The Imperial Presidency, Part 2

[Dartz]

Right after a massive fireball plane crash is a great time to announce that too.

[Jinx999]

It appears that throwing a sandwich at someone in body armor does not constitute even misdemeanor assault.

And I'm rather scared that I don't have to explain what I'm talking about.

[Dartz]

Get it going fast enough, on the other hand...

How fast does a sammich have to go to be lethal?

[Jinx999]

Get it going fast enough, on the other hand...

How fast does a sammich have to go to be lethal?

It'd depend on how crusty the bread is.

Alternately, if you put on enough scotch bonnet peppers . . .

[robkelk]

And I'm rather scared that I don't have to explain what I'm talking about.

Well, I had to look it up...

Man who threw sandwich at U.S. federal agent found not guilty of assault

How fast does a sammich have to go to be lethal?

This can’t really happen. (Randall Munroe is a spoilsport.)

[hazard]

Actually, Randall Munroe rather makes the point that something that goes fast enough is going to be lethal. It just doesn't make a neat hole.

[classicdrogn]

Well, the case certainly wnet through the courts fast enough, but the lack of ability to learn on certain parties' side means the only thing that might have been killed by it are the "assault with a deli weapon" memes.

I'm getting better! Just fine really.

Someone hand me a baguette.

[ECSNorway]

Trump demands states "undo" state funding of food stamps to replace federal funding unavailable during the shutdown

Wisconsin, at least, has said "hell no" to this. No word what other states are doing yet.

[Labster]

The guy who threw the sandwich is a hero, and those charges didn't cut the mustard.

The shutdown is over, and it appears Senate Democrats, having made their point, decided to give in completely.  Oh, they're selling it as a win, but getting a vote on whether to keep Obamacare is already a losing prospect, because more than half of those folks campaigned on ending Obamacare.

I've read some articles that explained that the government shutdown was always a no-win scenario for the Democrats, because there were only two possible outcomes: (1) Democrats cave; (2) Republicans remove the filibuster and simply outvote the Democrats.  Because scenarios like "compromise with the other party" don't ever happen.  The whole thing feels rather seditious on both sides, simply because working together was never an option.  The only real cure is to remove first-past-the-post voting – pretty much every voting system does better than this.  Anything where multiple parties are actually viable.

We also learned that Trump was willing to inflict lots of pain on the poors to end the shutdown.  But I mean, wasn't his cruelty well established when he started keeping children in cages in the first term?

Meanwhile: Trump administration holds Situation Room meeting of possible release of Epstein files.  Some things, it turns out, are more dangerous than shutting down the government.

[robkelk]

The shutdown is over, ...

Which doesn't mean the economy will be back to normal any time soon.

[Dartz]

It's unusually to see 90% of Americans agree on something, but the release of the Epstein files is that something. Which makes me think the other 10% are afraid they're in them in some level.

Anyway, the consequence of the Democratic party finally giving in:
-Donald Trump is now blamed for the expiring of something which had been due to expire anyway
-Donald Trump is now blamed for the last weeks of suffering and hunger - he was happy to starve people to get his way
-A new critter gets added to congress to force the Epstein files to float up
----along with all the other bullshit surrounding them. Like the newspapers that killed the story to keep the Trump campaign rolling.

Trump is screeching like a man skinned alive and rolled in chilli powder. So it must be a good outcome.

[robkelk]

I haven't been paying attention to the news for a few days. What is His Orangeness trying to deflect attention away from this time?

In reversal, Trump urges Republicans to vote to release Epstein files

[Norgarth]

a leaked bit from the Epstein Files suggests that Trump once gave Bill Clinton a blowjob, and the resulting memes have gone viral

[Jinx999]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world...69176.html

Trump has said that upholding the Constitution should be punished with Death.

[classicdrogn]

Doing so is Trump's duty as President, but that hasn't stopped him yet. IIRC he specifically denied it in his first malignancy, despite being right there in the oath of office.

[Labster]

Yeah, yesterday was a really weird news day, with headlines like "White House walks back plan to execute Democrats".  And of course, Coast Guard reverses course on policy to call swastikas and nooses ‘potentially divisive’ -- once reporters noticed that swastikas were removed from the "hate speech" category.  On my bingo card, swastikas are not quite the new black, yet.

But it feels like it's coming.  There's a longer piece in the Guardian US, which I feel like it should probably be read with the usual advice that leftists are not going to understand right-wing movements fully.  But there's enough research that there's obviously something here: Tucker Carlson’s interview with the White nationalist Nick Fuentes revealed the mainstream right is being flooded by extremism – and it’s now impossible to contain.  It really does feel like the Republican party has changed alignment, with free traders of the past replaced by a President who has raised taxes many times on a whim.  But more to the point of this article, the next generation of rightist leaders sees no particular point in supporting Israel, and tends to view Jews as the source of the world's problems.  Now, where have I heard that one before?

I haven't been paying attention to the news for a few days. What is His Orangeness trying to deflect attention away from this time?

In reversal, Trump urges Republicans to vote to release Epstein files

While the Bill Clinton BJ news was fun, the main cause of this was really that Trump was going to lose, so he switched sides so that he could win for now.  Basically, they called in everyone they could and threatened them into un-signing the petition to place the bill on the agenda. No one budged.  And thus Republican members were put in the position of defying Trump or defying Trump's voters, and they sensibly chose the voters.  Sensing imminent defeat, Trump decided he wanted to release the Epstein files all along.  Which he could have done already... and he still gets to control which files are released.