Trump

[KlaxonCow]

Does putting him in context help?

Only marginally so.

I mean, that bloke is doing a "gun show" and not wearing a shirt in the Speaker's seat in Congress, after all. And his mate, with the MAGA hat and backpack, looks like a tourist capturing the "local culture" or something, as if any of this is somehow normal.

It's not exactly the traditional image one associates with that venue.

[Misfit]

Twitter has taken down the video and a further incendiary tweet and they have locked his account for 12 hours!

Seems the first sensible thing that has happened tonight.

[Little stoned kiwi]

Serbia Deploys Peacekeeping Forces To U.S.

BELGRADE–Serbian president Vojislav Kostunica deployed more than 30,000 peacekeeping troops to the U.S. Monday, pledging full support to the troubled North American nation as it struggles to establish democracy.
"We must do all we can to support free elections in America and allow democracy to gain a foothold there," Kostunica said. "The U.S. is a major player in the Western Hemisphere and its continued stability is vital to Serbian interests in that region."

Well played, Onion. Well played. Not bad for a 20 year old article.

[ThetaReactor]

(Also, I do wonder what new constitutional changes will inevitably be made - such as perhaps just getting rid of the Presidential powers of pardon completely - to prevent this shit ever happening again.)

Constitutional amendments are very difficult to pass. They have to be proposed with a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress, then ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures. This will require bipartisan support, as Democrats barely have a simple majority in Congress and, thanks to decades of gerrymandering ratfuckery, state legislatures are mostly held by the GOP. That latter fact was part of one possible "path to victory" for Trump: if he can get the Electoral votes thrown out, the President is chosen by the House, with each state's delegation having one vote.

[funkstar]

I seem to remember something about taking him ‘seriously, not literally’? Guess that is out the window.

[Foozwah]

I haven't seen ONE non-white person in that crowd yet ...

There's no (or at least little) doubt it is/was a primarily whitey crowd, and it is undoubtedly true that had they all been Black, there would have been a very different and infinitely more extreme response, followed by a stack of bodybags being hauled out.

Having said that, I am hesitant to put the tame police response down to purely a question of race/skin colour. Cos I am also pretty sure that if a bunch of whiteys had done exactly the same thing as these dickheads, but for the purpose of protesting a war, or for conservation/land/animal rights, or even for free education/medicare for all, we would have also seen the kind of brutality for which US police have become sadly renowned.

[KlaxonCow]

Constitutional amendments are very difficult to pass.

Yes, that's true.

But an awful lot of Republicans were appalled by what they saw. Trump lost a lot of allies to this (and his earlier pressure on Georgia to just "find" the votes he needed). The news - to maintain their "balance" - had both Republicans and Democrats to comment on what was happening, and the Republicans were not defending any of it. Not even in coded "dog whistle" form.

The state legislatures are mostly in Republican hands, yes. But that's no longer necessarily the same as being in Trump's camp anymore.

(I mean, who in Georgia recorded that call and made it public? Only fellow Republicans, controlling that state, would have had access to be able to do it. And they'd refused Trump's calls 18 times beforehand, as it's just not appropriate - nor legal, depending on what Trump says - for the President to be interfering with the state. They kept telling him to fuck off, but he kept phoning them - so, fine, let the call through, but we're recording it, so it's on public record that it's all him and nothing to do with us.)

I don't know if it's the three-quarters required yet, so we'll see. I do think that even Republicans can see that shit like this has to be prevented - because, hey, the Democrats now own that simple majority and what if they also wanted to do this shit, now that it's their turn?

I feel you can actually get bipartisan support - if the American spirit remains - for "anti-autocracy" amendments to stop future Presidents acting like "Kings", as surely all Americans, of all stripes, agree on that fundamentally American principle. Whether he's your "King" or not. Because, one day, the guy with all those powers won't be your man, so do you want the other guy to be able to do this shit, even if you give up your man's ability to do it as well?

(It's happened before. The two term limit was only brought in after Roosevelt. It had been "tradition" beforehand - Washington voluntarily stepped down after 2 terms, and no President until Roosevelt actually had more than 2 terms - but then they just made it law, when Roosevelt kept winning. Roosevelt is the only President to serve more than 2 terms and now, with the law change, will be the only one to ever have that honour.)

[Harlequin]

Twitter has taken down the video and a further incendiary tweet and they have locked his account for 12 hours!

Seems the first sensible thing that has happened tonight.

Along with a threat of "permanent suspension" for future violations. Meanwhile, Facebook has also removed some posts and imposed a twenty-four hour lock.

Such swift and decisive action only a fortnight before the end of a four-year presidency.

[KlaxonCow]

Such swift and decisive action only a fortnight before the end of a four-year presidency.

Kappa, as them young folks on the Internets like to say.

[tufty]

Such swift and decisive action only a fortnight before the end of a four-year presidency.

So Brave!

Like GWB, like Mitch McConnell, like Mike Pence. So very, very, brave.

Surely they have to invoke the 25th? He's clearly off his fucking rocker.

[tufty]

And while I don't normally like Colbert, but he nailed it.

[KlaxonCow]

I don't know.

I've always quite liked Colbert, after he had the balls to roast Bush to his face, when the White House clearly made the wrong booking for their Correspondents' Dinner, as someone failed to realise that, on the Colbert Report, he was playing the character of a right-wing conservative, in order to mock them and wasn't really on their side at all.

But, fair play, he took that opportunity and absolutely ran with it.



I just love that line: "reality has a well-known liberal bias".

(It's also quite prophetic, in that his press secretary persona declaring the media to be the enemy is pretty much the model that Trump and his press secretary went for. Walk out to the podium, declare that the fake news media are evil, refuse to answer any questions coherently and then just leave.)

[gilesgoat]

I haven't seen ONE non-white person in that crowd yet ...

There's no (or at least little) doubt it is/was a primarily whitey crowd, and it is undoubtedly true that had they all been Black, there would have been a very different and infinitely more extreme response, followed by a stack of bodybags being hauled out.

Having said that, I am hesitant to put the tame police response down to purely a question of race/skin colour. Cos I am also pretty sure that if a bunch of whiteys had done exactly the same thing as these dickheads, but for the purpose of protesting a war, or for conservation/land/animal rights, or even for free education/medicare for all, we would have also seen the kind of brutality for which US police have become sadly renowned.

I am quite convinced the police was someay "doctored by Trump" to present "less resistance than normal" I am quite sure Trump wanted precisely that, people to storm inside the building and I think we are all convinced that if the crowd would have been mostly black than white the result would have been MUCH different.

[tufty]

I don't know.

I've always quite liked Colbert, after he had the balls to roast Bush to his face, when the White House clearly made the wrong booking for their Correspondents' Dinner, as someone failed to realise that, on the Colbert Report, he was playing the character of a right-wing conservative, in order to mock them and wasn't really on their side at all.

Oh wow. I'd never seen that. Brutal.

[F-ZeroOne]

A lot of people suddenly seem to be discovering that supporting Trump no matter what he said or done was actually the bad idea its been pointed out to them on multiple occasions.