The Frankish Reich

Harvest, harvest, harvest. Reprogram, reprogram, reprogram. And then have Veep Kamala certify. Whatcha gonna do about it, big guy?

Iron Law of Trumpian Projection.

Agreed. But I will add: there's also a ton of fraud with the EITC/additional child tax credit, and that fraud occurs in the lower-income returns. A lot of people who file those returns don't even know that some unscrupulous tax preparer included false dependents. I've seen this (a lot of times) in returns from recent immigrants, legal or not. Since these are so called "refundable" credits, someone who had no withholding will still get a nice Easter present from Uncle Sam. So we shouldn't audit those returns if they show several nephews and nieces as "dependents" because, after all, these folks are not rich?

Example of this kind of Law School Exam analysis: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/fac_artchop/1012/#:~:text=In fact%2C the relevant constitutional,that office to the Presidency Read my last comment. I think it's a horrible idea. I wouldn't want it to happen with Obama in 2024 or Trump in 2028. But honestly, what do you think Trump would do if he is elected in '24 and still wants to hang on to the presidency? The playbook is out there, and it's pretty much what his mancrush Putin did in Russia about a dozen years ago.

Sorry, that doesn't do it either. It's long been a hypothetical question. And it is today too. Let's hope it stays that way. But it's kind of a loophole in the constitution. Biden-Barack ticket elected, Biden resigns right after inauguration, third Obama Term follows. In 2028 if Trump is President we'll be hearing about this: Burgum (or some other nobody) nominated for Pres, Trump for VP, with the understanding that Burgum will step down.

I remember my dad saying that when I was a kid. A guy would get popped, stay down, and dad would say "swallowed his tongue." A phrase that certainly made an impression. Nobody says that anymore. Urban myth exploded?

Wow, I guess Tommy Boy never thought of that! Or maybe he did think of that and he puts $399,999 on his return and doesn't want to be audited.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/20/uaw-contract-ford-general-motors-stellantis/ OK, not the Teamster; the UAW. But with Biden behind the Unions bigly, here's the contract the UAW signed with the "U.S." Big Three (Stellantis is only honorary U.S. at this point): The UAW contracts include raises of at least 25 percent for the highest-paid workers, to more than $40 an hour, and even bigger gains of up to 160 percent for the lowest-paid, who will also reach more than $40 an hour by the end of the contract. The deals come after a long period of worker wages not keeping up with inflation, and after the union gave up some of its benefits around the time of the Great Recession, when the automakers were struggling to survive. The union managed to claw back many of those perks in the new deals, including restoring regular cost-of-living wage adjustments to offset inflation. And it fought to reopen a large Stellantis factory in Belvidere, Ill., in a rare reversal of the plant closings that have harmed industrial communities for decades. “These were just extraordinary wins, especially for those of us who’ve been studying strikes for decades,” said Jake Rosenfeld, a sociology professor and labor expert at Washington University in St. Louis. 40 bucks an hour = $80,000 + per year. Plus good benefits. So the Republican Convention is in the near-sh!thole city of Milwaukee, a somewhat more prosperous Buffalo (thanks for the compliment, Donald). The average home price in Milwaukee? $209,000. Can you afford that on an $80,000 salary? Yeah. Easily. $1266/month for principal and interest. Sure, insurance ain't cheap. But still ... affordable. Maybe your spouse works there too: $160,000. Or is a teacher: $40,000 - $82,000 a year, so $120,000 - 164,000 for the household. Stop whining. The sh!thole cities of America are cheap. That's what you'll find in WI, MI, PA, WNY. Not exactly garden spots. Go ahead Union workers, and forget what side your bread is buttered on. You got a helluva deal. Elect Trump and get a whole new NLRB, with a Supreme Court that eventually says the NLRB is unconstitutional and can be ignored. [I'm not saying this kind of union deal is a good thing from an overall economic standpoint. In fact, the next recession will probably send all 3 into bankruptcy and void the contracts. But for now, enjoy the spoils of a Democratic pro-union administration ...]

Thank you. If I remember correctly, you are an accountant, so you know what you're talking about. Shocker: tax cheats annoyed that someone will actually check their returns.

Where? Full text: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term. Why not? No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

They really should just give away their country to Putin, shouldn't they. I always thought being President was an open book exam.

A couple flubs of the minor sort. A bit mumbly. Boring. Generally perfectly o.k. in a "meets [pre-debate] expectations" way. If he'd done this 2 weeks ago we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Trumpies: Biden's mind is shot! He has no business being President for four more months, much less four more years. [a year passes] Dems: o.k., o.k., we give up. You're right. We're replacing Biden! Trumpies: how dare you nominate a competent candidate! So unfair! Our entire campaign is based on Biden being a brain dead!! https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/republicans-no-fair-nominating-somebody-else.html

Which is why I'm praying that he screws up.

He just introduced Zelensky as "Putin." So we're off to a good start. Hey, they're both short!

I had him as an 80-something man who in a country that is not so sclerotic that it can't amend its constitution would be forbidden from running again. I had him as an 80-something man who would get confused ordering at Chipotle but who has a good grasp on his beliefs.

Please cite me the part of the constitution that prohibits Obama advising the President, or even formally being made part of the President's administration.

Why not? Why wouldn't he be? If Biden were to make him his Chief of Staff what in the constitution prohibits that? You know there was a time when Presidents gladly took the counsel of their predecessors, particularly those of the same party.

Yes, call it the "Deep State" if you want. I call it "the professionals in government who know what they're doing." See my old topic "Two Cheers for the Deep State." See also Michael Lewis's The Fifth Risk. Continuity in government is important. Dare I say it is a conservative value. Threatening to break things without a plan on how to put them back together is a deeply radical agenda. Yeah, you guys are the very definition of stable geniuses. (I don't even know what DMIC is supposed to mean, but I sense that maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with The Jews and George Soros)

So no problem! Reelect Obama under the name of Biden. You guys have talked yourselves into knots.

Aha! So Obama IS running things. And the problem with that is ... what? He's way younger, smarter, better looking than Trump.

Of course he could just fire all his Cabinet members and have occasional meetings with the Acting Something Something and the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director just like his predecessor did.

Can he make Obama VP? Nothing says he can't run for that! Then he drops dead and we have Obama III. I like it.

Astoundingly hard for you to understand, but I'll try again. 1. Not o.k. that a senile octogenarian is president. 2. More not o.k. that a power-mad septuagenarian who tried and almost succeeded in thwarting the will of the people is made president again.

Was 2nd term Reagan an effective president? I think so. And yet there's this: https://www.history.com/news/reagan-health-25th-amendment The president was acting strangely. In the wake of a scandal about his illegal dealings with foreign powers, White House aides felt he was so “inattentive and inept” that a memo sent to the chief of staff raised the prospect of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. The president was Ronald Reagan, who was dealing with fallout from the Iran-Contra scandal. His chief of staff ultimately dismissed the possibility of using the 25th Amendment to remove him, but the incident is one of the few cases in American history in which White House staff seriously suggested it as an option for removing a president from office, based on his ability to perform the job.