Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 6:54pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
cococandy: The story is still developing but at the end of the day, it’s going to be what we said it was in the beginning.
A massive data grab of sensitive tax payer information for nefarious purposes. Yeah and it would be crazy as people actually called this exact thing happening beforehand. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 6:53pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
raumdeuter: Prove your current location by posting a picture of your ID. We want to know if you are lying about your location too like you have been asking bemeruca. You are the only jobless person concerned about proving someone lives somewhere
Talk about cheap all it takes for you to bend over is a steak dinner You keep talking about bending over, has someone been bending your wife over? I can imagine anybody married to a gaslighter like you would want any type of relief. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 6:51pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
cococandy: House Bill 1526
So basically republicans are trying to pass a bill that stop judges from reigning in Trump when he does something unconstitutional. Effectively telling us the judicial arm no longer exists in their opinion.
Where are those “we have checks and balances” people? The group that claims Trump can never do whatever he wants because it requires an act of congress.
Come explain how this bill is not him seeking more power for himself and bypassing both congress and the federal judges. There can be an argument to be made that there is a need for reform in this area. But the problem with Republicans, is that this is all they did during Biden. They chose certain districts to file cases because they knew they would get favorable rulings. Like the Mifepristone ruling. They can pass a law to streamline the process so some cases get to the Supreme Court sooner, but they don't want that either as they know they'll lose on most of that. I never understood the argument that these Federal cases should only affect the districts where the cases are filed. But, history will judge them harshly. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 6:45pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
raumdeuter: Serious people dont go around asking online monikers to prove anything, You are the one asking bemeruca about his location and identity when you cannot do th same
Post your US passport data page or your ID that shows you live where you claim to live Oga, spin yourself in circles defending someone who you know doesn't live in the US and who cared so much about where I lived he hacked my IP by posting an embedded link on this site to try to figure it out and did. I know you're lying. You know you're lying. You should figure out what the value is in lying and debasing yourself cheaply to defend bad actors like Bemeruca and Trump. You are carrying his lie on your head. You're cheap. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 6:38pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
budaatum: This, is the exact reason why I don't bother trying to have a proper intellectual discussion with the non-intellectual person you mentioned. I just don't see why I should allow my precious time to be wasted by stupid brainless lying idiots, when I can spend that time discussing with more intellectually honest people. That perhaps might be because I'm not as capable as some at multitasking, note.
My nephew and I spent our valuable time building a pc today. I'd be kicking myself of some stupid idiot got any of it.
As for them bullying one, I'm not bullied by them despite all their trying, since they are irrelevant and insignificant. It's all of them. There is not one conservative here who I can have a discussion with. It's just levels of gaslighting, goal shifting and arguments based on lies the "heard" on some right wing site. But we've had discussion, whether you feel bullied or not doesn't matter, the goal is to leave an environment where people feel scared. Exactly like what is going on in the US. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 5:22pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
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Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 5:17pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
raumdeuter: You are here shilling for gang members after taking a break from twerking for Hamas You keep reposting this as if the last time you posted it I didn't make you look like a fool. It's odd that you keep reposting this one document as if nothing the judge says after that or even on this page matters. You already know that this document has been superseded and he got bail as the judge eventually did see the government's evidence and found it unpersuasive (the officer who said he had a informant who said he was a gang member was suspended for misconduct) because I already showed you the recent court cases. Actually it's not odd as this is tantamount to lying and you are a practiced liar. I always wonder why you waste your time lying. Do you have a problem telling the truth? |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 4:18pm On Apr 16, 2025*. Modified: 4:53pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
raumdeuter: You told us that you live in Boston without any evidence, We believe you. No one is asking you for evidence because they have things to do in their lives and not jobless idioots on a forum
Could you be lying about what you are and where you live? Possibly. Is it my business to prove you are lying about who you are and be asking you for evidence? No I have more important things to do
Who else on this thread is asking bemeruca or anyone here about where they live and seem to be invested in proving otherwise
Does coco live in Cali, Oregon, Owerri, Washington or even in a mormon camp in Utah? No one bothers to ask her and no one is bothered
To show how silly you sound, Prove by showing your ID that you live in Boston.
This poverty mentality sha. We know the steak dinners mean a lot to you and you can give anything and everything in exchange for a restaurant dinner because you don't get it regularly, you will trade anything front and back for a steak dinner.
You saved a picture of someone on your device and you are investing this much energy into proving exactly what?
That is why you need to get a life, get a GF, get a family, get a job and stop embarrassing everyone who knows you So, yes or no. Was that a picture of the USA? It wasn't. And for 1million naira equivalent bitcoin you can't say it was. Because you know he was lying and is lying. So the question is why are you invested in lying about something you know is a lie. Because, as I said you are an amoralistic liar and have to be one to be a Trump supporter. And, I was repeatedly told I was lying about living in the US. And so, I actually did post my passport. And guess who was the one doing it. None other than Bemeruca. In fact he went as far as to steal my work ip address using a fake link and found my location was in Cambridge and admitted doing so. So, save me your self righteous amoralistic Bullshit. bemeruca: you don't know what phishing is. Just shut the fvck up. You claimed to be using a VPN which is a lie. Your IP last was consistent with your IP early this year. people who live around Cambridge St. are usually idiots |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 4:10pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
cococandy: Bingo!!!
They make a mockery of empathy, kindness and compassion. Labeling it weak. I almost want to pity them but it’s wasted.
And to tell you that they know what they’re doing, they also turn around and try to hold democrats to a higher standard of decorum. “Oh I thought you guys were supposed to be the party of tolerance”. As if to say they’ve have the a natural right to be the way they are and were supposed to be the ones always taking the high road.
In fact it’s so become normalized that acts of intolerance, intentional cruelty and even terrorism from their side get swept under the rug as if it’s just another day. But let the left do a fraction of what they do and it’s the headline for ages. I think that is the thing that I find most concerning. This guy Garcia most likely did nothing wrong. The US government has not provided 1 piece of evidence against him. Yet they call him a terrorist or a gang member. So he is sitting in a prison camp in El Salvador probably being raped there by the same MS-13 members a judge found he credibly feared. He will be changed, his wife and kids also. For what? All people are asking is that the government take him to court and prove he did what they say. But people in this thread are laughing about it and making jokes as it they can't feel any empathy or could ever imagine them or someone like them being in that situation where they are falsely accused. You don't have to say anything, but to choose to me casually cruel? Something is broken there. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 3:59pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
raumdeuter: Its not my business what day anyone here landed in the US. Have you asked any other person here which day they landed in the US? What is my business if anyone here lives in Kuvuki, the whitehouse or Gitmo? Have you shown any evidence of where you claim to live? Okay show me proof of the day you landed in the US with your I94 document. You will probably tell me that is none of my business Same way the day bemeruca landed in the US is non of your fvvcking business. Find more productive things to use your life for Bitcoin me 500K, You think everyone is poor like you? That will need 500k bitcoin, this poverty mentality sef But it is your business to lie that he is in the US? What does it serve you to lie that he is in the US? You don't have more productive uses for your life than lying about whether someone else is in the US? So, no. You can't answer for 500k. Ok. Let's do 1 million naira equivalent bitcoin. And I'll give you an easier question. In fact let's open it up. I'll give you, Bemeruca or Basilico 1 million naira equivalent to prove that this picture Bemeruca posted saying it was where he slept his first night in the US was actually a picture of the US. I'm sure Bemeruca could post the proof and split the money between you three. Could buy a really nice steak dinner for all 3 of you. Or is 1 million naira equivalent too poor an amount as well? What about you Basilico? is 1 million naira bitcoin too small an amount?
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Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 2:25pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
raumdeuter: bemeruca living in th US is depriving him of sleep, oxygen and peace just like everything in his life
What a loser
Maybe you should change your moniker to bemerUSA so he can see USA everytime he sees your ID I'll bitcoin you 500,000 naira equivalent if you can tell me what day Bemeruca landed in the US. Or just admit that you are an amoralistic liar protecting another liar who is also a scammer.
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Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 2:22pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
cococandy: Institutions like them might be out saving grace after all If Harvard bent the knee, the US would have been fuxed. But honestly, Harvard and in fact Higher Education is incompatible with MAGA and how they think or don't. I am disappointed at some of the Law firms. Very prestigious ones at that. I am glad Obama called them out. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 2:17pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
raumdeuter: You sound like a sleep deprived 1mbecile raumdeuter: bemeruca living in th US is depriving him of sleep, oxygen and peace just like everything in his life What a loser Maybe you should change your moniker to bemerUSA so he can see USA everytime he sees your ID raumdeuter: You are brainless so it wont make any meaning to you. Let those who can understand the meaning rad it while you continue to play with your toys raumdeuter: Good thing they dont have Democrats in the UK who will cancel this Supreme court ruling All your posts which you logged on to write this AM. Which one of them was rational, thoughtful or makes an iota of sense? I'm sure the one that will win you the mensa spot is how the Democrats are canceling the Supreme Court. You got all your buzzwords in there - Democrat, cancel and Supreme Court in there - unfortunately stringing them together doesn't make a thought. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 1:17pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
raumdeuter: Good thing they dont have Democrats in the UK who will cancel this Supreme court ruling Exactly the thing I'm talking about. What does this even mean? You strung words together to form a sentence wholly without meaning. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 1:15pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
I feel like I'm watching the Global decline of the US real time.
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Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 1:09pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
Whistleblower org says DOGE may have caused 'significant cyber breach' at US labor watchdogKompromat!! I think the drone with a note on the door seems too on the nose, so will view with that part with some scepticism, but the server logs should provide evidence. If this is true, it's very damaging. WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) - A whistleblower complaint says that billionaire Elon Musk's team of technologists may have been responsible for a "significant cybersecurity breach," likely of sensitive case files, at America's federal labor watchdog.
In an affidavit, Berulis said he had evidence that DOGE staffers were given extraordinarily sweeping access to the NLRB's systems, which house sensitive case files. He said that beginning in early March, logging protocols created to audit users appeared to have been tampered with, and that he had detected the removal of about 10 gigabytes worth of data from NLRB's network sometime thereafter.
Berulis alleged in the affidavit that there attempted logins to NLRB systems from an IP address in Russia in the days after DOGE accessed the systems. He told Reuters Tuesday that the attempted logins apparently included correct username and password combinations but were rejected by location-related conditional access policies.
Berulis' affidavit said that an effort by him and his colleague to formally investigate and alert the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was disrupted by higher-ups without explanation. As he and his colleagues prepared to pass information they'd gathered to CISA he received a threatening note taped to the door of his home with photographs of him walking in his neighborhood taken via drone, Andrew Bakaj, Whistleblower Aid's chief legal counsel, said in his submission to Cotton and Warner. https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/whistleblower-org-says-doge-may-have-caused-significant-cyber-breach-us-labor-2025-04-15/ |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 12:52pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
budaatum: I am so delighted you don't expend your energy fighting pointless insignificant minions here who's sole aim is to consume ones time with their irrelevancy.
It gives you the energy to notice the more important battles and fight them instead, and gives me hope these maga times will pass and fail.
I just wish others would learn from you and focus on what's important instead of losing time to maga. Oga, if you are talking to me then talk to me. 1.) I can do both. I post a lot of very pertinent things like Supreme Court Cases that I read. 2.) But, at times I feel like I'm speaking to the chorus. Like at times, cococandy will post something that sounds like what I was thinking and would post. And once in a while she'll even say it better (once in a very long while  lol). Saying anything more feels like just hearing myself talk. The truth is there isn't a lot of good counter arguments here. There is value in that I do learn some things from people whose perspective I already agree with. But in case of challenging my views, far and in between. 3.) I feel there is a casual cruelty amongst Trump Supporters here that bothers me. And I will not cede ground to them to normalize them or their lies. If you haven't noticed that is what Bemeuca is doing with his lie about living in the US. The same thing Trump does all the time, example being Fake News and the Jan. 6th protestors. 4.) I don't feel as if any Trump supporters here argue in good faith. They know what they are arguing is bullshit or should know. So, in fact trying to have intellectual discussions with them is not constructive. So, the waste of time is trying to have proper discussions with them. We've had this discussion. I think you have to push back on bullies and lies. You don't. I think that view in the Democratic party got us Trump and the moment we are in right now. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 12:34pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
basilico: She is hot?. I believe in the current situation Vogue would rather have her on its covers than Melania Trump. Big nipples , ugly fat black bitch. I'm off duty today Chardonnay plenty. While you are in a country of black women you are calling her a black bitch. Nice one. The West has colonized your mind. You must also be a "fat ugly man" given how much of creeper you always sound like. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 12:29pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
cococandy: Only fascists have a problem with activism. Hopefully Harvard not only has resources to stay afloat without the Government, but they also have the resources to fight back. Education is the greatest enemy of fascism, that's why they're so desperate to control it.
Education standards cannot change according to whomever is in power every four years. Harvard and other universities were here before Trump and will be here long after him. Harvard has a ~50 Billion endowment. It'll hurt some but they'll be fine. And I'm sure alum will donate some more to help out. The motto is Veritas(truth). Can't be bending the knee to wanna be dictator and supposedly stand for Truth. But the cost of cutting Harvard's research funding is to America. Harvard has first rate facilities and first rate students so has rate research and creates first rate intellectual property in every field esp. Medical. Trump is ceding that to China. And our Intellectual Property has set the US apart. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 12:21pm On Apr 16, 2025 |
basilico: I was forced to delete a comment I comment I picked off FB. Dish washer sized nipples  mayorcassa977: The breasts plenty.  Wtf? Are there no women around you that this is what you fantasize about? Weird stuff. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 4:35am On Apr 16, 2025 |
Forgot about James. Trump can't pardon state crimes.
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Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 4:32am On Apr 16, 2025 |
bemeruca: I still live in the US. You have to pray very hard to change that Yes, you live in the US. We all know that.  Lol Even Basilico and Raumdeuter don't believe you, they just need you to play your role as a foil. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 4:30am On Apr 16, 2025 |
basilico: Go tell Marco Rubio that'.
Visiting America is not an entitlement. It is a privilege extended to those who respect our laws and values. And, as Secretary of State, I will never forget that.
U.S. law lays out clear rules about who can and cannot come to the United States. The State Department’s consular officers are required to apply these rules to each of the millions of visa applicants around the world each year. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), aliens who endorse or espouse terrorist activity or persuade others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization – such as Hamas – are ineligible for U.S. visas.
You can also enjoy the rights and iprivelleges of being an American citizen in a Gitmo cell if you support terrorists. Again, you are not a citizen and you don't even understand US laws. What makes you think what you think about who stays in the country should matter? |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 4:27am On Apr 16, 2025 |
bemeruca: I live in the US call me out and I will still be living in the US. You are also IPOB Imagine someone feeling so inferior that they wake up everyday to pretend to live in the US. That's some mental illness. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 4:09am On Apr 16, 2025 |
bemeruca: IPOB go and rest. You spew crap all the time. I falsely call people out?
You mean I pray everyday like you that someone is not in the US? Every time I read a post you write lying about living in the US I will call you out. Stop lying, I'll stop calling you out. Fyi, I'm proud to be Igbo. But are the trifecta. A self hating, racist, tribalist. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 4:01am On Apr 16, 2025 |
basilico: Crying over a Hamas supporter who wrote opeds attacking Israel?
DHS and Ice investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans. A visa is a privilege, not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security,” the spokesperson told the Guardian.
She should go if she supports a designated terrorist organization.Sbe can go to Gaza and study how they are able to tunnels from aid money When you become a US citizen you can then decide or speak on who stays and goes. Until then focus on who comes and goes in the country you are citizen of. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 3:58am On Apr 16, 2025 |
raumdeuter: WHich people are fleeing from due to the liberal policies ruining the state
1. No one is obsessed about where anyone here lives or posts from as much as you do, Sounds like some form of inferiority complex or living in America is the pinnacle of your achievement?
2. How does someone hacking into an account do with him living in the US or not which you seem to devote a lot of time to. Like you are upset that others can live in America or what? Probably why you are eager to do anything within your power to deny help to a girl who was studying for US citizenship exams
Talk about morality from someone so disgusting that they refuse to help someone pass citizenship exams while eating her food. I can only liken that behavior to what an animal would do Everything about you screams 50yr old with a 3rd graders brain Get a life Read your posts. You always sound like an idiot. You're a grown man writing nonsense over and over. Ask yourself what nonsense you are defending. Everything you write always sounds idiotic. In one post you are defending a mentally ill toddler who comes online every day to pretend he lives in the US and then continue on to make some braindead intellectual dishonest argument that somehow any Republican state is better than California. Success makes things expensive. People are leaving to less expensive places because those places are less successful. People moving to your state is not a sign that your state is Amazing it's that it's cheaper and cheaper because no one wants to be there. Why do you even post when all you do is show your ass? God, the people who hold your hand, try to have a conversation with you while watching you shit all over yourself in your posts have some amazing patience. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 1:22am On Apr 16, 2025 |
bemeruca: IPOB go and rest. You spew crap all the time. I falsely call people out?
You mean I pray everyday like you that someone is not in the US? Fuking Mental Illness.
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Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 12:21am On Apr 16, 2025 |
raumdeuter: California is blessed with great weather, beautiful coasts that attract people from all over the world yet somehow Democratic policies managed to mess up so much that people from California are leaving the state in droves to red states Arizona, South Carolina And California is still the 5th biggest Economy in the world. raumdeuter: What is your business or problem with wherever he claims to live? How does that affect you, your life or your posts 1.) What's the over under that I'll find this same criticism of yours under every post where Bemeruca falsely called people out for not living in the US? And there have been a lot. 2.) Your argument is akin to someone trying to hack into people's accounts on Nairaland, someone calling them out for it and you criticizing the person doing it asking, how does it affect your life while not saying anything to the other person. You have a stunning lack of morality. Made clearer by the things that you feel important enough to lend your voice. It's no wonder you could cast your vote for a indicted sexual assaulting conman. Be better. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 2:25pm On Apr 15, 2025 |
raumdeuter: Well said This is the problem innit. A nonsensical post like that is what Republicans think is "well said". California's economy is the 5th largest in the world. How many red states can boast that? In fact most Red States are bottom in every metric. So, success or how well a state is run isn't measured by quantifiable economic metrics but by "that some people are leaving". Levels of anti intellectualism, intellectual dishonesty and stupidity from aa guy who tried to sneak into liberal Canada and pretends he lives in liberal Seattle, not conservative Russia or Conservative El Salvador, but liberal Canada. I can't. |
Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 2:19pm On Apr 15, 2025 |
The goal is simply to suppress speach No evidence linking Tufts student to antisemitism or terrorism, State Dept. office foundDays before masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk to deport her, the State Department determined that the Trump administration had not produced any evidence showing that she engaged in antisemitic activities or made public statements supporting a terrorist organization, as the government has alleged. The finding, contained in a March memo that was described to The Washington Post, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not have sufficient grounds for revoking Ozturk’s visa under an authority empowering the top U.S. diplomat to safeguard the foreign policy interests of the United States. The memo, written by an office within the State Department, raises doubts about the public accusations made by the Trump administration as it has sought to justify Ozturk’s deportation. The Department of Homeland Security has said Ozturk engaged in activities “in support of Hamas,” a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, but neither that agency nor U.S. prosecutors have provided evidence for that claim. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/04/13/tufts-student-rumeysa-ozturk-rubio-trump/
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Foreign Affairs › Re: American Politics Thread: Trump Is The 47th President! by IjeBos(m): 1:10pm On Apr 15, 2025 |
Good article from the Conservative site National Review. Should read the full thing. Trump Tests the True Limits of Presidential PowerGreetings and welcome to this week’s midair performance of the Carnival of Fools! Like a prestige subscription-service drama, our story resumes from a potent cliff-hanger: Last week, Donald Trump had invoked the laws of cartoon physics as he strapped an ACME-brand tariff regime onto America’s economy and sent it hurtling off a cliff. Bond markets proved immune to the appeal of MAGAnomics; Trump was therefore almost immediately forced to hit the pause button, or at least the slo-mo: Global tariffs are still on at a blanket 10 percent — with a 90-day pause granted for the nations of the world to “negotiate deals,” a phrase with no articulated (or articulable) meaning in this context. That’s the upside; the downside is that we are now embroiled in a full-scale trade war with China. ....
The Insolence of Office For those unaware of the details of the Abrego Garcia controversy, I commend to you National Review’s excellent, concise editorial explaining it, and I advise you to read it before proceeding. Briefly, a Salvadoran illegal immigrant here under an asylum claim was erroneously and hastily deported without due process of law, and the Trump administration is refusing to return him to the United States for his proper day in court.
For those who already know the specifics of the controversy, allow me to state my understanding of its true stakes: This is the latest and most perfectly emblematic example of the new Trump administration’s willingness to test the law well past its limits and do so by demonstrating gleefully naked contempt for it. It is all too easy to see why it is being either cheered on or winked at by Trump’s supporters and regarded with indifference by the masses. But it should alarm you deeply.
In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Garcia to America from El Salvador so that his claims can be adjudicated. (He currently sits there under an agreement negotiated by the Trump administration with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for the use of his notoriously brutal mega-prisons to house potential deportees.) This weekend the Trump administration refused, claiming, on stunningly disingenuous logic, that because Garcia had been dumped quickly into El Salvador he was now beyond American jurisdiction. (“He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador.”)
Why not just ask El Salvador to return him? Conveniently, President Bukele — who just happened to be in America on an official state visit — sat in the Oval Office yesterday morning and was able to answer that question: There’s just nothing I can do, alas. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.” (Bukele proceeded to smugly chuckle with Trump about how it would be nice to be able to send Americans, too, to his mega-prisons.)
What matters most about this cynical shell game is the transparent contempt for the law on display. Bukele is not his own man, after all; the purpose of his appearance yesterday was to read lines I can only speculate were at least reviewed by Stephen Miller, who sat in on the press conference to pretend that the Supreme Court had ruled 9–0 in favor of Trump rather than against him. Bukele, Trump, and Miller all wore Cheshire cat grins as they calmly told the world that the matter was out of their hands, even though all know the opposite to be true.
And everybody understands why the Trump administration feels free to defy the law: It believes it has the people on its side. He’s an illegal, anyway! We’re here to deport illegals. Who cares exactly how they’re expelled from the country, that’s not America’s problem. Miller said as much in the Oval Office press conference with Bukele. His primary defense to reporters was, “If [Garcia] was your neighbor, you would move right away.” In other words: Trust us, he’s a bad guy, so who cares how we got rid of him? ...
Donald Trump added a portrait of President Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office — an addition reputedly encouraged by none other than Stephen Miller. The reason suggests itself ominously enough in the current context. Jackson is famous for many things, but none more relevant now than his reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Worcester v. Georgia (1832): “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.”
A test of the rule of law is coming. It is not enough to write about this phenomenon with clinical detachment; it must be opposed. If not, I assure you that the spirits unleashed by Trump and Miller, perhaps seemingly innocuous now, will eventually consume us all. I’m not here to persuade you. I’m here to warn you. https://www.nationalreview.com/carnival-of-fools/trump-tests-the-true-limits-of-presidential-power/ |