What I don't get is how is Trump going to change minds on the wall? He's been making his case for 3.5 years now… and consistently voters have been against it.
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) January 7, 2019
He’s not trying to ‘change minds’, of course; he’s trying to prop up his shrinking base. And his Repub enablers are here for it!
Need a second source, but my early reporting suggests that "New York" (sp?) is also part of the United States. https://t.co/uPjM20Hb3r
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 7, 2019
Normal people, not so much:
This new class of Dems is really great. https://t.co/ZB1JMZHqUS
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) January 6, 2019
Important to remember: Dems gained forty House seats in an election that Trump was trying to turn into a border referendum, sending troops and everything.
The new Dems have zero fear about how the “border crisis” plays. https://t.co/FmXWXpWH83
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 7, 2019
No recent public polling on this, but reminder that a December @QuinnipiacPoll showed that attaching the shutdown to the wall made an already unpopular policy (43% support/54% oppose) even less popular (34% support/62% oppose): pic.twitter.com/2SaDyj2WZb
— Nick Gourevitch (@nickgourevitch) January 7, 2019
Never. The only times he’s moved up in polls is when he’s been relatively silent, or when he doesn’t make natural disasters worse
Now, what about Repub Senators? Can he persuade them to join him on a suicide mission? Or will they finally persuade _him_ to do what he needs to do? https://t.co/boraKdzEau
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 7, 2019
Ominous foreshadowing music…
Israel Channel 10 cuts away in the middle of Netanyahu's "dramatic announcement" once it becomes clear he's just complaining about minutiae of the investigations against him.
— Arieh Kovler (@ariehkovler) January 7, 2019
debbie
The responses to Grassley’s tweet are very encouraging. We will weather this shitstorm.
dmsilev
@debbie: I guess “we are all New Yorkers now” had an expiration date associated with it. Maybe it only counted when Rudy! was still Mayor?
Cheryl Rofer
@debbie: That’s a good point. It’s my policy never to read tweet responses, but I have been sneaking some peeks lately, and I am seeing that sort of thing more and more, including toward Trump’s tweets. People are fed up with the drama.
debbie
@dmsilev:
Trump may still be upset he only got 14% of the vote in Manhattan in 2016.
rikyrah
Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) Tweeted:
As for the report — again: https://t.co/kd6mXzvAA6 — here’s the first story: America Engaged, you’ve never heard of it but it exists and has been funding groups involved in SCOTUS nomination fights.
https://t.co/QrztLRJs5y https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/1082354810542792705?s=17
trollhattan
@debbie:
They will never accept him, the wannabe socialite from Queens. Pity.
Baud
Text of Democratic response:
#IWish
Gelfling 545
He’s not trying to convince anybody. He just wants to get his ugly mug on tv and preen.
A Ghost To Most
GFC Harry Enten, everybody “gets it” but you. Doofus.
Trump’s orders from Moscow are to sow as much damage as possible. A solution doesn’t help him.
People need to start kicking Yertle’s ass continually to move him him off his corrupted ass.
Ridnik Chrome
“S-M-R-T” spells “death” in most Slavic languages.
debbie
@Cheryl Rofer:
Especially tweets like these:
and especially this one:
Pogonip
I can solve this immigration thing in a year. Any company caught employing illegal aliens, the CEO or owner goes to prison—real prison, not country-club prison—for 5 years the first offense, 10, the second, 15 the third. “I didn’t know he was illegal” will not be a valid defense. Why should it? “I didn’t see the sign” is not a valid defense against speeding in most jurisdictions.
There. Now take all the money saved and put those poor Feds back to work.
debbie
@trollhattan:
In the 1980s and 1990s, he was considered outrageous in an amusing kind of way. I will never forgive Liz Smith, Page Six, etc. for egging him on. They made him who he has become.
lamh36
The big 3 nets will air the bullshit
https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1082421856077049858
Nicole
@debbie:
I think most of the blame goes to Mark Burnett. Trump was yesterday’s news prior to The Apprentice.
Martin
Shorter Grassley – no f-bombs from the Oval, please. And fuck Grassley.
-Signed, a former NYer.
debbie
@lamh36:
i can’t say I blame them. The levels of abuse from Trump and his followers far outweigh what will hopefully be a shortish address.
Baud
@lamh36:
Thank God for HGTV.
jl
It is, IMHO, a damned national crisis that the corporate media is pretending this is an actual serious policy issue. As typed before, every news and pundit piece on $Wall$ should start with a disclaimer:
$Wall$ started as a campaign stunt that even Trump thought was stupid until it got big cheers. It is obvious that Trump has given his $Wall$ policy no thought as an actual program since then. Trump, or $WallDaddy$ as we will refer to him from now on, reneged on two compromises over the last year, because racist nitwits told him any compromise from his insane demands would hurt him with his base. $Wall$ is a fraud, but we have to discuss because the President is wreaking havoc over this campaign stunt.
#$Wall$
#$Daddy Warbucks$
#$WallDaddy$
Martin
@Nicole: Plenty of blame to go around. Trump should have been told to fuck off back in the 70s. They kept giving him the spotlight, and he kept jumping through their hoops. The Apprentice only brought that to the national stage.
@trollhattan has it right – he grew up being told that money bought you culture, but eating KFC on your gold jet just means you’re an assclown with too much money. The NY status class always hated the guy, and the more money he got, the more they hated him. Sure they hate him even more now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I haven’t gotten to that NYer article yet, maybe this evening. It is amazing how many people think the serial bankrupt aging trust-funder is a skilled businessman cause he played one on TV. Not just on TV… ON A FUCKING GAME SHOW! Sorry for shouting
debbie
@Martin:
Exactly. He quickly learned that the more outrageous his statements were, the more attention he would get. Idiots.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
I don’t know if Donald Trump is a motherfucker, but there’s good reason to believe he’s a daughterfucker.
Pupjoint
Putin’s Testament:
Trump is too crude; and this defect, which is wholly bearable inside our milleu and in relations among ourselves, becomes intolerable in the post of US President. I therefore make a proposal for comrades to think of a way to remove Trump and in his place appoint someone else who is distinguished from comrade Trump in all other respects through having the singular superior feature of being more patient, more loyal, more courteous and more attentive to comrades, less capricious, etc.
JPL
@Roger Moore: Why not both
jl
@jl: Meant to type $DaddyWallbuck$.
I guess it’s a crummy meme if even I can’t remember it, but I’ll push it a few more times to see it takes off.
Baud
Good primer on Trump’s national emergency authority.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/can-president-trump-fund-wall-declaring-national-emergency
Roger Moore
@Martin:
Yes. For example, if we had a functioning criminal justice system, Trump would have gone to prison for money laundering long before he considered running for office.
Shana
@trollhattan: You know, if he’d actually behaved like the people he wanted to accept him, by actually following through and paying the money he pledged at fundraising events and not pushing himself onto the dais in place of the people who’d actually been invited onto the dais, I bet they would have accepted him more. Of course he’s an a*&hole and would probably have done other things they wouldn’t have liked, but if you want to be accepted by the rich people in any major city, you have to do the things they do, and a lot of the social events are charitable fundraising events. He routinely stiffed them even if he pledged and eventually he just stopped being invited.
lamh36
@debbie: hell no…I do blame them…fuq ’em
jl
@Baud: Thanks.
I think this sorry situation shows us the advantages, the sheer competence and efficiency, of a Baud 2020! administration.
Upon inauguration, Baud 2020!’s first words of his inaugural address would declare a perpetual national emergency due to the immediately preceding catastrophe.
And that Baud 2020! would go with whatever competent people figured how it should work, because, that kind of wonky shit was way above his pay grade.
So, transparency was well.
Frankensteinbeck
To beat my dead horse, you give him too much credit. He’s whining because he’s not getting what he wants.
catclub
@Roger Moore:
has any banker ever gone to prison for moneylaundering? Fines, i see a lot of those. Prison? For rich white guys? not so much.
Immanentize
@Frankensteinbeck:
Perhaps “prop up” and “shrinking” might be best left to Stormy’s description of Toad?
Mnemosyne
@Shana:
That whole “seating himself on the dais” thing was 100 percent unadulterated toxic narcissist behavior. They break norms that people without NPD would never dare to break and then challenge other people to throw them out. And they think that doing these things makes them smarter than other people because they think that no one else thought of doing it, not that it’s such an assholish thing to do that a normal person’s conscience stops them before they do it. Even a sociopath realizes that breaking every social norm draws unwanted attention, but not a narcissist. They break every norm and then challenge people to try and penalize them for it without being publicly embarrassed by the narc’s resulting temper tantrum.
The Dangerman
@Frankensteinbeck:
To go on live TV while actively sundowning? Just about anything could happen, including dropping trou to show it doesn’t look laike Mario Kart.
Immanentize
@catclub:
Yes, many. But most were involved in drug dealing banking, not real estate.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Amen. Tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. EST: new episodes of Windy City Rehab, House Hunters and House Hunters International. Yee-haw.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Frankensteinbeck:
And the emergency powers of the presidency will enable him to get exactly what he wants, if he has the guts to use them, and he will be the dictator he’s always wanted to be.
Immanentize
@The Dangerman: I see you and I are same-thinking.
mark
We’ve all seen America’s trash foaming at the mouth when the Buffoon get’s up and spews his hate about brown people.
PaulWartenberg
What I am worried about is that trump is going to use this “emergency” to pull a lot of other goddamn dictatorial shit to ruin our nation further.
geg6
@Frankensteinbeck:
This.
jl
@geg6: That Trump doesn’t know what he wants makes it even more exciting to him. He can damn well wreck the country and millions of people over nothing. He likes that.
The WH can’t decide on a number, or at least Trump changes the number as soon as one of his flunkies makes one official. They don’t even have a plan for $Wall$ other than whatever vague nonsense that $WallDaddy$ is sputtering at the moment. They can’t produce a plan for how they’ll spend even this $5 billion starter money for sea-to-sea $Wall$, or at least the fact that they couldn’t is one of the reasons one of the negotiation sessions broke up with nothing done.
Yet the corporate news media is foisting this fetid nonsense on the country as a legitimate issue. The country is supposed to pretend this obvious bullcrap is a real issue. It isn’t. It is $Daddy Wallbucks$ throwing a tantrum.
zhena gogolia
Saw this great suggestion on the Twitter machine:
Tom Servo, Crow, and Gypsy!
Shana
@Mnemosyne: Yep.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I know a lot of people hate Axelrod, and he says a lot of dumb stuff, but he agrees with me here so I’m gonna quote him
please god, let it be brief
Roger Moore
@Shana:
Trump’s basic problem is that it always has to be about him. He can’t manage long-term projects like going along with social conventions to make friends because he can’t delay gratification that long.
Steve in the ATL
I will now recreate in its entirety the wine list at the Red Barn, the only non-chain restaurant in Demopolis, Alabama:
WINE:
Glass — $3
Aaaaaaand scene!
lamh36
Wow…this is a bunch of fuq’n excuses Bryan. And we are supposed to expect the media to fact check Trump when ya’ll can even admit the malfeasances ya’ll conducted during the Obama presidency…
raven
@Steve in the ATL: 12 minutes till kickoff!
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
This is making me sick. Luckily we’ll be in NYC with the TV turned off.
tobie
I don’t know about you folks but I’ll be relying on Daniel Dale’s twitter feed tomorrow to find out what happened. Seeing Shitgibbon would ruin my evening and cause me nightmares.
lamh36
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: CBS claiming it’s supposed to be only 8 minutes…which sound like bullshit. what the fuq can he say in 8 dan minutes of any substance?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: Conway is probably terrified if he had to read a prompter any longer he’d actually say, ‘oh fuck this’ and just start riffing on live TeeVee
lamh36
At this point…I totally believe this to be the truth about this entire thing.
Chump talks for 8 minutes and the media gets to talk about it for 8 hours & more..therefore disseminating the bullshit everywhere….
Steve in the ATL
@lamh36: “I’m guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and am resigning effective immediately, as is Pence as he is also up to his eyeballs in high crimes and misdemeanors, except that his mostly involve Russia and don’t include emoluments violations as mine do. Please congratulate President Pelosi!”
Other than that, he can say nothing that we want to hear.
Emma
@Martin: Actually, they don’t hate him because he got rich. They despise him because he’s a cheapskate. In New York, the mega rich get their status from how much money they give away. And we’re talking lots and lots of zeros before the dot. The Trumps’ chickenshit operations wouldn’t even make a grain of sand on a beach.
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
He’s going to declare a national emergency and seize extraordinary powers. That’s my nightmare. Doesn’t take long to say.
zhena gogolia
@Steve in the ATL:
Oh, don’t tease me like that!
scav
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: And I somehow imagine that given the talents of this first individual that 8 minutes of rope will somehow prove enough.
and, moreover, that the devotedly blind will continue enthusiastically not to see it.
chris
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m not going to watch but I won’t be surprised if there’s a crowd of flunkies to clap and cheer or maybe an applause track.
Timurid
@lamh36:
The MSM will play ball as long as Trump’s support remains firm with the only two demographics that matter:
People who can end your career with one phone call and people that could be waiting for you in the parking garage with a machete.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@debbie:
Fair enough. Don’t disagree, but suspect it’s some incomplete. It’s like saying if only Hitler had been able to sell a painting, the world woulda been spared his atrocities. Society either encourages or disincentivizes certain behaviors, imo.
Trump thrived inna political terrarium of decades-long malign neglect. One in which facts don’t mean shit if they contradict Gooper orthodoxies. In which there ain’t no price — at fucking all — to be paid for being a shameless fucking liar. In which aggressive lying was in fact richly rewarded. That ain’t Trump’s sole doing, he just weaponized the fuck outt’ve it. Movement conservatism is squarely to blame for that rank despicable ecosystem.
Rather than an aberration from Gooper Madness, I see Trump more as the culmination — the apotheosis — of 50 years a movement conservatism, the Southern Strategy spirit made flesh. Seems to me that Trump became who he is because the ground for reality-based discourse had long ago been salted and covered over in quick-lime and the well of good faith had been poisoned by the inviolate ideological prison of Cleek’s Law. And that pathogen in the body politic was introduced, nurtured and disseminated broadly by party-over-country Republicans. Trump is just its ugly manifestation.
imo
Juice Box
Iowa has a population of 3 million. NYC has a population of almost 9 million. So, you can see why the opinions of Iowans are more important than New Yorkers, of course. Chuck Grassley is probably in favor of one acre, one vote.
lamh36
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: doesn’t matter..the address may be short…but the MSM including folks like Axelrod and his employers at CNN will turn that short address into hours and possibly days of news coverage until something else interrupts it
Steeplejack
@lamh36:
When does he say anything of substance no matter how much time he has?!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@chris: you raise a good point, I’m kind of surprised he’s not filming this before a live studio audience, as they used to say on old sitcoms. As I said earlier, the formality of the Oval Office will just diminish him that much more.
I wonder if he’ll have his colorist(s) in beforehand. MSNBC was playing a clip of him promising that Mexico would pay for the wall, and his hair was so blond it was almost white. And he thinks that bronzer looks great!
Steve in the ATL
@raven: yeah it’s kind of a big deal round these parts!
schrodingers_cat
Not going to watch the aspiring dictator.
A Ghost To Most
@Steeplejack: All the home improvement shows I watch anymore are about off the grid homes.
JPL
@Steve in the ATL: Don’t drink it. just sayin
A Ghost To Most
@raven:
Haven’t we seen this movie before?
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Narrator: It would not be brief.
lamh36
I still AIN’T watching the View…will have to see afterwards.
Baud
@lamh36: It’s getting interesting.
OldDave
@Steve in the ATL:
I had to turn to Google Maps to see where you are. You’re obviously lost.
A Ghost To Most
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He’ll probably be in just his briefs behind the desk – does that count?
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36:
Remember, Customs & Border Patrol and ICE have jurisdiction within 100 miles of the border and/or any international point of entry into the US. This means that they have jurisdiction over the lives of between 68 and 75% of all Americans, as that’s the percentage of Americans that live within 100 miles of the border and/or any international point of entry into the US. If Stephen Miller words the executive order correctly, between 2/3 and 3/4 of all Americans will be living under de facto martial law.
Roger Moore
@catclub:
I did presuppose a working criminal justice system, so the current system’s unwillingness to prosecute white collar criminals should not be an objection.
Steeplejack
@A Ghost To Most:
I always wonder if they’re building someplace sketchy/illegal (especially in Alaska) and how they’re planning to handle sewage/waste. They never seem to cover that in detail, but I haven’t seen a lot of the shows. And they always seem to do at least one dickish thing, like “Let’s divert this small desert stream to provide water for our hot tub.”
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Adam L Silverman:
The Boy Who Cried Wolf, as played by the Emperor With No Clothes.
schrodingers_cat
Mnem will like this
From alt_uscis twitter feed
I have a serious question for general whatever kelly: Did you and Secretary Nielsen bang? Rumors. Put them to bed.
A Ghost To Most
@Steve in the ATL: So you will not be rooting loudly for Clemson, I take it?
Martin
Meanwhile, in a functional government:
Medi-Cal is the state’s Medicaid program. These are good continuing moves. I think there’s enough interest in the state to get to single payer, but an unclear path to get there. Negotiating drug prices advances cost controls. Backfilling the mandate revenue gives the state continued room to operate. It’s also a bit of a test of what the courts will allow the state to do.
As noted in the article, the legislature wants to go further, so it’s extremely likely we’ll at least get this plan. Also noted:
That will be worth watching.
RAVEN
Pick 6 Clemson
MagdaInBlack
@Adam L Silverman:
Ya know….I’m not prone to panic because I consider it a waste of energy…but I’m feeling a few flutterings of “concern” I’d like you to put down.
lamh36
Steve in the ATL
@A Ghost To Most: dude, I couldn’t even TYPE that here!
@OldDave: luckily, there are several Baptist churches here so I was lost but soon will be found. Praise the Lord Jay-sus!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I wonder if any of the MSNBC prime time liberals will mention this
Steve in the ATL
@RAVEN: Clemson is the ‘85 Bears—defense outscores the offense! In the last two minutes, anyway.
lamh36
@Baud: this isn’t an official account…so really I doubt it’s true…still like I said…I ain’t watching the View to see if it’s true
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Wow. I gotta think that came from Nancy D’Alessandro herself
Martin
@Adam L Silverman: It’s got to be higher than that. Every international airport is a port of entry. Surely more than ¾ of the country lives within 100 miles of one, a port, a border crossing, etc.
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The media is Republican, the big bosses are and their paid flunkies are R enablers with their what aboutery and both-sides do it, misinformation. They are as responsible for current R dysfunction as the R officeholders.
Steve in the ATL
@Adam L Silverman: this is why I’m hiding out in rural Alabama!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: Dave Weigel was on the O’Bros’ podcast today, and he confirmed what my long-distance view sugggested: Warren had a really good trip to Iowa. She was drawing overflow crowds in western Iowa, where Dems typically don’t do that well. I haven’t picked a candidate, and I don’t know how Warren will do over the long haul, but she’s off to a good start. I imagine a lot of Dems are wishing they’d jumped early, too.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
I honestly think the biggest obstacle to getting California to single payer is Prop 98. If we can get around that, we can put together something that works.
Steeplejack
@OldDave:
As a former resident of L.A. (lower Alabama), I had heard of Demopolis and even know where it is (middle Alabama). Condolences to Steve.
He could have gone to A Slab and More BBQ, but it’s closed today. Maybe tomorrow. Rated 4.6 on Google, and the banana pudding is supposed to be great!
Steve in the ATL
@Steeplejack: this is not my first visit to LA. I used to go deer hunting just south of here in McIntosh. What did I wrong to end up back here?!
Adam L Silverman
@MagdaInBlack: That’s my worse case scenario worry. I’m not putting it up as a post because I don’t want to freak anyone out too badly, but that’s my real worry. The President is an idiot. He doesn’t understand any of this, how the National Emergencies Act works, what powers he actually has under it, etc. All he understands is that if he invokes it, he’ll be able to do whatever he wants. Miller, the fellow travelers he’s salted away as apparatchiks throughout the necessary executive branch departments and agencies, fellow travelers in Congress like Cotton and Steve King, and others, however, do understand how this all works. And therefore, if they can thread the needle correctly with the wording of the executive order invoking the National Emergencies Act, they can achieve a lot of their goals before the courts can intervene. Not just closing entry to anyone trying to cross the southern border, but also a suspension of all grants of asylum and processing of refugees, shutting down the entire legal immigration system, not just trying to seal the southern border. And, because of where C&BP’s and ICE’s jurisdiction is, the harassment of anyone perceived to be here illegally or a threat to the US. Not just Latinx and hispanic immigrants – documented or undocumented, but also Muslims, anyone who looks Muslim, etc.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I wouldn’t put too much stake in the early interest, but I agree that her strong opening will put pressure on others to announce.
Adam L Silverman
@Martin:
https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone
trollhattan
@Steve in the ATL:
Blessed are the cheesemakers.
Adam L Silverman
@Steve in the ATL: Try to blend in: knock out half your teeth, start dipping snuff, get a trucker’s cap, a camo shirt, and a shootin arn.
Roger Moore
@Steve in the ATL:
I hate to break it to you, but Demopolis is within 100 miles of the coast.
jl
I roll Tide every Sunday when I do my laundry.
That’s my football contribution to college football champion night.
Hope it’s fun for those watching.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Oy.
Raven
@jl: It’s fucking great
MahdaInBlack
@Adam L Silverman:
TY
About 2-3 weeks ago I saw this concern start popping up on the “edges of the internet”
and wondered then how long before it bubbled to the surface and out his mouth.
And here we have it.
Oh. Boy.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
@Baud:
I also think our people are hungry to talk about the future rather than Trump 24/7.
Martin
@Roger Moore: Well, Prop 98 is why every fucking thing we do is handled by ballot initiative because they aren’t part of the general fund.
I would guess that this is a big enough effort to get an amendment/repeal of 98.
raven
@Adam L Silverman: “Some”people think it’s exactly what he’s going to do and that it’s legal.
Steve in the ATL
@Adam L Silverman: they tried to give me a pickup truck at the airport rental car place. I insisted on a Prius.
@Roger Moore: well dang me, dang me, they ought to take a rope and hang me
lamh36
Tell me again…these MAGA fuq’ers aren’t hateful bastards
“I voted for him and he’s the one who’s doing this…I thought he was gonna do good things…He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting”
https://twitter.com/KevinReuning/status/1082446862681022464
Fuq ANYONE who votes Republicans and Trump
raven
§2808. Construction authority in the event of a declaration of war or national emergency (a) In the event of a declaration of war or the declaration by the President of a national emergency in accordance with the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) that requires use of the armed forces, the Secretary of Defense, without regard to any other provision of law, may undertake military construction projects, and may authorize the Secretaries of the military departments to undertake military construction projects, not otherwise authorized by law that are necessary to support such use of the armed forces. Such projects may be undertaken only within the total amount of funds that have been appropriated for military construction, including funds appropriated for family housing, that have not been obligated. (b) When a decision is made to undertake military construction projects authorized by this section, the Secretary of Defense shall notify, in an electronic medium pursuant to section 480 of this title, the appropriate committees of Congress of the decision and of the estimated cost of the construction projects, including the cost of any real estate action pertaining to those construction projects. (c) The authority described in subsection (a) shall terminate with respect to any war or national emergency at the end of the war or national emergency.
debbie
@lamh36:
She’s absolutely right.
Steeplejack
@Steve in the ATL:
You know what you did.
Also, don’t drive too far south of town. You’re only 140 miles from international port of entry Mobile.
jc
When does President National Emergency “over-reach?” The uptight white right pundit class is constantly declaring that AOC or E. Warren are over-reaching or in danger of doing so. Normalizing Trump and vilifying progressives is a sure way to well and truly F. this country.
Steve in the ATL
@Adam L Silverman: DUI checkpoints violate this ammendment as well, Supreme Court opinions notwithstanding
Baud
@lamh36: Agreed.
Martin
@Adam L Silverman: That’s 100 miles of the border. But Des Moines Intl Airport is a port of entry. Do they get 100 miles from that airport as well? I guess my question is whether it’s 100 miles from border or 100 miles from port of entry.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
My expectation would be that any attempt to legislate a single-payer system would have to be tied to a legislative constitutional amendment exempting the whole thing from Prop 98 limits. And the campaign surrounding that amendment would make everything else look tiny by comparison; it could easily be the first $1 billion proposition campaign.
Ken
My fear is Adam’s scenario.
My gleeful hope is that he shows a display of Trump brand steaks, or tries to show a virtual tour of a building he developed. That way we can all point at the reporters and say “fool you three times, what a load of idiots”.
Steve in the ATL
@Martin: they have been interpreting it as 100 miles from every point of entry
Schlemazel
@Adam L Silverman:
I know I am being an optimist but I think that might be a bridge too far for most Republicans. THere would be a crisis but I think it would end rather quickly and with the removal of the tangerine terrorist
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
Adam L Silverman
@MahdaInBlack: The only real advantage is that the President and his personnel are largely incompetent, so it is entirely likely they screw this up completely.
Steeplejack
@Adam L Silverman:
Also acceptable is the “country club overlord” look: salmon pink Oxford cloth button-down shirt, Dockers slacks, cordovan Weejuns and a seersucker sportcoat.
Adam L Silverman
@raven: I’m aware.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
I don’t see Gavin Newsom going along with that plan.
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m just saying. I have no proof, but all of the pieces fit.
jl
@raven: So Wall will be a continuous series of steel slat forts all along the border?
Redshift
@Baud:
I think the crowds are partly because a lot of people, even in western Iowa, are eager to keep doing something now that the midterms are over. I bet most of Warren’s competitors are kicking themselves in hindsight that they worried too much about starting “too soon.” Not everyone in those crowds will commit to her, but it’s better to be first in their minds and have other candidates needing to convince them to switch.
(Which is not to say it wasn’t a risk; she had no way of knowing that would happen.)
raven
@jl: Dunno, what do you think? Dude is playing for a “win” and it doesn’t really matter what it is.
lamh36
@Adam L Silverman: hey…how do you know my personal mantra as an optimistic pessimist!
debbie
@tobie:
That’s probably the best way to go. I wouldn’t want to be the last to know the apocalypse has begun, but I don’t want to hear him announcing it.
Adam L Silverman
@Steve in the ATL: I’m aware. Our 4th Amendment jurisprudence is a mess and an embarrassment.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
And in a strange fit of prescience, Mel Brooks set the movie and the song in Russia. ?
lamh36
jl
OK, I heard this on the news earlier today, but details are nice. Saw this on Josh Marshall’s twitter feed. Wall is so important, WH had zero plans for how to build it or how much it would cost. Nothing budgeted. Total fraud. Read the whole thread. Bogus, fraudulent, national emergency here we come. The Trumpster apparently think this will ‘rattle’ his opposition. Instead it will enrage the opposition, and bring a lot of people over to the opposition.
@costareports
Pay close attention to what this administration is doing…
1. Weekend talks with Democrats were futile. Dems there frustrated that Rs didn’t have budget numbers ready and OMB had to rush to compile them. Mtgs. instead focused on admin’s bleak presentation on border situation
https://twitter.com/costareports/status/1082455031964676098
Baud
@Adam L Silverman: Thank the War on Drugs.
Adam L Silverman
@Martin: Apparently they think it’s both. Steve in the ATL can correct me if I got that wrong.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
It the shootin arm the one with needle tracks?
jl
@raven: I don’t know either. I guess, one thought is if any of this garbage gets to SCOTUS and they uphold a single syllable of Trump’s BS, any justice who goes along should be impeached and removed.
raven
@jl: One can hope bit I’m not betting on it.
Martin
@Steve in the ATL: Then the ACLU map is massively underestimating the impact. Every city is within 100 miles then. The entire state of Iowa is inside the 100 mile radius. Half of Nebraska. Half of Kansas. Most of (populated) Texas, etc.
schrodingers_cat
Since you guys are sure that we are headed to a dictatorship tomorrow, tell me one thing he can’t find a CoS, and people to staff his sorry administration, where is he going to find people to staff his new autocracy. What about all those federal workers who have been furloughed. They are going to disappear into thin air, because of the leaderly speech tomorrow?
But her emails!!!
@Adam L Silverman:
Given we’re going all doomsday scenario, what exactly did our forefathers put forth as the remedy to a would be tyrant using a fictional crisis to crown themselves king?
See my doomsday scenario doesn’t end at the golden bullshitter declaring himself dictator. There’s going to be a reaction, possibly violent if he tries this shit and then we’re through the looking glass.
Redshift
@jl: Trump doesn’t actually care about the wall, he just cares about winning, which in his mind can only happen if other people lose. He shut down the government because Coulter and what’s his name said he’d be a loser if he didn’t.
Adam L Silverman
@Schlemazel: We will see.
I fully expect McConnell will do nothing to check the President. He’ll keep his head down and his mouth shut and do his normal schtick. I fully expect that when the House passes the challenge to the emergency declaration that cancels it, as the National Emergencies Act allows, that McConnell will just sit on it in the Senate claiming that he won’t have 60 votes to get it past cloture. If he says anything at all.
David Frum is correct in his assessment: “If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. The will reject democracy.”
schrodingers_cat
I leave you all to speculate the worst, this is a game that I don’t play.
lamh36
@jl: UGH!!! IT’S ALL A BULLSHIT GAME TO THESE MUTHAPHUCKAS…
The media, the fuq’n Republicans, their stupid, wack azz, racist bigoted MAGA voters, and the rest of the country gets fuq’n screwed while they pay fuq’n political games
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: Craigslist.
Adam L Silverman
@Steeplejack: That right there is a crime against humanity all by itself.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: He may well not.
hueyplong
Turtle is in Duck and Cover mode.
Trump will bluster tomorrow. He’s gone full on EMERGENCY over the first instance of having his will thwarted by a co-equal branch of government. He’s got a dictator’s instincts but not a dictator’s competence. It will all end more badly for him than for us.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: That toothpaste you’ve been using? The fluoride isn’t doing anything to prevent tooth decay. It does make your teeth detectable to spy satellites.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
You’ve got a dingleberry on your link. “Hope for the Best.”
Baud
Drum
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/01/chart-of-the-day-never-believe-corporations-never/
Adam L Silverman
@But her emails!!!: That’s off the looking glass.
schrodingers_cat
@hueyplong: This I agree with.
jl
@lamh36: If Trump does declare a bogus national emergency, and McConnell and the GOP Senate sit on House legislation to challenge it, I don’t think Trump and the GOP have have any idea how thoroughly and irreversibly they will have jump started the 2020 campaign for more seats in the House, the Senate and the WH. And not necessarily in a direction advantages to them.
JR
@Adam L Silverman: Well it does give them a distinctive NMR signal.
lamh36
@Adam L Silverman: hmmm
https://media3.giphy.com/media/l4FGkOtctEQcaW4HS/source.gif
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
Why would he restaff? He knows how to do their jobs better than any of them do.
jl
@Baud: You believe them when they say they’ll get their asses sued if they don’t maximize profit, by any means necessary, I guess that is the one exception.
Adam L Silverman
@JR: @lamh36:
Ladyraxterinok
@trollhattan: If only the NY socialites had accepted and welcomed Trump. Just as another ‘if only’–if only that art school had accepted Hitler.
Crosspalms
@zhena gogolia: I thought he was the national emergency.
But her emails!!!
@Adam L Silverman:
I thought the statuatory requirement was that the senate would eventually have to bring it to a vote?
jl
@Adam L Silverman: earth spy satellites put up by humans, or outer space alien spy satellites, or inner-earth reptilian overlord spy satellites?
A full service blog needs to be precise.
B.B.A.
I saw something today about Israeli TV cutting away from a Netanyahu speech once it was clear he was just whining about the corruption charges against his wife and not saying anything of importance.
The press there stands up to him, and he’s something close to an actual dictator.
Redshift
@But her emails!!!:
Emergency powers aren’t in the Constitution. The law that allows an emergency declaration also allows Congress to reject it by a simple majority.
Matt McIrvin
@Adam L Silverman:
…new Democratic members of Congress…
Adam L Silverman
@But her emails!!!: They have 15 days. Congress is also required by law to actually pass a budget resolution every year. If McConnell decides he doesn’t want to bring it to the floor of the Senate for a vote, it won’t come to the floor of the Senate for a vote. It’s not like Matt Whitaker at DOJ is going to have someone write him a ticket or anything.
hueyplong
Awful to say, but sometimes I feel like we’re being disrespectful to Hitler when we compare Trump to him.
I never wanted to live in interesting times. Much prefer simply to read about them.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: I am not authorized to disclose that information at this time.
Adam L Silverman
@Matt McIrvin: Bingo!
B.B.A.
@But her emails!!!: “The law? The law is a human institution.”
lamh36
i know y’all probably already seen this…but posting again cause we all need a smile right now I’m sure!
Obama and baby Paisley!
https://twitter.com/jwheels74/status/1082374562636013568?s=21
poleaxedbyboatwork
@schrodingers_cat:
Why not? Is it because you think Trump ain’t capable of it, or is it some other reason?
Myself, am firmly in the camp that even if Trump tries a Hail-Mary power-grab, his intrinsic incompetence is like to foil it. But: a whole lotta damage can be done by those who are game to use Trump’s reactionary belligerence for their own ends, and where it all ends would be anyone’s guess. Nowhere nice certainly.
A lotta things seem unimaginable — till they happen. I see no downside to gaming out “what-would-happen-and-how-would-you-respond-if” scenarios. Specially when dealing with a cornered erratic rabid rat like Trump.
(Silly anecdotal analogy: Recently watched a German film callt Nowhere in Africa. The film depicted a family of German Jews circa 1937 who considered themselves culturally but not religiously Jewish. Much more German by identity than Jewish in their minds. Virtually none of the family could conceive of what was coming — it was literally unthinkable — till it came.)
Steeplejack
@Adam L Silverman:
Captured in the wild. “Let’s go foreclose on some Negroes. We can play nine this afternoon if we get back in time.”
Kay
@mark:
I love this whole comment, mark. Every word :)
Adam L Silverman
@Steeplejack: I’ve seen it before. In the wild, in captivity, doesn’t matter. It’s still hideous.
A Ghost To Most
@Steve in the ATL:
“Dead Drunk and Naked”, a proper Alabama song
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so if you’re an enemy of the US, a government or non-state actor, how funny is it to you to see the clownish hack, allegedly in charge of “Homeland Security”, demagoguing to scare old white people into harassing their red-state Senators into making a $5 billion contribution to The Beast’s re-election campaign
Ruckus
@lamh36:
What can he say in 8 hours of any substance? It’s not the amount of time, it’s his expectations. He expects to be magnificent. He’ll fall short. Miles and miles short.
He’s got 8 minutes? That’s more than enough time for him to totally embarrass himself, and us. Of course most of us are embarrassed even when he doesn’t open his mouth.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
You always bring good stuff, Silverman
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
This. Southern California has a population of about 24 million. In 2003, Iraq had a population of 26 million. What army does Trump have that will be able to conquer and hold Southern California, plus Chicago, New York, Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, etc etc etc.?
Don’t get me wrong — he and his band of assholes will ABSOLUTELY ramp up their harassment of immigrants, people of color, Muslim-Americans (or anyone in a turban), LGBTQ people, and anyone else they can marginalize and cut out from the pack. But there are WAY more of us than there are of them.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
It would be irresponsible not to speculate
PaulWartenberg
@lamh36:
considering how many times they denied Obama a public forum for some of his addresses, this is a grand insult to our nation: Airing a known liar to spread a hateful message against immigrant families and using those lies as an excuse to break the Constitution.
To hell with the “courtesy” of holding off on arresting sitting Presidents. HANDCUFF THIS SHITGIBBON.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: I don’t think this crowd is competent enough to pull this off. And I would fully expect that emergency injunctions would be issued by Federal courts in very short order. But this is obviously what the people pushing the President on immigration issues; as well as religious freedom, which is really legalizing discrimination by claiming it is protected Christian religious belief, speech, and action; and going after Muslims want. Right now Stephen Miller is crawling the walls in anticipation.
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Ladyraxterinok
@Martin: Interesting –and depressing. The airports in Tulsa and Des Moines are ‘international airports’.
Ohio Mom
@Ladyraxterinok: So is Cincinnati — we were an international airport, then we weren’t, now we are are again. Seems to depend on what airlines are using the airport, the roster has changed over the years.
Once you start counting airports as ports of entry, maybe there’s a few patches of desert or mountains out west that aren’t in the 100 mile zone. It’s testimony to what a free and open country we’ve been.
ETA: and Alaska, many patches of tundra are not in the zone.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
Stephen Miller has always assumed that the reason he didn’t get his way on whatever he wanted was that he didn’t have enough power to crush his enemies. But he’s going to find out the hard way that he still lacks the power to do it, because this isn’t fucking “Game of Thrones” or whatever fantasy world he’s built for himself is. He will, once again, bump up against reality and his own limits.
Unfortunately, quite a few people are going to get hurt in the process.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: Yep, a lot of people are and will continue to be hurt. What is even worse is that even if the President only serves one term, Miller will only be 34 when he leaves government in 2021. He will most likely take a senior position with either Heritage or one of the anti-immigration, doing business as immigration reform, think tanks. Where he’ll sit until the next Republican president is elected and he’s then appointed to a position where he can actually do a lot of damage. Like the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security that deals with border and immigration issues. His iniquity will be with us for far too long a time.
Kay
Here’s why they denied Obama airtime:
Because Trump bullies them, and they obey. Disgusting, cowardly behavior.
They’ll give him three solid days of coverage of lies.
I don’t know if it’ll work though- they absolutely flogged ‘the caravan” the 2 weeks prior to the election on Trump’s orders and people didn’t seem to care. Maybe this effort will fail too.
PJ
@Adam L Silverman: This is the problem with democracy, that people think it should mean rule by the people, when what is really best for everyone (if only they could see it) is rule by the wealthy.
I recently read a good book about James Buchanan and the ideological underpinnings for the modern conservative/libertarian movement, Democracy in Chains, by Nancy MacLean, and the turning point comes in the ’50s when conservatives realize that if they lose control over the voting booth, and everyone can vote and they are well informed, people are going to vote for what benefits them, and not what benefits the oligarchs. Thus the need to “manage” democracy (which Putin’s advisor Surkov seems to have come up with on his own in the ’90s) through misinformation, stoking racial animosity, and new ways of voter suppression.
Martin
@Ladyraxterinok: Yep. Just need to have a flight to somewhere in Canada or Mexico, even if it has a layover in another airport. Pennsylvania has 4 ports of entry – Erie, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Philly. That covers the entire state, plus all of NJ, most of WV, Maryland, western NY, half of Ohio.
Ohio itself has 5 ports – Ashtabula, Cleveland, Dayton, Columbus, Toledo. Tennessee has 5. The only places that aren’t within 100 miles of a port are a bunch of Alaska, and parts of the midwest (western NE, KS) and mountain west (WY). Maybe 5% of the population?
Adam L Silverman
@PJ: I’ve had that book in the queue for months.
Kay
Well, look at the bright side. We got a solid 72 hours of non-Trump coverage before they went back to 24/7 Trump coverage.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Adam L Silverman:
A very old story, also, too.
Spawn of Nixon, Darth Cheney and Donald “Known Unknowns” Rumsfeld, both erupted like herpes sores in the BushJr. maladministration.
They never really go away, they just go underground and await a propitious moment to return.
Adam L Silverman
@poleaxedbyboatwork: Unfortunately.
Kay
It is essential that Americans hear only Republicans on immigration. The four major networks are very consistent on that.
These savvy news professionals decided Obama’s address was “overtly political” but Trump’s was not. They’ll do their absolute best to ensure that no one in the country hears anything at all that contradicts or corrects Donald Trump’s lies on immigration.
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
Can some heat be put on M. McConnell?
https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/37700/how-can-the-senate-remove-the-majority-leader
(Did you cover this already?)
I’ve been worried about a manufactured (false flag) but otherwise real national emergency for a long while, but until last week never considered, as other than low probability, a totally and obviously fake emergency, taking advantage of the large fractions of the Republican party that are anti-democratic and authoritarian, which if not immediately thoroughly shut down, would be followed by more “national emergencies” e.g. to (attempt to) suppress massive protest and pushback. At that point either the Republican party dies or the US dies. I am fairly sure that it would be the Republican party that dies.
(That’s the non-shrill version.)
We still don’t know what he will announce tomorrow. Might be worth watching Fox’s PDB tomorrow AM.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
It’s a long shot, but I’m hoping that Miller was dumb enough to involve himself in the Russia conspiracy and will get caught up in Mueller’s net instead. Fingers crossed!
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: McConnell has been, for at least the past decade, impervious to pressure. He doesn’t really have friends. The members of his caucus don’t like him. They accept him as caucus leader because he’s been effective in bringing them back to power and in raising a lot of money. He cares about only three things: 1) maintaining power so that he can, 2) remove all limits regarding campaign finance, and 3) pack the courts with Federalist Society pushed extremists.
Kay
They could do a lot to stop Trump from lying. They could demand he submit the text first and when he lies they could correct it on screen immediately.
I mean God almighty they’ve had nearly 3 years to think about this problem- surely all these highly paid professionals have come up with ONE new idea.
But they won’t bother to do anything new or try anything at all to solve this problem. There’s no possible solution. They must, MUST, continue to do things exactly the same way they have always done them, even if it’s a massive, daily ongoing catastrophe.
Bill Arnold
@jl:
Oh please. Humans. The alien satellites use proper technology; neural circuitry “installed” by custom viruses via [redacted], to set up [redacted] strings, extremely difficult to detect even on autopsy. What do you think tinnitus is?
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Kay:
Hope you won’t mind my saying so, but I very much enjoy reading your thoughtful insights about our national predicament and your righteous fury (at least I read it as such, subject to correx) is a welcome tonic.
If inclined to reply, was wondering your thoughts on this observation:
Have come to view the press and the plutocratic order it upholds (and is an integral part of) more in terms of accomplices than victims. I.e. Bullying ain’t necessary to get them to do what they are inclined to do anyway to maintain the status quo.
More to the point, I view the conglomerate media as playing the role of management/owners in a strike relationship. I.e. Press reporters are welcome to report on the manifold transgressions if so inclined (up to a point) and the public is permitted to grouse about it all they want, but ain’t nothing actually gonna get DONE about it — not if they can help it.
Management/owners inna strike relationship would often rather dig their heels in and blow it all up rather than concede an inch (even, or perhaps especially) when it’s eminently justified, mostly cuz they ain’t inclined to let “those people” be the bossa them. Can’t have the hoi-polloi dictating terms, amirite?
Suggestive of this is: we have plenty of evidence (w/o Mueller’s report) that would support impeaching Trump. Playing the role of hostage-taker with the government shutdown when the Republicans controlled all levers of government and coulda had their fucking wall money whenever they wanted it — if they really wanted it. Obstruction of justice — Trump admitted it to Lester Holt and millions of Americans already. Emoluments. The rank and pervasive corruptation at every single fucking level of the Trump administration. The list is legion.
Evidence of impeachable offenses there is plenty. What there ain’t is the will to proceed — except by a growing contingent of ordinary citizens.
fwiw
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: a ninety second delay and let Daniel Dale run one chyron for all the networks
I thought Rachel Maddow might be teasing some kind of plan they have for airing the thing, I think she said “you’ll want to tune in” or “you want want to miss this” or something. But maybe i read too much into it
Kay
Why don’t they air the Obama immigration speech they refused to cover as a rebuttal to the Trump speech they’ll all be covering for the next 3 days?
Most Americans never heard the Obama speech because they deliberately buried it, so it’s new. A ready-made rebuttal with little or no effort or expense.
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
What if by being majority leader he threatens one or both of these?
There must be something.
(To answer a question in a previous thread, McConnell might not be as healthy as one thinks. He may be a Turtle but he had a triple bypass performed in 2003. And Many good years after heart bypass surgery, but something happens after ten years. “But 8-10 years after a heart bypass operation, mortality increases by 60-80 per cent.“)
hotshoe
@A Ghost To Most:
Drive-By Truckers
Dead Drunk and Naked
studio version, on youtube
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s just silly to say they can’t do anything. They’re helpless victims of Donald Trump’s lies? Not one new or different approach in response to this problem they have?
How many fucking executives do they have in network tv? Hundreds. None of them has a single solution to offer on this ongoing, chronic problem that goes to the very heart of what is supposed to be their core competency?
“Welp. Nothing can be done. Guess we’ll just have to air some more government propaganda!” Over and over. For years, now.
Gozer
@Bill Arnold: That’s an average and McConnell has way above average access to quality health care. Remember, Cheney’s enormous wealth enabled him to shoulder the exorbitant cost of a heart transplant (only those who can absorb the six-figure cost typically get serious consideration).
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: He will remain the GOP leader until he doesn’t. If the GOP loses the Senate in 2020 and they do so badly, that might lead him to retire. But aside from that or something criminal or scandalous or both involving him coming to light and people actually caring about it, then he will remain the GOP leader.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The people who run these networks are supposedly getting paid (a lot) to solve problems. They can’t even try to solve this one? They’ve all just decided they won’t even try? They have a lying problem. They have to fix it. It’ll be hard and it might make Donald Trump mad but that’s why they make 30 million dollars a year- because they supposedly have ideas on the news business. I don’t have to fix it for them. It’s their problem.
Gozer
@Kay: The only reasonable explanation is that they’re willing collaborators. If GWB and Trump pass the threshold to air an immigration speech but Obama does not because it would be “political” then the only explanation is that his mere existence is political.
Time and time again we see that for our “betters” the mere existence of POC or women or LGBT individuals is “political”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: when it suits them, they rhetorically don powdered wigs and declare themselves the great defenders of the First Amendment! But the couldn’t be so political as to fact check a president, known to be a spewer of malice and misinformation (to steal a line from Nancy D’Alessandro), in real time.
Kay
And newspapers are just as bad. Three years into this and they’re still putting the fucking lies in the headline.
Stop doing it. It’s bad. We know Trump said it. Putting quotes around it doesn’t WORK.
I won’t watch the propoganda but I KNOW I will see the biggest Trump lie used in the headline in every newspaper, because they inexplicably and infuriatingly insist on continuing to do this although they must know by now it’s deceptive.
They are not even trying. They are just stubbornly and stupidly inisting on relying on their conventional approach despite 36 months of abject failure.They don’t even need a new idea! They just have to stop using that one old one. Even that is too much effort.
eddie blake
@Adam L Silverman:
yes, and, “the plastic tips on the end of shoelaces are called ‘aglets’. their true purpose is sinister.”
oops.too slow.
Gozer
@Kay: My wife is a public admin/public policy prof and frequently gets journalism students in her classes. The stupidity I’ve heard about is astounding. They’ll claim objectivity as though it’s some principle floating out in the ether instead of recognizing that every decision is an editorial choice and one actually claimed that they prefer to be completely ignorant about a topic because it “doesn’t bias reporting”.
They are, without fail, the dumbest students she has. Any given semester that she has a J-school student, that student will, guaranteed, be the dumbest, laziest, most incurious, least industrious student in class.
dimmsdale
@Adam L Silverman: Random question that occurs to me more and more lately: is it fair to assume that the IC is surveilling much of or most of what goes on in Trump’s WH?
Adam L Silverman
@dimmsdale: Not directly. We know from the news reporting that the President spends time at night on an unsecured cell phone talking to his friends, as well as world leaders. So anyone and everyone from Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs to Alan Dershowitz and Judge Jeanine to Thomas Barrack to Bibi Netanyahu and even, potentially, to Putin and Xi and everyone in between. We also know from the reporting that since his inauguration, there has been a spike in cellular surveillance in DC around the White House. So we know that foreign state actors are surveilling the President. Given the news reporting about the calls, I would expect foreign state actors, both friendly and hostile, are also surveilling his American friends and advisors that he speaks with at night on his unsecured cellphone in the residence. In the case of direct calls with foreign leaders, we routinely monitor their communications. So there would be incidental collection as a result. And while I have no direct knowledge, I’m sure we’re surveilling the foreign surveillance of the President when he makes these unsecured calls on his unsecured cell phone in the residence each night (or wherever he’s staying), so here too we’d have incidental collection. All of the stuff involving the President would redact his identity, as well as that of any other American he’s speaking with not subject to a FISA warrant. These could be unredacted if the counterintelligence investigators making the request can demonstrate cause.
Sebastian
@Kay:
I’d really like to see a congressional hearing into all those coincedences. Like hiring all those Republican spoxpeople on Sunday talkfests and campaign managers hired by CNN. Subpoena everything.
Sebastian
@Gozer:
That’s why you have to come down on them like the wrath of god. Stupid people understand fear very well.
dimmsdale
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks, Adam. I am somewhat comforted by that, although in normal times I’d be alarmed. Also, though, presumably foreign intelligence is able to monitor what goes on around Trump, and what is said to him, THROUGH his unsecured cellphone? (via ‘Stingray’, I believe it’s called?–or is stuff like that detectable and therefore stoppable?)
Also, this is an older story (from last year) but I’m just seeing it (in connection with the increasingly widely realized notion that Fox News in a way dictates America’s foreign and domestic policy nowadays. I’m wondering if you had any thoughts? In the year since this was written, it would make good sense for foreign intelligence outfits to at least gin up some attempts to infiltrate (or co-opt) news infrastructures…thanks again.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/01/10/foreign-spies-watching-and-probably-targeting-fox-news-channel/
dimmsdale
Here’s the link that goes with my comment at 228
(OK, site not allowing me to post link, or at least I can’t see it on my end. Hellllp?)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/01/10/foreign-spies-watching-and-probably-targeting-fox-news-channel/
Gozer
@Sebastian: More than one has warranted referrals to a board for academic misconduct. It really is appalling and they never seem to fucking learn. Compounding the problem is that this is at Elite East Coast Private University so these students are never expelled and move seamlessly into media careers.
dimmsdale
One more try posting the link (in shortened form).
https://wapo.st/2FdTCSH
dimmsdale
https://wapo.st/2FdTCSH
Adam L Silverman
@dimmsdale: I’ve now fixed all of your links that were capturing the reply button.
Adam L Silverman
@dimmsdale: Yes, they’re called stingrays.
dimmsdale
@Adam L Silverman: Thank you Adam. And to all a good night! gotta get some sleep before the Big Speechifyin’ tomorrow; got a feeling I won’t get much sleep afterwards.