Op-ediots

[Aresen]

Imperial president for me but not for thee

The Prospect has identified 30 meaningful executive actions, all derived from authority in specific statutes, which could be implemented on Day One by a new president. These would not be executive orders, much less abuses of authority, but strategic exercise of legitimate presidential power.

Without signing a single new law, the next president can lower prescription drug prices, cancel student debt, break up the big banks, give everybody who wants one a bank account, counteract the dominance of monopoly power, protect farmers from price discrimination and unfair dealing, force divestment from fossil fuel projects, close a slew of tax loopholes, hold crooked CEOs accountable, mandate reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, allow the effective legalization of marijuana, make it easier for 800,000 workers to join a union, and much, much more. We have compiled a series of essays to explain precisely how, and under what authority, the next president can accomplish all this.

Yeah, that was one of those things that makes me glad I'm not the sort of person to throw what I'm reading across the room (because I just got this phone some weeks back).

Of course, when it suits them, the president will still be mysteriously powerless to stop anything they don't really want to stop doing.

Actually, I think it is more they cannot conceive of those powers being used for evil (as they see evil). The Trump presidency is all a terrible aberration in their minds which will soon be righted and obviously never happen again.

[Eric the .5b]

Imperial president for me but not for thee

The Prospect has identified 30 meaningful executive actions, all derived from authority in specific statutes, which could be implemented on Day One by a new president. These would not be executive orders, much less abuses of authority, but strategic exercise of legitimate presidential power.

Without signing a single new law, the next president can lower prescription drug prices, cancel student debt, break up the big banks, give everybody who wants one a bank account, counteract the dominance of monopoly power, protect farmers from price discrimination and unfair dealing, force divestment from fossil fuel projects, close a slew of tax loopholes, hold crooked CEOs accountable, mandate reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, allow the effective legalization of marijuana, make it easier for 800,000 workers to join a union, and much, much more. We have compiled a series of essays to explain precisely how, and under what authority, the next president can accomplish all this.

Yeah, that was one of those things that makes me glad I'm not the sort of person to throw what I'm reading across the room (because I just got this phone some weeks back).

Of course, when it suits them, the president will still be mysteriously powerless to stop anything they don't really want to stop doing.

Actually, I think it is more they cannot conceive of those powers being used for evil (as they see evil). The Trump presidency is all a terrible aberration in their minds which will soon be righted and obviously never happen again.

Oh, definitely. That's absolutely the case. But the "powerless presidency" is a great place to retreat to when things aren't going so great for a Blue president.

[Mo]

OMG. I hope the comment about Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans is a joke because I’m not sure how a battle fought after the Treaty of Ghent was going to change the outcome of the war.


https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/ ... w-25-bill/

[thoreau]

OMG. I hope the comment about Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans is a joke because I’m not sure how a battle fought after the Treaty of Ghent was going to change the outcome of the war.


https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/ ... w-25-bill/

This part is also great:

That move was scuttled under President Donald J. Trump, perhaps in an effort to reverse every policy that Obama implemented. Given that damn-near everything that Obama touched devolved into fertilizer, this impulse was entirely reasonable.

Um, Obama had his flaws, but Trumpies shouldn't be talking too loudly about a President turning things to shit, you know?

[Hugh Akston]

Sure he engaged in a little light genocide, but he didn't own that many slaves.

[Kolohe]

OMG. I hope the comment about Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans is a joke because I’m not sure how a battle fought after the Treaty of Ghent was going to change the outcome of the war.


https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/ ... w-25-bill/

Didn't read the article, but there's an argument that the victory of US forces at New Orleans was important to having the treaty stick, having US and UK relations muddle on until the borders were finally fixed during the Polk admin.

[Hugh Akston]

Google CEO: Why AI needs regulation

Spoiler: It's the same reason big players in any market think their industry should be regulated: to protect entrenched interests and raise entry costs for upstart competition.

[Mo]

Shut down the competition because we have AmGreatness arguing that de Klerk betrayed South Africa by ending apartheid.

https://amgreatness.com/2020/02/09/what ... th-africa/

[Hugh Akston]

Shut down the competition because we have AmGreatness arguing that de Klerk betrayed South Africa by ending apartheid.

https://amgreatness.com/2020/02/09/what ... th-africa/

I mean that's kind of par for the course on a Trumpster organ. Wake me when that gets published in Newsweek.

[Hugh Akston]

The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society.

When you vote for a guy who votes for a policy to ban selling loose cigarettes, it's not like you're the one choking a motherfucker out on the street to enforce that policy. Even though violence is the utterly inevitable consequence of imposing government rules on an unconsenting populace, voting for those polices is like totally nonviolent.

[Warren]

The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society.

When you vote for a guy who votes for a policy to ban selling loose cigarettes, it's not like you're the one choking a motherfucker out on the street to enforce that policy. Even though violence is the utterly inevitable consequence of imposing government rules on an unconsenting populace, voting for those polices is like totally nonviolent.

Why do you hate America Hugh?

[nicole]

Tfw you have literally never heard of persuasion

[Hugh Akston]

Tfw you have literally never heard of persuasion

nicole do you have any idea how much effort it would take to convince people of something? Listening to their concerns, respecting their opinions, treating them like ends in themselves rather than pawns in your utopian plan? Democracy is so much better because you only need to address the small fraction of 1% of the population in the legislature, and convince a mere 51% percent of them that boot manufacturers would be greatly helped by passing the Stomping on a Human Face Forever Act.

[Aresen]

Tfw you have literally never heard of persuasion

nicole do you have any idea how much effort it would take to convince people of something? Listening to their concerns, respecting their opinions, treating them like ends in themselves rather than pawns in your utopian plan? Democracy is so much better because you only need to address the small fraction of 1% of the population in the legislature, and convince a mere 51% percent of them that boot manufacturers would be greatly helped by passing the Stomping on a Human Face Forever Act.

Stomping On Faces Forever Act

SOFFA. Sounds better.

[Warren]

Tfw you have literally never heard of persuasion

nicole do you have any idea how much effort it would take to convince people of something? Listening to their concerns, respecting their opinions, treating them like ends in themselves rather than pawns in your utopian plan? Democracy is so much better because you only need to address the small fraction of 1% of the population in the legislature, and convince a mere 51% percent of them that boot manufacturers would be greatly helped by passing the Stomping on a Human Face Forever Act.

Stomping On Faces Forever Act

SOFFA. Sounds better.

New soffa? Sign me up!