Trump Redux: The Death of Democracy, or Overblown Hyperbole?

[jimmy jazz]

@DJChameleon

Do you oppose deporting illegal immigrants and if not, what's the limit before you'd say enough?

[Psy-Fi]

You should make all of those pics & bio's into a deck of trading cards.

Here's the wild card for your deck...





Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz for Attorney General. 

[DJChameleon]

@DJChameleon

Do you oppose deporting illegal immigrants and if not, what's the limit before you'd say enough?

No I don't but there needs to be immigration reform across the board and some of the immigrants that should be here are going to get swept up in this mass deportation madness.

People that are gonna get deported are those that came to this country and married someone from the states to get citizenship. They are going to get sent packing. There is even talk about sending back the parents of children born in the states. The children are now citizens but their parents have to go but Homan is like well everyone needs to gtfo. The US was built off the back of migrants that's why we have the statue of liberty. Migrants that have come here willingly and against their will(slaves).

There is so much room in the states to take in asylum seekers but what the politicians purposely did was focused on sending them to specific locations to overcrowd the area and make people become more xenophobic like all the migrants that were bussed from Texas to NYC.

Migrants also help the economy when they are allowed to work. There is a stupid rule that Asylum Seekers aren't allowed to work. NY state had to pass their own laws to give them the ability to do that because it's not being done federally which it needs to be done.

[jimmy jazz]

No I don't but there needs to be immigration reform across the board and some of the immigrants that should be here are going to get swept up in this mass deportation madness.

People that are gonna get deported are those that came to this country and married someone from the states to get citizenship. They are going to get sent packing. There is even talk about sending back the parents of children born in the states. The children are now citizens but their parents have to go but Homan is like well everyone needs to gtfo. The US was built off the back of migrants that's why we have the statue of liberty. Migrants that have come here willingly and against their will(slaves).

There is so much room in the states to take in asylum seekers but what the politicians purposely did was focused on sending them to specific locations to overcrowd the area and make people become more xenophobic like all the migrants that were bussed from Texas to NYC.

Migrants also help the economy when they are allowed to work. There is a stupid rule that Asylum Seekers aren't allowed to work. NY state had to pass their own laws to give them the ability to do that because it's not being done federally which it needs to be done.

How do you know that was done on purpose for that reason? Maybe it was just where housing was available or where it was cheapest and where the most opportunities are?

[Trollheart]

Thanks for giving us a run down on these guys' CVs, Trollheart. They make depressing reading, but I think it's a valuable service to have this info easily available. As a reward, you'll now get to dig into Matt Gaetz' insalbrious past: hasn't he just been chosen as Attorney General ?!

Ah well, luckily for me my constant research for my many many journals has given me some small skill in being able to sift through Wiki pages and other resources, separate the boring dry facts from the interesting, sometimes amusing, informative and occasionally shocking ones and then add my own spin and comments and my trademark twisted humour to the whole thing, to end up giving you what I hope is not just a retread of what has been written, but something unique.

And yes, of course it's all bad news. Ain't come across a good one yet.

[Trollheart]

Name: Mike Waltz
Age: 50
Position: National Security Advisor
Previous Experience: Member of the House of Representatives; has served in Afghanistan as a Green Beret; holds the rank of colonel in the US Army; has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal; former security advisor to the White House and Pentagon
Historic Interest:
Trump says: "Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy Agenda and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength."

On the face of it, I guess you'd have to admire the guy, or at least give him credit. He certainly fought for his country (what you think about the justification for those various wars, or the idea of military service in general, will of course colour your perception of that) and received no less than four medals for bravery. He also appears to have been against the Obama-led withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying  "So, are we 15 years in? Yes. Are we in for a lot more fighting, and do we need a long-term strategy to undermine the ideology of Islamic extremism—just like we did fascism and just like we did communism? Yes, we do. Uh, and you know, I think we're in for a long haul, and I think our nation's leadership needs to begin telling the American people, 'I'm sorry, we don't have a choice; we're 15 years into what is going to be a multi-generational war because we're talking about defeating an idea.' It's easy to bomb a tank; very difficult to defeat an idea, and that's exactly what we have to do."

He's no friend of China's, and seems genuinely shocked at their human rights abuses, and has pioneered legislation to ensure no university or college receives funding from China, with the possibility of anyone doing so being fired. It says he was the counterterrorism advisor to "the vice president", but doesn't make clear which one? Since he appears to have served in the House since 2019, presumably we're talking about Pence here? Not sure. He was also on Trump's Covid-19 Task Force, and perhaps rather embarrassingly for such a position tested positive for the virus. No surprise, of course, the way the administration tried to pretend Covid did not exist or was at best a nuisance not worth bothering about.

He of course supported the false contention that Trump won in 2020, and refused to endorse Biden's American Rescue Plan Act, as well as the January 6 Commission. To be fair though, it is hard to argue with his contention that the US withdrew from Afghanistan too soon (though his idea that troops could be there for, um, 100 years, seems a little excessive: talk about your multi-generational wars!), as we've seen what happened there once the Taliban got back into power. A flip-flopper it would seem, he initially supported Ukraine but must have seen which way the east wind was blowing and switched allegiances to tie in with der Fuehrer's orders.

He has at least voted against the right of ICE to detain and remove immigrant children from their parents, but then he's no friend of the LGBTQ community, voting to codify marriage as being between a man and a woman only. Oh no wait, I'm wrong there: he actually voted for the Right to Marriage Act, which proposes that anyone can marry, regardless of gender. Okay then, Trollheart gets it wrong once again. DO NOT stop the presses, this is not news. Yeah but he voted against the PACT Act, which aims to help veterans, and also against the legalisation of cannabis.

His wife also served as homeland security advisor to Trump, and in addition served in the administrations of Bush and Obama and is a combat veteran herself. I have to say, again on the face of it, while he's no angel Waltz seems the best of a bad lot here. Feel free to educate me, my American friends.

[DJChameleon]

How do you know that was done on purpose for that reason? Maybe it was just where housing was available or where it was cheapest and where the most opportunities are?

It was done that way on purpose because Texas is Republican and they wanted to be cunts towards NYC so they sent them there by the bus loads to overwhelm their system. NYC claims to be a sanctuary city so they purposely did it just purely for political spiteful reasons and that's it.

Housing in general is cheaper in the south where Texas is. NYC had to convert hotels into shelters and makeshift housing with cots from like school gyms and even outdoor space on Randall Island. It's kind of been a shit show and the Mayor and Governor has been trying to get federal funds to help out with the influx and also the stupid work requirement thing being in place.

[jimmy jazz]

It's not just the price of housing on its own its also opportunities. It's no good living somewhere where there are no jobs or public services. That's why they tend to go to big cities.

So would you say then that NY shouldn't be taking any more immigrants?

[Trollheart]

Name: Pete Hegseth
Age: 44
Position: Secretary of Defence
Previous Experience: None; combat experience yes, but has never been in government and only rose to the rank of major while in service.
Historic Interest: Presumably (correct me if I'm wrong) the first to be elected to such a critically important office without a shred of experience, and the first news commentator to be elected to such an office.
Trump says: "[He's] tough, smart and a true believer in America First".
He says: "The dumbest phrase on planet earth in the military is our diversity is our strength."

[People involved in diversity, equality or inclusion policies] ha[ve] "got to go".

"Either you're in for war fighting and that's it, that's the only litmus test we care about."

"Whatever" [combat standards were in 1995], "let's just make those the standards".

Others say: [His appointment would] "make us less safe and must be rejected. A Fox & Friends weekend co-host is not qualified to be the Secretary of Defense.I lead the Senate military personnel panel. All three of my brothers served in uniform. I respect every one of our servicemembers." (Senator Elizabeth Warren)

[the job] "should not be an entry-level position". (Adam Smith, House Armed Services Committee)



It's probably no surprise - though the Looney Tunes theme does play in my head and can't be ignored - that Trump would appoint of of his fawning acolytes from Fox News, the channel (let's not dignify them by calling them a news outlet, more like the propaganda arm of the  Republican Party) that rubberstamped every word that came out of his, um, well let's say mouth, and turned it into fact, even if there was not a shred of evidence to support that. Trump rewards his followers and punishes those who oppose him, and that's just Trump.

What is incredibly shocking though is that a man who has never had any government experience is being handed the top job at the Department of Defence, the responsibility being put on his shoulders for current and future wars, military expenditure, and the future of America's defence programme. He's had, to be fair, extensive military experience (though much of that was with the National Guard and took place at Guantanamo Bay), and has been decorated several times. He set up and ran a PAC (Political Action Committee) but seems to have spent a large portion of the funds on himself and his family.

He volunteered to be in the National Guard unit assigned to protect the inauguration of Biden, but was removed when it appeared he was actually there to infiltrate the unit, and perhaps, well, who knows what he might have done? He denies such allegations of course. He advocated for, and got, pardon for three US war criminals, accused the Democrats of weaponising Covid, is against the teaching of critical race theory and climate change, and has advocated the bombing of Iran, something, as Secretary of Defence, and with Trump in the chair, he can now do come January. He also wants to fire all "woke" officers; however that gets defined, he will have the power to do that, too. God help America, is all I can say.

[Trollheart]

Still to come...

Mike Huckabee, Steve Witkoff, William McGinley, Elise Stefanik, Stephen Miller, Dan Scavino, Tulsi Gabbard, Marco Rubio and more unhinged WTF? appointments than you can shake a "Stop the Steal" sign at. Oh, and Matt Gaetz.

[DJChameleon]

It's not just the price of housing on its own its also opportunities. It's no good living somewhere where there are no jobs or public services. That's why they tend to go to big cities.

So would you say then that NY shouldn't be taking any more immigrants?

NYC took in its fair share. They could definitely be spread throughout the country. US is huge and there are plenty of other big cities that could take in some. Public services are everywhere so that's a shit excuse and the job situation is kind of a moot point since federally they aren't allowing asylum seekers to work when they should.

[jimmy jazz]

Well yes public services 'exist' throughout but bigger cities have the infrastructure to support larger populations better than rural areas. Not as excuse at all.

Job situation isn't a moot point. They might not be able to work now, but maybe in the future they could. So they'd obviously want to be where there are jobs. Is there even much illegal work outside of the big cities? What's the gig economy like?

[DJChameleon]

You probably don't know this but there are big cities in Texas it's not all rural space. There are big cities littered across the US that could have also taken in some.

The type of jobs that they end up taking are more popular in rural areas. Migrant farmers and construction are big in rural areas.

[Trollheart]

I'm intrigued and concerned. Who organised the "moving" of these migrants to New York? Did Texas just decide, yiz're goin' and that's it and yes this shotgun is loaded why do you ask? Did NY have to agree, or did they all just turn up on their doorstep one fine morning? Probably sounds stupid what I'm asking, but I'm just trying to understand it.

[jimmy jazz]

I know there are big cities in Texas mate, we learn geography in Europe.

I'd imagine there is a shit load of construction in NY also. As well as the gig work and shit like that.

So would you say you want immigrants then, just not where you live?