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The president does not run the executive branch, he IS the executive branch. (full stop)

ART II, Sec 1, cl 1

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

(Even the VP is not a member of the executive branch but actively fulfills only a legislative function as president of the Senate and only a passive role as “POTUS-in-waiting.”)

All other executive branch employees are just that: EMPLOYEES, NOT MEMBERS, of the executive branch. They are the President’s deputies, and subject to his will, with only one major exception: Their only independence derives from the nature of their ART VI const’l oaths, as prescribed by 5 U.S. Code § 3331:

«An individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services, shall take the following oath: “I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.” This section does not affect other oaths required by law.»

In exercising their offices, their obligation is to the will of the American People as expressed in their Constitution.

But they can be removed unilaterally by the President. The obvious natural consequence of Presidential power to nominate AND unilaterally remove is to compel loyalty to the President. This arrangement can be assumed to have been deliberate, especially in light of the “unitary executive” doctrine (articulated by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No.70), which confers "energy… decision, activity, secrecy, and dispatch” to the executive branch.

The removal power was exercised by Washington and Adams, and accepted by the other two branches immediately after formation of the new government in 1789. That precedent was reaffirmed in the 1926 case of Myers v. United States, where

“the Supreme Court opined that the Decision of 1789 affirmed that the President is entrusted with power to remove those officers he appoints, a proposition that was soon accepted as a final decision of the question by all branches of the government.”

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artII-S2-C2-3-15-2/ALDE_00013108/

Anyone who argues that executive branch officers should not be completely controlled by POTUS is neither familiar with the Const’l text nor with the history of the early republic. That, or they’re lying in hope of deceiving those of us who decline to acquaint ourselves with Const’l language and history.

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Yes, excellent. Well said. Thank you for this.

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Thanks for the Lesson.

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Feb 2
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Constitution usually is until it’s been read a few times.

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Its accurately stated.

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Turns out it was actually James Wilson who first articulated the Unitary Executive doctrine — during the 1787 Const’l Convention

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Excellent!!

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The US Military LITERALLY lied to the Commander-in-Chief about troop movements during Trump's first term.

OF COURSE he's putting loyalty above all. Wouldn't we all, in his shoes?

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Yes, VERY IMPORTANT POINT.

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As someone who lectures on business and who has run companies large and small, my foundational lecture point is BY FAR the most important characteristic of any employee is loyalty. Nothing else is even close. No surprise as to what DJT is doing -- the only surprise is why he did not do it the first time.

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this is precisely why milley needs to be the first punished, and probably the harshest. dod cannot be allowed to choose when it follows constitutional orders.

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And we know where the documents are, we just need to un-redact them and show them to the world. (The same strategy for covid origins, J6, the cover-up of Biden's condition, and a bunch of other stories I'm forgetting ATM)

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i’m looking forward to finding out what they were looking for, and apparently did not find, during their mar-a-lago raid. 😌

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Exactly SimulationCommander

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Yesterday the Bondi’s AG’s office was given 1000 pages of Russiagate secret papers obtained from Trump’s fbi. That should eventually shed some light of truth& maybe make some people accountable.

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We were in trouble with Milley when SecDef Mattis said he ought not be promoted to Chair of the JCS. Hmmm think Mattis had some inkling about the guy? We really knew we were in trouble when Milley crossed Lafayette Park with President Trump in Uniform. It is specifically forbidden for members of the military to participate in political events in uniform. Article 88 of the UCMJ is clear, and after Milley realized he F’d up he ran for cover rather than use it as a teaching moment. How easy to say I was misled, but went any way and now I am throwing my stars on the desk and calling it quits. His job at the time was to tell POTUS I can’t participate and here is why. Then he spent the rest of the first Trump term working against him. We don’t even need to start adding up the violations for the charge sheet, not enough time or paper.

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Except Milley isn't the real problem. The real problem no one's talking about were his second in command of both officer corps and enlisted who didn't immediately remove him from his billet for being unfit and unbecoming for an officer. Along with the gaggle of scumbag officers and senior enlisted who circled the wagons around Milley. That's the true problem. The only officer I know of who stood up to the machine was that one Major I think it was who was drummed out over the covid Vax. The rest from what I've seen as of late amd this is only outside looking in now, I wouldn't want to serve under any of them. Bunch of self serving sycophants. David Hackworth was telling everyone about the issues in rhe military well before that idiot Bush Jr was elected president. Everyone laughed at him.

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I think that particular Major was named to a position in the Trump administration. Can’t recall his name but saw Trump’s announcement & thought it was the same guy.

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Really good points you make. There has to be a total house cleaning of 06 and up, and E7 and up. Many of these fools would not lasted a week when I was on active duty 40 years ago. Hackworth was right and that was 30 years ago.

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trouble with milley went back at least to wanat in 2008.

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With the Dems polling at 33% approval (22% among Men), and the MSM polling below that.... It's even hard to get excited about ignoring or bashing them anymore. It's more fun when it's at least a small challenge. This is like clubbing baby seals.

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It's a lot like that, but they provoked me by broadcasting the thing on NPR while I was in the car. I hate-listen to NPR several times a week, which is probably a bad habit. And then I start clubbing baby seals.

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Maybe you shouldn't listen to npr.

Danny Huckabee

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I disagree. It clearly provides him with valuable creative fuel. Albeit at the expense of LA's vast baby seal population.

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I used to listen to NPR. That was another time, another planet. You couldn't pay me to listen to it now.

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As long as you continue to fund it they couldn’t care less if you don’t listen; they’d probably prefer you don’t anyway.

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Leonard— True! I'd love to see NPR scratched from the budget. It really is galling that we taxpayers fund this sort of rubbish.

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Same 💯

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How can you stand it, Chris? 10 minutes of NPR at work had me wanting to commit murder/suicide, just so I didn't have to hear any more. 🤢🤮

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Ten minutes is PLENTY.

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Agree, but sometimes it’s good to intercept the messages the enemy is sending.

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Hate-listen! A little pee came out after reading that!!! Classic! Stealing that for sure!

bsn

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Speaking of NPR, I knew a guy at ARENT, FOX, KITNER PLOTKIN and KAHN who claimed Terry Gross and Howard Stern were switched as newborn babies. Of course, if true, it explains nothing and settles nothing.

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Living in an overwhelmingly Democrat city, I don't need to hear opposing views from NPR. I get an earful everyday from my neighbors, and coworkers. So while at home I watch Ben Shapiro, and Tucker Carlson.

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No, baby seals are more valuable.

Danny Huckabee

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https://www.npr.org/2022/05/12/1098585429/supremacy-movements-unite-over-abortion-restriction-though-for-different-reasons

This was the moment my brain exploded and I never listened again. I'd occasionally check in for years before this piece, hear about how oppressed Eskimo trans sex workers were, hear about how people like me were the cause of all evil and injustice through all of human history were, then turn the dial and think, "wow, they've jumped the shark." For some reason, it was hearing that the millions of women who oppose the dismemberment of babies are, "supremacists", that finally made me puke and curse them forevermore. Fuck them. They are evil. Again, I say, fuck them and may their jobs vanish and their lives become filled with pointless, low-paid, filthy toil.

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And a bunch of the people whose voices you hear on NPR are making $500,000 a year.

https://x.com/Cernovich/status/1884096220576243776

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Well, knowing that made me puke again. Half a million to spew critical theory infused propaganda in a phony, breathy, faux-empathetic voice to other rich white women.

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What!?! The only reason that revelation is not more depressing is that Elon and Company have taken possession of the checkbook. Of course, it's likely that, in between pardons, the Biden "Presidency" gave those NPR folks 99-year contract extensions.

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Nah, they can say what ever they want as long as we can mercilessly point out the stupid. After years of one sided censorship, de-platforming, de-banking and muzzling for "wrong think" we owe our culture unrelenting, full, continuous fire of dissent. It's not our fault they've gotten soft in the padded, curated environment. Don't forget the bulk of the herd went along with stupid and crazy to get along. It's an appropriate use of free speech.

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More like stomping on baby cockroaches.

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Yes, and we have not won yet for sure. Our children are still being badly influenced in school at the moment. The curriculum has not changed yet.

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Yeah but it is depressing when you hear friends and family repeating and listening to them.

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Yes, until most people around uswake up, I won’t consider us having “won”

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To anyone who has studied U.S. history, tariffs are a controversial topic - Congress spent years debating them before enacting them. Yet now the President can apply tariffs willy-nilly. Why? Because Congress decided in the name of "national security" that they would offload their own responsibility and lay it on the Executive. The same Congress that also passes laws requiring the Executive branch to actually formulate the regulations that carries the legislation into action. Now this Congress sputters indignantly about the internal personnel policy of the Executive branch.

As to those wretched souls from the NYT - put to the test, they would answer "there are five lights" under the slightest of pressure, not even full on torture.

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That is absolutely the other side of this equation. Congress has, for decades now, been delegating ever greater latitude to the administrative agencies under the pretext of reliance on their supposedly neutral "expertise", but really in order to duck responsibility for having to make any tough decisions. That's what Nancy Pelosi meant when she said, in effect, that Congress had to pass the health care bill in order to find out what was in it. That's also why so many people freaked out over the Supreme Court's recent overturn, or at least restriction on, the Chevron doctrine of deferral to agency interpretations of statutes.

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They wouldn't even require pressure. Upon being asked how many lights they see, they would inquire, "How many do you wish us to see?" Then would give the answer that was required.

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they just collect the bribes and let others do the unpleasant labor

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I scanned through the message to which you linked, from Grover Cleveland to the Senate. Am I correct in understanding its gist as consisting of "It's my Branch and I'll suspend who I want to."?

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Yes, but keep going: "Every pledge which I have made by which I have placed a limitation upon my exercise of executive power has been faithfully redeemed." Then:

"The pledges I have made were made to the people, and to them I am responsible for the manner in which they have been redeemed. I am not responsible to the Senate, and I am unwilling to submit my actions and official conduct to them for judgment."

He's saying that he promised modesty and restraint, but it's up to the people to decide if he's delivered, and the Senate can go pound sand.

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How interesting that Trump (45 and 47) is emulating Cleveland (22 and 24). Perhaps presidents learn something in an interregnum?

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Cleveland was not overly parsimonious with his words, there being a fair amount of blathering coupled with "he said this and I said that." Clearly writing was the only way to get on the record, so it was probably necessary. To quote many a 5 year old (whose sense is often unimpeachable) "You're not the boss of me."

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Imagine what he could have accomplished with a Twitter account.

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The NYT has been the CIA’s twitter account for seventy years.

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Go on, Chris… tell ‘em how ya really feel!

Great post 👍

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OK, the first thing that led to mind when I looked at the photo was, I hate people with such full heads of hair!

Then I noticed that Chris added his mug to his profile, and he, alas, also has a full head of hair!

Hairlines Nelson? Petty? Absolutely.

But I will use all and any ammunition to fuel my vitriolic hatred of these people.

I have never been the person who picks a fight, I’ve been the bridge builder between groups. I’m gregarious and like making friends.

That said, low-testosterone, weak men with pretty hair bring out the bully in me.

I become unreasonable and just wanna punch somebody to watch them hurt.

The beauty is that Trump is doing the punching, and we get a watch the fallout.

Well done again, Chris. May all of you have a wonderful weekend.

bsn

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I AM JEALOUS OF BRAY'S HAIR!

Not fair!

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But, chicks dig us. Or at least they used to, back in the primitive days of the 1990's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t144cdYJj8U

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Mister Delgado you just made my day! That is a pretty high bar as this little nugget from Benny Johnson gave me smiling cramps:

https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1885480751938081114?s=46

bsn

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Metrosexuals are the grossest thing out there! Perverts Is what I call them

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I've said this many times. The Left needs more than one mouth, because talking out of both sides of the one they've got simply isn't enough.

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Remember how in Germany Hitler kept reducing government power, decreasing the size of government, firing agents who arrested

political opponents and the corrupt prosecutors the prosecuted them? He made sure Jews and other targets had firearms with which to protect themselves from going to the camps?

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Remember how in Germany Hitler kept reducing government power, decreasing the size of government, firing agents who arrested

political opponents and the corrupt prosecutors that prosecuted them? He made sure Jews and other targets had firearms with which to protect themselves from going to the camps?

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Yeah but you gotta give the guy some credit for holding that grudge against the news who started a strike at the ammunition plant Germany used to arm their military which ultimately left Hitlers unit without ammunition during world war 1 where he was wounded and then imprisoned for losing when they got back home. When you look at tue cause as to why he targeted news you can't say that they didn't have it coming. They too pull that not me excuse and when a few bad apples spoil the bunch but the good ones hide the bad ones. Just get rid of the apples altogether and make a cherry pie.

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What can you expect? The mainstream media has covered Trump this way since he became a serious contender in 2016.

We can read the news and point out the gaslighting. There is nothing else we can do. I had hoped that the mainstream media would back off a little when it became crystal clear that the American people don't believe them, but apparently they didn't get the message somehow.

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They (these Usual Suspects) suddenly find themselves with nothing to do but they have to do SOMETHING now or guess what, they are out of a job. Thus they are forced to become the nitpickiest nitpickers EVER in trying to find stuff to be outraged about. And they end up looking more ridiculous than ever because of it.

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Completely agree Chris. I struggle to endorse the unbridled use of executive power, yet as one who sees the immediate need to push back against the executive branch advances over the last few years, I don’t see any other way. Title IX is a perfect example. Trump is doing exactly what I want him to do, because I know the people who should do it (Republicans in the House and Senate) won’t do what they were elected to do.

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The hypocrisy of these shills for the Democrats never ceases to boggle the mind. Obama fundamentally transformed the country into something ugly and unrecognizable and Trump is trying to undo the damage.

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Obama certainly made wide and generous use of his executive powers, building on Bush's expansive use of them for The War on Terror. As I recall, most of the Executive Orders Trump signed during the early days of his first administration simply overturned Obama EO's. Govern by the EO, die by the EO.

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Clinton was the first one who issued a bunch EO’s. I think Reagan issued about six. Every potus since has blown past his predecessor’s numbers.

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Imagine what these journalists would say if MAGA bureaucrats defy a future Democrat president: “Insurrection” comes to mind.

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MAGA bureaucrats are rarer than hens' teeth

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On President Trump's issuance of so many Presidential Orders… it’s unprecedented, but isn’t it The Job? If he overreaches, there’s a pencil-necked ACLU lawyer waiting to file an injunction, but otherwise the Head of the Executive Branch can execute his tuchus off, as far as I'm concerned. I know this sounds quaintly naive, but these are laws passed by Congress he’s enforcing, right? Again, maybe I was born yesterday, but the will of the people as expressed by their elected representatives and enforced by the President is how our republic works, innit? Or is supposed to? The “dead husk of a moth-eaten sock puppet”-in-chief (™Mark Steyn Enterprises, all rights reserved) of the last four years sure as hell wasn’t doing the job. Canceling loans beyond his remit, sure; even after the SCOTUS voided the action. But, you know, law laws? AWO-bleeping-L.

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The cancelling of student loans is an excellent example.

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There hypocrisy is shameless; “can we adjudicate his executive orders because he signed them in sharpie?”

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I watched an explainer of the EOs this week and one of the presenters kept saying how law was now being made “at the stroke of a Sharpie.” I thought it was clever the first time but got old in a hurry.

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The rules for Democrats and the rules for Trump and Republicans are different for the Commie media. I think these people have made themselves irrelevant. Trump would do well just to rejigger the press pool more to phase out some of the less popular media outlets on the Left or even the more popular outlets. Let them get their stories from the outside. They can report the same nonsense that they make up now, but it will be even more ridiculous. They have their dedicated audience. We aren’t going to change that. But most of the country isn’t buying their repetitive attacks on Trump’s character. Most people like what he’s doing. They can do their psyops at the Times, but people are over it. Zero credibility.

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Another idea: we could secretly censor them. Let’s make it hard for them to gain access to presidential news. Oops, that’s already been tried.

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