Right before elections for the House of Representatives and a third of the U.S. Senate, Trump is trying to whip up his "base" of white racists and xenophobes. He's doing it in at least two ways. With a week to go until the November 6 election, he is claiming the right to invalidate the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by issuing an executive order abolishing it. The 14th Amendment states that anyone born in the U.S. is automatically a U.S. citizen. (About 30 other countries also do this, contrary to Trump's lie, repeated regularly over the years and again now, that the U.S. is the only country that does this. Oh, and it's "ridiculous" and it "has to stop" He portrays all such people as leeches.) Reactionaries call this "birthright citizenship," as if it is somehow different from citizenship of babies born in the U.S. whose parents are U.S. citizens. They also push a lie called "anchor babies," which the corporate media NEVER call them on. The idea is that citizen babies somehow make it impossible to deport their parents. A lie, as the U.S. has long deported parents with U.S. citizen children. Obama indeed deported thousands of such people.
As far as a president changing the basic law of the U.S., the Constitution, to his liking by his own edict, that is completely illegal. The Constitution specifies two ways in which it can be altered: either by a Constitutional Convention, of which there has only ever been one, the one that created the Constitution, or by a vote of two-thirds of the members of both chambers of Congress AND by ratification by three-quarters of the state legislatures. That is how all subsequent amendments after the first ten (the so-called Bill of Rights) have been enacted.
The media headlines should have been the first part of my title above, Trump Asserts Dictatorial Power To Change U.S. Constitution By Fiat. Instead the predominant media reaction was Hmm, can he do that? There would probably be a legal challenge.
Not, BLATANTLY ILLEGAL POWER GRAB UNPRECEDENTED IN U.S. HISTORY! And saying "there would be a legal challenge" implies he COULD do it, and THEN people would have to take him to court to try and overturn it! (Keep in mind that the Federal courts are now stuffed with extreme reactionary judges courtesy of the Federalist Society, the GOP, and the Democrats' spinelessness and political fecklessness.)
It seems that the establishment "resistance" to Trump consists of placing all hopes on former FBI secret police chief Robert S. Mueller III pulling a rabbit out of his hat and proving that Trump is Putin's Puppet, a criminal stooge of Moscow. Good luck with that. That means there's no hope at all.
As former CIA secret police chief Michael Morell has stated, if there was evidence to that effect, it would have either been leaked by now, or uncovered by the horde of reporters frantically digging for dirt on Trump. Plenty of dirt has been found- David Cay Johnston and Wayne Barrett have spent years digging up a mountain of misdeeds by Trump- but "Russian collusion," like the piss tape, is a fantasy.
The second way Trump is agitating his vile supporters is by screeching about an "invasion" by a few thousand refugees fleeing the violence and poverty created there by the Obama-Hillary Clinton coup in that nation. These refugees are currently over a thousand miles from the U.S., at the Guatemalan-Mexican border. Trump publicly called for them to be gunned down, U.S. Border Patrol style. ("When they throw rocks like they did at Mexican military police I say consider that a rifle.") The U.S. Border Patrol isn't murderous enough already. Trump has to stoke more murders. Just as he called on cops to bash the heads of people they arrest into their patrol cars' doorframes. Just as he praised a Republican lout for body-slamming a reporter, a thug subsequently elected by the goons of the state of Montana to Congress. [1]
Trump also made a big show of sending 5,200 army troops to the U.S.-Mexican border, following that by announcing his alleged intent to sent 15,000 troops. Hey, why not make it a million, asshole?
To borrow from Lillian Hellman, we're in Scoundrel Time (again), in America.
Der Fuhrer, U.S. version. And he's even of German ancestry! (And believes he's superior because of it. Remember
As far as a president changing the basic law of the U.S., the Constitution, to his liking by his own edict, that is completely illegal. The Constitution specifies two ways in which it can be altered: either by a Constitutional Convention, of which there has only ever been one, the one that created the Constitution, or by a vote of two-thirds of the members of both chambers of Congress AND by ratification by three-quarters of the state legislatures. That is how all subsequent amendments after the first ten (the so-called Bill of Rights) have been enacted.
The media headlines should have been the first part of my title above, Trump Asserts Dictatorial Power To Change U.S. Constitution By Fiat. Instead the predominant media reaction was Hmm, can he do that? There would probably be a legal challenge.
Not, BLATANTLY ILLEGAL POWER GRAB UNPRECEDENTED IN U.S. HISTORY! And saying "there would be a legal challenge" implies he COULD do it, and THEN people would have to take him to court to try and overturn it! (Keep in mind that the Federal courts are now stuffed with extreme reactionary judges courtesy of the Federalist Society, the GOP, and the Democrats' spinelessness and political fecklessness.)
It seems that the establishment "resistance" to Trump consists of placing all hopes on former FBI secret police chief Robert S. Mueller III pulling a rabbit out of his hat and proving that Trump is Putin's Puppet, a criminal stooge of Moscow. Good luck with that. That means there's no hope at all.
As former CIA secret police chief Michael Morell has stated, if there was evidence to that effect, it would have either been leaked by now, or uncovered by the horde of reporters frantically digging for dirt on Trump. Plenty of dirt has been found- David Cay Johnston and Wayne Barrett have spent years digging up a mountain of misdeeds by Trump- but "Russian collusion," like the piss tape, is a fantasy.
The second way Trump is agitating his vile supporters is by screeching about an "invasion" by a few thousand refugees fleeing the violence and poverty created there by the Obama-Hillary Clinton coup in that nation. These refugees are currently over a thousand miles from the U.S., at the Guatemalan-Mexican border. Trump publicly called for them to be gunned down, U.S. Border Patrol style. ("When they throw rocks like they did at Mexican military police I say consider that a rifle.") The U.S. Border Patrol isn't murderous enough already. Trump has to stoke more murders. Just as he called on cops to bash the heads of people they arrest into their patrol cars' doorframes. Just as he praised a Republican lout for body-slamming a reporter, a thug subsequently elected by the goons of the state of Montana to Congress. [1]
Trump also made a big show of sending 5,200 army troops to the U.S.-Mexican border, following that by announcing his alleged intent to sent 15,000 troops. Hey, why not make it a million, asshole?
To borrow from Lillian Hellman, we're in Scoundrel Time (again), in America.
 | ||
he wanted more Norwegians to immigrate to the U.S., and stop the flow from "shithole" -i.e. "non-white"- countries.)
Gee, I TRIED to overthrow Trump for you. [Robert S. Mueller III, another guy of German extraction.]
1] "Trump praises GOP congressman who assaulted reporter: 'Any guy that can do a body slam — he's my guy.'" USA Today, October 18, 2018.
No comments:
Post a Comment