He is eligible to be President though. That’s my point. He just can’t be elected president again. If he weren’t eligible to be President, why would you be concerned about him becoming President through succession by becoming the Speaker?

Right, but the problem is there is nothing that makes him ineligible to be President. The 22nd amendment does not make one unqualified ot be President after serving two terms does it? It says “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.” Apart from the additional bit about serving a partial term, that’s it. The limitation is on being elected, not serving, and the amendment itself identifies that there is a difference given they use the term “holding” the office when talking about someone being President without being elected. So, frankly, were I a law-as-written kind of judge, I would have to recognize that distinction and rule that the 22nd amendment does not rule out 3rd terms through succession. Unless there is another law or precedent that I’m unaware of, there does seem to be a pretty glaring opening here.

So… technically speaking… there is a way that may be legally dubious, but it’s not expressly, objectively against the constitution and hasn’t been ruled on in any court. The term limits in the constitution do expressly forbid being elected to more than two terms or more than once if you have served more than half a term that your weren’t elected president (like if you took over as VP after the President dies/resigns like LBJ and Ford). But there is nothing that prevents him from taking a position in the line of succession. He could even run as VP for another candidate. If he did so, even if they said publically that it was their intention for the presidential candidate to resign immediately once taking office and for Trump to become president again, there doesn’t seem to be anything preventing that. It certainly defies the spirit of the law, but not the letter of it.

Alternatively, suppose the courts did rule that approach illegal. They just move the goal post. He could take the Speakership and be next in line after the VP. He doesn’t even have to win an election to do that. Speaker of the House doesn’t have to be a House Representative. The GOP could nominate him to the house and confirm him without so much as a public poll. Then, should the Republicans win the Presidency, they could simply resign both President and VP and then Trump assumes office again.

None of that expressly breaks the law. Which is fucking nuts. But they left that loophole open by writing in the language of the amendment not that a person “cannot serve more than two terms as president” but that they cannot be “elected” to more than two. Given that there are many routes the presidency that do not require you be elected to that role, that seems like a glaring omission that only requires a conniving group of conspirers willing to evacuate positions of power for Trump. Will that happen? I don’t know. But can it? It does seem so.

Tariffs for Canada and Mexico would only be beneficial for automotive manufactures if A) American manufacturers were not heavily invested in and leveraging factories in Canada and Mexico and B) Canada and/or Mexico had any major auto manufacturers of their own competing with American brands. Neither of those is true. They MAY divest from Canadian or Mexican factories as a result and reinvest in domestic factories. BUT they are going to take big losses for that divesture AND be paying tariffs every time their parts ship between their factories across the borders right now. Their costs are going to go up and Americans will have to pay for the difference there.

Yeah, they’re really nice guys. I got to go up on stage for one of their shows and participate in a trick. We went to a lot of shows on that trip (seven, i think?), they were the only ones that stand outside the exit and greet ever person leaving that wants to meet them. They sign autographs, take pictures, etc. with hundreds of people after each show. And they stopped to talk to my friend and I for a couple minutes as we left and Penn thanked me for participating and let me keep a prop from the act as a souvenir. Great dudes.

The souvenir is a good example of the libertarian aspects of their show. It was a metal card with the bill of rights on it, with the 4th amendment (the freedom from unwarranted search and seisure) highlighted in red. The premise was you should put it in your pocket when walking through the metal detectors or scanners at TSA at the airport. When the machines go off and they question you about out it, you were meant to pull it out and snarkily go “oh sorry, that’s just my bill of rights”. It was a good for a bit of a laugh in theory, but way too obnoxious to actually do in real life. I packed it away in my carry-on instead. I still have it in a keepsake box somewhere.

Yeah, I don’t have any problem with libertarianism in theory. Pro-civil liberties, anti-racism, anti-war, pro-choice, pro-guns, free markets, etc. I disagree with the value of some of it, but I can see why someone might thoughtfully and sincerely come to that sort of rationale. I’ve never really had a problem with Penn’s (and Teller’s) views because of that.

But the reality is that the majority of modern libertarians are just narcissist capitalists that do not like rules or laws that restrict them from doing anything they want. That or, way worse, they’re Ayn Rand ideologues who genuinely believe that self-service is a moral imperative, charity is immoral, poverty is personal failure, human life is measured in productivity, and the sick, poor, or malformed should be left to whatever fate the market gives them. Those types are some of the worst people on the planet. They see a wealthy capitalist as inherently a leader and role model and think he should be unconstrained from accumulating more wealth without concern for society, employees, or individual rights. We’re living in the light version of their ideal, and it gets closer to that ideal every day.

Huh, as it turns out, that group chat had about 10 million people that were over 150 years old.

They do not want anyone to have authority over them in any capacity. They want to fuck who they want, do what drugs they want, shoot what they want, exploit financially anyone they want, hire and fire anyone they want, control and manipulate markets however they want. They do not want any limitations placed on them by law, regulation, ethics, or morality. They feel no responsibility to anyone but themselves, do not value others that do not benefit them directly, and see society only as a means to serve their interests. They are the definition of narcissists.

They’d probably be charging themselves

Scotty B has to be on all the group chats. His emoji game is 🔥.

It doesn’t feel like that to me. “Instinctively knows” = “Many people are saying…”

… because they feel like these things are true. These feelings are not based in fact, in reality. They are at best misled, at worst outright lying.

Inaction has the same result as explicit permission.

The entire point of his statement is that there is judicial action being taken already and he thinks it’s a problem. Likewise, Trump is trying to stop lawyers from participating in legal action against his regime too. Certainly, some of the people that SHOULD be acting against him are not, and that is a problem. But the fact Jim is making these statements that we are talking about is antithetical to the notion that nobody is taking action and, thus, giving him permission.

“Nuh uh” is what you’re going with, huh? The screenshots, the validation from your own administration… and your response is “didnt happen”?

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command”

“The country instinctively knows there’s been this aggressive push against the president for policies he campaigned on that he was elected to implement,” Jordan, an Ohio Republican, told reporters Monday. “That’s a problem.”

“Instinctively knows”… you mean “feels like”, Jim. And what was it again that the facts don’t care about?

And the judiciary is not meant to be a political branch, and it’s certainly not required to answer to whomever happens to win the Presidency. It is meant to interpret the law as it’s written. No amount of campaigning, voting, or tweeting gives Trump powers he doesn’t possess nor the ability to create and enforce laws he dreams up and declares by executive dictum. That is a fascist dictatorship. And you would be losing your absolute shit if Biden had pulled shit like this, and rightfully so.

There is no mandate of the people giving Trump extra powers. Even of the subset of Americans that actually bothered to vote he didn’t win the majority. He barely won the popular vote at all. He barely won, he’s now net negative in approval, he has likely pissed off enough people in just 2 months that he would likely lose were the election held again now, and he and his incompetent staff are turning more against him every day. I know you don’t have an ounce of integrity in your body, Jim, but even you have to realize you’re riding a sinking ship that is setting fire to everything around it as it dies. But then you do love hanging out with and protecting sexual predators don’t you? You’re a fucking disgrace and a hateful piece of shit, as always Jordan. Eat shit and die already.

My wife asked who we are at war with, lol.

Panama, Greenland, China, Canada, Mexico… take your pick. Who aren’t we going to war with? Fucking LoompaLand is probably on Trump’s shit list for stealing his look.

Of course the real answer is Yemen, so add another one on the fucking pile.

USPS was a fully self-sufficient dependable and inexpensive service for generations until stupid and unnecessary limitations were placed on their revenue streams and functionality. The end goal was always to replace them with a private entity that, by the nature of profit-driven businesses, will be more expensive, less efficient, will be a worse employer and have less oversight and transparency by the public. Also expect junk mail directly from your postal service from now on.

Guys, for your own safety and freedom, maybe don’t publically post your desire to assassinate public figures online.

Yup. Peter Theil and Stephen Miller in particular seem hell bent on pushing this shit.

Fucking hell, can we get rid of this fascist mother fucker yet, please? How in the fuck did we create a system that was ostensibly meant to directly counter tyranny and then just yield to and roll over when a tyrant manages to win the presidency with an obedient congress?

How are we even on the back foot here? How is it harder to prevent or undo fascist policies than to pass them in the first place, EVEN WHEN THEY ARE OBJECTIVELY ILLEGAL?! How did we create such a toothless system of checks and balances as to render them non-existent when someone just decides to ignore them?

This country has apparently been operating on the honor system for 250 years. We have had the audacity to hold ourselves up as the ideal and expect others to model themselves after us. And then at the first attempt of a coup and installation of dictatorship, we are just impotently watching it happen. This is insane.

The easiest way to make money on the market is volatility and predictability. Seeing as how Trump is so easily manipulatable and has no filter and his stupid declarations have such massive effects on the market, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone is seeding him shit just to play the markets

Cute girl: “Oh, Light, you’re so cute. Let me give you my number.” … “Oh shoot, do you have a piece of paper I can borrow?”

Light: “Uh, yeah…” absentmindedly rips piece of the Death Note out “Uh, here you go…”

Cute girl: scribbles number on page “and there you go, cutey” walks away

Light: looks at paper “Oh… Oh no. ‘555-5555 TTYL, Light Yagami’? … Fuck.”

L: *rips off cute girl disguise" “Heh.”