I was looking at it some more. In 2014, the Supreme Court basically killed intra-session (summer break) recess appointments, while still reaffirming the presidential power to make recess appointments. (5-4. Minority opinion was that recess appointments are an anachronism.)
So long as Congress pretends to meet every nine days, recess appointments are blocked. However, with an inter-session recess, as soon as the current session of Congress is closed (December 14th?), the ten day countdown timer starts. So… Merry Christmas! ?
(Article is discussing intra-session recess appointments, but covers the background.)
I almost hope Trump puts on his Big Boy pants and does one just because he’s Trump. It’d piss off the Senate Republicans, alarm the non Know Nothing public, test the current Supreme Court, and it’ll be something that he probably could have done through the conventional route. (Bets are off if he makes extra Supreme Court appointments. Then it’s a hot crisis.)
Strangely, Trump has pretty well always been straight up with us about how corrupt he is/is going to be. It’s just that throngs of people spend their entire day trying to convince everyone that he didn’t mean it.
People make a big deal of how often he lies, but how often he tells the truth about things that anyone else would know to lie about is super interesting.
I wonder if Roberts will remember Trump scolding him on Twitter when one side is saying, “You can’t indict a sitting president, he’s the chief administrator responsible for enforcing the law” and the other side is saying, “In America, no one is above the law.”
OK, is the Washington Post punking us, or did this exchange really happen:
The president complained at length that a new Navy ship was using electromagnetic catapults to propel ships off boats. In his mind, Trump said, steam was far better — and he was incredulous the military would consider otherwise. “Would you go with steam or would you go with electromagnetic? Because steam is very reliable, and the electromagnetic, unfortunately, you have to be Albert Einstein to really work it properly,” Trump asked.
“You have to be Albert Einstein to run the nuclear power plants that we have here, as well. But we’re doing that very well. I would go, sir, with electromagnetic,” the officer responded.
This exchange strikes me as a style of management where asking any question with the right posture shows you are involved and knowledgable, even if you are not really involved at that level.
I have seen this in business. It is bullshit, but it works for some.
The quote is wrong, these catapults are used on aircraft carriers to launch planes. Not sure why the quote says launch ships, they definitely don’t do that. Steam pressure has been the way this is done since I believe the 50s, and it’s effective but kind of old fashioned. The new generation of catapults use electromagnets to pull the planes forward, this eliminates the need for the steam system completely. You plug it directly into the power plant instead of having to heat water to steam, build pressure etc. Instead of the old system with moving parts the electromagnets are in a line in the deck and activate sequentially, so in theory there’s less mechanical failure. It also saves space which is valuable on a ship.
All in all, it’s simply progress. Trump not getting that is, well, no surprise at all.
