# Now is the time to pay attention. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 13, 2019, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789 "2019-12-13T02:06:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/41 "2019-12-13T21:19:46Z")
Perhaps some of his supporters could start a drive to repeal the 22nd Amendment. I would support the repeal of the amendment. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/42 "2019-12-13T21:29:34Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Is the modern GOP limiting what people can say or publish? > > I do have problems with a lot of the modern GOP. Unfortunately, the cognitive dissonance afflicted illiberal left has me more scared. You cannot endorse a movement that advocates the abolition of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or freedom of assembly in order to deplatform and silence their political opponents. > > The purity of thought demanded by the nutty left is leading to the rise of the populist right. I’m not a fan of the populist right at all. However, I am not at all surprised to see their ascendancy. > > Crude but effective Orwellian thought and speech control… it’s bad and inexcusable in internet space it’s terrifying in real space. Of course, the modern GOP is limiting what people can say and publish. And do. Every day. Look at the topic of this thread. Was it the Democrats who enacted a law to limit Presidents to three terms? No, it was the Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/43 "2019-12-13T21:33:53Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > Perhaps some of his supporters could start a drive to repeal the 22nd Amendment. > > I would support the repeal of the amendment. Trump supporters might do this. They’re pretty dumb. But I think the smarter elements of the Republican party would squash any movement that would make Barack Obama and Bill Clinton eligible to run in 2020 or 2024. Hell, George W. Bush would have a better shot at getting a third term than Trump does. It’s silly to be planning for Trump’s third term when he might not complete his first term. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/44 "2019-12-13T22:03:48Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But I think the smarter elements of the Republican party would squash any movement that would make Barack Obama and Bill Clinton eligible to run in 2020 or 2024. Heck, if impeachment proceedings restart a president’s term count, why wouldn’t Bill get a second shot at a second term? ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/45 "2019-12-14T00:04:17Z")
No one thought Moscow Mitch could block a vote on Obama’s SC pick. And then, boom, he did it and got away with it. Trump told his people they could ignore House subpoenas, boom, they did it and got away with it. No one has a lower opinion of Huckabee than me, probably, but there are lots of people that take stuff he says seriously. Watch and see if more conservative voices start floating the idea of Trump serving as long as he wants. Or appointing one of his kids to succeed him. If enough do, it starts to seem (to Trumpies) to be a reasonable idea. A co-worker told me recently (in all seriousness) that he plans on voting for Don Jr. in 2024. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/46 "2019-12-14T02:44:34Z")
BTW, I think every talking head that seems OK with Trump going beyond two terms is playing to an audience of one, Donnie Two Scoops. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/47 "2019-12-14T02:48:38Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Indeed, we were branded as Chicken Littles, but those of us who saw it understood that the Republicans were declaring war on reality. > > For every fact, you can have multiple truths – truth is subjective. It is only through shared hardship that we shall again have shared truth. > > That is precisely why I have been the resident ‘realist’ - okay, fine, I’m a shit ass, obnoxious pessimist. > > But this is why. I’m a fellow realist. I never thought your posts were unrealistic. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/48 "2019-12-14T03:15:10Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > BTW, I think every talking head that seems OK with Trump going beyond two terms is playing to an audience of one, Donnie Two Scoops. Y’think Huckabee’s angling for a cabinet post, or even to replace Pence? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/49 "2019-12-14T06:27:16Z")
I just want to find out if he ever went on Hannity’s show and laid out an argument, like theOP said he promised to do. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/50 "2019-12-14T07:11:12Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I just want to find out if he ever went on Hannity’s show and laid out an argument, like theOP said he promised to do. I was just coming in here to ask the same thing. It’s about 11:00 PM Friday PST, and I just did a quick search for any on-line news about it, and didn’t find anything. There are certainly empty-ump stories on-line, from yesterday (Thursday) about Huckabee saying he was going to go on Hannity and say that, but I don’t see any evidence that he did. Has anybody seen anything? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/51 "2019-12-14T07:16:13Z")
If Trump tries to run for a third term, one potent line of defense would be the 50 state Secretaries of State (or possibly the state Attorneys General), who run the elections in each state. I would expect many or most or all of them would refuse to put Trump on the ballot. But if Trump declares martial law and tries to suspend elections, I don’t know what would happen. I suspect that, one way or another, he would not be successful when all the flames died down. But if he gets a second term, all bets might be off. There’s no telling how much more power he could consolidate to himself in another four years. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/52 "2019-12-14T13:24:38Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > If Trump tries to run for a third term, one potent line of defense would be the 50 state Secretaries of State (or possibly the state Attorneys General), who run the elections in each state. I would expect many or most or all of them would refuse to put Trump on the ballot. > > But if Trump declares martial law and tries to suspend elections, I don’t know what would happen. I suspect that, one way or another, he would not be successful when all the flames died down. > > But if he gets a second term, all bets might be off. There’s no telling how much more power he could consolidate to himself in another four years. Trump probably wouldn’t just declare martial law to suspend elections; there would be a pretext first. One pretext might be that the Trump administration does something so outrageous (inciting anti-immigrant violence) that the reaction itself leads to civil unrest. Or maybe suspected election fraud that leads to protests. If the protests get out of hand, or if it inspires political violence, then he could declare martial law – that law is on the books and it gives the president sweeping powers that cannot be checked. It was just assumed when it was written that a responsible, democratically-minded president would be the one to use that law judiciously. One cannot make such assumptions anymore. In the interim, between now and 2024, I have a feeling that Trump is going to start creating an enemies list within the federal bureaucracy, and he’s going to push them out – wouldn’t be surprised to see some criminal prosecutions either, just because Bill Barr can. Whether the prosecutions are successful or even heard wouldn’t matter: the message would be clear. ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/53 "2019-12-14T17:02:08Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Trump probably wouldn’t just declare martial law to suspend elections; there would be a pretext first. One pretext might be that the Trump administration does something so outrageous (inciting anti-immigrant violence) that the reaction itself leads to civil unrest. Or maybe suspected election fraud that leads to protests. If the protests get out of hand, or if it inspires political violence, then he could declare martial law – that law is on the books and it gives the president sweeping powers that cannot be checked. It was just assumed when it was written that a responsible, democratically-minded president would be the one to use that law judiciously. One cannot make such assumptions anymore. > > In the interim, between now and 2024, I have a feeling that Trump is going to start creating an enemies list within the federal bureaucracy, and he’s going to push them out – wouldn’t be surprised to see some criminal prosecutions either, just because Bill Barr can. Whether the prosecutions are successful or even heard wouldn’t matter: the message would be clear. Yeah, I don’t think I’m ever going to forgive all the pure perfect lefty boys who eagerly sucked up decades of false accusations about Hillary while believing every stupid promise Bernie ever made while ignoring JUST how utterly evil and disgusting Trump is. Never. Mexicans are rapists. Grab them by the pussy. Mocking the Khan family. Mocking the disabled reporter. His creepy, disgusting comments about his own daughter. Hiding his taxes. Insulting POWs. The fucking lies. That press conference in May of 2016 where he got caught lying about donating to veterans and he just attacked reporters _to their faces_ for telling the truth about his actions. The 120+ meetings with Russian operatives, which he and his staff then lied about. The _history_ of business failures. The “she was bleeding out of her-----_wherever._” The stunning “Hillary started it,” lie about birtherism after he promised a big announcement-----and instead shilled for his hotel for twenty minutes. The election of Trump showed people too clearly how deluded we’d been about friends and relatives, on both sides of the spectrum. At least Clarence Thomas has somebody he can exchange harassment tips with at the spa, if they don’t want to discuss how fun it is to outlaw abortion and birth control. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/54 "2019-12-14T17:05:48Z")
Declaring martial law (unlikely as it is) can be done by doing something so outrageous that one’s opposition _ **has to** _ mount a violent response - at which point, as mentioned above, that violent response then serves as justification for martial crackdown. The alternative, for the opposition, would be to simply swallow the outrageous thing - which, they most likely couldn’t - and Trump could just do something even more outrageous until they \*\*\*do \*\*\*respond violently. ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/55 "2019-12-14T17:08:42Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Just joking! Ha ha, it’s a joke, I didn’t really mean to be a lifetime president, unless you think that’s a good idea, then I’m totally not joking. > > I think many of us were saying this 2 years ago and we were branded as hysterical chicken littles. Trump’s been making “jokes” about how if he lost the election, it’s illegitimate and proof that Hillary “stole” it. Because no woman can ever best him. This is the asshole who just bitched at a dixteen-year-old because he was jealous she got an award he coveted. He’s SO fucking weak and whiny and small and petty. He picks on teenaged girls and worships dictators. He makes my skin absolutely _crawl_. God, I would LOVE to meet him and then tell him right to his face what I think of him. I just want to see that ego get punctured. ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/56 "2019-12-14T17:10:05Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Declaring martial law (unlikely as it is) can be done by doing something so outrageous that one’s opposition _ **has to** _ mount a violent response - at which point, as mentioned above, that violent response then serves as justification for martial crackdown. > > The alternative, for the opposition, would be to simply swallow the outrageous thing - which, they most likely couldn’t - and Trump could just do something even more outrageous until they \*\*\*do \*\*\*respond violently. He wants his Reichstag fire. He’ll do anything to avoid criticism or embarrassment. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/57 "2019-12-14T17:22:02Z")
Even if Trump were permitted to run for a 3rd term or be unlimited, he has physical and psychological limits. Most presidents can’t wait to be out of the White House quickly enough when 8 years are over. Compound that with the fact that Trump is the oldest president yet, has probably even more intense stress than previous modern presidents have faced, and I don’t see him enjoying the presidential job enough to even want to continue it once Year Eight is over. That’s not accounting for possible stroke, heart attack, etc. either. ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/58 "2019-12-14T17:25:45Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > That’s not accounting for possible stroke, heart attack, etc. either. Oh, be still my heart. That fucker chows down on KFC and McDonald’s every day, how is he still vertical? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/59 "2019-12-14T18:09:25Z")
> [@margin](#): > > Oh, be still my heart. That fucker chows down on KFC and McDonald’s every day, how is he still vertical? Preservatives! ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789/60 "2019-12-14T18:34:03Z")
> [@margin](#): > > Oh, be still my heart. That fucker chows down on KFC and McDonald’s every day, how is he still vertical? Too good for him. He will never end up in prison where he belongs, but he can spend the majority of the rest of his pitiful life in an uncomfortable chair in a courtroom. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-the-time-to-pay-attention/844789.md?page=4)