The Trump Presidency: Part 20

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To poke elsewhere...

Trump STILL hasn't implemented Defense Production Act to supply more masks and ventilators


*sigh*

Ohio Republicans Exploit Pandemic to Ban Abortion
Because of course they do.

( UPDATED)Most Quarantined Cruise Ship Passengers Refuse Covid-19 tests-at Federal Officials' Urging

On Saturday, the first testing results from the 300 other quarantined passengers who did agree to be tested came in. Seven of them tested positive for the virus, despite being completely asymptomatic. This was a scenario I posited yesterday, and it is in line with research showing that 1-3% of all carriers are asymptomatic. And that’s just the first batch of results.

*sigh*
 
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Is it Trump who is spending so much time retweeting Trump+ crap or his staff? Either way, that they should waste their time with that rather than using that time to actually DO something is infuriating.
 
If anyone did as you suggest, *I* would be among those who would agree with treason charges. It's not their job to be judge, jury and executioner.

Their Oath is to protetct us from all enemies "forgeign AND DOMESTIC". Trump and the treasonous GOP are classic Domestic Enemies of the nation. It literally IS their job to do this. And the Peoples' job to do if they fail or refuse to do so.
 
No it's not. Hysterical comments like this do no good. If the constitution survived the Civil War then it can carry us through a pandemic.

The Constitution failed us long before coronavirus was even a blip on the radar. NO institution of our government has succeeded in protecting the integrity of our governance from the treasonous takeover by the GOP. The electoral college failed us. The FBI failed us. The Courts have failed us. The administrative state has failed us.

The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution assuming that all elections would be valid ones and that no public official, let alone an entire party, would summarily refuse to voluntarily abide by "the rules". The GOP has done just that, exposing the fatal flaw in the document the FF wrote.
 
Their Oath is to protetct us from all enemies "forgeign AND DOMESTIC". Trump and the treasonous GOP are classic Domestic Enemies of the nation. It literally IS their job to do this. And the Peoples' job to do if they fail or refuse to do so.

And the following part of that same oath is "... and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed."

What you are advocating is a military coup. That leads to military backed dictators.
 
Okay, I'll bite. How would you rewrite the Constitution "wholesale," and what couldn't be accomplished legislatively?

Without literally personaly rewriting the thing, some obvious points:

Add the following requirements for all elected officials:
  • must disclose all personal financial information and pass an IRS audit
  • must have ZERO outside income and/or assets during the term of service
  • must pass a full criminal background and security clearance check

Abolish the Electoral College.

Institute proportional voting for House Delegations, meaning that when voting for House members, a voter would cast a ballot for the party rather than the individual candidate. The House delegation for that state would then be apportioned among the parties based on that vote. (If Party X got Y% of the vote, it would get Y% of the House seats for that state.)

Congress would have the EXPLICIT authority to subpoena any witness or document it felt necessary to perform its Oversight function of the other branches of government. Compliance with said subpoenas would be MANDATORY on the part of those summonsed WITHOUT EXCEPTION. Classified information would be protected under the usual standards, meaning Congress would not be able to publicly disclose the information, but could not be denied it for its own purposes.

Establish a formal Fourth Branch of the Government to consist of the administrative and law enforcement agencies and their personnel. The personel of this branch would be drawn ONLY from the pool of applicants who had demonstrated their qualifications based on objective tests such as the Civil Service exam. NO elected official would have ANY say in the appointment of regulators, judges, etc.

Adjunct to the above: all laws must apply equally to both the citizenry AND government. All elected officials would be fully investigable, indictable, AND ARRESTABLE even while in office. Again, no elected member of the government would have any ability to influence or interfere with those actions.

Amend the First Amendment to explicity state that free speech rights apply ONLY to acutal flesh and blood persons. Corporations are NOT persons for the purposes of the 1A. Explicitly state that donating money is NOT a form of speech and may be restricted to ensure a few large donors cannot effectively "buy" elected officials. (I'm honestly on the fence about outright publicly-financed elections.)

Further Amend the 1A to explicitly EXCLUDE all forms of advertising, deceptive news articles (those that cannot be shown to be based on actual objective facts and information). ALL sources must be documentable and aviailable to fact checking.

Amend the 2A to state that any person wishing to possess a firearm MUST first provide evidence of a clean criminal record, and of passing a mental health exam. If any person later loses the ability to pass either requirement, their arms must be immediately confiscated.

Pass a new amendment making it mandatory to vote, and establishing a 2-day period for any called election which would be mandatory paid time off for workers.

Most importantly, once and for all formally state that we are ONE United States for the purposes of law and governance. ALL citizens must be treated the same by the laws and programs EVERYwhere within the US. This would include participation in all Federal benefits programs such as Medicaid, the ACA, etc. NO more "states' rights" nonsense.

Not every change I'd formally make, but most of my major points.
 
And the following part of that same oath is "... and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed."

What you are advocating is a military coup. That leads to military backed dictators.

May be mixing up oaths here. You quoted part of the military oath, not the one politicians take. Just a nit.
 
And the following part of that same oath is "... and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed."

What you are advocating is a military coup. That leads to military backed dictators.

That does seem to be something of recursive loop, a Catch-22, a suicide pact. Elect he who would destroy the Nation, but who must also must be obeyed. That's the basis of Robocop's programming; you can't go after your 'master' no matter how corrupt or culpable. Taken literally, this oath would seem to invite a dictator. And today's GOP is testing it out.
 
Without literally personaly rewriting the thing, some obvious points:

Add the following requirements for all elected officials:
  • must disclose all personal financial information and pass an IRS audit
  • must have ZERO outside income and/or assets during the term of service
  • must pass a full criminal background and security clearance check

Abolish the Electoral College.

Institute proportional voting for House Delegations, meaning that when voting for House members, a voter would cast a ballot for the party rather than the individual candidate. The House delegation for that state would then be apportioned among the parties based on that vote. (If Party X got Y% of the vote, it would get Y% of the House seats for that state.)

Congress would have the EXPLICIT authority to subpoena any witness or document it felt necessary to perform its Oversight function of the other branches of government. Compliance with said subpoenas would be MANDATORY on the part of those summonsed WITHOUT EXCEPTION. Classified information would be protected under the usual standards, meaning Congress would not be able to publicly disclose the information, but could not be denied it for its own purposes.

Establish a formal Fourth Branch of the Government to consist of the administrative and law enforcement agencies and their personnel. The personel of this branch would be drawn ONLY from the pool of applicants who had demonstrated their qualifications based on objective tests such as the Civil Service exam. NO elected official would have ANY say in the appointment of regulators, judges, etc.

Adjunct to the above: all laws must apply equally to both the citizenry AND government. All elected officials would be fully investigable, indictable, AND ARRESTABLE even while in office. Again, no elected member of the government would have any ability to influence or interfere with those actions.

Amend the First Amendment to explicity state that free speech rights apply ONLY to acutal flesh and blood persons. Corporations are NOT persons for the purposes of the 1A. Explicitly state that donating money is NOT a form of speech and may be restricted to ensure a few large donors cannot effectively "buy" elected officials. (I'm honestly on the fence about outright publicly-financed elections.)

Further Amend the 1A to explicitly EXCLUDE all forms of advertising, deceptive news articles (those that cannot be shown to be based on actual objective facts and information). ALL sources must be documentable and aviailable to fact checking.

Amend the 2A to state that any person wishing to possess a firearm MUST first provide evidence of a clean criminal record, and of passing a mental health exam. If any person later loses the ability to pass either requirement, their arms must be immediately confiscated.

Pass a new amendment making it mandatory to vote, and establishing a 2-day period for any called election which would be mandatory paid time off for workers.

nonsense.Most importantly, once and for all formally state that we are ONE United States for the purposes of law and governance. ALL citizens must be treated the same by the laws and programs EVERYwhere within the US. This would include participation in all Federal benefits programs such as Medicaid, the ACA, etc. NO more "states' rights"

Not every change I'd formally make, but most of my major points.

De facto get rid of that pesky First Amendment so you can shut up your opponents. Worthy of Trump. Who is going to decide what is deceptive and what is not.
People should not be forced to vote.Period.
Get rid of federalism and make the states nothing but adminsitrieve conveinces for the Central government.

Count me out, pal,since you don't have much use for individual rights.in quite a few of your suggestions.
 
Sorry for the derail.
I was at the Home Depot today for similar reasons as your husband. Seems that home improvement projects are second only to day drinking as a method of coping.
Personally, I like to combine the two :)

Homedepot and the liquor store were my essential store patronages yesterday
 
Without literally personaly rewriting the thing, some obvious points:

Add the following requirements for all elected officials:
  • must disclose all personal financial information and pass an IRS audit
  • must have ZERO outside income and/or assets during the term of service
  • must pass a full criminal background and security clearance check

*excluding mortgages, Must not have more than $500,000 of loans that come due in the next 8 years.

I’m sick of President Trump spending years bellyaching about how necessary it was to lower interest rates.


Amend the 2A to state that any person wishing to possess a firearm MUST first provide evidence of a clean criminal record, and of passing a mental health exam. If any person later loses the ability to pass either requirement, their arms must be immediately confiscated.

You’re going to institute a government-run (or at least a government-certified) mental health exam and not make it required for every presidential candidate?

ETA
Im not sure how to word it, but I’d like to see something requiring an investigation when a stock trade that generates more that $100,000,000 in profits in which the buy and sell were less than 2 days apart and there was an international event that dramatically changed the price of the underlying securities.

But I guess that doesn’t need to be in the Constitution..
 
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On the issue of whether Trump downplayed the virus, there's this NYT opinion piece, which at least might have a list of his statements.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/opinion/trump-coronavirus.html


But I can't see it, have to subscribe.

There has been some surprising dispute about this.

I'd love it if someone can read this article and simply post here a list of trump's statements in public, with dates.

That should settle it. Not the writer's opinion, but the quotes.
 
From another thread but better suited here...

Your post is delusional. Trump never never never ever called the corona virus a hoax. What he said was the Democratic response to the actions he was taking was a hoax.

Try actually doing some reading somewhere other than twitter.
Right back at you.

Just because he speaks a language better known as gibberish doesn't mean that we should turn into pretzels in an attempt to sanitize the BS he spews. He thoroughly minimized Corona at a time when it was obviously serious, in that instance and others.
 
On the issue of whether Trump downplayed the virus, there's this NYT opinion piece, which at least might have a list of his statements.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/opinion/trump-coronavirus.html


But I can't see it, have to subscribe.

There has been some surprising dispute about this.

I'd love it if someone can read this article and simply post here a list of trump's statements in public, with dates.

That should settle it. Not the writer's opinion, but the quotes.

You don't have to subscribe (pay), you just need to create an account.
 
From another thread but better suited here...

Right back at you.

Just because he speaks a language better known as gibberish doesn't mean that we should turn into pretzels in an attempt to sanitize the BS he spews. He thoroughly minimized Corona at a time when it was obviously serious, in that instance and others.

We need that list of quotes! He said what he said, or he didn't.
 
On the issue of whether Trump downplayed the virus, there's this NYT opinion piece, which at least might have a list of his statements.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/opinion/trump-coronavirus.html


But I can't see it, have to subscribe.

There has been some surprising dispute about this.

I'd love it if someone can read this article and simply post here a list of trump's statements in public, with dates.
.....


Here's the same article, reprinted by another site. Excerpt:
I’ve reviewed all of his public statements and actions on coronavirus over the last two months, and they show a president who put almost no priority on public health. Trump’s priorities were different: Making the virus sound like a minor nuisance. Exaggerating his administration’s response. Blaming foreigners and, anachronistically, the Obama administration. Claiming incorrectly that the situation was improving. Trying to cheer up stock market investors. (It was fitting that his first public comments were from Davos and on CNBC.)

Now that the severity of the virus is undeniable, Trump is already trying to present an alternate history of the last two months. Below are the facts — a timeline of what the president was saying, alongside statements from public-health experts as well as data on the virus.
https://twnews.us/us-news/a-complete-list-of-trump-s-attempts-to-play-down-coronavirus
 
We need that list of quotes! He said what he said, or he didn't.
I know. It's a royal PITA on this tablet.

Jan 22: We have it totally under control ... it's going to be just fine.

Jan 24: It will all work out well.

Jan 30: We have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully.

Jan 31: We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.

Feb 10: Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.

Feb 19: I think the numbers are going to get progressively better as we go along.

Feb 23: Very much under control.

March 2: It's very mild.

March 7: I'm not concerned at all.
 

thanks.


President Trump made his first public comments about the coronavirus on Jan. 22, in a television interview from Davos with CNBC’s Joe Kernen. The first American case had been announced the day before, and Kernen asked Trump, “Are there worries about a pandemic at this point?”

The president responded: “No. Not at all. And we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

On Jan 30, during a speech in Michigan, he said: “We have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully.”



Jan. 31
Trump took his only early, aggressive action against the virus on Jan. 31: He barred most foreigners who had recently visited China from entering the United States. It was a good move.

But it was only one modest move, not the sweeping solution that Trump portrayed it to be. It didn’t apply to Americans who had been traveling in China, for example. ...

“Coronavirus,” Hannity said. “How concerned are you?”

Trump replied: “Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from China. We have a tremendous relationship with China, which is a very positive thing. Getting along with China, getting along with Russia, getting along with these countries.”


On Feb. 10, he repeatedly said — in a speech to governors, at a campaign rally and in an interview with Trish Regan of Fox Business — that warm spring weather could kill the virus. “Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away,” he told the rally.

On Feb. 19, he told a Phoenix television station, “I think the numbers are going to get progressively better as we go along.” Four days later, he pronounced the situation “very much under control,” and added: “We had 12, at one point. And now they’ve gotten very much better. Many of them are fully recovered.”

Throughout late February, Trump also continued to claim the situation was improving. On Feb. 26, he said: “We’re going down, not up. We’re going very substantially down, not up.” On Feb. 27, he predicted: “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.”


Instead, he suggested on multiple occasions that the virus was less serious than the flu. “We’re talking about a much smaller range” of deaths than from the flu, he said on March 2. “It’s very mild,” he told Hannity on March 4. On March 7, he said, “I’m not concerned at all.” On March 10, he promised: “It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
 
Without literally personaly rewriting the thing, some obvious points:

Add the following requirements for all elected officials:
  • must disclose all personal financial information and pass an IRS audit
  • must have ZERO outside income and/or assets during the term of service
  • must pass a full criminal background and security clearance check

Abolish the Electoral College.

Institute proportional voting for House Delegations, meaning that when voting for House members, a voter would cast a ballot for the party rather than the individual candidate. The House delegation for that state would then be apportioned among the parties based on that vote. (If Party X got Y% of the vote, it would get Y% of the House seats for that state.)

Congress would have the EXPLICIT authority to subpoena any witness or document it felt necessary to perform its Oversight function of the other branches of government. Compliance with said subpoenas would be MANDATORY on the part of those summonsed WITHOUT EXCEPTION. Classified information would be protected under the usual standards, meaning Congress would not be able to publicly disclose the information, but could not be denied it for its own purposes.

Establish a formal Fourth Branch of the Government to consist of the administrative and law enforcement agencies and their personnel. The personel of this branch would be drawn ONLY from the pool of applicants who had demonstrated their qualifications based on objective tests such as the Civil Service exam. NO elected official would have ANY say in the appointment of regulators, judges, etc.

Adjunct to the above: all laws must apply equally to both the citizenry AND government. All elected officials would be fully investigable, indictable, AND ARRESTABLE even while in office. Again, no elected member of the government would have any ability to influence or interfere with those actions.

Amend the First Amendment to explicity state that free speech rights apply ONLY to acutal flesh and blood persons. Corporations are NOT persons for the purposes of the 1A. Explicitly state that donating money is NOT a form of speech and may be restricted to ensure a few large donors cannot effectively "buy" elected officials. (I'm honestly on the fence about outright publicly-financed elections.)

Further Amend the 1A to explicitly EXCLUDE all forms of advertising, deceptive news articles (those that cannot be shown to be based on actual objective facts and information). ALL sources must be documentable and aviailable to fact checking.

Amend the 2A to state that any person wishing to possess a firearm MUST first provide evidence of a clean criminal record, and of passing a mental health exam. If any person later loses the ability to pass either requirement, their arms must be immediately confiscated.

Pass a new amendment making it mandatory to vote, and establishing a 2-day period for any called election which would be mandatory paid time off for workers.

Most importantly, once and for all formally state that we are ONE United States for the purposes of law and governance. ALL citizens must be treated the same by the laws and programs EVERYwhere within the US. This would include participation in all Federal benefits programs such as Medicaid, the ACA, etc. NO more "states' rights" nonsense.

Not every change I'd formally make, but most of my major points.


What you're describing is a police state, where unelected government officials (and how would they get THEIR jobs?) would decide who could run for office and what anybody could say. It's troubling that you don't recognize it.

A lot of our current problems could be reduced by eliminating gerrymandering, registering eligible voters automatically, and conducting elections entirely by mail, as four states do now. And nothing in the Constitution requires the states to allocate electoral votes on a "winner-take-all" basis. They could award them proportionally, as two states do now. For most of our history, politicians and parties have competed by offering policies and programs that they hope will appeal to the majority of voters. There were conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans. The GOP has become a cult that expects to win not by appealing to the most voters, but by disqualifying voters who would vote against them.
 
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