Can the world do a class action against him?
Well, it’s my day off here and beautiful war torn Portland, Oregon, so I’m going to traipse on down the ICE facility and see what’s what. Maybe I’ll get a nice sandwich while I’m down in that neighborhood.
And Trump is sending the Texas National Guard to Chicago rather than using the Illinois Guard.
He also said today he will likely invoke the Insurrection Act to get around meddlesome governors and judges.
Then he’ll try the Law of the Jungle, the Pirate Code, and the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition to try to justify harassing people and tear-gassing schools.
Enact it? You ignoramus! You don’t get to enact laws. But, hey, thanks for burting out the real reason you will pull yet another illegal stunt.
For dessert, get some marshmallows you can toast over the perennially burning embers all over the city. /s
Bondi said she fully supports law enforcement and says they will charge “anyone who touches a police officer” with assault.
Does that include the ICE agents that tear gassed/maced Chicago cops a few days ago?
For those who are unaware, Nebraska does have a Navy. It’s just Admirals all the way down, though.
And I am one of those Nebraska Navy Admirals. Complete with a proclamation suitable for framing. Retirement plan is lousy though.
Do you have to get swatted on the butt and eat a raisin out of a fat man’s belly button if you go halfway across the Platte?
This is the most blatant move yet towards making the country a military dictatorship. (The bolding is mine.)
First the wannabe dictator put military lawyers in as prosecutors on civilian cases. The next step was putting military lawyers in as judges on civilian cases. And now he’s putting soldiers in as deputey marshals.
Remember: Every day is the first day of the rest of the dictatorship.
Nope. I just opened the big blue envelope from the governor and “poof, I was an Admiral”. I never did get around to ordering a hat with ‘scrambled eggs’ on the visor but that’s because I hate hats. I could get a license plate frame with “Admiral, Great Navy of Nebraska” but it’s far enough down my list of ‘to do’s’ that it hasn’t happened. It’d be tempting to then get a custom bumper sticker that says ‘my other vehicle is an aircraft carrier’.
Boo, you could move north and become a pirate. Ever hear of “The Last Saskatchewan Pirate”"?
Well my fellow sea-dog, there are made available some signifiers.
A bluebird tattoo on the chest: one for each 1000 miles sailed. (I myself demurred, since 1000 miles steamed is significantly different from 1000 miles going aloft to trim sails)
A rooster tattooed on one foot and a pig tattooed on the other. An ancient anti-drowning charm, because chickens and pigs we kept on the topmost decks. But ancient sailors went barefoot, while modern sailors had to wear shoes: which would smudge the healing of tattoos: so again I demurred.
A golden ball: a bb-sized nugget of pure Au “glow of sunrise” inserted into a slit made into the scrotum. Good old John McCain was among those who carried this distinction.
All frou-frou in the greater view, of course. The true nature of the sailor is to be compelled to perform an act of survival in the face of nature determined to erase all such rationality with brutal force. And that’s a situation we all face.
Memphis continues to fly under the radar. It looks like just “combating crime” doesn’t cut it in the zeitgeist of this day and age. But are they combating crime?
But there is hope! The National Guard was reportedly in the city last week but weren’t anywhere to be seen. Ah ha! They will likely be here on Friday. We’ll see what happens if they show up.
National Guard to deploy Friday, Police Chief says
Stay tuned.
Something happened on this subject which deserves more attention and analysis: In a CNN interview, lead Trump henchman (slash undead Reinhard Heydrich) Stephen Miller asserts that Trump has “plenary authority.” That means absolute, unconstrained power with no limits or external checks.
Here’s the video where he says it.
It’s obvious he realizes immediately he shouldn’t have said this, because he freezes, and stares silently into the camera, blinking uncomfortably. This is a wildly inflammatory thing to claim, and reveals the White House playbook — they literally do think Trump is a dictator, full stop.
Now, obviously, in the specific clip, Miller is speaking in the context of Trump’s authority over the National Guard. The argument can be made that “oh, of course, Miller didn’t mean plenary power over everything, no no no.”
First of all: if that’s the case, why does Miller freeze? He says the words, and locks up. CNN cuts to a commercial break, claiming a technical error, and when they resume, Miller changes direction and doesn’t repeat the phrase. And, what’s more, CNN is not offering this clip in their archive. They appear to have scrubbed it. It’s viewable online only by people who captured the recording themselves. There’s discussion of that fact all over the place; example from Reddit:
The more conspiracy-minded commenters believe the most likely explanation is that, during the break, Miller told CNN he misspoke or something, and he didn’t want the anchor to ask him about “plenary power” and the clip should not be repeated or reproduced. It’s also possible that CNN genuinely believes this was some sort of technical glitch and that no value is served by hosting the flawed clip (even though it’s obviously not a glitch; Miller just stops talking and sits blinking).
But second, for Miller to assert Trump’s “plenary authority” at all, on any matter, is a massive red flag regarding their expansive concept of presidential power. The limits of the executive have been extensively debated from the earliest days of the United States, and the domains over which the President has absolute, unrestrained power with neither constraint nor external oversight are extremely narrow. For example, he can fire his own immediate staff (e.g. Cabinet positions) more or less at will, but he can’t replace them without Senate confirmation. And he can’t fire civil service staff except with specific cause (this is the basis of the various lawsuits about removing unfriendly FCC commissioners and such). On nearly all matters, the President is obliged to stay within the law, and it’s the courts who tell the White House what that means and set limits on the President’s power.
That Miller openly asserted Trump’s “plenary authority” here — or on anything — should be red-alert news. But it’s a wonky, legalistic phrase, the understanding of which requires familiarity with centuries of philosophizing about how government works:
So it’s unsurprising that it hasn’t caught much attention outside political-nerd circles.
It’s of course obvious that they think this, and have thought it all along, but now they’re actually saying it out loud, literally and explicitly (and then catching themselves). It’s a dictatorship.
Yep. Technically, Miller’s another traitor.
Following up to add further information on the “plenary” thing above:
CNN’s official YouTube post of the interview silently edits out this glitch moment. Just skips over it, omitting it entirely. They’re getting roasted in the comments for it, too.
Also, participants in the Law subreddit are going absolutely apeshit about all this.
Maybe he caught whatever Mitch McConnell has.
And now Trump wants to jail Pritzker and the mayor of Chicago because they won’t bend the knee.