Trump 45

[Becky]

Wartime president? Good grief, is he setting us up for martial law?

By the way, congratulations to anyone who can sit through one of his press conferences. When he starts rambling it is all I can to to not throw something at the television. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Ireland knocks down Trump Organization’s sea wall plan"

Spoiler

An Irish planning board on Wednesday rejected the Trump Organization’s plan to build a sea wall to blunt the Atlantic Ocean waves and halt the relentless erosion that threatens to wash fairways and greens into the sea.

The decision by An Bord Planeala, a national-level planning appeals commission, is a major setback for one of Trump’s premier foreign properties. Trump International Golf Links Doonbeg, as with the two Trump courses in Scotland, are owned outright by the Trump family business and represent an important investment for the company.

An inspector for the planning board warned in his report that the rock barrier the Trump Organization intended to build could “have a long term significant negative impact on landscape and visual quality” along a stretch of beach popular with tourists and famous for its natural beauty. The decision reverses an earlier approval by the county government.

The rejection comes at a time when the Trump Organization, like others in the tourism and hospitality industries, is suffering from closures and cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment. It was unclear if the company can appeal the decision.

Erosion along this coastal stretch of County Clare, in southwestern Ireland, has been a problem for the Trump Organization for years. The course — which Trump bought in 2014 for $11.9 million — is perched at the edge of towering sand dunes that overlook a crescent beach. The ocean storm-surge can crest those dunes and undercut them from below.

Since Trump bought the course, two and a half greens have been washed away by storms, and another was moved inland to escape erosion, according to a golf course architect, Martin Hawtree, who was hired by Trump to make revisions to the course. The Trump club estimated as part of its sea wall application it is losing land at a rate of one meter per year. Staffers have used hay bales at times to shore up the dunes.

“Winter storms remain a constant threat to the coastal and normally most dramatic holes,” Hawtree wrote in an email to The Washington Post in October. “And those storms appear to be recurring at more frequent intervals.”

The Trump Organization’s consultants, as part of its application for the sea wall, warned that sea level rise caused by climate change — a concept that Trump the politician has disputed in the past — could increase the rate of dune erosion.

The company’s initial proposal — a nearly 2-mile-long, 15-foot-high rock wall at the base of the dunes — had been scaled back amid opposition from environmentalists and others.

The Trump Organization later proposed building two sections of what it calls “armourstone protection” — one 2,000 feet long, another 840 feet long — at points along the beach where the golf course was particularly vulnerable.

As part of its application, the Trump club warned that doing nothing would “bring the viability of the entire resort and its potential closure into question,” the Irish Times reported. With renovations, the Doonbeg resort has already cost Trump more than $40 million, and it has yet to turn a profit.

The Clare County Council approved that barrier plan in December 2017, but it was then appealed by several people, including environmentalists and a local surfing club, to the national planning board.

In rejecting the proposal on Wednesday, the national planning board noted that it was “not satisfied that the proposed development would not result in adverse effects on the physical structure, functionality and sediment supply of dune habitat.”

During a visit by a Washington Post reporter to Doonbeg last fall, residents were divided on the sea wall project. Several complained that a large rock barrier would destroy the aesthetics of the barren, windblown beach and the natural interplay of tide and sand.

“I would be totally and utterly horrified if a wall was built here,” said Rachel Meehan, as she was on one of her regular walks on the wide expanse of Doughmore Beach.

Meehan is a birdwatcher and a beachcomber who runs a shop where children can come and paint the bits of wood and stone she finds in the sand. She grew up in a seaside home where a couple times a year the waves would reach the house; it’s something one gets used living by the sea, she said. Her family has picnicked under the dunes for generations, and she sees the shifting of the sands as a natural dance that a pile of rocks would destroy.

“It’s like the fisherman out in their boats. You go with the wind. You go with the waves. You don’t fight it,” she said. “Trump should just build a very big wall in a circle with him in the middle of it.”

Others had embraced the proposal as a way to protect their livelihoods; in the rural area, the Trump resort is one of the largest employers, with more than 200 staff members.

Jenny Lynch, who lives next to the course, was afraid her own home could be washed away. She recalled one winter gale a few years back where the wind peeled off the roof of her greenhouse like the skin of an onion and knocked over her daughter.

“She was thrown down. She was six. But a sturdy six. I took her out of the Jeep and she just flew,” recalled Lynch.

Lynch, whose husband used to work as a greenskeeper at the course, said she knows Trump “drives people mad.”

“I don’t care whether it’s Trump, Genghis Khan, or whoever,” she said. “This is all we have to leave our children. And the sea’s going to take it away.”

Without a sea wall, some worried Trump could be driven out of Ireland. While the sea wall battle had dragged on for three years, the waves have been at work, noted John Flanagan, a farmer who lives near Trump’s course and wanted the sea wall approved.

“They have now taken three years of hills away,” said Flanagan, who is also the chairman of a local community and economic development group. “The golf course will get too narrow. And then Trump will have no choice but to leave.”

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

10 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

With renovations, the Doonbeg resort has already cost Trump more than $40 million, and it has yet to turn a profit.

I have never been so proud to be of Irish descent.

[GreyhoundFan]

From Jennifer Rubin: "This is how Trump escapes"

Spoiler

President Trump’s grievous failure for months to ramp up testing and medical capacity to address the coronavirus has imperiled the country. The best-case scenario may be that “only” hundreds of thousands die. Meanwhile, the economy and daily life have ground to a halt. The stock market has lost all gains since he took office. (What he used to point to as evidence of his economic brilliance is now confirmation of his total incompetence.) Trump’s presidency is a failure by any reasonable standard, and things might get worse before November.

George Conway III urges Trump to resign, although he recognizes that the egomaniac is unlikely to follow his advice. There is, however, another way in which Trump might be able to able to garner a tiny bit of credit and also avoid the further humiliation of a Herbert Hoover-type defeat. (In the 1932 election, the president who presided over the Wall Street crash lost the electoral college to Franklin D. Roosevelt 59-472.) He might even be able to lift the spirits of the country and give the markets a shot of adrenaline and announce he will not run for reelection.

Before you dismiss this out of hand, consider that Trump uses the presidency to enrich himself and his family, but most of all to feed his insatiable ego. Confronted with a debacle he is unable to solve, a second term would surely be misery for him. His properties might lose even more of their value as his name becomes associated with catastrophe. (Imagine staying in the Herbert Hoover International Hotel.)

Without admitting defeat or failure — he’s a 10 out of 10! — he can announce he is going to devote himself full-time to the crisis for the remainder of his term, which will allow no time to campaign. (He cannot even hold rallies, the one thing that tends to satisfy the narcissist, at least temporarily.) He’s being heroic, forfeiting a second term to save the country!

And bluntly, his promise to leave might restore confidence to the markets. Business leaders, investors and consumers alike might welcome an election between Vice President Pence and former vice president Joe Biden. (He could quickly assign his delegates to Pence and forgo further primaries.) At least the winner won’t be a fabulist unable to comprehend the magnitude of the problem.

Trump could then claim credit for any economic stabilization between now and next January, and insist that because of his bold actions, he prevented more death and illness was avoided. He’s a hero, you see.

Now, only a world-class narcissist would take credit when those he insults (e.g., Democrats, the Fed, governors) work furiously to mitigate the harm he has magnified, but no one fits the bill of world-class narcissist better than Donald Trump.

Oh, and there is one more benefit to foregoing a second term: Either president-elect Pence or acting president Pence (should Trump decide to skip out after the election but before the inauguration) could pardon him. Surely he does not want to rely on the victim of his smear, Biden, to pardon him.

As Alice Roosevelt Longworth said of her father Theodore Roosevelt, “[he] always [wanted] to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening.” Trump needs to be the hero in every crisis, even ones he caused. The way to do that might be to end his presidency at one term (as Hoover’s did), but leave with a cover story that preserves his massive ego.

 

[fraurosena]

3 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

From Jennifer Rubin: "This is how Trump escapes"

  Hide contents

President Trump’s grievous failure for months to ramp up testing and medical capacity to address the coronavirus has imperiled the country. The best-case scenario may be that “only” hundreds of thousands die. Meanwhile, the economy and daily life have ground to a halt. The stock market has lost all gains since he took office. (What he used to point to as evidence of his economic brilliance is now confirmation of his total incompetence.) Trump’s presidency is a failure by any reasonable standard, and things might get worse before November.

George Conway III urges Trump to resign, although he recognizes that the egomaniac is unlikely to follow his advice. There is, however, another way in which Trump might be able to able to garner a tiny bit of credit and also avoid the further humiliation of a Herbert Hoover-type defeat. (In the 1932 election, the president who presided over the Wall Street crash lost the electoral college to Franklin D. Roosevelt 59-472.) He might even be able to lift the spirits of the country and give the markets a shot of adrenaline and announce he will not run for reelection.

Before you dismiss this out of hand, consider that Trump uses the presidency to enrich himself and his family, but most of all to feed his insatiable ego. Confronted with a debacle he is unable to solve, a second term would surely be misery for him. His properties might lose even more of their value as his name becomes associated with catastrophe. (Imagine staying in the Herbert Hoover International Hotel.)

Without admitting defeat or failure — he’s a 10 out of 10! — he can announce he is going to devote himself full-time to the crisis for the remainder of his term, which will allow no time to campaign. (He cannot even hold rallies, the one thing that tends to satisfy the narcissist, at least temporarily.) He’s being heroic, forfeiting a second term to save the country!

And bluntly, his promise to leave might restore confidence to the markets. Business leaders, investors and consumers alike might welcome an election between Vice President Pence and former vice president Joe Biden. (He could quickly assign his delegates to Pence and forgo further primaries.) At least the winner won’t be a fabulist unable to comprehend the magnitude of the problem.

Trump could then claim credit for any economic stabilization between now and next January, and insist that because of his bold actions, he prevented more death and illness was avoided. He’s a hero, you see.

Now, only a world-class narcissist would take credit when those he insults (e.g., Democrats, the Fed, governors) work furiously to mitigate the harm he has magnified, but no one fits the bill of world-class narcissist better than Donald Trump.

Oh, and there is one more benefit to foregoing a second term: Either president-elect Pence or acting president Pence (should Trump decide to skip out after the election but before the inauguration) could pardon him. Surely he does not want to rely on the victim of his smear, Biden, to pardon him.

As Alice Roosevelt Longworth said of her father Theodore Roosevelt, “[he] always [wanted] to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening.” Trump needs to be the hero in every crisis, even ones he caused. The way to do that might be to end his presidency at one term (as Hoover’s did), but leave with a cover story that preserves his massive ego.

 

What a wonderful, excruciatingly logical thought. Sadly, one can only dream. There is no chance of Trump stepping back, ever. First of all, all logic escapes him. Secondly, stepping back is a move that might make him seem heroic, but it won't fulfil his egotistical desires. He doesn't want to be a hero, he wants -- no he needs --to win. Only an election can give him that.

[WiseGirl]

On 3/18/2020 at 6:57 PM, Becky said:

is all I can to to not throw something at the television. 

Personally I just yell at him with many profanities interspersed.  I'm to the point where I just can't watch though, his incompetence is too anxiety producing. 

[formergothardite]

11 hours ago, fraurosena said:

He doesn't want to be a hero, he wants -- no he needs --to win. Only an election can give him that.

He is obsessed with winning. That is why he is suddenly willing to act like this is serious and then start helping out the normal folks he usually wants to screw over, the realization this might cost him the election is sinking in. 

The only way I can ever see him quitting is the week after he loses the election. He might just walk out then. 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, formergothardite said:

The only way I can ever see him quitting is the week after he loses the election. He might just walk out then. 

He's more likely to contest the results if he loses. But if he does realise his time is up, then I'm pretty sure he'll destroy what he can in the months between the election and the inauguration. Then just before the inauguration, he'll resign and get Pence to pardon him. 

 

 

[WiseGirl]

What a fucking idiot.

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

3 minutes ago, WiseGirl said:

What a fucking idiot.

 

At this point i was so enraged i needed to do a lap around my first floor to calm down.

[Xan]

3 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

At this point i was so enraged i needed to do a lap around my first floor to calm down.

I just don't understand why the entire press corps doesn't just stand up and leave.  It's way past time to do exactly that.  And then they need to write stories about how wrong and dangerous he is.  

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump’s clubs and hotels, including Mar-a-Lago, suffer from coronavirus fallout"

Spoiler

President Trump’s company — significantly reliant on tourism, conventions and restaurant income — has been sharply impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, with at least four properties closing and three hotels laying off staff, according to people familiar with the company.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) ordered all restaurants and bars in the state to close Friday and imposed special restrictions in a few places including Palm Beach County — home of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.

In a message to members about 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Mar-a-Lago said that in response to DeSantis’s order, it was closing the last parts of the club still in operation: the tennis club and the beach club. “We hope that this suspension is short-lived,” the club said. Mar-a-Lago is a wintertime club, which typically closes for the season around Mother’s Day.

Previously, Mar-a-Lago had been partially open, offering limited sit-down service at its beachfront bistro, according to a letter sent to members.

Before that, Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas was shuttered in response to a statewide order from Nevada’s governor. It will not reopen until April 17, the hotel told customers. Some employees at the hotel have already been laid off, according to a letter one employee received.

In New York, Trump’s hotel on Central Park remained open Friday, but the hotel warned its investors that “we cannot predict the duration of this unprecedented event; however, the hotel expects a significant shortfall in revenues,” according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post.

By late Thursday, 51 of the New York hotel’s 300-plus employees had been laid off, according to a person familiar with the Trump hotel’s operations. The person, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the organization’s operations.

“Various facilities are temporarily closed given local, state and federal mandates,” Trump Organization spokeswoman Kimberly Benza said in a statement. “We anxiously await the day when this pandemic is over and our world-class facilities can reopen.”

At the Trump International Hotel in Washington, the layoffs were even more drastic: 160 workers were let go, as the hotel’s occupancy rate plunged to about 5 percent, according to the union that represents the hotel’s employees.

Trump’s D.C. hotel remains open, despite the bar and restaurant being closed by a directive from the D.C. government and almost no guests staying there.

John Boardman, executive secretary-treasurer of the D.C. affiliate of Unite Here, said occupancy is about 5 percent and about 160 of his 174 workers he represents — including housekeepers, dishwashers and bellmen — have been laid off. He said the Trump Organization is “no different than anybody else except that they’re staying open, which amazes me.”

And at all of the company’s other large U.S. hotels — in Miami, Honolulu and Chicago — restaurants were either partially or entirely shut, cutting off a key stream of revenue.

The company does not release profit and loss information, so it is unclear what the downturn has meant to its bottom line.

The company has other lucrative investments in commercial buildings that will not be hurt immediately by the coronavirus. But many of the company’s largest — and most heavily indebted — businesses are dependent on a travel industry that is now largely shuttered, with no end in sight. Trump still owns his business empire, so its struggles could affect his personal wealth.

“He’s in leisure. He’s basically in the tourism business. And it’s an easy place for consumers to cut back,” said Tim O’Brien, a former journalist who wrote a biography of Trump. O’Brien recently served as an adviser to the now-ended presidential campaign of Democrat Mike Bloomberg.

Trump owns seven U.S. hotels, including three — in Washington, Miami and Chicago — with outstanding loans from Deutsche Bank. The original value of these loans was more than $300 million. Deutsche Bank declined to comment about the loans on Friday.

Trump says he has given day-to-day control of his businesses to his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric. But his personal ownership puts him in an unprecedented position in this crisis: He is being asked for a federal bailout by the same industry that includes his own private businesses.

The hotel industry has asked the Trump administration for a massive infusion of aid, saying that the coronavirus’s impact on their industry has been bigger than “September 11th and the Great Recession of 2008 combined,” according to the president of the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

The Trump Organization has not responded to questions asking if it will seek federal-government assistance as part of any broader industry bailout. The White House did not respond to questions Friday.

As recently as early March, as Trump had downplayed the threat posed by the novel coronavirus, his businesses had largely followed suit. On March 7 and 8, Trump visited Mar-a-Lago for a weekend that included two GOP fundraisers, a birthday party for the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., and a visit from the Brazilian president. Three people at the club that weekend later tested positive for the virus.

In the days after, as officials began to urge “social distancing,” Trump’s hotel in Washington was advertising cheese night and discounts on facials at the spa, according to social media posts noted by journalist Zach Everson. Mar-a-Lago canceled its seafood buffet and closed for a one-day “deep cleaning,” then reopened.

But then, Trump’s clubs began to be affected by the decisions of outsiders. At Mar-a-Lago, the organizers of big charity events canceled. In Washington, the city ordered bars to close: On the last night at the Trump hotel’s bar, normally full of lobbyists, Republicans and Trump advisers, there was just one person in the lobby. The only noise was the music.

At the same time, the hotel business began to crater nationwide. The firm STR, which analyzes data from across the hotel industry, found occupancy rates last week were down 25 percent from the year before.

At the Trump hotel in Chicago, “everything came to a screeching halt,” in March, according to one person recently briefed on the hotel’s fortunes. After an unusually busy January and February, occupancy dropped. Customers canceled events as far out as June, the person said. The bar and restaurant were shut due to government orders, the person said.

Then, entire Trump properties began to shut down. Trump’s club in Bedminster, N.J., closed. Then, on Thursday, Trump’s Los Angeles County golf course closed on Friday, after the county ordered nonessential businesses to close. In Las Vegas, Trump’s hotel said it would also close, per an order from the governor, until April 17.

The day before, some hotel employees received an email from managing director Brian Baudreau. “If you are receiving this letter, your employment has been changed to temporary layoff status,” the letter said, according to a copy obtained by The Post. Baudreau did not respond to an email from The Post.

One nonsalaried employee in the hotel’s food and beverage department said his manager told him he would receive nothing.

“Zero, nothing,” said the employee, who said he had been at the hotel for more than a decade. “We live paycheck to paycheck,” said the employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve relationships in the hotel business. “We’re screwed.”

On Friday, with shutdowns only increasing, one Trump property was trying to make the most of the situation. Trump’s golf course in the Bronx wrote on Twitter that golfers could still play there: “The golf course is a great place to relieve stress and exercise social distancing.”

But only for two more days. Later in the day, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) ordered all nonessential businesses to close on Sunday.

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

This just jumped out at me...does anyone else see the resemblance?

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by HerNameIsBuffy

[47of74]

Fuck face is such a fucking man baby 

 

[Ozlsn]

1 hour ago, 47of74 said:

Fuck face is such a fucking man baby 

 

OMG did Nancy hurt your feelings? Poor baby.

Remind me again why this guy is "leader" of the most powerful nation in the world?

[Becky]

I don't know why, but I am watching his current briefing and I cannot stop laughing.  His pink eyelids are cracking me up.  He has gone off script and is rambling, saying shit you just know somebody told him to say.  Talking now to Americans who are scared and alone.  When he listens to others he looks like a dog when it is watching its human speak, just waiting for a word it understands.  

Also - FEMA guy keeps touching his face.  

I gotta laugh or I'll  scream.  

[AnywhereButHere]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-lashes-out-at-networks-newspapers-all-i-see-is-hatred-of-me/ar-BB11zLdh?ocid=ientp

Quote

I watch and listen to the Fake News, CNN, MSDNC, ABC, NBC, CBS, some of FOX (desperately & foolishly pleading to be politically correct), the @nytimes, & the @washingtonpost, and all I see is hatred of me at any cost. Don't they understand that they are destroying themselves?

Trump has regularly attacked the press since entering the White House, often referring to reporters as "fake news" and the "enemy of the people." Last week, Trump railed against an NBC reporter, calling him "terrible," after being asked what he'd say to Americans who are scared.

His tirade against the group of news outlets came after a day in which several state and federal lawmakers called on the president to use his authority to help health systems being overwhelmed by a surge of patients.

Oh gee, maybe he could try to, I don't know, not be so hateful? He's had so many chances over the course of the past 3 years to do something, anything to change people's perception of him, to do good, to not be himself. And he's failed. repeatedly.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

4 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-lashes-out-at-networks-newspapers-all-i-see-is-hatred-of-me/ar-BB11zLdh?ocid=ientp

Oh gee, maybe he could try to, I don't know, not be so hateful? He's had so many chances over the course of the past 3 years to do something, anything to change people's perception of him, to do good, to not be himself. And he's failed. repeatedly.

Forget Trump because we all know he has such disordered thinking that there is no way to get through to him...but are his followers all personality disordered as well?  Do they not see how completely and totally off the rails he is and why are they not scared?  

I need someone to explain his supporters to me because it scares the hell out of me to not understand such a large segment of the population.  I won't agree with them, but I need to understand.

[GreyhoundFan]

29 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Forget Trump because we all know he has such disordered thinking that there is no way to get through to him...but are his followers all personality disordered as well?  Do they not see how completely and totally off the rails he is and why are they not scared?  

I need someone to explain his supporters to me because it scares the hell out of me to not understand such a large segment of the population.  I won't agree with them, but I need to understand.

I'm hoping that some of the great ads being generated by the Lincoln Project and several PACs, which are airing on Faux and in heavily MAGA areas, will get through to his followers.

[GreyhoundFan]

16 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I'm hoping that some of the great ads being generated by the Lincoln Project and several PACs, which are airing on Faux and in heavily MAGA areas, will get through to his followers.

Speaking of...The Lincoln Project just released a brutal new video about our state TV:

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

15 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I'm hoping that some of the great ads being generated by the Lincoln Project and several PACs, which are airing on Faux and in heavily MAGA areas, will get through to his followers.

I wish I had any hope that they are reachable.

[nausicaa]

11 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Forget Trump because we all know he has such disordered thinking that there is no way to get through to him...but are his followers all personality disordered as well?  Do they not see how completely and totally off the rails he is and why are they not scared?  

I need someone to explain his supporters to me because it scares the hell out of me to not understand such a large segment of the population.  I won't agree with them, but I need to understand.

I think about this a lot. I pride myself on understand people's motivations, even if I (really) don't agree.

I get how people could like W. Bush because of his kind words after 9/11 and think of us as some global policeman and believe we needed to take out Saddam Hussein's terrible regime without thinking of the long term effects. I get how people can appreciate Reagan being a hardliner against Communism and therefore overlook the scandals in Central America because of a "greater good." I get how people think life begins at conception and therefore abortion is murder. 

But this? This is the most naked emperor in the history of buck naked emperors. And he's pissing in your eye. The only theories I'm left with are

1. Sunk cost fallacy as related to one's ego. It's hard to admit you were wrong. Especially this wrong. A surprising number of adults double down on mistakes.

2. We have underestimated how lacking in critical reasoning skills the average adult is. Add in the fracturing of media into echo chambers, and you could genuinely not know that Trump told bold faced lies about the pandemic because you get all your news from RedState.

3. I saw a theory once (ultimately untestable, but interesting) that a lot of remaining Trump supporters come from very patriarchal, authoritarian family structures and therefore he feels comfortable to them. We know from trauma research that people are drawn to what they know, even if it is damaging to them (e.g., having alcoholic parents and then dating a lot of alcoholics). 

[AmericanRose]

I think a large part of it for Q Anon'ers is that they want to 1.) feel part of something important and 2.) feel smarter than those 'liberal coastal elites'.

Edited March 23, 2020 by AmericanRose

[GreyhoundFan]

I'm sure he'll cry to the Supreme Court: "Trump cannot block critics on Twitter, federal court affirms in ruling"

Spoiler

A federal appeals court in New York on Monday let stand a ruling that prevents President Trump from blocking critical voices from the Twitter account he uses to communicate with the public.

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit denied the Trump administration's request to revisit an earlier holding that Trump violated the First Amendment when he blocked individual Twitter users who were critical of the president or his polices.

“Excluding people from an otherwise public forum such as this by blocking those who express views critical of a public official is, we concluded, unconstitutional,” wrote Judge Barrington D. Parker.

“Twitter is not just an official channel of communication for the President; it is his most important channel of communication,” the judge concluded in a decision with implications for how elected officials throughout the country use social media platforms to communicate with constituents.

Two judges, nominated to the bench by Trump, disagreed with the decision and would have reconsidered the earlier ruling.

“The First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech does not include a right to post on other people’s personal social media accounts, even if those other people happen to be public officials,” Judge Michael H. Park wrote in a dissent, joined by Judge Richard J. Sullivan.

Park acknowledged that the president’s use of Twitter has been unprecedented, but noted that Trump created his personal @realDonaldTrump account six years before taking office.

Allowing the court’s decision to stand, he wrote, will lead to the social media pages of public officials being “overrun with harassment, trolling, and hate speech, which officials will be powerless to filter.”

Of the nine judges who considered the Trump administration’s request, only Park and Sullivan announced they would have revisited the earlier decision.

The decision Monday leaves in place a unanimous three-judge panel ruling from July. The court held that because the president uses his Twitter account to conduct official government business, he cannot exclude voices or viewpoints with which he disagrees.

The court’s initial ruling addressed only the interactive spaces on Twitter for replies and comments, and applies to accounts used to conduct official business. The judges also did not decide whether elected officials violate the Constitution when they block users from private accounts.

The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed the lawsuit in 2017 on behalf of seven people blocked from the president’s account. Katie Fallow, one of their attorneys, said in a statement Monday that the court’s action affirms that the First Amendment “bars the President from blocking users from his account simply because he dislikes or disagrees with their tweets.”

“This case should send a clear message to other public officials tempted to block critics from social media accounts used for official purposes,” she said.

The Justice Department is reviewing the ruling, a spokeswoman said.

 

[Ozlsn]

On 3/19/2020 at 4:15 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

You know, this op-ed is all fine and good, but he needs to step up to elect candidates who will swing away from the crap he describes.