Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/13/no-president-the-despair.html
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This includes the proliferation of executive orders that have the force of law. Executive orders make the President not merely someone presiding over a tripartite government but a premodern monarch or führer.
Yeah, like you cared about that before last election day. Points deducted for Godwinizing, too.
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If I didn’t know better I’d assume you must be new around here.
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Not talking to you. Talking to the author of the article.
It’s somewhat consoling though to consider that opposition to government by executive order will be patriotic again in thirty eight days.
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Then send him an email. He probably isn’t reading this thread, but we are, as you well know.
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Cory posted countless articles warning about the dangers of Executive power during the Obama administration. It’s not his fault if you weren’t paying attention.
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Hey at least Ben Carson’s in charge of HUD. Because, you know, neurosurgeons are great at running large federal agencies. At least most of the other appointees have actual experience running something.
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The thing they all seem to have in common is their wild inappropriateness for the position - now with Rick Perry getting Energy, how many of the appointees have expressed personal ambition to do away with the department they’ll be in charge of?
It’s mind boggling.
Maybe it’s the media I read (probably it’s the media I read?), but I haven’t seen one story about how Drumpf is planning to make things better. The cavalcade is purely “this guy is a complete fucking disaster, and every new day just brings fresh disasters. And he hasn’t even been sworn in yet!”
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Still expecting Howard Stern to be the next White House Press Secretary
_(Looks like a pussy grab block by Howard)_
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It’s all fun and flag-waving until you realize it can hit yourself … then it’s too late and Trump president.
I keep being reminded of Trevor Noah’s comparison to african dictators. One of the biggest obstacles to over-throwing a dictatorship isn’t the dictator himself, but rather the weak or even non-existent government institutions.
Dictators wreck institutions as a way to concentrate power in their hands. That makes it easy enough to topple a dictator, he’s a single point of failure. But it makes recovering from a dictatorship immensely difficult. It may be why the arab spring has fared so poorly - ousting the dictators was the easy part, replacing them with a functional non-dictator based government without the aid of pre-existing institutions is practically impossible. They end up just falling back into dictatorship again.
I see this pattern of appointees that want to weaken or even outright end their departments as Trump trying to concentrate power in his presidency. Even if that’s not what he is consciously doing, the result is likely to be the same.
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What should have been a joke has become a danger. Call him Adolf Twittler.
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As well as non-governmental institutions such as a free and independent press. Trump has successfully eroded public trust in the media to the point where a huge portion of Americans lack the ability or even the desire to tell credible information from pure fiction, and a functional democracy can’t exist without an informed populace.
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I’ve always chuckled mildly at the jokes, but it turns out they’re telling the truth: he really does have smaller than usual hands.
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Edited to add: oh crap. I read too fast again. I thought the Wiki article was referencing 9/11 when it was actually about Bin Laden’s death. My mistake, so I’m deleting my little rant.
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Agreed. This makes me laugh every time!
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I am so going to miss Obama and having a grown-up in the oval office.
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