Trump 41: Waiting For My Impeachment

[47of74]

Fuck head whined about how a Minnesota city stopped saying the Pledge before meetings. Prompting this response.

Said Fuck Head and his groupies can kiss my ass if they don’t like my attitude towards the Pledge these days.

[fraurosena]

Note how he defends Acosta, and says nothing about the accusations -- or the victims -- themselves. The only thing he's concerned with is clearing himself.

 

If he's trotting out others to make denials for him too, then we can be sure that he's implicated and scared of being found out.

The fact of the matter is, Epstein had a safe with all kinds of material. It would not surprise me if there were tapes of the abuse of those poor girls. And it wouldn't surprise me either if a certain occupant of the Oval Office is also to be found on those tapes. It's very telling that Barr has apparently un-recused himself from the Epstein case...

[GreyhoundFan]

Because he has to screw over employees: "Trump, blocked by court on executive orders, ramps up agency moves against unions"

Spoiler

It’s been almost 26 months since a federal judge stymied President Trump’s effort to undermine the power of federal unions through three executive orders. But that hasn’t stopped relentless attempts to reach the same goal through a different route.

What Trump hasn’t been able to do through sweeping edicts, his administration has been steadily seeking agency by agency.

The latest example is Monday’s one-sided implementation of a labor contract by the Environmental Protection Agency. This followed, the EPA said, a comment by a union official that “we decline to negotiate new ground rules.”

Arguing that “at no point” did the union refuse to bargain, David Cann, the American Federation of Government Employees director of field services and education, said the EPA’s contention that “the ground-rules dispute gives rise to … circumstances for imposing a term agreement is wrong.”

Like moves by several other agencies involving various federal unions, the EPA contract cuts “official time,” long a Republican target. It allows union officials to represent all bargaining-unit employees, not just union members, while being paid by the government during grievance procedures and discussions over certain issues such as safety and productivity. The contract also evicts union officials from agency-provided office space and cuts telework.

“As is the agency’s right,” it imposed a master collective-bargaining agreement “following the Union’s refusal to bargain,” said the EPA’s statement to the Federal Insider. “The ball is now in AFGE’s court.”

The EPA calls it a bargaining agreement, but it wasn’t bargained, and there was no agreement. The union has filed an unfair-labor-practice complaint against the agency with the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

“The Trump administration has shown an outrageous pattern of trampling on federal employees’ rights and ignoring the law to dismantle decades of prior agreements between our union and previous administrations,” said AFGE President J. David Cox Sr. “This attack on worker rights is especially egregious at the EPA, where engineers and scientists fight every day to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink.”

The AFGE also charged the National Park Service two weeks ago with an unfair labor practice, saying the agency, contrary to law and bargaining ground rules, won’t allow adequate official time for union negotiators. Federal law says employees representing unions “in the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement … shall be authorized official time for such purposes.” The ground rules for Park Service-AFGE contract negotiations cite the law and say, “Members of the Union negotiating team will receive official time for the purpose of negotiating the agreement.”

The Park Service said it did “in fact grant official time to NPS employees to participate in bargaining. Furthermore, at AFGE’s request, the NPS adjusted employees’ schedules to change their days off to enable the employees to be on official time during bargaining sessions.”

The EPA and Park Service battles are just the latest in an escalating fight by the Trump administration against long-established labor-management norms. The biggest bombshell landed in May 2018 when the president issued three executive orders designed to severely undermine unions. The orders would sharply cut official time, rebuke collective-bargaining agreements and allow agencies to fire feds faster, while diluting grievance procedures. Responding to union challenges, U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in Washington largely blocked implementation of the orders in August, a ruling the administration is appealing.

Noting that about 57 percent of the federal government’s nonpostal workforce is covered by collective-bargaining agreements, the Office of Personnel Management defended the administration’s offensive against unions, saying “agencies should secure collective bargaining agreements which promote an effective and efficient means of accomplishing agency missions and supporting the objectives” of the President’s Management Agenda.

What the OPM considers actions to “effectively steward taxpayer dollars” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) describes as Trump’s “deliberate assault on federal unions, workers’ pay, benefits, and due process rights.” Several agencies, he added, “are ignoring the court order and violating federal labor law by purposefully steering union contract negotiations to the Federal Services Impasse Panel, a packed gallery of anti-worker individuals — all Trump appointees.” The panel, part of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, resolves federal labor-management negotiating breakdowns.

“It’s clear this is the administration’s labor strategy,” Cardin said, “which is a prime example of the administration’s contempt for the rule of law, collective bargaining, and basic fairness.”

 

[formergothardite]

42 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

The fact of the matter is, Epstein had a safe with all kinds of material. It would not surprise me if there were tapes of the abuse of those poor girls. And it wouldn't surprise me either if a certain occupant of the Oval Office is also to be found on those tapes. It's very telling that Barr has apparently un-recused himself from the Epstein case...

My husband was talking about this and he wonders if this is pretty much the only way to take down Trump. Not many people, even Trumpsters want to throw themselves behind a child rapists. Epstein would have been a fool if he didn't keep evidence of all the people in his circle who participated in this evil. There is a good reason that last time this got swept under a rug and not investigated, a lot of powerful people ran in his circle and I wouldn't be surprised if he kept evidence to make sure that no one threw him under the bus and to get favors. 

Barr is going to be put in charge of making this go away but I suspect it will be a lot harder this time around. 

[AmericanRose]

47 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

My husband was talking about this and he wonders if this is pretty much the only way to take down Trump. Not many people, even Trumpsters want to throw themselves behind a child rapists. Epstein would have been a fool if he didn't keep evidence of all the people in his circle who participated in this evil. There is a good reason that last time this got swept under a rug and not investigated, a lot of powerful people ran in his circle and I wouldn't be surprised if he kept evidence to make sure that no one threw him under the bus and to get favors. 

Barr is going to be put in charge of making this go away but I suspect it will be a lot harder this time around. 

The devout Trump fans will claim it was a set up/faked. I just hope none of the devoted are in Congress.

[fraurosena]

45 minutes ago, AmericanRose said:

The devout Trump fans will claim it was a set up/faked. I just hope none of the devoted are in Congress.

Not the devoted, perhaps. But there could well be some of them that are also on those tapes... 

[GreyhoundFan]

The classiness of the toddler's properties and their guests is just amazing: "Strip club to host golf tournament at Trump resort in South Florida"

Spoiler

President Trump’s golf resort in Doral, Fla., is scheduled to host a golf tournament Saturday put on by a Miami-area strip club, which will allow golfers to pay for a dancer to serve as their “caddy girl” while they play at the president’s club.

The “Shadow All Star Tournament” is organized by the Shadow Cabaret, a strip club in Hialeah, Fla. Emanuele Mancuso, Shadow Cabaret’s marketing director, said in a telephone interview that this was the first time the club had held a tournament at Trump Doral.

The Trump name and family crest are displayed prominently in the strip club’s advertising materials, which offer golfers the “caddy girl of your choice.”

Mancuso said the strip club did not intend to send a political statement by choosing Trump’s resort. Rather, he said, the choice was for luxury. These golfers are VIPs, Mancuso said. “They deserve a VIP environment.”

Mancuso said there would be no nudity at the resort. On the course, he said, the caddies would wear pink miniskirts and what he called “a sexy white polo.” Afterward, however, the golfers and the dancers would return to another venue — the cabaret itself — for what he described as a “very tasteful” burlesque show, which could involve nudity.

“They’re going to be clothed the whole time” at the golf course, Mancuso said. “At the venue is different.”

In a statement, the Trump Organization confirmed the event is happening and said it was for a “worthwhile cause” — a Miami children’s charity. A spokeswoman said the company had not approved the tournament’s advertisements before they were published.

Trump still owns Doral — and all his other businesses — while in office, but he has given day-to-day control to his sons Don Jr. and Eric.

Doral is better known for a different kind of golf tournament, a long-running PGA Tour event that was last played there in 2016. It is one of the jewels of Trump’s hotel empire — a legendary 57-year-old golf resort that Trump bought for $150 million in 2012.

After Trump entered politics, however, the club lost the famous tournament, and its revenue began to decline, according to documents that Trump’s company provided to Miami-Dade County in a tax dispute.

Those documents showed that the club’s net operating income fell 69 percent between 2015 and 2017. The club’s revenue rebounded slightly in 2018, according to Trump’s financial disclosure forms.

“They are severely underperforming” other resorts in the area, said a tax consultant for Trump’s company, arguing in a public hearing that the county should lower the resort’s tax assessment. She blamed the Trump name: “There is some negative connotation that is associated with the brand.”

Shadow Cabaret advertises that its strip club offers all-nude dancers, a laser light show and a decor inspired by the Miami drug epic “Scarface.”

It has been advertising the golf tournament at Doral online, on Facebook, on Instagram and via the industry website exoticdancer.com. It offers packages that claim to combine hotel rooms at Doral with services at the strip club: a $1,000 “VIP Upgrade,” for instance, includes three days at the hotel and “1/2 Hour VIP Room + Bottle @ Club.”

Mancuso, the cabaret’s marketing director, said the first event connected with the tournament will be a reception at the cabaret on Friday night.

“If you enroll before the 10th [of July], you are able to pick out your caddie girl,” he said. “Everybody that enrolled after the 10th, they’re going to have an auction” that night.

Mancuso said the dancers would drive a golf cart and not carry golf bags as some caddies do. “They’re actually going through training, most of the girls,” to be able to advise players on golf shots, he said.

Mancuso said the tournament would benefit a basketball-themed charity called Miami All Stars. Online advertisements for the tournament also include logos for the Jr. NBA and Jr. WNBA.

Carlos Alamilla, the charity’s director, said his group serves about 40 youths in Miami. “We provide everything. We provide fitness, nutrition, basketball and academics,” he said.

The charity’s website says it is “a non-profit organization under the laws of the State of Florida.” However, Franco Ripple, a spokesman for the state, said Tuesday that it is not registered as a charity in Florida. Alamilla did not immediately respond to questions about why his organization’s name was missing from state records.

A spokeswoman for the NBA and WNBA said that the leagues were not affiliated with the tournament and that their logos were used in the ads without permission.

Alamilla said it gave him pause to affiliate his charity with an event put on by a strip club: “It doesn’t jive with what we do, you know.” He said he also dislikes Trump because of the conditions in which his administration is detaining migrant children. “He’s contrary to everything we believe,” he said of the president.

Still, Alamilla said, he decided to accept the money — but also ban his charity’s child clients from attending.

“None of my kids are going to be participating in your event,” he said he told the organizers. But, he said, “if we can get some help, you know, for our programs starting now . . . it would be okay.”

 

[fraurosena]

Trump is freaking out about the House Judiciary committee.

Here's why:

House Dems set to subpoena Kushner, Sessions and 10 other Mueller witnesses

Quote

The House Judiciary Committee will vote on Thursday to authorize subpoenas for 12 of former special counsel Robert Mueller's witnesses — including President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his former deputy Rod Rosenstein, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former chief of staff John Kelly and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

Each of the witnesses provided crucial testimony to Mueller about Trump's efforts to thwart the Russia investigation, and the committee's efforts are certain to meet resistance from a White House that has already blocked testimony from senior aides like former White House Counsel Don McGahn and former longtime adviser Hope Hicks.

The barrage of subpoena authorizations represents a major expansion of the committee’s Trump-focused investigation, casting a wider net from obstruction of justice to hush-money payments. The committee has faced repeated resistance from the White House as it investigates obstruction of justice allegations against the president.

A majority of the committee’s Democrats already favor launching formal impeachment proceedings against the president, and the number is likely to grow after Mueller testifies next week before the Judiciary and Intelligence committees.

The subpoena targets include two executives of American Media, Inc. — Dylan Howard and David Pecker — who testified about Trump's alleged hush-money payments to a woman who accused him of an extramarital affair before the election. And it includes current and former Trump administration officials Rick Dearborn, Jody Hunt and Rob Porter.

The list also includes Keith Davidson, an attorney who previously represented adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump’s former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen orchestrated a $130,000 payment to Daniels to buy her silence over an alleged affair with Trump. Cohen is serving a three year prison sentence in part for the hush-money payment, which prosecutors said amounted to a campaign finance violation.

Davidson previously said he had asked the committee for a so-called “friendly” subpoena in order to comply with the committee’s demands for documents and testimony.

“As always, I remain open to reaching a reasonable accommodation and will not issue subpoenas if the information we are seeking is voluntarily provided. We will get answers one way or the other,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

Republicans panned the subpoenas as an effort to “relitigate” the Mueller investigation.

“Mr. Mueller’s team issued more than 2,800 subpoenas before concluding that no Americans conspired with Russia,” Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. “Even if Chairman Nadler still believes subpoenas are conversation starters, it’s hard to imagine this handful of subpoenas will do anything but reinforce the principal conclusions we’ve been able to read about for months.”

Though the current and former White House aides are likely to refuse to comply with the committee’s demands, that decision is more complicated for figures like Lewandowski, who has had no official role with the Trump White House yet remains a top confidant of the president.

Mueller relied on testimony from Lewandowski and Hicks to recount an episode in which Trump tried to pressure Sessions to assume control of the Russia probe and dramatically constrain its scope. Additionally, Porter, who served as White House staff secretary, turned over his contemporaneous notes which detailed Trump’s frustrations with the Mueller investigation and his efforts to thwart it.

The committee has already subpoenaed McGahn for testimony and documents, but the former White House counsel refused to comply at the direction of the Trump White House. The Judiciary Committee has vowed to take McGahn to court to enforce its subpoena, but the panel has taken no action since McGahn blew off their subpoena deadline in May.

The House Intelligence Committee has also subpoenaed Flynn for documents and testimony, but the panel’s chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has repeatedly declined to say whether Flynn, who is awaiting sentencing for lying to the FBI, is cooperating.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

More about the stable genius: "‘I barely know the guy’: To minimize critics, Trump employs selective amnesia"

Spoiler

President Trump sat across from British Ambassador Kim Darroch during the annual St. Patrick’s Day lunch on Capitol Hill in March, inquiring about Brexit and bragging of his strong political standing, according to people familiar with their exchange.

It wasn’t the first time they met. Trump interacted with Darroch on a number of occasions in London and Washington, and most of the president’s senior aides have attended parties at the luxurious, chandelier-draped embassy in Northwest Washington and met with the ambassador at the White House. 

But after leaked cables showed Darroch criticizing Trump’s administration as “inept” and the president as “insecure,” the president seemed to have a memory lapse. 

“I don’t know the Ambassador but have been told he is a pompous fool,” Trump wrote Tuesday on Twitter. 

The rejoinder fit a familiar pattern for Trump, who is quick to minimize ties with people who criticize him or who find themselves facing an onslaught of negative attention that reflects poorly on the president.

Among those who have gotten the “I barely know the guy” treatment: Former acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker, conservative commentator Ann Coulter, former lawyer Michael Cohen, fired FBI director James B. Comey, former senior White House aide Stephen K. Bannon, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former State Department official Brett McGurk, longtime adviser Roger Stone, former White House aide Cliff Sims, former campaign aide George Papadopoulos and even the rapper Lil Jon, who starred on Trump’s reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice.” 

The people change, but the comments are eerily similar — and are something of a joke among some Trump advisers. 

“I hardly even knew this guy,” Trump said of Comey, whom he met with several times in the Oval Office before firing him in May 2017. “I don’t know Whitaker,” Trump said in November about the man he just picked to be attorney general but who was suddenly facing sharp scrutiny. “I barely know him,” Trump said of George T. Conway, the husband of top aide Kellyanne Conway whom he met on a number of occasions, after he lambasted the president on Twitter. At one point, he said Manafort, the former campaign chairman, had “nothing to do with our campaign.”

“I don’t know who Lil Jon is,” Trump said of the rapper who appeared in two seasons of “The Apprentice” and later said that the president called him “Uncle Tom.” “I don’t. I really don’t.”

He has downplayed the role of a number of former administration officials, including White House counsel Donald McGahn and defense secretary Jim Mattis, after they criticized him.

“Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books,” Trump said of Bannon, his former chief White House strategist and campaign chairman, after the president felt Bannon depicted him negatively in a book by Michael Wolff.

People who know Trump well say he has a sharp memory for remembering people, and the president himself has boasted of having “one of the great memories of all time.” His aim in proclaiming to barely know someone is to minimize the importance of their critical comments or detract from the praise he believes they are unjustly receiving.

On the flip side, people who have barely met Trump can quickly turn into exceptional figures if they lavish the president with praise. He has bragged about dozens of books — and their authors — on Twitter that depict him positively. Aides say he has not read most of the books he has praised.

People who agree with or support him, particularly on Fox News, are often lauded by Trump or become “very respected.” When Trump was in need of a foreign policy team early in his candidacy and Papadopoulos was willing to sit by him, the president deemed him an “excellent guy.”

“The motivating factor on whether he has met someone or he hasn’t is whether the meeting is advantageous to the story he is telling,” said Tim O’Brien, a biographer and author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald.” “Trump constantly creates his own reality when he tells stories about who he has spoken to, who he hasn’t spoken to, or what he has experienced to win the point he is trying to make. It’s not in order to tell the truth.” 

The degree to which Trump has a relationship with someone he claims not to know varies. In the case of Darroch, Trump does not know him particularly well, by all accounts, and the president has never been to the British Embassy. He has not met with the ambassador extensively one on one, U.S. and British officials say, but Darroch has been in every meeting between British Prime Minister Theresa May and Trump, officials say. Darroch said in leaked cables he had met Trump seven or eight times, according to people familiar with the cables’ contents.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about his interactions with Darroch.

Some people who know Trump have produced records to document their relationship after the president says none exists.

Trump called George Conway — who has become a fervent critic of the president — a “stone cold LOSER,” a “whack job” and a “husband from hell.”

“I barely know him,” Trump said.

But Conway kept a letter from Trump praising his legal abilities after a dispute years ago in which Conway helped the then-real estate magnate, as well as other communications between the two in 2016 and 2017.

“It didn’t surprise me because it is one of his regular go-to lies,” Conway said, chuckling as he recalled Trump’s dismissal of him in an interview. Trump called Sims a “low level gofer” after his book was released earlier this year, which was critical of people in the White House but not the president directly. The former campaign and White House aide declined to comment Tuesday but responded at the time with pictures of the two men. White House aides said the pair regularly saw each other. Sims titled the last chapter in his book “Disposable.” 

The president’s interactions with Comey were extensively documented in former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report and in contemporaneous memos written by the fired FBI director.

Asked Tuesday about Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who now faces new charges, Trump said that he was “not a fan” of his and that they had a falling-out years ago, which the president didn’t elaborate on while taking questions from reporters. 

“I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years,” Trump said. 

In a 2002 interview with New York Magazine before Epstein was in trouble, Trump sang a different tune. 

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump said.

 

[fraurosena]

Look at the dude behind him as Trump blurts out that kidneys are a part of the heart.

 

Edited July 10, 2019 by fraurosena
removed an apostrophe that somehow ended up where it didn't belong

[47of74]

If Jesus  was on Facebook

Quote

The billionaire Donald J. Trump’s bid to become a born-again Christian failed over the weekend after Jesus Christ turned down his friend request, campaign officials have acknowledged.

Jesus, who has not generally been active on Facebook, made a rare appearance on the social network on Monday to announce His decision to ignore the presumptive Republican nominee’s request for a personal relationship with Him.

In a brief post, Jesus offered the following explanation: “Just everything.”

The turndown from Jesus Christ, the inspiration behind one of the world’s most prominent religions, caps what has been a tough month for the Trump campaign.

 

[47of74]

Here's  why man baby was upset at State TV Faux News the other day

Quote

President Trump criticism of Fox News in a series of tweets this weekend was reportedly spurred by footage aired on the network of bar patrons in France chanting obscenities aimed at him, according to The Associated Press. 

Following the U.S. women's national soccer team's World Cup win, Fox correspondent Greg Palkot aired a live report showing patrons in the background chanting "F--- Trump" in a bar.

Shortly after the segment aired, the president took to Twitter to voice his displeasure with the network, which he usually praises for its positive coverage of his administration.

Trump's Sunday evening tweets took aim at the network in general, claiming that it is "changing fast" and forgetting "the people who got them there." But according to the AP, Trump was specifically peeved by Palkot's report. The outlet cited two Trump advisers who were not authorized to speak publicly.

 

[fraurosena]

It looks like Trump's going to announce an Executive Order about the citizenship question on the census. 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I was glad to read this as it means less money in the tangerine toddler's pockets: "Trump’s company cancels strip-club-sponsored golf tournament at his Florida resort"

Spoiler

President Trump’s company has canceled a golf tournament that a Miami-area strip club planned to hold at his Doral, Fla., resort this weekend.

In a statement, the president’s company said it canceled Shadow Cabaret’s tournament after the nonprofit named as the beneficiary of the event — Miami Allstars Foundation — dropped out earlier Wednesday.

“The event was originally booked with the understanding that it would be raising money to support a local charity benefiting underprivileged children,” a Trump Organization spokeswoman said in the statement. “Now that the charity has removed its affiliation, the event will no longer be taking place at our property and all amounts paid will be refunded.”

In a phone interview, Miami Allstars’ director, Carlos Alamilla, said he had paid little attention to the planned event and had not seen its advertisements. That changed when The Washington Post called him Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning, after The Post’s article was published, Alamilla said, he called the Shadow Cabaret and said his organization was backing out.

“We’re not participating, and I think you should cancel the event,” Alamilla said he told the tournament’s organizers.

Alamilla said his group is a nonprofit, though it is not registered as a charity in Florida — he said he missed a registration deadline. He said the group provides mentoring, tutoring and basketball lessons to about 40 young people.

He said he had been approached by the organizers and offered an unspecified payment as a result of the tournament. He said he did not realize that his group’s logo was being used in advertisements for the event, which offered golfers the chance to pay for a dancer to serve as a “caddy girl” at Trump’s course.

Organizers had said there would be no nudity at the golf course but said there could be some at Shadow Cabaret during a planned after-party.

The nonprofit’s withdrawal was first reported Wednesday by Miami Herald and the website Talking Points Memo.

 

[fraurosena]

Sweet Rufus, he's off his meds again, as these rambling tweets show, with weird allusions, inaccuracies (the escalator thing was in 2015), a reinforcement of the idea of having more than two terms in office, and attacks on 'Fake News', Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Alfred. E. Neumann (???).

 

[AmericanRose]

He wants to be 'Dear Leader' so bad.

If he wasn't president, I would feel sorry for the dotty old man. But... he is President. I'm not really sure how much of himself he can be responsible for, though, because as big an asshole as Trump has always been, he did at least seem coherent. Shame on his kids and advisors though -- they know he's not fit to be president, but they're keeping him there to further their agenda.

[fraurosena]

Daniel Dale is tweeting real time from the social media 'summit' at the WH. If his first tweets are anything to go by, it's a real doozy and Trump is being is usual stable genius self.

[Thread]

I'm just lifting this beauty out of the thread, because it made me lol so hard. 

 

[AmazonGrace]

No wonder he's messed up, his anatomy is craycray

[GreyhoundFan]

Topics of importance: hating flies and the rain messing up his hair. Notice how social media wasn't discussed at the social media summit? Good grief.

[GreyhoundFan]

The mango moron doesn't understand irony.

[fraurosena]

Ehhh....    

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"The Trump Bill of Rights"

Spoiler

President Donald Trump came close to rewriting the First Amendment while speaking to the kennel’s worth of right-wing lapdogs, trolls, conspiracy theorists and media hackers he convened at the White House on Thursday for his “Social Media Summit.”

Saying that Google, Facebook and Twitter were guilty of “discriminating against conservatives,” Trump vowed that “all regulatory and legislative solutions” available to the federal government would be used against the companies “to protect free speech.”

Rather than defining free speech in positive terms, Trump explained what free speech isn’t. “To me free speech is not when you see something good and then you purposefully write bad,” Trump said. “To me that’s very dangerous speech and you become angry at it. But that’s not free speech.”

If Trump thinks negative and critical commentary don’t qualify as free speech because they’re “dangerous” and make him “angry,” he’s reversed the First Amendment, which was designed to protect the right to say bad things about “good” things. It’s easy to imagine that Trump’s complete revision of the First Amendment would define freedom of religion as the right to attend a church of Trump’s choice, that the right to assembly was reserved only for people attending MAGA rallies, and that the freedom of the press belongs to those who praise Trump.

Following Trump’s idea to its logical extremes, what would the Bill of Rights look like if he applied the same judicial oomph to the other original amendments to the Constitution? Rewriting the Second Amendment to Trump's satisfaction could be done with just a few word changes. Rather than having a right to bear arms, the Trump rewrite would make gun ownership a duty. This isn’t far from Trump’s real-life position. In a June interview, he all but called for universal armament when he said that unarmed civilians were “sitting ducks.”

The Third Amendment, which forbids the military from using citizens’ homes as crash pads without consent, is the least controversial of all the amendments. Trump, who worships the military, could own the libs with a rewrite stating that the soldiers working on the Mexican border must lodge in nearby private residences. Homeowners who find themselves overcrowded by their military lodgers would be allowed to temporarily reside in our luxurious and spacious migrant detention centers.

Given the fury he directed at special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI for their investigations, I imagine that Trump would fork the Fourth Amendment into a two-parter. His enemies would have no protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. If you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to hide. But searches directed against obviously innocent people like Trump and his associates would be forbidden. Remember his wailing in April 2018, after the FBI served a lawful search warrant on his then-attorney, Michael Cohen? Trump characterized the search, which helped secure a guilty plea from Cohen, as worse than a break-in. “It's an attack on our country,” Trump said. “It’s an attack on what we all stand for.”

Trump’s Fifth Amendment makeover would likely toss the “takings” clause. He's a long-term abuser of eminent domain; he believes that property owners have no right to keep their homes and businesses when he wants to buy them. But what to do about the right against self-incrimination enshrined in the amendment? Keep it as is? Maybe the best way out would be to privatize self-incrimination rights by allowing individuals to sign binding nondisclosure agreements with themselves.

The Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial would be reversed, informed by Trump’s history of dragging his feet in civil cases. Trump loves to sue, and because he’s such a deadbeat, his contractors tend to sue him back. The way Trump sees it, the longer the litigation, the greater chance his opponent will back down. In the famous Tesoro case, Trump’s attorney told architect Andrew Tesoro that he might win the lawsuit he had filed against Trump, but the mogul would make certain the case would last so long that he’d go bankrupt in the process.

The Seventh Amendment, which guarantees civil jury trials in federal court, would probably attract no interest from Trump. But the Eighth, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment would be trash-canned. He’s a proponent of torture, water boarding and other methods of “enhanced interrogation,” saying it “works.” In 1989, he called for the death penalty after a group of teenagers was charged with a Central Park rape. (The teenagers were later exonerated.)

I will leave Trumpian reformation of the Ninth Amendment, which Judge Robert Bork once compared to an impenetrable “inkblot,” to legal scholars. The Ninth might be the only Bill of Rights amendment in dire need of actual freshening, Trump or no Trump. It’s unlikely that Trump would take issue with the Tenth, which establishes the concept of federalism. So instead of rewriting the last two amendments, the unshackled Trump would probably award himself the wild card of an additional amendment to the Bill of Rights. Its wording: “If an incumbent president loses office in a reelection campaign, he shall not be removed from the White House without his consent.”

 

[Howl]

Michael Hayden,  a retired Air Force four-star general,  former Director of the National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and an extremely circumspect guy, has said in the last few days that he doesn't believe that our democracy can survive four more years of Trump.  

Edited July 13, 2019 by Howl

[formergothardite]

ITA. If Trump is elected and the Dems don't get control of the house and senate then America is doomed. As long as the GOP has the power to protect him America is over if he gets elected again.

My husband speculated yesterday that if it looks like Trump is going to lose the election he might try to just end having an election. In the past an idea like this sounded insane, but now it actually seems like something that can happen.

[Jana814]

I think if Trump doesn’t win the election in 2020 he’s going to have a major fit & demand a recount.