> The Northern Irish party earlier released a statement saying they could not back proposals "as things stand", and - after the PM's announcement - said their statement "still stands".
> Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the deal sounded "even worse" than what was negotiated by the PM's predecessor, Theresa May, and "should be rejected" by MPs.
@Memor-X Honestly, that's exactly what I expected. In Disney movies, when the teen protagonist gives a speech like that to the crazy rich dude who plans to demolish the orphanage in order to build a new garbage dump, the crazy rich dude also tosses it aside
@Memor-X yeah, but honestly, that letter Trump sent really sounded like something Macaulay Culkin would say to a criminal home invader, not something that one head of state says to another in a letter
also I think walking into a police station and loudly proclaiming "AHA! YOU'VE CAUGHT ME RED HANDED" with your hand painted red is a felony on top of small vandalism
I originally typed up small vandalism as being a misdemeanor, but even or especially in the united states that's uh, probably not right that's probably also a felony
@Elva Note that apparently, Erdogan had already made up his mind about the invasion, the Trump letter was just the straw that broke the dictator's back
@Elva and he can deny it as much as he wants, Trump knew what Erdogan was going to do because he tweeted that they were going to carry out this "long planned operation"
Most of the articles about Elijah Cummings' passing are, as is proper, tributes to him and his legacy. Has anyone found one that talks about the potential impact on his House seat, his chairmanship of the oversight committee, and the potential impact on the impeachment investigation?
I assume that a new committee chair can be/will be assigned by the Speaker of the House; but must it pull from existing members? Is there discussion about who can/might fill his role?
@BradC Give it time. He only died hours ago. Noone has really considered the question yet. At least, anyone with a shred of human decency would first take the time to grieve and pay respects. The governor has already announced a special election will be held for his congressional seat, but anything further most likely will not be considered until tomorrow
@Elva How about the odds on whether he'll show up anyways?
> Representative Carolyn Maloney is the most senior Democratic member serving in the committee. She's the likely person to take over Mr. Cummings's chair following his passing.
Did he show up for ... what's his face that died of cancer. Was in the military, described as loose cannon but basically always just voted with the rightwing party, mccain?
> “If the president could deprive the committee of information required for its impeachment inquiry into his own misconduct, the president could potentially thwart his accountability for that conduct,” the attorneys said, referring to Trump’s efforts to block witness testimony and document production.
@Frank pretty much "I knew the President wanted dirt on Burisma, but didn't know it had anything to do with Biden, despite hearing about it over and over again, not only in face-to-face meetings on the subject, but in right-wing media for months"
We now get to witness what the President would have been doing all along if he had no restraints. Pure "stuff everything valuable into my pockets" grifting
@Frank Trump refusing to acknowledge an election loss is pretty much guaranteed. The real concern is what happens next: does everyone just ignore him while he pouts on inauguration day 2021? Or does the Secret Service "take his side" and refuse entrance to the White House for the newly inaugurated President Warren?
He can say anything he wants, but if everyone (Secret Service, Congress, the military, the soldier carrying the "nuclear football", etc.) behave as though Warren is president once she has sworn in, then its just a "intruder in the West Wing" problem
Which a call to the Capital Police should take care of easily
@Frank Yeah, hard to predict what would happen if certain cabinet members don't acknowledge the turnover. Clearly new members would be nominated, but most require Senate approval, so take some time. Probably the same base question: who do the subordinates in that dept answer to?
I mean, who's instructions do they choose to follow, in that moment?
@Frank Yeah, that's ringing a bell, but I'm not finding the keywords to search for it. It was like the head of one of the financial depts or something. Argument about who was in charge after the head resigned/was fired
So there are hints of similarity to our worst-case-scenario above, but it would be on a whole different level, if, say, there was a serious dispute as to who was the legitimate Secretary of State or Attorney General
To clarify: he admitted to an explicit decision to withhold funding unless/until Ukraine investigated the (mythical) 2016 "missing server", not the 2020 Biden stuff
@TimStone the "acting" title is especially needless and annoying for that one; since the Chief of Staff position doesn't even need Congressional approval
> We learn that he has virtually no litigation experience and that he’s a right-wing ideologue; you probably expected that. But you’ll also learn that his two major contributions to academic jurisprudence are (1) arguing that transparency in government is a bad, possibly unconstitutional thing; and (2) arguing that the FBI Director has a moral obligation to be the President’s lackey. We are not making any of this up.
Never mind, I stepped in it - the movie isn't a sympathetic movie about Megyn Kelly, it's about Roger Ailes' sexual harassment and the role several women at Fox played in bringing that to light.
A prior episode of the same legal podcast featured a debate on the first amendment (religious expression/establishment) between the (above discussed) right-wing hack Justin Walker and the podcast host, attorney Andrew Torrez: Opening Argument episode 224
> But while that line will get a lot of play, there’s something else Romney said that shouldn’t escape notice. He also floated a theory about how Trump arrived at the decision: that he got bullied into it by Turkey and that he backed down.
> “Are we so weak and inept diplomatically that Turkey forced the hand of the United States of America? Turkey!?” Romney said. “I believe that it’s imperative that public hearings are held to answer these questions, and I hope the Senate is able to conduct those hearings next week.”
@TimStone and the news here is saying that there is a 120 hour "temporary" crease fire which will be followed by a permanent one. this along with the confusion on if it's even a ceasefire smells like spinning political bullshit.
also it sounds like Trump is touting that he's made this ceasefire. a) he didn't Pence did and b) even if he did then he should get no praise for cleaning up the mess his made, just like how when EA goes "oh their wont be loot boxes in the Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, you can thank us now" we don't give them the credit
