Well done USA electors!

zombie · November 6

MAGA=

Make America Gay Again

Londoner · November 6

The inmates are now running the asylum.

Marc308 · November 6

I sincerely hope you are not serious, Zombie! I have a nephew who is trans, and he is suffering severe anxiety.

sydneyboy1 · November 7

Trump for 4 more years. Unimaginably horrible and atrocious.

zombie · November 7

5 hours ago, Marc308 said:

I sincerely hope you are not serious, Zombie! I have a nephew who is trans, and he is suffering severe anxiety.

No I was not being serious in the sense when i made the post it was clear to me who was going to win so I headed the post sarcastically

'Well done USA electors!"

(note the exclamation mark... I really meant the opposite)

-then I increased the sarcasm by saying Make American Gay Again.

Being from a British background sarcasm is part of our culture....

I am truly sorry to learn of your nephew's anxiety. Stay safe.

And remember the UK also has a lot of idiots when it comes to voting...look what happened when they were asked to vote for Brexit...

.....Take Care.

Keithambrose · November 7

6 hours ago, zombie said:

No I was not being serious in the sense when i made the post it was clear to me who was going to win so I headed the post sarcastically

'Well done USA electors!"

(note the exclamation mark... I really meant the opposite)

-then I increased the sarcasm by saying Make American Gay Again.

Being from a British background sarcasm is part of our culture....

I am truly sorry to learn of your nephew's anxiety. Stay safe.

And remember the UK also has a lot of idiots when it comes to voting...look what happened when they were asked to vote for Brexit...

.....Take Care.

Being British, I understood the sarcasm, or perhaps irony! When my law firm merged with an American firm, we had to learn a new language!

How right you are about Brexit

kram987 · November 11

I'm American got it and scrolled on as I was just not ready.

Olddaddy · November 11

Americans seem to be infatuated with politics unlike Aussies who some wouldn't even know who the PM is 😳

reader · November 11

Two major issues propelled Trump to then White House: inflation and immigration. Voters will soon find that there’s nothing he can do to improve the former and his plans for tariffs could likely make it worse.

Mega employers of foreign workers (who were big time Trump supporters) are already influencing him to tread lightly around their industries and concentrate on issues at the border and in big cities that are mostly in blue states.

Keithambrose · November 11

3 minutes ago, reader said:

Two major issues propelled Trump to then White House: inflation and immigration. Voters will soon find that there’s nothing he can do to improve the former and his plans for tariffs could likely make it worse.

Mega employers of foreign workers (who were big time Trump supporters) are already influencing him to tread lightly around their industries and concentrate on issues at the border and in big cities that are mostly in blue states.

And I suspect that Republicans who use illegals to do their domestic work, etc, will be vocal. I don't think the California fruit industry can survive without these workers.

reader · November 11

Agree about domestics, Most of the Mexican farm workers are here legally on agricultural work contracts.

Keithambrose · November 11

50 minutes ago, reader said:

Agree about domestics, Most of the Mexican farm workers are here legally on agricultural work contracts.

OK, but when I saw a programme recently, about the California fruit workers, they were very evasive about permits. I any event, either way, I am sure they are exploited!

reader · November 11

42 minutes ago, Keithambrose said:

OK, but when I saw a programme recently, about the California fruit workers, they were very evasive about permits. I any event, either way, I am sure they are exploited!

I said most California farm workers were here on permits but certainly not all. A very similar situation applies to foreigners working in Thai construction and food processing industries (some on permits and some exploited illegally). Consider the places we frequent on our visits. 🫢

caeron · November 11

Morons always love demagogues.

Since they're morons, they don't know or care about how voting strong men into leadership ends.

New batch of 'undesirables', same old playbook.

Keithambrose · November 11

19 minutes ago, reader said:

I said most California farm workers were here on permits but certainly not all. A very similar situation applies to foreigners working in Thai construction and food processing industries (some on permits and some exploited illegally). Consider the places we frequent on our visits. 🫢

We have a different situation in UK. Brexit fans said that all these foreigners were taking jobs from the English. Take back our jobs, etc. Guess what, after Brexit, none of the English people would do the unskilled, low paid nasty jobs. What a surprise.

sydneyboy1 · November 11

I read an article in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald which quoted an immigration research organisation as stating that to deport all undocumented immigrants from the United States as promised by Trump would cost upwards of $US315 billion. His argument is that you can’t put a cost on such an “important “ policy. The cost, the practicalities, the drain on the labour market, humanitarian considerations are all factors that will come home to roost.

Keithambrose · November 11

6 minutes ago, caeron said:

Morons always love demagogues.

Since they're morons, they don't know or care about how voting strong men into leadership ends.

New batch of 'undesirables', same old playbook.

There are worrying parallels with Germany in the 30s. Some of the Trump background guys have studied the Goebbels playbook.

reader · November 11

28 minutes ago, Keithambrose said:

We have a different situation in UK. Brexit fans said that all these foreigners were taking jobs from the English. Take back our jobs, etc. Guess what, after Brexit, none of the English people would do the unskilled, low paid nasty jobs. What a surprise.

And there are relatively few US citizens who’ll work in undesirable, low wage jobs in food processing. Trump knows that and will do what his backers tell him. There will be a big push to empower local police to check for status of anyone they stop for questioning and turn illegals over to Immigration authorities. Some states, however, prohibit this practice.The 2025 proposals see a way around this and it will end up before SCOTUS.

Trump claims he wants to deploy federal troops to facilitate deportation but here he runs directly into the face of the “Posse Comitatus Act,” legislation originally enacted after Civil War to limit powers of government to interfere with states rights. It has even been strengthened over time and remains a cherished law, particularly in red states.

The Posse Comitatus Act bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement except when expressly authorized by law. This 143-year-old law embodies an American tradition that sees military interference in civilian affairs as a threat to both democracy and personal liberty. However, recent events have revealed dangerous gaps in the law’s coverage that Congress must address.

What does the term “posse comitatus” mean?

In British and American law, a posse comitatus is a group of people who are mobilized by the sheriff to suppress lawlessness in the county. In any classic Western film, when a lawman gathers a “posse” to pursue the outlaws, they are forming a posse comitatus. The Posse Comitatus Act is so named because one of the things it prohibits is using soldiers rather than civilians as a posse comitatus.

What are the origins of the Posse Comitatus Act?

The Posse Comitatus Act was passed in 1878, after the end of Reconstruction and the return of white supremacists to political power in both southern states and Congress. Through the law, Congress sought to ensure that the federal military would not be used to intervene in the establishment of Jim Crow in the former Confederacy.

Despite the ignominious origins of the law itself, the broader principle that the military should not be allowed to interfere in the affairs of civilian government is a core American value. It finds expression in the Constitution’s division of power over the military between Congress and the president, and in the guarantees of the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, which were in part reactions to abuses committed by the British army against American colonists.

Today, the Posse Comitatus Act operates as an extension of these constitutional safeguards. Moreover, there are statutory exceptions to the law that allow the president to use the military to suppress genuine rebellions and to enforce federal civil rights laws.

What does the Posse Comitatus Act say?

The Posse Comitatus Act consists of just one sentence: “Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

In practice, this means that members of the military who are subject to the law may not participate in civilian law enforcement unless doing so is expressly authorized by a statute or the Constitution.

Are all members of the military covered by the Posse Comitatus Act?

No, only federal military personnel are covered. While the Posse Comitatus Act refers only to the Army and Air Force, a different statute extends the same rule to the Navy and Marine Corps. The Coast Guard, though part of the federal armed forces, has express statutory authority to perform law enforcement and is not bound by the Posse Comitatus Act.

Members of the National Guard are rarely covered by the Posse Comitatus Act because they usually report to their state or territory’s governor. That means they are free to participate in law enforcement if doing so is consistent with state law. However, when Guard personnel are called into federal service, or “federalized,” they become part of the federal armed forces, which means they are bound by the Posse Comitatus Act until they are returned to state control.

What are the main statutory exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act?

There are many statutory exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act, but the most important one is the Insurrection Act. Under this law, in response to a state government’s request, the president may deploy the military to suppress an insurrection in that state. In addition, the Insurrection Act allows the president — with or without the state government’s consent — to use the military to enforce federal law or suppress a rebellion against federal authority in a state, or to protect a group of people’s civil rights when the state government is unable or unwilling to do so.

What are the constitutional exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act?

There are no constitutional exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act. The law allows only for express exceptions, and no part of the Constitution expressly empowers the president to use the military to execute the law. This conclusion is consistent with the law’s legislative history, which suggests that its drafters chose to include the language about constitutional exceptions as part of a face-saving compromise, not because they believed any existed.

This has not stopped the Department of Defense from claiming that constitutional exceptions to the law exist. The Department has long claimed that the Constitution implicitly gives military commanders “emergency authority” to unilaterally use federal troops “to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances” when doing so is “necessary” and prior authorization by the president is impossible. In the past, the department also claimed an inherent constitutional power to use the military to protect federal property and functions when local governments could not or would not do so. The validity of these claimed authorities has never been tested in court.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/posse-comitatus-act-explained

caeron · November 11

1 hour ago, Keithambrose said:

There are worrying parallels with Germany in the 30s. Some of the Trump background guys have studied the Goebbels playbook.

Obvious to any of us with even a lick of history.

Tantric · November 11

Don‘t believe the hype. Yes, immigration and the economy were often cited as the reason for electing a 🤡/felon. In reality, the underlying reason was often related to preservation of a perceived national identity, racism and misogyny.

12is12 · November 11

I think the main motivation of his base is his cry "I am your revenge".

These deplorables r fueled by resentment.

sydneyboy1 · November 12

18 hours ago, caeron said:

Obvious to any of us with even a lick of history.

Let’s not forget in an earlier saner moment JD Vance called Trump a fascist and another Hitler.

reader · November 12

It’s the revenge of of the anti-liberals. Presidential elections—like the World Cup—come every four years and payback’s a bitch.

vinapu · November 12

5 hours ago, 12is12 said:

I think the main motivation of his base is his cry "I am your revenge".

These deplorables r fueled by resentment.

+1

vinapu · November 12

Every law or treaty is only good as the will to upheld it so I wouldn't be too attached to statutes. See abortion rights in USA. No revolution ot coup d'etat was legal yet plenty of them were successfull. Dismantling of USSR was illegal too and here we are.