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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#244326: Jun 4th 2018 at 7:32:36 AM

[up][up][up]It's always weird to learn that there actually are people in Real Life who are Card Carrying Villains. Like, you hear that no-one actually thinks of themselves as the bad guy, that everyone is good from their own point of view, but apparently not.

edited 4th Jun '18 7:33:26 AM by PushoverMediaCritic

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#244327: Jun 4th 2018 at 7:37:10 AM

Trump and Macron had a "terrible" phone call, when the French President learned that his American counterpart did not react well to being criticized on trade and refugees. Oh, and he's talking to Prime Minister May today as well...

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/04/politics/donald-trump-emmanuel-macron-call-terrible/index.html

Trump himself has openly stated that he has the "absolute" power to pardon himself. Oh, and now Mueller's investigation is somehow unconstitutional.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/04/politics/donald-trump-pardon-tweet/index.html

Is this real life?

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#244328: Jun 4th 2018 at 7:38:29 AM

I see that question and all I can think is "Is this just fantasy?"

TheWanderer Student of Story from Somewhere in New England (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
Student of Story
#244329: Jun 4th 2018 at 7:40:45 AM

We’re all caught in a landslide.

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |
Steven (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#244330: Jun 4th 2018 at 7:44:13 AM

Anything can happen in this fantastical world. Right now I am going to expect Trump to ban bacon simply because Obama enjoyed eating it.

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#244331: Jun 4th 2018 at 7:46:02 AM

Anything can happen in this fantastical world. Right now I am going to expect Trump to ban bacon simply because Obama enjoyed eating it.

And then his base will claim he's being influenced by the Jewish Conspiracy (tm) for banning a pork product

edited 4th Jun '18 7:46:55 AM by sgamer82

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#244332: Jun 4th 2018 at 7:49:43 AM

Really, this whole pardon fiasco is an excellent argument for keeping your Head of State/Executive apolitical/ceremonial.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#244333: Jun 4th 2018 at 7:55:18 AM

So Trump has apparently said that he can "absolutely" pardon himself. Yesterday Giuliani said he "thinks" the President can do that, now Trump wants reaffirm that, I guess.

Mio Since: Jan, 2001
#244334: Jun 4th 2018 at 8:01:08 AM

I’m surprised that the Supreme Court was that united in confirming “religious liberty”, or was this decision actually based on “artistic expression”? I remember the latter being thrown around with the baker calling himself a “cake artist”. If the decision was based on that I can kind of get it, but it’s still not a great decision.

[up][up]There is too much that needs to happen before the US can even consider moving away from using the Presidential system.

edited 4th Jun '18 8:01:32 AM by Mio

Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#244335: Jun 4th 2018 at 8:03:20 AM

Crunched.

edited 4th Jun '18 8:32:48 AM by Deadbeatloser22

"Yup. That tasted purple."
ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#244336: Jun 4th 2018 at 8:10:13 AM

The Supreme Court also tossed out a lower court ruling saying the government had to allow a detained teenager have an abortion, but it's not as inflammatory as that sounds.

Their ruling was on procedural grounds, as the teen had already had an abortion, rendering the entire case moot. The court simultaneously declined to punish the plaintiff's lawyers in that situation, as the Trump administration had requested, stating that "lawyers have ethical obligations to their clients and not all communication breakdowns constitute misconduct." Also, this end statement on the article. “When ‘a civil case from a court in the federal system … has become moot while on its way here,’ the court’s ‘established practice’ is ‘to reverse or vacate the judgment below and remand with a direction to dismiss,’” the court said.

[down]

Pretty much, but for reasons that have been fairly well-established by this point.

edited 4th Jun '18 8:14:34 AM by ironballs16

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#244337: Jun 4th 2018 at 8:11:20 AM

So they essentially refused to set a precedent either way, and the case is dead.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#244338: Jun 4th 2018 at 8:11:30 AM

This struck me when I saw it.

“No man is above the law and no man is below it.

Nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to obey it.

Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor.”

President Theodore Roosevelt, Inaugural Address

edited 4th Jun '18 8:13:25 AM by megaeliz

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#244339: Jun 4th 2018 at 8:11:55 AM

The court ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission was based on concerns that the Civil Rights Commission was acting with anti-religious bias and thus violating the Free Exercise Clause. Freedom of the arts was not the issue for the majority opinions, just Gorsuch's concurrence addressed that point.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#244340: Jun 4th 2018 at 8:18:41 AM

[up]x6 Finally getting a chance to read about it deeper, although the court case was about Religious Liberty, they didn't actually answer the question about whether people have the right to discriminate on Religious Grounds; they simply issued a limited ruling that said that Colorado's law that disallowed discrimination based on sexual orientation was too broad and didn't take into account people's First Amendment Rights.

It's still bad; it's showing that the court, even with 4 liberal justices, is determining that the Constitution allows for discrimination on Religious Grounds, essentially meaning that the 1st Amendment trumps the 14th, instead of treating the amendments as equal. We're soon going to get cases where Black People are denied service in businesses because their Religion dictates Black people are inferior to White People, and it would stand because the 1st trumps the 14th.

The only positive is that the State and Federal Governments can not discriminate based on religious grounds because the State and Federal Governments are, by law, supposed to be irreligious.

edited 4th Jun '18 8:20:11 AM by DingoWalley1

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#244341: Jun 4th 2018 at 8:48:09 AM

[up] Your use of the word "trump" in that post seems even more painfully appropriate considering, well...you know.

Disgusted, but not surprised
tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#244342: Jun 4th 2018 at 9:01:39 AM

Breitbart article: Richard Grenell, US's ambassador to Germany, plans to use his position to help empower hard-right parties in Europe.

Article in notes:note 

BERLIN, Germany: Trumpian U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell has expressed great excitement over the wave of conservatism in Europe, saying he wants to “empower” leaders of the movement.

At a sit-down interview at his official residence in Berlin with Breitbart London, Ambassador Grenell said: “There are a lot of conservatives throughout Europe who have contacted me to say they are feeling there is a resurgence going on.”

“I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders. I think there is a groundswell of conservative policies that are taking hold because of the failed policies of the left,” he added.

“There’s no question about that and it’s an exciting time for me. I look across the landscape and we’ve got a lot of work to do but I think the election of Donald Trump has empowered individuals and people to say that they can’t just allow the political class to determine before an election takes place, who’s going to win and who should run.”

The U.S. ambassador spoke of the small circle of political and media elites saying, “That’s a very powerful moment when you can grasp the ability to see past the group-think of a very small elitist crowd telling you you have no chance to win or you’ll never win, or they mock you early on.”

Since the presidential race in 2016, the German media has largely been united against President Trump, with some publications, like magazine Der Spiegel, going to extremes, publishing a cover featuring the president decapitating the Statue of Liberty.

The winning strategy, Grenell noted, is focusing on conservative issues that improve life for ordinary working people, the silent majority, saying the “support is massive” for candidates that can articulate “consistent conservative” policies on migration, tax cuts, and cutting red tape and bureaucracy.

Unafraid to name names, Mr Grenell expressed a deep respect and admiration for the young Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz saying, “Look, I think Sebastian Kurz is a rockstar. I’m a big fan.”

Chancellor Kurz, leader of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), formed a coalition with the populist Freedom Party (FPÖ) earlier this year, and has been one of the strongest advocates for securing the European Union’s external border.

Not long after the formation of the coalition, Kurz stood up to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, rejecting the controversial European Union migrant quota system.

He was also been a leading conservative on the topic of counter-Islamisation while Foreign Minister in the previous coalition government, advocating and helping to pass a ban on the full-face Islamic veil.

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
DrunkenNordmann from Exile Since: May, 2015
#244343: Jun 4th 2018 at 9:03:41 AM

[up] Do you have maybe a different source on that?

We learn from history that we do not learn from history
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#244344: Jun 4th 2018 at 9:05:37 AM

[up][up] I say, then, that Merkel should kick out the Ambassador, using the famous Conservative motto of 'We don't want outsiders interfering/influencing our affairs'.

I also echo what [up] says; please don't link Breitbart here.

edited 4th Jun '18 9:06:15 AM by DingoWalley1

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#244345: Jun 4th 2018 at 9:06:06 AM

a bbc article I found about the same thing

[up][up]

edited 4th Jun '18 9:06:22 AM by Ultimatum

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#244346: Jun 4th 2018 at 9:06:27 AM

The Breitbart interview is the original source, but I put the interview in notes and here's a BBC article on it. And I got [nja]'d on the BBC article.

edited 4th Jun '18 9:07:01 AM by tclittle

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#244347: Jun 4th 2018 at 9:12:54 AM

As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong? In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!

He's parroting Fox here. My grandma told me that constitutional scholars on Fox said a president can't be impeached, and wouldn't believe me even after I pulled up the constitutional clause regarding impeachment.

edited 4th Jun '18 9:15:17 AM by megaeliz

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#244348: Jun 4th 2018 at 9:18:36 AM

What about the fact it's happened twice in our history?

Grafite Since: Apr, 2016 Relationship Status: Less than three
#244349: Jun 4th 2018 at 9:19:39 AM

@Dingo: The Supreme Court decision won't make it possible to deny service to black people, it was made very clear that this was a ruling for a specific case and no precedent was set for other situations.

This is likely due the fact you could argue the baker refused to make the cake because the ceremony violated his religious beliefs, not the couple itself.

edited 4th Jun '18 9:22:02 AM by Grafite

Life is unfair...
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#244350: Jun 4th 2018 at 9:26:33 AM

http://fortune.com/2018/06/04/screw-king-wurth-invest-us-donald-trump-tariffs-trade-war/

Well, some people are taking the fight to Trump.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

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