The Trump Presidency, Season 2

[Noodles]

What happened here? It sounds... frightening. Elon Musk is backpedaling? Holy shit! Does this mean Trump has some dirt he can use to intimidate Musk? If so, what could it be?

Nah, people didn't felate him enough over it and Daddy Trump threatened to cut off his allowance.

 

[Noodles]

Trump has spent the last five months rampaging with only the flimsiest of legal cover. Time and again, the courts have ruled against him. And yet he continues with new outrages every day, again under the flimsiest of legal cover.

Very little of what the Trump Administration is doing is legal. Day by day, it matters less. Project 2025 proceeds as planned.

Yeah, I don't think they care if it's legal in the broad sense. They are just moving fast enough to break shit anyway.

OH, it was illegal to fire all those people? OK, we will take them back. What do you mean they got jobs elsewhere or are too scared it will happen again? Not our problem.

OH, we don't have the authority to dissolve (Insert oversight agency), OK, we will bring it back. Oh, sorry, we already deleted all the data and burned all the files. Not our problem.

OH, our rampant flip flopping and chaos has completely obliterated trust in everything we do? Not out problem.

Etc.

 

[Casey Pelous]

That was my point, rather. Essence seemed to be suggesting that a Kent State-like confrontation between protesters and Marines that ended with the Marines killing protesters would provide a pretext for Trump to declare martial law.

To my mind he would consider he needed a pretext only to provide some sort of legal cover when the declaration was challenged in the courts, and I'm unclear how it would help his case. Presumably he'd need to argue that he was dealing with massive civil unrest or an insurrection that rendered the regular civilian state and federal courts unable to function, and I don't see how that would follow unless, as Noodles suggests, the shooting provoced a massive and effective response as opposed to, for example, intimidating protesters into staying at home.

Most of his Executive Orders are based on an alleged state of emergency. I am not aware of anyone in authority nor of any major news services who have demanded to know, "Eh? What emergency?"

They are well into setting up a fiction of all of LA as a vast, scary wilderness of crazed criminal radicals rioting to open the borders to the cartels and gangs. It must be true -- they had to send in the Marines!

Remember when BLM rioters burned down Portland, OR?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Trump has spent the last five months rampaging with only the flimsiest of legal cover. Time and again, the courts have ruled against him. And yet he continues with new outrages every day, again under the flimsiest of legal cover.

Very little of what the Trump Administration is doing is legal. Day by day, it matters less. Project 2025 proceeds as planned.

I agree, which is why I wonder whether it even occurred to him he might need to provide himself with some sort of colour of legality for declaring martial law in LA or elsewhere and that the consequences of deploying the marines there might provide him with such a pretext.

 

[Khamon]

While I am sure Trump wants to be able to declare marital law, how would the Marines over-reacting and shooting (and possibly killing) some demonstrators help create a situation that gives him legal cover to do that?

It has been well established that the Trump administration does not require legal cover. I agree with Innula that it hasn't crossed their mind. Chaotic Evil is the order of the day, anywhere, anyhow.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Most of his Executive Orders are based on an alleged state of emergency. I am not aware of anyone in authority nor of any major news services who have demanded to know, "Eh? What emergency?"

They are well into setting up a fiction of all of LA as a vast, scary wilderness of crazed criminal radicals rioting to open the borders to the cartels and gangs. It must be true -- they had to send in the Marines!

Remember when BLM rioters burned down Portland, OR?

As I understand it, both the mayor of LA and the governor of CA are seeking injunctions against Trump to prevent his deploying the CA National Guard in Los Angeles. It seems to me not unlikely they would raise similar objections to the legality of his declaring martial law there.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

It has been well established that the Trump administration does not require legal cover.

Yes, which is why I was questioning whether the main motive in deploying the marines in LA was to provide legal cover for declaring martial law there.

 

[Khamon]

Yes, which is why I was questioning whether the main motive in deploying the marines in LA was to provide legal cover for declaring martial law there.

Yes I agree but posted the reply before finishing the post. Then I couldn't find it because wrong page. Then I did and agreed with you on the point of them not even considering that they needed to dot Is or cross Ts in California. They may believe that they need to permanently establish troops in all of the west coast states to avoid defection to Canada.

 

[Beebo Brink]

I'm not as optimistic about the average American's ability to discern deceit as the author of this article.

Trump’s Fury at Gavin Newsom Backfires—and Reveals His Own Weakness | The New Republic

Trump’s troops really could be the prelude to invoking the Insurrection Act and worse. But to reflexively assume that voters will robotically side with Trump here is to assume that imagery of violence, disorder, and paramilitary gear will automatically turn off their brains.

True, this debate is not fully settled yet. In fact, as Brian Beutler says, this is why Democrats must engage it forcefully. But that entails refraining from assuming that voters will believe Trump when he declares that his military displays are necessary to establish civil order in Los Angeles. Trump is raging at Newsom—and demanding our applause for putting down this “rebellion”—not because he’s fearsome and strong but because his watch-me-play-fascist-on-TV routine is self-evident overkill, voters suspect the military is not needed here, and it’s all making him appear simultaneously tyrannical and incompetent. Democrats: Proceed accordingly.

I've thought many of Trump's flaws were "self-evident" but large portions of the American public don't seem to see what I see.

 

[Isabeau]

-𝚖𝚘𝚡 (@moxiest.art)

leftists: that thing you teach us in school to be terrified of is happening historians: that thing is definitely happening star wars: here is a beat-for-beat breakdown of how the thing happens, but with pew pew lasers. we know you watched it news outlets: these protesters are out of control

bsky.app

 

[Free]

Listen to Anne (Applebaum).

This Is What Trump Does When His Revolution Sputters (archive.today)

I doubt very much that Donald Trump knows much about the methods of Bolsheviks or Maoists, although I am certain that some of his entourage do. But he is now leading an assault on what some around him call the administrative state, which the rest of us call the U.S. government. This assault is revolutionary in nature. Trump’s henchmen have a set of radical, sometimes competing goals, all which require fundamental changes in the nature of the American state. The concentration of power in the hands of the president. The replacement of the federal civil service with loyalists. The transfer of resources from the poor to the rich, especially rich insiders with connections to Trump. The removal, to the extent possible, of brown-skinned people from America, and the return to an older American racial hierarchy.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Zaida Gearbox]

What happened here? It sounds... frightening. Elon Musk is backpedaling? Holy shit! Does this mean Trump has some dirt he can use to intimidate Musk? If so, what could it be?

I think he found out just how bat shit crazy Trump worshippers are.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Concacaf in 'close communication' with LA authorities over Gold Cup

Mexico's scheduled Gold Cup match against the Dominican Republic in Los Angeles this weekend has prompted concern amid disturbances in the city.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/newsom-trolls-president-trump-using-star-wars-voice/

I could totally get behind Newsom as President.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Gavin Newsom:
"Come to California, Canadians! We love you!"

Also Gavin Newsom:
"Yeah baby! Let's do that film tariff! MERICA FUCK YEAH!"



Dude's a worm that shifts with every new poll.

 

[Noodles]

I have no. Idea where she hears this nonsense, but apparently the latest from my MIL is that "California wants to take away everyone's Social Security and give it to Mexicans.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

The Trump administration is reviewing the 2021 AUKUS act. AUKUS is a military treaty between the Australia, UK and US directed against China and its navy.

Under the umbrella of this treaty Australia should be enabled to buy nuclear powered submarines from America. Australia wants to get at least 3 Virginia class submarines from the US within 15 years, problem is the lack of shipyard capacity in the US. They shipyards are already struggling to meet the production targets of 2 submarines per year.

Pete Hegseth openly is committed to the AUKUS deal.

AUKUS Nuclear Submarine Deal: Australia 'Confident' Of Pact Going Through Despite Trump's Review

Australia says it is “very confident” of acquiring nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS pact, after the Trump administration put the deal under review. The 2021 AUKUS deal brings together Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States in a multi-decade effort to counterbalance...

www.eurasiantimes.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

A postcard from a spectator of a constitutional crisis

12th June 2025 How things look in June 2025 * A favourite quotation for this blog can be roughly translated as follows: “History is a box of tricks we play upon the dead.” * In other words: those a…

davidallengreen.com

 

[Free]

Is Mikey trying to tell us something?