Trump's unhinged tweeting got him elected, and it's costing him in court, bigly

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/16/dog-whistles-bite-back.html

6 Likes

Reading about this on the Guardian this morning, I got the “What If” anxieties about this outcome of the case. I kept thinking, “what if he hadn’t been so unhinged? Would there not have been a basis to challenge something like this? Really?” but then I realized that Trump is doing this all for show, all for ratings, so he couldn’t, or wouldn’t have ever not blabbed about it. Because the true purpose was rabble rousing, and you can’t rouse rabble without big talk.

If all you want to do is treat Muslims as second class citizens for “security reasons” without causing (as big of) a fuss, you go the Obama route of secret surveillance, quiet deportation orders and “surgical” strikes. That isn’t to say that I don’t think Trump is truly worse. If one (cynically) sees the treatment of Muslims in America as somewhat inevitably abusive, a roused rabble egged on by a madman is more dangerous than a cruel but smooth operator. Though there is that quotation (someone help me here, my google-fu fails me) about a democracy given permission to go to war by it’s people being more dangerous than a totalitarian state…

28 Likes

#petard #hoisted

23 Likes

people know or can find out what the rules are

smart people work with the rules and win

who works against and despite the rules and whines when they lose? - pathetic spoiled whiny losers

5 Likes

49 Likes

Man, I didn’t realise Trump blinks so much.

19 Likes

Don’t report on what I said, report on what I wanted you to think I meant. Sad! Crooked! Failing!

26 Likes

:wink:

12 Likes

This would all be so much easier for Donald if he could just rule by dictatorial fiat.

20 Likes

Exactly. Trump still thinks this is a game show. I’m only surprised that he didn’t announce that there would be a TV program to take a group of dysfunctional narcissists and choose by elimination the one that would get to be his VP. Or perhaps I missed something and that’s what he did.

9 Likes

For many this is exactly what they do want. They do not understand nor realize the effect it will have.

8 Likes

Maybe not. But suppose we were in that situation. Suppose the federal government had grave concerns about people from a number of countries. Perhaps intelligence indicated they were specifically training sleeper agents to try to get into western countries via immigration and refugee claims.

I’d still say you shouldn’t stop taking refugees, and there is an international convention on refugees that the US has signed. But setting that aside, it seems entirely within the right of the government to consider country of origin a factor in immigration. I think courts would weigh the stated goals against the harms done and come up with a ruling, and that ruling would certainly tilt more towards allowed executive orders that weren’t racist on their face.

The reason why something is being done matters. Something that has the effect of disadvantaging a group of people is legally seen very differently than something that is done with the intent to disadvantage a group of people.

Could a person who is deeply racist or deeply islamophobic put on a false face and intentionally discriminate while fooling everyone? Maybe if they were really, really great at deception and at crafting laws just so. But as you say, who is this person? A selfless, racist master-manipulator doing what is necessary to heroically (in their own mind) save the US from Muslims without seeking an iota of credit for doing so? That doesn’t sound very plausible (but then it wouldn’t would it?!?).

7 Likes

Advisor: "Mr. President, you need to be more circumspect in your remarks."
POTUS: “I didn’t say anything about foreskins.”

26 Likes

More like: "You have to be more circumspect in your remarks."
POTUS immediately tweets: “Obama behind huge increase in botched circumcisions. Literally killing men. BAD!”

23 Likes

#hepetardsisted

7 Likes

He did campaign to be the CEO and majority shareholder of the USA; he thought that that was the job description.

7 Likes

I don’t know why these vids don’t start including mouths on both nostrils and both ears.

5 Likes

Resolution.

3 Likes

Seconded :grey_exclamation:

5 Likes

Good. Now its time to take quite literally his Podium request to Russia to Hack his opponent.

2 Likes