(which I'm sure republicans will support once a democrat is president, but I'd like a constitutional amendment so that congress cannot easily reverse it when it will benefit the party in power)

Obama actually expanded presidential powers quite a bit.

Bet that has to smart!

True and unfortunate and part of a trend. But Obama's choice was to lean on executive power and or turn into another Jimmy Carter.

I propose curtailing the power of the executive and also the power of speakers of each house of Congress. No Mitch mcconel of the future should have the power to block legislation from being voted on.

America’s political system is deeply flawed and based on the assumption that politicians won’t be assholes, but is currently infested with them

Go vote up FDR's fireside chat in the hopper!

Near the end he makes a point to basically say, "To anyone afraid that a politician will want to appoint spineless justices to the supreme court, or justices would be spineless enough to blindly promote a president's agenda, then the entire political system would already be beyond fucked."

Nah, Brawndo. I am a bit of a far lefty. I wouldn't take you to jail.
I wouldn't take you -anywhere-. ;D

Like the clueless jackass that he is, Brawndo is mistaking a discussion of Mary Trump's reasons for writing the book for a discussion of the book's content, and so his pedestrian sarcasm is pretty much beside the point.

These people clearly haven't fully digested the book's content yet, but those big giddy smiles are priceless.

If this book hurts Trump, it will be by undermining the fake image of the infallible business genius that Trump built up over 14 years of his horrible TV program. This what people don't get. All of these years of lies and pooch screwing are still only a third of Trumps 14 years of prime time.
One thing that is happening now is that Trump's opponents, particularly the Lincoln project, are pretty openly trolling him. They're buying ad time on the Fox News shows that they know he watches, deliberately pushing him to more deranged Twitter tantrums. This will hurt Trump with his base only if he can't resist hitting back. But at this point, it's starting to look like his base can't save him.

MB, when you do that snide SolRo-style sarcasm it doesn't come off as witty, it comes off like you just read Trump's poll numbers and are super-defensive.

It won't hurt Trump. He has his 32% hardcore nomatterwhatters for whom his dickishness is the whole point.

JHM, did you watch the video? They went out of their way to make a big deal out of the fact that the judge thought that Trump's actions in regards to talking about his brother's addiction were offensive.

My question is: Why would that be offensive and why would you even mention that if this is about Mary Trump and her book? It just seemed to stand out as really odd and unnecessary to bring up.

Hazelnut, I don't think I'm being defensive of Trump. I am just raising an important question in regards to why it's necessary to smear him for bringing up his brother, who was an addict, who did die. Why would it be offensive for Trump to bring that up when trying to relate to people in regards to the opioid crisis?

I realize a lot of people don't like him. I even realize he comes across as an asshole a lot of the time. But he is a human being and I don't doubt he was at the very least saddened over his brother's death. I think Mary has a lot of grief over her father and I don't think that any of that is Trump's fault. He didn't talk to his brother for a long time because of those addiction issues. And that sucks. It's a horrible thing for any family to go through.

If you want to criticize Trump for things he's done, I think that's fair. I don't think it's fair to go into the imaginary fairy realm of "he obviously is trying to use his brother's death". Because it's not obvious. You don't know that. Nobody knows that and it's really arrogant to say that can be determined.

Chicken the Did - I was hoping someone would crack a joke back so thank you.

Hi MB, I think if you're trying to raise an important question, then it's especially important to avoid the sarcasms like "Dear heavens", "Oh my stars!", "I'm going to be the first one in jail!". Pissy asides like that don't start conversations, they're used by the Crackersmacks and SolRos to kill off conversations they're afraid to continue.

Anyway, I watched the video and what I got out of it was valid observations about Trump's genuine sociopathy—caring nothing for anyone but himself. I'm not sure where you got the 'smear him for bringing up his brother' stuff, but if you point me to the point in the video you're referring to I'll gladly re-watch it.

>>>If you want to criticize Trump for things he's done, I think that's fair. I don't think it's fair to go into the imaginary fairy realm of "he obviously is trying to use his brother's death". Because it's not obvious. You don't know that. Nobody knows that and it's really arrogant to say that can be determined.

Jesus Christ, Brawndo.

The reporters were discussing the estrangement of Donald Trump from his niece, and how it fits into her morives for writing the book. They were alluding to an incident the.Mary Trump writes about.

Try to follow mw here. If Mary Trump feels this way, and Mary Trump has publicly said that she feels this way, saying that Mary Trump feels this way is not "the fairy tale realm". It isn't a direct criticism of Trump, and is completely appropriate in a discussion of how Mary Trump feels.

> But he is a human being and I don't doubt he was at the very least saddened over his brother's death.

that is some lazy-ass trolling right there MB

> Because it's not obvious. You don't know that. Nobody knows that and it's really arrogant to say that can be determined.

or maybe you're just really dumb?

nah, i'm sticking with lazy trolling. you're welcome!

Yeah, it's really lazy trolling.

Every once in a while I _think_ MB is making a genuine effort, because he sounds so genuinely hurt when people point out the trolling. All I know is if he _is_ trying to be genuine, he's gotta cut out the lazy.