Random Politics & Religion #21

They also don't have to reach so much to try to make sense of their overruling of a legally defined (by the Constitution, no less) executive.

What's worse is, they aren't applying actual laws or interpretations of actual laws in their rulings. It's all feels.

...
What irks me the most about Ryan's bill was that he did exactly the same thing democrats/liberals did with Obamacare: Had zero democrat/liberal input, and tried to rush it.

At the very least, just repeal Obamacare first, then work at replacing it (and instead of focusing on insurance, why not address what Obamacare was intended to do in the first place, which is to make health care affordable).

President Donald Trump vowed to win a "better deal" for Americans before approving the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access oil pipelines, promising to extract concessions and force the builders to use U.S. steel.

Now his administration has authorized both projects -- with those conditions mostly unmet. The outcomes illustrate the limits of the president’s power and poke holes in the carefully crafted image of Trump as a dealmaker so good at twisting arms that he wrote a book about his negotiating prowess.

“Donald Trump’s promises on these pipelines are like the pipelines themselves: hollow," said Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts. "The only promises being kept with approval of these pipelines will be the ones made to Big Oil who want to export this dirty oil to thirsty foreign markets at the expense of our environment and our economy." ...

The ruling was based on violations of the Establishment Clause.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/15/us/politics/document-Order.html
The defendants argued much more but I think that one supersedes most others.

The chairman of the House intelligence committee has backed down from his dramatic assertion that Donald Trump and his aides were "monitored," by U.S. spies — a claim the Republicans have cited this week in emails to loyalists.

Rep. Devin Nunes told reporters Friday he can't be sure whether conversations among Trump or his aides were captured in the surveillance that has become a source of controversy since Nunes made it public in two news conferences this week.

"He said he'll have to get all the documents he requested from the (intelligence community) about this before he knows for sure," his spokesman, Jack Langer, said earlier....

The problem was really the bill wasn't a health care bill at all. It was a tax break.

And they can't repeal first. EVERYBODY hates that idea.

So angry namecalling when you have nothing else.

The ruling was based on violations of the Establishment Clause.

Like I said, no basis on reality.

I would say that the appellate court would get it right, but then again, it's 9th Circuit, so it's going to the Supreme Court to get it corrected.

And they can't repeal first. EVERYBODY hates that idea.

Do you like it when you keep putting support behind amateurs who had 7 years to come with something better and couldn't even get their own team to like what they come up with? Let alone something that looks like it a freshman rushed to put together in 2hrs...

Tired of all the winning yet?

My frustration with the idiots in Congress is well documented.... All the same, I'll put my support behind a disjointed batch of idiots that can't get anything through rather than the hive-minded batch of idiots that actually succeed in enforcing their idiocy (in the rare instances that they actually hold power).

Nunes Backs Down From Assertion Trump Was Monitored
NBC News

Again, there's more.

The First Amendment is reality?

I was calling your argument pathetic

Which is a huge stretch to begin with. Trump isn't establishing a religion by taking precautions against nations that breed terrorism according to Obama.

I honestly believe the Dems will come to us. (WTF)

My frustration with the idiots in Congress is well documented.... All the same, I'll put my support behind a disjointed batch of idiots that can't get anything through rather than the hive-minded batch of idiots that actually succeed in enforcing their idiocy (in the rare instances that they actually hold power).

I'm aware of keeping it vague enough so that can be the excuse.

They wasted 2+ weeks of the legislative calender on a bad healthcare bill that they were told was dead on Day 1. With a two week break coming in April there is no telling when or if healthcare will get done. Trump is obviously ready to move on to his budget wishlist but uh...I wouldn't expect it to be any different.

You might want to take a hard look in the mirror there...

They wasted 2+ weeks of the legislative calender on a bad healthcare bill that they were told was dead on Day 1. With a two week break coming in April there is no telling when or if healthcare will get done. Trump is obviously ready to move on to his budget wishlist but uh...I wouldn't expect it to be any different.

It's also highly possible (requires thinking beyond 7th grade, which, I'm afraid, no Congressman/woman seems to show to be capable of doing lately) that this bill was pushed to fail, to show the democrats/liberals what it means to legislate.

Since, you know, they haven't done it in 8 years.

Wasn't your excuse that this was infringing 14th Amendment, not 1st Amendment?

Or are you referring to either ban as infringing a specific religion which neither names such religion nor excludes the majority of the countries that this purportedly discriminates against. Hell, you can't even accuse Trump of naming these countries at all.