Swamp Watch News

[_Icarus]

Kinda like Trump's perpetual lawlessness has made the Constitution meaningless.

[_subgenius]

Kinda like Trump's perpetual lawlessness has made the Constitution meaningless.

No not like that at all. Because my statement was a comment on something you have actually done whereas your attempted simile is for something that has never happened.

But I am open to you providing a just few examples of actual laws that Trump has broken - ergo "lawlessness". Bonus points if they are actual Constitutional violations - ergo "Constitutional meaningless".

[_Icarus]

There was a thread started recently documenting more than a dozen laws he's broken. Feel free to refute them.

Violating the Constitution is in itself breaking the law.

[_MeDotOrg]

...Constitutional crisis.

you say this so much that it has lost all its meaning.

This is the goal of the Trump administration: To have truth and fiction, legal and illegal, Constitutional and Unconstitutional lose all meaning. He hopes that the American people become lost in disinformation, and failing to trust what is said, turn to a strong leader who tells 'the truth', the truth defined as whatever anecdotal flotsam and jetsam crossed across the transom of Fox & Friends.

There is a blizzard of accusations of wrongdoing because there is a blizzard of wrongdoing.

[_Res Ipsa]

Could some kind soul please count the number of times I've used the term "constitutional crisis" and compare it with sub's use of "hair fire?"

When the attorney general directs his underlings to disregard an appellate court's ruling on a remand of the case is a Constitutional crisis. Barr is free to challenge Marbury v. Madison by filing an appropriate case. He is not free to overrule the judicial branch by fiat. If Barr backs down, crisis ends. If he does not, then we have the executive branch arrogating to itself the power of the judicial branch.

The lawyers who signed the pleadings are very lucky the court didn't issue an order to show cause why they should not be held in contempt of court.
And they'll be lucky if the court does not file a complaint with the bar.

[_canpakes]

Snowflake-in-Chief can’t stop snowflaking:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After attacking the prosecutors and judge in the trial of his longtime adviser Roger Stone, President Donald Trump on Thursday turned his sights on the jury that convicted the veteran Republican operative, elevating concerns about political interference in the U.S. judicial process.

Trump referred in a Twitter post to a Fox News story that accused some of the jurors in the case of political bias. “This is not looking good for the ‘Justice’ Department,” Trump wrote.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump’s comments on the Stone case have amounted to interference in the workings of the U.S. government’s judicial branch.

“This is an abuse of power - that the president is again trying to manipulate federal law enforcement to serve his political interest,” Pelosi, a Democrat, told a news conference.

[_Xenophon]

Could some kind soul please count the number of times I've used the term "constitutional crisis" and compare it with sub's use of "hair fire?"

In a dominating performance the Hair Fires are able to rout the Constitutional Crises 299 to 17*.

*Score tabulated using boards search function. May include but not limited to subject titles, quotes of others and the very mentions on this thread. No miss spellings or odd word arrangements were included in this total. All sales are final

[_canpakes]

“Rebuilding our military” isn’t really a goal worth pursuing when Trump needs to reward his border wall contractor friends.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is seeking to divert $3.8 billion, largely from its fiscal 2020 weapons procurement budget, in order to fund President Donald Trump’s border wall, according to a reprogramming request to congress obtained by Defense News.

Among the victims of the cuts: a mass of aircraft purchases including F-35 joint strike fighters, C-130J cargo aircraft, MQ-9 Reaper drones and P-8 maritime surveillance planes, as well as ground vehicles and naval priorities.

Overall, the plan would shift $2.202 billion in FY20 defense appropriations and $1.629 billion in FY20 overseas contingency operations funding towards the wall, a key priority from president Donald Trump ahead of the November presidential elections.

Top Democrats immediately criticized the move as an attempt to usurp Congress’ power of the purse that would endanger national security.

House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey, D-N.Y., and Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., said in a joint statement that Trump was, “once again disrespecting the separation of powers and endangering our security by raiding military resources to pay for his wasteful border wall,” and “orchestrating this backdoor mechanism to prop up a political vanity project.”

Air Force and Navy aviation spending takes the brunt of the cuts proposed by the Pentagon, with aircraft procurement going down by $558 million for Navy and Marine Corps and $861 million for the Air Force. Importantly, all of the funding decreases target items that were specifically added by Congress during the budgeting process, which could incur rancor from lawmakers.

For the Navy, the Pentagon would cut two of the six F-35B short takeoff and landing aircraft added to the FY20 budget by Congress and two MV-22 Ospreys, stating that “current funding is more than sufficient to keep the production line open.” It also seeks to eliminate funding for one of the nine P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft funded in FY20, stating that the additional aircraft is “[in] excess to the 117 aircraft required.”

In the Air Force’s budget, the Pentagon slashed funding for four of the eight C-130Js added by Congress for the Reserve and Air National Guard. The department stated that funding for those planes can be rescheduled to fiscal year 2021, when the period of performance for the associated contract starts.

The request would eliminate eight MQ-9 Reaper drones, culling most of the funding added by Congress for an increase of 12 MQ-9s. “The program is currently undergoing a strategic review,” the department stated in written justification, referring to an ongoing debate within the Air Force about how many Reapers to buy and retain over the next decade. “Procurement, if necessary, can be rescheduled to a later fiscal year.” Combatant commanders have consistently said they need more surveillance assets around the globe.

It also strips $156 million for advanced procurement for the F-35A and removes $180 million for light attack aircraft for the Air Force, which the service has decided against procuring but has been widely supported by lawmakers as a low-cost alternative for the counter-terrorism fight.


The Army would stand to lose $100 million in funding for National Guard Humvee modernization and $194.5 million in Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck funding.

[_EAllusion]

Snowflake-in-Chief can’t stop snowflaking:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After attacking the prosecutors and judge in the trial of his longtime adviser Roger Stone, President Donald Trump on Thursday turned his sights on the jury that convicted the veteran Republican operative, elevating concerns about political interference in the U.S. judicial process.

Trump referred in a Twitter post to a Fox News story that accused some of the jurors in the case of political bias. “This is not looking good for the ‘Justice’ Department,” Trump wrote.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump’s comments on the Stone case have amounted to interference in the workings of the U.S. government’s judicial branch.

“This is an abuse of power - that the president is again trying to manipulate federal law enforcement to serve his political interest,” Pelosi, a Democrat, told a news conference.

It’s important to remember what Stone did was act as the Trump campaign’s go between for coordination with the Russian cutout for its espionage efforts to influence the 2016 election on behalf of Trump, then lie about it to Congress, then obstruct justice by threatening witnesses against him. Because he did not cooperate with the Mueller investigation, Trump’s potential explicit conspiracy with Russia could not be established, though the evidence of implicit coordination and coverup is overwhelming.

That’s what Trump is trying to subvert justice on behalf of. This is despotic behavior.

[_EAllusion]

Trump just took to Twitter to pressure NY to drop legal proceedings against him in exchange for federal services he is withholding.

Seems kinda bad.

Makes you wonder what the remaining democratic countries are going to do without the US as a superpower benefactor.