The Apprentice Season 2 - The Second Presidency of Donald Trump

[Zaxxon]

Thanks to Mr. FishPants, we no longer have to link to the hellsite as our primary twitter-like service. BlueSky embeds are live. Woohoo!

[El Guapo]

So yes, it's for the MAGA messaging.

[Smoove_B]

My local social media (FB) is absolutely filled with people frothing at the mouth that undocumented = murderer = instantly deported. I can only hope we eventually get to the point where this is a memory but the people calling for and supporting this are forever branded as collaborators.

[Kraken]

Hmm, doesn't that promote them to political prisoners?

[Holman]

Thanks to Mr. FishPants, we no longer have to link to the hellsite as our primary twitter-like service. BlueSky embeds are live. Woohoo!

Awesome! Thank you Mr. FishPants!

[Enough]

Thanks to Mr. FishPants, we no longer have to link to the hellsite as our primary twitter-like service. BlueSky embeds are live. Woohoo!

Awesome! Thank you Mr. FishPants!

[Holman]

Hmm, doesn't that promote them to political prisoners?

People will be shocked to learn that their field-picked produce depended on the labor of terrorists.

When you really look at it, 12 bucks for a tomato is a small price to pay for Security.

[gbasden]

Everyone has a different watershed moment but at some point there needs to be a switch from rational discourse to active resistance.

Luigi may have had a point.

[IceBear]

But are they rounding them up in Texas and Florida or just the blue states?

[LordMortis]

But are they rounding them up in Texas and Florida or just the blue states?

I was surprised but yes

https://www.fox4news.com/news/dallas-ice-raids

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ar ... rcna189390

Though mainly it's in major cities that are known to be liberal... So far...

[WYBaugh]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol ... 024513007/

The White House defended the firing of Fong and the other inspectors general, saying "these rogue, partisan bureaucrats... have been relieved of their duties in order to make room for qualified individuals who will uphold the rule of law and protect Democracy."

Who will be replaced by rogue, partisan bureaucrats.

[Zarathud]

When Republicans make accusations, they are really confessing their own sins.

[Zaxxon]

When Republicans make accusations, they are really confessing their own sins.

I mean, some of the inspectors general were Trump appointees, right?

[Zaxxon]

Total surprise.

[RunningMn9]

lRM9's info isn't totally accurate based on updated FAQs.

In fairness, they have no idea what the fuck they are doing, and keep changing what they are trying to do.

[Grifman]

Trump backs down:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna189852

[Grifman]

Total surprise.

This is actually good, it means that they haven’t learned anything from last time, when he had to back off and retool several initiatives. This will slow them down if they continue acting incompetently.

[Smoove_B]

This is actually good, it means that they haven’t learned anything from last time, when he had to back off and retool several initiatives. This will slow them down if they continue acting incompetently.

No, I'm not sure that's what it means. I think they have a blitz strategy to see what sticks. Similar to the travel ban he enacted during his first term, it took a few tries to get the wording right before it was finally upheld (3rd time? 4th time) by a judge.

Right now the goal is to (1) overwhelm and (2) demoralize. If an EO sticks or some other nonsense that he floats makes it beyond a few days, move on to the next one. Rinse, repeat.

He's already released 4 (or maybe 5 at this point, I'm losing track) EOs that target the LGBTQ+ in the last 6 days. Again, it's designed to overwhelm.

[Zaxxon]

Meanwhile, the head of DoD is on TV ranting about DEI.

[Kraken]

Right now the goal is to (1) overwhelm and (2) demoralize.

And (3) invite lawsuits that create openings to overturn precedents and expand presidential power. Even if they lose 3/4 of those cases, that fourth one is going to be a doozy, and the other three will have bled their opponents' resources.

[Grifman]

This is actually good, it means that they haven’t learned anything from last time, when he had to back off and retool several initiatives. This will slow them down if they continue acting incompetently.

No, I'm not sure that's what it means. I think they have a blitz strategy to see what sticks. Similar to the travel ban he enacted during his first term, it took a few tries to get the wording right before it was finally upheld (3rd time? 4th time) by a judge.

Uh, not according to the article, which says this was not vetted by top WH officials. Trump doesn't like to back down nor does he like to be wrong.

[waitingtoconnect]

Right now the goal is to (1) overwhelm and (2) demoralize.

And (3) invite lawsuits that create openings to overturn precedents and expand presidential power. Even if they lose 3/4 of those cases, that fourth one is going to be a doozy, and the other three will have bled their opponents' resources.

Let’s hope they obey orders… they want them so they can make a big show of ignoring it

Trump can then preemptively pardon anyone who would be held in contempt when they don’t obey it. And he can’t be held in contempt because now he is immune. And he won’t be impeached.

They’ve planned this for years since 2020. It’s not like last time. And if the supreme court drags its feet on a ruling while they don’t obey it’ll be the same as them having waved it through such will be the damage.

The sheer number of executive orders at well over 200 is also part of the play. Because it’s going to be hard to stop everything.

Project 2025 lays out precisely this strategy.

[Kraken]

The sheer number of executive orders at well over 200 is also part of the play. Because it’s going to be hard to stop everything.

Project 2025 lays out precisely this strategy.

Yup, we need to pick our spots. Half of those EOs are performative bullshit for the deplorables. One can only muster so much outrage at the other half. So far, the Dems are doing OK at tiptoeing through the minefield. They must not get hysterical.

[waitingtoconnect]

Thanks to Mr. FishPants, we no longer have to link to the hellsite as our primary twitter-like service. BlueSky embeds are live. Woohoo!

Australia has done this for years. They’ll lock up people in surrounding countries indefinitely if their home country won’t take them back (and often they won’t). Other parts of south east asia do the same; or worse - they will shoot you if you try and enter illegally.

The cost was enormous though - billions upon billions for less than ten thousand people. All to private contractors and bribing surrounding countries.

And funnily enough Gitmo has been used for this before. This ain’t new. Despite people’s short attention spans. Just like Trumps order to spacex to save the nasa astronauts without mentioning they’ve planned this since last year to make trump look good. It’s all performative.

For me this is a waste of money : how much will this cost?

Personally I don’t understand why they don’t wedge the democrats by announcing the deal they reneged on last year.

[Unagi]

Australia has done this for years.

Ironic

[hepcat]

Meanwhile, the head of DoD is on TV ranting about DEI.

The DoD now stands for Department of Deplorables.

[Skinypupy]

Trump's comments after last night's plane crash where 60+ people died:

“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport,” Trump said. “The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”

Can he just not be a gaping, raging asshole spreading conspiracy theories and casting blame for once in his entire fucking life? Maybe act with even a fraction of the decency that we would expect from any fellow human being, much less the President of the United States?

It's rhetorical...we all know he can't.

[Smoove_B]

Uh, not according to the article, which says this was not vetted by top WH officials. Trump doesn't like to back down nor does he like to be wrong.

I don't think he read or looked at 95% of what was put in front of him to sign over the last ~10 days. They mumble a bullet point summary at him if he asks and then he just signs it. Nothing matters to him how because he's untouchable *and* surrounded by yes men.

He's never wrong; he never accepts responsibility. If an EO or memo is rejected, he'll blame someone else and his people will just reformulate and resubmit.

There's part of me that truly believes he doesn't really care about most of what's happening. He likes sitting in the Oval Office. He likes all the attention and power. But I don't think he cares about anything other than himself.

Regardless, when you're unloading the amount of trash that's been released over the last ~10 days, of course it's not all going to be top quality. Again, it's not about quality at this point. The only thing that matters is volume. Fine tuning comes later - but only if it's challenged successfully in court. Until then? The goal is to cause as much destruction as possible, as quickly as possible.

Case in point:

Reading all of the anti-trans EOs this week, I am reminded of how much harder it is to litigate against incompetent opposing counsel (as opposed to competent lawyers). You have to start by essentially constructing their argument for them in order to know what to counter. I suspect that is the point.

[LawBeefaroni]

Trump's comments after last night's plane crash where 60+ people died:

“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport,” Trump said. “The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”

Can he just not be a gaping, raging asshole spreading conspiracy theories and casting blame for once in his entire fucking life? Maybe act with even a fraction of the decency that we would expect from any fellow human being, much less the President of the United States?

It's rhetorical...we all know he can't.

He's out there spouting his kindergartener's level of understanding of air traffic control and avionics and putting blame squarely on the Army pilots.


Yet any insinuation that his gutting of the TSA, FAA, and putting a drunk sex creeper in charge of the DOD will contribute to more of these types of things is shouted down as too soon and disrespectful of the dead.

[ImLawBoy]

Australia has done this for years. They’ll lock up people in surrounding countries indefinitely if their home country won’t take them back (and often they won’t). Other parts of south east asia do the same; or worse - they will shoot you if you try and enter illegally.

I don't know the legal ins and outs of Australia and those other countries, but it's blatantly unconstitutional to hold prisoners indefinitely without due process in the US - even if they ship them to Guantanamo. (Holding prisoners from Iraq and Afghanistan there was considered different because they were more like prisoners of war, which is a bullshit argument with respect to undocumented immigrants, but I suspect the administration will try to make it anyway.)

[hepcat]

But isn't part of what Trump and his administration are doing is trying to show that illegal aliens have no rights as set down by the U.S. and thus all bets are off?

Are there international rights that would step in to supplant the loss of those U.S. rights?

I'm neither a lawyer nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, obviously.

[LawBeefaroni]

Australia has done this for years. They’ll lock up people in surrounding countries indefinitely if their home country won’t take them back (and often they won’t). Other parts of south east asia do the same; or worse - they will shoot you if you try and enter illegally.

I don't know the legal ins and outs of Australia and those other countries, but it's blatantly unconstitutional to hold prisoners indefinitely without due process in the US - even if they ship them to Guantanamo. (Holding prisoners from Iraq and Afghanistan there was considered different because they were more like prisoners of war, which is a bullshit argument with respect to undocumented immigrants, but I suspect the administration will try to make it anyway.)

The whole illegal immigrants to Gitmo thing is just an excuse to build a black site for political prisoners. It allows them to build out the a facility larger enough to hold 30K prisoners (it's going to be built separately from the existing "GWoT" facility) and creates the plausable traffic that allows handfuls of US citizens to be transported unnoticed.

[ImLawBoy]

But isn't part of what Trump and his administration are doing is trying to show that illegal aliens have no rights as set down by the U.S. and thus all bets are off?

Are there international rights that would step in to supplant the loss of those U.S. rights?

I'm neither a lawyer nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, obviously.

That is what they're trying to say, but it has no basis in the Constitution or in legal precedent. Any "international rights" would be anything we agreed to in a treaty, and I'm sure Trump would simply ignore any of those elements he doesn't want to follow.

[Zarathud]

Its performance to suggest immigrants should be treated like terrorists. That’s the unsubtle message that plays to the deplorables.

[Unagi]

I'm neither a lawyer nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, obviously.

That was by choice, you know I gave you the option to stay.

[hepcat]

Your words said "stay" but the handgun said "get the eff out!".

That's what I get for staying at a franchise named "Holiday Inn Unagi".

[Unagi]

Holiday Unaginn

[hepcat]

That's not a mint on the pillow!

[Zarathud]

Stay awhile…stay foreva!!!

[Smoove_B]

Elie Mystal with an analysis of the spending freeze:

It’s important to state up top that I have no idea what’s going on with the federal funding freeze. Anybody who tells you they do, be they a lawyer, judge, journalist, congressperson, or White House Press Secretary, is lying.

...

With that disclaimer out of the way, let me bring you up to speed on what I think is happening. On Monday, Trump ordered a freeze on functionally all federal funding (except Medicare and Social Security). The order was a clear violation of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, the US Constitution, basic civics, good government, common sense, and any applicable cosmic standards discouraging unchecked chaos. To enforce the order, the Office of Management and Budget sent out a two-page memo of incoherent gobbledygook.

...

From where I sit, there are two reasons for the “recission” of the OMB memo. The first is to deflect attention from Trump’s immediately unpopular policy of preventing people who rely on Medicaid from getting basic health care in order to stop the University of Wisconsin from hiring Black people.

...

The second reason for the rescission is to moot the court cases against the policy. I mentioned a few days ago on Bluesky that one of the fundamental problems with challenging Trump’s policies in court is that he changes those policies daily, sometimes hourly. Even a court that moves as fast as humanly possible cannot keep pace with an administration that changes what it’s doing every time the sun goes down and Stephen Miller emerges from his crypt.

To the courts:

But I’ve also said, many times, that the arrogance and incompetence of Trump and the know-nothings he employs will always be our greatest ally. Here, the ally whose heroic incompetence likely saved the day is Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She tweeted that the memo was rescinded to “end any confusion created by the court’s injunction. The President’s EO’s [sic] on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”

Translation: Rescinding the OMB memo does not reflect any change in policy or implementation, but was just done to get around the court order putting a stop to it.

Where this finally ends up and what I think the whole point is:

Always remember, Roberts wants Trump to succeed, and will do everything in his power to make him succeed. He just doesn’t want to be forced to look like a complete schmuck while doing it.

There's more to the article and I'm likely doing it a disservice by cutting it up, but I think he's on target.