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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
For God’s sake, France forced the Haitians to essentially buy themselves by paying the French government for OVER 100 YEARS.
Why do you assume the Haitians themselves are automatically behind the actions? The history is well documented on it by Haitian historians as well as the people who have been very clear they objected and were horrified by it. Its one of the most studied events by Caribbean peoples in the world.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on May 21st 2019 at 10:11:29 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.My first thought is that Written by the Winners is probably a factor in that assumption.
Whoops, you're right, I missed the "non" part of non-Haitans there.
Edited by sgamer82 on May 21st 2019 at 11:53:49 AM
Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson secretly met with the House Foreign Affairs Committee today.
They literally snuck him in before anybody even knew he was in the capital. Tillerson explained that the White House actively avoided confronting Russia about its election interference in order to curry favor with Putin. And that Kushner constantly meddled with attempts to brief Trump on foreign affairs.
Confidential draft IRS memo says tax returns must be given to Congress unless president invokes executive privilege
The memo, written last fall by an Internal Revenue Service attorney, contradicts the Trump administration’s justification for denying the president’s tax returns to lawmakers.
Does it contradict? I thought the message from the White House was "No Legitimate Legislative Purpose". Saying that the only way to prevent release of tax returns is to claim executive privilege doesn't contradict that statement, in fact provides a fallback. Courts say "Only Congress can assert what is and is not a legislative purpose so you don't get to decide what Congress gets or does not get," and then Trump follows up with "OK, Executive Privilege then" and we then have to go to the courts again for round 2.
But then I suppose the question becomes the following: my understanding is that executive privilege is supposed to protect sensitive information and discussions that inform executive decision making. This in theory allows people to speak candidly without fear of things becoming public, thus enabling truth to speak to power in some instances.
So, if your Tax Returns are now considered as "information that informs executive decision making" and thus subject to executive privilege, you are pretty openly saying that "I make decisions based on what is in my tax returns (i.e. my sources of income)."
I mean, we've known it all along but pretty ballsy to base your legal defense on that statement.
To my knowledge, Executive Privilege does not extend to tax returns or anything that took place prior to the President taking office.
Not that it matters. Executive Privilege is pretty much Trump's fallback defense in general. He invokes it for everything, regardless of whether or not it applies. Usually gets away with doing it, too.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Yeah, executive privilege is basically "you can't force the President to disclose private conversations they had with their advisors on matters of policy". The idea is that the President needs to be able to have frank discussions with their staff without worrying about how the public or other politicians will think of those discussions.
But it can't be used to hide illegal activities, and it doesn't in any possible way apply to anything that happened before the President took office. Trump hasn't even tried to claim executive privilege over his tax returns (though if he gets the idea that that's the only way to keep them out of Congress's hands, he may try).
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.Yes.
Edit:
Barr promised some cooperation if they stopped the threat to enforce the law on him.
The Justice Department on Tuesday said it would provide the House Intelligence Committee with some materials related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as long as the panel dropped its threat to pursue an “enforcement action” against Attorney General William Barr.
The department made the offer in a three-page letter to Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) one day before the committee is slated to vote on what he has described as an “enforcement action” against Barr. Schiff has not said what shape the action would take.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on May 22nd 2019 at 8:02:00 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.There's some news that's related to the previously posted article on detention, Gillibrand on immigration: ‘I wouldn’t use the detention system at all’
The title says it all, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has said that if she's elected as President she wouldn't make use of the detention system.
Considering that she was the first Senator to support abolishing ICE I have to say her immigration policy is shaping up nicely.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangBarr is getting desperate; he's clearly afraid of the Democrats doing anything against him, but at the same time he wants to stay in Trump's good graces so he's trying to come up with these 'compromises' that won't satisfy anyone but he hopes won't piss off anyone either.
As long as Democrats keep pressure on Barr, he'll eventually cave and give the Democrats what they want. They don't even have to do anything, the mere threat of doing anything is enough to start scaring Barr.
I feel like ICE should be abolished, many of its members arrested, and then a new agency created in its place with very few of the original people involved in this shitshow.
Then again, I'm not a huge fan of the DOHS to begin with.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on May 22nd 2019 at 8:19:28 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

"For our declaration of independence, we should have the skin of a white man for parchment, his skull for an inkwell, his blood for ink, and a bayonet for a pen!"
Yeesh.
Edited by M84 on May 22nd 2019 at 12:52:52 AM
Disgusted, but not surprised