Do anything he wants

Some of the blogs and Twitter feeds I follow (and quote) are saying some dire things about the shutdown and the state of the country. It is much more than a dispute between the nasty guy and the Democrats.

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos notes that Americans conclusively demonstrated that they support Democrats and do not support the nasty guy, do not support his wall, do not support the direction he is taking the nation, and do not support his vision of autocracy.

And that’s exactly what makes the second week of January 2019 such a pivotal moment. Because Trump isn’t listening to the result of that vote. He isn’t negotiating with the new Democratic majority in the House. He isn’t pulling back or calming down. He’s going for broke. Or broken.

If Donald Trump does what at this moment seems almost certain—declares a national emergency over his inability to push Congress into giving him exactly what he wants—it’s wrong to think of it as a token victory, soon to be repealed by the courts. Or a limited action, allowing Trump to save face on one of the fist-pounding slogans of his campaign.

It’s precisely because “the wall” is so pointless, so needless, so much a non-starter that any declaration of a national emergency on that basis is so dreadful. Such a declaration will *fundamentally alter* the balance between Congress and the White House, putting America into territory that we have never experienced.

To summarize, if the nasty guy declares a national emergency and if Congress doesn’t cut him off (which is rather difficult for Congress to do and more difficult because of GOP senators who support him) then the nasty guy has shown he can do anything he wants and is not constrained by anyone or anything. He has shown us what he wants – to impose and enforce misogyny and white supremacy. He would be a dictator.

David Greenwald, in a Twitter thread, reminds us the nasty guy has already been shrinking the government by intentionally not filling all positions. This has been a story since the start of his term in office and hasn’t gotten much notice for about a year. And now, because of a lack of paychecks, federal workers will quit. They probably won’t be replaced. Greenwald concludes:

If you were undertaking a foreign-backed fascist coup of the American government, you would try to shut down as much of it as possible for as long as possible while ramming through your partisan judges to break the legal system and maintain your criminally obtained power.

This is worst-case scenario stuff but it's also just what's happening.

Sarah Kendzior, in another Twitter thread, responds to Rep. Elijah Cummings, who noted that the shutdown is affecting the Census Bureau, who is preparing for the 2020 census, on which federal funding of communities depends.

Pay attention to the long-term, cumulative damage of the shutdown, including the effect on the census.

The Trump admin has long sought to manipulate the census in an effort to reallocate resources and annihilate rights. This isn't just a shutdown -- it's a hostile restructuring.

I warned from the start that this was a deliberate plan. There are some things we may be able to recover: voter rights, jobs. There are others we may lose forever -- like some of our national parks. And most importantly, we lose lives. The admin kills, the shutdown accelerates.

The scope of loss from the shutdown is staggering. Already we lost FDA inspection; FBI and TSA protection from terrorism and violent crime; food stamps for needy families; paychecks for desperate workers; the national parks system…

It's unsustainable and that's the point.

By “from the start” Kendzior refers to what she has been saying since before the 2016 election.

In another thread Kendzior adds:

GOP has long sought to privatize federal industries and profit off the pain of citizen deprivation. What makes Trump distinct is his loathing of the USA and deference to hostile foreign states. His goal is to strip the country for parts and sell it to international kleptocrats.

It's irrelevant to Trump whether the US continues to exist. That is what distinguishes him from GOP predecessors.

But the GOP has increasingly moved toward Trump's perspective -- toward a globalised fascism where the nation-state is subsumed by international criminal elites.

Jen Hayden of Daily Kos wonders why the border wall is a national emergency. Rep. Mo Brooks says it is because of 15,000 Americans dying at the wall each year. Never mind that number is almost surely made up. And never mind that Brooks objected to Obama’s use of executive orders. One wonders if it has been a problem of this magnitude why didn’t the GOP controlled Congress do something before now? And if 15,000 at the border are a national emergency why aren’t the 40,000 who die every year through gun violence a national emergency?

I noted above one difficulty in opposing a national emergency is support from the GOP. But that support has slipped a bit. Senators are worried about a future President Kamela Harris invoking a national emergency to lessen those 40,000 gun deaths a year. Or President Harris declaring a national emergency over climate change. Or demanding transgender bathrooms be built in every elementary school in America.

Shh, don’t tell these GOP critters that if the nasty guy succeeds, there won’t be any future presidents.