The Frankish Reich

You're right - we have consistently seen presidents construe their war powers authorities broadly. In my career I've seen a huge shift here. In the early 90s (the time of the first Iraq war), one of my law profs was probably the leading hawkish war powers proponent. He characterized the post-Vietnam era as an age of "Congressional Supremacy" in which the unconstitutional War Powers Act restrained the President's clear constitutional authorities. But we've seen the pendulum swing - Serbia was one big one, then the never-ending congressional authorizations that let Bush 43 do all sorts of things far beyond the intended scope. I thought Trump and the neo-neoconservatives were trying to swing the pendulum back. I'm not sure it need to go back to 1975, but it does need to go back to at least the early 2000s when everyone understood that congressional authorization (even if not a declaration of war) was necessary for action against Iraq.

You are almost always going to overpay for the anticipated decline years in order to afford the anticipated 2-3 productive years. At this point with the Bills, you gotta do it.

Or see Afghanistan and Iraq. These were studied/contemplated/debated uses of U.S. military force against the ruling forces of sovereign nations. Say what you will about the results of the debate, but there were debates in Congress and an AUMF. I see no reason why - with the "two week pause" - that debate isn't happening now in Congress. This is not a situation involving an immediate defensive action against an attack on the United States or United States interests abroad, nor is it a military action compelled by Senate-ratified treaty obligations. The constitution is the constitution regardless of which party is in charge. Those were the Cold Warrior conservatives. The roles are reversed now. The post-neocon conservatives are supposed to be about appropriate debate and authorization before we get involved in foreign wars.

Constitutional conservatives: where's Congress? Where's the authorization for the use of military force in Iran? Isn't that, at a minimum, what's required before Trump launches any U.S. assault? If this is about regime change, isn't that essentially a declaration of war on Iran? Why no declaration?

You guys should go back and read the OP in this thread. Tulsi Gabbard is his hero. It appears that the Deep State has gotten to Trump and they've won. Again. I mean, if you're into this kind of conspiratorial thinking ....

She was a convenient "independent thinker" back then, a leading voice against U.S. involvement in forever wars. She is no longer convenient now that the next forever war is about to begin.

Wow, amazing that 57 year old loser weirdo left behind crazy-ass nutcase scribblings. Let's try to decipher them!

Weird, seemed to me that all private business were open yesterday. As for "too many holidays" - not too many, but it's time for a re-do. New Year's Day: never got why it was a holiday. Some pagan thing? An excuse for taking a day off after NYE revelry? Get rid of it. Use that day to make Dec 26 a holiday like the UK Boxing Day. Makes more sense. MLK Day: a worthy honor. But the date is bad, just as people are returning to regular life after Xmas. Honor MLK for something that happened during the great federal holiday lull of March/April. There's gotta be some noteworthy date. President's Day: all will be fine when the Super Bowl finally lands on it's obvious spot of the Sunday of that weekend. -- MARCH/APRIL: find a nonreligious excuse to make Easter/Passover a holiday. Or just call it the Easter/Passover Spring holiday. Or put MLK day there. We need a holiday in this time of year. MEMORIAL DAY: needs to be merged with Veteran's Day. A good traditional start of summer day, so keep this one. JUNETEENTH: Who can complain about an extra 3 day summer weekend. But maybe move it to a Friday or Monday closest to June 19? 4th of JULY: no messing with this one. LABOR DAY: brackets summer too nicely to change. Weird that some anti-labor group hasn't lobbied against this. COLUMBUS DAY: controversial, kind of weird (didn't "discover" what is now the USA), bizarro kind of Italian St. Patrick's Day in the NE. Another fine landing spot for that MLK day that we should move. VETERAN'S DAY: Armistice Day, but nobody pretends to celebrate that. So it's a weird non-moving Nov 11. Merge it into Memorial Day and for goodness sake just make the Friday after Thanksgiving the extra late fall holiday. CHRISTMAS: see Boxing Day.

Rumor: Kristi Noem's ER visit was due to complications from yet another cosmetic procedure.

I don't know where Stephen Miller got his law degree,* but the constitutional guarantee of due process has never been limited to citizens facing criminal charges. That's why the U.S. government can't deprive someone - anyone - of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Life. Liberty. Even property. It's kind of right there in the 5th Amendment. *Trick question: he doesn't have one.

No, it doesn't. Yes, it does. [Sigh] Another lesson in Logic is required here. Are there people who are not citizens of our country but who are in our country and subject to its jurisdiction? Venn Diagrams may help you. [Probably not]

^The dumbest comment yet from "legal scholar" Mike Davis. So I guess this doesn't exist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Act_of_1952 Or this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Act_of_1965 All of which spell out due process rights for "illegal aliens." As passed by both house of Congress and signed by the president.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-14/mapping-who-lives-in-border-patrol-s-100-mile-zone This is a problem. Border Patrol jurisdiction includes Dodger Stadium because it is less than 100 miles from the Pacific.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbian_until_graduation

Most of them aren't based on initial polling. The ones here are part of The Cult. As Trump himself says, MAGA means what I say it means. I know best. Don't ask questions. Follow me to the Golden Age.

So presumably the Fed doesn’t see a downturn warranting a lowering of rates. So presumably they think Trump isn’t tanking the economy. So presumably you should be happy.

The other subtext: Iran and Saudi Arabia are the ringleaders of the Islamic states in the Middle East. I am more than a little concerned about the Saudi influence over Trump. Take away the counterweight of Iran and its anyone's guess as to what happens next.

I did not blame Netanyahu for taking action against Iran's nuclear program and it's leadership. Iran has long pledged to destroy the "Zionist Entity" and it is not a great stretch to say that this is an anticipatory defensive action. I do not blame the United States for standing aside as it happened. Rubio's initial statement was perfect. The change in language as Trump jumps in now is troubling. We have "unconditional surrender" demands, which suggests: (1) U.S. involvement (surrender to whom?); (2) a demand for "regime change" and toppling of the Iranian theocracy. That gets us right back to Bush 43, which is presumably the type of hubris that Trump has campaigned against. Neutralize the nuclear threat, or at least delay it indefinitely. Let the Iranian people decide when the time has come to overthrow their corrupt leadership. You beat me to it.

"Iran should surrender." Where have I heard this before? Oh, I remember now: "The policy of the United States is regime change."

https://the.ink/p/essay-a-bad-parade-is-a-good-sign A rather silly article, but the headline is absolutely correct. We just didn't have it in us to do a Dear Leader Birthday Parade after all. Good on America.

Oh, what's that? Another court loss for bogus election fraud claims.

As I noted a few times here, Trump's ICE people told him the "hospitality/agriculture" exception to mass deportations is utterly unworkable. So, again ... a reversal.

Really, it’s not so hard to just admit you jumped the gun on this one. Just like Senator Mike Lee. This is getting embarrassing

Well, there’s 2 different scenarios here. A. Tour starting QB goes down for the season in the first series. Aaron Rodgers. The offense is, at least in theory, built around his skill set. And he occupies a ton of salary space so your backup isn’t a really good backup. Disaster. B. Your GM decides it’s just not worth paying Kirk Cousins that kind of money. So you bring in a first rounder and take a flyer on a once highly-regarded and still youngish QB. Sam Darnold does just fine thank you because Cousins wasn’t that good after all, and because Darnold had something in him after all.