joshtpm.bsky.social
Founder & reigning monarch at TPM. Lapsed historian. Hand tool woodworker. Jew.
7,634 posts
254,685 followers
366 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
Ha! one of my dad's advisors
comment in response to
post
4/ good negotiators. But almost certainly they don't know what the end-state goals are either. So you have these discussions but the US side won't provide clarity about what they're looking for because they actually don't know.
comment in response to
post
3/ of demonstrative power b) a general desire to make the US the dominant player in global manufacturing and c) expressions of the erratic will of the president. In other words, there really isn't a set of end-state goals. At best there are general relationships of power. You can have really ...
comment in response to
post
2/ Reading between the lines and understanding the players, the EU is expecting a list of demands, end-state goals that the tariffs are meant to accomplish. Once you know those you can at least have productive conversations. But the actual tariffs are being imposed as a) a flourish of ...
comment in response to
post
Sort of. In fact all the stuff and infrastructure is here. That doesn't simply appear overseas intact immediately. Yes, science will go on in other places. But it actually represents a massive global net loss of research capacity.
comment in response to
post
4/ having his outside bag man put together the deal. The Uni stuff is just as clearly an abuse of power but there's more formality to it, done more through govt channels.
comment in response to
post
3/ as anything legally binding they're just smoke. As for criminal, yes, this is basically all criminal - though obviously you get into which laws might apply. But with the law firms the president is essentially threatening clear abuses of power in exchange for free legal services and then ...
comment in response to
post
2/ and impose a set of rules on them. They didn't do Columbia like that. So I'm not sure what that "deal" was based on. The law firm deals are very different. They're apparently negotiated by EpShteyn, just Trump's personal lawyer. They don't seem to be written down in any meaningful way ...
comment in response to
post
So I think the Uni and law firm agreements are actually pretty different. What the WH proposed to Harvard would have been entered as a consent decree in a court. If they did it that way that would be real. Big if but that's what they proposed. That's like when DOJ used to sue crooked PD's ...
comment in response to
post
2/ any and all laws. Not in every case but presumptively, thus making possible much of the scaffolding of the current crisis.
comment in response to
post
2/ against protected groups, professional ethics and not stating opinions contrary to the specific arguments you’re making on behalf of the USA as a DOJ lawyer. Would need 1st lawyers to weigh in on constitutionality but it’s very tight. (For specifics it’s revision to Justice Manual.)
comment in response to
post
🤔
comment in response to
post
Unitary PA gov theory
comment in response to
post
they're not even contracts.
comment in response to
post
Exactly. Same difference really, both for the person themselves but also for the passengers it's not a job you want someone doing for forty years when they're into their 60s. Not just a question of absolute age.
comment in response to
post
I believe so yes. That whole system is based on people being able to retire with pensions in their 40s and have entire second careers.
comment in response to
post
4/ Sure they have obvious self-interest. But it still applies. The situation in the legal world is something like the Ivies and Stanford et al waiting on the sidelines while like University of Maine takes the fight to the White House.
comment in response to
post
3/ I've criticized Harvard many times. But if it does play out like that the Harvards and Princetons and MIT et al will really have done something important, the kind of thing that we should expect of institutions and people to whom great privilege and power has been given but seldom happens.
comment in response to
post
2/ financial resources to fight the White House. My hope is that Harvard and perhaps a few other high endowment/prestigious universities can beat this stuff in court and then those decisions will then be a refuge for other colleges and unis who simply don't have the ability to carry that fight.
comment in response to
post
also multiply their numbers by roughly tenfold.
comment in response to
post
I was wondering about that. Seemed odd. But is this the same compound? Are you referring to rocket place? Like does he have one rocket compound and one for the spawning program?
comment in response to
post
2/ Couple convos along these lines. Made me really wonder just how the DOGErs are being compensated and if whatever notional compensation they're now receiving from the USG is the only compensation.
comment in response to
post
Have had numerous convos over last month w us residents who are legally entitled to travel in and out of USA but are too scared to do so. Others who are not here legally and now want to leave but r terrified to exit thru customs because they’re afraid they’ll be gulag’d.