#j.d.crowe

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

J.D. Crowe

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More on Qatar’s gift of a 747-8 to Trump

Two additional comments on the corrupt offer of Qatar to give Donald Trump a Boeing 747-8 for his personal use.

First, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo discusses the fact that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to update the aircraft to the security standards of Air Force One. The secure communications and defenses would take years to install—meaning that the plane would be ready for delivery after Trump is out of office. At that point, it would be his personal plane. See Talking Points Memo, Don’t Get Conned By Trump’s Air Force One Boondoggle.

Second, Adam Schiff produced an explainer video on the scandal. See The Schiff Notes, Plane-ly Corrupt, by Sen. Adam Schiff. The video is interesting because it includes photos of the plane's interior and explains that the gift of the plane is only one way in which Qatar is enriching the Trump family. It is worth ten minutes of your time to watch.

Yesterday, I explained the legal and constitutional bases that prohibit the gift to Trump from Qatar. While informative, that message is too complicated. Most voters do not care about “the Foreign Emoluments Clause.” They care that they can’t get an appointment until next September to be seen about a heart condition, while Trump is riding in a “Flying Palace.”

Remember and repeat: Flying Palace.

[Robert B. Hubbell]

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

J.D.Crowe

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The Opus Dei court's unmistakable message to college students: you don't share our politics, so screw you. The Supreme Court on Friday struck down President Joe Biden’s signature initiative to cancel student loan debt for more than 40 million Americans. The Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Student Act of 2003 (HEROES) program would have forgiven eligible borrowers of up to $20,000 each, costing some $400 billion overall, but it was blocked by an appeals court in October. The justices were split on the decision 6-3, with the conservative majority saying the president—and his secretary of education—do not have the authority to unilaterally act without congressional approval. “The Secretary asserts that the HEROES Act grants him the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion. “It does not. We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to ‘waive or modify’ existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up.”

In making his case, Roberts cited former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, noting that the California Democrat said in July 2021 that people “think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress.” The case hinged on one’s particular reading of the HEROES Act, with Republicans largely interpreting the version of the act passed by Congress as not allowing for Biden’s debt relief plan. The majority of Democrats, however, argued that the act clearly gave Biden all the leeway he needed to cancel student debt. “Congress authorized the forgiveness plan (among many other actions); the Secretary put it in place; and the President would have been accountable for its success or failure,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent for the court’s liberal wing. “But this Court today decides that some 40 million Americans will not receive the benefits the plan provides, because (so says the Court) that assistance is too ‘significant.’” Indeed, Kagan argued, “The Court’s first overreach in this case is deciding it at all.” She also noted that there was “nothing personal in the dispute here.”

[The Daily Beast]