Senate Democrats move to give Trump dictatorship-like war powers

Does anyone else remember how the Democrats' McResistance considers President Trump to be a tyrant and a fascist, and that he must be stopped because of this? A couple months ago Democrats in Congress went out of their way to give this scary guy domestic spying powers that would make Orwell turn over in his grave.
It was a very unusual way to "resist" Trump.

With a newly proposed AUMF, Democrats have decided that "resisting" Trump requires giving him yet more dictatorship-like powers.

But now, incredibly enough, a bipartisan group of six lawmakers, led by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., is proposing a new AUMF that would greatly expand who the president can place in indefinite military detention, all in the name of restricting presidential power. If the Corker-Kaine bill becomes law as currently written, any president, including Donald Trump, could plausibly claim extraordinarily broad power to order the military to imprison any U.S. citizen, captured in America or not, and hold them without charges essentially forever.
...thanks to a combination of sloppy drafting and clear reluctance to take the executive branch head-on, Corker and Kaine’s proposed AUMF could do the opposite, handing genuinely tyrannical powers over to the president. Christopher Anders of the ACLU characterizes the bill as “a legislative dumpster fire.”

That's clearly how you "resist" a tyrant - by surrendering to him.
Make no mistake, this is a bipartisan bill.

The new AUMF is co-sponsored by Democrats Tim Kaine of Virginia, Chris Coons of Delaware and Bill Nelson of Florida, and Republicans Jeff Flake of Arizona and Todd Young of Indiana.

But wait, there's more.
As if giving Trump powers to lock up Americans without charges forever wasn't enough, the AUMF basically removes Congress entirely from congressional war decisions and gives them all to the presidency.

It is clear upon reading the AUMF, put forward by Senators Tim Kaine and Bob Corker, that it gives nearly unlimited power to this or any other president to be at war whenever he or she wants, with minimal justification and no prior specific authority.
The new Kaine/Corker AUMF declares war on at least the following places and people: the Taliban, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, ISIS anywhere, al-Shabaab in Somalia and elsewhere, al-Qaeda in Syria, al-Nusra in Syria, the Haqqani network in Pakistan and Afghanistan, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, in Niger, Algeria, Libya, and Nigeria, and associated forces (as defined by the president) around the globe.

That is simply breathtaking. Previous AUMFs have never included “associated forces,” and with good reason. Yet the Kaine/Corker AUMF not only codifies military action against those associated forces, but by conservative estimates authorizes war in over 20 nations.

It's amazing that when Kaine proposed this bill he said “for too long Congress has given presidents a blank check to wage war.” So the solution, I guess, is to personally write that check.

It should be noted that the AUMF expressly prohibits designating nation states as “associated forces”. However, it doesn't take much imagination to see how a president can get around that in order to, say, bomb Iran.
The immediate effect of this AUMF is that as many as 15 countries being added to U.S. theaters of war as well as up to seven groups of enemy combatants.

It grants political cover to the executive branch: both retroactively and preemptively.
...If “endless war” is light hyperbole, then the proposals in this AUMF are as close to becoming as literally endless as it can possibly get.

This "resisting" thing looks a whole lot like not resisting. Maybe it's more of that 11th dimensional chess that Obama was so good at.

Tags: 
Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Glenn called it the "villain rotation" strategy strategy

The ruse Democrats typically use to accomplish these dirty deeds is quite ingenious: the defectors change so that no one member bears the blame for enabling right-wing measures, while the party itself is able to claim that a majority opposed the extremism. In 2010 – as the Bush-era tactic of Democratic defections to the GOP continued under Obama – I referred to this tactic as “Villain Rotation” and described it this way:

The primary tactic in this game is Villain Rotation. They always have a handful of Democratic Senators announce that they will be the ones to deviate this time from the ostensible party position and impede success, but the designated Villain constantly shifts, so the Party itself can claim it supports these measures while an always-changing handful of their members invariably prevent it. One minute, it’s Jay Rockefeller as the Prime Villain leading the way in protecting Bush surveillance programs and demanding telecom immunity; the next minute, it’s Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer joining hands and “breaking with their party” to ensure Michael Mukasey’s confirmation as Attorney General; then it’s Big Bad Joe Lieberman single-handedly blocking Medicare expansion; then it’s Blanche Lincoln and Jim Webb joining with Lindsey Graham to support the de-funding of civilian trials for Terrorists; and now that they can’t blame Lieberman or Ben Nelson any longer on health care (since they don’t need 60 votes), Jay Rockefeller voluntarily returns to the Villain Role, stepping up to put an end to the pretend-movement among Senate Democrats to enact the public option via reconciliation.

Welcome to the #Resistance!!!!! Which does not mention climate change.

This is American Exceptionalism in its purest, and ugliest, expression: war criminals which lead African nations or enemies of the U.S. are sent to the Hague to be prosecuted, while American war criminals are rewarded, empowered, and praised. When an American tortures, it’s not a crime but a mere “taint,” and certainly not one that should result in denial of promotions let alone handcuffs and a prison cell.

But it’s also clarifying about the charade of Trump and the #Resistance, about the supposed inability of the parties to agree on anything, of the refusal of people from different ideologies to unite. That Trump chose someone with one of the most gruesome torture histories to lead the CIA is certainly revealing about who he is. And if the Democrats cannot unite to stop that, that will be further evidence of what they are. What kind of #Resistance refuses to stop an actual torturer chosen by Donald Trump from being promoted to head the most powerful spy agency in the world?

Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Will Democrats Unite to Block Trump’s Torturer, Gina Haspel, as CIA Chief? If Not, What Do They #Resist?

***
Will the democrats give Trump more power than any monarch in history. Sure. The monarch needs powers to keep people in line when the propaganda no longer works. Need to get it in place as soon as possible.

Come to think about it, is this an election ploy? The game is running against Trump and the Russians, so if Trump becomes even more powerful, more of a need to vote for #Resistance. Hillary did her best to pump up Trump because she thought that was a winning strategy and Kane was running with her. So it could be that the Clintons are still running the party ..............

up
0 users have voted.
detroitmechworks's picture

and then they're "Swept back into office" and can suddenly claim that all those powers they gave the president AREN'T ENOUGH, and to really do anything that benefits the people, we'll need more powers.

Jesus, just have us fucking send in our thanks to big brother for increasing the chocolate ration to nothing.

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

up
0 users have voted.

It's not just for liberals.

up
0 users have voted.
travelerxxx's picture

Don't listen to what these people say, pay attention to what they do. Truly, they are the enemy.

Let's just get it over with, eh Democrats. Wouldn't it be a lot quicker to simply translate the German Enabling Act of 1933 into English and pass that?

up
0 users have voted.

Democrats also voted for a pentagon budget that was more than what the pentagon said it wanted.
I guess the 'resistance' doesn't include the MIC.

up
0 users have voted.

Mike Taylor