171–180 of 411 posts
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That’s true, all those people who now can’t get lifesaving HIV medication for themselves and their babies sure did benefit from this. Ditto the charities that relied on grants to provide basic health care, food, etc, and now have to close. Bravo!
> On his personal Substack, he wrote an essay titled “Why I gave up a seven-figure salary to save America,” according to press reports, and described failed U.S. attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, who withdrew from Congress amid allegations of sexual misconduct, as a “victim” of the deep state. The fact that nobody is stopping these people is the clearest evidence anyone needs that there's no such thing as "the dee…
> I've learned the hard way that many people in this country do NOT actually care about democracy. Our democracy has been eroding for decades. Congress collects paychecks while gridlocking progress, even on bipartisan issues that could help ordinary citizens. Super PACs and "campaign contributions" (aka bribes) ensure the wealthy control both parties. Democrats and Republicans both spend recklessly and divide the nat…
The NYT did a couple of great podcasts about both issues: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/29/podcasts/the-daily/electi...
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/03/magazine/nafta-tarriffs-e...
A majority of Americans have never supported either policy, but the credentialed elites in both parties have done so for decades. And both things have been accomplished largely through executive action. E.g. turning H1B from a temporary worker program into a pathway to permanent residency, or free trade agreements.
If anyone else would simply commit to severely immigration and free trade, Trump’s hold on the GOP would evaporate. We have seen it happen in other countries—in Denmark the left capitulated on immigration and everything is fine again.
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Trump is ignoring laws. Canning USAID is a great example. Ignoring background check processes is another.
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Consolidating power in the executive branch is about creating a dictatorship. How could it be anything else? They're trying to neuter the other branches of government. Trump has explicitly and repeatedly expressed a desire to be a dictator.
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If you read up on unitary executive theory, you won't need to look too hard to stumble upon the fact that it is rejected as being sugar-coated totalitarianism.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_backsliding_in_th...
So you're trying to refute the totalitarian push represented by Trump's abuses with a theory that is known to represent a totalitarian push.
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All the cuts are funds already legally allocated by congress. EM or DT do not have the authority to reverse that funding decision outside the democratic / congressional process.
With DACA, Obama unilaterally decided not to enforce laws duly enacted by congress. So what keeps Trump from unilaterally deciding not to spend money duly appropriated by congress?
I had to think about this.
What's the point/goal of giving the power of the purse to Congress if it's actually just a slush fund?
If Congress can allocate money for the courts, but the executive is the one tasked with execution (DOJ) and decided not spend that, we are saying there is no real need to balance power.
So if there's no authority to direct spending, what prevents the executive from spending money on replacing the courts and Congress?
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> Not really - if you’ve studied political science there’s a concept called unitary executive theory, which basically says (...) If you read up on unitary executive theory, you won't need to look too hard to stumble upon the fact that it is rejected as being sugar-coated totalitarianism. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_backsliding_in_th... So you're trying to refute the totalitarian push represented by Tru…
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I think the sycophants cheering these moves on are so interesting. I have absolutely no sense that any of these changes are going to have meaningful positive impacts in my life. "We all benefit" in what sense? Aesthetically? What does USAID have to do with me? What positive impact will I see from banning the X gender marker? How do undocumented migrants affect my life negatively?
it's so easy to be cynical, how do you do it?
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Trump disavowed Project 2025 during the campaign and his voters believed him. If democracy worked, he would be held accountable for this enormous bait-and-switch. > root out corruption and waste, fraud, and abuse That is not what they are doing by most accounts.
The same reason that one of the DOGE youth got fired, not because he is a racist, but because his racism remark got caught.
> On his personal Substack, he wrote an essay titled “Why I gave up a seven-figure salary to save America,” according to press reports, and described failed U.S. attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, who withdrew from Congress amid allegations of sexual misconduct, as a “victim” of the deep state. The fact that nobody is stopping these people is the clearest evidence anyone needs that there's no such thing as "the dee…
Sincere question: are you and I using “democracy” to mean the same thing? What Trump is doing is a reversion to how the federal government was run after the founding and during the 18th century (what’s derisively called the “spoils system”). Trump campaigned with a bunch of people with specific ideas (RFK, Musk, Gabbard, etc.) and then when elected put those people in positions of authority. Here, taking an axe to th…
There is a reason the President was not initially elected by the people. The spoils system and the current systems failings are precisely that foresight.
When Congress is weak, the Executive is unchecked. Go read the Old Whig 4
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I disagree with social security not being waste. Just because some people find it useful, doesn’t inherently make it not wasteful. I’ll be lucky if my generation will even be able to pull anything out of social security.
So I've been paying for social security my whole life and you think it's a waste and you have the right to take the program away from me? Will I be getting a refund?