quote:

President Donald Trump plans to deliver a prime-time televised address on Tuesday before he travels to the U.S.-Mexico border later in the week as he battles Democrats over his proposed border wall.

CBS, CNN, Fox News and Fox Business News plan to air the roughly 8-minute speech, according to company representatives. But it’s unclear how many other networks will carry Trump’s address. At least two broadcasters are still deliberating whether to grant the television time, according to people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorized to speak about it publicly.

Trump will travel to the border on Thursday to meet “with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a tweet Monday. The White House didn’t say precisely where on the border Trump plans to travel.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news...down-fight-over-wall

In keeping with my theory that his guiding principle is to escalate in order to provoke a response, I think he's going to declare a national emergency.

Whatever he says, I'm tired of The Orange Apprentice.

Eventually, he'll declare martial law.

Then a national curfew for anyone who is not white white white.

I have a drinking game set up where every time he lies you have to take a drink.

I doubt I’ll make it past minute 3.

quote:

Originally posted by pianojuggler:
Eventually, he'll declare martial law.

Then a national curfew for anyone who is not white white white.

Sounds all too possible, as I think of it, PJ. At least, the Martial Law part.

Just his style - as long as it's rationalized as being done in the over-riding interest of carrying out his goals, when he can't implement them democratically.

He's been hinting as much (and frontally) ever since Xi in China, declared himself President for Life and Trump exclaimed what a great idea it sounded like.

The government will be funded and life will go on as normal.

LL#2 had to write a paper for English class and he asked me to proofread it yesterday - he didn't have a conclusion and needed some ideas. The paper was about various characteristics that modern day genocides (Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia) had in common with the Holocaust. As I was reading through the paper, the parallels between those events and what's going on at the border today were striking. I know I have seen some memes and facebook posts saying that we are moving towards Nazi Germany but I'd never heard any specifics (and my history education never got much past the great depression because we always ran out of school year!) By the time I got done reading his paper, I was thoroughly freaked out. All of the things he talked about (demhumanizing and demonizing of "the other side" in Bosnia, inhumane treatment of children in Cambodia, crazy xenophobic propaganda in Rwanda) -- they're ALL happening right now. I never knew much about Rwanda other than hearing the name bandied around in the news back then....did you know that a huge contributor to the Rwandan genocide was a conservative talk radio station run by the extremists that started off spouting hate towards the disfavored ethnic group. Within a few years, the station had reached the point where it was blatantly promoting violence, asking the Hutus to attack and kill their fellow countrymen with machetes -- even going so far as to broadcast their home addresses and hiding places so they could be found and killed easier. And the whole time, the Hutus didn't see anything wrong with it because they had been so slowly and subtly brainwashed....like the old analogy of the frog in the pot of water.

It's a slippery slope and we're already a good way down it. (Looking at you, Fox News and Breitbart!)

At any rate, LL#2 ended up using his conclusion to draw parallels between all of these events and what's going on today -- here's hoping his teacher's not a trump supporter!

Thanks for sharing that story, Lisa. It reaffirms my own sense that turning a deaf ear to what is being said and a blind eye to what is being done is ultimately not a good strategy.

And kudos to you and LL#2 for being brave enough to speak to what you feel is the truth!

My sister works for the Smithsonian and has been furloughed so she has nothing to do but ponder the situation. She is astounded at the poor management the dems are doing as far as news and publicity. Did you know that there are currently NO, as in NONE, airplane safety inspectors working and they haven't been working for 18 days? A good bit of the FDA food safety inspection department is shut down as well. Yet somehow the message that's getting out is that "too bad for the federal workers but it doesn't impact me - airports are still working, I'll still get my income tax refund, etc." The dems are not driving home how this shutdown is impacting the daily life of the average joe american and they need to be. Your typical fox viewer probably thinks federal workers are lazy no-gooders that are just sponging off the government. Same for people who get snap benefits. And that national parks and museums are just useless and should be privatized anyhow. There is no reason for them to care about those effects of the shutdown.

But finding out that the airplane you are about to get on hasn't had it's regularly scheduled safety inspection? Or that the hamburger you are making for dinner came from a processing plant where the safety violations they found last month haven't been followed up on? Or that the TSA guy screening luggage hasn't been paid in weeks and is so desperate to feed his kids that he might look the other way if someone slips him some cash.......that's the shutdown message that isn't getting out. Trump the the republicans know how to manipulate the message while the dems seem to lag way behind. They've got to get better at it fast.

I agree, Lisa. The dems have always been supremely bad at messaging. Instead, what we hear is "great news! The GOP has figured out a way for you to get your tax refunds during the shutdown!" Grrrr.

I do take it for granted that the Dems are less adept at messaging, but during the past two years, with GOP controlling all branches of gov't, the GOP seemed to be making all the pronouncements.

I am ignorant on how media exposure works, but tell me, how should they get their message out? Should Schumer or Pelosi just hold press conferences? Dem congresspeople do get on MSNBC but probably not so often on Fox.

I suspect he may very well declare a national emergency. That would be a coup of sorts since the laws governing those "emergencies" are so obviously designed for very different situations. We are really so close to a Reichstag moment. And yes, I know that Hitler analogies are fraught.

Declaring a national emergency on such transparently false circumstances likely will cause Congressional pushback. They would probably remove all presidential authority to do such things in the future, when circumstances may legitimately require such a presidential action.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
I have a drinking game set up where every time he lies you have to take a drink.

I doubt I’ll make it past minute 3.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the game be that whenever he tells the truth you have to take a drink?

Heh, they could safely play that game at AA meetings.

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
The government will be funded and life will go on as normal.

Your source?

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:

Heh, they could safely play that game at AA meetings.

quote:

But finding out that the airplane you are about to get on hasn't had it's regularly scheduled safety inspection? Or that the hamburger you are making for dinner came from a processing plant where the safety violations they found last month haven't been followed up on? Or that the TSA guy screening luggage hasn't been paid in weeks and is so desperate to feed his kids that he might look the other way if someone slips him some cash.......that's the shutdown message that isn't getting out.

Oh, it's getting out. That's how you know all those things. But people are still asleep. It's going to take people dying as a result of the shutdown before people wake up.