The Frankish Reich

This one drove a now-exiled poster into a he-doth-protesteth-too-much rage: https://www.theonion.com/man-knows-unsettling-amount-about-nationwide-age-of-con-1819565878 We have some current posters who similarly know an unsettling amount about various practices of the fringiest parts of the LGBT community. The power to throw a nutcase into a rage is usually a sign that the humor is on point ...

Yeah, but not just any British comedian; a heroin addict British comedian. So special insight. They already tried that.

Yep. That's Audi. Or even Porsche. But not BMW. Now, Mini Cooper = BMW. With really bad quality control, that is.

I haven't read the whole Sotomayor dissent. But here's something to be aware of: this is how appeals court arguments go! Justice Breyer was famous for asking long hypotheticals, sometimes with fact patterns this bizarre. What they're trying to do is to get the other side to concede that under some circumstances their view (that complete loan forgiveness is authorized) may be acceptable. That shoots down the argument that under the language Congress used, loan forgiveness is never authorized. If the other side (or another Justice) says, yeah, well, we're not talking about that, then you've made your point. [Granted, this is a silly hypothetical. But still, appellate lawyers are used to this kind of thing]

Yeah, right. Drew Allen, AKA ‘the Millennial Minister of Truth,’ is the host of the ‘Drew Allen Show’ podcast. He is an author, columnist, and political analyst. His voice has been heard on radio stations all across the country and his columns published at American Greatness, PJ Media, Bizpac Review, Townhall, Human Events, to name a few. I wouldn't mind if he presented himself as a reporter/journalist, the kind of "I spoke with [blank], a constitutional and national security law specialist at [blank], and he told me that ... ." But these guys act like they themselves have some expertise. No degrees or even areas of expertise - just the self-appointed "Millennial Minister of Truth." And those are the "sources" people who post here rely on. Are they lazy? Uninterested in actually learning or understanding the issues? Simply trolling? Self-deluding? You tell me. It's just a stupid way to live.

He's a bit young, but yes, he seems bright, seems sane, and seems to be an actual Republican.

At the peak of his powers! The Dementia Derby. "In the later stages, memory loss becomes far more severe. A person may not recognize family members, may forget relationships, call family members by other names, or become confused about the location of home or the passage of time."

You mean, actual Republicans?

So ... you disagree with another poster who quoted an article saying that we need to eliminate all these "buy American" things, and you favor a "buy American" thing?

I'm not "offended" by the Babylon Bee. It is just consistently unfunny. I mean, just a pale imitation of peak Onion.

This is why people should be careful of what they wish for. This is why we should wish for a Supreme Court that doesn't just see the "liberal" or "conservative" side of the moment, but thinks about the implications of its decisions when the tables are turned. Example: Dobbs (abortion). Roe rested on the same amorphous "right to privacy" that Griswold ("right to contraception") rested on. Now, no state seems interested in banning contraception, so presumably that won't happen. But logically, if one (Roe) was incorrectly decided, the other one (Griswold) was too. Example: many progressives are upset about the student loan forgiveness decision. The Court found that Congress needs to be explicit about granting the President some authority that is really Congress's authority - the spending power here. But the shoe can be on the other foot: Trump used Title 42 to summarily deport thousands of people based on the same public health emergency. And Biden continued to do it. I think that was also an abuse of the limited authority Congress gave the President. If you read these delegations of authority too expansively, you wind up with Presidents declaring national emergencies ("climate emergency," anyone? or can I interest you in "border security and drug trafficking emergency" if you're on the other side?) and then taking all kinds of executive actions in response. A bad and un-American thing in general.

Oh, you mean the CONTINUATION of the Trump tariffs that drove up the cost of my new fridge? Is there a free trader anywhere among the Republican candidates?? Please find me one.

Well, if your kid refuses to make one of those topiary things with two persons of the same sex holding hands, I guess we'll have another test case! (I kind of wish I'd gone down that path ... landscape architect, that is)

Mr. Drew Allen didn't get the memo. This was the APRIL 2023 defense. "I could have declassified it when I was President, now I can't"

I've just adapted to the new reality. Something's wrong, it's apparently not life threatening, the primary care provider basically goes with the most things resolve on their own in a couple weeks. If not, come back. And if it's not resolved, it's a referral to a specialist. The gatekeeper function. I always laugh when I see these medical commenters suggesting that we "have a talk with your doctor" about something or other. Yeah, in 10 minutes I'll have a chat about all the probably ordinary crap that a guy my age has ...

Who knew? But I'm always concerned about jobs like radiology that can be outsourced. I just had a CT scan. The results came back really fast. I asked: the doc told me they simply send the electronic image to a remote radiologist, presumably working at home. So ... other than licensing requirements, why not send it to some radiologist in India? Or better still, just have an AI program interpret the results? (I say this because I think of such things as my kids embark on career paths ...)

Just a quick comment about relying on second-hand Twitter hot takes from people who aren't lawyers, or certainly haven't had time to read the opinions even if they are -- see that there's a contradiction here in these 2 posts? Some guy named Clay Travis says Biden's student loan forgiveness plan was "unconstitutional." That was not what the Supreme Court decided! "AGHamilton29" says the more accurate "did not have the authority." Under the Supreme Court's decision, if Congress had said "in the event of a declared national emergency, the President may modify or cancel existing student loan debt," presumably the case would've gone the other way. "Unconstitutional" is thrown around too liberally (including by conservatives, haha). Some things are not authorized by statute without being against the constitution. EDIT: and I just heard some liberal commenter say "would not bake them a wedding cake because they are gay." NO! If the gay couple had said they want a generic cake, the decision presumably would have been different. And well it should be. That's because a generic cake is not a work of art (hence "speech" protected by the 1st Amendment).

Student loan bailout was, to me, a closer case, but only because on its face Congress stupidly gave the President (Bush 43, post-9/11) ridiculously expansive authority to tinker with student loans. The language should have been narrow: "for borrowers able to show a temporary hardship in making payments that is based on the attacks of September 11 and its immediate consequences, the Secretary of Education shall have the authority to delay required payments, without further accrual of interest, for a period not to exceed 18 months." Or something like that. I hope Congress learned something; I doubt they have.

I think that would be huge. Oh, when that new car finally comes it'll be something to behold. #DelayedGratificationIsTheBestGratification Now I need to finish my kids' college so they can make big money and buy me one.

You are correct. A lot of legal scholars argue that the whole concept of "standing" is now just a gate-keeping function, employed by the Court when it wants to shoot down a plaintiff for whatever reason, ignored by the Court when it wants to find in favor of a plaintiff. There's some of that here. But the results are, to me, pretty sensible, in the immigration and student loan cases at least. Yes, results-oriented, but sensible.

Narrow decision, based on the wording of the congressional authority allowing the Executive to "modify" (not including "cancel") student loan debt/repayment. Hey, I'll admit it. I'm a law geek. This was an interesting term with respect to separation of powers. I thought the immigration case would go the other way (the Court rejected the attempt of Texas to force Biden to arrest/deport all illegal entrants). The Court was unwilling to go so far as to let States dictate the exercise of federal authorities. But here, they narrowly construed a congressional authorization allowing the President to do something that would implicate spending. I'm gonna say that on these two cases they got it right. You'll hear about how the Court is conservative and enacting a conservative agenda. Yes and no. With respect to separation of powers, it's pretty much down the middle; people can argue about how much the other cases (abortion rights, affirmative action) are about a conservative agenda instead of the law.

Good thing I didn't get to my 3rd hypothetical, in which I'm a landscape architect ...

We're getting something that sounds kind of ... sensible? The Supreme Court is drawing a blurry line, but at least a line. - I own an auto repair shop: state laws banning discrimination are fine. There's no "speech" or artistic expression in fixing a car. - I am a florist. Gay couple wants me to do a special arrangement celebrating their marriage, with some kind of "expression" (those creepy bride/groom figures, but with two grooms). You can't make me create "art" celebrating something I disagree with. - I am a florist. Gay couple comes in, says they want a floral arrangement for their daughter's graduation. No artistic expression celebrating the gay relationship there; just celebrating the graduation. Make the damn arrangement.

Trickle down, baby, trickle down ...

This is so Miami/Orlando ... I do see a lot of the hispanic kids struggle (and remember, I am not in Florida, so it's a different hispanic demographic), mostly because the parents have minimal education and are just happy that the kids are in school at all. That's somewhere I think school outreach could really help. Of course, that also ties into the immigration issue. And that's changing, now that we see a lot of educated Venezuelans and Colombians coming in ...