Posted On: Friday - July 17th 2020 9:01PM MST
In Topics: Trump US Feral Government
Before I get too far with this post, let me categorically state a few things: Yes, I will vote for Donald Trump in November, if I vote at all. Yes, Joe Biden would be a whole lot worse. Yes, President Trump is pissing off the kind of people that I'd like to piss off, as they are our enemies. That all said, this continuation of our disparagement of the President in yesterday's post is warranted. He has been a severe disappointment.
(Thanks. commenter Adam Smith for the meme suggestion.)
OK, this meme is perhaps too harsh. I can't really say that President Trump has been lying with his promises. As Elwood explained to his brother Joliet Jake*, "It wasn't a lie; it was just bullshit". Yes, Trump is a real bullshitter, an art that I guess he honed in his high-level real estate business. When a man doesn't keep his word, though his intentions may be good, do you call that a lie? Nah, but it just doesn't say much for him as a man.
Here's what I wanted to add to that last post: I realize that the President is not, and should not be, anything like a King, with absolute powers. It's good that he can't just do ANYTHING. What he IS supposed to be, however, is Administrator of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government**. Congress writes the laws that enable the powers of the various Departments, bureaus, and offices of the Executive Branch, tasking them with certain functions. How things are carried out within those functions are up to whoever runs things in each of these, with everyone eventually reporting to the President.
There are Federal judges all over the country ready to stop every little move by the Trump Administration, to be sure. They cannot directly block actions by the bureaucrats and other employees of the agencies of the Executive Branch though. By that, I mean legally, possibly they can, but practically they cannot. ICE, as is this example, can just keep on doing its job, with the details left to the employees and lower-level managers. There is nothing stopping President Trump from simply telling high-level managers that if this new visa policy doesn't get implemented, they will be fired. In turn, the middle and lower level people are motivated in the same fashion.
The revoking of foreign student visas for those enrolled in now-remote-learning universities is/was not some new law passed by Congress. It was just going to be the way the visa offices were to handle things now, based on this change in university policies. There are a myriad small decisions that have to be made within these agencies. Under the last I don't know how many Administrations, many asylum seekers, for instance, have been let into the country, from Africa, by way of Ecuador, then Mexico, or something, with any BS story about people hot on their heels ready to persecute them. That was not based on law, but based on men (and women), who operated based on the will of the Administration, all reporting up to the Chief Executive.
Many times, the Chief Executive, the President, that is, may not care about day-to-day bureaucratic decisions, or let the status quo continue. However, if he wants things to change, he has every right to administer it his way. The key word is "administer", and that means having people loyal to you at the top, and letting them know they won't be there long if the word doesn't get sent down, and changes don't start happening. Every single employee can be fired by the President, and that's no business of the US Congress!
The left knows how to handle these things. Even when laws do get passed to stop their policies, they seem to get the bureaucrats to just keep on keeping on in the direction they desire. Why can't our side do the same? Ignore the pesky Nancy Pelosies and the "rulings" by judges. Administer the Government. Unfortunately, we don't have an Administrator - we have a Bullshitter.
* Wow! The Blues Brothers movie is 40 years old. What a different world America was then! I can't find the scene on youtube, but the quotes are on the IMDB page.
Elwood : Well, what was I gonna do? Take away your only hope? Take away the very thing that kept you going in there? I took the liberty of bullshitting you, okay?
Jake : You lied to me.
Elwood : It wasn't a lie, it was just bullshit.
** Speaking of which, there are things he's NOT supposed to be, one of them being top "General" of the armed forces when there is no declared war ongoing. This Commander-in-Chief role is only supposed to be put on the President during a war declared by Congress. Maybe they wrote up an open-ended declaration of war, with the enemy and cause left "TBD" while we weren't paying attention.
Comments:
Moderator
Saturday - August 8th 2020 3:01PM MST
PS: Right, Alarmist, he is CiC, but, there was to be NO standing army. I guess that means he could order those Barbary pirates to be fired upon and that sort of thing, granted. However, the assumption of no standing army was (note "was", as nobody gives a dang about this anymore) that the armies would be mustered were a war to be declared. At that point the President could really act as CiC as opposed to an unelected General.
Were there no war as declared by Congress, there wouldn't be much Commander-in-Chiefing to do.
Were there no war as declared by Congress, there wouldn't be much Commander-in-Chiefing to do.
The Alarmist
Saturday - August 8th 2020 2:41PM MST
PS
re **, re-read Article 2 Section 2 ... POTUS is CINC in any case, though it is déclassé to toss it about willy-nilly.
re **, re-read Article 2 Section 2 ... POTUS is CINC in any case, though it is déclassé to toss it about willy-nilly.
Robert
Monday - July 20th 2020 11:23PM MST
PS: Mr. Ganderson,
Re: I want that on my tombstone: “He was not a nuisance.”
My Father would have approved. Silent Cal was one of his heroes.
But, he has a simple wooden cross that I built for less than $10.00. So that he would not be a nuisance to my Mother, who was on the verge of losing her house. (Tomb-stones, grave-yards, funerals, and final medical expenses are not cheap.) I hope that he approves.
Re: I want that on my tombstone: “He was not a nuisance.”
My Father would have approved. Silent Cal was one of his heroes.
But, he has a simple wooden cross that I built for less than $10.00. So that he would not be a nuisance to my Mother, who was on the verge of losing her house. (Tomb-stones, grave-yards, funerals, and final medical expenses are not cheap.) I hope that he approves.
Ganderson
Monday - July 20th 2020 7:59PM MST
PS
H.L . Mencken on Coolidge:
In what manner he would have performed himself if the holy angels had shoved the Depression forward a couple of years - this we can only guess, and one man's hazard is as good as another's. My own is that he would have responded to bad times precisely as he responded to good ones - that is, by pulling down the blinds, stretching his legs upon his desk, and snoozing away the lazy afternoons.... He slept more than any other President, whether by day or by night. Nero fiddled, but Coolidge only snored.... Counting out Harding as a cipher only, Dr. Coolidge was preceded by one World Saver and followed by two more. What enlightened American, having to choose between any of them and another Coolidge, would hesitate for an instant? There were no thrills while he reigned, but neither were there any headaches. He had no ideas, and he was not a nuisance .
I want that on my tombstone: “ he was not a nuisance”
H.L . Mencken on Coolidge:
In what manner he would have performed himself if the holy angels had shoved the Depression forward a couple of years - this we can only guess, and one man's hazard is as good as another's. My own is that he would have responded to bad times precisely as he responded to good ones - that is, by pulling down the blinds, stretching his legs upon his desk, and snoozing away the lazy afternoons.... He slept more than any other President, whether by day or by night. Nero fiddled, but Coolidge only snored.... Counting out Harding as a cipher only, Dr. Coolidge was preceded by one World Saver and followed by two more. What enlightened American, having to choose between any of them and another Coolidge, would hesitate for an instant? There were no thrills while he reigned, but neither were there any headaches. He had no ideas, and he was not a nuisance .
I want that on my tombstone: “ he was not a nuisance”
MBlanc46
Sunday - July 19th 2020 11:21AM MST
PS I shall probably continue my 52 year string of not voting in presidential elections. I did try to register to vote in the 1968 election, the first one for which I was eligible, but I was thwarted by bureaucracy. I have not seen fit to do so since. Even if I thought that it were important to vote for Donald Trump this year, it would be pointless, as I live in Illinois. However, I can’t see anyone who is not a rabid Leftist voting for Joe Biden and whichever Angry Negress he picks as his VP. Those people hate us and want to destroy us. How can one vote for someone who hates one? To bring on the civil war that much sooner? That supposes that we will win the civil war, which is far from certain. Yes, Trump, in the unlikely event that he wins in November, will probably break even more of the pledges that he made in 2016. But he likely won’t try to hunt us down and crush us, which the Biden/Harris or Biden/Abrams or Biden/Whoever administration will do. We haven’t made much use of the four years that the Trump victory gave us. If he gives us four more years, we must put them to good use figuring out how to live in an occupied nation.
Moderator
Saturday - July 18th 2020 6:51PM MST
PS: I appreciate the thoughts on at least the opening of Kaczynski's writing, Mr. Hail. I guess I could read it a bit at a time. Mr. Unz's long American Pravda pieces are interesting, and I kind of like his writing style. I think he goes down rabbit holes and completely loses perspective a lot. Yes, they are usually too long for me.
Hmmm, are we sure Ted Kaczynski is really in prison with no internet connection? Has anyone seen him and Ron Unz together?
Hmmm, are we sure Ted Kaczynski is really in prison with no internet connection? Has anyone seen him and Ron Unz together?
Moderator
Saturday - July 18th 2020 6:46PM MST
PS: Mr. Hail. I would be loath to tell anyone whom to vote for this time around. Oh, you gotta vote Trump in, to get that 2nd term! What's the point, based on the 1st term. However, I do think things will go to hell that much quicker with Biden/some-hard-core-SJW-race hustler that will take over when he Biden kicks it in office. I don't think the GOP will fight anything at this point - they are just too cucked and afraid of being called mean names.
Regarding your 2nd comment, well that's right up PS's alley, and I have a graphic or two saved since, I dunno, a year or more for a post or two on State's rights. Yes, something that's I've tried to explain to those who disparage Robert E. Lee (for example) as a traitor, or even a Rebel, is this: He signed up to defend his country. Virginia was his country! That's how it worked back then. With the incessant usurpation of State's rights over the last 100 years (+ the bullshit with Lincoln), people just can't even grasp the concept. State's are not much different than provinces or prefectures in other countries. Dang, this post is 1/2 written already.
Regarding your 2nd comment, well that's right up PS's alley, and I have a graphic or two saved since, I dunno, a year or more for a post or two on State's rights. Yes, something that's I've tried to explain to those who disparage Robert E. Lee (for example) as a traitor, or even a Rebel, is this: He signed up to defend his country. Virginia was his country! That's how it worked back then. With the incessant usurpation of State's rights over the last 100 years (+ the bullshit with Lincoln), people just can't even grasp the concept. State's are not much different than provinces or prefectures in other countries. Dang, this post is 1/2 written already.
Moderator
Saturday - July 18th 2020 6:41PM MST
PS: Mr. Smith, you are so helpful with the links for everyone. I do appreciate it, and I"m sure others do. "Camp of the Saints" is a great book - I read it about 4 years back. It came out of the library, but last I checked (commenting about the book under an iSteve post), it was gone, gone, gone.
Hail
Saturday - July 18th 2020 10:33AM MST
PS
"Is the Unibomber's manifesto on-line somewhere, Robert?"
I am a fan of re-reading documents or books after a long period of time with an eye to exactly how their predictions or analyses hold up over time. I think Kaczynski wrote that in the early-mid 1990s and I see it ran in the Washington Post and New York Times on Sept. 19, 1995, which means we're now staring at the 25th anniversary.
I re-read the opening section a while ago and it seemed shockingly relevant. The opening section is entirely political and an analysis of people's political motivations. It wasn't about technology as such. In other words, while Kaczynski is remembered as an anti-technology fanatic, he was actually doing political and psycho-social-cultural analysis, and did identify things that with hindsight of 25 years seem more relevant than ever.
The point he makes in his treatise is Ron Unz style, a sweeping arc of argument, making a series of points that some stylists would prefer to make in under 1,000 words in tens of thousands of words (the full Kacynski document is 35,000 words).
"Is the Unibomber's manifesto on-line somewhere, Robert?"
I am a fan of re-reading documents or books after a long period of time with an eye to exactly how their predictions or analyses hold up over time. I think Kaczynski wrote that in the early-mid 1990s and I see it ran in the Washington Post and New York Times on Sept. 19, 1995, which means we're now staring at the 25th anniversary.
I re-read the opening section a while ago and it seemed shockingly relevant. The opening section is entirely political and an analysis of people's political motivations. It wasn't about technology as such. In other words, while Kaczynski is remembered as an anti-technology fanatic, he was actually doing political and psycho-social-cultural analysis, and did identify things that with hindsight of 25 years seem more relevant than ever.
The point he makes in his treatise is Ron Unz style, a sweeping arc of argument, making a series of points that some stylists would prefer to make in under 1,000 words in tens of thousands of words (the full Kacynski document is 35,000 words).
Hail
Saturday - July 18th 2020 10:24AM MST
PS
On the position of the US presidency itself:
One wonders whether we need it at all, as understood.
The governors might best be sovereign, rather than mere provincial satraps serving one or the other mega, continent-wide political machine.
Big ideas are needed. Replacing a four-year-term president ahead a huge, centralized "federal" government might not be at all the best thing to do, one of the many anachronisms of the US system left-over from the time it took weeks to get a message from New England to Florida, etc.
I'm reminded also of this: The Civil War is also called the War Between the States, and for a good reason, namely that states were considered sovereign. State sovereignty, and the US being a union of sovereign states, is a pretense now long-abandoned.
Almost all the men who served under arms in 1861-65, and in other conflicts large and small through most of US history, were raised by their states and reported to their governors as commander-in-chief, not to the US president. The governors would loan the units to United States federal service (or Confederate States service for those four years). There are very weak echoes of that today, but that's how it was. The tradition was only really finally broken by the US move to world-leadership superpower status in the 1940s. The previous tradition held from ca. the 1620s to 1930s.
On the position of the US presidency itself:
One wonders whether we need it at all, as understood.
The governors might best be sovereign, rather than mere provincial satraps serving one or the other mega, continent-wide political machine.
Big ideas are needed. Replacing a four-year-term president ahead a huge, centralized "federal" government might not be at all the best thing to do, one of the many anachronisms of the US system left-over from the time it took weeks to get a message from New England to Florida, etc.
I'm reminded also of this: The Civil War is also called the War Between the States, and for a good reason, namely that states were considered sovereign. State sovereignty, and the US being a union of sovereign states, is a pretense now long-abandoned.
Almost all the men who served under arms in 1861-65, and in other conflicts large and small through most of US history, were raised by their states and reported to their governors as commander-in-chief, not to the US president. The governors would loan the units to United States federal service (or Confederate States service for those four years). There are very weak echoes of that today, but that's how it was. The tradition was only really finally broken by the US move to world-leadership superpower status in the 1940s. The previous tradition held from ca. the 1620s to 1930s.
Hail
Saturday - July 18th 2020 10:12AM MST
PS
I was looking forward to voting for Kanye as a protest/joke vote against Blompf.
I lean towards thinking Biden would be better. The chance of an amnesty under a second-term Trump looks very high, with opposition disempowered because the system R-teamers have lined up behind him.
I was looking forward to voting for Kanye as a protest/joke vote against Blompf.
I lean towards thinking Biden would be better. The chance of an amnesty under a second-term Trump looks very high, with opposition disempowered because the system R-teamers have lined up behind him.
Adam Smith
Saturday - July 18th 2020 10:10AM MST
PS: https://s.faketrumptweet.com/kcrta8ld_1hkihd9_j6s7df.png
☮
☮
Adam Smith
Saturday - July 18th 2020 8:01AM MST
PS: Good morning Robert, Mr. Moderator...
Sometimes I tell people that Nixon was a "radical leftist" when compared to Obama or Clinton. Most of those people look at me like I'm speaking gibberish.
Industrial Society and its Future...
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1ac5/ae3a279a5833cf83fb320cd77e9010769c63.pdf
http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdf
Unintended Consequences...
https://billstclair.com/Unintended-Consequences.pdf
Rules for Radicals...
https://ia800309.us.archive.org/30/items/RulesForRadicals/RulesForRadicals.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/file/dreaitcjhbz2o1f/Rules_for_Radicals_-_Saul_Alinsky_-_OCR.pdf/file
Cannibals All...
https://ia902704.us.archive.org/31/items/cannibalsallorsll00fitz/cannibalsallorsll00fitz.pdf
https://ia800608.us.archive.org/11/items/DKC0149/DKC_0149.pdf
The Turner Diaries...
http://www.mediafire.com/file/y9jt1qyzdzidwds/The_Turner_Diaries_-_Andrew_MacDonald_%2528William_Pierce%2529.pdf/file
And because so many people seem to be talking about this lately...
http://www.mediafire.com/file/rp8nh31pfhuuj7j/The_Camp_Of_The_Saints_-_Jean_Raspail_%25281973%2529.pdf/file
☮
Sometimes I tell people that Nixon was a "radical leftist" when compared to Obama or Clinton. Most of those people look at me like I'm speaking gibberish.
Industrial Society and its Future...
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1ac5/ae3a279a5833cf83fb320cd77e9010769c63.pdf
http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdf
Unintended Consequences...
https://billstclair.com/Unintended-Consequences.pdf
Rules for Radicals...
https://ia800309.us.archive.org/30/items/RulesForRadicals/RulesForRadicals.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/file/dreaitcjhbz2o1f/Rules_for_Radicals_-_Saul_Alinsky_-_OCR.pdf/file
Cannibals All...
https://ia902704.us.archive.org/31/items/cannibalsallorsll00fitz/cannibalsallorsll00fitz.pdf
https://ia800608.us.archive.org/11/items/DKC0149/DKC_0149.pdf
The Turner Diaries...
http://www.mediafire.com/file/y9jt1qyzdzidwds/The_Turner_Diaries_-_Andrew_MacDonald_%2528William_Pierce%2529.pdf/file
And because so many people seem to be talking about this lately...
http://www.mediafire.com/file/rp8nh31pfhuuj7j/The_Camp_Of_The_Saints_-_Jean_Raspail_%25281973%2529.pdf/file
☮
Moderator
Saturday - July 18th 2020 6:22AM MST
PS: Is the Unibomber's manifesto on-line somewhere, Robert? I thought I may have read part of it some years ago. I have read the Ross book, right out of the library. I just checked - NOPE, no John Ross "Unintended Consequences", just 3 other books with the same name.
Yeah, and "Rules for Radicals" was just fine for the 1960s, when the radicals were left-wingers against the Establishment. The Establishment IS the left now, so NO, Robert, that book is NOT OKAY.
There's a commenter with the handle Digital Samizdat on unz that writes mostly good comments. We're definitely going to have to go in that direction, digital samizdat, if it means what I think it does.
Thanks for the interesting comments as usual, Robert.
Yeah, and "Rules for Radicals" was just fine for the 1960s, when the radicals were left-wingers against the Establishment. The Establishment IS the left now, so NO, Robert, that book is NOT OKAY.
There's a commenter with the handle Digital Samizdat on unz that writes mostly good comments. We're definitely going to have to go in that direction, digital samizdat, if it means what I think it does.
Thanks for the interesting comments as usual, Robert.
Moderator
Saturday - July 18th 2020 6:13AM MST
PS: Robert, I go back to Calvin Coolidge as an example of an Administrator of the Executive Branch per the US Consitution Article II. I will have to read more on his attempt to reign in the FBI and CIA. It seems like one never gets very far in trying to do this.
Regarding your 1st postscript, I agree completely. I have not much good to say about the man.
(I like your spelling of "Damne Commies", but I didn't know if that was to avoid a filter. There is no filter on cusswords here as there is on other commenting systems - OK this one is not even a "system", per se. I'm sure you can tell that same goes for the posts, haha.)
Regarding your 1st postscript, I agree completely. I have not much good to say about the man.
(I like your spelling of "Damne Commies", but I didn't know if that was to avoid a filter. There is no filter on cusswords here as there is on other commenting systems - OK this one is not even a "system", per se. I'm sure you can tell that same goes for the posts, haha.)
Robert
Saturday - July 18th 2020 12:19AM MST
PS: Sorry to hijack this thread (well, not really).
I currently have:
Cannibals All.
The Turner Dairies.
Unintended Consequences.
The Unabomber Manifesto (Washington Post).
The Mosque of Notra Dame.
Rules for Radicals.
and a couple of others I can not bring to mind at the moment.
I used to have an "original" photocopy 'the SCUM Manifesto', but I lost that to a hard-core lesbian who turned me on to 'On our Backs', which I also lost a couple of moves ago.
What else should I get while I still can?
I currently have:
Cannibals All.
The Turner Dairies.
Unintended Consequences.
The Unabomber Manifesto (Washington Post).
The Mosque of Notra Dame.
Rules for Radicals.
and a couple of others I can not bring to mind at the moment.
I used to have an "original" photocopy 'the SCUM Manifesto', but I lost that to a hard-core lesbian who turned me on to 'On our Backs', which I also lost a couple of moves ago.
What else should I get while I still can?
Robert
Friday - July 17th 2020 11:45PM MST
PS: My impression is that Nixon was the last President that acted as if he were the Administrator of the Executive Branch. But, his attempts to reign in the excesses of the FBI and CIA led to a 'Silent Coupe' (an excellent book even if they got the identity of Deep Throat wrong.) For good and ill, our current President is both far dumber and far wilier.
P.S. Other than being anti-Commie, Nixon should be a left-wing hero. Donor to the United Negro College Fund. OSHA, EPA, Desegregation/Busing, China, nuclear arms treaties, national wilderness areas. Madame Clinton's Health Care was largely based on Nixon's ideas.
P.P.S. Don't vote. As the Revolutionary Communist Party used to say, 'If voting could change anything, they would make it illegal.' Damne Commies got that right, at least.
The elections are not even as meaningful as college football. (Which do, after all, require some talent and even use of that talent.)
Personal, and local, action only counts.
P.S. Other than being anti-Commie, Nixon should be a left-wing hero. Donor to the United Negro College Fund. OSHA, EPA, Desegregation/Busing, China, nuclear arms treaties, national wilderness areas. Madame Clinton's Health Care was largely based on Nixon's ideas.
P.P.S. Don't vote. As the Revolutionary Communist Party used to say, 'If voting could change anything, they would make it illegal.' Damne Commies got that right, at least.
The elections are not even as meaningful as college football. (Which do, after all, require some talent and even use of that talent.)
Personal, and local, action only counts.
"The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;"
"when called into" to me, anyway, seems like that had been done by Congress. True, the words "Declaration of War" does not occur here.