The Imperial Presidency, Part 2

[Dartz]

Looks how many times they had to try to get Hitler, and who eventually did it for him in the end.

Anyway. It's an expression of the fact that more and more people are starting to feel like the ballot box is less and less likely to effect the changes fairly - when the system openly intends to take that ability away and make it as hard as possible. That's when the armalite gains in attraction.

[classicdrogn]

(Monty Python peasant voice) "It's only a difference of one letter!"

[Mamorien]

It's an expression of the fact that more and more people are starting to feel like the ballot box is less and less likely to effect the changes fairly

I don't know if it be* that bad in Ireland and other civilized countries, but here in Unistat, it's been shown by facts and figures that the effect of voter sentiment, however massive, on public policy is basically a rounding error, whereas the effect of major donor expenditures is immense and immortal.

* I like the present subjunctive and I cannot lie.

[robkelk]

This is how His Orangeness brings jobs to the USA: Spirit Airlines shuts down, blames cost of fuel due to Middle East war

The collapse of the first carrier due to a doubling in jet fuel prices during the two-month-old war will cost thousands of jobs. It is a blow to U.S. President Donald Trump, who had proposed $500 million US to save ​Spirit despite opposition from some of his closest advisers and many Republicans in ​Congress.

No U.S. carrier of Spirit's size — it accounted for five per cent of U.S. flights at one point — has liquidated in two decades. Spirit helped keep fares lower in markets where it competed against major carriers.

Not that the airline wasn't already having problems, but they were on track to get out of the mess they were in... before fuel prices doubled.

Spirit had reached a deal with its lenders that would have helped it emerge from its second bankruptcy by late spring or early summer.

But those plans derailed ⁠after the ⁠war triggered a spike in jet fuel prices, upending Spirit's cost projections ​and complicating its bankruptcy exit.

[Jinx999]

This is how His Orangeness brings jobs to the USA: Spirit Airlines shuts down, blames cost of fuel due to Middle East war

The collapse of the first carrier due to a doubling in jet fuel prices during the two-month-old war will cost thousands of jobs. It is a blow to U.S. President Donald Trump, who had proposed $500 million US to save ​Spirit despite opposition from some of his closest advisers and many Republicans in ​Congress.

No U.S. carrier of Spirit's size — it accounted for five per cent of U.S. flights at one point — has liquidated in two decades. Spirit helped keep fares lower in markets where it competed against major carriers.

Not that the airline wasn't already having problems, but they were on track to get out of the mess they were in... before fuel prices doubled.

Spirit had reached a deal with its lenders that would have helped it emerge from its second bankruptcy by late spring or early summer.

But those plans derailed ⁠after the ⁠war triggered a spike in jet fuel prices, upending Spirit's cost projections ​and complicating its bankruptcy exit.

And you may be shocked to hear that the Republicans are blaming Biden

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mkv2wddrey23

[Labster]

One of the things that I keep thinking about, because I'm a writer in ManaChara over on the other forum, is the relationship between fiction and reality.  Since we keep incorporating fictional characters in reality, the inverse question keeps being asked: How fictional is reality?

You might think that's a silly question, but it really isn't, because stories are how we understand our world.  There are deep implications about storytelling for theology, history, psychology, and of course politics.  Nationalism is essentially a form of storytelling, because nations are essentially grandfalloons, groupings of unrelated people with a largely fictitious story about its people, barely indistinguishable from Polandball.  The only real difference between the average Hetalia fic and a Vladimir Putin rant is the level of approval for gay sex.

So it's with this background that I want to discuss this news story: Trump Amplifies Proposal To Rebrand ICE As 'NICE,' Shares Federal-Style Logo Concept.

The final book of The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength, has the big bad being a organization called N.I.C.E.  And of course, they're out to use science to conquer nature, and of course death.  And they have their own forces to run a police state, led by a corrupt inner circle, which brings us neatly back to Trump's NICE.  The symbolism here is so dumb and obvious that it's too strange to be true, and too strange to be fictional.  And, like most evil plans in the real world, it's simply moronic.  So why not rename it?  That would be nice.

[robkelk]

United Arab Emirates pulls out of OPEC

Mentioned here for a statement from the Secretary of the Inferior... er, Interior.

“The demand for power is going to go up and up and up,” U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told an Abu Dhabi oil conference in November. “Today’s the day to announce that there is no energy transition. There is only energy addition.”

He drew widespread applause from his Emirati hosts.

[robkelk]

U.S. to slap tariffs on Canadian mushrooms as growers warn of broader risks for agriculture

Because Canadian farmers getting the same tax breaks as American farmers apparently counts as an unfair subsidy.

If this happens, expect other countries to use the exact same reasoning against American farmers in five... four... three...

---

How much damage have Canada's booze bans done to the U.S. wine industry?

Let's put it this way: Put together, the countries that have increased their purchases of American alcohol are roughly sufficient to offset China's decrease in purchases... and China's decrease is only one-fifth of Canada's decrease. Numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.

[Jinx999]

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mlvaog4mjv2m

This is someone who nobody can take seriously. The only thing worth telling some like this is "Go to bed without any pudding."

[robkelk]

I already know how to laugh in French, hon hon hon.

New bingo card time!

You might have been optimistic when you put "Congress rejects result of midterm elections" on the card. That assumes there's going to be midterm elections.

For some reason, this six-month-old article is trending at the moment. So... Quote of the day, which is pure supposition and opinion at this point, but this is from the person who wrote The Cider House Rules, which foresaw the overturning of Roe v Wade.

And of course, since that time when I made this decision in January … well, it's only gotten worse. The cowardly Republicans in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have been complicit in their silence. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump doesn't find or make some excuse to cancel the midterm elections. That would be in keeping with his violations of democracy. He might declare martial law and say that elections were unsafe. He's already rumbled and grumbled about the rights of Americans who live abroad.

–John irving, in an interview on The Current, November 18, 2025

[robkelk]

Trump purged his Republican critics. Here's why he could soon regret it

TL;DR:

Since these Republicans no longer have major incentives to curry favour with Trump, but retain their seats for another seven months, they now have full freedom to defy him in Congress.

This is Politics 101: Don't piss off people whose support you need to advance your own agenda.

[Labster]

Trump purged his Republican critics. Here's why he could soon regret it

TL;DR:

Since these Republicans no longer have major incentives to curry favour with Trump, but retain their seats for another seven months, they now have full freedom to defy him in Congress.

This is Politics 101: Don't piss off people whose support you need to advance your own agenda.

Wow, what a rose-glasses take from the CBC.  Republican senators who defy You-Know-Who have a lot left to lose, including their homes and their lives.  He expects absolute loyalty from his party, and they know it.  From the Bulwark:

Obsequiousness, it turns out, is a competitive sport.

On Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham said “there is no room” in the Republican party to oppose Donald Trump. “This is the party of Donald Trump.”
That’s a pretty good entry in the sycophancy sweepstakes.

So what do you do if you’re Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.)? You’re a wealthy business executive serving your first term in the House. You’re proud that you graduated with a degree in government—magna cum laude—from Harvard, where you were also the chair of the undergraduate council student affairs committee. You went on to work at McKinsey, and then on to Harvard Business School, where you were named a Baker Scholar for academic achievement. You succeeded in the casino business. Now you’ve got yourself into Congress, and you have an eye on higher office. You’ve tried to distinguish yourself in your first term by your rampant anti-Muslim bigotry. But will that be enough?

So after the defeat two weeks ago of non-Trump-compliant state representatives in Indiana, and of pro-impeachment Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana, and pro–releasing the Epstein files Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky, what’s there to do but to try not only to echo but to surpass Sen. Graham? So Fine tweeted, “This is @realDonaldTrump’s Republican Party. The rest of us get the privilege of living in it.”

See, this highly educated man gets it.  He has the privilege of living, for now.  This is why Republicans keep quitting the Congress in droves, because representatives in the majority have no agency or ability to accomplish their own goals.  If you have different goals than the party leader, there's nothing for you to do that doesn't lead to ruin, in one way or another.  People get threats at their homes now for being RINOs.  The President just made a demand that the Senate Parliamentarian be fired because of one wrong ruling.

I think this is why the CBC gets it so wrong, because they can't quite wrap it around their heads around the idea, because being part of a parliamentary majority always means you have some say, some power, and can maybe move up the ladder.  But in the U.S. Congress you can only move up in graft, never in power.  The reason that Mike Johnson is Speaker of the House is that they kicked out the guys who thought they could occasionally defy Trump, and he was the only one stupid enough to take the job.

And to drive home the fact that Congress doesn't matter, You-Know-Who sued his own government for $10 billion because a IRS contractor leaked his tax returns and all of the unfairness of that.  And then he ordered his own government to settle the lawsuit for $1.8 billion -- just billions on the penny -- to create an "anti-weaponization fund" to compensate victims of the government targeting people for political reasons.  The President gets full control over how the money is spent, and all recipients are secret.  The lawsuit was withdrawn before the settlement agreement was signed, so the judge has no authority to review it.

So first here, the President just unilaterally allocated nearly $2 billion without asking Congress for anything.  Indeed, it turns out that Congress was unnecessary all along for the power of the purse.  Sure, the Congress being required to allocate money is on that one paper, the Constitution, but why worry about that?  If that piece of paper says that Presidents can only serve two terms, why would that get get any different treatment?  It's just a piece of paper, and it's written in cursive, and who can even read that nowadays?  Besides, You-Know-Who already won his third term, since his second term was stolen by Biden, therefore the limit doesn't apply Q.E.D.

The second topic is related to the first.  Who is a victim of weaponization of the government -- indeed a class big enough to merit billions to be allocated?  All signs point to the victims of the January 6 attacks, those poor people forced into the Capitol building to Stop the Steal to try to kill Mike Pence.  They have all now been pardoned (though many have returned to prison on unrelated charges).  So why shouldn't they get a slice of the pie?  More guns for them, maybe?  A private army of loyalists, funded directly by the government.

The third is a footnote, a rider attached to the settlement agreement.  The Justice Department and IRS are “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED” from auditing or investigating the taxes of any of the President, his family, or their businesses.  The King of Great Britain, too, is immune from prosecution, but not his family.  Score one for the republic, giving civil rights out bigly.

[Mamorien]

As part of the America 250 celebration, Barack HUSSEIN Obama and Crooked Joe Biden will be ritually guillotined on the National Mall. At the head of the large procession waving their torches as the heads fall in the basket, Roger Stone will rip off his shirt to display his tattoo and cry out:

"RICHARD NIXON, THOU ART AVENGED!"

[classicdrogn]

... I can't help but think that even Richard Nixon would be ashamed to ve assosciated with the current Republican party. Matbe I'm too genrous in that, but he did put effort into separating his personal disgrace from the position of President to preserve the dignity of the office, while Trump is indignity personified.

[Labster]

... I can't help but think that even Richard Nixon would be ashamed to ve assosciated with the current Republican party. Matbe I'm too genrous in that, but he did put effort into separating his personal disgrace from the position of President to preserve the dignity of the office, while Trump is indignity personified.

No, you've hit the nail exactly on the head.  Dick Nixon could feel shame, and feel it deeply.  Our current President can't feel shame.  Like, I think he's not mentally capable of feeling shame, and never has been.

[Bob Schroeck]

Shame is woke and part of cancel culture. A true Republican knows not these things.

[robkelk]

Trump’s man in Ottawa doesn't understand why Canadians are so frustrated right now

No tl;dr - there's no way to summarize this without slanting it one way or another.

[Jinx999]

Trump’s man in Ottawa doesn't understand why Canadians are so frustrated right now

No tl;dr - there's no way to summarize this without slanting it one way or another.

I don't understand why punching you in the face makes you not like me. I've punched a lot of people in the face.

[Labster]

Trump wants new $250 bill to feature his Fulton County Jail mugshot

Perfect timing to issue the $250 bill. It will make it so much easier to just use one $250 bill to fill up the gas tank, or to buy a steak dinner for two.

[classicdrogn]

Steak dinner for two? Maybe if you go to one of those ppleb restaurants and just get the house slop wine... /sarcasm

[Labster]

Just a few infuriating stories:

* The Murder of ‘60 Minutes’.  The time is ticking out for news at CBS.  Note that 60 Minutes made lots of money for CBS.
* Trump FCC warns all broadcasters to follow orders or be punished like ABC.  The beatings will continue until Jimmy Kimmel's jokes improve.
* Trump Wants a Gag Order for Every Single Government Worker.  Everyone gets a new NDA to stop the leaks -- finally, our government workers will stop talking to Americans!
* The White House is ordering agencies to place its new app on all employees’ government phones.  Sure it's only a month old, and the first version sent metrics to Russia, but now it's ready for prime time.  I'm reminded of how the Nazis bought everyone radios.
* Proposed new US funding rules: We can cancel any grant at any time.  Includes transferring responsibility for all grants from scientist boards to political officials.
* Very Low-IQ Trump Too Stoopid to Win War. I've had these moments playing grand strategy video games where smaller armies keep beating me, and I realize I'm far behind in military technology.  Ukraine and Iran are ahead in miltech, Russia and the U.S. are behind in miltech, because the drone doctrine is so effective.
* Hegseth torches identity politics in West Point speech: ‘Can’t throw your pronouns at the enemy’.  Our Secretary of War goes on a tirade against DEI and the woke, then points out that West Point is above politics.  Hmm.
* US envoy: Greenland ‘was not on a map’ until Trump ‘put it on a map’.  Yep, you heard that right.  Even though Greenland was on a paper map long before any portion of the United States. (Though maybe the Marshall Islands made it onto a Polynesian stick map first?)
* Barron Trump is not a time traveller – but there’s a reason the idea has gone viral.  It turns out, there is evidence.

The "too stoopid to win wars" story is the most consequential, since it means that the U.S. is no longer an indispensable nation, and other nations are free to change geopolitical alignment to reflect that.  The pronoun story is nearly as consequential, since it means that the U.S. military is not focused on drone supremacy so much as kicking out beardos from the ranks.