With elfin racist Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III installed as AG earlier today, the so-called president rolled out a series of new executive orders. Via The Hill:
“I’m signing three executive actions today designed to restore safety in America,” Trump said in the Oval Office after swearing in Jeff Sessions as attorney general.
It’s unclear what any of the actions would do precisely, and the White House did not immediately provide copies of what Trump had signed.
Trump said he is directing the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security “to undertake all necessary and lawful action to break the back of the criminal cartels that have spread across our nation and are destroying the blood of our youth.”
Another action, Trump said, establishes a Justice Department task force aimed at reducing violent crime and orders the agency to develop a plan to stop crimes against law enforcement officers.
“We have a crime problem,” said Sessions. “I wish the rise that we’re seeing in crime in America today were some sort of aberration or blip,” he continued, calling it a “dangerous permanent trend that places the health and safety of the American people at risk.”
Emphasis mine. There’s a dangerous trend that threatens the nation, alright — a pattern of behavior in which amoral assholes lie to gullible and ignorant people, playing to their worst fears and worst qualities, and are rewarded with power. I don’t think the trend is necessarily permanent, but we seem to be approaching its high-water mark.
These orders sound like a Reichstag in search of a fire. Given the lies about the crime rate and the unreconstructed knob Trump put in charge of the Justice Dept., I think we can guess where this is heading.
Major Major Major Major
If this is a permanent trend the crime rate is going to be above 100,000 per 100,000 pretty soon. Shudder to think.
Rathskeller
If the FBI is requested to put out Breitbart-friendly reports, e.g, “Crimes by immigrants”, “Crimes by dirty muslims”, does that violate any laws?
bago
Makes tilting at windmills seem rather benign and quaint.
Humboldtblue
I thought the week following the election was the worst, the high tide of motherfucking anger and jaw-dropping incredulity, but nope, it’s getting far worse and it’s going to continue to get worse because this is what passes for governance among the GOP.
They are literally traitors.
Catherine D.
WTF is “destroying the blood of our youth”? Is crime giving them leukemia?
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
Betty Cracker
@Rathskeller: Already on the way.
Chris
If this means he wants the feds to take a more proactive and aggressive approach to fighting organized crime, then… cool? But I somehow doubt that it’s that innocuous and helpful.
jl
Also heard news that House is rushing through, in special procedure that allows it to forego any hearings, repeal of federal program that makes it easier for states to help small businesses set up cheap defined contribution employer retirement programs. In CA, it is big with small employers, lower income workers and smaller regional lenders. Gee, I wonder who benefits from this? Or maybe if you are not a real player with big bucks shouldn’t get any help from government at all, right, in any form?
Only reason I heard was that the programs might lead to risky investments and government bail out. (snark follows). That has to be correct. Clearing the field so titanic crony capitalist firms can squeeze monopoly profits out of a smaller market will help everyone. And titanic crony capitalist financial firms have a perfect safety record. Recent history proves that absolutely.
The GOP reasoning seems to be that the program can be called an ‘Obama regulation, therefore by definition, is a bad thing. Or their corrupt crony capitalist funders don’t like it maybe?
So, wither the Trump MAGA help for the little guy. Who coulda knowed? (Edit: I assume he will sign it, but maybe not. Maybe he’ll start to grow up…)
I wonder if CA is big enough to keep on with some substitute program? It has been a success here, aggressively pushed by the state.
debbie
Reposted from a dying thread, something sure to explode Trump’s head, something sorely needed.
More on topic, I really wish there was talk of funding more training for police. Or even better, an EO ending the use of deadly force.
Gravenstone
A question; we keep hearing about all these EOs that Trump is signing, has this fucker signed a single piece of actual legislation yet? As execrable as the Republicans in Congress and the Senate are, their body does exist for a fucking reason.
The Moar You Know
I am certain one of the soon to be released executive orders, if not the ones being signed today, will instruct Mob Boss Sessions to send the DEA into Colorado, Washington, Oregon and California and shut down and seize all the medical and retail marijuana sales operations in those states. And that will prove very lucrative for the feds; in CA alone, the outlets are sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of real estate, all of which will be taken and forfeited when (not if) this happens.
ETA: explains this comment: “to undertake all necessary and lawful action to break the back of the criminal cartels that have spread across our nation and are destroying the blood of our youth.”
Davis X. Machina
Is Black Lives Matter a crime cartel? On what date will it become one?
Dave
@Major Major Major Major: When that happens you just need to embrace some of the good old ultra violence. It will be a key to good citizenship. Really curious how a two year upward movement is permanent on a trend that’s been downward since the mid 90’s
Hal
Sigh. Get ready for a lock down on majority black and Hispanic neighborhoods, BLM being added to the terror watch list, and I mentioned in another thread, if President Obama and Eric Holder do indeed fight voter ID laws, Sessions will make sure to target them.
I Expect Obama testifying before Congress in the next couple years on some bogus charge of rigging votes. Especially if it looks like Trump and Republicans are in trouble come 2018.
Dave
@Chris: Right other than creepy fascist language regarding blood of our children these don’t seem horrible on the face, probably pointless and dumb but not horrible, I’m sure that will change within the hour though.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Straight into Right Wing poltical slash fan fiction. I can’t possibly imagine what “break the back of the criminal cartels that have spread across our nation and are destroying the blood of our youth” is even referring to; Gamegate? Black Lives Matters? Pokomon Go? Teaching Evolution in schools? Trump’s fear of prostitute born venereal disease? Bowling Green Massacre?
MattF
So, um, there are these EO’s, and no one knows what they say? Isn’t that a sort-of-a problem?
NorthLeft12
FFS…..you mean all those reports about the crime rate dropping over the last ten plus years have all been lies??!!??
Thank Dog we have a man with the unique and peculiar vision of Deadbeat Donald to bring this stuff to light.
jl
@Gravenstone:
” has this fucker signed a single piece of actual legislation yet? ”
As I noted above, he’ll soon have a chance, or test if you want to give him any benefit of the doubt, on legislation to wreck a federal program to help small businesses set up accounts for lower income workers to save for retirement.
mb
I think Sessions is being prescient here. It is obvious that the policies of the Trump Admin/GOP are likely to increase crime as the social contract is eroded. I wouldn’t be surprised if the uptick in crime continues and looks permanent within the next few years. Besides the damages Trump will be inflicting, the economy looks like it’s going to shake off a lot of current participants in the foreseeable future with no plan to provide a soft landing. Seems like a good (bad) environment for crime. Maybe he sees this, too. Not that he’d want to do anything to mitigate the damages. Just bring on the jackboots.
dm
@Catherine D.: It’s something out of the book of Hitler’s speeches that Trump is said to keep on his bedside table.
Either that, or a Dr. Strangelove reference (“Purity of Essence”).
Humboldtblue
@jl:
You can find the details here in reference to jl’s comment
wenchacha
Fuck Sessions.
Period.
Peale
@Rathskeller: I don’t know. The whole point of trying to cow the press into non-stop terrorism cover is so that they can get the same deference Bush did when invoking “national security.” The FBI already publicizes every enticed terrorist they arrest. And its not like a muslim shooting people in the mall gets buried somewhere. My guess is that the change will be HUUGE reports on the “common Muslim crime” of honor killing.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@The Moar You Know: Except wouldn’t he call it out in the order? That fact that the wording is so vague makes me think Trump and Bannon are in Alterntive Facts land here.
gene108
@Gravenstone:
That is what worries me. He’s just tweaking around the edges of existing.
The GOP has not gotten into full blown passing laws to destroy America yet.
NR
These new EOs sound a lot like Trump saying “Keep doing what you’ve been doing, but the difference is now I told you to do it, so that makes it better.” Or something.
Chris
@debbie:
Yeah. I find it interesting that for all the talk of “militarization of the police,” it’s really only a half militarization. We’re giving cops more and more of the tools of the military, but the requirements for recruitment, the extent of the training, the basic discipline in most police forces are nowhere near up to the standards of the organizations for which those tools were designed.
As much as anything else, “militarizing the police” seems to mean “giving loaded weapons to eight years olds.”
Roger Moore
@Catherine D.:
I’d guess they’re talking about drug use, especially opiods.
wenchacha
@The Moar You Know: Dammit. I hadn’t thought about the asset forfeiture.
Hungry Joe
@dm: “Blood of our youth” = “precious bodily fluids.”
But Trump — unlike Gen. Ripper — does not deny women his essence.
Mike in DC
If you had “Black people ” on your card for Trump Racial Targeting Bingo, congratulations. Muslims and Latinos were already called.
Humboldtblue
@Gravenstone:
I guarantee you this is one piece of legislation he’ll never sign.
trollhattan
@wenchacha:
Something I sought in college.
FlipYrWhig
I think the first one means “Mexican gangs.”
Davis X. Machina
@MattF: They don’t have to say. It’s what they mean — and every local police force will figure that out right fast…
PK
Even the language is telling. Sounds the kind of thing a white supremacist would write. That’s the first thing at least I thought of. Pure blood, blood libel, etc, etc. I’m surprised there’s nothing in there about protecting the virtue of our pure white women.
Major Major Major Major
@Hungry Joe:
He leaves that to Flynn, Gen. Ripper’s spiritual successor.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Isn’t Sessions a Christian Dominonist? ” destroying the blood of our youth.” would be interracal marriages in those terms.
lamh36
@Davis X. Machina: waiting for them to add them as a “terrorist group”…bet.
Fam in Chicago…please be safe…cause ya’ll know Trump’s new EO is likely directed right at Chi-town…
add to that Rahm and his BS “take a chill pill” comment…
FlyingToaster
@Roger Moore:
So the cartels are Big Pharma? All run by rich white guys?
I don’t think so. This dogwhistle sounds a lot like Governor Bowling Jackets screed against black drug dealders coming to Maine from New York.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Hm. Looking at the FBI’s latest (and preliminary) Uniform Crime Report, there has been an uptick in violent crime in the last couple of years, but it’s not exactly skyrocketing. It’s still lower than it was in the early 1970s.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Gah, let’s try that again, this time getting the URL syntax right:
FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2016 (Preliminary), Table 3
PaulW
the first order mentioned in that article is so vague as to be both meaningless and dangerous. If Trump is trying to give cops carte blance to go after drug dealers, that EO isn’t worded well enough to focus on that. That order could well give cops legal cover to go after skateboarders and hip-hop dancers.
That second order – to come up with solutions to reduce violence against police officers – is going to turn into a massive failure because the one thing that WOULD reduce violence on cops – keeping guns out of the hands of angry and crazy over-privileged white guys – is the one thing the NRA will never allow. If Trump thinks this is going to give political cover to the FBI to round up the Black Panthers and La Raza, it’s not going to look good when the evening news show more cops dying thanks to gun-toting white boys.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Okay, one more time, since I can’t edit my posts:
FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2016 (Preliminary), Table 3
Another Scott
@debbie: Nice. Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
(“More of this, please.”)
? Martin
@Hal: Yep. National Guard called out in Chicago.
The Moar You Know
@wenchacha: All that property, and even better, cash (because these establishments can’t use banks). It was all hanging out there, waiting for someone to just come take it.
I feel bad for a lot of the guys who got into this as a business, not realizing that the whole thing was held up only by the sufferance of whoever was president at the time. Even Bush largely left these guys alone. Trump and Sessions will not, they’ve already said so explicitly.
Droppy
I suppose we’re lucky at least that our American brand of right winger is too incompetent to be an efficient fascist. They will not only never get the trains to run on time, they’ll have them going in the wrong direction, upside-down, and using coal to run diesel engines. With any luck, when they go to set the reichstag fire, they’ll do it from the inside and not be able to find the exit.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@Gravenstone:
AFAIK, the only actual legislation he’s signed was the change in the law to allow Mattis to become SecDef.
Peale
@Chris: At least he said “necessary and lawful” not “necessary or lawful”
PaulW
@Catherine D.:
Notice the wording. the obsession with the purity of our bodily fluids.
Trying to give fear to the possibility of Blacks and Latinos and Jews and Commies and Feminazis actively drugging our children at public schools that should thence be closed forever.
I’d lay good money down that Bannon had a hand in the wording.
Jeffro
@Catherine D.:
Ah, ye beat me to it…
By “destroying the blood of our youth” he must mean “I’m too addled by messianic visions of ROOOOOLING the WERRRRRRLD to speak coherently”
RareSanity
@bago:
You aren’t kidding.
This is more like a hundred foot fan, powered by the engine of an aircraft carrier, pointing at the windmills.
Chris
@mb:
If I were being equally suspicious and cynical, I’d say that a president whose previous career was as a failed casino owner probably has all kinds of friends in the Good Family Men business who’ll profit gloriously off of this. (Particularly if Russian money is what’s kept him afloat all these years).
No reason it can’t be both, though. Corrupt authorities and organized crime being enemies in public and partners in private certainly wouldn’t be a new invention.
Chris
Help! Moderation.
Baud
@The Moar You Know:
So two things libertarians say they hate: Drug laws and asset forfeiture. But hey, they’ll get their tax cuts.
Anyone who cites libertarians as a credible group is a fool.
Jeffro
@Droppy:
It’s pretty discouraging to think
1) This is how Trumpov and Co act when the economy’s going well…this is what they’re (for now) getting away with…can y’all imagine if it Great Recession II or another 9/11 had hit?
2) This is what it looks like when an impulsive utter moron tries to exert power in collusion with a pack of Congressional weasels…can y’all imagine if someone with half a brain and half a strategy was running the show?
Major Major Major Major
@Baud:
Well… we knew that already.
But, say what you will about the tenets of libertarianism, at least it’s an ethos. All the libertarians I know voted for Johnson.
edit: edited; hit post before ready
Hungry Joe
I don’t have stats on this, but it seems that most police-officer killings are ambushes: a cop just sitting in his patrol car, a cop walking up to a driver in a traffic stop, a cop entering a home and being shot without warning. In none of those cases does being armed do the police officer any good. (That’s what ambushes are all about.)
I’d like to see the police semi-disarmed. They can cart around any weapons they want in their patrol cars; I don’t care if they have flamethrowers and RPGs. But they have to have a good reason to exit the car bearing any weapon at all, and at the end of the shift, if they did take a weapon out of the car, they have to fill out a form explaining why. (“Shots fired.” — okay, fine. “Man wandering in street, behaving erratically.” — Nope. Six hours of additional training for you. “Traffic stop, tail light out.” Nope. Six additional … )
Peale
@Grumpy Code Monkey: You see, 2 data points isn’t even a TREND, let along a permanent one. The problem is that crime didn’t go away. That’s the goal – 0 crime. Or if not that, 2 million more caught up in the justice system.
I won’t be too surprised if they add “drug testing at your own expense” to their endless list of new voting registration requirements.
cmorenc
I’d say it’s more a fire in search of a Reichstag. A darker-than-Caucasian colored Reichstag, because the lighter-colored ones resemble Putin and white Nationalists like Bannon.
Mike in NC
“Blood of our youth” sounds like more of Bannon’s Nazi-speak.
NotMax
Details and documentation emerging.
? Martin
@The Moar You Know: Police take more from Americans than thieves do.
Hungry Joe
@The Moar You Know: At a marijuana dispensary in Mission Valley in San Diego (I was there for my friend … uh, let’s see … Ernie. Yeah. My friend Ernie), the guy behind the counter told me that he used to work in a dispensary in Washington state, and a couple of times a week he had to drive several hours with tens of thousands of dollars in cash to a bank that would do business with them. Said it made him crazy nervous. The San Diego dispensary, tiny as it was, had two armed guards. Sooner or later the Willie Suttons of the world are going to figure out where the money is these days.
? Martin
@Hungry Joe: Sovereign Citizens Are America’s Top Cop-Killers
There will be no crackdown on anti-government/white supremacist groups. They’re going after minorities.
? Martin
@Hungry Joe: They already know. Elizabeth Warren has been pushing to open up the banking system to prevent crime around dispensaries.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
As I recall, conservatives wet themselves every time BHO signed an EO… now, they’re happy little ratlings with each new EO Trumpy signs.
cmorenc
@The Moar You Know:
I had been thinking along the same lines – but the element that may indefinitely side-track this to the back-burner is that a significant cadre of Trump voters are hard-core libertarians in purple states – who voted for Trump to decrease economic regulation but are against regulating private behavior as well (abortion being a possible exception with some of them). Moving quickly and aggressively against pot-legal states loses Trump more support than it potentially gains – whereas attacking Mexican drug cartels does. Pot-legal marijuana sales obviously don’t come from Mexican drug cartels.
? Martin
@PaulW: Yeah, Trump can’t turn a phrase. Those aren’t his words.
rikyrah
@The Moar You Know:
You are probably right…
Yo Dudebro Muthaphuckas…
Hillary and emails…right????
Major Major Major Major
@cmorenc:
It’s not Trump’s fault that a significant number of his voters are idiots and suckers.
No matter what he does to piss them off, all the GOP has to do is run a few “democrats are coming for your guns!” ads and they’ll fall right back in line and vote R next time around.
Chris
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
The rationalization/cover that they give is “Obama wrecked the constitution and threw the doors wide open to this kind of practice, so this development was sadly inevitable. I’m not a fan of Trump [boy am I already seeing that one a lot] but it’s all Obama’s fault.”
(Because, you know, Obama invented executive orders).
Tokyokie
@Jeffro: You mean like Bannon?
Roger Moore
@bago:
Trump has done his share of tilting at windmills; he’s vigorously opposed to off-shore wind farms.
Major Major Major Major
@Chris: I have seen this more than once.
Miss Bianca
@cmorenc: The other thing that’s going to be interesting to note is that it’s overwhelmingly white people with money who own the dispensaries – lefty-libertarian dudebro types. Yep, going to be verrryy interesting watching Sessions go after *those* guys and tell them their cash and assets are gonna be seized.
ETA: Can you say “rooting for injuries”?
NotMax
Disgusting, and now feeling empowered.
gbear
So how long until labor unions are considered a ‘criminal cartel’?
chris
@Gravenstone: The answer is NO.
Reposting this link for those who want to know what they’re up to. Legislation and Disclosures are remarkably blank.
El Caganer
@Catherine D.: It only applies if you don’t have the right papers (Deutschblütigkeitserklärung).
Corner Stone
AG Sessions is going to civil asset forfeiture the fuck out of those liberal bastions of indecency and Trump will not lose vote one because of it.
Pot growing smug fucking libtards losing thousands of acres to the govt? Come on.
The Moar You Know
@gbear: Friday.
TriassicSands
The problem is that stupid people don’t become smart. Ignorant people, if they are curious and not stupid, can be “fixed.” But you can’t fix stupid people. And they can’t fix themselves. Much of partisan choice comes from values passed down from parents, so you can have stupid Democrats as well as stupid Republicans. Some percentage of human beings is going to be stupid. But the percentage of truly stupid people in the GOP does seem to be far greater than that in the Democratic Party.
Davis X. Machina
@gbear: Only if they strike, and cut into the company’s profits thereby. Or informational-picket, destroying the company’s public image and goodwill.
Everything else, they can do.
The Moar You Know
@cmorenc: Trump and Sessions have already said this is the plan. Why would you not take them at their word? God knows they’ve done everything else they’ve threatened to and more that I didn’t even think of. I take them seriously. So should everybody.
@Corner Stone: You’ve got it. He’ll gain support from his “base”, not lose it.
Chris
@TriassicSands:
More precisely, you can fix honest ignorance, but not willful ignorance.
schrodingers_cat
Quite simply I have not seen another country commit suicide like this. Are there in any parallels when a duly democratically elected government has set into motion so many destructive (economically, I am not talking morals here) policies in less than a month.
liberal
Huh? He’s going to attack state and local Republican party organizations?
gbear
@Davis X. Machina:
I’m going to guess that ‘attempting good faith negotiations’ will fall into the ‘criminal’ category. Any non-deference to management will do.
liberal
@schrodingers_cat: I was going to say “Turkey, Hungary, …” but then saw your qualifier re speed.
liberal
@TriassicSands:
“Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.”
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
We’re #1! USA! USA!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Corner Stone:
In California pot is mainly grown up in the deep red, rural north counties on Goverment Land.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Peale:
Yeah, just thought it was interesting, because I thought rates had been negative year-to-year for like 10 years in a row; turns out I was wrong about that, but the overall trend has been downwards since the mid-’90s.
Even with the uptick, the last time the violent crime rate was this low was 1970/1971.
Chris
@liberal:
My take on that quote has always been its reverse. There are a lot of stupid people who aren’t conservative. What’s remarkable about the conservative movement isn’t that it has them, it’s the extent to which it consists of nothing but them (and people who have to pretend to be stupid lest they be excommunicated).
low-tech cyclist
Another action, Trump said, establishes a Justice Department task force aimed at reducing violent crime and orders the agency to develop a plan to stop crimes against law enforcement officers.
While it’s a worthy goal to reduce crimes both by and against law enforcement officers, it’s worth mentioning that, according to nleomf.org, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, police officers are the safest they’ve been at least since the late 1950s and early 1960s. During the 5-year period from 2012 to 2016, 620 law officers died in the line of duty. The last time that total was so low was 1957-1961.
? Martin
In the US, if you’re killed by a stranger, ⅓ chance you were killed by a police officer.
Jeffro
@Tokyokie:
I’m not sure that we could call his vodka-pickled walnut of gray matter “half a brain” anymore…he’s just about as nuts as Flynn, only in Bannon’s case, it’s because it’s been chemically dissolved. Flynn’s got Islamophobo-rabies.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
The Moar You Know
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Tell that to the dispensary owners who’ve spent the last three years buying up every scrap of farmland that’s come up for sale in San Diego County. They’ve spent millions. And they are going to lose every last bit of it.
EBT
@Catherine D.: He means blacks and legal weed. This is noted racist Jeff sessions.
Turgidson
@Chris:
I think this is a roundabout way of saying they’re going to double down on the idiotic, failed, expensive, immoral, idiotic, stupid, idiotic drug war. And while they’ll start out saying they’re going after the illicit drug trade, under the bold leadership of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, that will come to entail going after marijuana including, and perhaps especially, in the states that have legalized it to varying degrees. Just wait for it.
Corner Stone
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I don’t live in CA but I beg to differ. Anything to read up on for a non-pot enthusiast such as myself?
Major Major Major Major
@The Moar You Know: What you said is accurate but it doesn’t actually make what Enhanced Voting Techniques said any less true.
debbie
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Trump has become so ridiculous, I had to check Twitter to make sure you were joking.
TriassicSands
@Chris:
I don’t think you can fix honest ignorance if you’re dealing with truly stupid people. They may not have the tools to understand what is true and what is not.
Willful, that is dishonest, ignorance also can’t be fixed because the people are believing what they want to believe and aren’t open to what Al Gore called the “inconvenient truth.”
Trump has other problems — personality disorders — that may make it impossible for him to ever care about the truth at all. He demonstrates his ignorance every day and the willfulness of his ignorance when others provide him with actual facts and he simply lies about the lies that are being corrected.
We’ve never seen anything like this before. Our “institutions” probably has the tools to deal with Trump, but the GOP is utterly corrupt and filled with both the stupid and the willfully ignorant.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@debbie: It’s true – it’s true! Believe me! (link – scroll down)
Aleta
Devos and now Sessions. Repubs nearly united on both. I just can’t be anything but stunned at such low mean disrespect and lawlessness.
Adrift
Keep an eye on the numbering of executive orders. When it skips one, or two, or ten they are hiding something…
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
DAMN! – Video of Obama monster basketball dunk (link)
The Moar You Know
@Major Major Major Major: I know. I lived in NorCal for fifteen years. There were areas I couldn’t mountain bike in because the growers had booby-trapped their operations, usually with some insanely dangerous stuff (homemade claymores, trails strung with fishing hooks, shotgun shell land mines). Or they’d shoot at you. One of the nice things about the state legalization is that it took the payoff for that sort of behavior out of the equation. It will be back shortly, and marijuana will be once more back in the hands of “really bad hombres” instead of businessmen trying to bring legit jobs and business to a part of the state that for decades been as poor as Mississippi.
Wish the dudebro coalition had thought that shit through before voting. Oh well.
Point was, it’s not ONLY criminals growing on Forest Service land anymore and hasn’t been for years.
schrodingers_cat
This is a precursor to passing R version of the infamous Rowlatt Acts. This is the reason why most Indian political parties did not help in Britain’s war effort in WWII.
debbie
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Got it. I do prefer your paraphrasing. ;)
ETA: You might appreciate my link at #10..
? Martin
Theory regarding crime:
Nationally the crime rate is dropping. From 5.5 murders/100K in 2000 to 4.5 in 2014. Rape from 32 to 26. Robbery from 145 to 102. Aggravated assault from 324 to 232.
In New England the rates are roughly half the national average. In the mountain west, the same. California murders fell from 6.1 (peaking at 6.9 in 2005) to 4.4, just below the national average. New York fell from 5.0 to 3.1. Illinois from 7.2 to 5.3. Still high, but clearly falling.
But compare to the south. South Carolina from 7.3 to 6.4. Falling, but almost 50% higher than the national average – and double NYs rate. West Virginia from 2.5 to 4.0 – rising. Missouri 6.2 to 6.6 – rising. Mississippi 9.0 to 8.6. Slightly falling, but double the national avg. Louisiana 12.5 to 10.3. Falling, but still really high. Florida 5.6 to 5.8 – rising.
Generally speaking, gun permissive southern/Appalachian states are either much higher than the national or have rising rates or both. Gun permissive western states are low and flat. Gun restrictive states are generally falling and below national average.
Even if the rate isn’t climbing, that the rate is falling faster outside of Trump states than within them will give the perception that crime is getting worse because there’s going to be more reporting of crimes in those states. Surely a lot of this is tied up with the opioid epidemic among poor whites, and some is likely also tied up with the growth of anti-government/anti-immigrant groups.
Also worth noting that the states where immigration is largest are the states where crime is low and/or falling. California’s stats are falling faster than almost any other state (almost all stats are down by ⅓ over that period) and we have the most restrictive gun laws and the most immigration. By GOP reasoning, that’s impossible.
Shell
When is he going to ask Eliot Ness back to help fight Al Capone? Maybe Frederick Douglas can help out.
Humboldtblue
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Humboldt is actually deep blue and Mendocino is blue too. Del Norte county, home to Pelican Bay prison, is red but meaningless in the overall scheme of things. But there are still plenty of people up here who view the marijuana industry as evil as abortion and the French Connection all rolled into one.
The greatest issue with illegal trespass grows in this region come from actual cartels — Mexican and Eastern European — who have used Federal forest lands for very large grows — more than 10k plants (that’s the low end, a major bust up here doesn’t get a more than a yawn if it’s not at least that large) — and the environmental degradation they inflict. Poisons (for both animal and plant pests), severe and horribly damaging water diversion (they have sucked more than one feeder stream dry) soil displacement and grading that leads to severe runoff and defoliation and the amount of garbage that is left behind are the legacy of industrial-sized the illegal growers.
Smaller local growers are responsible for similar actions, but by and large the local grower has some ties to the community and ruining the environment does two things — hurts your product and brings unwanted attention from law enforcement. One of the most effective strategies that’s been used in the past four years has been the focus on environmental degradation because the fines incurred by illegal trespass growers are often far more serious and impactful than any legal adjudication.
Another very serious side effect is the impact that the manufacture of Honey Oil Hash has had. In the past three years alone there have been at least a dozen massive explosions related to the manufacture of hash because they use butane in a supposedly closed system as part of the extraction process and then the fucking thing blows up and destroys an apartment complex. Hash makers deserve every fucking third degree burn they get.
Shell
They probably figure let Trump have his little crime-fighting fantasies; its like the Lego sets that will keep him busy while they go ahead dismantling Obamacare and Social Security.
Kryptik
I’m not gonna lie.
This sounds like Trump has decided to take a break from Putin worship to follow the footsteps of his other strongman friend, Duterte. This sounds like a less overtly violent order of what that man is doing in the Philippines.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@debbie: Thanks. I need to keep up with Pete Souza.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know: There are myriad tales of “trimmers” who come from all over the globe to work the grows in NW CA and they’re frequently not paid, sexually abused and worse. And this is done by the “locals.” Then there are the cartel grows in public forests who savage the land and wildlife with stream diversion, poison bait and the like.
Legal growing operations are happening across the state but it will take years to displace the existing infrastructure and its nasty players and impacts. Wild West, baby! What the feds may do will affect the legal far more than the illegal.
TriassicSands
@Shell:
Douglass is busy at the moment pushing Ivanka Trump’s clothing line. Since he’s not an official member of the Trump administration, being dead does create limitations — he is allowed to act as a spokes
personcorpse for Trump business interests. After all, Frederick Douglass did found the Chamber of Commerce.? Martin
@Corner Stone: California was responsible for about one third of the pot grown in the US. That probably changed with the WA and CO legalizations, though.
Most of that was grown in the north because it rains up there, and there are huge national parks/forests in the north that allowed farmers to grow without risking having land seized. Here’s an older report from the Justice Dept.
It’s estimated that ⅔ of the economy in Mendocino county up north is marijuana.
trollhattan
@TriassicSands:
We’ve had Lincoln-Douglas, now get ready for Douglass-Lincoln–vampire hunters, zombie slayers, free-market champions! Get ready to PROFITTT!
gvg
At least some of Trumps voters read him as a regular politician who exaggerates or lies to be elected and knows his statements are exaggerated. with Trump, if we go with the usual definition of lies as something the person saying them knows are not true, we can’t tell if its lies or delusions. This part of the GOP voting block is unprepared for this result. the first group may well be the drug libertarians. isolationists are another possibility.
For years I have had an amusing daydream about a political party that actually did what it promised on economic nonsense and got real world results. I was amused but I pictured it as being some other country. the reality here is too scary to want to think about.
One of the problems with Trump not being a professional politician is that he really is unable to think in terms of not pissing off his own voting blocks. I think one reason he is acting like there won’t be another election is that he and his chosen advisors have never actually been in this position before. True he may think he is forever, but I don’t think he can prevent more elections because too many other people want to be president. He is also looting too obviously and if he lives (he’s old) he has not thought about possible jail after office. we have never jailed a former president supposedly because we didn’t want to turn into a country with tit for tat vengeance but we have also never had a crooked idiot like this. It may be hard not to jail him because he is so obvious. they are all short term thinkers
Aleta
@schrodingers_cat: Don’t know for sure, but if rapid change (away from a form of democracy to more repressive political policy) that came after a military coup or military violence can be counted, perhaps Indonesia 1965, maybe Japan 1923 (not sure), Japan after the 1935 coup.
Corner Stone
@? Martin: I guess that was a large chunk of my part. Confiscating plants on federal land is one thing. But people who thought they had legal cover and are now going to lose their cash, property and land to CAF is what I am speaking to. The evil pieces of shit putting land and people at risk will continue to be evil POS putting people and land at risk.
rikyrah
Trump’s Deportation Plan, Up Close and Personal
by Nancy LeTourneau
February 9, 2017 1:00 PM
During the presidential campaign, when Trump shifted from “deport ’em all” to saying he would focus on deporting undocumented immigrants who were criminals, it was considered a major shift.
But as the LA Times recently reported, the devil is in the details. The president’s executive order overhauling immigration enforcement took that number from 2-3 million to a possible 8 million (of the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country).
We now have an example of what that means in the case of Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos. She was brought to this country when she was 14, has lived in Arizona for 22 years and is the mother of two children who were born here. But Garcia is a “criminal” because 8 years ago she was caught in a workplace raid by former Sheriff Joe Arpaio and charged with a felony. She was eventually allowed to stay in the country under certain conditions. Since then, she has checked in at the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement office regularly for a review of her case and to answer some questions. That all changed yesterday.
It is likely that by this time, she has been processed and sent to Mexico – a country she hasn’t seen in over two decades – leaving behind her children and family. According to her lawyer, there is only one reason for that.
To the extent that this is how the Trump administration plans to handle these cases, it sends a clear message to undocumented immigrants that it is dangerous to cooperate with law enforcement. That is a price that will be paid by all of us. For Garcia de Rayos and her children, the price is the break-up of their family.
As a sign that this is the beginning of a larger plan, Ryan Devereaux reports that Trump’s executive order overhauling immigration enforcement contains plans for building new detention centers.
trollhattan
@gvg:
Throughout the campaign Trump supporters said when confronted with his actual words: “That’s just how he talks, he’s a New Yorker and they’re all like that.” Pundits promised: “He’s saying these things to rev up the base, he’ll have to pivot centerward for 1) the general election [following the election] 2) to actually govern. Remember, he used to be a Democrat.”
Now, from both: “He’s just doing what he promised.”
Yeah, it’s that second Trump that we always new was running.
Iowa Old Lady
What’s striking to me about many of Trump’s actions and statements is how fearful he sounds. He’s never had to live in a dangerous situation, and yet, he’s terrified. WTF?
? Martin
@Corner Stone: Oh, no question. There’s a lot more being grown on private land, and you can see in Colorado that proper investments have been made to do this legally. CA is ramping up to follow. If the feds come in, it’ll be devastating. The question is to what extent can the states intervene? The feds are certainly on good standing to go after those crops on federal land, but can they go after efforts that the state has blessed? I imagine that will end up in the courts.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@? Martin:
Oh, you and your “facts”, Martin… conservatives feel like crime is going up. Why isn’t that evidence enough?
? Martin
@Iowa Old Lady: He’s a coward like so many conservatives. Nothing remarkable about it. FFS, the guy is afraid of stairs.
Sandia Blanca
This is such a depressing thread, but I wanted to pop in to commend Betty’s sobriquet for “elfin racist Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III.” Perfect!
? Martin
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Actually, that is evidence enough. There are no natural baselines for these things, so we can only measure them relatively. If I lived in Louisiana I’d be wondering why the hell I’m seeing an increasing amount of the nation’s crime occurring in my state – which is true, even if the rate is falling there, because it’s falling faster elsewhere.
What they don’t get a break on is that the rate is likely increasing due to things that conservatives have been demanding, and now they’re demanding more of it.
Aleta
@gvg: Against their list of suspected crimes supposedly related to immigration, a much longer list can be made of suspected crimes committed by this administration and the R congress. (Personally I count DeVos and Sessions as near lawless disregard by Congress, plus their perjury. And T’s failed mission if lack of oversight contributed or there was some political pressure that overrode the lack of intelligence.)
Immanentize
I previously predicted that the prosecutions would end up being the tell — and the downfall — of the Trump plans. Throughout this great nation — Trump supporters are serious fucking pot heads.
TriassicSands
@trollhattan:
I would but I’m exhausted from all the winning…
D58826
@Chris:
Well if the FBI would stop looking into Hillary’s e-mail and the Clinton Foundation then they could assign more agents to fighting organized crime.
On a less snarky note a major reasopne the FBI hasn’t spent as much time on organized crime is the emphasis on anti-terrorism. Back in the day when they were setting up Homeland security it was suggested that the FBI be split into two agencies – one to focus on domestic crime and the other on terrorism. I believe in Britain Scotland Yard deals with regular Crime and MI5 or is it MI6 does terrorism. It was also suggested that the alphabet soup of agencies – DEA/ATF/etc be consolidated into the two new agencies. Made to much sense and stepped to many toes so nothing happened.
Chris
@Turgidson:
Notice that human trafficking is mentioned prominently as well.
Which want to root for – we could, indeed, use more work in that department and it certainly deserves more attention than fucking drugs – but I have a funny feeling that what it’s going to amount to in practice is “a big show of yuuuge, bigly deportations of nonwhites,” with very little attention paid to attacking the problem for real and certainly no compassion for the trafficking victims.
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
This shocks the pundits, but pleases Trump’s base.
And what, we’re not even into week 4 yet?
trollhattan
@TriassicSands:
So much winning! I’m digging my Scrooge McDuck money pool with slide and diving board; back up those Brinks Trucks, baby.
Ruviana
@Aleta: Guatemala 1954, Chile 1973. Of course the U.S. helped with those. Iran 1953 too.
MomSense
@FlyingToaster:
Ayuh. Exactly what it sounds like to me, too.
schrodingers_cat
.@Aleta: @Ruviana: I am not talking about coups
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@? Martin:
Yep, conservative chickens have come home to roost. Unintended consequences are a bitch, ain’t they?
Iowa Old Lady
Sean Spicer says Kellyanne Conway was “counseled” over pushing Ivanka’s clothing line. It wouldn’t surprise me if a week from now, she’s gone.
Chris
@? Martin:
The entire twentieth century was one long application of this sentence, and everything seems to indicate that the entire twenty-first century will be that as well.
randy khan
This is at least the third time I’ve seen a report of Trump signing executive orders but the orders not being immediately available. My recollection is that the usual practice in the past has been for the President to announce them and release them simultaneously. It’s kind of peculiar, and I wonder if it’s intentional. (And, if so, if it’s intended to make it harder for the press to ask good questions about them.)
EBT
@Hungry Joe: I used to go to a dispensary that was run by the Sheriff’s department, wonder how they are going to feel about losing that cash cow.
Brachiator
@Iowa Old Lady:
Ivanka?
Corner Stone
@Iowa Old Lady: Seany Spice will be gone before KAC ever goes.
Betty Cracker
@Iowa Old Lady: Maybe we should start a betting pool for both Spicer and Conway. I’m not confident either will make it to June as White House employees. To be fair, they have impossible jobs, not that it makes either less scummy…
Doug R
@Iowa Old Lady: I suspect that kellyanne Conway is the source of a lot of those disgruntled staffer stories.
EBT
@rikyrah: Why stop there, seize the verification records and slap everyone who has or had a rec with a felony and strip out millions of Dem voters quickly as shit.
Iowa Old Lady
@Brachiator: Hee. That would be amusing. Not likely though.
efgoldman
@Roger Moore:
Hate to talk stereotypes here, but isn’t this more of a problem for, you know, us white people?
Who are the Dr Feelgoods who are writing all the scrips, until they get shut down? Why look, they’re mostly white med school graduates.
With all respect to JR in WV…..
efgoldman
@? Martin:
The governor has to do that. I know Rauner is 9000 kinds of asshole, but….
Kay
the onion on the Devos agenda;
trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
Spicer is a really weird choice for Trump and I’m reminded of Bush’s first couple of lumpy, droning dudes before he said “Fuck it, get me a pert Fox blonde” and, thus, Dana “Cold War, was that against the penguins?” Perino.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@rikyrah: In this case I think “super predators/Crime Bill!!*” is even more apt than “emails.” Good thing we didn’t let Evil Hillary into the Oval Office, right?
*Not that those weren’t valid concerns/criticisms of course, but coming from White Bernie/Johnson/Stein voters/non-voters to justify not voting for HRC…not so much.
We got the President we deserve, sadly.
Iowa Old Lady
Sometimes I feel like Trump is speaking and acting in a code I don’t understand because I’m not in his base. But maybe I’m giving him too much credit and he’s just incoherent.
Uncle Ebeneezer
Guys, guys, guys (waving hands back and forth)…I’ve been assured that Republicans and their voters will stand up to this type of Federal violation of States Rights!!1!…. /sarcasm
les
@Roger Moore:
Great, he must be going after big pharma at last!
sukabi
@Catherine D.: no, but drumpf will probably proclaim in his next EO that peaceful protest will not be tolerated as it upsets the delicate balance in his reality* where he’s loved and respected by the masses…
*Also known as delusion.
randy khan
@Betty Cracker:
I predict that they go out together, and tour the country singing their greatest hits.
Even better would be if they wrote a joint tell-all book. I might even buy that one.
Iowa Old Lady
Also, what’s all this emphasis on “keeping America safe”? One of his arguments for the EO is that the Constitution gives the president the full responsibility for that. Where does the constitution say it? He implies we should take no risks in the interest of freedom, for instance.
Peale
@efgoldman: yep. Apparently figuring out how to,shut down surpringly few opioids prescription mills in Florida would have tremendous impact in states as far away as Kentucky and Ohio. Although they’d probably just turn to heroin anyway. But my guess is that this is about pot and taking back marajuana laws from state control. Plus reasons to blame Mexico.
debbie
@Iowa Old Lady:
It’s from that special section of the Constitution: the Book of George W. Bush.
? Martin
@Peale: Let’s not rule out punishing California. Trump has mentioned us a number of times – he lost the popular vote thanks to CA, and he knows we’re going to be a huge pain in his ass.
chopper
but if we destroy the blood of our nation’s youth, what will i use to make my pastries?
efgoldman
@Iowa Old Lady:
He is not rational as you or i Understand it – and it has nothing to do with conservative/progressive. Do not try to examine his actions as if he is – you will make yourself even crazier.
zhena gogolia
@Iowa Old Lady:
What’s hilarious (not) is that I have never felt so unsafe in my own country as I have since Jan. 20.
zhena gogolia
@Sandia Blanca:
Yes, her wordsmithing somehow makes everything better. John used to play that role, but he’s forsaken us for Twitter.
Mike in NC
When will Trump issue an EO declaring himself to be the Sun King?
David Spikes
@rikyrah: Here cum de judge: Trump-Gorsuch did not criticize.
Spicer-and even if he did he wasn’t talking about Trump.
? Martin
@EBT: Most felon voting laws are in red states. California’s covers felons in prison and parolees but not probation or ex felons. Only about 0.7% of voters in CA are disenfranchised. In states like FL, it’s around 10%. Much bigger problem there.
And if the feds were to sweep through, they’d need to be prepared to try these individuals in federal court, because the state isn’t going to do it because they won’t be breaking a state law by the end of 2017.
Patricia Kayden
@Major Major Major Major: And then we’ll all be dead so it will be alright.
Trump seems to be determined to forge ahead with lying constantly and then acting on those lies. I don’t understand how catering to your small angry base and creating a culture of fear serves a larger purpose when most Americans are against you and your policies. He’s just creating a larger, angrier opposition.
David Spikes
@Brachiator: No, no. This is classic repub. double fake.
She gets credit from Trump for saying it, but Spicer can say *hey, who says we’re not ethical-we “counseled” Kellyanne. Knowing that absolutely nothing will come of it.
? Martin
@David Spikes: It’s even more of a double fake. Trump was the one who first said it. It’s his conflict of interest. Pretending to throw Conway under the bus is just to get everyone to focus on her. I mean, if her action warranted counseling, what does Trumps actions warrant? Nobody is talking about that any longer.
germy
International Business Times
rikyrah
A source close to the couple confirms #GeorgeClooney and Amal are expecting twins. Congrats to the beautiful couple! More tonight on AH ✨ pic.twitter.com/waY577lBpS
— Access Hollywood (@accesshollywood) February 9, 2017
? Martin
The Federal Chief Information Security Officer was fired and escorted out of the EEOB last week.
That’s the individual that would be responsible for ‘counseling’ the President on his unauthorized use of his Android phone and members of the WH team using non-governmental emails.
Patricia Kayden
@germy: Good!! He needs to face those rape charges in Sweden at the very least. He has turned out to be nothing but a tool for Putin. Assange is currently working with Putin to get Marie Le Pen elected in France.
trollhattan
@germy:
Only Saint Greenwald can save him now. Sad!
Patricia Kayden
@zhena gogolia: What could possibly go wrong with a narcissistic, thin-skinned, know-nothing Bigot in the White House? It’s not as if he’s the most powerful politician in the world and surrounded by White Supremacists and war hawks.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Mike in NC:
Indeed. All rise, behold Trumpnaten!
? Martin
More from the base.
So, every part of the country heard the part of Trumps message they wanted to hear, and discounted the parts they didn’t. Some will lose their employees, others their health insurance, others their basic rights.
LOL. As if Trump fucking cares, even if he could grasp it, which he can’t.
Miss Bianca
@? Martin: So, here’s what I don’t get…everyone who voted for Trump hears what they want to hear, and it all seems to be, “oh, he won’t really do (fill in the blank with X horrible promise he’s made)!”
Whereas, they have NO PROBLEM believing that Hillary Clinton would do (fill in the blank with x horrible thing she was accused of, but didn’t actually do).
WTF??
AxelFoley
@PK:
Exactly the first thing I thought of.