Summary
Donald Trump has exempted himself from key ethics guidelines required under the Presidential Transition Act, which he signed into law in 2020.
By rejecting federal funding for his transition team, Trump avoids donor limits and disclosure requirements, raising concerns about conflicts of interest and transparency.
Critics, including Senator Elizabeth Warren and government watchdogs, warn that Trump’s refusal to submit an ethics plan undermines accountability and could open the door to corruption.
This move marks a break from precedent and has sparked alarm over potential personal enrichment during his presidency.
We have learned (and are still learning) that precedent doesn’t mean shit
It is spelled “president”
(/a)
Okay, I give up. What on earth is /a supposed to mean!? Some sources decode it as “alterous”, but that doesn’t help me either. Is this just a typo of /s?
Probably just a typo
Just a typo, (and fat fingers) but I’m going to say it stands for “ambiguous” because…
It was.
Now it’s Fuhrer.
Stop with the precedent. Decorum and tradition means nothing and only Dems keep falling for it and setting themselves arbitrary barriers.
lol. Watchdogs. Hilarious. Let me know when we have a government again.
Don’t hold your breath.
it usually takes 4-6 years or so for democrats to fix most of whatever republciants screw up.
donvict part 1 will take a generation, at least.
donvict part 2 will take a lot longer and require practically-impossible coordination and commitment to get non-republicants to the levels of representation needed for amendment ratifications and impeachments.
it usually takes 4-6 years or so for democrats to fix most of whatever republciants screw up.
Liberals never actually fix what conservatives screw up. We never closed Gitmo and we still have troops based in Iraq. We never actually ended the War on Drugs (which has left Republicans a loophole to ban contraceptives by listing them as controlled substances). We never truly repealed Jim Crow and much of the country still relies on forced labor even in liberal bastions like California or New York.
Trump’s just pulling back the curtain on how much has rotted.
Liberals never actually fix what conservatives screw up.
Clinton fucking balanced the budget.
The real problem is Republican spend 4-8 years screwing everything up. Over the next 4 years, with the slimmest of margins, Democrats roll back 80% of it. Then you come in and say “both sides”.
If we want things to stop racheting to the right, we have to elect Dems more than half the time.
Clinton fucking balanced the budget.
For what? A few months? And largely by balancing off the SS Trust, a trick you can only do once (as Bush Jr discovered when he was too far in debt to privatize it).
The real problem is Republican spend 4-8 years screwing everything up.
Half the Democratic Party was along for the ride on the Bush agenda. Kennedy embraced NCLB, Clinton and Kerry fully endorsed the AUMF, Joe Biden authored much of the Patriot Act Hell, Graham-Leech-Biley was signed under Clinton, queuing up the financial crash of 2008.
This isn’t just Republicans. The problem is broadly bipartisan.
Liberals never actually fix what conservatives screw up.
They do, it’s just they mostly concern themselves with the economic screw ups, less-so the rights ones.
Think ‘gay people can marry and have kids to give us more economic slaves’ vs. ‘gay people can’t marry, can’t have kids, and we’re going to use them as a scapegoat for our issues.’
Liberals (which I’m taking to mean Democrats) didn’t “fix” gay marriage. Right up until the Iowa Supreme Court decision, in the early 2000’s, the argument in Democratic circles was that gay-rights organizations should pipe down, settle for civil unions, and stop making gay marriage an issue. They were afraid of handing the Republicans a weapon. It was the gay-rights organizations that pushed it through the courts, and prominent Democratic politicians like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden “evolved” their positions to support it. I mean no criticism by the use of quotes. Kudos to them for changing their minds, but it wasn’t liberals that made it happen.
I’d say it was liberals that made it happen once there was overwhelming public support, which again, is performative, but drastically different from actively suppressing it. Someone has to pass the things into laws, and in the US it’s either Republicans or Democrats, and across the board any services those poor people do have was introduced through Democrats.
Again, under duress, I don’t argue otherwise. Up here in Canada it was the Liberals being forced to put Healthcare as a ‘universal’* right by the NDP (our Left wing party), then the NDP again to force Liberals to put Dental care through. But they actually did it, and the Conservatives don’t.
Think ‘gay people can marry and have kids to give us more economic slaves’ vs. ‘gay people can’t marry, can’t have kids, and we’re going to use them as a scapegoat for our issues.’
Gay marriage was legalized under a majority conservative court system way back in 2003. When it went to a poplar vote in the bright blue State of California in 2008, Prop 8’s plan to kill it passed by a healthy margin
This was the same year Obama was tiptoeing around full legalization of gay marriage for fear of pissing off too many swing voters in the Midwest.
Gay marriage wasn’t fully legalized into 2015, again by the conservative courts. Efforts to legislate civil rights for LGBT people have largely failed even when the Pres and Leg were fully in Dem control.
Gay marriage was legalized under a majority conservative court system way back in 2003.
Again, under a Liberal government. And I keep saying over and over – I know they phone it in and constantly give bigot ‘swing voters’ things they want. I’ve never said anything against that. It had a 60% approval by the public in 2015 when it was fully legalized. So again, for like the fifth goddamn time – Liberal governments can be forced to do these things by popular will. Conservatives won’t (I’m sure there’s like two examples someone will bring up, again, exception proves the rule.)
To sum: Liberals have to be forced to allow LGBT rights by popular opinion. Conservatives do this.
Again, under a Liberal government.
The Republicans controlled every branch of government in 2003, as well as a majority of state legislatures and governorships.
What broke for gay marriage in 2003 was a libertarian strain of conservatism defecting from the mainstream. Liberals accepted the change with the same passivity as they accepted the status quo.
It had a 60% approval by the public in 2015 when it was fully legalized.
Again by a majority conservative court. The Obama legislature dragged its heels.
Liberal governments can be forced to do these things by popular will.
They can be forced to do things by powerful socio-economic interests. In this case, a big chunk of the legal community broke for gay marriage and Obama didn’t try to get in the way.
But they didn’t do anything. They just let the change happen.
The “United” States of America is over.
We’re gonna end up with the “Blue States of America” and the “Republic of Jesusland”
you see that’s the thing, its not exactly blue stats. its blue city’s, islands surrounded by hundreds of miles of red oceans
Mostly empty oceans
Lets be honest, average iq of the red ocean is negative, theres no “people” there. And for the record i live in red ocean
I’m in the purple ocean! But our laws are very very red
That red ocean is like 3 people on a fucking farm or in a trailer.
An ocean of empty land.
Rural/urban divide is not unique to the US in any way whatsoever. Also, expect polarization to self perpetuate as blue voters move to blue states and red states to move to red states.
Turkey is very similar in this regard. Progressive cities, backwards countryside.
It’s also roughly the size and population of Texas alone. Does it have a wildly unfair Electoral College?
Whoa, lets call it like it is. There will be blue states, and there will be welfare states.
I saw a post about that the other day, it showed a map of all the states with populations smaller than LA county. Almost every single red state was highlighted. Really shows you how silly the electoral college system is.
Maybe someone should pair the watchdogs with guard dogs to do the biting when the former bark
If we allow the government to have control of either group, the guard dogs will just kill the watch dogs.
Maybe the people should start biting.
That is a very good point. The people should be controlling the government, after all.
Well, the people wanted this
I don’t think they did. A minority voted for this, but I don’t think they actually grasped or knew the extent of what they were voting for.
Those poor dogs. Someone should call the SPCA and repo… Defunded you say?
“Hey! You’re not supposed to do that!”
“Is there a specific law being broken?”
“Well…no, not exactly. But it breaks with tradition!”
“Dont enforce democratic norms with tradition” should be in the historical rulebook. Right next to not printing money to pay bills, not invading Russia in winter, and not touching Americas boats
Even if there was a law being broken, time has shown that Trump is pretty much above the law at this point.
It does seem a bit silly to focus on this, but you know how the news is. Let’s not forget about Obama in that tan suit sending republicans off the deep end.
From a republican, about a tan suit:
“There’s no way, I don’t think, any of us can excuse what the president did yesterday. I mean, you have the world watching”
They’re gonna be barking a whole lot more the next four years.
I wonder if falling out of windows will be a common thing.
And what are they going to do about it? If breaking the oath bears no teeth, the oath is pointless.
I face more punishment breaking my Paladin oath in Baldurs Gate 3…
I still never finished act 2… patches and mod updates sent me back to RTS and 4x. My last run was a dope oath breaking paladin
I’m trying to keep my ancients oath but every dialogue option seems like a trap to make you lose it. I fucking lost it talking to a bird for fucks sake. I’ve lost so many hours of progress resetting because I don’t want to pay 1000 gold, it’s literally 1/10th that cost to change your class.
I wish paladins had a morality slider instead, like KOTOR
Just like all checks and balances in government, it assumes the branches are somewhat independent and ethical, at least claim to serve their constituents, and protect their own power. It’s up to the legislative branch or the judicial branch
If it’s a law then he broke the law which means no other politician should be involved in the process as it’s a matter for the police, he should be prevented from taking power by those who enforce the law, aka the police.
One Final Check
State Vs Federal.
Grab your popcorns, because you wont be able to afford it in the future!
Turns out the concept of “checks and balances” was always a stupid lie.
Nullification Crisis v2.0: Blue States Boogaloo
Alarm! Concern! Criticism! Hand-wringing!
Furrowed brows!
we are well past the point of hand-wringing. this calls for a strongly worded letter
What are you doing about it?
The news outlets will SLAM him for this!
Lowly me? Preparing to !Resist@fedia.io
…could open the door to corruption.
“could”
ROFL!
In how many ways do we need to signal to Trump that he can do whatever he wants, without repercussion?
We’re so fucking useless.
I’d be happy that Trump voters finally got what they deserve, but unfortunately, the rest of us have to suffer the consequences alongside them. As well as the rest of the world.
I don’t know why, but most of the world voting their political parties into power is trending to the conservative right not towards the progressive left.
Because things are getting more worrying on a global scale (economical slow down, ecological crisis and wars) and the usual human reflexes are conservatism and blaming the people who are different. I think progressive ideas rather spread in times of peace and prosperity, or after catastrophic events like WW2.
I think the billionaire class has decided it’s better to be in control of government right now so they can use the power of state violence to keep their material wealth. There is an ongoing refugee crisis that is going to affect every single country as climate change makes certain places uninhabitable.
The final battle of the class war is upon us.
Pfffft you think therell be a battle? Well just slowly backslide into feudalism and the world will think it was inevitable. Im almost inclined to agree seeing how people behave now and historically
Those who try to actively pilot their lives are the minority. The preference is to not think about and simply do whatever it is that they want to do in the moment.
We aren’t actually a race of beings able to see or plan ahead mostly. To a degree the sociopaths are right to play the populace like a fiddle it’s just a shame most of them are idiots without a plan either.
the usual human reflexes are conservatism
Like voting in to power the people causing the economic and environmental issues. It’s absolutely mind-boggling how easy humans can be convinced to vote against their own interests.
I think “easy” is unfair. I mean, you really have to admit that the right-wing propaganda machine worked its ass off for the last 30 years and succeeded in its evil intent.
Have you seen how blatant the propaganda is?
Sure, but they had to work up to that exponentially. If they came out swinging like that even 10 years ago, there would have been a LOT more “it was a joke” back peddling.
On the surface for some people, it’s just voting for people who they think are not going to add restrictions on their daily lives, which comes way before ecology or the wellbeing of strangers, when you struggle. It’s the end of the month vs end of the world dilemma that right populism seems to utilize better than left populism.
Historically this does seem to be the trend. However it could be worth pointing out that the original New Deal was enacted during a period of historic economic turmoil and upheaval. Could be worth refreshing ourselves on how that came about to help prepare for what’s coming next.
Technology has enabled the centralization of power and wealth in an unprecedented way. Also Russian influence campaigns, for the same reason.
The trend is technically voting out the establishment - trying something new out of desperation. Unfortunately, the extreme right is more than willing to pretend that they have a solution. Usually, it’s to blame the other and promise to get rid of the other. You know, Nazi shit.
“Most of the world” isn’t voting at all. And that is how the right wing gains power.
Turnout in the UK this year was 59.7%. Ireland’s 60%, Japan 54%, France 63%, South Africa 59%, Mexico 61%. Indonesia 82%. India 65%. Sri Lanka 79%. America’s around 65%.
In 2022 Italy had 63%, Brazil 79%, Australia 92%.
In 2021, Germany’s was 76%.
What does “most of the world isn’t voting at all” mean?
By your own numbers (Thanks for doing that work! Next time please remember to share the source you pulled from.) in most countries at least a third of people couldn’t be bothered to do the most meaningful action they can to impact the world. That’s sad.
The infobox from Wikipedia is the source for all but the Irish elections and American elections, neither of which are finished counting (although Ireland’s was only this weekend…). It really isn’t that much work to type “election turnout (country)” into Google and click the first result. I’m not writing a dissertation, so I’m afraid that will have to do you.
“Couldn’t be bothered” is an extreme oversimplification of the matter, but regardless, most people are voting, and when higher than usual numbers do vote - as in America - it hasn’t meant defeat for the right wing.
I’m not surprised, but I am exasperated.
“which he signed into law in 2020.” You’ve got to be fucking kidding
Thank goodness for the watchdogs! I’m so glad they’re here. What would we do without them?!?!?
-_____-
Raise alarms? Could open the door to corruption? Undermine accountability?
Where the Hell have these people been? And anybody who is shocked by these headlines needs to come out from under their rock. None of this is new or news. It’s SOP.
As for accountability and watchdogs? Can you be any more lip service? What is anybody going to do? Ever? They had four years to make Trump and team accountable. Hasn’t exactly worked out.
Wake me when September (2028) ends.
Can things stop. I just… Want things to stop now.
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
To the people who will wake up tomorrow pretending this is going to be buisness as usual. Fuck you. That’s all.
Toothless watchdogs is more like it
