Girard442
Girard442's JournalAL Sec of State is choosing his words very carefully.
Almost sounds like he's testifying in court. Good move on his part, I'd say.
Well, that's one lawless bastard down... nt
A possible endgame.
Let's suppose that Mueller ends up in the possession of an undeniable smoking gun: an irrefutably authentic record of a conversation between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump where Trump promises to sell out the interests of the United States to Putin in exchange for Putin's forgiveness of Trump's massive debts and a promise to never reveal the kompromat that Putin holds.
When the Joint Chiefs of Staff realize the evidence is not only true beyond a doubt, but also will become public to a worldwide audience, they go to congressional leaders with the following dilemma: military officers swear:
I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." The Oath of Office (for officers): "I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the _____ (Military Branch) of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.
Two problems: What do you do if you can't both defend the Constitution and follow the orders of the President? And, military officers are not bound by orders that are illegal, but can any order from a President who is actively functioning as an agent of a foreign power be legal? Wouldn't that mean that, for all practical purposes, there is no president?
Wouldn't Congress be compelled to remove Trump at that point, or stand by and watch a military coup?
Did you ever wonder how secure Trump's Twitter feed is?
I mean, Twitter is a social media company. I don't know that they ever made provisions to "harden" their service to the point it can be reliably used by the POTUS to make major announcements. That's no dig against them -- it's not their job. But -- imagine a 3:00 a.m. Trump tweet that threatens to ignite a major war. We couldn't even know for sure it's him.
So, are there people in the White House who could control Trump's tweeting?
If there are, they've clearly chosen not to and to let him display his dysfunction for all the world to see, to fritter away his authority as POTUS and CIC, and possibly to prepare a path for a 25th Amendment exit.
If there aren't, then a madman is running around unrestrained in the White House.
My pick for Time's POTY: the dirtbag politician.
Donald Trump, Roy Moore, Joe Arpaio -- naturals for the cover. There are lots more.
Why the "for all have sinned" concept is harmful.
We're seeing a response to the revelations of the behaviors of Donald Trump, Roy Moore and Harvey Weinstein that includes accusations (and sometimes confessions) of inappropriate behavior by many others, most notably Senator Al Franken. In most cases, it looks like the accusations are grounded in reality. The response from the conservative side of the aisle is tending to "See, everybody does it. It's not a big deal."
No, no, no! Everybody doesn't do it. There is no It. Saying all have sinned is corralling vicious sociopaths in with a large group of people whose actions and attitudes span the spectrum from Trump/Moore/Weinstein to thoroughly decent people caught up in misunderstandings. You might as well put the Vegas shooter in the same category of sinner as someone who was in a playground scuffle while in elementary school.
Should Senator Franken apologize? I don't know. He did. Does he regret his actions? Pretty sure he does now. Does he belong in the dustbin of history along with Trump, Moore, and Weinstein?
No ****ing way.
A question about eBay, if this is an OK place to ask.
Retired, decided to bite the bullet, downsize, and eBay a bunch of stuff. I decided to put one little item up for sale and ask my GF to buy it, just so I could be sure that I had all my ducks in a row with eBay and PayPal. No shilling or any funny stuff, just wanted to be sure that I hadn't overlooked anything so I wouldn't get a negative report right out of the starting gate with my first real customer.
When she tries to "buy it now", eBay is unresponsive. Could this be because we use the same Internet connection and the same IP and eBay is flagging us as fraudsters?
On edit: Turned out the answer was right in front of me. Looks like eBay, when it sees the IP match, sends you directly to a page that's not the usual page for items. "Buy it now" just won't work there. The good news is that there are no nastygrams in my eBay inbox, so I guess I don't have to go to eBay confession.
Thanks to all who replied.
The Don't Eat Yellow Snow Foundation.
With the approach of winter, I've decided to form a foundation that will address one of our country's major cold weather situations: health problems caused by the consumption of yellow snow. Plans are incomplete at this time, but I am soliciting the support of prominent people to warn against eating discolored frozen precipitation. The following are currently on my list:
Hillary Clinton
Bill Clinton
Bernie Sanders
Barack Obama
Joe Biden
Al Franken
Nancy Pelosi
Al Gore
George Soros
John Stewart
Steven Colbert
John Oliver
Barbara Streisand
Colin Kaepernick
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
I am sure that no one anywhere would question the recommendations of such a worthy group were I able to gain their support. I welcome suggestions.
P.S. This is not an exclusively American effort. I am receiving expressions of interest from North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela which I cannot discuss more at this time.
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