We Need To Talk About Donald

[Brian Peacock]

Trumps authoritarian dystopia.

]https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... -passwords

'Extreme vetting' would require visitors to US to share contacts and passwords ...

They have 'extreme vetting' in Wales, though it means something completely different there and usually involves a cliff edge, a pair of braces, and a rectal thermometer.

I expect that US citizens will soon have to pledge allegiance to the President And Our Glorious First Family before baseball matches.

[pErvinalia]

Trumps authoritarian dystopia.

]https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... -passwords

'Extreme vetting' would require visitors to US to share contacts and passwords ...

They have 'extreme vetting' in Wales, though it means something completely different there and usually involves a cliff edge, a pair of braces, and a rectal thermometer.

[Scot Dutchy]

Pot heads from the UK...

Not that many these days. Few coffee shops still open.

[DRSB]

What's to see anyway?

It looks like a stunning country in terms of natural scenery. I'd love to visit there, if it wasn't for some of the people that inhabit the place.

I know many people that have lived there and fled. Very annoying to be constantly confronted with the question "What church do you go to?"

[Tero]

The Atheists go to the Unitarian church. It's theonly one that allows abortion. Probably has a apecial hymn for it.

[Animavore]

Authoritarian government is authoritarian.

or nearly 25 years, the federal government has been investigating police departments for patterns of unconstitutional policing, and compelling them to reform through court-enforced agreements.

Now, in one of his first acts as attorney general, Jeff Sessions seems poised to abandon the only tool that the federal government has to force structural change in troubled departments.

“It is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies,” he wrote in the April 3 memo calling for a comprehensive review of the department’s police reform programs. The review will include current and pending reform agreements, known as consent decrees.

Sessions said he wanted to ensure the agreements don’t conflict with the Trump administration’s priorities, which include protecting the public, promoting officer safety, morale and public respect for their work; and respecting civil rights. He added that the “misdeeds of individual bad actors” shouldn’t be used to undermine officers or agencies, and that local departments were best placed to implement best policing practices.

The memo quickly raised alarm among former officials who have worked on reform efforts.

“It is troubling that the attorney general is taking the position that the role of the DOJ is not to ensure that local law enforcement complies with the Constitution,” said Jonathan Smith, a former section chief in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/artic ... al-reform/

[JimC]

Nick is heading over there soon, for a week, to see his US girlfriend. I'll be interested in his impressions when he comes back, since he was there in the pre-Trump era last year...

[Brian Peacock]

On the policing matter. Policing policy should be a federal government issue. The US citizen needs to know that regardless of where they live or where they travel to policing will be consistent in administration and practice. I can see the point of devolving this to the state level - it cuts a certain amount of cost and disentangles an administration from the responsibility of maintaining an active watch on policing policy. However, consistency in the administration of the judicial system, from policing to the courts, is one of those golden rules which stops regions, or areas within regions, becoming authoritarian fiefdoms. The US is not served well by clinging to this Wild West mentality.

Oh, and I see Bannon has stepped down || been booted off National Security Council, apparently at the instigation of its chair, HR McMaster. I found out something interesting about Bannon today...

[Animavore]

Bannon has lots of - interesting views.

Worry about him.

[pErvinalia]

Rick Perry is on the NSC now.

[DRSB]

Lenin was a mutant with brain condition.

"An autopsy revealed a near total obstruction of the arteries leading to the brain, some of which were narrowed to tiny slits. But Lenin did not have some of the traditional risk factors for strokes."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/healt ... ctors.html

[Brian Peacock]

We're all mutants I'm afraid. The scarey thing is that Bannon thinks his death-seeker mutation is normal.

[Svartalf]

it's anosognosia, a very common feature of mental diseases, refusing to acknowledge that you are ill.

[Animavore]

Can't link on this device, but it turns out Trump's wall will involve a massive land grab, much of it his own supporters. One supporter found out the wall would leave her on the side of Mexico.

I guarantee that wall ain't happening. Another failed promise.

[Brian Peacock]

How many meters of wall have been built so far? I haven't been keeping up with that issue, but I know work was starting on DAY ONE!!!