Rob Rogers for February 16, 2019

To repeat the same post as on Steve Benson’s: Trump’s words — while ordering a “national emergency” — “I didn’t need to do it,” prove there is no emergency.

Trump’s actions (or inaction) for two years while his party controlled the entire government, then five weeks for a shutdown, then three weeks of “wait and see,” prove there is no emergency.

The very first words of the U.S. Constitution after the Preamble — the first words of the actual body of the Constitution — the first words of the first paragraph of Article I Section 1 are: “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that the Congress CANNOT DELEGATE legislative authority — the making of laws — to the Executive. It CAN create agencies in the Executive that promulgate detailed rules, but ONLY within strictly defined parameters that constitute the actual legislation.

The Emergency Powers Act gives the president broad power to define “emergencies.” But the word “emergency” does have meaning. If not, it means the president has the power to legislate, thus making the Act unconstitutional.

And “emergency” cannot include a situation of political face-saving on border issue politics, or because the “president” says he wanted to move faster, when:

• Illegal border crossings have decreased every year for the last ten years

• illegal border crossings are at a 46-year low

• more Mexican Americans last year LEFT the U.S. and returned to Mexico than came here

• fewest number of undocumented residents since 2000

• the National Intelligence Estimate recently issued earlier this month, defining threats to national security, DID NOT EVEN MENTION THE SOUTHERN BORDER

But go ahead, Donald. When we replace you with a Democratic president, watch for “national emergencies” on climate change, gun death epidemic and health care.

More like a septic tank explosion than a tornado.

I didn’t know a national emergency could declare a national emergency.

Best depiction of the orange blowhard yet.

Careful, don’t go to close to the US-Mexico border, you’ll blow down and destroy that big beautiful wall that you’re building!

sigh

“Auntie Em, Auntie Em, it’s a twisted twister!”

“I’ll get you and your little pussy too! Bwa ha ha…”

Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.

For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.

So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever.

I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.

But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll.And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.

And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.

Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.

Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.

And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.

rump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.

He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.

He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.

That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.

There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think

‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’

is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.

After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form;

He is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of s….His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.

God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.

He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish:

‘My God… what… have… I… created?

If being a twit was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

Schlocknado!

Can anyone point me to the place in the U.S. Constitution where it provides the authority to suspend the U.S. Constitution? Because that is the core idea behind “national emergencies”.

Sing it sister!!!

Trump’s the scarecrow – the one with no brain!

You have to wonder if some passive-aggressive people in the administration deliberately pushed Trump into declaring a phony “national emergency”, to get revenge on him for the lousy way he treats them? It would be hard to think of any judge—or any first-year law student—who couldn’t tell that it was blatantly unconstitutional.

Trump: I’m declaring another National Emergency. My cheese burger is cold!

Unfortunately, he’s not enough of a blowhard to get us to the Emerald City.

When the numbers don’t add up for the Senate GOP, they will oppose Trump. Unfortunately, Trump has a cult following, so I don’t know when that will be.

No, not YOUR emergency, MY “emergency”, the campaign coffers for my re-election aren’t nearly full enough.

Do YOU know what can be done by a president without his having to worry about the laws if this State of Emergency is allowed to stand? No? Then here:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/15/695270852/what-presidential-powers-trump-has-during-a-national-emergency

I don’t need a weatherman to know that this wind blows.