Democracy is disappearing right before our eyes.

[the watcher]

They've been convinced that we don't need anyone, and that anything we need can be produced here. Somehow. We also don't need global trade, overseas security intelligence, or allies/friends of any kind. They all just take advantage of us because they're really mean.

So I guess it's okay that China takes our place on the world stage. And they're already making inroads.

Their response to anything that is questioning anything in any way is some form of "I don't care".

The world has seen our place on the world stage, and unless we clean up our act will demand a better actor.

 

[berg80]

The world has seen our place on the world stage, and unless we clean up our act will demand a better actor.

While acknowledging our flawed history, and the disastrous buffoon now leading the country, who might that be?

 

[the watcher]

The illusion that one man caused this or one man can solve it is exactly what is keeping us playing voter roulette and enabling the good politician-bad politician scam to continue. We just blame shift and the cycle continues.

 

[berg80]

The illusion that one man caused this or one man can solve it is exactly what is keeping us playing voter roulette and enabling the good politician-bad politician scam to continue. We just blame shift and the cycle continues.

It took much more than one man to enable Dotard's rise to power. The conditions were present long before the escalator ride. As for one man being able to fix "it," no one has ever suggested that was possible until Dear Leader came along.

 

[berg80]

I think it's safe to say in normal times a prez who just had his decision to send troops to LA ruled to be illegal would not be threatening to do the same thing in Chicago. But these............

 

[Hafar1014]

Defying Congress, Trump Moves to Cut $4.9 Billion in Foreign Aid​

The White House has informed Congress it intends to cancel $4.9 billion that lawmakers approved for foreign aid programs, invoking a little-known and legally untested power to slash spending without their approval.

The 15-page notification, sent to Congress on Thursday night and reviewed by The New York Times, is the administration’s first effort to push through what is known as a “pocket rescission.” It is an effort to unilaterally claw back money that has already been appropriated by waiting so late in the fiscal year to make the request that lawmakers do not have time to reject it before the funding expires.

The fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, before the 45-day period in which Congress is required to consider a rescission request from the White House. Republicans could bring the matter to a vote sooner, but party leaders have shown little appetite for resisting the president’s spending demands and asserting their own prerogatives.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/us/politics/trump-foreign-aid.html

If supporters of all things Don weren't for this before they sure as shootin' are for it now. Usurping congressional authority on spending by means of a novel, dubiously legal gambit? It goes without saying, not a problem.

Diminishing our influence in the world, leaving a vacuum for countries like China to fill. Remember when Nixon said, ""Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal." Ditto for Don for trump devotees.

But hey........

As democrats lose their tax funded slush funds used to pay off their supporters and fund their failed ideology they scream its the end of democracy, millions will die, Trump is fascist blah blah blah. Cut baby cut. It makes America better

 

[Frankenstein]

Hey berg80 , pick anything on the list and explain to the class how we should be spending money on it.

Then show us where in the Constitution is it allowed.

Crickets!

 

[Frankenstein]

I think it's safe to say in normal times a prez who just had his decision to send troops to LA ruled to be illegal would not be threatening to do the same thing in Chicago. But these............

Care to address post 100?

 

[Nostra]

Hey berg80 , pick anything on the list and explain to the class how we should be spending money on it.

Then show us where in the Constitution is it allowed.

Can’t do it huh berg80 ?

 

[berg80]

First, “It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.” Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 177 (1803). Without question this principle applies to cases, like this one, where the Executive is accused of overstepping bounds set out by the Legislature. “If the President claims authority to act but in fact exercises mere ‘individual will’ and ‘authority without law,’ the courts may say so.” Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. 593, 608 (2024) (citation omitted). Especially where the foundation of our constitutional system is at issue, “the Judiciary has a responsibility to decide cases properly before it, even those it ‘would gladly avoid.’” Zivotofsky ex rel. Zivotofsky v. Clinton, 566 U.S. 189, 194 (2012) (quoting Cohens v. Virginia, 19 U.S. (6 Wheat.) 264, 404 (1821)); cf. Morrison v. Olson, 487 U.S. 654, 699 (1988 ) (Scalia, J., dissenting) (discussing “[t]he allocation of power among Congress, the President, and the courts in such fashion as to preserve the equilibrium the Constitution sought to establish—so that ‘a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department’ can effectively be resisted”

The Avalon Project : Federalist No 51

 

[berg80]

Care to address post 100?

Sure. Karoline repeated lots of lies the day she walked to the podium to defend DOGE.

Sorting Out the Facts on 'Waste and Abuse' at USAID - FactCheck.org

As President Donald Trump's administration targets the U.S. Agency for International Development for closure or major downsizing, the White House and social media posts have highlighted four projects as examples of the agency's "waste and abuse." But only one was funded by USAID.

www.factcheck.org

 

[Frankenstein]

Sure. Karoline repeated lots of lies the day she walked to the podium to defend DOGE.

Sorting Out the Facts on 'Waste and Abuse' at USAID - FactCheck.org

As President Donald Trump's administration targets the U.S. Agency for International Development for closure or major downsizing, the White House and social media posts have highlighted four projects as examples of the agency's "waste and abuse." But only one was funded by USAID.

www.factcheck.org

I gave you line, by line, and only shared the ones including exporting lgbtq issues to other countries, the list was way longer, pick one and prove it was wrong.

 

[berg80]

A judge hands Trump a legal rebuke over his troop deployment in L.A.​

The Trump administration illegally used thousands of military troops in Southern California, a federal judge said on Tuesday, in a ruling that accused the president of effectively turning nearly 5,000 Marines and National Guard soldiers into a national police force.

The ruling, by Judge Charles R. Breyer of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, came more than two months into a contentious deployment that was set off by immigration protests in June and has since dwindled to about 300 National Guard soldiers. The judge ordered that the remaining troops should either be released or limited to guarding federal buildings, but he placed his injunction on hold for 10 days.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09/02/us/trump-news?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20250902&instance_id=161736&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=65145149&segment_id=205107&user_id=fecdfdffdaaa11107b72f0f4f6e429cc

Add another illegal action to the list.

Judge Rules Trump Administration Illegally Canceled Harvard Funding
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/us/harvard-trump-funding-ruling.html

When things go badly for Don they invariably go well for the nation.

 

[berg80]

Trump asks Supreme Court to allow firing of FTC member​

President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to allow him to fire a Biden-apppointed Federal Trade Commission member despite a century-old law aimed at blocking the president from dismissing such officials for political reasons.

In an emergency appeal filed Thursday, the Trump administration asked the justices to let Trump’s firing of Rebecca Slaughter proceed while litigation over the legality of the move continues.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/04/trump-supreme-court-appeal-ftc-commissioner-00545620

He's flooding the zone.

 

[Delldude]

She's history and probably Lisa Cook down the road.


WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed President Donald Trump to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission despite a federal law that is intended to restrict the White House’s power to control the agency.

The court, via an order issued by Chief Justice John Roberts, temporarily blocked a judge's ruling that reinstated Rebecca Kelly Slaughter while the case continues.

Supreme Court allows Trump to fire FTC commissioner

Trump's actions are in direct tension with a 1935 ruling that upheld restrictions on the president's ability to remove FTC commissioners without cause.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[berg80]

The Missouri House in a 90-65 vote approved a Republican congressional gerrymander, advancing the map to the Senate as part of a national plan to try to rig the 2026 election by eliminating Democratic seats in Congress. The new map targets residents of the state’s 5th Congressional District in an attempt to deliver an additional Republican seat at President Donald Trump’s request.

The House also launched an attack on direct democracy, approving a bill that would make it much more difficult for voters to pass ballot measures.

State Rep. Ashley Aune (D) gave a scathing summary of the redistricting plan shortly before the vote.

“The Missouri GOP is aiding and abetting the systematic destruction of our democracy by an authoritarian regime led by a geriatric con man who knows the only way he can win is to cheat,” Aune said to angry shouts from Republican colleagues.

Missouri House Sends GOP Gerrymander to the Senate

Read more here.

www.democracydocket.com

Would this be happening if trump wasn't prez? I don't think so.

 

[whitehall]

Foreign aid? Taxpayer funded condoms for Madagascar? Where the hell were you people when Biden/Fauci shut down the freaking economy and cost children a couple of years of education not to mention arresting people for the crime of congregating for Church?

 

[Delldude]

Would this be happening if trump wasn't prez? I don't think so.

Not an issue when the Dems do it..... what's with that?

 

[berg80]

Foreign aid? Taxpayer funded condoms for Madagascar? Where the hell were you people when Biden/Fauci shut down the freaking economy and cost children a couple of years of education not to mention arresting people for the crime of congregating for Church?

When will you stop believing in, and repeating, lies?

AI Overview

Reports about taxpayer-funded condoms for Madagascar are largely inaccurate. While international aid organizations, sometimes partially funded by U.S. and other taxpayers, do provide reproductive health supplies, a recent claim about a massive expenditure was found to be false
. The supply chains are also supported by a variety of sources, including Madagascar's own government.

 

[Delldude]

When will you stop believing in, and repeating, lies?

AI Overview

Reports about taxpayer-funded condoms for Madagascar are largely inaccurate. While international aid organizations, sometimes partially funded by U.S. and other taxpayers, do provide reproductive health supplies, a recent claim about a massive expenditure was found to be false
. The supply chains are also supported by a variety of sources, including Madagascar's own government.

AI Overview

International organizations and foreign aid, including those from the U.S. government, have used taxpayer funds to support family planning and health programs that provide condoms in Madagascar
. The specific distribution of condoms is a collaborative effort involving various entities, not a single one.