Shutdowns, military pullouts, and resignations: it’s Christmas and Trump thread 89

[TheClaws]

It’s chaos in Trump’s world, more so than usual, with #TrumpResign trending in Twitter after a number of key debacles: the pull-out of US troops from Syria, the resignation of General Jim Mattis, and the shutdown of the government over Christmas due to bipartisan disagreement over wall funding. (Those are just 3 issues.) The next few weeks will be rocky.

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3442038-But-When-the-president-does-it-that-means-it-is-not-illegal-Trump-thread-LXXXVIII

I'm confused about some of the things he says. Luckily Twitter is doing it's job and fact checking all the lies from this speech.

But one that gets to me is... he talks of a 'crisis'. 'A National emergency'. 390,000 illegal aliens entering US in 2018. At one point he called them all terrorists. Why is it a 'crisis' when it is a downward trend and the numbers are falling?

' There was an average of 386,000 annual arrivals for the 2011-16 period, compared with 715,000 for the 2002-07 period. That amounts to a 46% decline.'

Kevin McCartney, minority house leader

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_McCarthy_(California_politician)

Federal Courts run out of money next Friday if the shutdown continues.

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-04/the-courts-run-out-of-cash-next-friday-here-s-what-happens-then

Apparently this means anything up to a 4 yr wait in immigration courts for those with a court date shortly as they go to the back of the queue

Jim Acosta
@Acosta
Trump referred to the shutdown as a “strike” during his meeting with lawmakers today, CNN has confirmed.

I know this is just someone's opinion, this person who supposedly works in the WH is not validated (he has lots of followers though) but his opinion on his blog from 3rd January is well worth a read.
2019 is going to be a rocky road!

angrystaffer.blogspot.com/

Interesting blog Rousette. I guess what we're seeing with the state of emergency, rambling press briefings is the start of his distraction tactics.

In his head I think Trump kills two birds with one stone. Distraction away from Mueller and keeping his cult followers happy

DH and I have long thought this could be a move Trump may try to make. So after Scrotus's blathering yesterday - very disturbing.

What the President Could Do If He Declares a State of Emergency
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/

Unknown to most Americans, a parallel legal regime allows the president to sidestep many of the constraints that normally apply. The moment the president declares a “national emergency”—a decision that is entirely within his discretion—more than 100 special provisions become available to him. While many of these tee up reasonable responses to genuine emergencies, some appear dangerously suited to a leader bent on amassing or retaining power. For instance, the president can, with the flick of his pen, activate laws allowing him to shut down many kinds of electronic communications inside the United States or freeze Americans’ bank accounts. Other powers are available even without a declaration of emergency, including laws that allow the president to deploy troops inside the country to subdue domestic unrest.

This edifice of extraordinary powers has historically rested on the assumption that the president will act in the country’s best interest when using them. With a handful of noteworthy exceptions, this assumption has held up. But what if a president, backed into a corner and facing electoral defeat or impeachment, were to declare an emergency for the sake of holding on to power? In that scenario, our laws and institutions might not save us from a presidential power grab. They might be what takes us down.

Also this

Today Trump claimed he will seize large swaths of land from private citizens at gunpoint and declare a “state of emergency” to build a wall without Congressional approval.

In the face of tyranny, Republicans are outraged ... by a freshman Member of Congress using profanity.
twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/1081291631591084032?s=21

Trump rambled on about 'eminent domain' yesterday. It sounded very worrying the way he put it.

He said if he wants to take land to build the wall the Govt will offer money but if the landowner refuses they'll just take it anyway and pay some money. That seemed to be his take on it anyway

He’s a monster. I hope the good people of USA can find a way through.

A start.

www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/democrats-first-order-of-business-making-it-easier-to-vote-and-harder-to-buy-elections/

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/elizabeth-warren-dna-test-native-american_us_5c19550fe4b0432554c512bb

'HuffPost talked to a dozen tribal chiefs, Native politicians, researchers and influencers to get a sense of why this narrative that has taken off in the media ― that Warren, who has been a strong ally to tribes, is suddenly on the ropes with them because of her DNA test ― seems off. Some spoke on record; others spoke only anonymously, given their close work with tribes whose privacy they wanted to respect.

The consensus was clear: This narrative is incredibly overblown. Tribal leaders have far more pressing matters to deal with than a senator’s DNA test. And, frustratingly, non-Native people are defining a debate about Native people without letting them speak for themselves.'

He just has no concept how normal people live and does not care to learn.

OLITICO
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Reporter: Do you have in mind a safety net for [federal workers] who need their checks?

Trump: The safety net is going to be having a strong border because we're going to be safe

Talk of a state of emergency is extremely worrying.

It's a well-known move by governments or heads of state seeking more permanent absolute powers.

Part of the playbook of wannabe dictators is to provoke widespread civil unrest (often by cutting off essential supplies of food, power or income to large numbers of citizens, as it mobilises ordinary folk who wouldn't usually get involved in politics or disturbances). The dictator-in-waiting then declares a state of emergency, suspends the normal rule of law and sends in the military. This settles in as the norm.

Using "the wall" as the pretext for the state of emergency is novel, but it might work for 45.

There's also the danger some of his external advisors will suggest he adds the more usual pretexts to bolster his case. And things like civil unrest and cutting off essential supplies are harmful even without the state of emergency.

Nahal Toosi
@nahaltoosi
This is truly amazing. The Justice Department admits that, under Trump, it effectively made up and misstated information to link immigrants to terrorism, but that it won't retract or correct the culprit report.

www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-dept-admits-error-but-wont-correct-report-linking-terrorism-to-immigration/2019/01/03/cd29997a-0f69-11e9-831f-3aa2c2be4cbd_story.html

Trump has never properly engaged with government preferring not to fill posts etc. His comfort with closing down the government and being immune to the impact on people is not only a lack of empathy but another way of destroying the state and it's stability. He and his cronies can pick up the pieces cheaply and he can exploit the unrest. It's all out of Bannon's playbook - see also no deal Brexit.

Meanwhile, while we are still in reasonably sane world, there was an interesting discussion on Deadline WH yesterday on impeachment and Trump's obsession with it.

Trump rails against impeachment threat hours after Dems take over House
www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/watch/trump-rails-against-impeachment-threat-hours-after-dems-take-over-house-1420242499975

Speaker Pelosi's advice to women leaders: "Know your power...Know your why. Know your subject. Know why you're doing it. Know what it is. Know about it so that you can speak with authority on it...That connection is so important."

Watch more: on.msnbc.com/2FbZj2I twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1081517270860525568/video/1

He's still seeing his 'role' as POTUS is 'being a businessman'. Which he sucked at, too.

Calling the shutdown a 'strike' shows that he has the mentality of "my workers (Congress) are going on strike (not giving me my wall). Then I'll lock them out (shut the Govt down) and starve them!".

Wonder if he'll try to bring scabs in to Congress? That'd be funny.

If you want a laugh this is well worth watching..

'Trump is the expert on everything'

twitter.com/IndivisibleNet/status/1081517912605614080

Appalling Trump wants to call it a 'strike' and not a shutdown. A strike is voluntary. A shutdown is not.

edition.cnn.com/2019/01/04/politics/trump-calling-shutdown-strike/index.html

Meanwhile, is Ted Cruz trying to be Presidential ahead of 2020?
Why limit his own tenure?

read.bi/2TuAYcx

how does the shut down work for the government employees?
if they don't get paid, are they allowed to get second jobs? (I know civil servants in many countries are not allowed to)
can they get insured against loss of income in such a situation?

Trumps Wall, Trumps shutdown and Trump's side of the story

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/04/us/politics/trump-wall-shutdown.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

Two weeks into the showdown over a border wall, Mr. Trump is now crafting his own narrative of the confrontation that has come to consume his presidency. Rather than a failure of negotiation, the shutdown has become a test of political virility, one in which he insists he is receiving surreptitious support from unlikely quarters.
Not only are national security hawks cheering him on to defend a porous southern border, but so too are former presidents who he says have secretly confessed to him that they should have done what he is doing. Not only do federal employees accept being furloughed or forced to work without wages, they have assured him that they would give up paychecks so that he can stand strong.
Never mind how implausible such assertions might seem. The details do not matter to Mr. Trump as much as dominating the debate. After an oddly quiescent holiday season in which he complained via Twitter about being left at home alone “poor meme--” he has taken the public stage this week clearly intent on framing the conflict on his own terms.
People close to the president described him as emboldened since members of Congress returned to Washington after the break, giving him not only a clear target to swing at but helping him focus on a fight that he is convinced is a political winner. One aide said Mr. Trump believes he has gained the upper hand in the public battle.
Although surveys at first showed more Americans blaming him for the shutdown than Democrats, later polling showed the fault more evenly split. And the voters he cares most about, his core conservative supporters, are more enthusiastic than the public at large. He has told people that “my people” love the fight, and that he believes he is winning.
In the past three days, Mr. Trump has appeared in public three times to get his version of the story out while Democrats celebrated their takeover of the House. At a lengthy cabinet meeting on Wednesday, an appearance with border patrol union leaders on Thursday and a news conference with Republican congressional leaders in the Rose Garden on Friday, he engaged in quintessentially Trumpian stream of conscious discussions that ranged widely and unpredictably.

greenelephantscarf, AcrossThePond will be able to answer definitively, having been a Fed civil servant, but from her previous posts and from what I've seen elsewhere, I think US civil servants can get second jobs.