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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Trump is someone I could totally see trying to order a military attack on Canada, he’s a petulant child who has never had anyone tell him no and doesn’t understand that actions have consequences.
Luckily such an order would fail, I’m not convinced that it would be for legal reasons (even with the War Powers Act he can authorise military actions uniliatarily for up to 60 days) so much as for everybody playing “by the book cop” reasons.
Remember Nixon used to get drunk and order all sorts of shit (allegedly including nuclear strikes), his staff would give him the run around with nonsense until he sobered up. Trump is similar, he may well order an attack on somewhere in a fit of rage, but I suspect that his staff will ask for the order in writing in triplicate and play other games until he either gets distracted by something else or calms down.
edited 13th Jun '18 6:27:21 PM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranAnyone want to talk about Corey Stewart, the Republican nominee for Virginia Senator (opposing Tim Kaine)? He's a Confederate monument defender (the cornerstone of his campaign, other than blindly following the MAGA agenda/Trump), has contacts with white nationalists (and is probably one himself) and blamed the violence at the Unite the Right rally on both sides. The state and national GOP have refused to endorse him, and Republican insiders and senior leaders are (publically!) ceding the election to Kaine (who they admitted would probably win even against their preferred choice). Their big concern is that such a far-right nominee in a moderate state will spell doom for GOP Reps in swing districts.
Trump has gone ahead and endorsed Stewart, because he's learned nothing from Moore.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/12/politics/virginia-senate-race-corey-stewart/index.html
Just finished tour, don’t even know where to start. One of the first things you notice when you walk into the shelter — no joke — a mural of Trump with the quote “sometimes losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.” Presidential murals everywhere. But that one is 1st.
This shelter, Casa Padre, is the largest licensed childcare facility of its kind in the country. Nearly 1,500 boys 10-17 in here now. They’re supposed to sleep four to room. Nearly every room has 5. They’ve received a variance from the state because of overcrowding.
Officials here said they’ve never had an MS-13 member here, ever.
Moments after we walked in a shelter employee asked us to smile at hundreds of detained migrant kids in line for a meal because “they feel like animals in a cage being looked at.”
Kids here get only two hours a day to be outside in fresh air. One hour of structured time. One hour of free time. The rest of the day is spent inside a former Wal Mart.
Instructions to employees in the lobby of the shelter if you encounter media: 1) “Immediatelt notify PD,” or the police department. 2) Call the shelter communications director. In that order. For the record, nobody called cops on us. We were invited by HHS and the shelter.
his mega-shelter is run by trained staff — a nonprofit. I believe the worker looking after these kids who said she’d like to see a day when they don’t have to do this. But things are moving in the wrong direction — capacity is 1497 and tonight 1469 boys will sleep here.
I have been inside a federal prison and county jails. This place is called a shelter but these kids are incarcerated. No cells and no cages, and they get to go to classes about American history and watch Moana, but they’re in custody. Coming up on @allinwithchris next.
Something I just told @chrislhayes: this place is a licensed child care facility with trained staff. There are 26 operated by the same nonprofit, @Southwest Key. Its president told me that potential new tent cities that will be on federal property *don’t* have to be licensed.
edited 13th Jun '18 7:11:56 PM by tclittle
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."edited 13th Jun '18 8:49:00 PM by tclittle
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."The problem with DEUS EX isn't that conspiracy theorists aren't a bunch of dangerous evil nutters, they are.
It's there actually IS a conspiracy rich white racists to control the world who misuse conspiracy theories to protect themselves.
Edit:
I feel strange that my reaction to the Dennis Hof news is disappointment and my respect for the man going down.
edited 13th Jun '18 9:00:06 PM by CharlesPhipps
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Last page, there was an argument about what Trump will do and what he will/can get away with, and I'd like to weigh in.
Let's make one thing crystal clear: Trump does not see America's official Allies as his allies. Trump wants to be a dictator. Unless they're metaphorically kissing his ass, Trump fucking hates the leaders of the countries we're supposed to be allied with, because they aren't dictators. He shmoozes up to Kim and Putin and praises Jinping because those people are the kind of people he wants to be, and they rule their countries the way he wants to rule America. I could absolutely see Trump at least trying to make it so that all of America's allies are now its enemies and its enemies are now its allies.
Also, you can say "well, even if Trump tries to do this, the rest of the government will stop him", but I'm not so sure about that. How many times has Trump done or said something truly outrageous and horrifying, and the rest of the Republicans have either outright supported him, twiddled their fucking thumbs doing nothing, or simply said they disagreed and took no action against him whatsoever? The answer is every single fucking time. Every time. The most any Republican has done was quit, which only reduces the power of those who oppose him. None of the Republicans would step in and stop Trump from declaring war on Canada because they'd either agree with him, be utterly apathetic, or they'd be spineless cowards and only say a couple words of disapproval with zero action taken whatsoever.
edited 13th Jun '18 10:10:18 PM by PushoverMediaCritic
Trump also didn't have the right to legally slap those tariffs on his allies and he found a loop hole in order to side-step congress. Nor did he have the right to bomb Syria after the gas attack without any input from the government, and he just did it anyway. And not only got he away with it both times, he got praised by the very same people who were supposed to keep him in check. And now he basically says that he could pardon himself if necessary. So excuse me if I don't trust in the government to keep him in check, no matter what he does. The only thing Trump needs are troops who obey when he tells them "You have to fire on x".
edited 13th Jun '18 11:51:56 PM by Swanpride
Laws in the US often give the President a lot of leeway (and the Constitution does the same for pardons, so as long as they concern crimes against the United States) when it comes to "national security" questions. Easy to abuse but any concerns at the time they were written were ignored.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanExcept we’re not talking about congressional Republicans, we’re talking about the executive staff and military chain fo command, who have either talked Trump out of rage induced orders (firing Muller) or twiddled their thumbs to get Trump to loose focus (the trans solider ban).
Yes he does, it’s up to him to determine what counts as a national security issue, it’s stupid that there’s no oversight there, but it’s perfectly legal.
Again yes he does, look at the War Powers Act, all he has to do is notify Congress when he orders military actions, he’s free to bomb anyone he wants for up to 60 days.
Which as pointed out he didn’t have, because it’s Canada. It’s actully NATO, since any attack on Canada is an attack on NATO, no general is going to let Trump start a shooting war with two nuclear powers.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranI wouldn't bet on that. Most wouldn't, but Trumpists can be found pretty much everywhere, I don't think that the military is above them.
And honestly, Trump just has to escalate the situation to a point at which "we need to shot back" sounds believable.
This aside, Trump can do more than enough damage without any direct attack.

Sarah Sanders calls the report about her leaving the White House Fake News.
I'm inclined to believe her for now. I haven't seen anything that would have made her want to leave, except for that one kid reporter.
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."