Oh there isn’t. In that I agree.
It’s the followers though that ascribe some sort of divinity to the man that is weird.
Trump administration 2024-2028
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It’s the followers though that ascribe some sort of divinity to the man that is weird.
OldSolduer
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The Divine Right of The Donald?
lenaitch
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If true, any vacuum in Africa will be filled by China, but it seems consistent that he wants to leave Europe to Russia and Asia to China (Africa he probably simply doesn't care about - nothing in it for him).
(emphasis added0
'I am the state, the state is me'
Louis XIV
IKnowNothing
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That excuses quiet votes in November. Not donations, not vocal hero worship, not continued support, not support in the primaries, etc. etc. etc.
Among his many other failings, Trump must be the most profoundly stupid president in United States history.
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I recently saw a Facebook short that discussed how South Korea escaped a similar problem with their government. Instead of going after the top, they targeted the bottom; the supporters and enablers. Perhaps that's the better strategy. After all, you fell a tree by cutting at the base, not the crown.
Being mindful that I’ve gotta play by the rules of the politics sub… I’d say that the most charitable way to put it is he has approached the office of presidency with the most glaring lack of basic competence in memory. That take on it doesn’t allege malice, doesn’t allege that he’s compromised by some foreign adversary… The absolute best case for Trump is that he is woefully ignorant of global affairs or basic economics, but that he has somehow convinced of his own mastery. Like a kid who learns the four move checkmate and succesfully performs it on his little brother.
He is abandoning Asia economically and diplomatically to China. He’s also abandoning Africa diplomatically and militarily to China. He still has the world’s best intelligence apparatus, able to tell him in granular detail about the economic moves China is making on infrastructure and natural resources via Belt and Road, yet somehow he sees little to know value in Africa, despite there being a ready supply available for purchase or FDI of everything he’s trying to extort out of Ukraine.
He’s achieved the foreign policy coup of putting China, Japan, and South Korea at the table together. He’s alienating all of the countries that manufacture the cheap consumer goods that Americans depend on for their consumer way of life.
Trump is dangerously, recklessly ignorant of both the short and long term impacts of all of the systems that he is smashing. He doesn’t grasp that he’s discarding reputation America has spent a century building, and he doesn’t grasp that soft power is as critical an enabler to American hegemony as hard power; it just doesn’t make for dramatic TV to seduce the rubes.
America has chosen to discard its hegemony, and China is laughing at them, because global affairs, like nature, abhors a vacuum.
MilEME09
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If the tree is tall enough you gotta do both
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So much like me as a Guardsman on Ceremonial Guard in 1980, it appears that Hegseth is the only one in step
Brad Sallows
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Why wouldn't they follow through?
Think about how much "due process" was required to let several million people enter the US illegally during the past administration. Consider how much effort is being expended right now to ensure due process for one person. (This isn't about the merits of the case.) Ponder how many people would like to see illegals - particularly violent, or even allegedly violent illegals - sent away with approximately the same ease as they were let in. Do you really think those people would let up? I suppose that the people who want to see achievements of the previous administration undone are going to be as energetic as the people who want to see those achievements preserved. What I am observing: in politics, the response to "not one step back" is "scorched earth". Immoderation is met with immoderation.
I’m gonna segue off something here; I recognize this wasn’t the main thrust of your reply, but it’s critically important.
Due process stops being due process if it’s very existence and application becomes conditional. Different processes are built to address different sets of facts. Due process for a criminal conviction is distinct from due process for deportation on the grounds of misrepresentation, and both of those are distinct from due process for an administrative challenge to loss of a federal job or security clearance. The point is that, whatever due process exists for a particular set of circumstances, that due process must be afforded. It’s the existence and application of due process itself that is the vital ground. Once the administration starts to get away with circumventing or outright ignoring due process in one sphere, it becomes easier in others. Mere days after the first batch of people were shipped to El Salvador under a farcical application of the Alien Enemies Act, we have the White House secretary admitting they’re looking at the legality of doing citizens too.
The fight for due process matters because even if you aren’t vulnerable today, you could be vulnerable in a month or a year. We’re already seeing pretextual police stops of Latinos who are born and raised US citizens. We’re already seeing at least one U.S. citizen arbitrarily detained by ICE and held in custody for ten days on purported ‘immigration’ grounds before release- are citizens to carry their papers now, to be surrendered for inspection on demand by curious government agents? Lawful residents on student visas are having their visas revoked and are being kicked out of the country for minor dissents against the current administration which are completely covered by the first amendment.
Stripping due process is contingent upon people accepting the abuse in the case of unsympathetic edge cases. It starts with the easiest, least sympathetic ‘other’, and quickly grows into more people being falsely lumped within that category. Once it becomes normalized at that level, then there’s a next step.
A state that holds due process in contempt is a state that will arbitrarily to anything from throwing a dissident in jail for no crime to illegally firing a federal reserve chairman based on a policy disagreement. Due process is simply the mechanics that have evolved to administer the overlapping and conflicting powers of the three coequal branches of government. Once the executive makes it normal to usurp that you have an autocracy.
To put it most bluntly: in a country that abandons due process, people like you lose most of your protections against people like me. Once that protection is gone, and ‘people like me’ has had a couple years to have the chain of command filtered by the executive for political purity, how does that play out if you’re at all vocal against the regime?
So yeah, due process for some guy who snuck into the country and might have abused his wife matters. When the camel starts to stick its nose under the tent flap sometime you have to kick it in the snout. This much effort is being expended for - at the moment - one person, because at this level it can still be fought and won hopefully without violence.
Eaglelord17
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The one issue with that is the top of the tree has a get out of jail free card (pardons) for all federal offences.
Start trying to chop the base and they might respond by pardoning it of all offences.
Interestingly enough the value of the second amendment becomes more clear every day. Unfortunately those that may need its value tend to be the ones who don’t buy into the concept.
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The Venn diagram of the 2A true believers and those who want to return to the 3/5 compromise is almost a perfect overlap.
Brad Sallows
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Yes. The phenomenon is broader than that. Once an administration circumvents or ignores anything in one sphere, it becomes easier in others. Everything that is happening today was facilitated by actions of prior administrations. No-one can ignore a rule or custom for convenience and then expect others to never do the same, nor is it reasonable to expect that exceptions will only occur in the same context. Disregard for some fences breeds contempt for all fences.
The way to avoid ugly deportations is to avoid illegal entries in the first place.
The way to avoid "hard right" is to never govern "hard left".
IKnowNothing
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The quoted response was to your justification for supposed Christians voting for the literal physical antithesis of Christian values.
Your reasoning holds up for voting against the Dems. It falls apart beyond that.
I fully understand and believe in the "democracy as public transit" analogy. If you want a vote, you have to hold your nose and choose a bus, even there isn't one going exactly where you wanted. But you can't cop out on choosing the least bad bus when you're wearing their merch, sending them money, and actively supported their selection as one of the routes.
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Brad Sallows
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For Christians to avoid voting for the antithesis of Christian values in the US would mean voting for neither of the two main parties. My point is that they rationally vote for the least antithetical, and they make that determination (of which is the more antithetical) for themselves. No-one else gets to pretend to arbitrate their standards and dictate how they should behave. Regardless, voting and governance is a secular matter, not a spiritual one.
A lot of US voters who don't give a shit about Canada or Europe or anywhere else had a beef with the way the US was being run and exploited at their expense, and they found a voice. Those of us not privileged to vote in US elections can bitch as much as we want in the abstract, but the only behaviour we have the power to control to alleviate the situation is our own. Mostly I expect us to go on being smug and condescending.
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What a bullshit cop out. Your implying that the Biden administration actively did something "against the law" that resulted in an increase level of illegal immigration during his tenure, and therefore the Trump administration is vindicated in their disregard for due process in solving the illegal immigration issue. "Two wrongs make a right", is basically your claim.
First, that's not correct in any circumstance.
Second, the Biden administration didn't do anything "illegal" or against "due process" that resulted in this situation. In fact, it could be argued that it's entirely BECAUSE of their feverish adherence to due process that resulted in the situation they are in. Much of the source of illegal immigrants in the states is people who were making asylum claims and "got free" while awaiting the process.
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Eaglelord17
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The real reason for illegal immigration in the states was the fact Americans were willing to employ them.
No job, no money, no better future, no reason to immigrate.
They could have stopped this years ago (both sides) by simply making it illegal to employ a illegal immigrant and anyone found doing so goes to jail (not a fine).
Neither side wished to do that due to the source of cheap illegal labour who did the worst jobs with no safety regulations. The US isn’t much better than China in that manner. Only slightly better than slave labour.
No job, no money, no better future, no reason to immigrate.
They could have stopped this years ago (both sides) by simply making it illegal to employ a illegal immigrant and anyone found doing so goes to jail (not a fine).
Neither side wished to do that due to the source of cheap illegal labour who did the worst jobs with no safety regulations. The US isn’t much better than China in that manner. Only slightly better than slave labour.
Trump’s Easter message just goes to show the extent of his derangement, especially his fixation on Biden and past “wrongs”. The fact that Americans are not overwhelmingly disgusted at his rantings, especially at Easter, shows the state of America’s very sad decline. And as that decline continues, Canada needs to learn from the experience and to set itself apart from its neighbour as much as possible — economically, politically and militarily. If ever there has been a time when democracy and an enlightened future have been threatened on all fronts, it is now.