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[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
17,366
16,635
146
The issue is probably more that that ruling gave Trump far more confidence about just going ahead and acting like a despot. Regardless of whether it legitimizes despotism in a legal sense, I suspect it does just that in Trump's head.
This is my current mental block. I don't see Trump actually accepting any legal challenge against him. Even if any of the multi-month/year legal proceedings actually rules against him, nobody has yet told me how they intend on actually stopping him if he just ignores it. Under normal circumstances he could be impeached and removed from office (by force if necessary) but what if Republicans just ... Don't? Is the judge going to issue a warrant for the president's arrest because he's violating the constitution? Is it going to be enforced? Can it be?
 
Dec 10, 2005
28,631
13,725
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One case where he's simply ignoring a court ruling. Let's see what happens.

Yep. They've frozen the Federal Register, so meetings can't be scheduled. Basically, if you have a grant already, your money is on. But if you submitted a grant proposal, or your grant is up for renewal, the committees that are supposed to meet to provide expert evaluation and rank the proposals can't meet, because the meetings have to be published to the Federal Register before they happen.

I bet they think this is some cute way to bypass the court ruling, but I would hope the judge sees through this charade.
 

dank69

Lifer
Oct 6, 2009
37,342
32,955
136
We owe approximately 7K. This has been our method since they removed the Salt deductions. We are gonna make our decision to file or not to file on April 12.
I'll tell you what I will NOT be doing. I will NOT be giving the federal government any reason to look closely at me, no matter how understaffed they may be. LOL
 
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IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
72,816
33,824
136
Yep. They've frozen the Federal Register, so meetings can't be scheduled. Basically, if you have a grant already, your money is on. But if you submitted a grant proposal, or your grant is up for renewal, the committees that are supposed to meet to provide expert evaluation and rank the proposals can't meet, because the meetings have to be published to the Federal Register before they happen.

I bet they think this is some cute way to bypass the court ruling, but I would hope the judge sees through this charade.
Freezing the Federal Register is something every incoming administration does. The locks have lasted from weeks to months. The weird one was when the Shrub froze the FR at the beginning of his second term. Maybe he realized that the first term was a disaster. :p
 
Dec 10, 2005
28,631
13,725
136
Freezing the Federal Register is something every incoming administration does. The locks have lasted from weeks to months. The weird one was when the Shrub froze the FR at the beginning of his second term. Maybe he realized that the first term was a disaster. :p
I don't recall incoming administrations also cancelling all active meetings on the register though for routine things, like grant review committees, and then preventing any further scheduling. The scope is unprecedented.
 

dank69

Lifer
Oct 6, 2009
37,342
32,955
136
First step is overturning citizens united. I don't think the rest is possible without that.
It's not like current laws are being taken seriously anymore anyway. Reversing CU would only harm the people not willing to cheat to win.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
40,866
10,221
136
The issue is probably more that that ruling gave Trump far more confidence about just going ahead and acting like a despot. Regardless of whether it legitimizes despotism in a legal sense, I suspect it does just that in Trump's head.
What goes on in trump's head changes from day to day, minute to minute. Has a lot to do with what's going on around him, outside of him. He doesn't determine that. He responds to that.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
40,866
10,221
136
This is my current mental block. I don't see Trump actually accepting any legal challenge against him. Even if any of the multi-month/year legal proceedings actually rules against him, nobody has yet told me how they intend on actually stopping him if he just ignores it. Under normal circumstances he could be impeached and removed from office (by force if necessary) but what if Republicans just ... Don't? Is the judge going to issue a warrant for the president's arrest because he's violating the constitution? Is it going to be enforced? Can it be?
Thing about Trump is that he likes to think well of himself. He likes adulation, the polls matter to him, the movement of the stock market, he dislikes the specter of being the cause of deaths and violence leading to them. He has inhibitions. He's also surrounded by people and develops his self image by virtue of his interactions with them. If they aren't demanding blood, he probably won't. I do not know the Trump of tomorrow, but this is what I've seen so far.
 

gothuevos

Diamond Member
Jul 28, 2010
3,439
2,397
136
I have become fully drowned in pessimism. Its difficult to imagine any way out of this horror short of years of sustained unimaginably horrible eruptions of violence, death, destruction, andchaos, on a scale not seen since the 1940s. I really hope i'm just losing my mind. I am secure here for now, but, i worry about Ukraine, I worry about all the LGBTQ folks, i worry about all the workers who can barely survive, i worry about all the retirees who are going to suffer worse due to loss of benefits. I worry about total economic collapse. I don't know how to turn off the worry. I just save some cash, and consider getting in some range time and arming myself a bit more, maybe getting the wife used to firing a gun as well. I hope for peace, but, it just feels hopeless right now.

I'm sorry, I feel mostly the same but the reality is that it is over for at least a generation. Need to stop thinking about 2026 and more like 2056. If that.

I take solace only in the fact that even the most brutal regimes worldwide aren't actively killing off large portions of their population. The US govt will still need alive tax payers. We will be allowed to live, we simply won't have a choice in a lot of matters.

A good friend of mine whose family is from one of these countries summed it up best: "It's not like you wake up and go about your day with a gun constantly to your head. People go to work, laugh, spend time with their loved ones, have bday parties for their kids, etc "

It's small consolation but really all that matters right now is spending your days/time with people you care about. It will help minimize the pain/angst. It is what it is, there is nothing that is going to change this current trajectory.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
40,866
10,221
136
It's small consolation but really all that matters right now is spending your days/time with people you care about. It will help minimize the pain/angst. It is what it is, there is nothing that is going to change this current trajectory.
If it weren't for the burgeoning Global Warming Crisis I might take exception to your view. However, that appears to be a monumental problem we are unable to fix presently, and maybe never.
 

dank69

Lifer
Oct 6, 2009
37,342
32,955
136
I'm sorry, I feel mostly the same but the reality is that it is over for at least a generation. Need to stop thinking about 2026 and more like 2056. If that.

I take solace only in the fact that even the most brutal regimes worldwide aren't actively killing off large portions of their population. The US govt will still need alive tax payers. We will be allowed to live, we simply won't have a choice in how we live.

A good friend of mine whose family is from one of these countries summed it up best: "It's not like you wake up and go about your day with a gun constantly to your head. People go to work, laugh, spend time with their loved ones, have bday parties for their kids, etc "

It's small consolation but really all that matters right now is spending your days/time with people you care about. It will help minimize the pain/angst. It is what it is, there is nothing that is going to change this current trajectory.
If things deteriorate, they will deteriorate quickly. One way or the other, wood chippers or guerilla warfare, it will get there quickly. Or they prove to be as inept as they continually seem and we just stagnate. The burn it down crowd own all the levers now. If they make things worse like we all know they will, they can't blame Democrats or deep state anymore. There will be backlash. There always is.
 

dank69

Lifer
Oct 6, 2009
37,342
32,955
136
If it weren't for the burgeoning Global Warming Crisis I might take exception to your view. However, that appears to be a monumental problem we are unable to fix presently, and maybe never.
If you don't live in a place where climate change is likely to decimate, there is nothing you can do about it now. I'd be getting the hell out of FL if I expected to live there more than 10, 20 years tops.
 
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Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
40,866
10,221
136
If you don't live in a place where climate change is likely to decimate, there is nothing you can do about it now. I'd be getting the hell out of FL if I expected to live there more than 10, 20 years tops.
Texas too? LA? Miss.? GA? VA? SC/NC?

Where I live there's upticks in droughts and atmospheric rivers. IOW, extreme events and conditions. The boat is rocking. Plus, energy is building up in the EQ faults.
 

gothuevos

Diamond Member
Jul 28, 2010
3,439
2,397
136
If things deteriorate, they will deteriorate quickly. One way or the other, wood chippers or guerilla warfare, it will get there quickly. Or they prove to be as inept as they continually seem and we just stagnate. The burn it down crowd own all the levers now. If they make things worse like we all know they will, they can't blame Democrats or deep state anymore. There will be backlash. There always is.

What does this even mean?

Are you talking about violence? The state has a monopoly on that.

Are you talking about elections? There's no guarantee there will ever be elections anymore, and even if there are, we have seen that more than enough of our voters have an appetite for whatever the GOP is selling. A narrow Dem victory in 2028 changes nothing.
 

dank69

Lifer
Oct 6, 2009
37,342
32,955
136
Texas too? LA? Miss.? GA? VA? SC/NC?

Where I live there's upticks in droughts and atmospheric rivers. IOW, extreme events and conditions. The boat is rocking. Plus, energy is building up in the EQ faults.
Yeah anywhere likely to flood I would gtfo. After that, it's anyone's guess but at least you aren't certain to be fucked.


What does this even mean?

Are you talking about violence? The state has a monopoly on that.

Are you talking about elections? There's no guarantee there will ever be elections anymore, and even if there are, we have seen that more than enough of our voters have an appetite for whatever the GOP is selling. A narrow Dem victory in 2028 changes nothing.
The state has a monopoly if the military follows it. While I think it is likely the military goes along I don't think it is certain. I think this admin might be too impatient to do things the right way. And by right I mean the most effective way to bring things fully under their control.

If they try to just go brownshirt, it will be slow and messy, and never result in a true police state. It's too easy to break holes in the system. You can never eliminate enough resistance through violence. One carrot can accomplish the same as a thousand sticks, but today's fashies are WAY too stupid to understand that. Even when the occasional one realizes it he gets called a RINO and gets back in line or gets booted.

Shortsightedness. Always ends the same eventually.
 

iRONic

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2006
8,324
3,634
136
I'll tell you what I will NOT be doing. I will NOT be giving the federal government any reason to look closely at me, no matter how understaffed they may be. LOL
You are assuming that there is an actual FUNCTIONING government IRS department at that time. You do you.

We always mail our paper check payments via USPS. Will that institution even be functioning in five weeks? We’re still holding off on that decision until April 12.
 

SteveGrabowski

Diamond Member
Oct 20, 2014
8,949
7,661
136
The solution is simple: take down Russia by the root. Without them the propaganda machine will slow down since Iran, China and North Korea lacks something that the Russian has: charisma.
You think Russia is the gordian knot to solve here? Elon's the one who bought this election and is now looting the nation.
 

DZero

Golden Member
Jun 20, 2024
1,633
635
96
You think Russia is the gordian knot to solve here? Elon's the one who bought this election and is now looting the nation.
But Elon got the help of Russia. Without Russia, Elon would start to go rogue but at the end commit a BIG mistake ruining him.
 

HomerJS

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
39,288
32,786
136
The fix is relatively easy but politically impossible in this current climate, even without Trump. Until voters start continuously voting out republicans we’ll be stuck in this mess for a while.

The fix:

Increase the total number of House representatives. At least double but preferably triple the amount. This will give everyone better representation and mellow out the extremists.

Revamp the judicial system/branch. The number of judges across the board need to increase, including at the Supreme Court. How cases are brought up at the various levels needs to be changed to eliminate judge shopping. Besides expanding the Supreme Court, cases need to be handled by random assignment to smaller factions of SC judges (something like 5 judges per case).

Lastly, there needs to be campaign finance reform and the overturning of citizens United. I personally don’t have the knowledge to recommend what kind of charges are needed so anyone has ideas or knows of any particular proposals, please chime in.
Add to that get rid of gerrymandering. Districts need to be based on county lines.
 
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Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
40,866
10,221
136
You are assuming that there is an actual FUNCTIONING government IRS department at that time. You do you.

We always mail our paper check payments via USPS. Will that institution even be functioning in five weeks? We’re still holding off on that decision until April 12.
The IRS will be staffed at least enough to make sure people pay their taxes. You don't need a crystal ball to figure that out.
 
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