Trance on 15/2/2019 at 04:04
Trump didn't get what he wanted out of Congress. (
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/us/politics/trump-national-emergency-border.html) Time for a national emergency.
Quote:
The emergency declaration combined with the $1.375 billion in the spending measure dedicated to fencing and other reprogrammed funds would allow the president to put together about $8 billion for barriers along the border, according to an administration official, more than the $5.7 billion he had been seeking from Congress.
[. . .]
Seven Senate Democrats, including four announced or possible presidential candidates, immediately introduced legislation intended to block Mr. Trump from diverting money from disaster relief for the wall. Some House Democrats, including Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, began endorsing a joint resolution to essentially nullify a national emergency declaration.
The next phase of the fight begins. I wonder how good a job it will do at diverting public attention from the ongoing investigations.
Pyrian on 15/2/2019 at 04:52
This is exactly the sort of direct abuse of law and power that impeachment was designed for. This invented national emergency is more spurious than the Iraqi WMD, and he's not even pretending that he's doing it for any other reason than to make an end-run around Congress' constitutional power.
Nicker on 15/2/2019 at 05:15
Trump already shot himself in the foot on this one. He has made it a matter of public record that declaring an emergency is just a ruse to get funding for his wall.
Anyway, at the last rally in Texas he said the wall was already built, it just needed to be "finished". So there is no real emergency and there is already a wall.
Trumpistas are so fixated on Donny Little Hands getting his way they don't seem to appreciate Pelosi's warning that this would set a precedent for future presidents to declare spurious emergencies to advance their agendas, agendas the Tea Party might not agree with.
demagogue on 15/2/2019 at 06:48
The whole rule of law thing I don't think has occurred to them. The whole point of having rule of law and a government of checks and balances is so an executive can't just make shit up and say L'etat, c'est moi. It's a very weird reversal. Remember it was Republicans that renamed May 1 "Law Day" (or Rule of Law Day) to emphasize what the US & West are that the USSR & other dictatorships weren't. Oh how far they've fallen from that tree.
Pyrian on 15/2/2019 at 07:26
Quote Posted by Nicker
Trump already shot himself in the foot on this one. He has made it a matter of public record that declaring an emergency is just a ruse to get funding for his wall.
Eh, he did the same thing with the "Muslim Ban" and the Supreme Court still swallowed his lawyers' argument that it wasn't really intended that way, even as Trump himself kept right on tweeting it.
heywood on 15/2/2019 at 16:16
Quote Posted by Pyrian
This is exactly the sort of direct abuse of law and power that impeachment was designed for.
I am still very uncomfortable with the idea of removing an elected President, but I'm beginning to agree. I think the Supreme Court may side with him on this issue, because Congress did knowingly give the President emergency powers, assuming they wouldn't be abused. If they do, impeachment may be the only way to reign in the abuse. It's sad because at the start of his administration, it looked like Trump might be the one to finally broker a comprehensive immigration reform deal.
Nicker on 15/2/2019 at 17:29
Trump is incapable of a comprehensive anything. He can't even keep his lies straight. If he had the wisdom to know his own limitations, surround himself with genuinely brilliant people, then bask in their glory, he might have done some good but he's too arrogant, avaricious and paranoid to share power and too old and stupid to change.
He has always been a threat to the USA, with zero regard for the Constitution and rule of law.
Vae on 15/2/2019 at 18:32
It's not a national emergency if the invaders vote the way we want!...Then they become welcomed friends!...
Inline Image:
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/images/icons/icon15.gif...and if the Supreme Court allows the President to protect the United States with a wall, in order to reduce death and dysfunction, then they are racist!...:mad:
Renzatic on 15/2/2019 at 19:29
Vae has the highest IQ.
Trance on 15/2/2019 at 19:32
So is that the only thing you do anymore, Vae? I'd have thought by now you'd pick up on how boring and ineffectual the Straw Liberal schtick is.