The Frankish Reich

Wow. I suspect Surowiecki is right. This was slapdash DOGE-style made up numbers thing.

It's not about "want." Every judge takes an oath to be faithful to the constitution and laws of the United States. Sometimes the law compels a result.

Random thoughts. I like cheap imported stuff. I have a couple new LG TVs. Really awesome, particularly the OLED one. Made in South Korea. It'll be something like 34% more expensive next week. I don't want to pay that. Should I buy an American made TV? Hah. Show me one. I don't care where a T shirt is made. No investor is ever going to start up a T shirt factory in America. I would not feel any pride if America suddenly became the world's leading T shirt producer. In fact I would assume that it means America is seriously in decline if we've got tens of thousands of people on working in a T shirt sweat shop. I bought a German-made EV. Really pleased. Got a federal and state EV credit. Made it super affordable. It will cost 20% more next week. Why? Last I checked that German worker seems to have better working conditions than some schmuck on the GM assembly line in Michigan

That's the world to the Trumpies. The mainstream media is actually inferior to some rando named George. And some rando named George is superior to the poster here. Otherwise they'd just say it themselves instead of parroting every "George" who pops up on their Twitter feed.

I'll answer the first question because it's a serious one. There's a process. ICE arrests the alien, usually because he's committed a crime, sometimes because they have other information that he's a gang member. He's detained by ICE. He's not getting out unless HE (the burden here is on the alien; it's not a criminal case) can show that he's NOT a danger to the community. The judge takes evidence from both sides, and then decides whether the alien has met his burden. From what I've seen here, the judge said no, he hasn't met his burden of showing that he's NOT a danger to the community. So he stays in custody until his case is done. The alien can then say o.k., you got me on that (but I reserve my right to appeal the thing about being a gang member). But if you send me back to El Salvador, the government (or other gang members acting without the government doing anything to stop them) will torture me. Again, both sides - the alien and the ICE prosecutor - put on evidence. The alien's testimony is key, but isn't the only thing. The judge then decides whether the alien has me HIS burden of showing that it's more likely he'd be persecuted/tortured if returned to El Salvador. The judge here found it was. I don't know the case so I won't comment on whether that seems a a fair decision given the evidence. Suffice to say that a lot of appeals courts have said that yes, this is a real thing in El Salvador, at least at the time of his case (2019 I think). OK, so ICE can appeal if they think the judge was just flat-out wrong. Apparently they didn't. So there he is, in custody, with the judge having ordered him deported but also saying ICE isn't allowed to deport him to El Salvador. So ICE can go looking for another country. Maybe his grandmother was from Mexico and Mexico will take him. If so, he can be deported there right away. Or any other country. But in reality no other country wants him. The Supreme Court said they can't keep him detained forever; in fact, barring really special circumstances, they can't keep him detained more than 180 days. This was because before that Supreme Court decision aliens like the Marielitos from Cuba were detained for years at a time because Cuba or any other country wouldn't take them. ICE called them "lifers." Somebody sued and the Supreme Court said it's unconstitutional to detain someone forever just because no country will accept him That's how we got here in this an many cases. I actually applaud Trump's efforts to get tough with other countries to start accepting their people back (the Marielito situation), or with other friendly countries to start taking our former "lifers" if we can't send them back to their homes (El Salvador) because of a judge's proper order. People's opinions may differ, but that's the law and how it works, or sometimes fails us. Fix the law, don't break the law.

He sure isn't gonna bend the curve on bs. Remember that great omnibus budget bill that was supposed to come right away? They want to preserve the tax cuts that will be expiring, but there's absolutely no way to balance the books. They'll claim tariffs and DOGE and whatever will fill the gap. Same old sh!t.

Translation: he's a SALESMAN Sounds like Trump now wants some kind of ... I don't recall the name ... you know, the kind of thing he negotiated and signed with Canada in 2018?

So now we're back to the "raising tariffs to try to get every trade partner to agree to true free trade." Which of course is at odds with that wonderful new (c. 1789) External Revenue Service (Customs Service) that will provide us with tons of tax-free revenue. Make your mind up time. Or rely on low information voters. How would total removal of tariffs not shift production to the lowest cost producers? I thought this was about bringing manufacturing back to fortress America? Will you fools ever admit that this makes zero sense.

We could simply do a national VAT instead of tariffs. More efficient, more predictable for businesses, etc. But that would be a "tax hike" (after all, the name is Value Added Tax). So let's sneak a new tax in as a tariff and the poorly educated base won't realize it's a tax.

On Social Security: the fraud is in the disability part, not in the retirement part. Why is no one talking about that? Same thing on the VA side: the fraud is in service-related disability claims, not in people getting too much health care treatment. Why is no one talking about that?

Let's look at how the process worked here. And by "worked" I mean "reached a rational decision based on the available facts" up until Trump ICE mistakenly (read: illegally) deported him to El Salvador. - arrested, detained, and brought before an Immigration Judge. He asks to be released on bail to fight his "withholding of removal" (a lesser type of asylum) case from the outside. The judge considers all the evidence, finds that he is an MS 13 gang members, and orders him detained. He'll have to fight his case from the inside. - Judge holds a hearing whether he should be deported. Finds that yes, he is subject to deportation. But also finds that his evidence shows that he'd likely be persecuted if returned to El Salvador. That allows ICE to send him to any country other than El Salvador. Apparently ICE doesn't appeal and accepts that result. So we have a judge who determined that he is a gang member, but that he would be persecuted if sent back to El Salvador. And so he's protected from deportation to that country. This is based on our treaty obligation not to send someone back to a country if he/she has established that he/she would be subjected to extreme abuse. We, as a country, agreed to this standard after WW2. So did almost all other countries. It is the law. I don't know if/why he was released after his case was done. The Trump administration is correct in trying to find alternative countries to accept these aliens who can't (for legal or practical reasons) be sent back to their native country. None of that changes the fact that this deportation was against the law. It was a "mistake" as the White House admits, but it was also a mistake that resulted in a violation of the law. He should be brought back, not to be set free, but to be held in detention until some other country agrees to take him. His wife and kid can join him there. I have a rather quaint (these days) belief that our government should follow the laws it has enacted.

Wow, look at that Bosa kid!

I had no idea anyone kept track of this. Can I place a wager on it now that I know? I'll take laces out at 25:1

I hated that circus, but I also hated the huge amounts of money pumped into a judicial election by both sides. Elections for judges have always bothered me, since they're supposed to be above the partisan political fray. I get it: today people view judges - including and maybe particularly high court judges - as politicians in robes. Obviously there's some truth to that. But this electioneering opens the floodgates to a particularly rotten circus. Life tenure is supposed to save federal judges from this. I think we need something in between, like set lengthy (15 year) terms.

So about 15% of voters agreed with Voter ID, but also voted for the liberal Supreme Court judge. Sometimes we do need to listen to the voice of the people. Maybe someday there will be a sensible political party again.

I saw that. And I think I would have voted in favor too. And I would also vote for the liberal Supreme Court justice, who so far is in good shape. I don't think there's anything inconsistent about those results, and I think it show what a weird place we are in politically that people consider them inconsistent.

Apparent reason: hey, don't forget about me! I'm made of presidential timber!! You try to create a perfect Democratic candidate, you start objectively with Cory Booker's attributes. Kind of an Obama Jr. But somehow the whole is way less than the sum of the parts. I just don't see it.

Right. Talk about Orwellian.

It was an illegal deportation. The Trumpistas are generally correctly citing the background. But here's the key: a judge found that he is properly deportable, but also found that it was more likely than not that he would be subject to extreme abuse (persecution) if returned to his native El Salvador. And this happened under Trump 1.0, so if his Homeland Security officials disagreed they had the right to appeal that decision to try to get it overturned. Apparently they didn't. So it became final. That meant that the U.S. could deport him to any country other than El Salvador. Get Venezuela to take him? Fine, off he goes. Get Mexico or Honduras or Vanuatu to take him, same thing. There's literally one place you can't send him: El Salvador. And they sent him to El Salvador. Yes, we should request his return, not to freedom in the USA, but to immigration detention in the USA. And then we should look for an alternative country that will let him in, and deport him to that country. Or if the DHS thinks they can show he'd no longer be subject to persecution in El Salvador, they can ask the judge to reopen the case to update the evidence and basically start again. That's how it works, that's what obeying court orders means. In America we fix our errors when we can, and try to get it right the second time around. At least we have for a couple centuries now.

Let's begin with some extra spacing so Tarheel can't pretend he just happened upon this. / / / / / / / / / / That should do it. The good thing is your vote is still private. Elon can't make you come in with your ballot, make sure you've ticked the Republican candidate, and then watch you deposit it in the box. But I'll admit here that this is a real concern with vote by mail and other non-voting booth old fashioned in-person voting ... ... Having said that, the fact that some Young Republican college organizer "won" the random drawing does raise and eyebrow, doesn't it?

I’m not sure it has anything to do with Trump directly. But has any Russian player said anything vaguely anti-Putin? That’s the kind of fear Putin strikes in any would be opponent. You’ll end up falling out of a window or grabbing a radioactive doorknob.

Sh!t. This is buried on Page 3 of the Moderna COVID warnings: Avoid severe impacts to the chest/thorax area, including those that may be incurred in a vehicular collision or during an NFL contest.

I thought we needed to eliminate the FBI? What's Pammy doing praising it? Good to see Kash is eyeballing foreign gangsters. Two at a time.

I guess Russians buy hockey skates too.

Yeah, I was - still am - kind of late to the whole "he's just trolling the left" party. I've been told that we did have a peaceful transition of power on January 20, 2021. You know, the peaceful transition that followed the violent attempt to stop that transition. It was all a joke!