All Things Trump: the story continues...

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Trump claims a win by appointing....losers?
https://www.comicsands.com/mohyeldin-tr ... cal-losers

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Mohyeldin pointed out some very inconvenient facts about Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio and former Hawaii lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard, among others:
Let’s start with Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida or Little Marco, as Trump repeatedly called him as he wiped the floor with him during the Republican presidential primary back in 2016. Rubio may now enjoy a second act as Trump’s new secretary of state."
"And then there’s Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, the one-time surrogate for Bernie Sanders, who lost the Democratic nomination for president in 2020."
"It’s not just people who have tried to compete with Trump for the White House and failed. Trump has also welcomed figures into the fold who have lost key races for the Republican Party. Mehmet Oz, for example, tapped to be head of Medicare and Medicaid. He lost the Pennsylvania Senate race two years ago to John Fetterman."

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Trump Won’t Visit His NJ Golf Course Because He Fears Drones: US “Military Knows Where They Took Off From”
Trump said he will avoid going to his Bedminister property this weekend, amidst reports of drones hovering over New Jersey. “Something strange is going on — for some reason, [the government] don’t wanna tell the people. And they should,” Trump said. “I mean they happen to be over Bedminster.”

Trump said that the drones are “very close to Bedminister.” He did not comment when asked if he had received an intelligence briefing on the drone activity. “I think maybe I won’t spend the weekend in Bedminster,” Trump added. “I decided to cancel my trip.”

Politico/https://www.joemygod.com

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Tariff fallout
Author Headshot
By Damien Cave
I cover shifting power dynamics in Asia.

The law of surprise
Trump and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, each seek to dominate the other through trade policy.

But Vietnam shows it will not always go according to plan. Economic nationalism does not reliably hurt a rival or help an ally. Trade wars scatter impacts across the globe in ways that leaders struggle to predict and manage.

Especially in Asia, where free trade created supply chains that crisscross many countries, the era of Xi and Trump has made prosperity feel precarious. Northern Vietnam’s boom this year could be next year’s bust if Washington changes course. Meanwhile, Xi has subsidized exports — threatening local industry in several countries as they fill up with cheap Chinese goods.

“Power is shifting,” said Bruno Jaspaert, an executive in Haiphong with business experience in Europe, the United States, Asia and the Middle East. “Over time, the most important factors — to survive — are resilience and flexibility.”

NYT

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Trans people no longer a threat and schools no longer turning boys into girls on a daily basisi
aaron.rupar
45m45 minutes ago

"Trump barely pretends to understand the broad outlines, much less the nuances, of his own agenda. Pressed on actual issues, he flatters himself and talks about how great he’s going to make everything. But he offers few details, and when he does, they're conspiracy theories and lies."
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-tim ... rview-2024
The most egregious example involves inflation and grocery prices. Throughout the campaign, Trump insisted that he would not just slow inflation but would actually create deflation. In October, he said on camera that his policies would “rapidly drive prices down” and “bring your grocery bill way down.” But in the Time interview, Trump reverses himself (without of course acknowledging that he’s doing so).
Time correspondents asked Trump, “If the prices of groceries don’t come down, will your presidency be a failure?” He demurred, pointing to practical limits on presidential power which he pretended do not exist during the campaign.

One of the most strikingly bizarre moments in the interview is when Trump tries to present himself as a moderate of sorts on trans issues, despite being fresh off a campaign where he spent millions on viciously transphobic ads. On the stump he spread dangerous lies about trans health care, claiming that public schools are secretly referring students for gender-affirming surgery without parental consent or notification. (This literally never happens.)

Yet, when asked about policies affecting trans people by Time, Trump downplayed them and suggested the country should be focused on more important issues.

“It’s a very small number of people we’re talking about, and it’s ripped apart our country,” he fulminated — as if his own campaign hadn’t done everything it could to inflame things.

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It will be a bit more difficult for RFK Jr and Trump to peddle hydroxochloreoquine for Covid once more.
https://www.science.org/content/article ... -retracted

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Marjorie and Trump:
Marjorie Taylor Greene refused to pledge against Social Security cuts, angrily dismissing an advocate and throwing Trump’s promise on the floor.

https://www.rawstory.com/marjorie-taylo ... -security/

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eating pets gets prize
https://www.threads.net/@judiciarydems/ ... QjXZ9NYNEQ
PolitiFact's lie of the year

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Trump the impounder

President-elect Donald Trump wants to do things differently. He and his allies want the incoming administration to be able to block lawfully appropriated funds by Congress whenever they feel like it, a tactic known as impoundment. Earlier this year, Trump promised to revive it from the graveyard of constitutional dubiousness. “We’re going to bring back presidential impoundment authority, which nobody knows what it is,” he told a crowd of supporters at a campaign rally. “But it allows the president to go out and cut things and save a fortune for our country. Things that make no sense.”

While “nobody” might be a stretch, Trump is correct that most people are probably unfamiliar with “presidential impoundment authority.” There are three good reasons for this. The first one is that impoundment is unconstitutional. The Constitution makes clear that the power of the purse—the federal government’s ability to appropriate and budget funds—belongs solely to Congress.

There is some wiggle room on this in practice. Sometimes Congress gives the president some discretion over how funds can be spent for certain programs. When it comes to foreign policy, lawmakers have sometimes given presidents special tools to quickly disburse foreign aid or spend on military assistance to American allies, recognizing that Congress may not be able to convene and act fast enough in some cases. But these discretionary measures—which lawmakers themselves set—are all down President-elect Donald Trump wants to do things differently. He and his allies want the incoming administration to be able to block lawfully appropriated funds by Congress whenever they feel like it, a tactic known as impoundment. Earlier this year, Trump promised to revive it from the graveyard of constitutional dubiousness. “We’re going to bring back presidential impoundment authority, which nobody knows what it is,” he told a crowd of supporters at a campaign rally. “But it allows the president to go out and cut things and save a fortune for our country. Things that make no sense.”

While “nobody” might be a stretch, Trump is correct that most people are probably unfamiliar with “presidential impoundment authority.” There are three good reasons for this. The first one is that impoundment is unconstitutional. The Constitution makes clear that the power of the purse—the federal government’s ability to appropriate and budget funds—belongs solely to Congress.

There is some wiggle room on this in practice. Sometimes Congress gives the president some discretion over how funds can be spent for certain programs. When it comes to foreign policy, lawmakers have sometimes given presidents special tools to quickly disburse foreign aid or spend on military assistance to American allies, recognizing that Congress may not be able to convene and act fast enough in some cases. But these discretionary measures—which lawmakers themselves set—are all down stream of Congress’s ultimate control over how federal funds are spent.

Presidents have sometimes claimed that there is an unspoken constitutional power of impoundment. (More on that claim momentarily.) But the Supreme Court has never endorsed that theory.

....stream of Congress’s ultimate control over how federal funds are spent.

Presidents have sometimes claimed that there is an unspoken constitutional power of impoundment. (More on that claim momentarily.) But the Supreme Court has never endorsed that theory
To settle the impoundment issue, Congress passed the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act of 1974. It created a specific mechanism for rescinding funds where presidents can formally request it and both chambers of Congress have 45 days to each approve it. If Congress does not act, the money stays appropriated. Absent that procedure, presidents can’t lawfully impound congressionally authorized funds.

That may not stop Trump from trying it again.

....in The New York Times. “The votes the people cast for their representatives would become meaningless acts. Unchecked by this fundamental legislative power, any President would have the autocratic prerogative to do and spend as he pleases.”

This reasoning may explain why Trump supports it. While the president-elect does not formally take power until January 20, he is making clear that he plans to rule autocratically once he does. He successfully persuaded the Supreme Court this year to grant him sweeping immunity from future criminal prosecutions. He has proposed forcing the Senate to adjourn so he can try to appoint a variety of unqualified and unsuitable officials without the chamber’s “advice and consent,” as the Constitution demands.

https://newrepublic.com/maz/article/189 ... t-congress

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Trump and Elon will not stop until both pay no tax.

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bluewavemaureen
8m8 minutes ago
Privatization of any government program is solely about moving huge amounts of public money into the hands of the very wealthy.
Example: Medicare Advantage, School vouchers
Future example: Your Social Security
It's all a scam for the movement of cash.
+Let's privatize space flight!

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Entire GOP bows to Musk and Trump -- budget fails
the.happy.medic
7h7 hours ago
Hot take:
Trump wants the CR to fail. Gov shuts down over the holidays, people freak out, he gets to have a super low key inauguration party and pocket the money, then is the hero reopening for business.

yasharali
7h7 hours ago
Republican members of congress are seeking validation from Elon Musk — including those who can’t even vote on the CR.
And note Jake Sherman’s quote tweet of Musk where he demands that Congress not pass any bills until Trump becomes President.
https://www.threads.net/@the.happy.medi ... uoFJfu1HPg

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And now Musk and Trump are fighting. And...Trump will be begging Democrats to cut taxes for Musk and the rich. Because he no longer has 50 senators.

Trump may finally have realized Biden is messing with him the last few weeks.

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Trump will not get Biden to raise the debt ceiling.
https://www.threads.net/@aaron.rupar/po ... vf42Zo7AVQ
aaron.rupar
11m11 minutes ago
Sen. Whitehouse: "The toddlers are clearly running the kindergarten over at the House Republican caucus."
https://www.threads.net/@aaron.rupar/po ... vf42Zo7AVQ

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The 4 year chaos starts now:

....Even if the impasse leads to a damaging government shutdown, that may represent progress for some since the government itself is viewed with disdain on the populist right. And by taking aim at the Washington status quo even before he takes the oath of office, Trump is doing exactly what he said he’d do on the campaign trail.

In his biography of the SpaceX pioneer, Walter Isaacson described the philosophy of the president-elect’s new super buddy as “Take risks. Learn by blowing things up. Revise. Repeat.”

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/19/politics ... index.html

Genius Musk on Twitter: quotes

Libs of TikTok
@libsoftiktok
BREAKING: New Congressional Resolution bill includes funding for at least 12 new biolabs

Elon says the US is funding bioweapons labs.

They are disguised as Bio containment Research Labs in the Bill.