Who are they kidding? It's Oil, Oil, Oil, baby - Trump Thread #152

[Spandauer]

Back on US soil, an American citizen in a peaceful neighbourhood is gunned down by masked agents sent there to make people afraid.

Despicable, wretched people lying, lying, lying - all day, every day, about everything.

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5458156-war-crimes-and-peace-prizes-trump-thread-151?page=1

The bar is so low now, I'd imagine there are many dictators world leaders who are rubbing their hands together at the prospect of an invitation to Oslo.

Putin is already packing his suitcase.

eta That rattling noise you can hear..? Yeah, that's Alf spinning like a top.

If the bar's that low they can defo sling one my way.
Being as the Nobel in literature has passed me by (sob), which is the one I really crave. 📚📖

Read the inscription. Threw up in my mouth a little 🤮. I need to clear the bad taste out of my mouth. Can someone pass me an Everclear & soda? Skip the ice this time, please.

It's just becoming more and more unhinged every day. I'd give just about anything to time travel and speak to someone living in Germany in 1933-35. Just to swap notes & pick their brains. Did the rational Germans feel like rational Americans now feel? Did they feel there was nothing they could do?

I think we (the 'little guy' Dem) feel there isn't much we can do but protest peaceably and wait for November. The problem is that every action unchallenged and every undeserved accolade emboldens him even farther. Will the next step be the insurrection act and then cancelling the midterms? I've always dismissed that. Until now.

My prediction is that something will happen with the midterms. Trump’s approval rating is abysmal and he knows it.

Declare a national Emergency and “postpone” elections until it is “safe to do so”?

Send armed agents to “ensure safety and prevent civil unrest” at polling stations with historically Democratic results, with the hopes of making citizens believe that the hassle isn’t worth it?

Who knows…the Supreme Court granted him complete immunity, so this should get spicy!

Declare a national Emergency and “postpone” elections until it is “safe to do so”?

Were that to happen, there is a universe where Keir Starmer declares that following the US lead, the UK will also suspend elections. See how frog face Farage deals with that.

And there we have it. Trump threatens countries that stand in his way, for Greenland, with tariffs. He’s pretty predictable with his coersion technique. I’m not sure how he gets his own country on board with this madness though.

Denmark ?

Ozempic. And Botox I think.

Hmmm

Someone auctioned their Nobel medal in aid of a Ukrainian children's charity recently, didn't they? A Russian journalist, who won it three or four years ago?

And some Norwegian novelist was a Nazi sympathiser and gave his medal to Goebbels; during the same war a Jew who had won a Nobel prize destroyed his medal with acid so it couldn't fall into Nazi hands, and after the war the gold was later retrieved somehow and the medal recast and given to his family. (I think that was how it went, anyway.)

Am I right in thinking that a Republican congressman is now calling for Trump's impeachment over the Greenland rhetoric? Or is it just his impeachment if Greenland is actually invaded?

They don’t understand that it is they, the American consumer, who has to pay the tariff their end, not the country on whose products the tariffs are imposed. I don’t think Trump gets it, either, to be fair.

Keir Starmer for all his faults wouldn't though. And Farage etc know that. That's why they feel quite safe calling for citizenship to be stripped from people whose speech they don't like. In theory, if Starmer was as authoritarian as Farage/Musk claim, they would be terrified of that happening since it could be used to crack down on his own free speech/disenfranchise him. But like Biden because they know he actually isn't an anti-democracy dictator they can call for drastic action against their enemies or stir up trouble with OTT warnings of civil war.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5692379-don-bacon-donald-trump-impeachment-greenland-invasion/

He says he'd 'consider it' if we invade. Which is a far cry from 'demanding it' or even 'proposing it'. All sound and fury etc etc etc.

"You mean my expensive-and-so-fashionable Scandi furniture and accessories will get even more expensive??!! Oh Noes!!" cry all the wealthy and 'keep up with the Joneses' MAGAts!!!

The rest of us get it, believe me. We get it every time we go to IKEA for our inexpensive-and-not-so-fashionable flatpacks. Or the grocery store.

Funny how long SCOTUS are taking to deliver a verdict on the tariffs case.

Oh well. It sounded nice when I heard it, but I mustardmitt I was half-asleep at the time. Thanks for putting the record straight.

I once separated two hamsters who were determined to kill each other. I was badly bitten for my efforts and then had to spend the next two years cleaning two separate cages as the DC who was desperate for them promptly forgot about the sociopathic little fuckers. I have nominated myself for a Purple Heart, a Nobel, a Pulitzer, a Man Booker, an Oscar and a Michelin star. I feel sure the committees will get back to me soon.

*they were some kind of special breed hamsters that are supposed to be able to live in pairs.

Hoping against hope that Greenland might just be the trigger point? That Republicans will turn against him over this? It’s deeply unpopular with the American public.

As far as cancelling the midterms, a POTUS doesn't have the authority to cancel an election, even if the Insurrection Act is invoked. The power to set 'time, manner, and place' of elections lies with the individual States (U.S. Constitution Article I, Section 4) with Congress having the power to make or alter the state's decisions via legislation (simple majority) or Constitutional amendment (2/3 vote + state ratification). A POTUS can only sign or veto what Congress has done.

The Insurrection Act carries no language about elections at all and no legal 'mechanism' for an election to be cancelled or postponed. If he tried to use the military to interfere in an election, it would immediately be challenged in court and most likely be ruled unconstitutional. I'd assume that would include blocking access to polling places or placing troops in a way as to intimidate or discourage voters (ie "Show us your papers"), imposing a curfew to make voting impossible, creating a cordon/'no go' zones that would make getting to one's polling place nearly impossible.

As an FYI the Insurrection Act is invoked on a case by case basis. So whilst he could theoretically invoke it against Minnesota it would NOT affect other states.

This is a good article:

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/insurrection-act-explained

a POTUS doesn't have the authority to cancel an election, even if the Insurrection Act is invoked.

Depends what SCOTUS says. I mean it could be it's unlawful. But POTUS can break the law.

An Ipsos poll this week did indicate it was unpopular with the US public. 7% approval I recall. Another poll was 17%

But 1 in 5 had not even heard about it.

That 20% who have never heard about it? I suspect MAGATS , and it might be because Breitbart and OAN are not pushing it ? I can't check because those sites are blocked where I live, and VPN has been down.

I reckon Breitbart etc are like a window into Trump. I think ideas are tested there for opinion often, and the Party line is pushed to let the cult know what they should be thinking and saying.

Trump and his MAGA press are joined at the hip. Pure propaganda and messaging. Same as the State media where I am. Except where I am, State media is 100% top down. In Trumps case, it appears he gets many of his ideas from his.

The refunds will just be building up…

Apparently Peloton is suing the US government over tariffs.

According to Bullshit Barbie, Trump has stopped stopped the killing, including 800 executions, in Iran. I bet that he's going to add it to the eleven and counting wars he's also stopped. Et Voilá ...Peace Prize!

Meanwhile, back in Iran, Sky News had a piece today with Iranians on the ground said the killing hasn't stopped. Fake news obvs.

True. But breaking the law and not being prosecuted for it doesn't mean that what is done will 'stand'. It just means he won't be punished for it.

Maybe I'm being optimistic, but I really don't believe that even this SCOTUS would find in his favour if he did try to cancel an election. Hopefully my optimism won't be tested!

This is a link to a Facebook reel. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1DDkxXztnC/?mibextid=wwXIfr
(I've been married to a Greek for some time, this is one of the funniest, cleverest, Trump parodies I've seen.)

I’m sure it will have been posted before but I think it’s becoming blindingly obvious that Trump is going to blow up NATO because Putin has ordered him to. No more, no less.