Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 January 17

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January 17

The US President's power to unilaterally abrogate treaties?

Does the US President actually have the power to unilaterally abrogate treaties that have already been ratified by two-thirds of the US Senate? Futurist110 (talk) 03:07, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

According to Treaty Clause, that's an open question. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:43, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

This is part of the unresolved tension between the role of the executive and judicial branches of the U.S. government. Congress passes bills, which the Executive branch is supposed to put into action. Insofar as the executive has discretion in the way it enacts Congress's laws, there will always be times when that discretion comes out in opposition to the intent of the original law. This is as true of treaties as any other Congressional action. --Jayron32 15:53, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

Except that treaties are originally negotiated by the executive branch. Or at least the class of international agreements specifically called "treaties" in US law. There are other classes of international agreement that are not considered treaties by US definition but are considered treaties in international law. See Treaty Clause, especially the section on types of international accords. --Khajidha (talk) 19:29, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

Sworn Enemies

There is a picture in the article promiscuity showing Donald and Bill together. The picture appears to me to be informal, at a BBQ or the like. It looks like it was taken in a kitchen, while there are other sin the shot and people in the background, Donald is looking much younger, as is Melania. My question is, when was his taken and under what circumstances, I would have though that these chaps were sworn enemies. Q2. When did the amicable relationship erode between the two, or am I holistically misinformed? Thanks. Anton 81.131.40.58 (talk) 09:38, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

The file page tells you when and where it was taken. --Viennese Waltz 09:40, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

In case Anton doesn't know how: to bring up the file page just right-click on the photo in the article and bring it up as a new tab. This will tell you that it was taken in September 2000 (i.e. nearly 20 years ago) at the US Open Golf Championship, at which time Bill was the POTUS and very many people would have wanted to have their photo taken with him. This one was apparently taken by a White House staffer and comes from the Clinton Presidential Library.

Since Donald hadn't at that time entered politics on any side (as far as I know), and since the occasion was a sporting event where all celebrities are expected to act friendly to everybody they meet regardless of their real feelings (if any), I don't think it's possible to read anything into solely a one-off photo like this, which is not in itself evidence of anything more than that they met once at this public event. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.199.208.126 (talk) 10:05, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

There is much discussion about the relationship between Donald and Bill e.g. [1] [2]. While I make no comment on the relationship between Donald and Bill at any stage of their lives, it's generally a mistake to assume relationships don't change. E.g. File:Saddam rumsfeld.jpg [3] [4]. BTW I removed the image from the article as there was no mention of any of those people in it, so the relevance was not established. Nil Einne (talk) 10:18, 17 January 2020 (UTC)s

No, in fact it's basically a BLP violation by inference, and it's good that you removed it. There are also pictures of Bill and Hillary at Donald and Melania's wedding in 2005, likewise looking chummy. The OP needs to keep in mind that politicians often say stuff that isn't really true, just for the purpose of garnering votes. Trump knows that a sizable portion of his presumed base hates the Clintons, so it's to his political advantage to pretend he hates them too. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:30, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

They're hardly "sworn enemies". During the Clinton administration, Trump was a Democrat. ApLundell (talk) 06:01, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

The OP has fallen for the old trick of believing the media. Why, they'd have us believe that Donald Trump was elected President of the USA. Preposterous, absurd! Not a chance in a billion that would ever happen. Americans may be weird, but they're no fools. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 17:11, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

The truth has proven to be stranger than fiction. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:11, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

Donald supposedly ran for president with Hillary's campaign's encouragement, the so-called "Pied Piper strategy".[5] 2601:648:8202:96B0:0:0:0:4FFF (talk) 20:39, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

Your source says Hillary's campaign 'Proposed intentionally cultivating extreme right-wing presidential candidates, hoping to turn them into the new "mainstream of the Republican Party" in order to try to increase Clinton's chances of winning' and that 'Clinton's camp insisted that Trump and other extremists should be "elevated" to "leaders of the pack" and media outlets should be told to "take them seriously."' Donald Trump is specifically mention as one such candidate. While this is before Trump had officially announced his candidacy, no where does it her campaign actually encouraged him to run. In fact, it seems to tread him like he was already a candidate. Nil Einne (talk) 07:40, 22 January 2020 (UTC)