of DOGE and Musk has not been lame. It has been a big success in achieving its goal of killing people. Heather Cox Richardson wrote, "Internationally, Musk’s destruction of the United States Agency for International Development, slashing about 80% of its grants, is killing about 103 people an hour, most of them children. The total so far is about 300,000 people, according to Boston University infectious disease mathematical modeller Dr. Brooke Nichols. Ryan Cooper of The American Prospect reported today that about 1,500 babies a day are born HIV-positive because Musk’s cuts stopped their mothers’ medication."
HCR is usually the first email of my day. Though I had read the statistics about deaths due to lack of funding, reading it today packed a horrifying wallop. Is it possible that Trump and Musk could, at some point, be tried for crimes against humanity?
I believe not under U.S. law but only in an international tribunal. Don't hold your breath. Actually, even under international law, it might not be possible. I'm only speculating, but I doubt that any nation has an obligation to provide food or medical care to people of other nations. But can a nation stop providing it when people are relying on it -- when they are in the middle of a course of medical treatment, for example? I'm not knowledgeable about international law.
I believe that there are always exceptions to the rules.
They have taken away what Congress has allocated without the authority. They SHOULD be prosecuted for mass murder in the United States, for that is where the crime occurred.
Shamefully, the US is not a signatory to the ICC and is therefore not subject to its jurisdiction while on US soil.
Then there must be other remedies somewhere.
My suggested remedy would get me in trouble...
Me too, if you're thinking what I think you're thinking. }:)
Right here in the United States.
I recommend watching the BBC series on PBS about Henry VIII, especially the third season, "The Mirror and the Light." Talk about infighting, cruelty, corruption, religious bigotry, men stuck in adolescence running things, medical ignorance, loyalty tests, rage and retribution governing policy, and more! It's Trump and his thugs, but with better clothes and a larger vocabulary.
We're liking the series very much,Laurie! I haven't read this 3rd book in her series, but Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies are truly masterful. RIP, Hilary Mantel🙏❤️
larger vocabulary?..
This is a great summary of how much Trump and his cast of incompetents are losing on the law 4 1/2 months into his 2nd term. I agree with the previous commenter that his ineptitude comes at a great cost in human lives and in many other ways.
Your essay is like seeing a ray of sunlight break through an ominous sky, while contemporaneously watching the snake on the Gadsden Flag sinking its fangs deep into presidential ass territory.
After many years, I had to give my Gadsden flag to Goodwill a while back, because the right wing and militia-types have so thoroughly co-opted it, I didn't dare display it anymore lest I be taken for one of these neo-Nazi trumpistas.
Yes I totally hear you about the right co-opting the Gadsden Flag like they have so many other historical symbols from the American Revolution . And I thought for a moment about whether to refer to it just for that reason, not wanting to confuse people about where I’m coming from.
But then I thought, fuck ‘em, I’m taking it back, along with everything else associated with all of our collective history in this 250th Anniversary Year of our great political experiment.
Also, more irony thinking of the Gadsden rattlesnake attacking the greatest threat to our country since George III!
Yep! It's sad to think how a symbol of resistance to King George has now been perverted into a sign of support for King Trump. I'd rather we'd stayed with King George III personally, and been part of Canada today -- the 11th province?? Haha!
Hindsight and all that. We were deeply divided then between loyalists and revolutionaries and we are deeply divided now between those loyal to our democracy and the vengeful MAGA with an outline of a plan.
I carry a 3x5 ft Stars and Stripes at protests now, as my dad (anti-Vietnam organizer and protester, WW2 vet) would say, “don’t let the bastards steal our flag.” The Gadsden Flag is farther down the rabbit hole, unfortunately but the Stars and Stripes is ours, too!
I'd like to see the Green Mountain Republic flag start to be carried and displayed again!
Vermonters had their own independent republic for longer than Texas, only you don't hear them insufferably brag about it all the time like those Texas yahoos. (I get to call 'em that cause I lived in Texas most of my adult life.)
I agree for the most part, but the damages to USAID and NIH and the consequences cannot be undone.
I'd feel better if his royal malignancy's ICEtapo would evaporate. Their NYC hq is, or at least used to be, in the federal building*[photo] that occupies a full city block a couple blocks south of me that I walk past en route to and from TJ's along with the ex-Trump Soho** and Disney's dark, ugly NY hq***, which Cinderella's wicked stepmother must have designed. The fed bldg houses State, Immigration, Passport, V.A., and several other offices including that of Jerry Nadler in addition to my neighborhood P.O. It is also where ICE just busted a Nadler aide in the Congressmember's office. The people tasked with justifying these storm troopers' actions to the public engage in truth-telling as rarely as the White House press office. Having those goons this close to home makes me wonder if writing this will get my door broken down before dawn.
* https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metro-manhattan.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F08%2FScreenshot-2022-08-31-at-17.22.38.png&f=1&ipt=50066566eb5925420643a8c1f6a093d9729c8f797a6b57372d5c5661a6f98dc3
** http://pix10.agoda.net/hotelImages/212/212226/212226_14041601230019084573.jpg?s=1024x768
[As green glass towers go, I saw Trump Soho as easily the best of a bad lot. But this photo shows the Up Yours, Neighborhood contempt that made neighbors loath it.]
*** https://www.newhudsonfacades.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/20240921_DSC2679-scaled.jpg.webp
Yeah, that was some real shit at Nadler’s office! M’effers!
And Vladdy Daddy is cackling with glee as he rubs his bloody hands. His boy done him good.
Zelensky just kicked Putler right in the nuts...
And the best part about that is when Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum(b) were attacking him in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy knew what was coming
He has never disappointed those who thought the least of him. The man thrives on the naïveté, ok, I'm being kind, the gullibility of too many both politicians and ordinary folk. Those who think they have his number and outsmart delusional narcissist? They suffer from that same naïveté. He will threaten, even if, in the end the threat doesn't occur? The damage has been done. The only way to end this madness is for all of us to keep on calling the TACO out.
As for Musk? I think it is safe to say he can no longer be considered the wealthiest man in the world. Easy coming? Easy go. Would love to know how he got that black eye. Bruise is too large to have been done by a little kid....
The whole Trump crowd has more drama going on than a junior-high-school Communications and Theatre department.
For the WIN!!
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo did not overturn the major questions doctrine; it overturned the Chevron doctrine, which required courts to defer to federal agencies when interpreting complicated and ambiguous laws.
The Supreme Court adopted the major questions doctrine in 2022. It held, to quote Wikipedia, "that questions of major political or economic significance may not be delegated by Congress to executive agencies absent sufficiently clear and explicit authorization." Like the overturning of the Chevron doctrine, it was a power grab by the Court, taking for itself powers that had resided with federal agencies.
My saying that, by creating the major questions doctrine, the Court took powers for itself that had resided with federal agencies, caused confusion, which is my fault. I should have said that the Court took the power to stop federal agencies from doing what Congress had authorized them to do. The Court didn't take the power to do what the federal agencies were doing.
Please forgive me. I’m not a lawyer. I definitely understood and understand the Chevron doctrine and the foolishness and power grab of the overturning of the Chevron doctrine.
I’m confused by your second paragraph, so I’m going to go back and reread what Lucien wrote today.
“…questions of major political or economic significance may not be delegated by Congress to executive agencies absent sufficiently clear and explicit authorization."<<< This sounds like a good thing and it sounds like what underscores the illegality of almost all of Trump’s tariff actions.
He declared an emergency and started dictating, tariffs right and left. Then the House passed (by one vote!) their big beautiful bill, and included a new definition of what a day is… But they never overtly assigned to him what is their role, to impose tariffs. OK… I’m going to go read again and see where I’m getting something wrong.
Congress did not delegate to the president the power to set tariffs, except in national emergencies. Congress did delegate various powers to federal agencies and did not make an exception for major questions. The Supreme Court created that exception with no legal basis. What is a major question under the Supreme Court's doctrine? Anything it wants to stop a federal agency from doing.
To put it another way, Trump's tariffs are illegal because Congress didn't give him the power to set them, except in national emergencies. Federal agencies' power to deal with major questions was legal because Congress gave it to them, at least implicitly, by not creating an exception for major questions. The Supreme Court overruled what Congress had done.
I forgive you for not being a lawyer :-)
This thread became quite long and I won’t call it convoluted, but there are many separate but related explanations and I just want to thank you again for taking the time. You are quite clear and it’s a lot to tease apart and sort out. Thank you for forgiving me for not being a lawyer. :-) While I could’ve been an accountant, I would’ve had to work hard for an office with a window and extra hard for an office in the corner with two windows. (Just kidding.) Instead, I trained to teach and spent the preponderance of my career with kids seven, eight, and nine years old… I was widowed two years ago, but some of my closest friends are approaching 60 but we met when they were eight and we’re very good friends, for going to concerts, and several spoke at my husband’s service… Truly a blessing. I know of four or five jazz singers who were in law school, did jazz singing as a respite, and then fell in love with it, and while they probably each finished their law degrees, they didn’t go for passing the bar, but instead turned to a life of making music. Love all the Substackers who are lawyers. I learn so much. Thank you again for taking the time today.
Thank you for the explanation. Maybe I need more coffee, but the other comments were losing me.
OK, I reread and like other readers here, I’m thrilled to see such a great summary of good news all in one place. Lucien, you’re good at that! So where I’m still confused is the “major questions doctrine of 2022”…Maybe that is Logan… Where you pointed out to Lucian that he confused two cases… But you seem to imply a power grab by SCOTUS and I’m confused what power they grabbed, because from everything I read, Congress still is the only Government Branch that can impose tariffs, and no one else can unless Congress grants “…clear and explicit authorization…” which I don’t think they did. Trump just declared an emergency and took it. I think I’m stuck on a detail somewhere somehow…
Congress did give the president the power to set tariffs in a national emergency. True, the Constitution gives the power to set tariffs only to Congress. But exceptions are sometimes permitted in emergency situations, even if they are not explicitly provided for. For example, the First Amendment's prohibition of laws that abridge the freedom of speech has no explicit exceptions, but you could get in trouble if you falsely shout fire in a theater.
Hello, Henry… Thank you. And somewhere in there is there a power grab by Scotus? I know definitely that’s the case with the ridiculous overturning of the Chevron doctrine… But it’s after that that I got confused.
~Kathie
The case in which the Supreme Court invented the major question doctrine was West Virginia v. EPA (2022). In that case, the Court limited the extent to which the EPA could regulate carbon dioxide emissions. Congress had given the EPA this power, but the Court (the six Republican justices, that is) took it away, presumably because they don't believe in global warming. Perhaps you don't see that as a power grab because it is a negative one, in that the Court did not grab the power to regulate but rather grabbed the power to stop federal agencies from regulating.
“…Limited the extent… “
OK, got it. Thank you!
Thank you for your patience with me. Very clear. I appreciate it.
Unless it's a line in a play, but even then you might be well advised to have a notice in the playbill and even an announcement warning it's in the script.
Do not intentionally cause panic, ever, seems to be good advice.
Lucian, we're still in a tight squeeze. He could still declare Martial Law and lockdown the internet and prevent every damn thing. I heard, through a friend, that he's going to attempt to shut down NBC or CBS - And now, they have to 'hire' a video guy to make the PDB's (President's Daily Briefs) more palatable so that illiterate Donny can fully understand what's going on (maybe they should have tried that with Duyba in August, 2001). Of course, the production team will come from False Noise. Geeze.
A video of a guy reading the briefing like it's a newscast? So as not to embarrass him by having an actual live human read it to him in person?
I do believe he's profoundly dyslexic and actually can't read. Not that I have evidence, it's just gone on so long. Probably didn't create the workarounds that others create to maintain their independence, because he thinks hiring someone to do his work for him means he's still independent (I disagree on that. He's profoundly dependent on others.)
No, I don't think he's profoundly dyslexic. My husband didn't learn to read until he was 29, and even now his reading is limited to pages printed in columns. He can read three or four words in a row, but not a sentence across a whole page. As soon as I found this out, I started subscribing to car and music magazines, these being what interested him the most. Now he will read books written by friends about sound technology that are not always written in columns, but he can work his way through them. Trump strikes me as severely mentally ill, and apparently cannot conceive that anyone else may have any valid opinions, because only he knows everything. He gives new meaning to the term narcissism.
There are all kinds of dyslexias, and Trump's avoidance of print seems to me to go beyond laziness and/or narcissism. He grabs new information in morsels, he clings to his main idea like a lifejacket... I agree with you, but I think there are other layers as well. Not that it matters.
As crazy as it sounds, it's true. It's reminiscent of the Star Trek episode "Patterns of Force."
Not crazy, given the fragile tyrant they're maintaining, but so farcical! I don't know Star Trek; seems like great SNL material.
One of the things TACO depends on to keep us all on edge, is gossip. "I heard it from a friend...." "Fox News said..." Or the sludge found on his Truth Social.
It used to be no article making a major claim would be printed without two (2) independent sources. Well those days are long gone.
To quote Edgar Allan Poe, "Believe nothing you hear, and only half that you see." Or was it Ben Franklin?
Also, this friend works in the foreign service. She knew I was a journalist and wrote on Medium and here. She's in Ukraine right now.
Or Tom Cleaver, this afternoon. https://tcinla757.substack.com/p/believe-nothing-you-hear-and-half
Thank you for this. As for your friend in Ukraine? I wish her well and continued safety. The strike into Russia yesterday? Was brilliant. Somehow, with a Sec Def who favors makeup and booze over a well ordered and running military and the TACO who favors makeup and fascism, I don't think we could pull it off. Not now, anyway.
Diane gave up a high-six-figure law career 20 years ago to become a FSO. We went to high school together in '70s.
Is the Administration abiding by the Courts' decisions? Trump is so fast and loose with his tariff deals that he can always find a self-serving way to comply with those rulings. And business dealings are all he understands and really cares about. But -
Are civil servants being rehired?
I don't see changes in immigration procedures or illegally expelled immigrants being returned to their lives and families.
I don't see USAID programs reopening.
If all these rulings are simply ignored, where are we?
I agree wholeheartedly. If there is no enforcement of judicial rulings, or accountability enforced by contempt proceedings, it's all just noise. Unfortunately, the US Marshals are DOJ controlled.
Another issue is the language in the latest 'feed the rich' bill:
"No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued," the provision in the bill, which is more than 1,000 pages long, says. This means unless a bond was posted at the time of the petition, there's no way to enforce the result.
The courtroom is demanding. You gotta have facts which must be established according to the rules of evidence. Then the law has to support your position. Donny not doing so well suggests he doesn’t get it. Who could have foreseen this? Maybe his top legal team is not so top notch. Maybe he doesn’t have any respect for the law, the courts or the constitution. How long will it take before we get rid of maybe?
I don't know which is uglier - the stock photo of the snake or the know nothing in the Gold House.
Here’s to the snake stepping it up in the ass-biting departure. Clear the filth out!
One additional small item in the news that might have been missed is that the Senate in the process of formulating the rules around crypto legislation plan to exclude Trump from such laws.
In other words in my opinion he will be the only citizen in the history of the United States granted a license to steal if he so chooses by convincing small investors to part with real money for 'money' he has essentially printed himself that will increase in value based on the bigger fool theory.