I have learned that the Asshole-in-chief has lined up a series of executive orders — he loves EOs, they allow him to bypass the pretense of democracy — to militarize the border. There will be more coming, no doubt to begin rounding up and throwing into cages anyone with brown skin and an accent.
Donald Trump will sign 11 border-related executive orders, including one authorizing the deployment of US troops to the border, Fox News reports.
The outlet reports that in one order, Trump will immediately direct the federal government to resume construction of the border wall, end Biden-era parole policies including the CBP One app, and bring back the so-called Remain in Mexico policy, under which asylum seekers were forced to wait in dangerous border cities while their applications were processed.
Another second order will order American troops to be deployed to the border under US Northern Command and “instruct the military to prioritize our own borders and territorial integrity in strategic planning for its operations,” according to Fox.
A third order will designate international cartels and organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT), which will allow for targeted action against members, including financial penalties.
The main thing he’s about, though, is grifting. They announced a new memecoin, named after Melania, to steal more money from American citizens. Jesus. It’s just a naked cash grab out there.
OK, I’m going to get my shoes on and dress up in many warm layers — it’s really, really cold out there — and shuffle over to the lab and spend the morning with my spiders, who have been refusing to lay any eggs for me. Even the spiders are refusing to bring more children into this awful damned world.
Oh, wait. There’s more.
Direct the military to prioritize the US border and territorial integrity
End the “catch and release” policy
Move to end birthright citizenship
End asylum and close the border to immigrants entering illegally
Reinstate “remain in Mexico” policy and building the border wall
10 executive orders on the border to be issued on Monday
Sign an executive order declaring a national energy emergency
Sign a memorandum on inflation which envisions an ‘all of government response’ to inflation
Sign an executive order saying that US policy will recognize two sexes: male and female
Will ensure official government documents, such as passports and visas, reflect sex accurately
Establish Department of Government Efficiency (Doge)
Restore death penalty in public safety
Has no specific target for the oil price
Sign an executive order ending federal government DEI programs
Will suspend refugee resettlement for at least four months
Will put an end to the electric vehicle mandate
Designate criminal cartels as global terrorists
Close the border, end DEI, the death penalty, ignore climate change, and declare by government fiat that there are only two sexes.
OK, now I’m closing my browser and getting the hell out of the house.
Hey, isn’t birthright citizenship right there in the Constitution?
Trans genocide on day 1 and the Bidens are having tea with him. Spineless pieces of shit, all of them
Good idea.
I feel more like we are watching the funeral of the US Democracy rather than the inauguration of a wacko orange fascist.
This isn’t a funeral I really wanted to see.
If anyone tells me to pray for our “prezzinit”, I offer this. It’s Psalms 109:
8 May his days be few;
may another take his place of leadership.
9 May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow.
10 May his children be wandering beggars;
may they be driven from their ruined homes.
11 May a creditor seize all he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
12 May no one extend kindness to him
or take pity on his fatherless children.
13 May his descendants be cut off,
their names blotted out from the next generation.
Ending birthright citizenship jumped out at me, too. It’s in the 14th Amendment. There’s no way to change that without amending the Constitution, which would, I believe, require a Constitutional convention. The corrupt SCOTUS could weigh in, I suppose. Scalia single-handedly reinterpreted the 2nd Amendment to exclude that pesky “well-regulated militia” business. Perhaps they could reinterpret the 14th in a similar manner. Though the wording seems fairly ironclad to me:
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
This is probably blatantly illegal.
It is and has been illegal to use the Federal US military for domestic law enforcement for over a century.
The idea here is to prevent a wannabe dictator from using the US military against the USA and its citizens.
The GOP and Trump aren’t at all concerned about following the laws of the USA any more. Rule of Law dies today.
Anyone with an accent would in theory include almost everyone, since nobody speaks without an accent.
The one remaining ray of hope is that Trump and the oligarchs will overreach and most Americans will realize it in time for the 2026 midterms, or 2028 at the latest. My hopes have been dashed repeatedly and recently.
Maybe TikTok will be a clue. If Trump does indeed refrain from enforcing the law that they have to sell*, then he’ll want something in return. Might that make the grifting obvious enough?
……………………………………………………………………………
*I agree with Adam Lee that it’s a bad law for the same reasons he states.
With these Executive Orders, the GOP is just throwing crap against the wall and seeing what sticks. Some of it will, some of it won’t.
LOL.
Does that mean we can take away the citizenship of Elon Musk, Melanie Trump, Barron Trump his kid, Donald Trump whose mother was a Scottish citizen, Peter Thiel, etc..
I don’t see how this will make it even with the corrupt US Supreme court.
If they remove birthright citizenship, anyone could lose their US citizenship.
This hits Elon Musk right in the gonads.
This is meaningless and just for show.
Who is for inflation?
Who with the relevant powers isn’t right now fighting inflation with some successes?
ICE: “What’s your name, man?”
Man: My name José Jiménez.
@John Watts
(emphasis mine)
I think that’s where originalists like Scalia would start to unpick the protection this amendment affords.Find a way to say that the Founders did not mean that someone born in the US is automatically subject to its jurisdiction (e.g. if their parents are not citizens of the US) and you can do whatever you like with them.
That’s what these Humpty Dumpty’s do: “When I use a word,… it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”
Where is that list from? Anyway, half that stuff can’t be done by executive order, and some of the items are completely meaningless.
@M’thew #11:
I guess we should be glad Scalia’s dead, then? On the other hand, at least Scalia acknowledged stare decisis. I’ll always remember one case — one of the many attempts to overturn Roe v. Wade, IIRC — where he said “If that’s all you have, that the [Supreme] Court was wrong, then you have nothing.” The current bunch, not so much.
But yeah, the SC had already interpreted this to mean what we all think it means, so they’d have to throw out those decisions too.
I couldn’t quite see what this is for.
Or try very hard. Decoding Trump’s gibberish isn’t all that interesting.
We don’t have a national energy emergency.
In fact, the USA is the world’s largest oil producer. Here is what Paul Krugman had to say on Bluesky.
Follow the money.
That is probably part of it.
I thought that maybe this would be an attack on windmills.
Trump hates windmills for trivial reasons.
Or it could be both.
@ 9
Maybe not. I’ve suspected for a long time that Musk is going to dump Tesla or stop producing EVs. Remember when he said that Tesla was really an “AI and robotics company?”
@15
It is also possible that Musk thinks Tesla is in a better position to sell electric vehicles without subsidies than other EV producers. So if government support is pulled, he thinks the other EV producers will go bankrupt and leave Tesla as the only one standing.
I feel terrible for the United States in the same way that I feel terrible for someone who got drunk, crashed his car, and will spend the rest of his life as a quadriplegic. Yes, being a quadriplegic is a painful, tragic and miserable existence. However, he did it to himself. Being sympathetic to his pain does not preclude acknowledging that it wasn’t a cosmic injustice; he made the choices that put him in that wheelchair. It’s not like Trump seized power in a coup; he, like Hitler, won a democratic election. Can’t even blame the electoral college this time around since he managed to win the popular vote.
I haven’t watched the news on TV for years, other than the local station during severe weather. I think the last time was Jan 6th four years ago. To tell the truth, I get a lot of my news from the Infinite Thread. That and my home page news feed.
John Watts @ 5
Contrary to trumpian lies many countries have birthright citizenship – at least 30, with 35 others having some restrictions on birthright citizenship.
Tr*mp wants USA to be like Japan, where the offspring of Koreans that were brought as cheap labour to Imperial Japan more than 80 years ago still get no citizenship, and serve the scspegoat function Jews and Rom traditionally did in the west.
The idiot Dems need to study Poland and other countries that recently got rid of authoritarian regimes.
Hint: Don’t normalise the abmormal.
Norhing with this situation is normal. The institutions will be defanged and remain as theater, like Italy kept the monarchy as the nominal rulers 1922-1945.
Biden f*cking having tea with the new Mussolini is why the legacy Dems are useless.
@20 Yeah, the departing president who preemptively issued presidential pardons for the Jan 6 committee and witnesses, Fauci, etc. is having tea with the toxic dumpster fire? Has Biden never heard of the cut direct?
Let the infighting begin.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/20/doge-trump-musk-ramaswamy/
“All meetings of the DOG-E committee should be held in a gravel pit, with Kristi Noem ‘supervising’ the proceedings.”
This satire podcast (Alien Super Show) provides news with enough dark humor to chase away any suicidal thoughts.
.
MST3K’s “The Mads” Riff On News From This Week | The Broligarchy Bros Out Of Control
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=tcaBXMO8Cx4
PZ wrote: Even the spiders are refusing to bring more children into this awful damned world.
I reply: I have refrained from saying it for many days. But, even the spiders recognize that the obscene ceremony that happened today, with the billionaires club cheering, was the official beginning of the Death Spiral. Their wealth, stripped from the populace, and the power it has already bought, make it so very difficult to pull out of the downward trajectory society is now on. Downward we are drifting as tRUMP is upward grifting.
Of course, we stopped paying any attention to the ‘main slime media’ quite a while ago. I’ll not buy into or support these frauds. I thank PZ for keeping us factually, honestly informed and I appreciate the positive contributions of the other commenters here. But, I have creative work to do to improve my mood, temporarily, and reduce the anger I feel over what the sheople have unleashed on us.
Having read part of Tangerine Palpatine’s address we now have a Ministry of Truth. Truth ™ is not what is true, rather it’s what our new overlords say is true.
National Emergency? Yep!
China pays tariffs? Sure thing.
2020 election fraud? Def, baby!
Measles schmeasles? No worries!
Windmills give you cancer? OMG, take Ivermectin!
I don’t think the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was this bad.
@10 – Doc Bill
ICE: “What’s your name, man?”
Man: My name José Jiménez.
And “Baseball been berry, berry good to me!” – the famous SNL catchphrase of Garrett Morris as Chico Escuela…
Larry and Paul:
“Goodbye, USA – #BrokenNews”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=CrGpAIBc754
1776-2025, a summary from Britain.
“They shot two good presidents but none of the bad ones”
Other ominous signs: they drove on the wrong side of the road.
But the CBPOne app launched under Trump.
#17 freeline
Hitler never won an election that required putting him in charge. He was pushed into office by a cabal of conservatives who didn’t like another clique of conservatives.
The real difference is that Hitler actually went to prison for sedition (albeit in a very cushy prison on a very short sentence) while the US proved too incompetent for even that.
@IX-103 #28:
You won’t get away with such dismal excuses these days, not under the new regime of Truth Is What We Say Is True.
Hail Truth!
re birgerjohansson @27:
Reagan was shot. He just didn’t die.
Trump screws his supporters again
http://youtube.com/post/Ugkxg41aYPTqfx9ICTq8T-HWe64EQtTAXjkl
Remember folks, that saying something is “illegal” doesn’t matter anymore. If it’s in the President’s “official duties” it’s not illegal. Not anymore.
I second Deanna.
So many people wanking about laws and constitution.
The powerful don’t care about the law.
Rules do not apply to the rulers.
beholder and The Vicar, congratulations. You got what you wanted.
@ ^ badland : Thanks. You beat me to it.
We could be – should be – seeing Kamala Harris sworn in today instead. If reason and thought and logic and basic humanity had prevailed we would be.
Imagien Trump finally going to jail. Could’ve and almost happened but for those self-destructive, self-satiisfied willfully ignorant toxic corrosive klowns who voted third party and / or didn’t bother to vote believing the lie pushed by Vicar, beholder and some others here that the two parties were equally bad.
Anyone listening now, watching Musk give nazi slautes think the two parties are remotely the same in level of evil and fascism now?
Bit fucking late now of course.
Trump is signing those orders now. The USA is no longer in the Paris Climate accords. Deportations will soon begin. Lots of competent people just got fired. Biden’;s EO’s all nullified.
See thos e and more : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-20/trump-inauguration-live/104837938
Some thought I was being melodramatic and exaggerating about Trump and what his new nazi regime means.
Well, its already worse than even I thought.
I did fucking well try to warn you and make people think and act before it was too late. What have others done? What can and will we do now?
StevoR: “What can and will we do now?”
Panic and moan and whimper and flap your vestigial wings like a frightened chicken, of course.
Throw blame around like vomitus, but mainly panic and carry on.
(I mean, I can see what you are doing now!)
—
BTW, we (you and I) live in Oz. Not the USA.
(Have some respect for the natives)
@ ^ John Morales : Respect is earned. It can also be lost too.
Did you miss the fact that among Trump’s first orders was withdrawing the USA from NOT just the Paris Climate accords but also it says in the legalese of that Executive Order (EO) that the USA is withdrawing from any climate related UN treaty.
You know we live on a planet with a shared atmosphere and planetary climate right?
You know that the rogue superpower that is the USoA has a vastly disproportionate, malign influence on what happens here in Oz as well as so many other nations around the globe? That this literally does change and shape the future of the (political, cultural, economic) world we all live in right?
Also calling out those who made this happen is justified and something that needs to be done I think. Do you disagree? Do you want us to forget the lessons about the choices, words and actions of the likes of Vicar, beholder, Stein and the others? The lies that were spread falsely claiming the two parties were equally or almost equally bad. Actually, you rarely say what it is that you want or think people are best advised to do, do you -and I notice you failed to answer my questions asked at the end of #38?
If nothing else we can think and learn and do what we can to hold some people accountable in whatever small ways we can. .
PS. beholder, Vicar one of the EO’s Trump just signed removed the sanctions former President Joe Biden placed on Israeli extremist settlers.
( https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68173904 )
That, of course, is just the start of it.
As those paying attention and thinking rationally warned you pre-election. Yeah, those who stayed home or voted for Trump directly or through spoilers to punish Biden and Kamala for Gaza, nice job huh.
I know you are freaking out, StevoR, and you ain’t even Usanian. Bah.
(Pull yourself together, man!)
@ ^ John Morales : I am coldly furious right now.I note youstill haven;’t answered my questiosn from #38 & #40.
I have just seen this from Zeteo which gives folks some suggestions :
Source : https://zeteo.com/p/what-to-do-keep-democracy-alive-trump-presidency
Whether we can do any of these and how well they work is another story however..
Bah.
You are carrying on like a pork chop.
(Also, however much you think you know, I know more. So there’s that)
Just give the USAnians some space, will ya? Let them bewail.
It ain’t about you.
(And people call me arrogant!)
@ ^ John Morales : “.. people call me arrogant!” & “Also, however much you think you know, I know more. So there’s that.” & “It ain’t about you.”
.. After you, John Morales, have posted mulltiple comments ina short time mostly focusing on me the value of which people will judge for themselves here.
Wow. Yeesh, I wonder why people would consdie r youarrogant and, no I do NOT acept your assertion of actually knowing more than I do. Some topics I’m sure I know more than you do, others not depending on subject. You also don’t know what or how much I know.
Good old USAnian term: you are having a conniption, StevoR.
John Morales #44
I am an old lady. I read alot. I like knowing idioms from other cultures. That was totally new to me.
Thanks.
Aussie ABC’s list of Trump’s EO’s and explainer here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-21/donald-trump-signs-a-barrage-of-executive-orders/104840750
Their coverage also notes legal challenges will be launched but with Trump’s Treason SCOTUS being what it is..
[chigau, you know you’ve earnt my respect, and I know you know. Ta]
@ chigau (違う) :
FWIW see :
https://wordworry.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/316/
Obvs I strongly disagree with the trolls mischarterisation of me here.
[StevoR, chigau is too polite to tell you she was telling me she already looked it up, thus the actual gratification. Me, not-so-much]
[meta]
You also have my respect, of course, StevoR.
But not for that. For your genuineness and your earnestness and your goodwill.
Which is maybe even more meritorious.
Nothing to sneer at, is my respect. FWTW.
Not so easily granted, and certainly not pre-emptively.
(Just so you know)
John Morales #52
Yes. And looking it up re-connected me with this site
https://www.worldwidewords.org/
I am very pleased.
[you, and only you, chigau, have stopped me in my tracks like a brick wall.
I remember
Ever]
Anyway.
Worrying and despairing, well, fine.
But, you know, a bit of #resistance# and all that.
—
Despair ain’t admirable.
(The actual concept at hand, as ever, is ‘make the best of it’ — given what’s at hand)
—
The electorate has spoken.
(So, speak to the electorate!)
@44- “Also, however much you think you know, I know more. So there’s that”
@45- “And people call me arrogant!”
Illuminating, though maybe not for you.
What was it that made Socrates wise?
“What was it that made Socrates wise?”
His kibitzing was less overt than yours.
@17 freeline
Except, this is utterly flawed. What you are failing to have sympathy for is that the correct analogy is two parents in a car, one of which was abusive and drunk, who crashed said car, with the drunk walking away relatively unscathed, while his wife and kids are now in the freaking hospital, with the doctors trying to decide if they will live, and/or be permanently paralyzed by the accident. No one is asking for, or wants, sympathy for the idiot that caused it. Oh, and to be clear, the car they hit was being driven by someone high as a kite, and so pre-occupied by their own bullshit they failed to notice the other driver swerving drunkenly down the road and drifting into the lanes of oncoming traffic (certain “third party” idiots). And, yeah, I agree with the perspective of more than a few people here, I am about fed up with a certain poster’s, “I am half right about everything, but don’t give a crap about basic practicality or the reality of what will happen when I am wrong, all you people are stupid for not running off the cliff behind me!”, bullshit attitude.
If only someone had thought to arrange for an irony meter to be shipped to the inauguration podium just in time for a) the inauguration and b) the above …
You truly expose yourself, BB.
So. Do ya think you know more than me, BB?
(Because if you do, that’s arrogance, no? What you’re trying to accuse me with.
And if you don’t, then that’s arrogance too, no? You don’t actually know, but you hope)
—
Perhaps stop with the attempted personal needling, BB?
You would not get retorts such as this.
(How’s it working for ya?)
—
Anyway, the shock of the confirmation is over.
Socrates wisdom came from his humility in knowing nothing, though this could be taken from the perspective of irony instead. There is something to be said for humility nonetheless. Or not coming across as an irritating know it all.
BB might be reflecting on the “Also, however much you think you know, I know more. So there’s that”. Full stop. Why would this imply BB claiming greater knowledge? Maybe just laughing at hubris or wanton arrogance contained in the quoted words instead. Whooooosh.
Not like you, eh?
Maybe, maybe not.
(So, does BB know whether I actually know more or not? Do you know that?)
<
blockquote>Maybe just laughing at hubris or wanton arrogance contained in the quoted words instead.
<
blockquote>
So, you know that, do you?
(It truly is hard for me to not have fun with you. I have to work hard at it)
[meta]
BB, you came in @60 for your attempted gibe.
Hemidactylus, you did it @57.
(That’s a shitload of comments before you two popped in to relieve your insecurities upon me)
I get that a lot; people so obsessed with me they only weigh into threads to try to diss me.
(Informative, that is)
I seem to recall someone who comes later into threads and takes annoying potshots at posters spelling, grammar, and logic because of knowing more than anyone else. What ironic insecurities may play a role in that one upping.
Wow, you sure are petty, Hemidactylus.
You know why this person does stuff, do you?
Whoever they may be, this someone who lives in your head.
Weirdly enough, Gammon is also used as a pork based insult for someone who is getting excessively vehement and red in the face.
Jeez, what do you have against the poor innocent irony meters? (off to bury another one that went before its time)
BB, you’ve used up your quota on this thread. No more responses from me henceforth.
(I note that all you managed to add to the discussion was your spiteful nasty attempted jejune sneering towards me. Best you can do, evidently)
Perhaps we should re-prioritize. Now would seem to be the time for ticking off bucket list items, in the few remaining years/months/weeks/days/hours before the bombs fall.