I reckon it’s been determined that Trump doesn’t know “state” means representation and if America’s Hat becomes one state 40 million votes are equal to California and province->state is far worse, thus they’d be occupied colonists whatever he promises.
Tomorrow he’ll announce how much of Ukraine will be ravaged for rare earth minerals to pay the USA back. I know Russian (so perhaps neither does Ukrainian) doesn’t really have quite the same phrase for “Fuck you” as we understand it, yet why not say it in English (from Zelenskiy / Ukraine POV if not clear)
You should be more clear with your no doubt online social media based video reality game show proposal. Let me help you out.
Citizens voluntarily offer their citizenship to oligarchs who sponsor the citizens. The citizens then fight each other to the death in a series of contests. After each round, the sponsor fee for those citizens who died is put into the pot for the final winner. The surviving citizen then transfers citizenship to the sponsor. After each round, the pool of money for the surviving citizens is increased. Keep doing this until there is only one survivor left. The survivor gets to keep their citizenship and the sponsor gains citizenship. Remember: those who gained citizeship solely by birthright when neither parent was a US citizen or resident alien are not eligibile to compete.
Tagline: “We who are about to die or become stateless adore thee!”
It has vibes of the blood sports of imperial Rome and Squid Game.
Hey! Here’s an improvement on the concept. Instead of making it voluntary, take those who receive citizenship solely by birthright (when niether parent was a citizen or resident alien) and have them fight to the death. The surviving contestant keeps citizenship and the sponsor gains citizenship.
I’m willing to be real money if someone were to whisper this into Felon47’s ear, he’d blabber how great an idea it is and how well it’s worked in other countries before.
Will Trump be the first dictator to profit from his “brand”? I see that there is a lot of Kim Jung Un merchandise for sale online but I imagine that in North Korea, Dear Leader gives away all the swag to keep the populace happy. There appears to be a lot of Putin merch in Russia but it doesn’t seem to be officially from the Kremlin itself. Is Trump the only one taking advantage of this opportunity by personally hawking and profiting from his image instead of just being satisfied with robbing a country?
Just to be clear, that’s chatGPT which has a uncannily feel for what this president writes - to the point that I reckon much of his many EO’s at least start off from AI more sophisticated than free chatGPT.
The only person I’ve thought - only after seeing some of his latter day youtube videos - could be an exception is Arnold Schwarzenegger. Of course he never petitioned for any changes - which would absolutely need an amendment.
Barry Goldwater was born in the not-yet-state of Arizona, John McCain was the son of an Admiral and both parents were citizens yet SCOTUS had nothing to say about him being born in the Panama controlled zone.
Indeed, it took (then) Senator Obama and (then) Senator Hillary Clinton to sponsor a bill that passed in the Senate when laws used to be made:
John Sidney McCain III is a natural-born citizen under Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States.
Then it was Trump who challenged Obama’'s birthright till Obama shut him up (for a while at least) when Obama released his “long form birth certificate” though clearly it was a forgery.
Myself, I am an oddity: I can be President of the USA, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland or the PM of the UK. I’d have to swear fealty to the King and give up my American Citizenship for the latter - as Boris did, yet nobody’s getting my fealty (for less than $5million)
Won’t those oligarchs who have already paid 45/47 buckets of dosh for access, indemnity and exemption from sanctions be ticked off about this? 45/47 won’t give them their cash back and they now need to fork over another instalment?
Purely for information, “citizenship by investment” is a real thing, albeit generally as a buy-in to a tax haven. Saint Kitts & Nevis in the Caribbean offer this option for the low, low price of $250,000.
This remains a horrible idea for the US, of course.
The estimate I’ve been seeing is around 75,000 which is about on par with what one would expect in terms of regular quitting or retirement over the six months. So basically its probably almost all people who were going to leave anyway but saw a chance to take a 6 month vacation on the Fed’s dime beforehand.
The French, who it turns out know a thing or two about resisting fascists, secreted an AP reporter into the Trump-Macron presser in defiance of his ban and deferred their first alloted question to her.
Indeed. All I can say is it would be nice if SCOTUS did some supreme courting. Is it too cold in DC to get anything done?
I asked chatGPT to act as john roberts and it surprised me that a number of first amendment violations were in AI John Roberts legal mind.
Then I switched the Chief Justice to Darth Vader, and while he wasn’t all about the first amendment, he considered it unwise:
The decision to ban the Associated Press from the White House… is disturbing. A reckless display of power, yet ultimately insignificant in the face of true control. The press, like the Rebellion, thrives in secrecy and resistance. Silencing them may only make them stronger.
Yeah, the secret press. Ahh well, I’d find that decision acceptable if incredibly odd.
I would gladly endorse the idea of the Democrats calling him out and shouting at him with each lie that comes out of his mouth. The GOP goons pretty much tossed any rules of decorum out the window during the Obama and Biden years.
But I doubt they would have the spine to do something like this. IF they did, it would likely send him over the edge and reduce him to even more nonsensical gibbering than normal.
The way things are going, if the Democrats don’t step up their game in time for 2026, the epitath on the party’s tombstone is going to be “We adhered to all the norms”.
Which is why I’m rooting for JB Pritzker and AOC to force the leadership out on its ass.