So yesterday an appeals court backed up the U.S. Court of International Trade and found that most of Trump’s tariffs are illegal. But the tariffs can remain in effect until mid-October or until another court says otherwise. A Supreme Court appeal is assumed.
One of the interesting developments in Trump’s second term is that the free-market libertarian side of conservatism, which for years has supported Republicans, appears to be breaking with Trump. Websites like Cafe Hayek and Reason are siding with the court decision against the tariffs. The Cato Institute hasn’t weighed in on this decision yet, but it’s got a good article up on the unconstitutional deployment of national guard. Dan McLaughlin of the National Review applauds the ruling, But Andrew McCarthy, also at National Review, works hard to find a fig leaf of an excuse for Trump’s position. You might remember McCarthy for his mighty efforts to persuade us that Saddam Hussein’s representatives met with 9/11 perp Mohamed Atta in Prague.
You really don’t have to be a Constitutional scholar to understand that the Constitution gives Congress, and only Congress, the power to impose tariffs in Article I, section 8, first paragraph. “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;” Tariffs come under the heading of “duties.” And the third clause gives Congress the power “To regulate commerce with foreign nations.” None of those things are mentioned as a power of the President in Section II.
Trump is arguing that the power to impose tariffs was delegated to him because it’s an emergency. Paul Krugman wrote yesterday,
It’s important to be clear what just happened. The court didn’t say that tariffs per se are illegal. It said that the procedure Trump used to impose tariffs — declaring an economic emergency, then setting tariff rates without so much as consulting Congress, let alone passing legislation — is illegal. If Trump wants to pass a tariff bill, the same way he passed his One Big Beautiful Bill, OK. (I mean, terrible policy, but legal.)
But just saying “I am the Tariff Man, and here are my tariffs” isn’t OK.
True, the International Economic Emergency Powers Act gives the president substantial room to set tariffs during an, um, economic emergency. But Trump himself keeps saying that the economy is in wonderful shape, booming without inflation, and any claims to the contrary are fake news. So how can things both be terrific and an emergency calling for drastic action?
Let us not hold our breath waiting for a sensible answer to that question. But yes, he certainly could have gotten any tariff he wanted passed in Congress. But he’s allergic to working with Congress. Yesterday he informed Congress he won’t be spending $4.9 billion in foreign aid Congress had already appropriated. He’s doing this through a rarely used maneuver called a “pocket recission.” The Hill explains,
The Impoundment Control Act (ICA) lays out rules governing the rescissions process. It allows the administration to temporarily withhold funding for 45 days while Congress considers the rescissions request. If lawmakers opt not to approve the request, the funds must be released.
But a pocket rescission is when the president sends the same type of request to Congress within 45 days of the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The request is made so late that the funding is essentially paused until it runs out at the end of the year regardless of congressional action.
The $4.9 billion was appropriated to the State Department for various peacekeeping-type activities. A portion of it was intended for USAID, which Trump already destroyed. Again, Trump probably could have gotten Congress to review and eliminate this spending had he asked. He would rather just issue possibly unconstitutional orders that courts might overturn than work with a Congress inclined to give him whatever he wants. And this is probably from a combination of laziness and temperament — he gets off on being The Boss.
And I wish people would remember that Trump has never in his life worked within a large multi-level organization that requires coordination and agreement among many departments and managers. The Trump organization is a collection of LLCs. Trump’s management experience is very limited.
Another federal judge yesterday blocked the administration from deporting people without a court hearing. We’ll see if the administration complies.
The country is still reeling from what amounts to a purge of science from the CDC. Since states all have their own laws about vaccines, we’re now in a place where life or death may depend on what state you live in. I’m reading that CVS and Walgreen’s will (or may; it’s confusing) require a prescription from a physician to administer a covid vaccine even if you are over 65. And in some states they may not give you a covid vaccine at all. I haven’t heard anything from Walmart or other chains yet. The updated vaccines are supposed to be available very soon, but good look getting one.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s health department is looking into purchasing Covid-19 vaccines in bulk from manufacturers, Greg Sargent writes at The New Republic. Sargent continues,
Meanwhile, a coalition of mostly-blue states led by Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey is planning to coordinate on the purchase and distribution of pediatric vaccines, should the federal government restrict access to them, according to a source familiar with ongoing discussions. This will likely include big states like New York and Pennsylvania.
Of course I am worried for my grandsons and my children, especially living in New York City. There is no avoiding crowds there.
"And I wish people would remember that Trump has never in his life worked within a large multi-level organization that requires coordination and agreement among many departments and managers"
Let me fix that for you: And I wish people would remember that Trump has never in his life worked!
Your right though Stump has his greasy little fucking fingers in almost every god damn aspect of our lives. So much for small government conservatives! He's fucking up so much shit he's completely overwhelmed our media, nobody can keep up, when does that asshole have time to sleep? I read an article over at AP today that since Eloon shit canned all the climate folks at NOAA they are now looking to hire about 450 new people, If you apply you have to submit how much you love at least two of diaper don's executive orders and explain what you will do to make sure your working to further the fuhrer’s agenda! All Heil Trump!
Applicants for National Weather Service jobs asked to name Trump executive orders they support | AP News
The insane for sure as insanity fits with madness and the like. It also has a place in our legal system as a defense of sorts and suggests the need for social isolation that is not as punitive as jail. A role in the public sector is usually a bit less punitive than jail, though some would claim it as too cruel and unusual for most humans. Lately it has mutated into many roles that are cruelly and unusually punitive for hard working people and retired people like me. (I'd be emeritus but I'm a bit short on merit). Still most public sector jobs are not best filled with the insane. It was an option given by many judges during the Viet Nam era. I got to serve with a guy who opted for the Army rather than jail for a brief time. He really belonged in jail IMO or at least a ward for the criminally insane. He made my Army time cruel and unusual punishment for a time until he moved on. The term moral moron fit him well. I'd go with poor judgement for that judge for sure. He was more a danger to our own troops than the enemy for sure. He reminds me a lot of our current administration. More a danger to good citizens than public servants. To an extent, the term Barbarian fits some of them, but with RFK the junior, I go with insane.
It is not just the brain worm that should disqualify him from public service but his long-term use of heroin that is fairly well documented. Bernie Sanders wrote in the NYT he should resign. That is a slam dunk. Also, a slam dunk is his that his appointment and approval is an error so grievous that those involved need all be censured at least. Only by the curses of class and money has he avoided what we have for systems for addiction treatment and medical treatment/care in this country. He is a proven danger to others and quite likely to himself and his children. If he was sane, he would get himself admitted somewhere he would get treatment with isolation so he would harm fewer people. He is apparently not that sane. That's the catch. That is why our systems failed and need improvement and revision. He and us fell through a crack in the system. It will be a fatal flaw for many citizens. That crack needs fixing or at least a patch or two. There is no safety net left. Yes, we will all die eventually Joani, but you had enough sense to retire before you aided and abetted more of these disciples of horror and doom. Some don't.
You know, most of us who do not live in the USA really don't care about internal US disputes. All we see is US enmity to the world.
Trump is a figurehead for the USA. Why would anyone want to work with the USA when we know it is totally untrustworthy.
I live in Canada. We and Mexico recently negotiated a new free trade deal with the USA. Gone. New tariffs.
You can say it is just Trump. From my prospective, I see no reason to trust any US administration. IIRC Obama declared us a national threat.
I believe the Russian term ??????????????????? (not agreement capable) sums up USA's diplomatic effect.
Sorry, about the ???????. Apparently this website cannot handle Cyrillic script.
Of course no sensible person would trust the U.S. right now, and I realize it’s going to be hard to get any trust back. Electing Trump once was maybe a fluke. But bringing him back for a second term shows us that a large part of the U.S. electorate is ignorant and uninformed and lacks the sense God gave spinach. The opinion polls are telling us that a substantial majority of Americans disapprove of Trump now, but nothing he’s doing, or not, should come as any surprise to anyone paying attention. And I’m not sure people who voted for Trump and don’t like him now are learning any lessons from this. What’s happening now is in many ways the natural result of trends that have been going on in U.S. politics since the 1970s. And both parties and news media are complicit. But right now I don’t have the energy to go into a longer explanation. What many of us are hoping is that the domestic mess will give Democrats a majority in Congress after next year’s midterm elections, and then Trump at least can be kept in check. But there’s no guarantee that will happen. A lot of voters who are being royally screwed by Trump’s policies will still go to the polls and vote for Republicans next year, because they don’t understand how the system works. Things may have to get even worse here, as in mass deaths and destruction, before we can begin to try to turn things around.
"because they don’t understand how the system works"
Correct because a sizable portion of US citizens have their brain controlled by whatever they read on their phones social media feed. The truth is dead and lies almost always favors the fascists!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcKwGS7OSQ&list=RDVwcKwGS7OSQ&start_radio=1
I'm watching (and when I can, attending) protests. Trump is trying to say the protests are small or paid-for. Soros, you know. Trump proclaimed there will be a "rapid response" National Guard unit, supplemented by a volunteer citizen force. I interpret that as Proud Boys. This isn't a proposal – it's a signed directive.
Blood will be spilled. I don't think the National Guard will fire on unarmed citizens. Proud Boys in National Guard camo uniforms might. The administration will blame violent protesters who attacked the troops. Despite a thousand cameras, civilian and news crews, there will be no evidence the troops were threatened, If you exclude name-calling.
Miller and his fascist friends may believe that if they slaughter a dozen protesters, all opposition will evaporate. That is the question. Trump may have gotten counsel that the media will fall in line when it's clear Trump is not kidding. That was the strategy when the British overwhelmed Boston. Those Americans did not yield to overwhelming force and military intimidation. Does that spirit still live?
There's the problem of Democratic Governors in blue states. That's where Trump wants to invade. But will Trump's Gestapo be able to ignore warrants and subpoenas when citizens have been slaughtered? There's no pardon power for the President when the state brings murder charges.
Related: Trump has been granted more authority to use the National Guard than is Constitutional. The excuse has been to defer to the judgment of the President. But when the streets run with the blood of citizens, some likely in their 70s, with no arrest records, the pleas of the Governors to keep the jackboots out will be hard to ignore.
Make sure your seat belts are tightened – there's turbulence ahead.
Miller and his fascist friends may believe that if they slaughter a dozen protesters, all opposition will evaporate. That is the question.
I think you’re also going to see the majority of the military uphold their oaths.
I’m thinking “Kent State” where a small number of people were killed, but overall, opposition to the war prevailed.
Miller is likely to be kicked out once Trump departs, the billionaires aren’t behind his racist crusade. Vance is going to have to compromise, because he simply lacks Trump’s personal power.
In an et. al. of all et. alus the NYT did a guest essay on the CDC.
It is a must read.
Opinion | We Ran the CDC: RFK Jr. Is Endangering Every American’s Health – The New York Times
Oops, more an et. al. of et. ali. perhaps?
The nerd in me accepts the challenge. "Et alia" ("and others") is already plural. If there were just one "other," it would be "et alius." But I think you could write "et plus allis" to mean "and more others." My Latin is a bit wobbly, though.
Ah yes, you all and all you all in Latin, thanks.
To Maha: yes. And the nerd in me couldn't resist digging a bit deeper (I took 3 years of Latin in HS, but had to look some stuff up to sort this out). I don’t mean this in a didactic way, just sharing…
The Latin word alius (meaning "other") is an adjective, and Latin adjectives must match the noun they are modifying in gender, number and case. There are 36 combinations of those things (3 genders, 2 numbers, 6 cases). For those who care to, click the link below to see a table representation of this for "alius".
The rules of Latin seem to be largely focused on endings. With "alius" we have a root of "al" and then a variety of endings depending on the gender, number and case of the noun being modified.
Now, in ancient Rome, people speaking/writing in Latin could compose any variety of sentence containing the word al(ius) to convey a thought, and they would choose the appropriate ending out of the options, depending on the noun modified. But in our case of nerdiness here, we are focused on the abbreviation "et al." This abbreviation is used mostly in citations in scholarly writing, or in legalese. (Possibly also in ecclesiastical Latin but I know nothing about that).
The nice thing about "et al." is that it serves as an abbreviation for all 36 instances in the matrix of endings, so we don't need to bother at all wondering about singular/plural, case or language-gender.
http://latindictionary.wikidot.com/adjective:alius
So that is why there should always be a dot at the end of "et al." ? I never really understood this.
I wanted to take Latin in HS, but the teacher retired when I showed up. Learned French instead. Wish I had invested the time in Spanish, much more useful to me now.
When I get some time, I hope to learn Spanish using AI. At minimum it supposedly can correct mis-pronunciations. AI seems like it could be a fantastic tool for language learning.
Yeah, “al.” is an abbreviation.
That I did not know. I learned from the Chicago Manual of Style that “et al.” after the name of the first author should be used to cite things with more than three authors — “Smith et al.” That was as far as I ever got with it.
Yeah, and the style manual really ought to be all you need when writing in American English. But it seems that in some cases, once we bring Latin into modern English some of the Latin details get dragged along. For example, we have alumnus, alumna, alumni, and alumnae.
Two genders, singular/plural.
Anyway, the NYT essay by a plethoric number of authors is remarkably in agreement. Fearless leader and company thrive on divisive or wedge politics. This mass approach defends against the ad hominem counter argument or bifurcating 'both sides' nonsense. There is no other side on a link that is causal between vaccines and Autism. Those who claim there is need to go ride off on their Unicorns and find some credibility.
Anyway, the NYT essay by a plethoric number of authors is remarkably in agreement. Fearless leader and company thrive on divisive or wedge politics. This mass approach defends against the ad hominem counter argument or bifurcating 'both sides' nonsense. There is no other side on a link that is causal between vaccines and Autism. Those who claim there is need to go ride off on their Unicorns and find some credibility.
You're right; what's going on at the CDC is going to impact a lot of people.