Trance on 16/2/2019 at 03:08
Not good enough for this nation of winners. You're being deported to Kazakhstan.
HIGH FIVE
Renzatic on 16/2/2019 at 03:53
NO, NOT KAZAKHSTAN!
demagogue on 16/2/2019 at 04:02
A small brilliancy from my talented old college roommate who worked last year in Venezuela. (Now he's in the Philippines. Go figure.)
Quote:
In 2015, the opposition won an overwhelming victory in the parliamentary elections in Venezuela. Humiliated, Maduro tries to neutralize the legislature by governing by decree, because a National Emergency calls for that kind of thing (in this case, imminent invasion by the gringo imperialistas). He knows that he’ll get away with it, because he’s stacked the courts (2 branches of government vs one wins). He was right! The courts tried abolishing the legislature altogether in 2017, and blood ran in the streets. Then he made himself a brand new legislature to make himself a brand new constitution and re-elected himself and swears allegiance to Putin...
In 2018, the opposition won an overwhelming victory in the Congressional elections in the United States. Humiliated, Trump tries to neutralize the legislature by governing by decree, because that’s what a national emergency calls for (in this case, an imminent invasion of a Central American coalition of ISIS fighters and MS-13 gang members). He knows he’ll get away with it, because he (and his bff Mcconnell) have stacked the courts. He was right/wrong (circle one).
Renzatic on 16/2/2019 at 04:42
It's an interesting talking point, given the average Trump idiot's love of all things being compared to Venezuela. Let them drink their own piss for a bit.
Though as with all things Venezuela, I don't think it's an apt comparison. The US government hasn't quite reached the point where we have to worry about partisan judges wiping their asses with the constitution for the sake of Donald J. Trump. If his most recent stunt goes before SCOTUS, I'm about 99% sure they'll kill it outright. They're well aware that allowing a president the power to declare states of emergencies for entirely arbitrary reasons, with the specific intent of circumventing a branch of government is grossly unconstitutional. It removes a number of checks and balances, all but making congress a vestigial plaything of a greatly empowered executive branch.
Judge Roberts and co. are likely well aware of the consequences of allowing this to pass.
Renzatic on 16/2/2019 at 04:50
FFUUUHHHKKKKK!
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Nicker on 16/2/2019 at 06:41
There Will Be Blood!
I am talking about TETRIS, of course.
nickie on 18/2/2019 at 20:42
I expect I would feel for you, Renz, if I had a clue what you were talking about.
In my efforts to distract myself from the list of food I should be hoarding before the end of March, I'm reading stuff. And obviously I prefer to read about the disastrous US rather than the disastrous UK.
Can anyone put this report into something I might understand? It is only an opinion piece but I'm interested.
(https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/430450-as-debt-hits-22-trillion-our-day-of-fiscal-reckoning-nears) 'As debt hits $22 trillion, our day of fiscal reckoning nears'
Pyrian on 18/2/2019 at 21:18
Part of the standard "starve the beast" Republican playbook:
Step 1: Cut taxes without cutting spending.
Step 2: Deficit increases.
Step 3: Call for spending cuts in Medicare and Social Security while studiously avoiding any mention of the role of tax cuts in creating the deficit in the first place.
Personally I would feel a lot better if we got the deficit under control, but there's really no indication that it's going to be a big problem in the near future. There's a reason return rates on federal debt are still quite low - there's just more investment capital than investment opportunities. So when you get these deficit-fueled tax cuts for rich investors, in net you're basically just handing them T-bills for nothing.
Renzatic on 18/2/2019 at 22:30
The deficit will only really start becoming a problem once the interest becomes a burden to pay. We're still a good bit away from reaching that point.