Can you imagine if Biden had said this?

If Biden had said this when he was president we would be seeing a complete meltdown in the right-wing media echo chamber.

Welker then asked if he needs to uphold the Constitution.

“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.”

I am 100% certain that no president has ever said this in public.

There are two legal concepts at work here - one is Habeas Corpus.

Donald Trump's administration is "actively looking at" suspending habeas corpus - the right of a person to challenge their detention in court - one of the US president's top aides has said.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, told reporters on Friday that the US Constitution allowed for the legal liberty to be suspended in times of "rebellion or invasion".

The founding fathers thought habeas corpus was so important that they put it into the text of the Constitution, instead of the Bill of Rights. Article One, Section 9, clause 2, which demands that "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."
Habeas corpus was famously suspended by Lincoln during the Civil War. All other attempts were rejected by the courts.

The other legal principle is Due Process. A Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth (No person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law).and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution (... nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.).

Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller told reporters Friday that the administration is “looking at” ways to end due process protections for unauthorized immigrants who are in the country.

So you aren't an immigrant, so why should you care, amirite?
Because that isn't how rights work. If they don't apply to everyone then they aren't rights.
Besides, Trump is going after the 1st Amendment anyway.

On March 25, immigration agents detained Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk. In revoking the Turkish national’s visa, the State Department cited a 2024 op-ed she co-authored in the student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to the Israel-Hamas war. A government memo said her "associations" indicated "support for a designated terrorist organization."

The government under Trump’s direction asserted new control over White House press access, encouraged federal officials to investigate CBS for its coverage and attacked other outlets. Trump signed several executive orders targeting law firms that took on cases that countered Trump or that employed people who drew Trump’s ire.

Trump threatened federal funding to K-12 schools, universities and federal grant and contract recipients over their policy positions on diversity, equity and inclusion, LGBTQ+ issues and Israel-Hamas war protests.

His administration edited federal government web pages to scrub them of certain language; ordered Vice President JD Vance to seek to remove "improper ideology" from the Smithsonian Institution’s museums; and removed books from military libraries. The administration purged hundreds of words and phrases — including diversity, racism, gender identity, climate science and Hispanic minority — from documents and websites, a New York Times investigation found.

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Cassiodorus's picture

And, yes, Biden could have said it, and none of the nice liberals would have cared. You had to be quite comfortable to sign on to a genocide for the mere purpose of being invited to all of the important parties, and indeed they were -- and are -- quite comfortable.

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"The Resistance will be patchwork at first, but we’ll find each other
quickly, a constellation flickering to life.." -- Malcolm Harris

@Cassiodorus Let me give you a couple examples.
Remember how Neera Tanden's mean tweets kept her from being nominated?

Tanden, instead, faces a difficult confirmation because Republicans senators, after spending nearly four years having Not Seen the Tweet, quickly advanced-searched Tanden’s feed for any and all toxicity and came up with just enough to make her a central enemy in the looming confirmation battles.

Tanden loved the nickname “Moscow Mitch” when it was applied to the Senate majority leader in 2019, a “Voldemort” whom she also accused of “fiddling, while the markets burn.” She’s described Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a key swing vote on confirmations, as “the worst” and, in a statement following Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 Supreme Court confirmation, labeled Collins “the chief advocate for Judge Kavanaugh, offering a pathetically bad faith argument as cover for President Trump’s vicious attacks on survivors of sexual assault.” Much else of what she’s tweeted about Republican senators has been lost in a recent deletion of about 1,000 tweets.

And so, on Monday, as the highest-ranking Republican official in the federal government spent another day accusing governors in his own party of treachery and betrayal for certifying election results, Republican senators lambasted Tanden for her posting record.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn called Tanden’s selection “radioactive” and chastised her for her reckless use of social media. “We’re prepared to try to work with the vice president once the vote is certified,” Cornyn said, “but [she] certainly strikes me as maybe [Biden’s] worst nominee so far.” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who’s in line to be chairman of the Budget Committee should Republicans hold the Senate, at first chuckled when reporters asked him on Monday how he felt about her selection, noting that she’s said a lot about him in the past, but “I’ve got a thick skin.” By the time of his Fox News hit later that night, though, Graham was calling her a “nut job” and implying that she wouldn’t be confirmed if Republicans held the Senate. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton described her as a “partisan hack.” Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who’s poised to chair the other committee that would hold a confirmation hearing on Tanden’s nomination, declined to commit to holding such a hearing and said that he hoped Biden would decide against formally nominating her.

Now compare that to Trump, who posts not just mean tweets, but actual threats.
Or maybe you remember Psaki's tweets.

The House Armed Services Committee’s top Republican is calling on White House press secretary Jen Psaki to “immediately apologize” for her response to a Space Force question in Tuesday’s briefing.

“It’s concerning to see the Biden administration’s press secretary blatantly diminish an entire branch of our military as the punchline of a joke, which I’m sure China would find funny,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.).

“The Space Force was passed with near unanimous support in Congress, the same type of ‘unity’ President Biden is supposedly working towards,” he continued. “Jen Psaki needs to immediately apologize to the men and women of the Space Force for this disgraceful comment.”

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Cassiodorus's picture

@gjohnsit 1) styles, and 2) Neera Tanden with Donald Trump. None of this is of any consequence, which is to state the obvious. Running Biden against Trump with last-minute Harris substitution only suggested one outcome: both parties wanted Trump in office again. And the US, failing to invent an alternative party, surrendered. The outcome gave America's empty little go-getter careerist lives some meaning.

What gives yours meaning these days? Insisting that your answer, and not someone else's, will finally resolve the all-important matter of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Donald Trump is a conglomeration of old suck and stylistically-new stupid. It looks new because the Donald likes to say quiet parts out loud now and then, at an especially bad point in history. The Donald, btw, is lying when he says his men will follow Supreme Court decisions. The world cries out for actual resistance, and the Houthis can't be expected to do everything.

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"The Resistance will be patchwork at first, but we’ll find each other
quickly, a constellation flickering to life.." -- Malcolm Harris

@Cassiodorus of you are skipping over my points so quickly that you aren't really understanding them.
For instance, when you said

Biden could have said it, and none of the nice liberals would have cared.

I understood you to be replying to my point about how the right-wing media would have a complete meltdown if he had said this and how he would have backed down because of it. Hence, my point about Neera Tanden's mean tweets caused Biden to yank her nomination. I didn't mean that whatever Tanden had to say had consequences.

1) styles, and 2) Neera Tanden with Donald Trump. None of this is of any consequence, which is to state the obvious.

But to say that Trump's actions doesn't have consequences on our rights because of REASONS is insane and totally ignores everything I posted above.

What gives yours meaning these days? Insisting that your answer, and not someone else's, will finally resolve the all-important matter of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

If I understand your point, and I think I do, your pessimism, bordering on clinical depression, does not change actual material facts that are measurable in reality. Just because you don't want to see differences doesn't change that.

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Cassiodorus's picture

@gjohnsit

But to say that Trump's actions doesn't have consequences on our rights because of REASONS

Nobody is arguing this, me least of all.

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"The Resistance will be patchwork at first, but we’ll find each other
quickly, a constellation flickering to life.." -- Malcolm Harris

@Cassiodorus because you definitely left me with the impression that you thought that Trump was doing nothing new. Thus I was being an alarmist by even noticing. In fact, you left me with that impression several times.

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Cassiodorus's picture

@gjohnsit If not, then try again.

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"The Resistance will be patchwork at first, but we’ll find each other
quickly, a constellation flickering to life.." -- Malcolm Harris

@Cassiodorus How about you actually read the post that I wrote that you replied to first.
How do I know for a fact that you didn't read it? Because you never even commented on ANY of my points. Or do you simply have no opinion about due process, habius corpus, and the president not wanting to uphold his oath to the Constitution?

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Cassiodorus's picture

@gjohnsit As I said earlier.

Or do you simply have no opinion about due process, habius corpus, and the president not wanting to uphold his oath to the Constitution?

They've been attacking the Constitution since Bush Junior, if not earlier. We can go over the details if you like.

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"The Resistance will be patchwork at first, but we’ll find each other
quickly, a constellation flickering to life.." -- Malcolm Harris

@Cassiodorus and I showed you how it wasn't.
I'd be glad to actually debate this with you.

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Cassiodorus's picture

@gjohnsit

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/obama-and-indefinite-detention...

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/president-obama-signs-indefinite-det...

And when challenged to read the linked diary, it seems you didn't.

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"The Resistance will be patchwork at first, but we’ll find each other
quickly, a constellation flickering to life.." -- Malcolm Harris

@Cassiodorus Can we agree that me showing that Trump's actions are worse does NOT mean that I am endorsing Obama's/Biden's? Otherwise you would make me claim that you are endorsing Trump's actions.

So what's the difference between Obama's NDAA and Trump's due process actions?
1) At least Obama actually used Congress. Trump is doing this by executive order.
2) Obama never actually did this to US citizens. Trump has, and not just to legal residents.

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Cassiodorus's picture

@gjohnsit

If I understand your point, and I think I do, your pessimism, bordering on clinical depression

I have made the point in several places elsewhere that what the world needs now is actual resistance. Do you offer it?

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"The Resistance will be patchwork at first, but we’ll find each other
quickly, a constellation flickering to life.." -- Malcolm Harris

Imagine if So-and-So said, "So-and-so." Then you'd see how full of shit the reaction to Somebody Else really is.

My sincere response, "Who cares what these professional fund raisers say while hustling up "support?"

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

@fire with fire then you would understand my point.

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@gjohnsit you jump to unwarranted conclusions based on your assumption about what disagreeing posts reflect about your own assertions. "If you don't buy what I'm selling, it is because you don't understand me." Implicitly, your posts are homework assignments which I often don't care to obey.
If you don't care to defend your choice of provocative headline upon being confronted with a rejection of your premise, you have every right to complain, for all it matters.

Complaint noted. I take your response as cheap sophistry, but I am a snarky Geeboomzer and you are under no obligation to convince me of your insights.

I stand by my opinion that comparing quotes to demonstrate "double standards" in response to bloviation by pols is a chump's game that demonstrates nothing of significance other than our political system is still off the rails.

I already knew that.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

@fire with fire article I dropped in Lookout's WW that takes a look at TDS without saying the words.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp about Trump hate.

I would not worry about this particular disagreement, but what I really care about is assessing what we are up against -- the fraud of Democracy in the 21st Century. Focusing on personalities is a Fifth Column attack on the truth of our era.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

@fire with fire Since none of my links and quotes involved "so and so said so and so" by professional fundraisers or politicians, this isn't the "own" that you think it is.

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@gjohnsit

I misquoted you who said nothing like "so and so."

Caught me red handed.

You win. I surrender.

Trump is not just another TV performer but the most corrupt person ever to live.

Seriously, so now we are back to the questions I have posed to you on other threads that you have so ironically ignored. Do lies exist?

FWF out.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

@fire with fire

Trump is not just another TV performer but the most corrupt person ever to live.

Seriously, so now we are back to the questions I have posed to you on other threads that you have so ironically ignored. Do lies exist?

You aren't being serious at all.

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@gjohnsit c.

I'm far too serious about what I said earlier today --

I would not worry about this particular disagreement, but what I really care about is assessing what we are up against -- the fraud of Democracy in the 21st Century. Focusing on personalities is a Fifth Column attack on the baseline truth of our era.

to let your snide insult go by.

The only way I could convince you of my seriousness would be to agree with you.

Never in hell.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

@fire with fire Unless you have a different definition for sarcasm than what you will find in the dictionary. This is the only way you can make someone saying sarcasm is not serious is a "snide insult".
I make a post about important stuff like threats to due process, habius corpus, and the president not wanting to uphold his oath to the Constitution, and not only do you avoid mentioning ANY of it, but you dishonestly invent a reason to be outraged at ME.

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@gjohnsit Fare thee well, Mister Lit Crit.

Outraged by you instead of Trump? Not hardly outraged -- but bemused by your stubbornness.

So your topic of Trump Man Worst Ever deserves inherent respect?

And that entitles you to castigate me for ignoring your windy bloviations even as you ignore every
question I ask.

Enough.

Good luck with your hopeless crusade. I'd love to see Trump removed from office. Call me when you and your likeminded shadowboxers succeed and I will congratulate you all.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

@fire with fire

So your topic of Trump Man Worst Ever deserves inherent respect?

That you think that was my "topic" just proves that you haven't read anything that I've posted. Thanks for proving that for me.

And that entitles you to castigate me for ignoring your windy bloviations even as you ignore every question I ask.

Once again, you admit to ignoring all of my points I bring up, while at the same time going through the trouble of purposely and knowingly mischaracterizing my posts. And then you say I "castigate you" for pointing out that you are doing something that DESERVES to be castigated.
As for me ignoring your "every" question of do lies still exit? I'll say again that reality still exists, thus truth still exists.

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@gjohnsit

As for me ignoring your "every" question of do lies still exit? I'll say again that reality still exists, thus truth still exists.

Just wanted to note your sophistry.

You own the truth in your mind, case closed. Lies never enter such sacred ground.

Uh oh, more sarcasm. Sorry.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

@fire with fire This was your big Gotcha moment? Hardly seems worth it.

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@gjohnsit
My real disagreement with you is about how you try to be both boxer and referee in the fights you pick. Sarcasm is out of bounds in your domain. And now you rate my rhetoric and find it unworthy.

Good luck with that approach to internet advocacy.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

QMS's picture

@fire with fire

if this adjunct to reality
had a clue of 'truth'
we could have a meaningful
conversation on some issues

seems a bit lopsided

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Zionism is a social disease

@QMS

but I can't stop myself from playing the role of tar baby.

Having a clue is getting rarer by the decade.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

QMS's picture

know thine enemy as it lurks within

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Zionism is a social disease

Pluto's Republic's picture

.
....stepping out of the US stream of 'self-generated information' and stepping into the global reality that encompasses it and displays it in context to real world events.

It is very difficult for people living in US isolation to climb above it, and to remain above it. Renewed hope, like the next election, always drags them under again. The view from above is certainly not rewarding. Indeed, the overview of the US in the world is shameful and offers no easy answers or simple solutions for individuals. What it offers to People-Who-Can-Think is the clear realization that the US is finished as a global power, and the people living in the US are helpless and cannot exert any control of their own as the US stumbles into mistake after mistake — losing the trust, compassion, admiration, and even the forgiveness of the world.

No foreign power is going to attack the United States. There is no reason to do so. The Federal Coup government is shedding and dismantling its domestic rescue agencies, like FEMA, as we head into environmental chaos and the global consequences of US deceit. The individual States are on their own, now. USians would be advised to choose their home state carefully and put their political energies into state-level governance for their own well being. The Federal juggernaut will carry on with its Neocon quest for supreme Empire with or without you, especially now that it collects the tariff fees that people in the US must pay on nearly everything they buy and consume, daily. Your Federal income taxes provide paltry disposable revenues, compared to this new unallocated tariff income bonanza, even at 20 percent.

Of course, most Americans believe that these tariffs are paid by foreign countries that are being punished for disobeying US rules and global orders. And that is the least of their self-delusions.

Carry on.

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