Clearly, the problem is the law is obviously wrong. When Trump and his DOJ cannot charge, try, and convict the people that Trump wants, or the people who object to what Trump wants, the law is the problem. Trump and his illegal, illegitimate actions; and the corrupt, incompetent, and unfit prosecutors and arrests being made could not possibly be the problem. Right?
The fact that these charges and arrests are literally "trumped up", still doesn't make up for the mess it makes of ordinary, decent, law-abiding and Constitution respecting people's lives.
I watched this interview online, and Mr. Talarico has some very interesting things to say. He's pretty clear about his religion, and also very clear about the need for government to stay uninvolved and far away from religion - all religions. He's 'walked that walk' in the Texas state legislature, too... so it's not just empty talk. Talarico strikes me as kind of 'the anti-Paxton' of Texas politics, and I think he'd be a real quality candidate and would, if he can somehow get elected, make an excellent Senator - far, far better than Paxton ever will.
More than one branch is 'not playing by the rules'. We would not need the Congress to step up, which they are so egregiously neglecting due to Republicans' spineless sycophancy, if the Executive branch were not so single-mindedly intent on eviscerating the Constitution and replacing the 'rule of law' with the 'law of the jungle' - or as so eloquently put by Stephen Miller "strength, power, and force." Were the Executive branch to abide by the Constitution and the current laws, while it would still have a lot of power, perhaps more than it should... it would not be a crisis of democracy-threatening seriousness. But anyone who doesn't think we are in clear and present danger of losing our democracy to autocracy and tyranny is just not paying attention.
It's retroactive law enforcement, because this Trump administration believes it can change what was once legal, make it illegal, then prosecute and deport people for doing what was legal when they did it.
"Do you have lace-up shoes on right now?"
"Yes."
"That's it, you're deported. Those are now illegal."
"Wait - they weren't this morning when I got dressed."
"Sorry, law changed, you're now an 'illegal', and you've got to go."
"I was wrong, I am wearing slip-on shoes."
"That's OK - we're making those illegal tomorrow."
The law cannot be arbitrarily changed and then retroactively applied, or else we have no law at all... we have the random whims of a cruel bully, being enforced by brutal thuggery and violence. Are we "great again" yet?
I find it hard to understand how a "Christian" of any kind can reconcile their belief in Jesus and His teachings and the actions of CBP and ICE enforcement. Working for them while claiming to be a "Christian" pastor? Seems the pastor has achieved a new height of hypocrisy.
Recall that Trump, in his first campaign, openly mocked a handicapped reporter, parroting the physical movements 'for fun'. That's the kind of low-class, no empathy and bigoted person Trump is. Withdrawing ASL translation is a crass, crude, and truly vulgar action -- but I do think that it tells the world a LOT about the "image" of who Trump really is. That "image" is definitely quite different than what Trump sees of himself, and what his boot-licking sycophants surrounding him report to him, no doubt. But his actions clearly gives an accurate "image" of him to the world.
To the extent that Trump appoints people based on their looks ("right out of central casting") and their "loyalty" instead of their capability, experience, and knowledge, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Imagine just how awful more a mess the country would be in if every Trump appointee was skilled, dedicated, and capable at what they are doing. Yes, some of them are making a mucking awful mess of things even full of incompetence (looking at you, ICE Barbie) but imagine that excess of enthusiasm backing up real skills. Be grateful for whatever small good things we can find, in these terrible times - Trump's most good-looking and "loyal" people are on the case, Mr. Comey.
"If I get deported, it will wreck my life."
What about all the hundreds of thousands of other people, people who "obeyed the rules" and a "doing things the right way" to become legal residents, receive asylum, or even gain citizenship? What about the hundreds of thousands of people being deported whose only "crime" their entire life was when their parents brought them here as young children? Do you think it "ruins my life" when it happens to them?
Yes, it's a terrible thing to do to this upright, Trump-voting lifelong Republican. But it's no less terrible to do that to any other lawful living, long-time employed, tax-paying, economically productive person who is seized at an immigration hearing, or arrested at a mandatory court appearance, and deported. Trump promised to deport "criminals" and "gang members" and "drug dealers". Trump LIED. Instead Trump's masked goon squads are sweeping in everyone they can grab, to meet their quotas, without regard for due process, for civil rights, and with brutal glee in the fear they can cause. TRUMP LIED... and this Republican-voting, Trump backing fool of a mayor believed Trump. Yes it "will ruin my life." But Trump DOESN'T CARE. And Stephen Miller loves to do it. Sorry fool, be more careful who you vote for next time.
All the violent attacks, thuggery, and repression - and the explict instructions to suppress legitimate protest and free speech is pretext.
Trump, and his puppetmaster Stephen Miller, want a pretext to declare a 'state of emergency' and martial law and restrict or postpone the election. Escalating "crowd control" tactics to attack protesters with increasing brutality and force, they are trying to provoke an actual attack with real weapons. Bovino will send out his thugs, and somebody with a gun will take a pop, and that will be all the excuse, all the pretext Trump will need.
It is intentionally, by design provocative and will be escalated until it provokes, in one of these cities, a response that Trump can spin into a pretext for declaring another of his "emergencies" and 'sending in the Marines'. It is a land-based Gulf of Tonkin strategy.
The logical next step, if the protesting people are wise enough to stay nonviolent even in the face of this continuing brutality, will be to stage the whole thing, using a 'false flag' operator (who will miraculously 'get away'...) and come close but miss. Trump spun his assassination attempts into fervor with his MAGA cult (and profited personally off it, too)... he'll do the same thing here if the true protesters don't fall for his provocations and escalations.
It was a poll predicting the outcome of an event that HAD NOT HAPPENED YET. So if it is wrong, that is a consequence of the event not being in control of the poll taker or the poll participants individually. I can say "the stock market will go up tomorrow." If it doesn't you cannot sue me for being wrong, even if you lose money because of my statement. The event has not happened yet. Any prediction of an outcome for an event in the future is necessarily an opinion. And opinions are protected free speech.
Trump didn't actually tell them to edit out his statement about shaking down 60 Minutes over the Harris interview editing. He more said "you don’t have to put this on..." and then he want on to say more about how you don't want to "embarrass" the new leader of CBS. And he didn't say 'you don't want to embarrass me either, or else' but it comes across in his praise of this "great person" who is now the new leader at CBS. "Great person" - 'be a real shame if something were to happen to her job so soon...'
Trump is just reflexively using intimidation and implied threats; he can't help himself. Trump is a mobster thug, no insult to the families intended.
What would be done differently than what Trump is doing, if the president were a foreign agent intent on 'destroying the US from within'? Would there be any real differences in what would happen than what Trump is actively doing right now? Why do so many of the policies Trump is promoting demean, diminish, weaken, and degrade the United States? Really - just who is Trump actually working for (besides enriching himself)?
There is a concept that a "balanced" media must present "both sides" of any issue. But if the "issue" is defined by facts, then there is really one side, and the rest is lies. Our current "conservative" government and the dark-money culture influencers working behind the scenes to spread this "balanced" news concept want the professional journalist news media to present the 'lies' on equal footing, as equally valid, with the facts; they want the 'spin' presented as just a different perspective when the objective events exist and show clearly the truth. We are becoming a 'post-truth' and 'post-facts' society, one where not only is 'my ignorance just as valid as your facts' but where truth and facts are malleable concepts, subject to reshaping and discarding without any consequences.
What does it say about a country that it's 'leader' pretends to be taking the country 'back to greatness' while diseases formerly controlled are loose to threaten that country's children again?
Are we "Great" again, yet - when America's children are dying from fully preventable disease?
What's wrong with these people, who put their children at risk for Trump and RFK Jr's lies? The kids don't have a choice - but oh are those parents failing their children. How can a parent live with themselves when their unvaccinated kid dies? Everyone one of those dead kids is a failure of leadership, and of parenting.
What else could be expected from a political party led by a person who has been corruption personified their entire life? Trump is corruption, to the core. And he is a 'carrier', and has exported his corruption to the political party he has taken over. Trump is corruption. It really is that simple.
"That’s not jurisprudence. That’s not the rule of law. It’s a modern star chamber with no public legitimacy."
Trump says - 'You say that like it's some kind of problem...'
A 'star chamber' works for Trump. "And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. ..."
We are in a kind of 'Bizarro' alternative facts universe, call it "Trumpworld", where people who invade the United States Capitol building to disrupt the Congress are called "patriots." Those who ignore the law, ignore the Constitution, and abuse their office are praised. It is a world where every presidential promise is a lie, every presidential accusation is a confession, and every presidential attack is a compliment. Welcome to Trumpworld. May God help us all.
"the depiction must appear, in the eyes of a reasonable person, indistinguishable from a real image."
No "reasonable person" would ever believe that the image is a real Trump, with his little 'winkie' with the eyes and the mouth animation. Trump has an incredibly thin skin, so I expect Trump will sue any time now... and I can hardly wait for the discovery on this case. OK, maybe not, but Trump doesn't seem to have considered what discover might reveal in suing Rupert Murdoch and the WSJ either... so let the fun times roll.
And that PSA? It was hella funny, but I knew it was fake the whole time. The whole premise - that Trump would do anything for anyone but himself - gives it away in the first seconds. There's no way anyone who knows Trump in the real world would believe Trump would make a sacrifice for anyone else, ever.
clearly, the problem...
Clearly, the problem is the law is obviously wrong. When Trump and his DOJ cannot charge, try, and convict the people that Trump wants, or the people who object to what Trump wants, the law is the problem. Trump and his illegal, illegitimate actions; and the corrupt, incompetent, and unfit prosecutors and arrests being made could not possibly be the problem. Right? The fact that these charges and arrests are literally "trumped up", still doesn't make up for the mess it makes of ordinary, decent, law-abiding and Constitution respecting people's lives.
I watched this interview online...
I watched this interview online, and Mr. Talarico has some very interesting things to say. He's pretty clear about his religion, and also very clear about the need for government to stay uninvolved and far away from religion - all religions. He's 'walked that walk' in the Texas state legislature, too... so it's not just empty talk. Talarico strikes me as kind of 'the anti-Paxton' of Texas politics, and I think he'd be a real quality candidate and would, if he can somehow get elected, make an excellent Senator - far, far better than Paxton ever will.
more than one branch...
More than one branch is 'not playing by the rules'. We would not need the Congress to step up, which they are so egregiously neglecting due to Republicans' spineless sycophancy, if the Executive branch were not so single-mindedly intent on eviscerating the Constitution and replacing the 'rule of law' with the 'law of the jungle' - or as so eloquently put by Stephen Miller "strength, power, and force." Were the Executive branch to abide by the Constitution and the current laws, while it would still have a lot of power, perhaps more than it should... it would not be a crisis of democracy-threatening seriousness. But anyone who doesn't think we are in clear and present danger of losing our democracy to autocracy and tyranny is just not paying attention.
it's retroactive law enforcement...
It's retroactive law enforcement, because this Trump administration believes it can change what was once legal, make it illegal, then prosecute and deport people for doing what was legal when they did it. "Do you have lace-up shoes on right now?" "Yes." "That's it, you're deported. Those are now illegal." "Wait - they weren't this morning when I got dressed." "Sorry, law changed, you're now an 'illegal', and you've got to go." "I was wrong, I am wearing slip-on shoes." "That's OK - we're making those illegal tomorrow." The law cannot be arbitrarily changed and then retroactively applied, or else we have no law at all... we have the random whims of a cruel bully, being enforced by brutal thuggery and violence. Are we "great again" yet?
I find it hard to understand...
I find it hard to understand how a "Christian" of any kind can reconcile their belief in Jesus and His teachings and the actions of CBP and ICE enforcement. Working for them while claiming to be a "Christian" pastor? Seems the pastor has achieved a new height of hypocrisy.
recall that Trump, in his first campaign...
Recall that Trump, in his first campaign, openly mocked a handicapped reporter, parroting the physical movements 'for fun'. That's the kind of low-class, no empathy and bigoted person Trump is. Withdrawing ASL translation is a crass, crude, and truly vulgar action -- but I do think that it tells the world a LOT about the "image" of who Trump really is. That "image" is definitely quite different than what Trump sees of himself, and what his boot-licking sycophants surrounding him report to him, no doubt. But his actions clearly gives an accurate "image" of him to the world.
to the extent...
To the extent that Trump appoints people based on their looks ("right out of central casting") and their "loyalty" instead of their capability, experience, and knowledge, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Imagine just how awful more a mess the country would be in if every Trump appointee was skilled, dedicated, and capable at what they are doing. Yes, some of them are making a mucking awful mess of things even full of incompetence (looking at you, ICE Barbie) but imagine that excess of enthusiasm backing up real skills. Be grateful for whatever small good things we can find, in these terrible times - Trump's most good-looking and "loyal" people are on the case, Mr. Comey.
"If I get deported..."
"If I get deported, it will wreck my life." What about all the hundreds of thousands of other people, people who "obeyed the rules" and a "doing things the right way" to become legal residents, receive asylum, or even gain citizenship? What about the hundreds of thousands of people being deported whose only "crime" their entire life was when their parents brought them here as young children? Do you think it "ruins my life" when it happens to them? Yes, it's a terrible thing to do to this upright, Trump-voting lifelong Republican. But it's no less terrible to do that to any other lawful living, long-time employed, tax-paying, economically productive person who is seized at an immigration hearing, or arrested at a mandatory court appearance, and deported. Trump promised to deport "criminals" and "gang members" and "drug dealers". Trump LIED. Instead Trump's masked goon squads are sweeping in everyone they can grab, to meet their quotas, without regard for due process, for civil rights, and with brutal glee in the fear they can cause. TRUMP LIED... and this Republican-voting, Trump backing fool of a mayor believed Trump. Yes it "will ruin my life." But Trump DOESN'T CARE. And Stephen Miller loves to do it. Sorry fool, be more careful who you vote for next time.
All this is pretext...
All the violent attacks, thuggery, and repression - and the explict instructions to suppress legitimate protest and free speech is pretext. Trump, and his puppetmaster Stephen Miller, want a pretext to declare a 'state of emergency' and martial law and restrict or postpone the election. Escalating "crowd control" tactics to attack protesters with increasing brutality and force, they are trying to provoke an actual attack with real weapons. Bovino will send out his thugs, and somebody with a gun will take a pop, and that will be all the excuse, all the pretext Trump will need. It is intentionally, by design provocative and will be escalated until it provokes, in one of these cities, a response that Trump can spin into a pretext for declaring another of his "emergencies" and 'sending in the Marines'. It is a land-based Gulf of Tonkin strategy. The logical next step, if the protesting people are wise enough to stay nonviolent even in the face of this continuing brutality, will be to stage the whole thing, using a 'false flag' operator (who will miraculously 'get away'...) and come close but miss. Trump spun his assassination attempts into fervor with his MAGA cult (and profited personally off it, too)... he'll do the same thing here if the true protesters don't fall for his provocations and escalations.
It was a poll...
It was a poll predicting the outcome of an event that HAD NOT HAPPENED YET. So if it is wrong, that is a consequence of the event not being in control of the poll taker or the poll participants individually. I can say "the stock market will go up tomorrow." If it doesn't you cannot sue me for being wrong, even if you lose money because of my statement. The event has not happened yet. Any prediction of an outcome for an event in the future is necessarily an opinion. And opinions are protected free speech.
Their AI tech will get better...
Their AI tech will get better when the company gets sued alongside the police department and the school district for false arrest and harassment.
He didn't actually tell them to edit it out...
Trump didn't actually tell them to edit out his statement about shaking down 60 Minutes over the Harris interview editing. He more said "you don’t have to put this on..." and then he want on to say more about how you don't want to "embarrass" the new leader of CBS. And he didn't say 'you don't want to embarrass me either, or else' but it comes across in his praise of this "great person" who is now the new leader at CBS. "Great person" - 'be a real shame if something were to happen to her job so soon...' Trump is just reflexively using intimidation and implied threats; he can't help himself. Trump is a mobster thug, no insult to the families intended.
What would be done differently...
What would be done differently than what Trump is doing, if the president were a foreign agent intent on 'destroying the US from within'? Would there be any real differences in what would happen than what Trump is actively doing right now? Why do so many of the policies Trump is promoting demean, diminish, weaken, and degrade the United States? Really - just who is Trump actually working for (besides enriching himself)?
There is a concept...
There is a concept that a "balanced" media must present "both sides" of any issue. But if the "issue" is defined by facts, then there is really one side, and the rest is lies. Our current "conservative" government and the dark-money culture influencers working behind the scenes to spread this "balanced" news concept want the professional journalist news media to present the 'lies' on equal footing, as equally valid, with the facts; they want the 'spin' presented as just a different perspective when the objective events exist and show clearly the truth. We are becoming a 'post-truth' and 'post-facts' society, one where not only is 'my ignorance just as valid as your facts' but where truth and facts are malleable concepts, subject to reshaping and discarding without any consequences.
are we "Great" again yet?
What does it say about a country that it's 'leader' pretends to be taking the country 'back to greatness' while diseases formerly controlled are loose to threaten that country's children again? Are we "Great" again, yet - when America's children are dying from fully preventable disease? What's wrong with these people, who put their children at risk for Trump and RFK Jr's lies? The kids don't have a choice - but oh are those parents failing their children. How can a parent live with themselves when their unvaccinated kid dies? Everyone one of those dead kids is a failure of leadership, and of parenting.
What else could be expected...
What else could be expected from a political party led by a person who has been corruption personified their entire life? Trump is corruption, to the core. And he is a 'carrier', and has exported his corruption to the political party he has taken over. Trump is corruption. It really is that simple.
Kristi Noem...
Kristi Noem would never admit if she was wrong. Good on you owning up to your mistake.
It works for Trump...
"That’s not jurisprudence. That’s not the rule of law. It’s a modern star chamber with no public legitimacy." Trump says - 'You say that like it's some kind of problem...' A 'star chamber' works for Trump. "And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. ..."
Welcome to Trumpworld...
We are in a kind of 'Bizarro' alternative facts universe, call it "Trumpworld", where people who invade the United States Capitol building to disrupt the Congress are called "patriots." Those who ignore the law, ignore the Constitution, and abuse their office are praised. It is a world where every presidential promise is a lie, every presidential accusation is a confession, and every presidential attack is a compliment. Welcome to Trumpworld. May God help us all.
OK, there's no way this causes any problems, because...
"the depiction must appear, in the eyes of a reasonable person, indistinguishable from a real image." No "reasonable person" would ever believe that the image is a real Trump, with his little 'winkie' with the eyes and the mouth animation. Trump has an incredibly thin skin, so I expect Trump will sue any time now... and I can hardly wait for the discovery on this case. OK, maybe not, but Trump doesn't seem to have considered what discover might reveal in suing Rupert Murdoch and the WSJ either... so let the fun times roll. And that PSA? It was hella funny, but I knew it was fake the whole time. The whole premise - that Trump would do anything for anyone but himself - gives it away in the first seconds. There's no way anyone who knows Trump in the real world would believe Trump would make a sacrifice for anyone else, ever.