What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[crazy canuck]

Example number 133544646 that the American political system is broken

[Zanza]

US to pay TotalEnergies $1 billion to stop developing offshore wind in US
Payment reimburses the company for two leases, one for a massive 3 GW wind farm.

[...]

The Department of the Interior, which arranges leases of coastal sites for the development of wind farms, would end up returning about $1 billion to France's TotalEnergies, which has promised both to invest that money in US-based fossil fuel projects and to not do any further offshore wind development in the US.

Petrostate does petrostate things. Not looking good for renewables in the United States. Does not make sense for all those data centers they want to build either.

[Syt]

I was looking up something on the French Embassy's website (they had their flag decorations out last week) and looked at the French ambassador's CV on the website.

PROFESSIONAL CAREER
2020 - 2024: Director of Cultural, Educational, University and Scientific Diplomacy, Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs
2018 – 2020: Secretary General of the General Inspectorate of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs
2017: Deputy Director of the Cabinet of the Minister of State, Ministry of Ecological Transition and Solidarity
2015 - 2017: Deputy Director for the Americas and the Caribbean, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development
2012 - 2014: Adviser to the Diplomatic Cell, Presidency of the French Republic
2009 - 2012: Chargé de mission to the Director-General for Globalis ation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2005 – 2009: First Secretary in Madrid, French Embassy in Spain
2002 – 2005: Deputy Consul in Chicago, French Embassy in the United States
1999 – 2002: Desk officer in the Sub-Directorate for Central Europe, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

EDUCATION
2014 - 2015: Institute for Advanced Studies in National Defence (IHEDN)
1996 - 1997: Exchange student at the Vienna Business University (WU)
1994 - 1997: Graduate School of Business (HEC)

DÉCORATIONS
Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite
Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques
Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres
Médaille de la Défense nationale

I then looked up the ambassadors for Germany, UK, Russia, Italy, Spain ... all pretty similar. Career diplomats, over 2 or 3 decades of experience.

And then the American one.

https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-7-wildest-european-ambassador-picks/

[...]

Austria: The knight
Art Fisher, a real estate agent from North Carolina, is Trump's choice to be Austria's next U.S. ambassador. 

Fisher runs his family's real estate business in the western, largely rural part of the state. He is listed as a member of the Trumpettes, a group dedicated to electing Trump, and reportedly donated thousands to down ballot Republican candidates.

"He has been consistently ranked as a top broker in the area, and the State of North Carolina, representing many of the most astute clients in America," Trump wrote, adding Fisher "will make us proud in Austria!"

According to his website, Fisher "was recently Knighted and has become a member of the Dynastic Order of the Royal House of Bourbon, an Order whose membership includes United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa."

[...]

I'm aware that the US ambassadorships are often rewards for political friends, but with the State Department heavily gutted thanks to DOGE & Co this seems even worse than usual.

[The Brain]

The ambassador is the message. For Sweden:

Ambassador Toretti is the former Chairman and CEO of S.W. Jack Drilling Company, then the largest land-based natural gas drilling company in the United States. She also served as the Chairman of S&T Bank, a publicly traded community bank based in Pennsylvania.

[viper37]

The US bans all new foreign-made network routers



This went unnoticed.

Surprisingly (!) Starlink router are still allowed to be sold in the US.  Surprisingly.  The only model allowed by this new directive.

[HisMajestyBOB]

Next week all cars with foreign made parts will be banned, except Teslas.

[The Minsky Moment]

Austria: The knight
Fisher "was recently Knighted and has become a member of the Dynastic Order of the Royal House of Bourbon, an Order whose membership includes United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa."
[...]

Article I, Section 9

no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Yet another piece of the Constitution that might as well not exist under this regime.

[Syt]

Actually, it might not be a "state" thing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynastic_order#Italy

Italy
A similar situation exists in Italy, where the Republican Government regards the orders of the former kings to have been abolished[13] but the last king's heir continues to award them.[14] However, the Italian situation is unique, since the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus is one of the few orders of knighthood that has been explicitly recognized by a papal bull, in which Pope Gregory XII gave the House of Savoy the right to confer that knighthood in perpetuity.[15] Thus, under principles of international law, the Italian heir to the throne in exile asserts that control of the Savoy dynastic orders exists separate from the Kingdom of Italy so that he retains the right to award the orders, and accompanying privileges."[16] The royal family of Savoy additionally have the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation which is their highest ranked order of Knighthood. In addition to this the Order of Merit of Savoy is a Dynastic order knighthood given out by the head of the Royal House of Savoy, Order of chivalry. Following the demise of the last reigning monarch Umberto II of Italy in 1983, the Order of the Crown of Italy was replaced in 1988 by the Order of Merit of Savoy which was instituted by his heir, the current head of the former Royal House, Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples.[17] While the Ordine al merito d'Savoia it has never been a national order, it is subsidiary to the Civil Order of Savoy which was the Order of Merit and it has around 2,000 members and, as with the Order of the Crown of Italy previously, it is entrusted to the Chancellor of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus.

In addition to this Italy contains orders of the royal House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies which still confer their Dynastic Knightly orders. The most interesting of which is the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George because the Italian Republic recognises the order as an Order of Chivalry under Law n° 178 of 1951 authorises the Italian citizens awarded with the Constantinian decoration to show them as authoritatively recognised also by the Italian State Council in its decision number 1869/81. Therefore those citizens lawfully awarded with Constantinian decorations can ask to use them on the territory of the Italian Republic by Presidential Decree or Decree of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By Decree of the President of the Republic, in 1973 the National Italian Association of the Knights of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George.[18] Additionally there is the Royal Order of Francis I of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. One branch of the family (led by Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro) claims that the Order of Francis I was attached to the crown not the state, and thus awards it as a dynastic order.[19] The other branch (led by Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria) regards the Order of Francis I as a state order that became extinct when the Borbon-Two Sicilies royal family accepted the abolition of their monarchy and the state's inclusion in the Kingdom of Italy.[20]

Seems more like a make-belief title if anything, for all practical purposes, if this is indeed the order in question.

EDIT:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Order_of_Francis_I

The Royal Order of Francis I (properly 'The Royal Order of Francis I of the Two Sicilies' Italian: Reale Ordine di Francesco I) was an extinct order of merit of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies which was annexed in 1861 by the King of Italy (until 1860 King of Piedmont and Sardinia). It has been revived by Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro, as an award for services to charity and inter-religious understanding and includes a number of non-Roman Catholic statesmen and stateswomen among its membership.

[The Minsky Moment]

It's awarded by a literal Prince of a European Royal House.

The literal language of the provision is disjunctive: "king, prince, or foreign state"

In addition the control of the order and its succession was established by Papal Bull, thus implicating the Vatican, which is a sovereign foreign state.

[Syt]

Ok, fair, read too quickly while on a not so exciting business call.

[Valmy]

I think you are asking a bit too much from conservative Supreme Court Justices to read the Constitution.

[Jacob]

Seems a good reason to impeach Alito

[Syt]

It's awarded by a literal Prince of a European Royal House.

The literal language of the provision is disjunctive: "king, prince, or foreign state"

In addition the control of the order and its succession was established by Papal Bull, thus implicating the Vatican, which is a sovereign foreign state.

If anything, I'd almost expect that there'd be backlash about this being a Papist honor, but then again you have a Catholic VP these days

[Jacob]

It seems like the GOP strategy for winning the election is going to be to disregard late counted votes?