For all the Republicans who kvetched constantly over the past four years about Joe Biden's "unlawful" behavior, I'd like to remind you that in one day Donald Trump has:
- Pardoned hundreds of violent criminals solely because they're MAGA supporters.
- Explicitly declared that he wouldn't enforce a law he's legally required to enforce.
- Redefined birthright citizenship in a way he knows very well is unconstitutional.
- Declared two national emergencies that patently don't exist.
- Unilaterally renamed an international body of water he has no authority to rename.
- Promised to "take back" the Panama Canal, a clear treaty violation in defiance of both domestic and international law.
Is Donald Trump acting unlawfully? Let's hear it.
1. Nuh-UH! They are NOT "violent criminals," they were peaceful protestors and it just got a little out of hand because of ANTIFA left-wingers, etc., etc., deny, evade, nitpick.
2. Well only SOME of them were violent, but in any case ANTIFA, and also left-wingers did stuff like that too! I read it on Facebook!
3. Ok there may not actually have been left-wingers, but really, just how much of a "crime" is "disrupting a government proceeding," huh? Also something something protestors at Blinken testimony something. And what does "seditious conspiracy" even MEAN, amirite?
4. So they killed some police, but pardon power is absolute, and Supreme Court immunity something, so that's that.
5. We won, so fk you.
... and in any case
6. Democrats MADE us do it!
So, you're saying the Criminal in Chief pardoned "ANTIFA"?? Now, that's reaching across the aisle!
If the President does it, it's not illegal!
Now we just have to fit "All the President's Men" into that statement, plus all his supporters, and we're done.
Ah, but President Trump has a mandate™! Biden didn't have no mandate!
He has a mandate(tinder made)? Isn't he married? ...
😂😂
The GOP sure does a bang up job vetting its presidential candidates!
From "How Democracies Fail" - step one: failure of the "gatekeepers".
From "How Democracies Fail" - step one: failure of the "gatekeepers"
Absolutely. I know a lot of folks decry how voters are stupid or selfish or unwise of what have you. And that's true enough. But admonishing voters for not being better judges of the national interest is like doing the same to rabbits for not having wings. It's not in their nature.
For me the most profoundly sobering realization of the last decade has been learning that democracy isn't a self-correcting or self-regulating form of government. There's no deep "wisdom of The People" guaranteed to save our bacon in the long run. In other words, virtuous elite—gatekeepers, to use your term—are a vital component of democratic polities, which can't function and probably won't avoid catastrophe without them.
Most people are too busy with daily life to know much about policy and politics and the constitution. If they're given bad choices, on occasion they're going to opt for those bad choices. Indeed, in a 50-50 republic like ours, they're likely to go with a very bad candidate fully half the time, at least if one of the two parties is sufficiently corrupt and moribund.
We've lost a critical guardrail. I'm not sure how we get it back.
IMHO, Congress gets the majority of the blame, having ceded too much power to the Executive; then rubber-stamping ideologically extreme appointees to the Supreme Court. A constitutional democracy, i.e. one which protects the rights of minorities and individuals from a tyranny of the majority, only works if those charged with enforcing the Constitution do their jobs with integrity, disinterestedly. We’re not there anymore.
Day One is ending, and whew! We survived the dictatorship
Well, I guess technically he has until noon on Tuesday....
Whatever else, he's flooding the zone with so much shit in so many directions that the good-guy lawyers are having a hard time keeping up with it, will hardly know where to begin . . .
It's his standard practice. In fact it's been standard Republican practice for over half a century. The technology is just better these days.
Oh Kevin - didn't you know that by "following the law" Republicans mean "doing things we want", and by "breaking the law" they mean "anything Democrats do"?
1, 3, 4, 5 are all totally legal. (3 will probably be overturned by the courts but is still totally legal to try and there is precedent - Biden did student loan forgiveness that he knew was illegal but tried to manipulate standing so no one could sue.)
I think 2 is illegal, but Biden set the precedent with DACA. If Biden can prioritize enforcement against other people and for other crimes then so can Trump.
6 is not illegal unless Trump actually starts a war and even then may not be illegal - what law would he be breaking?
So far, nothing here compares with the Democrats' political persecutions of Trump and his supporters (Giulianni is an asshole, but given that the net worth of the women he slandered was probably under $1MM, how exactly did he do $148MM of damage to them?) and Biden's preemptive pardons of his family members and political allies / apparatchiks.
PSA: Don’t feed the asshole trolls.
It's hard to know what to do about MF, Leo, Atticus, and others who routinely comment in bad faith. Ignore them? Refute them? Call them out for their deceit and bigotry? I get why Kevin mostly follows a "hands off" moderation policy - I would probably do the same if I had my own busy site - but it does make it harder for the rest of us to have useful discussions.
MF and Leo you just need to ignore them. Nothing good comes from trying to argue with them.
Atticus not really bad faith, you should read what he writes.
Agreed. I take Atticus fairly seriously, even we disagree emphatically.
"Yes" to a "hands-off moderation policy". But also "Hell, YES!" to a "Block" button.
Block definitely needed.
I am automatically skipping MF, Leo, name99, but it is tedious, specially when other people reply to them.
If your definition of a "useful discussion" is one where no one who expresses an alternate opinion is permitted to do so, then by all means ignore MF, Leo1008, Atticus, et al. if you want to. For those of us who appreciate the comments section for seeing viewpoints challenging those of the blog owner and his regular readership, any action to block the so-called "trolls" would be little better than what Elmo has done with Twitter/X.
so "ignoring" is censorship now?
lol
you people crack me up
so "ignoring" is censorship now?
Of course it isn't, That's what I meant: ignore if you like, but don't block/censor.
I don’t ignore commenters for expressing dissenting opinions, I ignore them, or call them out, for expecting us to take them seriously despite their failures to offer evidence or something resembling rational argument for their opinions.
It takes but a moment of my day and hardly any energy to call them a fucking moron but otherwise not engage with the content of their textual diarrhea, and hope that someday the constant disapproval gets them to just never come back. Y'know, like shaming and shunning works in real society.
"It takes but a moment of my day and hardly any energy to call them a fucking moron.."
And it make it less enjoyable for the rest of the readers. If you all can write is calling somebody a moron, don't.
+1
"So far, nothing here compares with the Democrats' political persecutions of Trump and his supporters "
lol
the pastor from our lady of perpetual grievance has weighed in
Your idiotic fantasies are so divorced from reality that it's quite sad.
MEOOOOOW...what do you expect from a dirty, stinking, CONVICTED FELON WHORE MONGER!!! As I have MEOOOOOW in past...throw him in a pit and cover him with garbage...cause that's what he is !! KITTIES KNOW
Still enjoying this. Let me know how I can follow you on Bluesky. Also @D_Ohrk_E1.
Acting unlawfully? Sure. Every breath he takes is an unlawful act. Crooks, man, it’s a shame he missed. Unlawful, but righteous!
*Taps the sign*
All Trumpists are liars, whose lies are in service to bigotry and hate.
Bigotry requires the violation of any principle, law or norm which obstructs it.
Best pace yourselves. The corruption has just started.
The convicted felon Trump's team is flooding the zone with shit to complicate efforts of those seeking to track all that's going on. That makes me more confident that he's going to pursue the most extreme policies he's already expressed, and then some, contrary to your constant downplaying.
How do you feel about a war against Iran? Maybe Cuba to test the waters.
The Sun King: L'etat c'est moi
Biden: Apres moi, c'est deluge
The problem with saying that his executive order on citizenship is unconstitutional is this: in a normal world the court would laugh at this proposition, with the court we have, I know there are at least three votes (Alito, Gorsuch and Thomas) who would vote to uphold it.
Remember, this is the same court which did the unthinkable and gave the president criminal immunity for his actions, as long as there is a colorable argument that those actions were "official".
He is a convicted felon, a rapist, and a sociopath, so what did you expect? He has proven time again that he doesn't give a shit about the rule of law, or the constitution, unless he is using it to harass and destroy his enemies (anyone who doesn't agree with him).
On any constitutional issue before the Court, Trump can count on between 2 and 4 automatic votes for whatever position he takes on the issue. So it makes sense for him to take as many things as he can, such as birthright citizenship to the Court. He only needs 1 to 3 additional votes to change the Constitution any way he wants. That's a gamble anybody would take.
True. And terrifying.
Is Trump an aberration, or has he captured the imagination of a slight majority of the country? As Clairol would say, only his hairdresser knows for sure.
My personal opinion is that he's captured the zeitgeist of the world we live in now. Climate migration and political migration is causing agitation all over the globe from people who just don't want any "others" in their neighborhood. Which can include renters, immigrants, gays, insert racial or ethnic group here. There is an overall sense of losing ground, prices are going up, housing is unaffordable anywhere that anyone wants to live, and there's the unending doom of constant crisis from fires, storms, political unrest, wars, etc...
The news cycle is driving dissatisfaction with the unending doom loop, leading to entire platforms specializing in a game of "Ain't it Awful".
The Felon has done what countless leaders before have done, find a group of people all going the same way and jump out in front of them. This level of unrest existed before his candidacy, he merely has been the catalyst to turn sparks into flames.
The widespread anti-immigrant wave is partly groundswell, partly the product of relentless propaganda by right-wing media, leading to chin-stroking in the mainstream media.
But we shouldn’t discount Trump’s personal bêtes noires; from Greenland and Panama to wind turbines and restricted-flow plumbing. Just because these are nuts doesn’t mean he won’t pursue them.
" .... he's captured the zeitgeist of the world we live in now .... "
With emphasis on 'now'. In fifty years' time the world is going to look quite different with today's economic superpowers suffering from a drastic loss of population while Africa reaps the economic benefits of a surging population. I wouldn't be surprised if today's nativists end up begging for immigrants.
That kind of depends on the AI thing doesn’t it? If it goes as Kevin has suggested there won’t be much work for a large population. What will all those people do to support themselves? Of course, if AI isn’t as useful as Kevin thinks I think you are right.
Welcome to Trump 2.0
Please note the menu has changed
Facts and Science are now- Fake News
Enemies of the state are now- the poor, immigrants and gays
Jan 6 was a lawful protest
Jan 6 “Hostages” are now Proud Patriots
"For all the Republicans who kvetched constantly..."
Republicans are now officially de jure authoritarians. They will do nothing - nothing - to preserve the rule of law, to stop using the government as a tool of revenge, to preserve democracy, to prevent violence, physical and otherwise, against their perceived enemies, to guarantee free and fair elections; Republicans are - and really have been for some time - Stalinists. They are the bad guys, the destroyers of our constitutional republic. They killed it. It's dead. This is not going to change. It will only get worse, much, much worse. We are in deep, deep shit.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli
Is an interesting read.