Democracy Dies In Emergency
By Mitch Berg
On the one hand? If you recall when Harry Reid torched the filibuster for judicial nominees, we limited government conservatives warned that “You folks may not control the Senate forever, so you might wanna be careful”. Trump’s use of a “National Emergency” to get more border funding is kinda the same idea. A future Democrat president could declare “non-living wages” a national emergency.
On the other hand? It kind of already a response like that. Obama outran Congress like Walter Payton outrunning the ’85 Vikings using a raft of Executive Orders. Is the border wall any worse than DACA?
On the other, other hand? I don’t think Trump necessarily intended to provoke a frenzied overreach on the Dems’ part – but it’d be hard to imagine how he could have done it better than he did:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said President Trump’s plan to use a national emergency declaration to unilaterally provide federal funding for a border wall would set a precedent Republicans may come to regret.
Democrats, she said, could use it later to enact their own priorities, such as increasing gun control.
“Why don’t you declare that a national emergency? I wish you would,” Pelosi during a press conference Thursday, noting it was the one-year anniversary of the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 students and staff. “But a Democratic president can do that.”
The NRA is going to need to rent more phone lines to take the membership calls, now.
February 15th, 2019 at 8:06 am
border wall… not a constitutional violation.
rounding up guns for the “safety of citizens”… basically the #1 reason the founding fathers wrote the Constitution.
February 15th, 2019 at 8:56 am
Financing a wall is a reallocation of financial resources, ie, shifting funds around. Gun “control” would require writing a law – which might be accomplished by an executive order but we have been living in that territory since Obama was elected.
February 15th, 2019 at 9:27 am
Is there an Alinsky Rule about making your opponent say what they really want?
February 15th, 2019 at 9:45 am
It is ridiculous to suggest the right should avoid breaking precedent because the left might take advantage. Since when has the left ever avoided breaking precedent? Isn’t that what defines them?
February 15th, 2019 at 9:47 am
POD, literally the “Shot heard ’round the world” was fired as the government was coming to round up the weapons of the citizenry. Start of the revolution. Eliminating history from our public schools is going to force us to repeat it, I fear.
February 15th, 2019 at 10:07 am
Its one of many reasons I was a history major during my way too long time in college.
February 15th, 2019 at 10:09 am
I bet no more than 10-15% of high school graduates today know that.
February 15th, 2019 at 10:15 am
If a game has rules but only one side plays by them (the other side consistently breaks the rules), what’s the likely outcome? For a single game, the rule breakers win the game, obviously.
But for a never-ending game, what result? I’m no expert on game theory, perhaps someone can educate me?
February 15th, 2019 at 10:35 am
JD, your problem is you’re thinking that this is a game with rules. We’ve been playing “Calvin-Ball” for some time now.
February 15th, 2019 at 11:32 am
Had this discussion with my thoroughly red pilled wife yesterday.
We know the reprobates will use this precedent to wreak havoc at their first opportunity; it’s a given; but look at the bigger picture.
The left has been chipping away at America for the past 30 years. They’ve been corralling us into ever shrinking cages. Hell, a 20 year old kid transported to 1970 would be utterly gob smacked by the free lives people were living…they probably couldn’t function.
Instead of a death by a thousand cuts, I’m in favor of an all-out, no bars fight and I think the sooner we get to it, the better. The longer we wait, the more kids will be poisoned in the public indoctrination camps, the smaller our available battle load out will be.
And let us not forget, Ginsberg hasn’t been seen in more than 70 days; there’s been a complete media black-out. If she’s not already dead (and yes, I do think the scumbags are capable of trying a scam like that), she’s gotta be damn close. And the public isn’t going to let her clerks issue a ruling on something as important as the issue heading towards the SCOTUS.
So yeah; go for it Trump. And you leftist scumbags? Go for the weapon round up; ban private ownership of automobiles; put a sexual deviant in every classroom. Bring it, ya slobs.
February 15th, 2019 at 11:59 am
A quick timeline of the Emergency 🚨
From January 2017 through December 2018 — Republicans had majorities in all
three branches of government. Why wasn’t this a legislative priority in 2017 and 2018 when Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House?
November 2018 a Democratic majority was elected in the house. January 2019 EMERGENCY!!!! 🚨 🚨 🚨
This is Trump at his reality show best. Inflammatory rhetoric and trying to scapegoat anyone else for the damage he leaves in his wake.
February 15th, 2019 at 12:03 pm
From January 2017 through December 2018 — Republicans lacked filibuster proof majorities in the Senate.
Leftist assnozzles don’t know how the US government works.
February 15th, 2019 at 12:21 pm
You can count on Emery to repeat the latest Democrat talking points. Apparently he believes that they are reliable sources.
They aren’t.
Two names: John McCain and Paul Ryan.
See how easy that was, Emery? You simply look for a reason that does not require that people with the opposing be evil idiots, and, lo! There it is.
February 15th, 2019 at 12:23 pm
They prove that on a daily basis swiftee. Just look at some of AOCs statements, Id say shes a dumb bitch but thats far too kind. What I really want to call her I wont use that language on this blog but it rhymes with hunt.
February 15th, 2019 at 12:30 pm
I don’t recall Trump threatening a shutdown on any of Paul Ryan’s budgets.
February 15th, 2019 at 12:35 pm
POD, she’s young and inexperienced, and certainly not the brightest bulb but I don’t think she’s as quite stupid as she appears.
I work with a couple of young, fresh off the vine engineers. They’re smart, they’re really enthusiastic, but they don’t have any real life experience so they make a lot of mistakes.
The difference between them and AOC is, our Director of Engineering didn’t put them in change of any major projects; he knows they’re not ready. The drooling dimwits in New York gave AOC the keys to their Lingenfelter Corvette, and a bottle of Wild Turkey.
February 15th, 2019 at 12:37 pm
Trump’s failure as a political leader is the only national emergency we face.
February 15th, 2019 at 12:38 pm
Emery, instead of dancing around in your piss pants like a fricking asshole, why not spend some time surfing the net for something to plagiarize? Is the Free Candy van in the shop?
February 15th, 2019 at 12:39 pm
Swiftee I personally dont give her the credit you do, I really believe she is as stupid as she appears. Mainly because I know (and have dated) people like that. If you look at her political rise it was 90% dumb luck.
February 15th, 2019 at 12:42 pm
If Trump failed as a political leader what the hell do you call Obama? He utterly destroyed the Democratic party so bad they couldnt even push inept Hillary across the line in 2016.
February 15th, 2019 at 12:52 pm
I listen to Jonah Goldberg’s Remnant podcast. Goldberg is an interesting thinker. His guests are good (the latest was Brexiteer Daniel Hannan).
Goldberg is a #NeverTrumper. The dislike between Goldberg and Trump, and Goldberg and Hillary, is personal and it goes both ways.
This put Goldberg in the unenviable position of dreading the election of either Trump or Hillary in 2016.
When I listen to his podcast I can’t help but feel that he is shadow boxing. He is defending an intellectual, internationalist conservatism that never had a strong backing in the US (it was a small part of the GOP coalition), and has grown very weak indeed since 2008. The liberalism he opposes has grown weaker as well, replaced by a hard-line socialism that embraces bad faith tactics and arguments (platform-denying and the Green New Deal).
Goldberg’s faction has lost. And if you want to know why it lost, look at what has happened with American public policy since 1988. Wall Street has prospered, and despite the will of the American people, and frequent GOP majorities in the congress, and GOP presidents, our borders are a sieve, infanticide is celebrated, and every goal of the failed Equal Rights Amendment (including women in combat) has been achieved administratively and through the courts.
Goldberg and his fellow neo cons were willing to leave the DOJ in the hands of radical leftists if in return they got another tax cut and another “free trade” agreement.
I think Goldberg realizes that his faction has lost. What he has yet to admit is that his faction’s policies (internationalism and empire-building) deserved to lose. Their gains came at the expense of conservative values.
February 15th, 2019 at 12:52 pm
… ah, remember the days when E was absolutely positively sure that Trump was going to be frog-marched from the WH right straight to jail? For treason! And Russia! And collusion!
February 15th, 2019 at 12:59 pm
And, BTW, “[h]as someone done a detailed analysis of why the 31 currently active states of emergency are legitimate, and the newest one concerning the US-Mexico border is not?”
Yeah, I kyped that from a tweet by Byron York
February 15th, 2019 at 1:02 pm
AOC is in a race with herself. It is a match between her stupidity and her apparent stupidity. Which will win? Inquiring minds want to know.
Keep in mind that she studied economics at Boston University. Which is not really economics, it is more like social justice ramblings.
She was quoted the other day on the subject of Amazon’s HQ2 deal with New York:
So if Amazon HQ2 deal goes through,accounting for the tax breaks it will generate $24.5 billion in tax revenues for New York.
So it goes like this:
With H2Q: New York receives $27.5 billion – $3 billion
Without H2Q: New York receives – $0.
How does one get $3 billion to hire teachers and fix subways out of $0?
Tell me again, why socialism won’t work this time around?
February 15th, 2019 at 1:04 pm
But let’s not beat up on Democratic Rep. Alexander Ocasio-Cortez – because Minnesota elected Ilham Omar, a woman whose stupidity puts the idiocy of Ms. Cortez in the dust.
February 15th, 2019 at 1:14 pm
I wish Alexander Ocasio-Cortez and Trump were 1/10th as good at economic policy as they were at Twitter.
The real wall will be the hundreds of miles of private property they’ll have to seize in order to build it.
February 15th, 2019 at 1:19 pm
Isn’t that what imminent domain is for? I mean rather than building headquarters for Best Buy.
People like Emery LOVE illegals because it puts union members and black folks out of work, making them dependent on their democratic over-lords.
But more importantly, given that there are 12 million illegal immigrants and that the census counts them toward congressional reapportionment. That means 17 more congressional reps for Nancy Pelosi.
February 15th, 2019 at 1:20 pm
Oops that should be spelled, “eminent domain”
February 15th, 2019 at 1:27 pm
Ah, once again, Emery, you prove Swiftee correct by puking up left wing talking points. By the way, any private property in the country has easements, you know just in case the gubmint wants to put in a sidewalk or an access road or something else for the public good. Just ask Beto. Eminent Domain land grabs are his specialty.
February 15th, 2019 at 1:29 pm
I guess that’s why we have a Supreme Court. To decide those kind of Constitutional issues.
February 15th, 2019 at 2:03 pm
Overheard at a Queens supermarket.
Alexander Ocasio-Cortez: I am here for my $30.
Clerk: Huh?
AOC: I have $40 worth of rebate coupons, so I want my money.
Clerk: You have to buy the product to get the rebate.
AOC: Are you trying to rip me off?
Clerk: You pay for the product and we give you some of your money back. It’s called a rebate.
AOC: But the money would be better spent in my pocket.
Clerk: I am sure that the case, but apparently you don’t know how rebates work.
AOC: Excuse me, I have an economics degree from Boston University.
Clerk: I do too. That’s why I am working here.
February 15th, 2019 at 2:07 pm
Goddamnit Greg that last line made me laugh out loud at work.
February 15th, 2019 at 2:08 pm
I guess that’s why we have a Supreme Court. To decide those kind of Constitutional issues.
The first intelligent thing Emery has said in 2019.
February 15th, 2019 at 2:09 pm
But let’s not beat up on Democratic Rep. Alexander Ocasio-Cortez – because Minnesota elected Ilham Omar, a woman whose stupidity puts the idiocy of Ms. Cortez in the dust.
This is also a very good point.
February 15th, 2019 at 2:37 pm
I’d like to declare the rampant ignorance in America a National Emergency. But it wouldn’t do any good.
February 15th, 2019 at 2:49 pm
I’d like to declare the rampant ignorance in America a National Emergency. But it wouldn’t do any good.
If it ever was addressed the Democrats would lose their base, or at least 80% of it
February 15th, 2019 at 2:51 pm
Although to be fair this is flat out embaressing, you should have to pass this test in order to graduate high school
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/doh-only-1-state-passes-us-citizenship-test-dc-fails-big
February 15th, 2019 at 2:51 pm
If you were really worried about rampant ignorance, you’d start helping solve the problem by jumping in front of a truck, D_K.
February 15th, 2019 at 2:54 pm
that got dark fast… even by my standards.
February 15th, 2019 at 8:42 pm
Trump will be brutally disappointed by his decision. It will get gummed up in the courts, it will be challenged, that he will never get the money, hence he will never build his wall. Not even Trump’s biggest supporters in the conservative world thinks this is going to work.
Trump will keep talking about the wall at his rally’s. He’ll talk about the wall, finishing the wall, building new miles of the wall, fencing, barrier or whatever word he chooses.
But as time goes on, I think it will become clearer and clearer that this wall is not being built. Certainly not on the scale he promised during the campaign. And that will expose the weakness of his skills as a “deal maker” and frankly even as a rhetorical device the wall will become less and less effective for him over time and he will look weak.
February 16th, 2019 at 2:47 am
You are in luck, Emery.
Bill Weld has just launched a GOP challenge to Trump’s 2020 nomination.
I’ve got a couple of slogans for him to try out:
“Bill Weld — the candidate of the donor class!”
“Weld!! If you liked Jeb! You’ll love Weld!!”
February 16th, 2019 at 3:10 am
Today the DJIA is 7500 points higher than the day Trump was elected.
That is an increase of 41%, or about ten TRILLION dollars.
I am surprised Trump hasn’t been tweeting that he should get a cut of this.
But of course, Trump is a failure at every level, according to some people.
Ten TRILLION dollars is about 1.5 times the US GDP the year I graduated from High School (in constant dollars).
Keep Trump in office, and you can afford the Democrats’ socialist dreams.
February 16th, 2019 at 6:00 am
I presume Trump will stay in the White House and man the ship (no trips to Mar-a-Lago) until this horrific emergency is over?
February 16th, 2019 at 10:11 am
Woolly: Strange nomenclature isn’t it. Why are socialists being called “progressives”? Pondering the rotten corpse that was 20th century socialism, I’d have thought wanting to return to socialism was regressive, not progressive.
February 16th, 2019 at 11:38 am
One out of six residents of California (the most populous state of the union) is an illegal alien. This results in adding around 12 seats to cali’s congressional representation, so cali has declared itself a sanctuary state & will do everything it can to stop the real Americans in the other 49 states from deporting these illegals.
Nope, no crisis here.
February 16th, 2019 at 11:53 am
Trump has been in power for two years, during which the border has become an “crisis” — emergency? So basically declaring this an emergency means he is declaring his own administration a failure.
This is a great situation for Democrats. If Trump loses, they win. If Trump succeeds, the Democrats could succeed in fighting this in courts, and still win. If Trump succeeds he has the power to publicly call his emergency and declare his policy on the border a disaster.
Political theater is rather entertaining.
February 17th, 2019 at 12:36 pm
I can’t be the first person to note the similarities between the left’s obsession with Trump and Ahab’s obsession with Moby Dick.
It was just an animal, for Christ’s sake. It didn’t know it was called Moby Dick, it didn’t know anything about Captain Ahab. It was Ahab’s belief in his own fictions that destroyed him.
February 18th, 2019 at 8:21 am
There’s a theme running through quite a few of your comments — basically suggesting that if you don’t support Trump you’re going to wind up with some weird form of radical soci@lism. This is a transparent us-vs-them radicalization tactic. Every time I see it used, a klaxon sounds and a red flag waves, then I wonder whether you’re simply deluded or some kind of paid troll.
February 18th, 2019 at 10:00 am
Here’s a trick I learned as a divorce lawyer. When wife wanted half but husband said no, we’d ask for a quarter. Come on, it’s not that much (no), an eighth, you can afford it (no), a sixteenth, have you no decency (no), a thirty-second (alright, fine, just go away).
Then we’d go back and ask for another half, another quarter . . . you can guess how this ends.
That’s how socialism works. We don’t want all your money today, just a little bit more. It’s not much. You can afford it. You should be happy to pay for a better society.
February 18th, 2019 at 11:42 am
There’s a theme running through quite a few of your comments — basically suggesting that if you don’t support Trump you’re going to wind up with some weird form of radical soci@lism
Have you seen his leading declared 2020 opponents? Its not exactly a stretch at this point.