Foreshadowing
(from CNN coverage)
Foreshadowing
(from CNN coverage)
McCabeās book The Threat redirects our thinking back to the 25th Amendment, which may be reconsidered or not. #WishfulThinking
The 25th Amendment addresses two essential components of executive-branch function: presidential succession and presidential disability.
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For anyone hoping for a panacean comment in the congressional record that would justify Trumpās removal, the actual history will disappoint. The history of this provision does not give much by way of directive as to when a president is disabled enough to warrant the process it creates, much less the extent to which mental eccentricities rise to the level of a disability finding. Even less does it answer the question of whether such eccentricities are valid as disabilities when they were, as in Trumpās case, plainly evident at the time of election. But the history gives a great deal of insight into the scenarios of presidential deterioration that Congress feared and how those concerns led to the procedural instrument that Congress and the states ratified
The National Debt is now over 22 Trillion
Disregarded like the climate issue by the GOP is the National Debt, now over 22 trillion. Several years ago āObamaās spending and debt crisisā was a primary focus for the GOP ( remember Paul Ryanās speeches about fiscal concerns?) now they are caught up in a manufactured border crisis issue and with the tax cuts implemented the debt keeps rising like the water around the boiled frog.
Trade agreements/disputes, commodity pricing are sending many farmers into bankruptcyā¦in highest numbers in at least a decade.
Not good
A wave of bankruptcies is sweeping the U.S. Farm Belt as trade disputes add pain to the low commodity prices that have been grinding down American farmers for years.
Throughout much of the Midwest, U.S. farmers are filing for chapter 12 bankruptcy protection at levels not seen for at least a decade, a Wall Street Journal review of federal data shows.
Bankruptcies in three regions covering major farm states last year rose to the highest level in at least 10 years. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, had double the bankruptcies in 2018 compared with 2008. In the Eighth Circuit, which includes states from North Dakota to Arkansas, bankruptcies swelled 96%. The 10th Circuit, which covers Kansas and other states, last year had 59% more bankruptcies than a decade earlier.
States in those circuits accounted for nearly half of all sales of U.S. farm products in 2017, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
Hmmm Just read this
Coinciding with drastic measures by the White House to build a wall on the southern border, a federal judge threw out a court challenge by a butterfly-conservation center whose 100-acre facility on the Rio Grande in South Texas stands in the way.āUnfortunately for the plaintiff, the Fourth Amendment offers little refuge for unenclosed land near one of the countriesā external borders,ā U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote Thursday, dismissing the suit by the North American Butterfly Association.
Though construction of a border wall is set to include 33 new miles of barriers across the Rio Grande Valley, Leon said the challengers made no showing that the government had entered or searched physical structures on the its National Butterfly Center without consent.
The center may be able to seek damages under trespass theory, Leon noted, but he emphasized that the search and seizure clause offers no relief for āopen fields,ā even when owned privately.
Leon also backed the governmentās right to search any privately owned land within 25 miles of bordering countries.
So they already have excavators and such lined up ready to go. I guess we just have to hope that the contractors are going to wait until certainty of funding.
Keep an eye out for this decisionā¦whether the SCOTUS will find that Wilbur Ross additional question on the census and citizenship can be included or not.
WASHINGTONāThe Supreme Court announced Friday that it would move quickly to decide whether the Trump administration can ask U.S. residents on the 2020 census whether they are citizens, a case infused with time pressures and immigration politics.
The courtās announcement comes a month after a federal judge in Manhattan ruled Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross committed āegregiousā legal violations when he moved to add the citizenship question to the census. The justices will review that decision, adding another chapter to the courtās interaction with Trump administration initiatives affecting immigrants.
Flagrant and targeted influence peddlingā¦
Kentucky teen participates in a vigilante-type legal take down of what the Washington Post chooses to print. The kid with the MAGA hat who got in the Native Americanās face is now suing the newspaper. The long-form video suggests that the kid was not directly bothering the man, and editorially everyone went off the rails.
But this is now our new normalā¦divisive counter-punch, brought to us by our Pres and his band of Fox commentators. Take them down is the only responseā¦? WTF?
I saw a lot of coverage of the eventā¦and social media was the first to break out the real story with the longer-form coverage.
You wonder what the net effect will be of all this.
Division.
The family of the Kentucky teen who was involved in an encounter with a Native American advocate at the Lincoln Memorial last month filed a defamation lawsuit against The Washington Post on Tuesday, seeking $250 million in damages for its coverage of the incident.
The suit alleges that The Post ātargeted and bulliedā 16-year-old Nicholas Sandmann in order to embarrass President Trump. Sandmann was one of a number of students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky who were wearing red āMake America Great Againā hats during a trip to the Mall when they encountered Nathan Phillips, a Native American activist.
News accounts, including in The Post, and videos of their encounter sparked a heated national debate over the behavior of the participants.
āIn a span of three days in January of this year commencing on January 19, the Post engaged in a modern-day form of McCarthyism by competing with CNN and NBC, among others, to claim leadership of a mainstream and social media mob of bullies which attacked, vilified, and threatened Nicholas Sandmann, an innocent secondary school child,ā reads the complaint.
It added, āThe Post ignored basic journalist standards because it wanted to advance its well-known and easily documented, biased agenda against President Donald J. Trump by impugning individuals perceived to be supporters of the President.ā
https://www.foxnews.com/us/covington-high-students-legal-team-sues-washington-post
Parents please block YouTube on all your childās devices. If you donāt know how, message me and I can help you. YouTubeās āfreeā content is not worth it!
NestlĆ©, Epic Games and other major brands said on Wednesday that they had stopped buying advertisements on YouTube after their ads appeared on childrenās videos where pedophiles had infiltrated the comment sections.
The companies acted after a YouTube user posted a video this week to point out this behavior. For the most part, the videos targeted by pedophiles did not violate YouTubeās rules and were innocent enough ā young girls doing gymnastics, playing Twister or stretching ā but the videos became overrun with suggestive remarks directed at the children.
The commenters left time stamps for parts of the video that can appear compromising when paused ā like a girlās backside or bare legs. They also posted remarks that praised the girls, asked whether they were wearing underwear, or simply carried a string of sexually suggestive emojis.
About two years ago, hundreds of companies pulled money from YouTube over concerns about ads showing up next to problematic content from terror or hate groups and videos that seemed to endanger or exploit children.
In NC 9th Congressional District, Harris calls for new election!
In a surprise move today before the State Board of Elections, GOP Candidate Mark Harris calls for a new election.
Interesting development. It could be that Harris called for a new election because yesterday his son testified against him ā that testimony, plus accompanying emails all but prove Harris made a deliberate attempt to rig the election. Since his own actions pretty much delegitimized that election, now heās calling for a new one ā maybe heāll pinky promise that this time he wonāt try to rig it. There was a lot of drama in court yesterday with both father and son choking back tears. At this point, I think Harris should be more concerned about staying out of prison than winning an election.
Could this courtroom scene be foreshadowing of what may someday play out between a certain President and his son?
For John Harrisās dramatic closing statement in his testimony against his father, go to 1:55. His words are heartfelt and ring true ā it had to be gut wrenching for him to speak the truth to his father in a public hearing. His message could just as easily be directed at the entire Republican party. This is how corruption can tear apart a family and a nation. Worth a watch.
More lies today from the President about his border wall. He tweets a five-month old video of wall replacement/upgrade with the claim, āTHE WALL IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION RIGHT NOW!ā The work was done by the Army Core of Engineers and they were not happy about Trumpās deception that this represents something brand new. A spokesperson for USACE explained theyāve been doing this type of work for many years ā on top of that, this particular video is over five months old ā it does not show current construction of a new length of wall.
With a legal fight challenge mounting from state governments over the Trump administrationās use of a national emergency to construct at the US-Mexico border, the president has kicked his push for the barrier into high gear.
On Wednesday, President Trump tweeted a time-lapse video of wall construction in New Mexico; the next day, he proclaimed that āTHE WALL IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION RIGHT NOWā
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
THE WALL IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION RIGHT NOW!
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
We have just built this powerful Wall in New Mexico. Completed on January 30, 2019 ā 47 days ahead of schedule! Many miles more now under construction! #FinishTheWall
90.4K
6:17 AM - Feb 21, 2019But thereās a big problem: The footage, which was filmed more than five months ago on Sep. 18, 2018 , isnāt really new wall construction at all, and certainly not part of the ongoing construction of āthe wallā that Trump has been haggling with Congress over.
āItās a replacement project,ā Mike Peterson, public affairs director for the Army Corps of Engineersā South Pacific Division, told Task & Purpose. "Iāve been in this division for 12 years and we were doing border wall replacement work back then."
Thereās enough evidence against Ryan Zinke (ex Sec of Interior who resigned) to start a Grand Jury proceeding to see if Zinke did in fact lie to Federal investigators.
This went horribly, horribly wrong for Senator Feinstein, like, couldnāt be worse. Itās a meeting with cute kids on how climate change will impact them the most. They came to encourage Senator Feinstein to support the Green New Deal and then, like Oliver Twist asking for more, she shuts them down like a mean old lady with hair net, a ladle and solid axe to grind. WTF, is she thinking?! Bananas scene, she comes off as a terrible person.
Click tweet to watch video
She looks worn down to meā¦perhaps waaaay too cynical in her early 80ās, and beaten down by politics.
Climate change does feel desperate I agree. I want kids to send a messageā¦but you are right, she does not do a good job addressing them.
Yes! She finally gets it!
āI fully support the federal government doing far more to live up to its existing trust and treaty responsibilities and that includes a robust discussion about historical injustices against Native people," she added. "Tribal nations have a government-to-government relationship with the federal government, and they deserve a seat at the table in all decisions that will affect the well-being of their people and their communities."