Interesting on “coequal branches” and the US Constitution. by #RichardBishirjian riffing on #DavidSiemers. https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/10/myth-of-coequal-branches-david-j-siemers-richard-bishirjian.html
Brad Setser makes an important point about trying to replace the US by reanchoring trade relationships around China.
It’s easy to buy from China, but what you wanted from the US was someone you could sell to.
“we apologize as we are busy assisting other constituents”
(from the message when you hit voicemail at Senator Rick Scott’s office)
Suppose you think USAID is more about official cover for intelligence work than aid. I think that’s exaggerated, untrue, but OK.
Then it is *more* outrageous its classified docs shld be compromised. Agents in the field don’t determine US intelligence policy but it is they whom these leaks may kill.
for whatever it’s worth, i just called my (MAGA) Congresswoman’s office to demand Elon Musk’s arrest and imprisonment for the flagrant lawbreaking this weekend with respect to USAID.
@_dm what’s happening at Treasury and USAID, the recission of the OMB memo but cagey language about what the EOs might still freeze, suggests to me an extraordinary degree of willingness to test the enforceability of the law.
what agencies outside the executive branch of the Federal government are able to enforce Federal law?
suppose the courts, even the current Supreme Court, were to agree unilateral dismantling of an agency and unlawful access to classified documents are Federal crimes, if Trump doesn’t enforce the law can no one?
“Screwing around with Treasury payments and tariff walls is not just outrageous—it is like mixing a nice bleach-and-Drano cocktail. You wouldn’t describe that as ‘breaking mixology norms’, unless you were doing a goof.” @profmusgrave https://musgrave.substack.com/p/shredding-norms-is-cool
i’m always talking about thick scary tails i’m worried about but say the base case, the modal outcome, is we muddle through largely as we have.
i’m not sure that’s right any more.
somewhere in an attic there is a portrait of a head of lettuce rotting most floridly.
“One must be careful not to reify the clichés: just because everyone says it’s real doesn’t make it real. Or rather, it does, and that’s the problem.” #JohnGanz https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/vibes-cartel
“i will abuse you until you consent to marry me” may not be the flex they think.
besides maybe a handful of billionaires on an inauguration stage, is there anyone more pathetic than Congressional Republicans, who are watching their guy burn down the country but do nothing because what? they might have to face a competitive primary?
oh the poor poor dears.
lots of talk about how Ds should shut down the Senate, and i get it. but are there no Rs concerned about the vandalizing of the Federal govt by an unelected megadouche and some 14-year-olds? is there no chance of the legislative branch asserting itself as the legislative branch to say woah wtf?
i am grateful to Trump and especially Musk for making so powerful and visceral a case that wealth taxes — at levels quite confiscatory for a while, to remedy past lassitude — are an absolute necessity, prerequisite to a sustainable democratic society.
just as a matter of risk management, you’d think these guys would be less enthusiastic about the Federal death penalty.
“the whole reason i voted for him is i thought he was bullshitting. i feel betrayed.”
call me old fashioned, call me naive.
but i say impeach, convict, remove. rinse and repeat.
no. they won’t do it tomorrow.
but motherfucker may become pretty unpopular before very long.
maybe it’s worth just saying, as an american to our remarkable neighbors, i’m really sorry.
this is ultimately our responsibility and we’ve sure fucked it up.