RoseMorninStar wrote:Also, hate & fear. Playing on emotion works for many voters. Hate & fear works. I've heard it in the 'brown/black people are going to outnumber us!' 'we will be in the minority' and now with people who may be affected by Trump's policies saying, "He's not hurting the right people." Can't say it any plainer than that. They want the President & his policies to hurt the 'others'.
This is what gets me about that group of Trump supporters. They are literally suffering from his policies and his decisions, but to them it's worth it—as long as they can be assured that people they hate are suffering more than they are, or might be in the future.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
This has been an issue all along. It is why they will push to undo the Johnson amendment to allow non-profits to utilize political speech/support political causes. Sadly, it is an easy thing to do to get captive congregations who are used to authoritarian rule to do as they are told as if it is a proclamation from God. I believe it is something of which our Founding Fathers were well aware.
Talk about pulling the wool over the eyes of the sheep. It's stomach churning.
And our president crosses another finished item off of Putin’s wish list.
Putin’s birthday must be coming up. What do you give to the man who controls everything? Something he wants but can’t control.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Can my level of discomfort get worse? What the heck are our representatives thinking? I mean, this has got to seem increasingly odd to even the thickest skull.
Just to update where things stand in the ongoing saga of Mr. Trump's stated desire for a "big beautiful wall" and the havoc that has caused, the Senate has passed the spending compromise that was reached by negotiators (containing, by the way, less money for border barriers than the bill that was passed by the GOP-led Senate last December and then rejected by Mr. Trump and the then-GOP-led House, then passed by the subsequently Democratic-led House and then rejected by the same GOP-led Senate that had previously passed it unanimously). It will then go to the House where it is expected to pass. Mr. Trump says that he will sign it reluctantly, and then declare a national emergency to raise the remaining funds for his big beautiful wall.
There are two things that are likely to happen then. One is that the Democrats in Congress (perhaps even joined by some Republicans) will sue to block the national emergency, arguing that it is outside the power of the Executive Branch to spend money without allocation by Congress. But Congress can and will take up a resolution to rescind a declaration of a national emergency. Such a resolution will certainly pass in the House. Here is where things then get tricky. Unlike with most bills - like the spending bill that passed the House in January - Senage Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cannot simply prevent a vote on such a resolution in the Senate. Under the arcane rules of Congress, such a resolution would be considered privileged, meaning that if the House passed it then the Senate would be required by law to vote on the measure within 18 days. Many Republicans are strongly against the idea of a president declaring a national emergency like this, and wisely because some day there will be a Democratic president and they don't want such a president to have those kind of powers. But all of these Republican Senators are going to have to go on the record one way or the other of either supporting or rejecting Mr. Trump's national emergency declaration. It should be interesting to see what they do (spoiler alert - most if not all of them will cave in to Mr. Trump).
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
RoseMorninStar wrote:Can my level of discomfort get worse? What the heck are our representatives thinking? I mean, this has got to seem increasingly odd to even the thickest skull.
If I may offer an "Average American" point of view - I would say most Americans don't pay attention to politics or the government enough to notice enough things to build up to that level of 'increasingly odd'. They get their news in soundbites and talking points from particular sources which will spin the news to be as palatable as possible to their target audience.
They will not hear about all of the things going on in the background, they won't dig much further, they may even fall victim to countless fake news and soundbites shared on social media.
So the average American doesn't have this sense of things being increasingly odd. They do have a sense of things being increasingly partisan which they will tend to blame on the other side. But most people carry on without much notice of the details that we here discuss and distress over.
The dumbest thing I've ever bought
was a 2020 planner.
"Does anyone ever think about Denethor, the guy driven to madness by staying up late into the night alone in the dark staring at a flickering device he believed revealed unvarnished truth about the outside word, but which in fact showed mostly manipulated media created by a hostile power committed to portraying nothing but bad news framed in the worst possible way in order to sap hope, courage, and the will to go on? Seems like he's someone we should think about." - Dave_LF
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
elengil wrote:If I may offer an "Average American" point of view - I would say most Americans don't pay attention to politics or the government enough to notice enough things to build up to that level of 'increasingly odd'. They get their news in soundbites and talking points from particular sources which will spin the news to be as palatable as possible to their target audience. (etc..)
elengil, you are correct, of course. I just had a 'conversation' with a relative on the other side of the aisle. It was not good. Quite sad really.
Voronwë, thanks for the update. I appreciate your condensed version of things as it can get quite complicated.
Voronwë the Faithful wrote:(...) Many Republicans are strongly against the idea of a president declaring a national emergency like this, and wisely because some day there will be a Democratic president and they don't want such a president to have those kind of powers. But all of these Republican Senators are going to have to go on the record one way or the other of either supporting or rejecting Mr. Trump's national emergency declaration. It should be interesting to see what they do (spoiler alert - most if not all of them will cave in to Mr. Trump).
Yes, they are afraid the next President will be a Democrat & declare climate change a national emergency.
Or, after the first mass shooting of his/her administration, guns.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Man, I really didn't think Trump would be stupid and crazy enough to go the "national emergency" route but here we are.
This is where my assertion that we still have strong checks and balances gets put to the test. If few Republicans in Congress are willing to at the very least criticize this, if not actively oppose it, then things are a bit worse than I was hoping. (Though I know the main check here will be the courts who surely won't put up with this bullshit..... right?)
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists
It was not good. Quite sad really. 
