honorentheos wrote:Executive power has been a contentious issue for Republicans, especially during the Obama years.
Republican leaders are skeptical of Presidential power when a Democrat is president. Think of Republican legislatures that relied on powerful governorships that voted to strip those offices of power when a Democrat won them.
I think the idea the executive is always on the verge of crossing the Rubicon existed under Obama for more than just Republicans. In a way, constantly crying the sky was falling because Obama used executive orders to bypass Congress has its own introspection due given Chicken Little isn't just venting this time because it seems even more clear the sky is really, honestly falling now.
Accretion of power to the executive was its own concern that was a problem under Obama like several Presidents before him. This has reared its head under Trump, but Trump has extended so far beyond legal and social norms surrounding this that it is an entirely different beast.
True. But it's worth knowing the difference between threats of creeping power from Congress towards the executive and abuse of the office of President.
Has the Presidency gained power over the 20th and into the 21st century? Absolutely. And Congress seems to have been the willing force behind ceding power to the executive branch. We're not seeing a Congress that is attempting to reassert it's traditional powers of co-equal government right now in large part because McConnell's Senate is a rubber stamp for the executive. But it's also because most Americans have an inherent sense the President is the governing head of the nation. Voters on both sides hold that view. Obama was meant to effect massive changes (it was part of his slogan after all) that largely left people disappointed and/or blaming obstruction in Congress. Trump is glorified by his base because he disrespects and had been running over Congress to be best of his ability though still not without speed bumps. There are always voices calling for a retraction against the trend and public perception of the power of the President. But those voices seem to find sympathy primarily from voters whose party is not the one occupying the White House at the moment. Obama supporters weren't worried about Presidential overreach. Trump supporters celebrate his so-called strength and assertiveness. It makes it difficult to make a point that there are situations where partisanship should be set aside to examine if current Presidential action is potentially altering the fabric of the Constitution because those alterations are constantly happening. Now, one should still be able to recognize the difference between altering the fabric and tearing up the Constitution, but it seems even that discussion is polarized.
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth? ~ Eiji Yoshikawa
Looks like the State Department blocked Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, from giving a deposition scheduled before a House impeachment panel. This is the guy who was in the text exchange who was carrying the water for Trump, saying he never intended a quid pro quo before moving the discussion out of texting.
This is also the guy who donated $1 million to Trumpprior to being appointed ambassador. Oh the irony of all this, quibbling about how Trump cares about corruption.
"One of the hardest things for me to accept is the fact that Kevin Graham has blonde hair, blue eyes and an English last name. This ugly truth blows any arguments one might have for actual white supremacism out of the water. He's truly a disgrace." - Ajax
Icarus wrote:Looks like the State Department blocked Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, from giving a deposition scheduled before a House impeachment panel. This is the guy who was in the text exchange who was carrying the water for Trump, saying he never intended a quid pro quo before moving the discussion out of texting.
This is also the guy who donated $1 million to Trumpprior to being appointed ambassador. Oh the irony of all this, quibbling about how Trump cares about corruption.
Nixon got in trouble for secretly conspiring to obstruct justice. Doing it in secret makes you look guilty, like you know it's bad. The key is to obstruct justice right out in the open, like it's perfectly normal. The Republican party leaders have your back when you do it that way.
"We have taken up arms in defense of our liberty, our property, our wives, and our children; we are determined to preserve them, or die." - Captain Moroni - 'Address to the Inhabitants of Canada' 1775
They’re now going all in on a wall to wall obstruction strategy knowing the Senate won’t convict on obstruction to prevent more evidence of their perfectly fine behavior from getting out.
Democrats are already in an on their legs or on their knees situation and need to start issuing subpoenas with threats of contempt and following through on those threats *right now.*
One of the side plots to this recent story I see getting no coverage is it involves Trump admin state department officials communicating about official state department business on private devices. I seem to recall that impropriety being one the most covered stories of my lifetime throwing millions of people into outrage and concern. Donald Trump has tweeted about that as recently as today. Yet, nearly nary a peep about proper electronic document practices from anyone in this case.
EAllusion wrote:One of the side plots to this recent story I see getting no coverage is it involves Trump admin state department officials communicating about official state department business on private devices. I seem to recall that impropriety being one the most covered stories of my lifetime throwing millions of people into outrage and concern. Donald Trump has tweeted about that as recently as today. Yet, nearly nary a peep about proper electronic document practices from anyone in this case.
It’s getting attention today.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
Icarus wrote:Looks like the State Department blocked Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, from giving a deposition scheduled before a House impeachment panel. This is the guy who was in the text exchange who was carrying the water for Trump, saying he never intended a quid pro quo before moving the discussion out of texting.
This is also the guy who donated $1 million to Trumpprior to being appointed ambassador. Oh the irony of all this, quibbling about how Trump cares about corruption.
Nixon got in trouble for secretly conspiring to obstruct justice. Doing it in secret makes you look guilty, like you know it's bad. The key is to obstruct justice right out in the open, like it's perfectly normal. The Republican party leaders have your back when you do it that way.
It appears that you do not know what is defined as obstruction of justice.
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires...seek discipline and find your liberty I can tell if a person is judgmental just by looking at them what is chaos to the fly is normal to the spider - morticia addams If you're not upsetting idiots, you might be an idiot. - Ted Nugent
EAllusion wrote:...proper electronic document practices from anyone in this case.
Hillary publicly neutered this type of behavior a while back. But you keep praying that this (finally) is the campaign platform that will work for the Democrats in 2020.
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires...seek discipline and find your liberty I can tell if a person is judgmental just by looking at them what is chaos to the fly is normal to the spider - morticia addams If you're not upsetting idiots, you might be an idiot. - Ted Nugent
GOP Lawmakers Watch Silently As Trump Strangles Each Of Their Loved Ones In Turn
WASHINGTON—Opting to take more of a wait-and-see approach instead of rushing to pass judgment, Republican lawmakers reportedly looked on in silence Tuesday as President Trump worked his way through each of their families and, one by one, strangled all their loved ones to death.
“After I watched the president slowly and methodically squeeze the life out of my wife’s body as she gasped, futilely, for breath, he gave me his personal assurance that he was not responsible for her death, so I continue to stand by this administration,” said Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), who along with every Republican in both the House and Senate stated that while killing off their families in cold blood might not be entirely proper, it was certainly not an impeachable offense, no matter how the media tried to spin it. “Now, this is not an action I would have taken myself. I personally would not have wrapped my hands around my 5-year-old son’s neck and crushed his windpipe. But if Donald Trump’s approach to governing is sometimes a bit outside the ordinary, that’s because Donald Trump is no ordinary president. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”
Later, with his beloved sister’s face turning purple as the commander-in-chief asphyxiated her with a length of barbed wire, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) appeared on several television news networks and said impeaching the president for her imminent death would be “insane.”
