[Thanos]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

The power of the US would diminish globally anyway with the resurrection of Russia and the rise of China--factors it has little control over.

That's why I think Trump was America's Nero moment.

- America's hard power (military intimidation, economic warfare) has increased incredibly; it's their soft power (diplomacy, foreign aid) that's in steep decline as they turn from a friendly nation that provided aid into a post-9/11 permanently angry & paranoid one; in Africa, for example, China has rushed in to finance business and local aid projects that the US used to do but no longer does in the name of "austerity" in foreign spending

- Russia is not resurrecting; their demographics are still in a state of collapse with fewer children being born; their collective alcoholism is a major social crisis, sanctions against them for the invasion of Ukraine effectively kneecapped their economy, and the system of pandemic gangsterism that's thrived under Putin makes Russia a place where legitimate business and capital will not invest

- China is what it is but their aims are still solidly more to becoming the regional great power and leader than it is to world domination; they are nothing to fear along the same lines as the Soviet Union was during the Cold War, not when they're far better off being a supplier to the world than just another militarist oppressor

- I'd say Trump was more Commodus than Nero; Nero was more of a one-off degenerate side-step as Rome was still growing in power; Commodus however was the cruel and vicious wastrel that is commonly seen as the beginning of the end of the line of "good" emperors, and his reign effectively kicked off the crisis of Rome's third century; I see the exact same thing with Trump and the US, in that he is the most vivid marker of a cross-culture collapse of morals & ethics in America, with a celebration of brutality and base mean-ness erupting just like it did under Commodus and others of his ilk like Caracalla; the worst part is that the modern American political system doesn't appear to be capable of producing the sort of Septimius Severus type of occasional saviour that the US will be desperately needing (and soon)

[Coach85]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

https://newrepublic.com/minutes/148719/ ... al-pardons

That article references Ted Cruz's paper that was published by Harvard University...hardly a right-wing nutjob website.

Nothing about the Obama administration.

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Here's the paper:

http://www.harvard-jlpp.com/wp-content/ ... _Final.pdf

Note that Cruz is being called out for 'forgetting' his documented opinion on the matter.

Also note that the issue was circa 2015.

Again, no mention of the Obama administration.

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

By the way, my original comment wasn't making an accusation I was just citing an anecdotal observation.

If that somehow makes your day by saying I didn't back up something I never intended to back up in the first place then so be it.

It's hard to back up lies, which is why I asked you to do so.

You then proceeded to share articles about Republican, clearly confused at your initial mussing that got you to this point.

[BartSimpson]

Coach85 Coach85:

Nothing about the Obama administration.

...

Again, no mention of the Obama administration.

Look, I can't help you if you won't even read the first fucking page of the first link.

$1:

Cruz was being forgetful. As legal scholars on Twitter pointed out, in 2015 Cruz authored an article titled “The Obama Administration’s Unprecedented Lawlessness” for The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. In that article, Cruz wrote extensively about the powers of presidential pardon, arguing for a limited view of presidential authority.

And then you don't think that a paper entitled The Obama Administration’s Unprecedented Lawlessness doesn't mention the Obama Administration?

I mean if you want to prove what an obstinate ass you are then I say well done!

But whatever the fuck else you're trying to prove you just lost.

[Coach85]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Look, I can't help you if you won't even read the first fucking page of the first link.

But whatever the fuck else you're trying to prove you just lost.

Are you always this dumb?

You make reference to the Obama administration considering the possibility of pardoning Obama himself.

"Obama pardon himself" is what you told us to search. Right?

Obama nor his administration ever considered the possibility. Ted Cruz wasn't part of Obama's administration last time I checked.

Do you even remember your own comments? Do you need me to use a larger font to highligh your own words?

[Prof_Chomsky]

Coach85 Coach85:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Look, I can't help you if you won't even read the first fucking page of the first link.

But whatever the fuck else you're trying to prove you just lost.

Are you always this dumb?

You make reference to the Obama administration considering the possibility of pardoning Obama himself.

"Obama pardon himself" is what you told us to search. Right?

Obama nor his administration ever considered the possibility. Ted Cruz wasn't part of Obama's administration last time I checked.

Do you even remember your own comments? Do you need me to use a larger font to highligh your own words?

Bart can't help himself. He has a touch of downs. I'd say at least half an extra chromosome. Having Obama's political rivals say Obama is checking on pardon powers is the exact same, in Bart's little misfiring brain, as Obama actively trying to pardon himself... what he wanted to pardon himself for I'm not sure. Maybe for being born Kenyan?


On that same note, I much appreciate Bart's legal expertise that Trump “does indeed have the Constitutional authority to pardon himself”. I had no idea he was also a constitutional scholar. I mean, even our actual constitutional scholars aren’t sure if the president has the power to pardon himself. They're split on the issue since half of them seem to think "pardon power" includes anyone, and the other half think the power to pardon yourself is the power of kings which the constitution was specifically written to protect against and had they intended the president be able to pardon himself they would have said something like "The president has the power to pardon anyone, including himself"... but Bart knows.

[Tricks]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

So do you.

http://www.politifact.com/personalities ... ing/false/

4 pages vs 10. 2 years into presidency. Just saying. Lying is bad. One is objectively worse than the other.

http://www.politifact.com/personalities ... ing/false/

[herbie]

OMG using The Obama Administration’s Unprecedented Lawlessness by Ted Cruz to backup an argument. The epitome of desperation.

[BartSimpson]

herbie herbie:

OMG using The Obama Administration’s Unprecedented Lawlessness by Ted Cruz to backup an argument. The epitome of desperation.

Oh, fuck off...that goes for Coach, too.

All I'm saying is that it was a topic of discussion in 2015. Which it was.

[Coach85]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

herbie herbie:

OMG using The Obama Administration’s Unprecedented Lawlessness by Ted Cruz to backup an argument. The epitome of desperation.

Oh, fuck off...that goes for Coach, too.

All I'm saying is that it was a topic of discussion in 2015. Which it was.

No, Bart.

Fuck you.

You're lying again.

You tried to tell us that this was a topic of conversation within the Obama administration. A total lie.

Your words:

$1:

the Obama Administration danced around with the subject back in 2015

You doubled down with:

$1:

search "Obama pardon himself" and you'll find a cluster of referenced stories in 2015

You then posted a piece from a right-wing nutter site that referred to Ted Cruz talking about pardons, as if that somehow relates to Obama?

Get your shit straight, stop lying and man-up when you make a mistake.

[Public_Domain]

[GreenTiger]

Coach85 Coach85:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

Trump claims. Trump says. Trump tweets. Deeds speak louder than words. The guy's an incessant windbag. The whole sh-bang is just comedy theatre, a reality show made real.

He's a showman, entertainer, and a populist.

And people like that.

And a liar.

You guys LOVE that!

Showman, entertainer, populist and a liar, sounds like the operational definition of the noun “politician” these days.

[BeaverFever]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

$1:

the Obama Administration danced around with the subject back in 2015

Got a link for that claim?

That's the thing - you need to search "Obama pardon himself" and you'll find a cluster of referenced stories in 2015. Nothing specific but just the number of such stories from political wonk groups would indicate that someone official was floating the idea.

And, again, there's nothing wrong with floating ideas. That's a normal practice.

Did he also float the idea of ejecting from his cockpit without first ejecting his canopy?