Schadenfreude; Big News Day

We have appointments that will occupy much of our day, but somehow the world keeps turning and news keeps coming in.

Gotta luv this one—look who’s laughing/crying now:

Lord Bebo @MyLordBebo

This German diplomat was mocking and laughing at Trump [at the UN], during his speech in 2018. Now he couldn’t take it and started crying, after JD Vance told them to stop censoring people. All of Europe symbolized in this one man.

Last edited8:07 AM · Feb 17, 2025

Russian perspective on the US - Russia talks. Anyone who thought the Russians have no historical memory …

Olga Bazova @OlgaBazova

There is a good reason for this scepticism. The US and European establishments have proven themselves to be completely agreement-incapable over decades of Rusophrenic policies.

The cold war, and NATO along with it, should have been put into the dustbins of history in 1991. Instead the US and their European puppets have gradually escalated it into a hot and bloody conflict that has affected the whole world today, and brought us ever closer to the precipice into abyss.

The deep rooted mistrust and even contempt exists not because we don't want to trust, but because we have witnessed with our own eyes the nefarious intent to destroy our nation for centuries and experienced first hand what some of these monsters are capable of.

Although Trump has exhibited some good intentions in regards to finishing the Ukrainian conflict, his cabinet, with very few exceptions, is not to be trusted and some of his picks will quite possibly try to sabotage his future actions.

The fact that the dialogue is being re-established is a huge step forward, and after three years of conflict, the Russian people obviously want this conflict to end, but not in the way of another Minsk or some frozen conflict, but in total victory and complete defeat of those who Russia is really at war with, which is obviously not Ukraine.

Things could have been different, had the West not been so self-consumed in their delusional sense of superiority, but rather listened and understood Russia's security concerns and national interests. They have been consistently the same for decades, but ignored and discarded by West due to hubris and petty self-entitlement.

Had they been taken into consideration, the European continent, and perhaps even beyond, would be flourishing today in prosperous, peaceful and mutually beneficial co-existence.

Therefore, I sure do hope for positive changes, new peace and an era of multipolar co-existence, but I remain totally pessimistic and completely distrustful of anything that comes from Western politicians, and here is one of thousands of reasons why:

4:35 PM · Feb 18, 2025

Who can blame them?

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But here’s the really big news. Trump has issued a new EO that explicitly establishes the Unitary Executive as the controlling feature of our government, in accordance with the Constitution:

Article II

Section 1.

The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

The chattering class is losing its mind over this. As part of this EO, only the President and the AG will be allowed to interpret laws. So-called independent agencies will be required to report to the President for purposes of policy effectiveness through—I’m sure you’ve already guessed this—OMB. Russell Vought. This would bring the Third American Republic—The New Deal—to a definitive close:

'Unitary executive' theory may reach Supreme Court as Trump wields sweeping power

Under the Constitution, the U.S. government is divided into the executive, legislative and judicial branches - set up in the 18th century to ensure checks and balances within the American system. Advocates of the unitary executive theory argue that presidents legally can remove any executive branch official, including heads of independent agencies, even if such action would violate job protections enshrined in laws passed by Congress.

The doctrine was first popularized four decades ago by lawyers in Republican former President Ronald Reagan's administration and may be pushed further during the Trump era.

Acutally, the “doctrine” was popularized in the US Constitution, as quoted above.

The theory's view of the president's removal power has been embraced gradually in recent decades by the Supreme Court, whose current 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump. But it has yet to endorse actions like some of Trump's sweeping assertions of executive power since returning to office on January 20.

"Trump has claimed the power to dismiss the heads of independent agencies, though Congress has restricted such authority," University of North Carolina School of Law professor Michael Gerhardt said. "If the court allows Trump to do that, or does not interfere with Trump's doing that, it will help to cement the unitary theory of the executive into American constitutional law."

Trump signs order to claim power over independent agencies

The action is likely to face court challenges and test a once-fringe legal theory.

Well, that’s the prog view of the Constitution—a “fringe legal document.”

The theory was long considered fringe, and many mainstream legal scholars still believe it is illegal, given that Congress set the agencies up specifically to act independently, or semi-independently, from the president. These include the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which enact regulations and can impose hefty fines on businesses that violate the rules.

Uh, how does Congress set up government agencies that are independent of the actual government—the Executive Branch? If that sounds unconstitutional to you …