“When aides have suggested that some of his orders are illegal or unworkable, Trump has suggested he would pardon the officials if they would just go ahead, aides said.” https://t.co/eR13aozsqh
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 28, 2019
They’re a bunch of damaged middle school boys drawing up plans for their Fortress of Evil. Disgusting as this is, take it as one more data point that Trump (or at least his smarter minions) doesn’t expect to be in the Oval Office after 2020. From the Washington Post, “‘Take the land’: President Trump wants a border wall. He wants it black. And he wants it by Election Day”:
President Trump is so eager to complete hundreds of miles of border fence ahead of the 2020 presidential election that he has directed aides to fast-track billions of dollars’ worth of construction contracts, aggressively seize private land and disregard environmental rules, according to current and former officials involved with the project…
Trump has repeatedly promised to complete 500 miles of fencing by the time voters go to the polls in November 2020, stirring chants of “Finish the Wall!” at his political rallies as he pushes for tighter border controls. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed just about 60 miles of “replacement” barrier during the first 2½ years of Trump’s presidency, all of it in areas that previously had border infrastructure.
The president has told senior aides that a failure to deliver on the signature promise of his 2016 campaign would be a letdown to his supporters and an embarrassing defeat. With the election 14 months away and hundreds of miles of fencing plans still in blueprint form, Trump has held regular White House meetings for progress updates and to hasten the pace, according to several people involved in the discussions…
Asked for comment, a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Trump is joking when he makes such statements about pardons…
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper is expected to approve a White House request to divert $3.6 billion in Pentagon funds to the barrier project in coming weeks, money that Trump sought after lawmakers refused to allocate $5 billion. The funds will be pulled from Defense Department projects in 26 states, according to administration officials who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the matter.Trump’s determination to build the barriers as quickly as possible has not diminished his interest in the aesthetic aspects of the project, particularly the requirement that the looming steel barriers be painted black and topped with sharpened tips…
Tang the Conqueror is retreating to his safe space; I remember stories about him fussing over the choices for carpets and wallpaper when his casinos were going into bankruptcy. Narcissists are always most dangerous when they feel threatened, but it’s good that he’s uncertain enough about the future to be pushing for one last smash’n’grab before the next election.
I feel like maybe, maybe, a President who encourages people to break laws with pardon promises might, might be breaking the law himself.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) August 28, 2019
ETA:
New Quinnipiac poll:
Trump is deeply underwater on immigration, at 38-59.
Even noncollege whites are evenly divided, at 47-48 (!!!)
Yet restrictionists *still* manage to snooker pundits into claiming Trump has magical powers on this issue.https://t.co/sg6qJGcFPG pic.twitter.com/wuB1l5OZtz
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) August 28, 2019
Zinsky
And we will “just be joking” when we drag Trump’s fat, pimpled ass into a federal prison and slam his rosacea-riddled face into the bars…
Baud
Since the government can’t seize land to build the wall by criminal acts alone, the pardon promise is worthless.
Elizabelle
Tang the Conqueror. Well done.
Mike in NC
Within six months Fat Bastard is going to try to assume dictatorial powers, and McConnell and Barr will play right along with that.
laura
President Veruca Salt.
kindness
At first they came for the ranches on the border,
I thought they must be joking.
Then, they came for…..
trollhattan
[Checks map] Yep, right here. [checks calendar] Yep, it’s 2019. [checks watch] An hour ago? Worth clicking through for the front door video.
Cougar Way. Well, duh, he’s just coming home.
A Ghost To Most
Anybody heard from JC? USPS has my package to him as delivered today. I’m bribing him to send me horseradish sauerkraut.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I’m just waiting for the eminent domain lawsuits when they try to take a rancher’s land.
SiubhanDuinne
Even assuming there are Trumpians who
wouldare stupid enough to actually believe his promise of a pardon, wouldn’t they be in violation of at least some state laws, rendering a Presidential pardon inoperative?Shana
While they’re doing real damage, we can be somewhat reassured that for the most part they’re just so fu&king incompetent about other of these things.
?BillinGlendaleCA
So checking the Google, he’s got about 50 miles built(no spikes), so 450 miles in the next year.
Mai naem mobile
If JB Pritzker ever becomes POTUS and has foreign governments and anybody else staying at Hyatts currying favor with him I don’t want to hear from any goddamn Republicans about corruption and the emoluments clause. And if he chooses not to release his taxes they also need to STFU and sit in the corner. I don’t want to ever hear about Bidens health issues or gaffes or his sons business deals. I don’t want to hear about Kamala Harris and Willie Browns relationship. When you say nothing about the crazy corrupt douchebag you lost your right to say anything negative about the Dem candidate.
Quinerly
I enjoyed this piece on the epidemic of fragile males. And, yes, we are back to bedbugs and crowd size.
chicagotribune.com/columns/rex-huppke/ct-bret-stephens-bedbug-trump-warren-male-fragility-huppke-201…
Jeffro
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
My RWNJ air quote “libertarian” brother feels that ‘Kelo’ was literally a turning point/watershed/pants-wetting moment in American history and that under Republican rule & judges, at least we wouldn’t have that kind of thing happen ever again.
L
O
L
Note to self: check in on RWNJ air quote “libertarian” brother tomorrow and see what he thinks of trumpov grabbing the entire border, plus procurement & environmental regulations be damned.
L
O
L
Patricia Kayden
So how many Trump supporters are going to have their land taken away to build the wall Mexicans were going to pay for?
“Build that wall!! On stolen land!!” Has quite a ring to it.
MomSense
@laura:
Perfect.
Jeffro
@Mai naem mobile:
Considering what they have enabled/tolerated/encouraged with the current potus*, I’m not sure what Republicans could EVER say about a Democrat, with the possible exception of eating babies on live TV. Now THAT…that’s beyond the pale. Everything else, trumpov has already done with nary a word from the GOP
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Quinerly: Good piece, got a chuckle out of it.
ETA: I’d never seen a picture of Bret Stephens, he does look like a bedbug.
Baud
@Jeffro:
They’re comfortable with double standards.
Quinerly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: it was the laugh I needed. Glad you liked it also.
Another Scott
@Jeffro: The GOP is warming up in The Commonwealth:
I have no doubt Donnie is going to try the same thing next year. I’m hopeful that it won’t work any better than it did in 2018.
Cheers,
Scott.
HumboldtBlue
I think we need more Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez.
S’all I’m sayin’.
danielx
Always with the joking….giving pardons up front, staying in office indefinitely, hey, it’s all one large fucking comedy television routine.
This guy….is sooner or later going to get a lot of people killed.
gene108
@Baud:
Not double standards. They learned from their mistakes, and do not want Democrats to make the same mistakes.
See how Republicans went from being fiscally reckless under Bush43 to trying to make sure Obama balanced his budgets.
Supporting Trump and his corruption is just another mistake, so they will be very generous and make sure the next Democratic President abides by the law.
A Ghost To Most
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Hell, we’re still waiting for the lawsuits from 2007.
Barbara
@Another Scott: Nick Freitas has to run a write in campaign because his manager effed up the candidate filing requirements. He is also the guy who blamed the Parkland shooting on the abortion industry. A real idiot.
chris
Via Jason Isbell and William Gibson, a good and wonderful thing on the internet. *sniff* Thread by a speech-language pathologist:
hells littlest angel
I will never get used to the fact that the president of the United Stated is a FUCKING MORON. I can handle, conceptually, that he is mean and evil and hateful and petty, but I will never get used to the fact that he is a FUCKING MORON.
SiubhanDuinne
@chris:
What a beautiful and amazing story! Thank you so much for sharing it.
I’m in no way a conventionally religious person, but the fact that a professional SLP was seated “randomly” next to a family in great need of the precise highly-skilled services she had to offer strikes me as divine intervention.
chris
@SiubhanDuinne: Hardcore atheist here but I am often surprised by the benevolence of the universe.
HalfAssedHomesteader
@Quinerly: Of course, it’s not really about fragility. It’s about bullies trying to exercise power to cover their cowardly natures.
Jeffro
@Another Scott: Good for the VA GOP: they got killed trying this crap back in 2017, and they’re going to get killed again. Virginia’s a blue state now whether they like it or now, and however much they rile up their base, they rile up our base by 50% more. Kind of the way trumpov does nationally.
Keep pushing that ‘ANTIFABOOGEDYBOOGEDY!!1!” crap, VA GOP. It only works for the same dwindling set of cranky old white folks in the hinterlands, while firing up our ever-increasing numbers of college grads, women, and minority voters, ie the Obama Coalition.
BRING IT
Jeffro
@Another Scott: @Barbara: The GOP here in VA is literally so incompetent that i’ve been half-tempted to write to them (or write an op-ed, or both) spelling out how they could win here if they really wanted to. Of course, it would involve actually coming up with “solutions” to “actual problems” instead of the crazy religious right/anti-immigrant/anti-women stuff they spew 25/8, but whatever. Let them just sun themselves on the ash heap of the Old Old Dominion while the rest of us build something new.
Jeffro
@hells littlest angel:
So incredibly agree here. I was surprised back in 2015/2016 when his primary opponents didn’t make more hay of it, in 2016 when Hillz didn’t hit it too often, and since. But the simplest slam on trumpov is that he’s just about the dumbest person in American politics. I realize that’s a feature and not a bug in today’s GOP, but still…almost any challenger (primary, general) could handle him by showing constant amazement at how utterly stupid he is, and then asking him the most basic of policy (or any other) questions.
Oh wait, that would happen with the American media watching and reporting, never mind. “Warren asks trumpov how many letters are in the alphabet; fair question?” “Harris asks trumpov to explain how Social Security works; isn’t it time for private SS accounts?” And on and on.
Or maybe someone just makes a direct appeal to GOP voters: “don’t you deserve someone with half a brain? A quarter?”
Tehanu
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Me too — especially if there are pics of the rancher wearing a MAGA hat!
@SiubhanDuinne: Of course they’re that dumb.
@chris: That was a wonderful story. Thanks for the link!
HumboldtBlue
That’s not surprising. We have a history.
Quinerly
Trump has been tweeting all day.
A little while ago:
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
4h
A sad day for the Democrats, Kirsten Gillibrand has dropped out of the Presidential Primary. I’m glad they never found out that she was the one I was really afraid of!
SiubhanDuinne
@chris:
That’s a lovely way to put it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Quinerly:
Oh for fuck’s sake. Really?
This utter maroon….
opiejeanne
@Quinerly: That made me laugh when I saw it. There were a lot of other people laughing at it on Twitter.
hueyplong
Can’t wait for Trump’s Twitter sigh of relief that he won’t be facing Tulsi.
mrmoshpotato
@Mai naem mobile:
SPOILER ALERT: If that happens, you will hear from all goddamn Rethuglicans, because they’re all hypocritical bastards.
Sally
Sorry so late and so OT, but regarding O’Donnell’s Russian co-signers accusation, why can’t he just say, ok, if this is wrong, prove it, broke donnie! Show us your bank statements and loan applications. Unconfirmed but reliable sources, many people are saying …. don’t go all defensive and apologetic. Prove that you’re not owned by the Russians, broke donnie, show us your tax returns. He forced Obama to show his long form birth certificate, do the same to him. Keep his Russia toadying in the news. Every time he tries to do something for Putin, like reinstating Russia back into global comity, drag him on his secret Russian indebtedness.
sukabi
@chris: thanks for sharing. ? very nice.
Sister Golden Bear
@HalfAssedHomesteader: Porque no los dos?
It’s both second-nature bullying and lashing out because they feel threatened.
Jinchi
@Zinsky:
Joke’s on us. That’s when he’ll pull out the super-top-secret self-pardon that he scrawled with a sharpie on the back of a Monopoly “Get Out of Jail Free” card.
jonas
@Sally: When I first saw O’Donnell’s reporting on these supposedly co-signed loans, I immediately smelled an act of rat fornication.
jonas
@mrmoshpotato: Oh, yes. Everything Trump has done will instantly become a rallying cry for patriots to rise up and “water the tree of liberty” if a future Democrat were ever to attempt them.
Authoritarian Constitution shredding is a privilege accorded the Chosen One and him alone.
burnspbesq
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Take a look at the dockets of the district courts for the southern and western districts of Texas. It’s been happening for a while. The government makes egregiously low-ball offers for land that’s been in families for decades or even centuries, and when the owners refuse, DOJ goes out of its way to make the litigation time-consuming, unpleasant, and expensive. There is one notorious case involving a non-profit butterfly sanctuary that has been written about pretty extensively.
The government always gets the land eventually. A “win” is to fuck up their budget by holding out and getting top dollar. Alas, good valuation consultants, the kind who make good expert witnesses, generally don’t do pro bono work.