Search results

Waste is waste, regardless of budget percentage. People upset about budget spending on USAID are basically saying, "I'm living paycheck-to-paycheck... give that money to me instead." There are 200 million working Americans. That's basically a $195 check per worker per year, if you were to...

Apparently 4-day weekends could be on the chopping block.

Context is key - I was referring to the unilateral slashing of federal agencies that are considered examples of federal overreach. It's been done before, except by someone significantly more charismatic in front of a camera. As for the meddling in prosecuting Eric Adams... yeah, that's puzzling...

That whole 'separate but equal' thing was 'settled law' for almost 60 years, until it wasn't. And no, I'm not mad at all. I just don't think what the President is doing is all that controversial or unconstitutional when held up to the lens of how the federal government evolved in the 20th century.

I'm coming from the angle that the federal government has the authorities given to it in Articles 1-3 in the Constitution and a series of shoddy split SCOTUS decisions in the 1930s has enabled that power to grow beyond the scope of what is actually written and also originally intended. A product...

Jumping from federal to state / local government all of a sudden I see. Yes, that is the law (at least in the state where I was licensed). Driving is a privilege regulated by state law, which is per Article IV and the 10th amendment. But... we can not use our status as appointed federal...

Yes. What's your point? I'm not arguing that the 16th amendment is unconstitutional, just that it would've had a snowball's chance in hell of being ratified in the early 19th century. The main point I'm saying is that the 2nd and 3rd order effects of instituting an income tax to pay off our...

I ideally would like a repeal of the 16th amendment, yes. I'd also like to go back to state legislatures selecting Senators. However, my main point is that its ratification has allowed the federal government to grow in scope and function significantly more than the framers ever imagined, and...

They specifically forbid Congress from instituting direct taxation on the people. It keeps the federal government small and gives citizens the power to protest unpopular policies via boycotting of federally taxed goods. You know, remember that whole Boston Tea Party thing when the colonists were...

The Constitution doesn't directly address this because the founding fathers didn't envision that we would institute the 16th amendment (the very thing they went to war over) and use the money to subsequently establish a bunch of unconstitutional federal agencies.

Biden's asylum policy was a huge blunder. It was the worst kept secret in Latin America how to scam the system to immigrate into the U.S., and governments were actively coordinating with organized crime to send us the dredges of their societies, but especially Venezuela. Kind of humorous that...

@sevenhelmet, I mentioned several posts ago that I'd be a fan of legislation that defined a phase out timeline. For example, President can slash an organization but it must be gradually drawn down over 12 months. But I don't think we should have to live with things forever because an...

Trump has been a part of 4,000 lawsuits over his career and is a convicted felon. Doesn't strike me as someone who believes that rules apply to him, and I suspect that this is 3 standard deviations away from the average person holding a clearance.

Donald Trump's history places him in a significant higher risk category than 'as with any other person.'

I stand by that statement. He is at risk for selling secrets for personal narcissistic gain, but that's different than being coerced into it because he needs the moolah.

You're in violent agreement re: the bankruptcy declaration. You even posted the text 'one of the motivating factors for individuals to commit espionage against the government is financial gain.' You're also in violent agreement with my statement that 'Trump is notorious for using financial...

I'm not sure what you're asking then. Donald Trump is not at risk for being blackmailed to pay off his debts.

Because for the other 99.9% of Americans who are not billionaires, declaring bankruptcy means that you are actually broke and could potentially be squeezed for money. For Donald Trump, declaring bankruptcy means that all the corporate bonds he issued and loans he took are erased for whatever it...

Not really. People point to his bankruptcies, but Trump is notorious for using financial tomfoolery to keep his fortune in tact. He's raised his net worth from tens of millions to over $5 billion over the course of his career. Most businessmen would consider that successful. Kevin O'Leary was...

As I said earlier, I believe the relationship is supposed to be that the executive asks Congress to fund the executive functions of the government... the President is not supposed be forced to manage executive agencies and programs that he does not want. Quite frankly, organizations like USAID...

Trump is a businessman and is trying to run the government like a business. When you have a product line or department or whatever that isn't working, you clear house and cut your losses (and sometimes declare bankruptcy to erase all your debt). You don't wait around for people to talk it to...

5% cut to all DoD civilians and contractors. Extend CG service life. Cut out LCS / FFG, buy fewer carriers, cut two Army divisions, buy more DDGs, submarines, munitions, and unmanned stuff is the early plan I came across. The CG part was ... odd. They are all broken-ass money pits.

Israel's methods worked better than I thought, and as I read more about it I think that Netanyahu has a better understanding of the nature of his enemies than we do. Ultimately, people value their lives and position of power more than anything else. Our doctrine focuses on defeating other...

It's a failure. Also, we need to take a lesson from Israel. Putin and his oligarchs, Xi and his party supporters should all be dead via exploding cell phone headshots by now. When people oppose you, you don't get involved in entrenched warfare. You use your technological superiority to...

Manifest destiny (the idea that we will be the hegemon of the western hemisphere) and isolationism (the idea that we should not militarily involve ourselves in European affairs because those monarchies are always going to war with each other) are not incongruous.

Ehhhh... The Constitution says that bills for raising revenue have to arise from the House to fund the executive functions of the government. I'm kind of with Nixon on this one that the framers never intended Congress to force the President to spend money on its pet projects. The President is...

We didn't ask Ukraine to do anything. Ukraine has been asking to join NATO since the 00s. Originally it was Germany that said no, not Bush or Obama, because Germany thought that war and invoking Article V was inevitable if Ukraine were to be admitted. 2014 caught everyone flat footed, but we...

This is what happens when the administration is full of inexperienced amateurs because no one with a real resume wants to be associated with Donald Trump anymore. And it's not because Trump can't judge people; his first cabinet picks in his first term were all top-notch.

I'm referring to his ability to consolidate power and influence in the federal government to advance his personal agenda, which included a costly war with England that he personally orchestrated. It's been 25 years since I took college US history where my professor said "you're going to forget...

You need to revisit Henry Clay's tenure as Speaker of the House.

A major event that kicked off the Cold War was U.S. economic aid to Poland post WWII. Stalin could not accept that the US position was rebuilding Europe for the sake of having an economic prosperous region, we had to have ulterior motives against the Soviet Union. And thus the phrase 'capitalist...

You got some rose tinted glasses on there if you think that our politics were more civil and agreeable to the greater good in 1825 vs. 2025. The Civil War didn't just happen. It was due to decades of fighting over slavery, whether to admit new states into the union as free or slave states, and...

Miscues happen, but this is part of a broader trend in the way that Trump runs his administration. You have to think that America's policy on Ukraine's entry into NATO had to be a significant talking point between the President and the Secretary of Defense before the Secretary of Defense...

The problem with 'whataboutism' is it's usually about a tangentially related topic that misses the core issue with the current discussion at hand, drawing heavily upon false equivalencies.

I was more commenting on a general sense where there's a lot of people asking "what if I get asked to do something unconstitutional?" You don't have to worry about such things, you only have to worry about whether or not the order is lawful - i.e., that the person giving you the order has the...

Perhaps a Constitutional amendment to limit pardon powers is in order.

A common misunderstanding that pervades these discussions is that the Constitution is a framework that governs federal and state laws. It has no innate authority without being implemented into statute (state or federal) and/or being adjudicated upon by judicial review (case law). You cannot...

He's literally autistic.

Only problem is that saying retard is a fireable offense.

Do elected officials not represent the will of the people?

These actions are actually relatively popular and what his base wants him to do. We all work in government circles with government agencies. I tried to explain to some family members the amount of dysfunction another Trump administration could bring to the federal government, to include the...

Again, Trump is the one signing the EOs, not Musk. I'd be happier if Congress pulled the tens of billions of dollars in tax credits Musk gets per year from the US government because he owns an EV company, but hey, baby steps.

Except Musk hasn't made an incursion into anything. He's made a bunch of recommendations. The President is welcome to listen to any and all private citizens. If your concern is that he has undue influence because of big pockets and some kind of corrupt funding line, then that has yet to be...

Trump's not my man. He wouldn't be the first president to fight past court decisions, or did you not understand the political cartoon reference? Already forgotten the back and forth over Biden's student loan forgiveness plans? Trump's delivery is hyperbolic and bombastic, but he hasn't done...

Yep, world is falling because a President is revisiting the argument over his ability to slash his own executive agencies when he thinks they are worthless. Only thing we're missing is Congressmen beating each other with canes.

It's simpler than that ... You can write a thought provoking editorial to the Washington Post and the President can decide to implement your advice. So can any other private citizen. Musk is volunteering his time at this point, so he doesn't need to fall under any of the above.

This is completely alarmist. Trump got elected in part because the general population wants a scaling back of federal waste and overreach. They also elected Trump because they believed he would be a man of action to actually do it instead of talk it to death while waiting for bureaucrats and/or...

I don't know how deep the rabbit hole goes, and I don't think many people do. But former NYPD commissioner Thomas Donlon's case raises a lot of questions. Also, there's Chris Christie's US Attorney resume.

Nixon refused to spend appropriated funds and was told by the Supreme Court that he couldn't do that. Pretty sure this is sitting in the Oval Office right now...

I am not being obtuse. We mirror image ourselves time and again in our foreign policy decisions. We're talking ITT about Joey Bagguhdonuts who can't distinguish that $40 billion is 1% of the budget, but we want someone who can't read and write their own name to distinguish the difference...