Yesterday president Trump proclaimed he has some pretty exceptional powers as president:
Of course that is complete bullshit but I guarantee you if president Obama had said that while in office the NRA and a lot of 2nd Amendment people would be racing to gun stores to stock up on guns and ammo. Hell, Obama said a lot more tame stuff than this and gun sales would soar (happened more than once).
Isn’t this exactly the sort of thing they tell us why the 2nd Amendment is there and important? To protect us from a government that would try to take their freedoms away?
Well, there ya go. You have the president of the US claiming he has dictatorial power.
What do we get from the NRA and gun folks?
crickets chirping
Tl;Dr Gun rights nuts are full of shit making specious arguments for why they absolutely must have their guns. In other news water is wet.
As I said in the Trump Clusterfuck thread, this is completely consistent with the conservative playbook:
Guns - “States’ rights!”
States decriminalize marijuana - “Federal law must be enforced!”
They are ideologically required to bleat about states’ rights, except when it doesn’t suit them. Anyone whose knowledge of history doesn’t begin a week ago last Tuesday knows this, of course. I sometimes sort of wish they were smart enough to be hypocritical and idiotic about something new or original.
Ben Shapiro has long been critical of Trump. Not to the extent of anyone on the left, of course, but he criticizes Trump constantly for things he disagrees with. (And praises him for other things too.)
Trump’s pronouncement of total authority is worse than any gaffe I’ve ever heard attributed to Biden.
Maybe it is just me but this is more than a gaffe.
I certainly am not the arbiter of such things but to my mind a gaffe is misspeaking. Telling someone “potato” is spelled with an “e” kind of thing. Or a one off insult caught on a hot mic.
But Trump didn’t just make a verbal mistake or got caught showing his true colors when he thought it is a private conversation. He went there more than once, in public, in front of cameras. That is not a gaffe, that is being a complete moron and worse, I am sure he would tell you right now that he stands behind everything he said and is pissed at everyone else for somehow not getting it and understanding he has total power.
He’ll walk it back. He won’t apologize, he’ll claim he was misquoted or he didn’t mean it how people will interpret it. It won’t be the first time he has publicly declared that he will do something he can’t legally do and then have to abandon it. It’s one of the traits of his presidency.
My point is that Biden’s opponents claim he has dementia because of gaffes he has made (and Joe has been doing them for many years), but if anything would suggest dementia this statement from Trump would qualify.
Remember that painter who did big canvases of Evil Liberals with Obama at the head trampling the Constitution while the FF’s ghosts looked aghast? I wonder if he’s now painting happy little trees.
Which at the time had a lot of the gun channels on YouTube and other venues rather riled up. But by now only the more “vote for no one and stock up on dry food” types even mention it any more.
But a bunch of others have had time to gaslight themselves as to how it’s Liberals coming after them that’s been and remains the bigger threat all along. And also yeah, what **Sherrerd **said. This latter group fully *count *on the leopards eating the *other *people’s faces.
I’m confused as well. I haven’t been following the gun thing too closely, but I keep hearing about the record sales. My understanding isn’t that they’re concerned Trump is going to be a gun grabber, but rather they’re concerned (actually concerned, not just saying they are) for their safety. Correctly or not, I think a lot of people were worried about looting/riots/home invasions during the lock down. Suddenly you have people that never owned a gun in their life thinking this might be a good time to have one just in case.
No 2nd Amendment people are going to say anything. Because the only right they will defend against is their right to have guns. And they will defend it until they get drone bombed by the US military because “fighting tyranny” is a ridiculous concept that some people hold on to because they are scared every minute of every day and need a gun to make themselves feel safe.
Another noteworthy one would be this one (titled “MAGA Ride”):
According to the artist, “I wanted to paint a picture of President Trump and Melania on a jacked-up motorcycle, painted up with the American flag and patriotism, as they ride down a bumpy, crumbling road that represents the hazards and the problems that this presidency has faced since Trump has been elected.”
So, no happy little trees, but he’s been keeping busy anyway.