Re:Carl Icahn dumps $31M in steel-related stocks before Whit...
by dragonwriter on Saturday March 03, 2018 @02:36AM
(#16508352)
> Iranian Contras
The Iran-Contra affair did not involve Iranian Contras, it involved American officials making illegal arms sales to Iran and funneling the proceeds illegally to the Nicaraguan Contras.
> Obama won a noble prize
“Nobel”
> and then became the first president to spend every day of his term at war
Not even close. The US involvement in the Vietnam War began in the Eisenhower Administration and ended in the Ford Administration, so all of Kennedy, (Lyndon) Johnson, and Nixon spent every day of their terms in that war.
But even they weren't the first, the US was continuously at war (in an overlapping series of conflicts) from 1855-1875 (nearly exactly 100 years before Vietnam, both start and end; should we be particularly worried about 2055-2075?), with Buchanan, Lincoln, and (Andrew) Johnson spending their entire terms at war.
> since America has not technically been at war in a long time because we like changing the names of things to pretend they're not true
The United States has legally been in a war every time it's been in a Congressionally authorized military conflict (as well as certain other cases, perhaps, resulting from foreign attacks); the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that Congress need not use any particular language in exercising it's power to declare war, and that Congressional authorization in any language suffices to create a legal state of war, even if the effect is distinct from that of a formal declaration—this as far back as Bas v. Tingy, 4 U.S. 37 (1800).
The Iran-Contra affair did not involve Iranian Contras, it involved American officials making illegal arms sales to Iran and funneling the proceeds illegally to the Nicaraguan Contras.
> Obama won a noble prize
“Nobel”
> and then became the first president to spend every day of his term at war
Not even close. The US involvement in the Vietnam War began in the Eisenhower Administration and ended in the Ford Administration, so all of Kennedy, (Lyndon) Johnson, and Nixon spent every day of their terms in that war.
But even they weren't the first, the US was continuously at war (in an overlapping series of conflicts) from 1855-1875 (nearly exactly 100 years before Vietnam, both start and end; should we be particularly worried about 2055-2075?), with Buchanan, Lincoln, and (Andrew) Johnson spending their entire terms at war.
> since America has not technically been at war in a long time because we like changing the names of things to pretend they're not true
The United States has legally been in a war every time it's been in a Congressionally authorized military conflict (as well as certain other cases, perhaps, resulting from foreign attacks); the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that Congress need not use any particular language in exercising it's power to declare war, and that Congressional authorization in any language suffices to create a legal state of war, even if the effect is distinct from that of a formal declaration—this as far back as Bas v. Tingy, 4 U.S. 37 (1800).