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[martinuzz]

RIP Maniac. I guess it was inevitable. He always made me think of this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJv8sY2CxZA

As a sidethought, I just giggled at the thought how many times Trump would be banned from your average friendly forum for the things he says. He's basically trolling the entire elections.

[RedKing]

"big jobs program on the southern border", that's a nice euphenism for Trump's wall.

Congressional term limits would be way too dangerous anyway. Despite what LCS depicts, it is not a path towards getting rid of ancient immortal archconservative legislators. There will always be more fuckers to fuck it up, even if the individual fuckers change.

What it would result in, however, is every member of Congress becoming eminently vulnerable to corrupt lobbying. They don't have the experience to resist or a future career to care about, so they'd be all over selling us piece by piece to transnational corporations.

Yeah, it'd be hard to make it work so that it doesn't screw things over, and there are better (and far easier) ways to reduce the possibility of congresspeople holding onto a seat due to gerrymandering or other things. Plus I've seen arguments that it would have a brain-drain type of effect, removing congressmembers who are actually good at what they are doing or are actively pushing for something.

The only reason why we put term limits on the president is because two terms max per president had been a thing for so long that it had become tradition (there were some who tried to do a third run though, but those were like later, not while they were still incumbent), then FDR went and broke that tradition and died barely into his fourth term. After that, people were like, 'lets not do this again.' Probably a bit of an oversimplification, but yeah, two terms had become the norm by FDR, even if it wasn't encoded in law.

I think it was the fourth term that rattled people. Three terms isn't a bridge too far IMHO. For one thing, it could make their second term a lot more productive. The way it works now is first term is usually spent building those alliances you need to get legislation friendly to your agenda moved through Congress, second term is when you can actually get shit done. Except by midpoint of your second term, everyone is too busy thinking about the next election to help you. (Of course, part of the reason second term is often when shit gets done is because the President is no longer concerned with electoral consequences...so it's entirely possible it would just make it so nothing gets done except for those first two years of the third term.)

[smjjames]

Trump occasionally spouts off stuff that is actually decent. Problem is, I have zero faith in him actually having any intention of delivering any of it. Especially since he changes his stance on stuff pretty often.

The only things I trust Trump to actually do were he President is stuff that either directly benefits his businesses or lines up with things he's talked about for decades. So a lot of his foreign policy stuff and trade protectionism I can see him doing. He's been pretty consistent on a good chunk of that over the years.

Of course, I don't agree with any of the stuff I think he's likely to do, so it just makes me even less inclined to vote for him.

Mmh, I kind of half expect him to sexually assault the female leader of another country or grope some top female government leader in another country and start a massive diplomatic fallout and scandal. Because he obviously can't control his impulses.

Although every female politician in the world is likely aware of Trump by now.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It was probably the whole War President thing and all but being the executive commander of all things the light of Democrats fall on. He did plan to, you know, stuff the Supreme Court in order to remove the final obstruction to full power over the entire USA. This being after rewriting most of the very conception of legal jurisdiction through the New Deal. And planning to pass a Second Bill of Rights.

FDR was many things, but his respect for fair play was somewhat lacking.

[RedKing]

Trump occasionally spouts off stuff that is actually decent. Problem is, I have zero faith in him actually having any intention of delivering any of it. Especially since he changes his stance on stuff pretty often.

The only things I trust Trump to actually do were he President is stuff that either directly benefits his businesses or lines up with things he's talked about for decades. So a lot of his foreign policy stuff and trade protectionism I can see him doing. He's been pretty consistent on a good chunk of that over the years.

Of course, I don't agree with any of the stuff I think he's likely to do, so it just makes me even less inclined to vote for him.

Mmh, I kind of half expect him to sexually assault the female leader of another country or grope some top female government leader in another country and start a massive diplomatic fallout and scandal. Because he obviously can't control his impulses.

Although every female politician in the world is likely aware of Trump by now.

Angela Merkel would be recalling that unwanted neckrub from Dubya with fondness by comparison.

[smjjames]

In something that isn't election stuff: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/harold-martin-nsa-covert-officers-names-230409

Ouch. Even though this appears to be a sad and unusual (for what was being hoarded) case of hoarding and the guy really needs a psychiatrist more than he needs jail, this still exposes a gaping hole in their security, especially given how he had been doing it for a long time.

[RedKing]

BAH is getting a bad damn rep in the public sector contracting world. Snowden was one of theirs as well.

I'll have to rib my father about this (he's an account exec at BAH).

[smjjames]

According to the article, the guy went through 7 or 8 contractors, so, it's not really entirely on the shoulders of BAH.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

That's what every presidential candidate does. Sanders can't make college free.

Err, not the "fart into aether", the "mislead." Sanders didn't fart the aether AFAIK.

You're misrepresenting the issue. The President has a critical role in both legislation and executive action to base their promises and platforms in. Proposing changes that require alteration to the US Constitution without mentioning that little fact, is inherently different and essentially a lie.

Sanders could, if he wanted to piss Congress off, pass an executive action derailing student debt even if they did not cooperate with a law on the matter. Trump can't pass an executive action imposing term limits on Congress.

Aren't executive orders limited to the federal...

...oh, wait...

So would he basically make an executive order that changes the way that student loans work such that you wouldn't need to pay for them? Because without legislation, you can't exactly tell the colleges (private or state-funded) that they need to stop charging for tuition.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

So sort of like the existing federal student loans, right?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Executive orders are legally uncertain beasts. They can do damn near anything (the entire US secrets classification system is based on a single executive order that any President could theoretically rescind at will) but are paid for through public and congressional outrage. You'll notice there's no Constitutional protection of executive orders per se, save a particular interpretation of the President's authority.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Huh, that seems like

So would he basically make an executive order that changes the way that student loans work such that you wouldn't need to pay for them?

[Max™]

That's mostly why I wasn't super hyped about Bernie, saying and doing are very different things.

[Calidovi]

it was mentioned here before, but the hype for bernie was less in policies and more on attitude (like it or not thats a sure way to wake up the apathetic)

he was highly opinionated and voiced it, and whether or not his policies made sense, he had the appearance of not giving two shits about appealing to everyone

he was a populist, but most dems were comfortable under obama and didnt really seek change

[smjjames]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2016/oct/27/trump-clinton-news-vote-election-2016?page=with:block-5812767de4b08d944ba4b67b#block-5812767de4b08d944ba4b67b

I get that it was rhetorical, but can anybody seriously imagine a presidential candidate basically saying 'Lets just cancel the elections and crown me KING! Huh? Huh!'

“And just thinking to myself right now, we should just cancel the election and just give it to Trump, right? What are we even having it for? What are we having it for?” Trump asked rhetorically. “Her policies are so bad.”

It ALMOST sounds like he'd abolish elections the first chance he'd get, almost. Congress and everybody else would raise hell if he tried to do that. Except maybe his followers.