To follow up on Betty’s post, I want to share a smattering of articles on this subject. The Democracy Docket article was written 2 months ago – I mean, really, who among us did not see this coming from FFOTUS – but it’s still relevant.
We will know – very soon – whether SCOTUS is going to allow Trump’s government to give the highest court the middle finger. If SCOTUS does allow that, they will soon come to regret it, but by that time it will surely be too late.
We need to be calling our elected officials.
NOW. Today. Every day.
What Happens If Trump Defies Court Orders? (Democracy Docket)
Since the minute President Donald Trump returned to the White House, his actions have been met with a litany of lawsuits. There are currently numerous legal battles challenging executive orders Trump signed on day one: an end to birthright citizenship, the freezing of government agency funding to crucial programs and services and gutting of the federal work force — the first step in the grand plan to remake the American government into an authoritarian regime.
And, so far, the courts have consistently ruled against the Trump administration. Federal judges have blocked the White House’s federal funding freeze, the birthright citizenship executive order and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’s access to sensitive information in several key agencies. It’s a win not just for democracy but for the constitutional laws that established the system of checks and balances that ensure the executive branch doesn’t take over with impunity.
But these series of court orders have clearly irked Trump and his administration. After the Office of Management and Budget rescinded its initial memo indicating a freeze in federal funds — following a pair of lawsuits — White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to assert otherwise, in a post on X that spectacularly backfired. And after a federal judge blocked DOGE’s access to sensitive Treasury information, Elon Musk fumed on X: “A corrupt judge protecting corruption,” he wrote. “He needs to be impeached NOW!”
Even Vice President JD Vance chimed in on X, posting an inaccurate, yet ominous, statement about the court orders. “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” he said.
All of this is teeing up what some legal experts worry could be a constitutional crisis. Or, to put it simply: what happens when the Trump administration blatantly defies the courts?
A constitutional crisis looms
Whether or not the Trump administration knows that these executives are unlawful is beside the point. It’s clear that — court order or not— the White House is going to fight to keep these policies in place. But if the administration chooses to defy court orders in order to protect their policies, what happens next?
“I think the fundamental answer is that we don’t know,” Aziz Huq, a constitutional law scholar at the University of Chicago Law School, told Democracy Docket. “There have been moments where there have been some level of defiance on nonconformities to judicial orders in the past.” He points to the aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education, which integrated schools and which many states, for years, defied the ruling. But even then, that was a case of the state opposing the federal government, rather than the federal government defying the courts.
There are mechanisms in place for defying a court order — like fines and holding the offending parties in contempt. But because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling last year, the president is likely immune from criminal prosecution for official acts.
But despite some legal scholars calling the current legal saga a constitutional crisis, others are cautioning that it’s not quite at that level yet. Speaking to NPR, Kristin Hickman, a professor of administrative law at the University of Minnesota Law School, said that, “we’re not there yet and we have no guarantee we’re ever going to get there. It is not healthy for our body politic for us to overreact and roll around a lot of overheated rhetoric.”
And yet, on the other side, the White House itself is calling the situation a constitutional crisis because judges are ruling against the administration. “We believe these judges are acting as judicial activists rather than honest arbiters of the law,” Leavitt said in a press conference Wednesday.
Huq is also cautious about calling the current situation a constitutional crisis. For starters, the matter has yet to reach the Supreme Court, which would have the final word on the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s executive orders. Should Trump defy the Supreme Court, that could create something of a constitutional crisis — and one that could have a chilling ripple effect.
“Once you have the President saying, “Well, I don’t need to follow a court order. What about governance? What about sheriffs? What about state legislatures or state judges? Why do they need to?” Huq said. “As with many things that the Trump administration does, I don’t think they thought through their actions and the way that it opens the door to a lot more. And it’s really not clear how that plays out.”
Please Explain What You Mean by Effectuate (Ken White)
The Supreme Court is getting increasingly involved in the sprawling litigation over Donald Trump’s many aggressive executive orders. In J.G.G. vs. Trump — the case before Judge James Boasberg seeking to prevent removals under the Alien Enemies Act — the high court issued an emergency ruling saying detainees are entitled to due process but they must seek it through petitions for habeas corpus in the jurisdictions where they are actually being held.
Some Trump-skeptical conservative commentators are describing this as a rebuke to the administration. But liberals, including the three liberals on the court, see this as an offer of relief in theory but not in practice. They also raise the specter that the Trump administration could spirit anyone — even citizens — out of the country and then assert that relief is no longer possible because the US no longer has jurisdiction.
It’s not going to take very long to find out who’s right.
In another case — the Abrego Garcia case — the Supreme Court unanimously instructed the administration to seek the return of a man it deported to El Salvador in violation of a court order. But what will happen if and when the administration “tries” to get him back (but not really)?
Already, the government is squabbling with trial judge Paula Xinis over how quickly it needs to provide information about its efforts. And in other new cases, the ACLU is trying for a national injunction against AEA removals under
a habeas approach, and a Trump-appointed judge has prohibited removals from his South Texas district under the AEA, for now. Ultimately, the Supreme Court is likely going to have to weigh in on more issues, including whether the AEA even applies to people alleged to be members of a foreign gang, which is not itself a foreign government.
Joyce Vance
Our job this week is to push back against what we all know Trump is doing: trying to overwhelm us with too much insanity, too much happening all at once.
For one thing, this approach lets him, like other would-be dictators, hide the most dangerous changes he’s making in the barrage. It hides mistakes, such as what he’s done with tariffs. It also encourages people to tune out because they feel overwhelmed, disgusted, and sad. The incessant crazy is meant, at least in part, to get people to succumb to feelings of helplessness and an inability to do anything about what’s happening. But that’s the easy way out.
We aren’t powerless.
The place to start fighting back is with knowledge. During his first term in office, Trump turned the idea of being “woke” into something negative. That pretty much epitomizes his whole shtick. If people are uninformed about what he’s doing, they won’t object.
So our job is to be well informed, to understand what’s going on. Pick the issue that matters to you the most and do a deep dive on it, or pay attention to a number of different issues. Have conversations with friends—and with total strangers—about what’s going on. But don’t be complacent. That’s the dictator’s trap, and we are not going to fall into it.
RaflW
“If SCOTUS does allow that, they will soon come to regret it, but by that time it will surely be too late.”
I am guessing CJ Roberts was being too cute by half in that weak-ass shadow docket decision last week. I still presume he knows the power of the Court lies in it being obeyed. But if his response now that there’s open defiance is more tiny needle threading that moves the goalposts so that Trump doesn’t appear to be in defiance, then yes indeed, the Court will lose more in the medium term.
The Court being a functionary of Trumpism means that their entire value in the system is tied to him or at least to fascist MAGAism. That will be unsustainable, in that it just becomes a tool to power and, some day (who knows when, but I’d measure it in fractions of the time the US survived up to now) the people will grow tired of how power is exercised, and Scotus will be pulled down with the rest of the atrophied carcass of our institutions. As an added bonus, I don’t even think the job of Justice will be very fun* in a deeply corrupt, fascist regime.
*I really mean satisfying in terms of work product, and as the Court decays into MAGA it will lose the status and deference these creeps deeply need and demand.
A Ghost to Most
What happens? The season opens. You ready?
H.E.Wolf
Called my Senators and US Rep this morning. I mentioned my late, beloved aunt, who was incarcerated as a teenager during WWII for having Japanese ancestry, and drew the parallel with Mr. Abrego Garcia and the other poor souls currently incarcerated in El Salvador.
Took less than 10 minutes, 3 of which were my first, fumble-fingered, failed fandango through a voicemail prompt sequence. In my defence, it was Oh-dark-hundred o’clock. :)
rikyrah
scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) posted at 7:02 AM on Mon, Apr 14, 2025:
If the last week has taught us anything, it’s that allies (and adversaries) were like “we’ll deal with his bullshit” in Trump’s first term but the second time around they are like “fuck this guy.”
(https://x.com/scarylawyerguy/status/1911751933146038334?t=EVsY8Fkea_RW4rcE7VS0sA&s=03)
rikyrah
scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) posted at 2:18 PM on Sun, Apr 13, 2025:
Somebody tried to torch the Governor of Pennsylvania’s home – while he & his family were in it – and how that isn’t the top story today along w/oh I don’t know, a question to Trump why he hasn’t deployed the FBI to investigate (and call the Governor to check on him) is beyond me
(https://x.com/scarylawyerguy/status/1911499375429169371?t=RtG-NKjHTO3Lqrydg4ZZow&s=03)
SW
They murdered that guy from El Salvador. We should keep saying that. The only way to prove us wrong is to produce him.
laura
@rikyrah: So far, it’s a state matter and a suspect is under arrest. The feds shouldn’t go big footing in at this time and instead, let the state prosecute the crime/s. Nothing would prohibit the feds from subsequently trying the suspect if there is sufficient evidence of federal crimes. Also, no pardons for state convictions, so, you know…fine people on both sides and whatnot.
Harrison Wesley
While watching TV this morning, LOML commented that the PA fire-and-hammer assailant reminded her of pics she had seen of Rasputin. Certainly creepy enough.
JaySinWA
@laura: I agree, probably the last thing the state needs is for the FBI to interfere with the investigation. Given the current state of the DOJ and people in charge of the FBI, I have more confidence in the state investigation.
A reasonable President would offer any assistance the state requested, and express concern for the Governor, though.
Baud
@rikyrah: last part appears to be misinformation.
Ken B
@Harrison Wesley: There’s a guy at work that listens to WMAL, Rush Limbaugh’s old station in DC. Chris Plante was on, he’s doing everything he can to sound like Rush, and he has the voice pretty much down.
Anyway, he was asserting that the wackadoo that tried to torch the governor was a Democrat, because what else are they going to say?
Eolirin
@Baud: Trump isn’t supposed to be deploying the FBI in any event. That’s not how this is supposed to work, and if it starts working that way we’re in real trouble.
New Deal democrat
@RaflW:
My prediction:
Bukele will loudly announce while he is visiting T—-p that El Salvador will never, ever, under any circumstances return that monster gangster terrorist García. [cue White House aide approaching from the back, handing a brown bag to Bukele, saying, “your winnings, sir.”]
The DoJ will “order” the lower court to dismiss Garcia’s claims.
On any appeal to the Supreme Court, Roberts and gang will dismiss it with a shrug of their shoulders, saying the matter is moot. [and they will ceremoniously wash their hands].
Baud
@Eolirin:
True. But the implication was that the FBI was ignoring this because the victim was a Dem governor. That appears not to be accurate, for now.
Eolirin
@New Deal democrat: If things play out that way, the Trump administration has carte blanche to detain anyone for no reason as long as they ship them out of country before the legal system can catch up.
Including judges.
Lobo
Reposting. I don’t know if anyone is listening, but this is bigger than me or you.
Please call your Senators and have them shut down congress(I know a pipe dream) until he is returned:
This is game, set and match here.
Harrison Wesley
@Ken B: Hmmm. I heard a report that dudebro had a social media post advising that Democratic voters shouldn’t exist. Maybe he’s an over-enthusiastic Bernie guy. And the hammer shit is awfully reminiscent of the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband. Definitely operating under the direct orders of the DNC.
catclub
@SW: I am expecting this. Prisoner escape attempt.
Eolirin
El Salvadorian President is refusing to return the guy.
Harrison Wesley
@Eolirin: Quelle surprise!
Old Man Shadow
Chuck Schumer and Susan Collins will be VERY concerned. Might even frown a little…
Baud
@Eolirin:
Was he asked to return him by any official?
Eolirin
@Baud: Unclear, but he was asked by the press if he would.
la caterina
@Baud: A reporter asked.
Baud
@Eolirin:
@la caterina:
So let’s not let Trump off the hook.
scav
@Eolirin: ooooooo, so a Trumpian great America is weakness personified when faced with a teeny South American county going “No, ¡qué va.”
WaterGirl
@Eolirin: Then they should order that the program should be shut down immediately.
Kelly
NPR White House Correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben
bsky.app/profile/titonka.bsky.social/post/3lmrwi4hwvc2k
cain
@Eolirin: Based on a conversation with Trump no doubt. He was directed to say that.
scav
Actually, I think I can see maybe the busy hand of the director setting up the backdrop for the he-man heroic orange to beat his 100% healthy chest and shout “Let my people go!” and thus instantly prove to all the world is his oyster to command.
cain
@Kelly: Yep, he intends to sow fear in the U.S. population. His maga supporters think they are safe.
Even the GOP should be worried that they are creating black sites to hold U.S. citizens. That economy is still not going to fare well and it’ll get worse because there will be no talent either.
Eolirin
@Baud: Oh of course not. Trump’s going to hide behind that is all. Now we see what the courts do.
Kelly
@cain: Guantanamo Bay prison was the point of the wedge.
Eolirin
@cain: I’m pretty sure a lot of them know what’s up. The ones that aren’t true believers anyway. But they’ll also know going after disloyal party members is step one, and Republican political officials have been self-selecting for cowardice for decades.
Harrison Wesley
@cain: They’re all nostalgic for that old variety show, Marty Niemoller’s MAGA Memories. Remember the tag line “first they came for…”?
Eolirin
@WaterGirl: If we’re lucky the Court will do that, but given the way they’ve been trying to thread the needle on letting Trump do what he wants, I’m not holding my breath.
This is the response they’re going to take to the courts though. And then claim the courts can’t involve themselves in foreign affairs
It’s a pretty little loophole that prevents oversight over any action they take to detain people if it’s allowed to stand. Probably the single most dangerous thing they’re doing, even with the threat of tariffs turning the US economy into a smoking crater.
Belafon
@Eolirin:
Judges should argue that since Garcia was not given the due process rights he was due, he is still the responsibility of the US government and must appear in front of a US judge.
oldgold
You would think that even our moronic media would have asked this one straightforward question of President Bukele: “If President Trump asked you to return Abrego Garcia, would you?”
Instead we got some garbled half-assed unfocused inquiry that allowed him to get away with an idiotic response.
COLLINS: Can President Bukele weigh in on this? Do you plan to return Garcia?
BUKELE: How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous
Ruckus
This has been a constitutional government my entire life.
Almost 76 years as a citizen of this country, 3 1/2 years in the USN, during a war, supposedly protecting democracy and this has been a constitutional government for much longer than I’ve been around and we have some half assed, supposedly wealthy jack off trying to break every law and custom of what, 200 years? And why? Because he’s a pompous, arrogant, dumbass who thinks his shit doesn’t stink. It may not but he reeks more than any one else ever has in this country’s entire existence.
Soprano2
@New Deal democrat: The whole point of this exercise is to send a message that they can disappear anyone to a foreign gulag that they will never, ever get out of. Just like what Stalin and other communist dictators did.
cmorenc
A right without a remedy is no right at all. It’s merely pretty words that are empty of any substance.
Melancholy Jaques
@Old Man Shadow:
Can’t wait to read the stern letter.
Ken B
@Harrison Wesley: The guy that torched the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion was almost certainly a right winger; but the right-wingers that listen to WMAL and other right wing lie factories ‘know’ that it was a liberal.
ETA: That’s part of what we’re up against.
cain
@Ruckus: Never has a green card holder have had so much power.
cmorenc
So someone wrongly deported from the US to a jail in El Salvador must file their habeas corpus petitiion in El Salvador? Or does the detainee held in El Salvador need to file in whatever venue the last facility on US soil they were detained in prior to being deported to El Salvador? What if they are e.g. in a facility in NYC and file but are then promtly moved to South Texas? Seems like the right venue under SCOTUS majority position is an arbitrary, moving target. The correct answer should be that they are entitled to file *either* in the venue where they were taken into custody or any intermediate facility where they are transported. Does filing the habeas petition prevent the government from then promptly moving them to a different venue before a judge gets to rule on the petition?
cain
@oldgold:
Did they accept the label of “terrorist”? That would be breathtakingly bad if they did not push back.
cain
@Eolirin: they had every opportunity to stop him. But they wanted to stay in power and keep holding office.
History will record their lack of principles. How they failed their oath to the constitution. Sullied the Bible of which they took their oath.
Anyway
So did some people on this blog that pointed fingers at FreePalestine/BDS without a scintilla of evidence
ETA: Not a good look
Bupalos
@Eolirin: I don’t know that this is unclear. The question was whether he would return him I believe and his answer was that it was a ridiculous question because what, is he going to smuggle an illegal into the United States?
That answer means the administration did not ‘ask him to.’
I think the reporter then said “release” and he said that’s ridiculous, they aren’t in the business of releasing prisoners onto the street and going back to being the murder capital of the world.
The implications here really aren’t unclear. The U.S. is treating him as a criminal illegal alien and is not seeking his return.
Ruckus
@cain:
Who is the green card holder?
shitforbrains was born in Queens, NY and I was born in LA, CA.
Bupalos
@Soprano2: This is correct.
I begin to doubt that it was even a mistake for the government lawyer to use language calling the deportation a mistake. At the least, they are pivoting off of it, and now Trump creates new language for escalation, the “home-growns.”
Deputinize America
@cmorenc:
The Constitution of the USSR had a lot of fictive rights that sounded pretty but were never enforced.
Deputinize America
@Kelly:
So, exile to a foreign jurisdiction it is, then.
I’ll throw in these phrases from the Declaration of Independence:
scav
@Deputinize America: Suddenly I want to storm a ship in the harbor and throw Teslas into the bay.
cain
@Ruckus: I thought you were referring to Musk
WaterGirl
@Kelly: That’s disgusting.
Ruckus
@cain:
OK, I can see by my comment that it would be easy to make that mistake. And elon and shitforbrains are very likely in a common folder in the attorney general’s office….. for the same reasons.
Eolirin
The real thing to keep an eye on is how long it takes for them to grab a reporter critical of the administration and send them to one of these out of country sites.
But in slightly happier news it seems like Harvard is telling Trump to fuck off. Worth seeing where that goes too.
Spanky
All this, and the markets are up about a percent because Daddy decided to postpone the
beatingtariffs.I’m starting to think this country is getting what it deserves.
WaterGirl
@Eolirin: I thought Harvard had already folded and given Trump what he wanted?
Betting Harvard heard from thousands of alumni with deep pockets and decided maybe rolling over wasn’t in their best interest long term.
WaterGirl
@Spanky:
Perhaps collectively, but not individually. Or vice versa. Hmm, I will need to give this further thought!
I kind of fell like we need a kittens and baby animals thread, or some soothing music. This is not a great beginning to the week!
Joy in FL
The comments from Joyce Vance got me to call my rep and senators again today. The list of recent calls on my phone shows a lot of calls to them.
For the first time, a person picked up in Senator Moody’s office. She was gracious and said she would pass on my comments (about the Supreme Court and making the Constitution the anchor for her votes and her actions).
In Rep Bilirakis’s office, I spoke to one of his less gracious staffers. Usually they are friendly, even though I am obviously not a fan. But this person did the absolute minimum in taking the message.
I left a voice mail for Senator Scott, which is usual for his office.
Joyce Vance is so right. I think we each have our thresholds of what we can actively deal with. Her comments pushed me to do what I actively can do, which is pick up the phone and use my voice on behalf of human rights and Americans’ rights. Separate but related: I was on the phone with Fetch pet insurance about finding a less expensive tier for my 9 year old tuxedo, Hermes. The person was very nice, and I thought, “I have a captive audience here,” so I said that the deliberate chaos that the prezident is causing, combined with his threats to social security, were making me re-think my budget. I’m glad I thought to throw that in, I hope I remember to do that whenever it can be done as I conduct business.
BTW, there is another Hands Off protest here in Pasco County on Saturday from 11-1. I’m going for about 45 minutes. My Hands Off t-shirt arrived, so I will be wearing that. I like that the event on April 5 was not a one-off.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@WaterGirl: How much $ does Harvard need?
New Deal democrat
@Soprano2: We’ll, step 1 panned out exactly as I thought.
Step 2 will probably take place in 24-48 hours.
WaterGirl
@Joy in FL: Fetch, formerly Pet Plan (which was awesome years ago) raised my rates like crazy – this year they nearly doubled from last year, and last year’s rates were up a crazy amount from the year before.
They wanted $17,300 to insure my 3 guys this year.
After 15 years with them, I told them to fuck off and did not renew.
Maybe a rage post about Fetch on the front page would help me vent some of my anger about all the disgusting and deliberate destruction?
edit: that is a good idea, though, to tie what’s going on into every possible conversation. Grocery stores, the drug store, everywhere. I have also been adding “and it’s only going to get worse.”
Belafon
@Spanky: You want to see people living in a fantasy world, go read the article titles at CNBC.
Melancholy Jaques
@Spanky:
“[S]hall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?” A. Lincoln
Geminid
@Anyway: I thought that was a stretch too, but it was one person, not “some people.”
rikyrah
@Eolirin:
If you have a muthaphuckin’ 50 BILLION Dollar Endowment..
yeah, you need to speak up.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
My guess is that Harvard is like any billionaire, no amount of money is ever enough, regardless of how much they already have.
Joy in FL
@WaterGirl: Hermes’ insurance went up about $200 from last year. And last year, I lowered the annual cap from 15k to 10k. This year, if I renew with them, it will be a 5k cap. I pay annually because I hate having a bunch of monthly expenses to cover. Back in 2018, I picked PetPlan/Fetch because it was highly spoken of here on BJ. I’ve never made a claim, so I don’t know how good or not they are with that. Many years ago, I had a dog whose life would have been longer and healthy if I had the money to get her medical care the moment I thought something might be wrong, but I had no financial flexibility back then. The memory of what she went through is the main reason I want to be able to tell a vet to do everything that can be done (as long as the animal has quality of life).
I got quotes from Lemonade, which has good reviews online. The costs don’t vary a lot from Fetch. I have some time to think about what I want to do.
Good luck with your insurance decision.
Belafon
@rikyrah: I’m just glad they are doing something. The lack of institutions in doing the right thing isn’t helping.
Steve in the ATL
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: exactly. See also: the Vatican.
Steve in the ATL
@WaterGirl: nationwide cut our coverage way back. Said they’ve been losing money and couldn’t provide the same level of coverage as before. Maybe an industry wide issue? Or maybe we are part of the problem since one of our covered is an English. Bulldog….
Jeffro
I’m glad to see Harvard telling the Orange Airhorn he can stuff it.
Other universities better wake up and get with the program, too. He will take them down one by one just like these pathetic big law firms.
Jeffro
OT but wanted to share a really good piece by Solomon Jones in the Philly Inquirer that echos some of the sentiments we’ve shared here recently: Why Many Black Folks Won’t Join Anti-Trump Protests
(gift link)
Tazj
Sadly, one of the things Trump is good at is stoking fear and somehow convincing people that he can protect them. He throws in that story about someone who would push someone else off a subway platform and that would be a person he would send off to the foreign gulag. Problem solved, now you have nothing to fear.
The answer to reducing crime and harm is much more complicated. Change the architecture in the subway so that you can’t easily push someone off a platform and onto the train tracks. Provide a bigger social safety net and more access to mental health care and yes sometimes more security in the subway.
I’m afraid that there aren’t enough people who will care about others being unjustly imprisoned until it is too late. And I don’t know what the Supreme Court or anyone else in our government can or will do in reaction to this. I’d love to be proven wrong about everything and I’m still hoping I will be.
Harrison Wesley
H. L. Mencken was (IMO) a right-wing asshole, but his positing that “democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard” seems oddly prescient.
Martin
USSC is so busy protecting the court they’re missing that the message being sent that if you are visiting the US as a tourist, for a work meeting, the US can pick you up and dump you in a prison in the country of our choice and has zero responsiblity to help you or your home country get you out.
There are no legal protections in the US that can be relied on because the constitution is no longer being extended to people present in our country. That is also an expression that we do not fundamentally believe in those protections, only in the nature of the person. Americans deserve protection but nobody else does.
USSC sending a dangerous message. Congress is complicit with that message.
scav
Still thinking. Trump may have found his newest yo-yo to keep the media and other attention on him. The tariff yo-yo was getting a little tattered and beginning to generate mutterings of weakness on his part. Now with two in play he can be off again! Coy little dances of will-he-won’t-he, claiming to not saying what everyone heard him say, friction burns from his come-hither eyelash fluttering. The yo-yo will be milked.
Steve LaBonne
@Martin: Don’t bet on US citizens continuing to have those protections. Trump has already floated trial balloons about sending citizens to Salvadoran prisons.
WaterGirl
@Joy in FL: i was probably the person raving about Pet Plan back then. They used to be awesome.
Yeah, after I lost my kitty soulmate in 2009, I made the same decision as you. Never again. But $17,300 – not even including deductibles or anything else – was just crazy. No way could I do that.
Because I’m part of the state university system, I am eligible to buy some “optional” benefits, one of which is pet insurance.
They offer only a $250 deductible, and only up to $7,500 coverage per year. You can choose between 50% and 70% reimbursement.
I chose 70%. My 3 guys will cost me $3,600 in premiums for the year. So I figure that’s sort of my “catastrophic” coverage, and when there are issues, I’ll be paying 30% instead of 10% after deductible, but compared to $17,300, it seemed like the obvious choice.
A Ghost to Most
Some people only want to hear what they want to hear.
jonas
@Martin: We have both the FIFA World Cup and Olympics coming up over the next couple of years. That’s usually a BFD for a host country, but what foreign athlete or sports fan in their right mind wants to visit the US at this point? Cities like LA, though, have already invested billions in infrastructure improvements and the like at this point. I don’t know if the IOC can literally just cancel an Olympic Games at this point, but they have to be mapping out contigency plans in case half the world decides to boycott or Trump declares he’s slapping a $1000 port-of-entry fee on every incoming athlete or something.
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: Oh, great. (Not) Nationwide is who my new group is through the University.
Yeah, more people are insuring their pets, which means more people are likely getting more expensive procedures because they don’t have to totally pay out of pocket. But doubling rates or nearly doubling them or increasing them by 50% year after year is bullshit.
WaterGirl
@Jeffro: Does no one remember their mom telling them there is safety in numbers?
If everyone told him to fuck off, he could hurt everyone a little bit but he can’t crush everyone.
WaterGirl
@Tazj: The new maladministration is
likea protection racket. And they’re willing to break legs and kill people. Literally and figuratively.WaterGirl
@jonas: Both sets of games should be moved to other countries
Belafon
@WaterGirl: I believe the lesson over the last 40 years has been 2nd Amendment.
Jay
Foreign Student Quota’s for Universities and Colleges Canada wide were cut and capped by institution last year.
This was both a good thing, and a bad thing.
The good, was that many Colleges and some Universities were providing a “diploma mill” Education at usury costs. While the rules limit Foreign Students to a max of 20 working hours a month, to help them pay for their costs, some Employer’s were taking advantage of the students in regards to hours, pay, benefits, employment conditions, etc. Some students were taking advantage of the system, by working full time and not attending classes, (aka Edolph-ing the system).
The bad, is that Foreign Students were effectively subsidizing Post Secondary Education, and with no Federal funding to back fill that lost income, there were major cuts across the board to staff and programs.
UBC has successfully argued that given the situation in the US, Grad students from US programs, holding a US student visa, a Green Card or US Citizen, should be allowed to transfer to Canada to continue their education in a safe environment. A capped trial program has been approved for the summer semester at UBC and if successful, will probably be opened up Canada wide for the fall semester at certain Universities.
prostratedragon
Within the last hour or so [my emphasis]:
WTFGhost
“The president acting lawlessly, in spite of his Constitutional duty to see that the laws are faithfully executed, is *not* a Constitutional crisis. It’s only a Constitutional crisis when he wipes his ass with the original Constitution, and flushes it down, but only if the SCOTUS has decreed he doesn’t have the authority to desecrate and destroy that document. Also: we’ll need someone to capture the, uh, evidence that the document was flushed. And then, we’ll have to dismiss the resulting indictment, because the President can’t be indicted, and he’s pardoned all members of the criminal conspiracy. But if that did happen, that would be a constitutional crisis, no doubt. We just couldn’t do anything about it. So you can see why I don’t call the current situation a constitutional crisis.”
Steve LaBonne
@prostratedragon: They are edging ever closer to grabbing citizens.
prostratedragon
@Steve LaBonne: Almost as if it’s being staged.
cain
@Steve in the ATL:
So Nationwide is not on your side.
WTFGhost
Well… one of the problems is, America is in the middle of a religious war, among other things. Evangelical zealots are finding reasons to say “no matter what you read in the Christian Bible, Paul (the real hero of the New Testament), and God, and the Holy Spirit, and, oh, yeah, that Jesus guy (ignore him) – they all say you should hate immigrants. You should also hate gay and trans people. You must hate Muslims. And, of course, you must despise the horrible people who say immigrants, and Jesus, and gay, and trans folk, and Muslims are okay.”
Fighting a religious war is not easy. The SCOTUS is captured. The Republican Party is captured. Trump isn’t captured, but he gets a special tickle in his root when people tell him he is God’s chosen organ of righteousness.
(Said “organ” is, in common parlance, the arsehole. God doesn’t generate poop, he doesn’t eat, so he needs someone who can generate bullshit by the ton… okay, if you explain a joke, you ruin it.)
More seriously: yes, we have a lot of people who think that any cruelty you see is necessary and blessed. And one thing you need to be ready to do, is look at one of those people – the people saying this cruelty is necessary and blessed – as if they were disemboweling… um… I think I’m going too dark, here. Lessee, “disembowelings” – yeah, not a common topic of lighthearted commentary.
Ahem. When you look at “religious” people who swear this is blessed work, you need to look like you found a family of dead racoons under your porch, with racoon poo (which is toxic) all over, including in the little tunnel they bored into your crawl space. Dead animals, stink like DJT used the toilet, toxin like DJT spoke, and as evil as completely uninterested, uncaring evil can get – those racoons weren’t trying to cause massive home repair expenses, they just did.
That’s how you want to look at these people.
Not “everyone who voted for Trump,” mind you. The people who think that you can do this shit to people, and it’s okay, and, in fact, holy.
Because they need to realize there’s going to be a big passel of resistance, and eventually, if they want to wage war against all that’s good and decent, all that’s good and decent will be glad to do the turkey gobble stomp all over their… over… their… I’m getting dark, again, aren’t I? Sigh.
TB Hill
@Eolirin: “El Salvadorian President is refusing to return the guy”
Which is hilarious, since their government is bought and paid for by the US. They wouldn’t dare refuse unless that was the plan.
rikyrah
@prostratedragon:
IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS APPOINTMENT TO BECOME A CITIZEN
dnfree
@cmorenc: Very well expressed.
WTFGhost
(delete)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Eolirin:
What’s it going to take for other countries to no longer consider the US a “safe” country by “global standards” and accept asylum applications by Americans? Because this is starting to look pretty damn scary. Moving to a blue state isn’t going to cut it. That didn’t protect Abrego Garcia
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
It’s an International Treaty. It will take a while, Governments work slow.
In Canada, the Fed’s have accepted UBC’s proposal that the US and US Universities are no longer a “safe place” for US Grad students, Green Card holder grad students, Visa grad card students, and is trialing a program for the summer semester, to lift some of the caps on “Foreign Students” to allow them to study here.
If it works, certain caps will be lifted at all Universities in the fall.
Many Colleges, nope. too many were using them as “cash cows” and “temporary foreign workers”. It will take a while to set up rules and regulations, and decide court cases.
Instead of the usual 1500, 2nd “Safe Country” Asylum applicants, seen in Quebec and Ontario, in March and April, (most who get denied, First Safe country rule), Immigration is dealing with 75,000 just in those 2 Provinces.
Redshift
@New Deal democrat:
They’ve pretty much been trying that repeatedly, to no avail. They can order the dismissal of cases they’ve brought, they can’t order a judge to dismiss someone else’s case. If it comes to a point where they can do that, you don’t really need the Supreme Court or any other further items on your list, because we don’t have a judicial system any more.
Color me skeptical on that point. The Roberts Court may screw us, but I haven’t seen any evidence lower court judges are inclined to jump on the train to their own profession’s demise.
Redshift
@rikyrah:
Huh, was it actually a legitimate appointment? When I saw that earlier, I just assumed they “invited” him in so they could kidnap him at their leisure.
Jay
@Redshift:
From what I understand, it was a long scheduled Citizenship Exam.
You know, where you answer questions like “what is the 1st Amendment”, to prove that you know the Constitution, that no longer applies.
Gloria DryGarden
Politics girl has an emergency announcement post, today, about the very topic of departing people legally present in this country.
Matt McIrvin
@Eolirin: If Trump doesn’t have the authority to get him returned, he especially shouldn’t be sending anybody there. At best, this is like the lost records of the kidnapped children in Trump’s first administration-weaponized incompetence.