Election 2024: The Quest for Peace

[pacobird]

link?

[Yoji]

I wonder what the chances are for the 25th Amendment this time around, what with him being thisclose to nominating a literal bag of meth* to the cabinet.

*METH, autofill. Not "methods." Does anyone else feel like their phone's autocomplete choices have gone wonky lately?

[Mongrel]

link?

For the VA thing? Ramaswamy posted this:

We shouldn’t let the government spend money on programs that have expired. Yet that’s exactly what happens today: half a *trillion* dollars of taxpayer funds ($516 B+) goes each year to programs which Congress has allowed to expire. There are 1,200+ programs that are no longer authorized but still receive appropriations. This is totally nuts. We can & should save hundreds of billions each year by defunding government programs that Congress no longer authorizes. We’ll challenge any politician who disagrees to defend the other side.

AIUI, this implicitly describes the entire VA, as well as many other government programs & agencies which function without spot appropriations.

He'll probably walk it back if confronted, but it's not like he's gonna stop suggesting stupid shit.

[Thad]

I wonder what the chances are for the 25th Amendment this time around, what with him being thisclose to nominating a literal bag of methods to the cabinet.

I think it's a lot likelier that they're all thinking "I'll be the guy who's really in power" than that they want to put Vance in charge.

Though I suppose it depends on how many of them are actually working for Putin.

[Thad]

Anyway Gaetz has resigned. Just in time to prevent the House from releasing its ethics report on him.

Clearly he's confident he'll get the job. It'd be really funny if he didn't. I'm not confident there are enough Senate Republicans willing to oppose a Trump nominee, but Gaetz seems like he's got as good a shot of being that nominee as anybody. Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence is another one that seems like Senate Republicans aren't going to like her very much.

[Mongrel]

How much does DeSantis hate Gaetz? Because if he doesn't, Gaetz probably gets Rubio's seat if Gaetz doesn't get the AG appointment.

EDIT: Apparently the investigation is actually complete, so if they want to they can just go ahead and release it anyway. Which also means I have some questions if they don't do exactly that.

[Thad]

How much does DeSantis hate Gaetz? Because if he doesn't, Gaetz probably gets Rubio's seat if Gaetz doesn't get the AG appointment.

Why, does he hate the other 52 Republican senators?

[KingRoyal]

I mean, probably

[pacobird]

I wonder what the chances are for the 25th Amendment this time around, what with him being thisclose to nominating a literal bag of methods to the cabinet.

I think it's a lot likelier that they're all thinking "I'll be the guy who's really in power" than that they want to put Vance in charge.

Though I suppose it depends on how many of them are actually working for Putin.

Yeah not to just me too this but the chances of a 25th Amendment putsch here are zero

[Mongrel]

That said, the chances of him just falling over dead are very much not zero.

[KingRoyal]

From what I understand, the entire idea of using the 25th in this manner is a niche legal theory put forward by pundits to justify Pence taking control from a criminally insane Trump. It helps clarify who's in control while the president is incapacitated. Completely untested on the grounds of "We think this guy is incompetent"

And justify to reinforce Paco and Thad, a debilitating Trump isn't going to inhibit the Republicans. They'll Weekend at Bernie's him through some rallies to make him happy, then he'll check out at 2pm and binge the news station he created to say good things about him. The rest of his ghouls will spend their time trying to kick each other out, while incompetently and dangerously carrying out whatever goals they have

[Mongrel]

The palace intrigue in this admin is going to make Byzantium look like Norway.

[Thad]

From what I understand, the entire idea of using the 25th in this manner is a niche legal theory put forward by pundits to justify Pence taking control from a criminally insane Trump. It helps clarify who's in control while the president is incapacitated. Completely untested on the grounds of "We think this guy is incompetent"

I think there's a good legal case to be made for invoking it in the case of a president clearly suffering from dementia, but it would require most of the cabinet to be on the same page. That ain't gonna happen with a cabinet of people who are either die-hard Trump loyalists or grifters who think they can manipulate him.

And justify to reinforce Paco and Thad, a debilitating Trump isn't going to inhibit the Republicans. They'll Weekend at Bernie's him through some rallies to make him happy, then he'll check out at 2pm and binge the news station he created to say good things about him. The rest of his ghouls will spend their time trying to kick each other out, while incompetently and dangerously carrying out whatever goals they have

There are some pretty good indications that George HW Bush was running the show during Reagan's second term. The difference there was, again, a cabinet made up of conventional politicians deferring to a guy they'd been working with for decades. This ain't gonna be that.

[Mongrel]

Oh my god, he really is going to try to put in RFK Jr. as head of HHS.

"Here's why America is ready for a return to the Patent Medicine era", by Doug J. Balloon

[Mongrel]

A cause for hope, but also a reminder that Gen X is wretched (sorry):

[Mongrel]

Haitian immigrants flee Springfield, Ohio, in droves after Trump election win (via the Guardian)

[Thad]

David Nir at Public Notice: How Johnson could make Trump's recess appointments a reality

tl;dr there's a never-before-invoked provision in the Constitution that the president can force Congress into recess if the House and Senate can't agree to a motion to recess. So Johnson can move to recess and the Senate will either have to agree or Trump can force the recess if they don't.

As theories about how Trump could abuse weird legal corner cases go, I think this one is plausible, but it would still require a pretty specific set of circumstances to come together: there'd need to be at least 4 Republican senators willing to oppose his nominees and near-unanimous support from congressional Republicans. (As of right now there are 5 House seats that still haven't been called, so we don't know exactly how brobdingnagian Johnson's majority is going to be, but short of anything especially weird happening they're going to have between 218 and 223 seats. The previous term they had between 218 and 222 at various times, and the last time they had the trifecta, Paul Ryan had between 235 and 241 and rather famously couldn't accomplish shit. It's certainly possible that "just go home and let Trump handle everything" is an easier sell to House Republicans than actually doing anything, but boy they're sure bad at actually doing anything.)

I think it's likelier that Senate Republicans either straight-up approve all his nominees or agree to a recess to avoid forcing this kind of confrontation. But this at least explains why he keeps banging on about recess appointments; someone put this idea in his head and now he's obsessed with it.

[Mongrel]

Following on the heels of Nov 4th's "Did Biden drop out?" we have

[Friday]

a tariff is something that makes the price of eggs go up

[Mongrel]

I have to say, I did not have "MTG threatens to expose Republicans" on my bingo card

For my Republican colleagues in the House and Senate,

If we are going to release ethics reports and rip apart our own that Trump has appointed, then put it ALL out there for the American people to see.

Yes..

all the ethics reports and claims including the one I filed

all your sexual harassment and assault claims that were secretly settled paying off victims with tax payer money

the entire Jeffrey Epstein files, tapes, recordings, witness interviews

but not just those, there’s more, Epstein wasn’t/isn’t the only asset

If we’re going to dance, let’s all dance in the sunlight.

I’ll make sure we do.

(She's still repugnant, you do not in fact have to "hand it to her", let them fight, etc.)