Today's so-called conservatives wish for a nation of executive orders, not a nation of laws

 

Two More Executive Orders Trump Should Sign

Heather Mac Donald, City Journal

Once again, Trump is wrong because the executive does not possess the line-item veto

 

Trump signs executive order to stop federal funding for NPR and PBS

 

This is simply another example of executive branch overreach.

 

Funding for NPR and PBS, with which I disagree, is lawful. It has been passed by Congress and signed into law by the executive.

 

This executive can't simply come along and exercise a veto after that fact.

 

Rule by executive order is not republicanism.

 

We are either a nation of laws or we are not.

Trump is the enemy of the America I once knew.

 

 

 

 

Fareed Zakaria: Trump uses an unprecedented eight national emergency declarations for his own end run around the constitution, the Congress, and the courts

 ... Trump has declared eight national emergencies in his first 100 days, more than any other president. ...

Invoking an emergency has come to mean that the president can bypass Congress, intimidate courts, and run roughshod over normal procedures, even civil liberties. And while the current number is striking, it’s not a Trumpian innovation. Presidents have become addicted to emergency powers, unlike many other countries. The U.S. Constitution says nothing about how to declare or end an emergency. This has allowed presidents to organically assume a wide range of powers. This usually happened during wartime. ...

Today, Americans are living under dozens of ongoing national emergencies, mostly tied to foreign policy like sanctions. The oldest standing one, targeting Iran, dates back to the Carter administration. Others come from the post-9/11 era, when Congress granted the executive branch sweeping new powers, all in the name of national security. Both parties have used emergency powers to serve their broader agendas. In 2022, President Joe Biden attempted to forgive student loan debt by using an emergency authority related to the COVID-19 pandemic. ...

More.

Like failing to establish a formula for the continued growth of representation, thus unwittingly concentrating power in an oligarchic Congress by default, the constitution's silence about emergencies is yet one more example of the founders' inability to imagine every which way one branch might try to exploit it, which is an increasingly pressing problem in our increasingly illiberal society.

Normally you institute protectionist policies like tariffs when you already have something to protect, not before

But our Orwellian Republicans put the cart before the horse.

You can't return to something which no longer exists. The net trade deficit for 2024 is nearly $1 trillion, instead of flat like during the post-war up until Reagan, who first ran in 1976 against Ford, when tariffs still had something to protect but we listened to the siren song of free-trade instead.

That is why the Trump administration has had to cast about for at least six different reasons for instituting tariffs at the present time, none of which are at all convincing otherwise there wouldn't be six of them, not to mention that the math used for them is preposterous, or that they are the farthest thing from reciprocal.

The real reason for them, however, is that the tariffs, like the executive orders which now number over 100, are the immediate strings available to our Puppet Master, which he can pull this way one day and that way another, your ever present reminder of who is in charge around here. Suck up to him and he'll make a deal.

Trump's White House laughably brags about these things.

New taxes, which is what these tariffs are, are liberating don't you see!

Our mad King Ludwig needs this constant adulation. The tyrant has desires which he can never fulfill, Plato warned us.

But of course all this can be undone by the next president, which is no way to run a country. It makes for deep institutional instability and distrust throughout the global economy, for which few can reasonably plan.

The message remains the same: Expect Kaos. 

 

Liberals are upset with Trump's EO on elections because it threatens to withhold federal money from jurisdictions which don't crack down on voting by non-citizens

Whether liberals will address this head on, however, remains to be seen. They may simply challenge the meddling of the executive in a matter the constitution reserves to the states.

The Supreme Court has consistently deferred on this to the states, even during all the election controversy of 2020, rebuffing Trump over and over again, and is likely to do so again, which would be yet another defeat for Trump.

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

-- Article I, Section 4, clause 1

Trump promises more EOs on elections in the future.

He's already issued 100 of them. And the next guy can issue 100 overturning them. 

This is all theatre. Republicans' narrow majorities in the House and Senate make any of these becoming permanent law extremely unlikely.

 Trump signs order seeking to overhaul US elections, including requiring proof of citizenship

A purported descendant of Patrick Henry and James Madison blasted The Tyrant Trump in GA-7 townhall represented by Rich McCormick

 

Town Hall Erupts At Blistering Anti-Trump Rant Torching ‘Tyranny’ — Gets Standing Ovation In Trump District:

 

A town hall in a plus-thirty GOP district erupted in a sustained standing ovation over a blistering rant calling President Donald Trump a “tyrant” who “named himself king.”

Trump’s first weeks in office have been characterized by a string of successful Cabinet nominations and a relentless testing of executive power and governing norms. Many critics saw Trump’s social media declaration “Long live the King!’ as emblematic of that approach.

That was certainly the case when Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) — who endorsed Trump in 2024 after first supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) — faced constituents at a town hall meeting in Roswell, Georgia on Thursday.

A woman named Virginia Lim prefaced her scathing question to McCormick by referencing her familial connection to the Founding Fathers — then laid into Trump:

VICTORIA LIM: Thank you so much, Congressman, for taking my question. I do so appreciate it.

I’m a direct descendant of Susanna Henry Madison, one of Patrick Henry’s younger sisters and a cousin by marriage of James Madison.

Do you know who Patrick Henry was? And James Madison, sir? (NODS)

I’m so glad to hear that. While arguing the need for the American Revolution, Patrick Henry said “A king is a tyrant. If a wrong step is made now, the Republic will be lost forever and tyranny will rise.”.

I believe you know the rest of his speech. Something about “give me liberty.”.

It’s clear from all the writings of our Founding Fathers that our great Republic was never meant to be ruled by a dictator, nor a king.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

So. So you can imagine my shock and pure horror when I woke up to find that our president had given himself unprecedented executive powers, and then, within a few days, named himself King to his followers. (APPLAUSE).

Tyranny. Tyranny—!

MODERATOR: Virginia. Do you have a question for the congressman?

VICTORIA LIM: I do, I do. Thank you. Tyranny is rising in the white House, and a man has declared himself our king. So I would like to know. Rather the people would like to know what you, congressman, and your fellow congressman are going to do to rein in the megalomaniac in the White House.

(CROWD STANDS AND CHEERS).

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you!

REP. RICH MCCORMICK: Thank you. I’m not going to give you my best Foghorn Leghorn response to that. But what I was — so you can go ahead and sit down — thank you.

The — when you talk about tyranny, when you talk about presidential power, I remember having the same discussion with Republicans when Biden was elected.

(JEERING).

The funny thing is, the funny thing is —

(JEERING CONTINUES).

The funny thing is, you’re sitting here in your body, you would probably say those January 6ers who were yelling just as loud as you, who were upset just like you, and not listen —

(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)

MODERATOR: Hey, hey, hey, let’s restore some order! Let’s restore some order! Hey hey hey, let’s restore some order!

REP. RICH MCCORMICK: So yelling, yelling at me is not going to get any answer, okay? Hey, like I said, like I said, we’re not going to give order right now.

MODERATOR: Let’s get through this. Congressman.

AUDIENCE: Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!

REP. RICH MCCORMICK: I’ve seen Game of Thrones, too. Thank you.

Eventually, McCormick cited the so-called REINS Act, claiming it “reins in executive power” — but the bill actually has to do with rule-making at federal agencies.

 

US District Judge Amir Ali stops just short of holding Trump administration in contempt for failing to comply with court's order allowing disbursement of foreign aid

 

Trump administration hasn’t complied with order to halt foreign aid freeze, judge says

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali last week ordered the administration to allow the disbursement of U.S. foreign assistance after hearing claims from federal contractors challenging an executive order signed by President Donald Trump pausing nearly all foreign assistance.

Ali determined that a “blanket suspension of congressionally appropriated foreign aid” had caused irreparable harm to the contractors and was likely not allowed under the Administrative Procedure Act. ...

“By enjoining Defendants and their agents from implementing any directives to undertake such blanket suspension, the Court was not inviting Defendants to continue the suspension while they reviewed contracts and legal authorities to come up with a new, post-hoc rationalization for the en masse suspension,” Ali wrote. ...

"to the extent Defendants have continued the blanket suspension, they are ordered to immediately cease it.”

The judge stopped short of holding the administration in contempt.

 

 

Bill King is skeptical that Donald Trump's birthright citizenship gambit will be fruitful

 Here:

Adopting a rational immigration system that included better criteria for granting citizenship would greatly benefit our country. Many of the issues surrounding birthright citizenship are the legacy of the inability of Congress to enact such a rational system. I wish I believed Trump’s executive order might spur a thoughtful debate and legislative action in that direction. But sadly, our representatives from both sides of the aisle seem more interested in demagoguing the issue than working together to enact a rational system.

 

Ronald Reagan appointee blocks Trump's birthright citizenship executive order

It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life... or death.

 Federal district court judge temporarily blocks Trump’s birthright citizenship order

... “Ample historical evidence shows that the children of non-resident aliens are subject to foreign powers — and, thus, are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and are not constitutionally entitled to birthright citizenship,” Rosenberg wrote.

Ultimately, the case is likely to be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Native Americans were not made citizens by the 14th Amendment of 1868. It took an act of Congress in 1924 to do that. 

It is good that this will be decided by the Supremes, maybe, once and for all, maybe.

Trump executive order reverses Biden's pause on new approvals of LNG projects

 It is little discussed, but Biden's pause on the new projects was based, in part, on the negative impact on prices paid by consumers because natural gas was being diverted to LNG exports. Reduced domestic supply has led to higher prices paid by consumers:

The current economic and environmental analyses DOE uses to underpin its LNG export authorizations are roughly five years old and no longer adequately account for considerations like potential energy cost increases for American consumers and manufacturers beyond current authorizations or the latest assessment of the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Natural gas diverted to export already reached 10% of production in 2022.

Reported here:

The president reversed the Biden administration’s pause on new liquefied natural gas export facilities. Trump directed the Energy secretary to start reviewing new LNG projects as quickly as possible.     

Natural gas prices have exploded by 210% since Trump was elected in November.

This is just BS from Speaker Mike Johnson about LNG exports and Joe Biden's memory

 Whatever may be said about Joe Biden's memory, he didn't have a memory lapse in this instance as alleged by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. It's troubling that Mike Johnson would misrepresent this in this way. 

Joe Biden doesn't have a monopoly on "fake shit".

Sir, why did you [President Biden] pause LNG exports to Europe? Like, I don't understand. Liquefied natural gas is in great demand by our allies. Why would you do that? You understand -- we just talked about Ukraine -- you’re fueling Vladimir Putin’s war machine because they’ve got to get their gas from him."

He looks at me, stunned, and says, "I didn’t, I didn’t do that."

I said, "Mr. President, yes, you did. It was an executive order, like, three weeks ago."

He says, "No, I didn’t do that." He’s arguing with me.

-- The Moment Speaker Mike Johnson Knew Biden Wasn't "In Charge" Anymore 

LNG exports to Europe were not paused. And demand in Europe dropped in 2024. Biden signed a temporary pause for pending approvals of LNG exports, not for existing approvals of LNG exports. This and Mike's other comments in the story indicate that he is not exactly reliable on the subject. But he could have easily just looked it up.

Jan 26, 2024:

FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces Temporary Pause on Pending Approvals of Liquefied Natural Gas Exports

Sep 4, 2024:

US LNG export dominance tested as Europe's demand wilts

Meanwhile, Mike Johnson didn't tell anybody about this until now? Seems like a dereliction of duty for the man in line right behind the VP to become president in the event of incapacity or death.

And, oh yeah, US LNG export tanker loads hit a seven-month high in January 2025 at 71, through yesterday:

 

 

 

David Brooks is not a serious person

 

David Brooks: Donald Trump Is The Most Consequential American Politician Since Ronald Reagan:

 

And the fact that he's reelected and now about to take office and use executive orders to wipe out a lot of things, including the civil service potentially, or parts of it, that's just a gigantic pivot in American history. 

A president who must resort to executive orders is not consequential. The next president can wipe those out, by executive orders.

 

More importantly, there is nothing consequential about presidents who must pass major legislation through reconciliation rules, as Trump had to in 2017, which means the legislation is temporary by definition. Trump must now spend precious second term months on this same issue. He aims to extend his tax cuts for another period under reconciliation rules, which is fine, but that will also be temporary, not consequential.

 

Boehner and Obama made the Bush tax cuts, originally passed through reconciliation, permanent after Obama was re-elected in 2012. That was consequential.

The Bush tax regime is consequential. It makes Trump step and fetch it, just like Obama.

Breaking from AP Hamas: Biden to slow illegal immigration to 1 million a year from 2 million by executive order!

 

 The only true sentence in this story from AP Hamas:

Biden’s order is aimed at trying to head off any potential spike in border encounters that could happen later this year, closer to the November elections. 

Biden's scores of executive orders on Day One of his administration created this catastrophe of 10 million illegal aliens in the first place, as even AP Obama knows but won't say:

Administration lawyers have been planning to tap executive powers outlined in Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives a president broad authority to block entry of certain immigrants into the U.S. if it is deemed “detrimental” to the national interest. It is the same legal rationale used by Trump to take some of his toughest actions on migration as president.

 

Why I won't be patronizing Oppenheimer by seeing it: He was a Stalinist and a traitor

 Daniel J. Flynn, here:

As described in this column previously, Pavel Sudoplatov, so high-ranking that the Soviets placed him in charge of murdering Leon Trotsky, maintained in his autobiography that “Oppenheimer supplied … the Soviet Union with crucial information for it to successfully test its own atomic bomb in 1949.” He details Oppenheimer’s role, “which included allowing moles access to secret data to copy it, and describes him as ‘knowingly part of the scheme.’”

Material from the files of both Soviet and U.S. intelligence supports Sudoplatov’s claim: “An Oct. 2, 1944, memo from the Soviet archives, signed in receipt by chief of secret police Lavrentiy Beria, identifies Oppenheimer as a ‘member of the apparatus of Comrade [Earl] Browder’ who ‘provided cooperation in access to research for several of our tested sources including a relative of [the Communist Party USA leader].’”

Venona project decrypts refer to Oppenheimer under a codename, monikers in most but not all circumstances reserved for Soviet assets. A decoded March 1945 intercept “instructs Soviet agents to ‘re-establish contact with “Veskel” … as soon as possible.’ Veskel, the National Security Administration determined conclusively, referred to Oppenheimer.”

In The Venona Secrets, late authors Herb Romerstein and Eric Breindel wrote: “In May [of 1945] the Rezidentura sent Moscow another report from [Theodore] Hall on atom bomb research. It revealed the locations of work being done and the names of the heads of each research group. All of the names were clearly written out except one, that of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was listed as ‘Veskel,’ the head of Los Alamos.”

Oppenheimer’s critics lacked this information in 1954, so one better understands their restrained classification of him as merely a security risk rather than charging that he lacked, in the words of President Dwight Eisenhower’s Executive Order 10450, a “complete and unswerving loyalty to the United States.” What’s the excuse of the NBC News Studios documentary airing on MSNBC for omitting so much information from credible sources in the U.S. and U.S.S.R. intelligence apparatus painting a grim picture of Oppenheimer’s trustworthiness? ...

Oppenheimer donated large sums to Communist causes, subscribed to Communist publications, and married a Communist. Other associates in the party included his brother, sister-in-law, landlady, the girlfriend who later became his mistress, and numerous students. He attended secret meetings of Communist professors while teaching at Berkeley.

 Most damning of all, Haakon Chevalier, a friend and professor at Berkeley, approached Oppenheimer with the idea of passing on Manhattan Project secrets to the Soviet Union. Oppenheimer did not report this event to his superiors for many months and, when he did, described the events dishonestly, i.e., by omitting both himself and Chevalier from the story. Rather than steer clear of someone petitioning him to commit espionage, Oppenheimer continued to see Chevalier socially for years.

5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans votes 10-6 to block Biden's 2021 executive order mandating Covid-19 vaccine for U.S. government workers

Heh heh.

Story.

Taliban blunders story by NBC is complete rubbish designed to absolve the Taliban: What the Taliban did was intentional and precisely gives them the cover these naive reporters bought hook, line and sinker

In their push to retake Afghanistan, the Taliban made the security situation much more precarious by breaking prisoners out of prisons — including hardcore fighters housed at Bagram Air Base, Taliban officials acknowledged to NBC News.

Two Taliban leaders said in an interview that their biggest blunder was “releasing thousands of prisoners, among them hardcore Islamic State commanders, master trainers and bomb-makers. They were very trained people, and they are now organizing themselves.”

The Taliban itself was never designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization, but the Haqqani network, which has close ties to Al Qaeda and Pakistani intelligence, has long held that distinction.

More. 

The idea that the Taliban is not a terror organization is a lie, a fiction maintained by our lunatic US State Department and its friends in the press.

White House: Yes, The Taliban Is a Terrorist Organization   

GOP accuse Obama of "negotiating with terrorists," WH says Bergdahl was POW.

By JOHN PARKINSON and LEE FERRAN

June 4, 2014, 6:19 PM

But Tuesday White House National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden noted that the Taliban was added to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) by executive order in July 2002, even if it is not listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the State Department. Either designation triggers asset freezes, according to the State Department, though they can differ on other restrictions imposed on the target organization. The Treasury Department told ABC News the Taliban is still on their SDGT list.

Elise Stefanik is on the side of The Body Snatchers' Donald Trump, not the one we voted for

The Trump we voted for promised a 10-point America First Plan which was ALL ABOUT IMMIGRATION, not climate, not tax cuts, not Obamacare, etc., especially ending DACA immediately by executive order and building NEW actual wall, not replacing existing with bollard fencing.

Trump ran on reversing Obama's illegal DACA executive order, but here he is still advocating DACA amnesty

Trump used you.

Trump was going to overturn Obama's illegal DACA executive order on day one, instead he's renewed 373,610 under it since January 2018

A whopping 373,610 illegal aliens have received DACA renewal just since January 2018:

During the presidential campaign, Trump promised to “immediately terminate President Obama’s two illegal executive amnesties in which he defied federal law and the Constitution.” Fast-forward almost three years later, and we see that this very amnesty created a global incentive to come here with children and obtain immediate amnesty. The campaign promise is long overdue, and the consequences of keeping the amnesty culture are intensifying by the day.

 

Donald Trump is a self-hating fool and a wimp, and so is Mr. Missing in Action, Rush Limbaugh

Only a self-hating fool and a wimp would have signed this bill, and only a self-hating fool and wimp would defend the self-hating fool and wimp who signed it. It's like Steve King voting to censure himself.

Donald Trump has proven himself over and over again to be unworthy of being our leader (repeal and replace Obamacare fizzled, tax cuts for corporations not for working stiffs, outrageous federal spending increases, and now a complete cave on immigration, all in two years!), and Rush Limbaugh has proven himself over and over again to be unworthy of being our spokesman for still defending the guy responsible for it, same as ever.

We need people in charge of our movement who have a killer instinct, instead of the lay down and die instinct on display in this disgusting episode of betrayal and talk radio sycophancy.

Terrible Budget Bill Will Be Used Against Trump in 2020:

I read enough of this [border bill] to know that the things in this bill are a giant middle finger to Donald Trump [By signing it Trump gave HIMSELF the finger]. ... This is an Obama-era policy that has been re-implemented in this budget bill [Obviously Trump was just kidding about promising to reverse the two DACA executive orders immediately ... tick tock tick tock 2+years says the clock]. ... And don’t forget, folks, there are a lot of Republicans in on this [Like Donald Trump!]. ... I went back and forth, too, on signing this or not and shutting down [says the lazy ass without principles who could have read everything being said on Twitter on the Thursday before by reliable people on our side calling for a veto of this pig of a bill but didn't and sat silent when he should have called for a veto like Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter]. ... You can say goodbye to anything we or Trump wants coming out of Congress from the moment the Democrats win the House, over [Funny how Ronald Reagan got tax cuts passed without control of Congress]. ... But, you know, elections have consequences, and there are a lot of Republicans that retired [Still blaming less than 10 retirements which flipped for what was a 40+ seat catastrophe because Trump and Republicans failed to deliver on the campaign agenda]. ... Fifty-five Republicans quit! They resigned [total lie].