The choice, ignore all health professional advice and gather in large close groups without any social distancing during an accelerating deadly pandemic or lose all federal funding to your already criminally underfunded school system.

There is no carrot, just stick.

This type of blackmail or extortion has never been done to schools in this all or nothing way to force parents and children to ignore life and death public health issues for imagined political points.

Lol. If you honestly think that, you need serious help.

The president submits his budget to congress, they rubber stamp it mostly, then send it back for presidential approval. The president controls it more than congress, start to finish, they only make changes the president must approve.
The president has enormous discretionary spending abilities too.
I guess you forgot what Ukraine was about...the president withholding congressionally approved funds. It works the other way too, where they spend funds not approved....constantly.

The president can make presidential orders, emergency declarations, reappropriation, and other ploys to get around congressional approval for spending. Remember that wall Mexico was paying for...how did it eventually get funded, (hint, not through the congressionally approved budget. He reappropriated funds for active duty family housing)

Edit: and now we're both right, as just yesterday the 9th circuit court decided Trump declaring an emergency at the border was a farce, his own DOJ numbers proved there was no need, no emergency, no caravans a comin, and that his misappropriation of the funding was unconstitutional....but I'm not a bit sure how that makes a difference since he already spent most of it. It was unconstitutional, but he did it anyway. They aren't going to recover those billions, so in reality being unconstitutional didn't stop anything.


Um...the "veto" we're discussing is actually technically called a "congressional override"...it's when congress overrides a presidential veto, creating the law, not repealing it. Are you confused because I called it congress vetoing the president?


He withheld congressionally approved funds from an ally, costing them lives and loss of bargaining power in an attempt to blackmail their president into STARTING an investigation into a crime that clearly was impossible if you know the timeline. That harmed American interests both in the region and internationally, cost lives, and gave aid and comfort to our enemy, Russia...that covers treason pretty thoroughly. There was NEVER an investigation into Hunter Biden to drop. Fuck, you people are gullible and ignorant, and just refuse to check facts. The Burisma investigation was shelved long before Hunter worked for Burisma, and shelving investigations for bribes was what the prosecutor had been doing his entire tenure, and why EVERYONE wanted him gone besides Russia. There was no explanation because there was never any investigation. Duh.
Can you explain why you stopped doing something you never did in the first place? Why won't you explain why you stopped having sex with infants? Knowing why is a good thing.

Yeah, you probably repeat the nonsense about him getting what was it, $2 billion from China, or was it Trillion? He would have more money than Trump if either figure were true, but they're just not. Look into it.

Oh no, sir. They have repeatedly said, alone and as a group, that they won't publicly oppose him on anything significant or usually even anything minor because they fear he will not support them, will "primary" them, and without his cultists they stand zero chance of being reelected.

Isn't that exactly what Trump said, that the investigation of him was illegal because Democrats were involved, making it partisan? That since what he claimed was the impetus (or as he says, the oranges) for the investigation was an imperfect dossier the whole thing was illegal?
The impetus for his Biden witch hunt is unambiguously a made up story by corrupt Ukrainians that doesn't fit the documented facts in the slightest, which every professional involved told him clearly, a fake story furthered directly by Trump in public.

In fact, it is hands off for the president. Using the power of the office to direct investigations of political rivals is impeachable.
Using the office to blackmail foreign powers to interfere in our election by starting false investigations for political reasons is a crime.
Taking foreign money in exchange for illegal and corrupt policies that are against the national interests but personally beneficial is treason. He has done exactly that.

But in YOUR mind, Treasonous Trump can do no wrong, and things that were treason when you baselessly claimed Democrats did them are patriotism when Trump brags about them. You can't even understand that Trump openly committed the very crime he was convinced by foreign criminals Biden committed...using the power of his office and public funds to pressure foreign investigations for personal gain...the difference being Trump did it secretly for personal political gains and was caught, Biden didn't do anything besides join international and bipartisan efforts to remove a corrupt prosecutor who wouldn't prosecute corruption. Trump removed a top notch anti corruption diplomat because she wouldn't push for a corrupt and baseless politically motivated investigation of his political rival, exactly what the corrupt Ukrainians had paid him to do.

Trump couldn't come up with any other corruption he wants investigated besides the Biden fantasy he was sold, and when asked exactly what he expected from Ukraine, he said he specifically expected them to investigate Biden, not fight corruption. Same for China, which was not a joke or trolling of the public, his trade advisor admitted he brought it up in official trade talks before he said it publicly.

You keep chanting 'he'll drain the swamp' ignoring he is the swamp thing, and the swampiest administration ever with more corruption convictions than any two administrations combined (an educated guess, might be >2) and more scandals than any 10 combined.

If I weren't sure you were a Russian troll only trying to sew division with ridiculous republican regurgitation of baseless claims based on delusion and corruption, I would be seriously worried about your mental state.

Edit: remember these days in 15 months. When Democrats control congress and the executive, the same "see no evil" tactics will be more than fair play. No matter how unconstitutional their actions might be, no matter how unacceptable, we will see no wrong....just cleaning up the Trump mess. Nothing to worry about.

Very few thanks to the NRA (the gun manufacturer's lobby) paying and blackmailing politicians into not enacting regulations on purchasing, carrying, or using them.

Yes, those politicians who let themselves be bought are a problem....but clearly so are the ones paying them off (bribing) like the NRA and Trump himself.

I personally don't believe in governing by blackmail even when i support the goals.

Well, if you want to go that route, sure, still no equivalency between slick Willie who inappropriately got a blow job from a willing subordinate and tried to obfuscate out of it earning him an impeachment along with a few unverified and mostly unreported accusations of groping and a pedophile, or a blackmailing mistress abuser, or Dumb Donald who bragged on tv and radio about groping and leering at underage girls in pageants he ran and offering bribes and gifts to sleep with his friends wives while he was married....not to mention the multiple sex workers/models/porn stars he paid for sex (or to be quiet about how bad it was) and accusations of everything from groping to outright rape, and is being sued over it.
Or ran charities he used as a personal piggy bank to pay off legal debts and buy portraits of himself and fake magazines with him on the cover.
Or ran fraudulent schools and admitted it.....and has yet to pay a price for any of it besides the fines levied over his fraudulent schools.

Pretty sure the Clinton foundation has been thoroughly investigated, and I'm not hearing any charges pending....Trump can't say the same.

So no....no equivalency.

Yep, a comedian on a comedy tour taking a joke picture pretending to assault a sleeping woman who then quit of his own accord is exactly the same as a long term pedophile who enjoys his parties full support and never backs down or apologizes even after losing, or a philanderer who blackmail his mistress by taking naked pictures of her tied up and threatening to make them public then fights removal.

There is no equivalency. There's not a monopoly on one side, no, but there's absolutely not "every bit as much corruption and dishonesty on the Democrat side of politics as there is on the Republican". Republican dishonesty is about selling the country to Russia and raiding the treasury, and hiding or excusing inexcusable behavior and permeates everything they say. Democratic dishonesty is about which email account an email came from and pretending the leadership has no bias, and bowing to hyper sensitivity and disingenuous faux outrage.

For example...
Asked how his tax plan benefits the rich, he replied....
Trump: "No, I don't benefit. I don't benefit. In fact, very very strongly, as you see, I think there's very little benefit for people of wealth."

When asked about his rich friends....
"They can call me all they want; not going to help," he said Sept. 27, 2017. "I'm doing the right thing and it's not good for me, believe me."

When asked about the Trump zero tolerance plan to tear families apart as a political ploy, Trump claimed the Democrats did it and only they can reverse it, then he reversed his plan himself proving both family destroying lies to be lies.

The consistency, levels, and importance of the dishonesty from Republicans is exponentially greater than that from Democrats, who are far from perfect themselves.

Edit: Btw, Mahr has addressed the issue of him running for office repeatedly, he's capable and intelligent enough to be honest and say he's a horrible politician and would probably never run, and he knows he's far more influential exactly where he is than he might be as a freshman representative.....and he's smart enough to see that a candidate that gets out the vote for the opposition (like Clinton) is a horrendously stupid idea.
And Franken worked out great until he caved to false outrage and quit while pedophiles and abusive philanderers were welcomed into the opposing party feigning the outrage over a funny (but disrespectful) picture.

No Bob, it has not.

A few cases a year of forcibly separating children from their family for cause or temporarily holding unaccompanied minors is in no way the same as jailing every refugee, legal or not, and separating thousands of children a month.

And real Republicans (not you) have finally found the Rubicon they won't cross, and are starting to become Democrats in large numbers with some long respected Republicans leading them in an effort to slow the Trumpian destruction they went along with for too long....i just hope enough of them to counteract the know nothing tribalistic morons that are replacing intelligent people in your party.

You are such a careless and sad liar...if you're going to lie, come up with better, harder to disprove lies, or face a lambasting for your stupidity and gullibility in believing Russian propaganda once again (after falling into that pit so many times I can't count) without ever making the tiniest bit of effort to see if what you wish is true and have been told by oan Jones RT or faux is true actually is true (hint, it never is).


You just love spreading obvious, easily debunked, idiotic lies....
But Jesus, Bob, even for you, this is pathetic, and that's saying a lot.

Fuck any person going on a humanitarian trip to see terrified displaced separated refugee children while wearing a message saying "I don't care". They are either too heartless or brainless to deserve a whit of respect, there's no middle ground.
Fuck anyone willing to tear apart thousands of families as a form of political blackmail , fuck them in the ass with a billy club if they have no plan on how to reverse their family separations when their bullying tactic fails.
Fuck anyone standing with and defending those indefensible actions of human garbage.

The twist to try to blame Obama for this is pure evil genius. Had to watch a second time to catch that trick.

This is actually a pretty interesting video overall, just happens to be a video of an evil asshole and his friends and guests.

Basically the radical Trumpist position is that it is OK to hurt children (or anyone) for a political cause and it is everybody elses (ie democrats) fault that they dont respond to blackmail faster.

I think its a shame these videos get downvoted so readily. Not quite the holocaust, but enough of a warning.

Obama talked there about holding UNACCOMPANIED children, not separating families except in a very few instances with cause, certainly not as a bargaining chip in a political fight.
Odd, they think indefinite incarceration is better than the infinitesimal chance they might release a child to an abusive family member....why doesn't that also go for kids in CPS who are being relocated then? We don't care about American children being abused?

They pretend this is an Obama policy (but slip up and admit it's 6 weeks old) and pretend this is only about illegals who've been caught (but it's being done to families requesting asylum legally too, despite Trump's claim) they specifically claim it isn't being done to legal asylum applicants (hoping you won't notice that only goes for those few entering legally at an international port but not those who surrender legally at border crossings).
The policy is a pure white house creation, one they disingenuously shirk all responsibility for. It's an obvious political ploy to blackmail Democrats into agreeing to Draconian Republican immigration reform to stop this outrageous abuse of refugees.
Wow, @bobknight33, pretty awful even from your team of deplorables.

Also full of outright *lies

Edit: To prove himself a liar, Trump has just ended this policy in the same way he created it, by executive order. No word on what happens to those already separated yet, but the practice of unilateral separation should end.

BWAAAHAAHAHAHAHA!!!! Excellent.
Too bad he's already banned, this is almost worth leaving his spam post up just to spread the word about him!
Scary stuff. I guess he's lucky no one caught him on nanny cam and blackmailed him for sleeping with coworkers wives in customers beds. I sure HOPE that's enough for him to lose his real estate license.

Quite a few Spanish pop songs have crazy view counts. It is often claimed that there are over 500 million Spanish speakers (including 50 million in the USA), and some of the youtube vids have view counts that suggest that every Spanish speaker in the world has watched it at least once, and maybe two or three times!

For example, Shakira's song Chantaje (blackmail) has 1.5 billion views and Daddy Yankee's older song Limbo has 700 million views.

I came across Despacito not long after its release (it went straight to the top of the Latin charts) but I was as surprised as you are that it crossed over to the English charts!

Yes, but they blackmailed Prophets For Profit$ into including it as a religion, so they got to dictate the lies terms.