Trump 38: Donald Trump and the Wall of Lies

[Cartmann99]

5 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

 Its brain is broken. How hard is it to frigging fake empathy?

I just had a 2012 flashback to when Mitt Romney advised someone who was struggling financially to just borrow $20,000 from their parents and start their own business.

[onekidanddone]

3 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

I just had a 2012 flashback to when Mitt Romney advised someone who was struggling financially to just borrow $20,000 from their parents and start their own business.

Really? I mean I believe you, I just can't wrap my head around the fact he even said it.

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, onekidanddone said:

Really? I mean I believe you, I just can't wrap my head around the fact he even said it.

My memory was off a little, but he was speaking to a group of college students who were concerned about the job market they faced after graduation:

Quote

"We've always encouraged young people: Take a shot, go for it. Take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business," Romney told the crowd at his "guest lecture" before transitioning into the story of Jimmy John Liautaud, who started his Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches chain in 1983 with the help of a $20,000 loan from his father (in exchange for a 48 percent stake in the business). "This is kind of an American experience," said Romney.

Dems spun it as yet another example of the presumptive GOP nominee being out of touch - how many parents have a spare $20,000 lying around? "Only someone who paid for college by selling stock given to him by his CEO father would just casually assume students could go borrow $20,000 from their parents to deal with the economic challenges they face," Joshua Dorner, a spokesman for the Center for American Progress Action Fund, told the Associated Press. And there were jabs about the $10 million Romney and his wife invested in their son Tagg's private equity startup.

https://www.businessinsider.com/romney-gets-it-wrong-most-first-time-entrepreneurs-are-actually-in-their-40s-or-older-2012-5

[fraurosena]

Hold on tight, he really is gearing up to declare a state of emergency. He will use the building of the wall as an excuse, but what he's really doing is (an attempt at) protecting himself from the House and Mueller investigations.

Scary times. Very scary. Because during a state of emergency, a president can...

1. seize control of U.S. internet traffic, impeding access to certain websites and ensuring that internet searches return pro-Trump content as the top results
2. declare martial law
3. freeze Americans' bank accounts
4. allow government officials to imprison people without judicial review
5. unilaterally suspend the law that bars government testing of biological and chemical agents on unwitting human subjects
6. determine that any American inside the U.S. who offers material support to the asylum seekers—or, for that matter, to undocumented immigrants inside the United States—poses “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to national security, and authorize the Treasury Department to take action against them [...] Individuals targeted by the order could lose their jobs, and find their bank accounts frozen and their health insurance canceled.

This article from the Atlantic explains in detail the powers a president has during a state of emergency, and also describes the way in which the presidunce could misuse these powers to consolidate authoritarian rule.

Fair warning before reading it though: it could well bring about a surge in your anxiety levels.

What the President Could Do If He Declares a State of Emergency

 

[Howl]

Mika Brzezinski's opening on Morning Joe today: "There are so many lies to address."

[AmazonGrace]

Oops he did it again 

 

[Drala]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Hold on tight, he really is gearing up to declare a state of emergency. He will use the building of the wall as an excuse, but what he's really doing is (an attempt at) protecting himself from the House and Mueller investigations.

Scary times. Very scary. Because during a state of emergency, a president can...

1. seize control of U.S. internet traffic, impeding access to certain websites and ensuring that internet searches return pro-Trump content as the top results
2. declare martial law
3. freeze Americans' bank accounts
4. allow government officials to imprison people without judicial review
5. unilaterally suspend the law that bars government testing of biological and chemical agents on unwitting human subjects
6. determine that any American inside the U.S. who offers material support to the asylum seekers—or, for that matter, to undocumented immigrants inside the United States—poses “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to national security, and authorize the Treasury Department to take action against them [...] Individuals targeted by the order could lose their jobs, and find their bank accounts frozen and their health insurance canceled.

This article from the Atlantic explains in detail the powers a president has during a state of emergency, and also describes the way in which the presidunce could misuse these powers to consolidate authoritarian rule.

Fair warning before reading it though: it could well bring about a surge in your anxiety levels.

What the President Could Do If He Declares a State of Emergency

 

A friend of mine explained this to me on Sunday.  This is very scary.  When I first heard Trump threaten this possibility, I thought, "fine--go ahead and deploy the military to build fencing--that's not a good use of the military, but how much harm can it do?"  Then I learned just what Trump could do in a State of Emergency.  YIKES!  I think the political push-back from We the People would be enormous if Trump goes down that road.   At least, I hope that people aren't so demoralized and gas-lit that they couldn't rise up in massive protest.  Trump is such an abusive, sociopathic prick that it sometimes takes my breath away.

[onekidanddone]

6 minutes ago, Drala said:

Trump is such an abusive, sociopathic prick that it sometimes takes my breath away.

I'm no longer shocked by the things he says and does as he is indeed a sociopathic prick. What continues to shock me is his base that still won't budge in their support.

[fraurosena]

18 minutes ago, Drala said:

I think the political push-back from We the People would be enormous if Trump goes down that road.

The most frightening aspect is that in essence this would mean civil war. 

[Drala]

5 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

I'm no longer shocked by the things he says and does as he is indeed a sociopathic prick. What continues to shock me is his base that still won't budge in their support.

The way a cult works is that people co-create an alternate reality with their Dear Leader.  Black becomes white, up becomes down--all manner of shared social meaning gets skewed.  This re-defining of social reality is a function of Fox News and other alt-right media.  Fear is the chief mechanism that drives the distortion of social meaning in the alternate reality.  The fear-mongering is about to increase exponentially--this will create an environment where people actually perceive a crisis that justifies a state of emergency.  Folks who buy into the cult are naturally inclined to respond to authoritarian leaders, a world where only the Dear Leader can save them from the specter of devastation and carnage.

[mamallama]

Ugh, remember back when, according to the wingnuts, Obama was going to declare a state of emergency so he could round up guns and cancel the election?  Now I wish the right had acted on their bases paranoia and limited those powers.

 

[AmazonGrace]

The worst is that most of this was clear before the election 

 

[Destiny]

Holy shit. Is he actually gonna do the emergency declaration?

[Howl]

If he does, I won't be watching.  I'll check here to see what's going on. 

[onekidanddone]

1 minute ago, Howl said:

If he does, I won't be watching.  I'll check here to see what's going on. 

You will be in good company.  Hell I don't even know if I can tune in here either, but I most likely will. My OCD won't let me just ignore it no matter how frighted I get.  I'm looking at an OCD/panic attack combo. 

[Dandruff]

This can't possibly be good.

[WiseGirl]

I will need to stock up on vodka...I'm not strong enough to watch. 

 

[Howl]

1 hour ago, Dandruff said:

This can't possibly be good.

Evergreen statement -- covers the last two years and all the future days of the Trump admin. 

[AmericanRose]

On the bright side? "As Popular Information’s Judd Legum points out, the National Emergencies Act of 1976 states that if the president calls a national emergency, the House of Representatives can pass a resolution to rescind it. Once that happens, the Senate has 18 days to uphold the House resolution. Though the Republican-controlled Senate has yet to rebuke Trump in any significant way, giving him the power to commandeer the military for a vanity project would be a new low, although one to which it would be unwise to put it past the GOP to sink. There’s also the issue of a potential court challenge, as Smith pointed out on Sunday."

Of course, I doubt Senate would do anything, but hopefully the SC would realise the ridiculousness.

[Howl]

One retired general noted on a cable news show (Ari Melber?) this evening, that it was certainly legal, although incredibly stupid, to send active duty soldiers to the border to spread concertina wire and get chigger bites. 

However, if Trump wants soldiers to build the wall, the legal issue is where the money is going to come from.  Trump can't just snap his fingers for the money it would take to pay for this.  

[Audrey2]

3 hours ago, Howl said:

However, if Trump wants soldiers to build the wall, the legal issue is where the money is going to come from.  Trump can't just snap his fingers for the money it would take to pay for this.  

Pay for this? Trump will contract the materials for the wall then won't pay the suppliers for the materials. As for the military labor,as far as I know, they are still getting paid during the shutdown, otherwise he'd find a way to stiff the military as well.  This, unfortunately, is Trump's proven m.o.

[Dandruff]

Wait...isn't Mexico supposed to pay for the wall?

[WiseGirl]

Watching the new this morning  (snow delay) and how the fuck has 45 been able to put America on the road to ruin in only 2 years? Wtf. Just like his Casino...

And why the hell do his cult members  supporters keep believing him despite what the data shows?

 https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/07/opinions/border-wall-would-do-nothing-to-stop-terrorism-bergen/index.html

[Howl]

If only American MSM would listen to an authority on authoritarianism and autocracy....and then follow her excellent advice: 

 

[formergothardite]

I hope they take her advice. Not allowing him to get away with spreading lies is one of the few ways to stop him.