The non-SOTU

President Donald Trump will address a joint session of Congress Tuesday (6pm Pacific) in a speech that will not technically be a State of the Union address.

It comes amid a flurry of actions implemented by the Trump administration targeting immigrants without legal status in the United States, diversity, equity and inclusion policies, federal layoffs, tariffs, and more.

Tuesday’s speech is not an official State of the Union address because Trump was sworn into office less than two months ago.

  USA Today

 So...there won't be a televised Democrat's response.  See how that works?

Like it would matter if there was...

JFC!  I'm with Mehdi.

He's yours, Virginia.  

And, another thing...

Tariffs - renegotiating with Mexico and Canada

The Trump administration has no intention of doing anything about the guns.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 12:07 pm:

Insanity.  At this point, if (it won't happen) Canadians wanted to become our 51st state, they'd vote against Trump when the next election came along.  And what would become of the various provinces?  I guess that's for Canada to sort out.

What a fucking numbskull POS.

Anything he can take credit for, he will.  The rest, he'll blame on someone else.

And the stock market is short-circuiting, I expect.

It is not going to get better, folks

President Trump declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday, invoking special presidential powers that allow him to unilaterally unlock federal funding for border wall construction and potentially to deploy the military and National Guard to the border.

[...]

During Mr. Trump’s first term, the military only supported immigration authorities but did not apprehend migrants. Mr. Trump now directed the Defense Department to come up with a plan in 30 days “to seal the borders and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion, including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.”

[...]

As he did in his first term, Mr. Trump relied on the National Emergencies Act, a post-Watergate law that allows the president to declare a national emergency, which enhances his executive powers. The act was intended to enable the federal government to respond quickly to a crisis by creating exemptions to rules that would normally constrain the president.

[...]

Congress is limited in what it can do to stop a president from using his emergency powers. Under the National Emergencies Act, the House and the Senate can pass a joint resolution to end the emergency status if they believe that the president is acting irresponsibly or the threat has dissipated. The law says that if one chamber passes such a measure, the other must bring it up in 18 days.

But Republicans control both chambers of Congress, making it extremely unlikely that Mr. Trump would face pushback from the legislative branch.

[...]

The border has also been particularly calm in recent days, especially when compared with the numbers seen a year ago, a development that could undermine Mr. Trump’s assertion that an emergency exists. But that might not matter.

  NYT

Correction: that WILL NOT matter.

Mitch McConnell and the Supreme Court are 100% culpable.  But they couldn't have done what they have without a citizenry that went along.

UPDATE 12:27 pm:

UPDATE 01/22/2025:

"Blue state governors won’t save us, but they can help"

A number of blue state governors have stated clearly their intention to protect their residents from Trump depredations.

In doing so, they’ve also underlined that state Democratic strength has grown since 2016 — which is one of the few concrete ways we are better prepared for Trump now than then.

One of the most vocal blue state governors to promise anti-MAGA measures has been JB Pritzker of Illinois. In a combative news conference last Thursday, Pritzker warned Trump and MAGA, “To anyone who intends to come take away the freedom and opportunity and dignity of Illinoisans: I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior.”

“You come for my people, you come through me,” he concluded.

[...]

Illinois has taken a range of measures to shore up protections for vulnerable groups since Pritzker won the governor’s race in 2018. The state passed a law in 2023 shielding abortion recipients from civil or criminal discovery and from extradition to other states. The same law ensured that insurance in Illinois would cover abortion medication and gender-affirming care, and also strengthened protections for IVF.

Pritzker also signed legislation making it easier for trans people to change the gender on their birth certificates without medical certification. And the state passed laws to provide for foster provisions and guardianship for children of immigrants arrested or deported by ICE.


Now the Illinois governor is working on plans to try to limit the damage from Trump going forward. He and staffers have been studying Trump’s Project 2025 plan for the next four years. In the 2025 legislative session, Pritzker plans to pass additional legislation to protect the identity of abortion refugees and to try to safeguard access to the abortion pill mifepristone. He’s also looking into ways to shore up environmental regulations.

Perhaps most pressingly, Pritzker says he has been in touch with other Democratic governors to discuss Project 2025 plans to withhold police grants from blue states that refuse to participate in mass deportation. Prizker said that such actions would be “illegal” and promised to oppose them in court.
  Public Notice

Up until the Supreme Court, I have faith. When it gets there, though, I have none.

Pritzker’s actions are being mirrored in other blue states. Gavin Newsom in California has called a special legislative session to provide more funds for the state attorney general’s office to challenge Trump measures on abortion, the environment, gun control, union dues, and more. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York AG Letitia James said they would increase coordination between their offices to “protect New Yorkers’ fundamental freedoms from any potential threats.” Washington state AG Bob Ferguson tweeted that the state had been “working for months to prepare for another Trump term,” going through Project 2025 “line by line” to address “unconstitutional assaults on your reproductive rights, access to health care, and civil rights.”

[...]

Democrats have also slowly gained ground in North Carolina and Wisconsin. The 2024 election broke the legislative supermajorities in both states, meaning the Democratic governors there can block rabid MAGA legislation.

Continue reading.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 08:29 am:

UPDATE 11/16/2024:

Trump’s new Border Czar and Kids in Cages architect Tom Homan went on Don Jr’s podcast last night and was asked what we could expect from him on his first day in office. Homan responded, “Shock and awe.”

  Meidas Touch

"The Border Czar"

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 11/12/2024:

Exactly what you'd expect from the guy Trump would pick for the job.

UPDATE 11/12/2024 10:21 am:

UPDATE 11/16/2024:

Trump’s new Border Czar and Kids in Cages architect Tom Homan went on Don Jr’s podcast last night and was asked what we could expect from him on his first day in office. Homan responded, “Shock and awe.”

  Meidas Touch

Executive order on the border

Today, the Biden Administration has announced that it is taking significant executive action to secure the southern border. The new executive action invokes authority to limit the number of daily asylum seekers at various points of entry. Under the new rules, the Administration will be able to ban migrants who come across the border illegally from seeking asylum.

  Meidas News

In case you wonder why Biden is making an executive order on this, it's because the Republicans blocked any Congressional action. Why? Because Trump told them to so he can use the border as a campaign issue.

Border Patrol has dealt with over 3,000 daily entries from migrants seeking asylum. CNN reported that the Administration's goal is to reduce that number to approximately 1,500 daily asylum claims.

[...]

In today's release, the Administration made clear that Congress must still act to give the federal government the power and tools needed to fully address border security concerns, and that Congress has failed, despite previously having a bipartisan deal on the table.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Executive order for the border

null

Plan B

“[Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer told members of his caucus and the White House last week that if the Republicans scuttled the bipartisan border and supplemental agreement, he had prepared a plan to use the motion to reconsider to force Republicans to vote on the supplemental without border [reforms,]” [a Senate Democratic] aide added.

The motion to reconsider would allow Schumer to immediately require senators to vote a second time on a legislative vehicle to move funding for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific.

The first time senators will vote on ending debate to move to the legislative vehicle, it will be with the understanding that the Ukraine funding package would include border security reforms.

Most Republicans will vote to block that bill from moving forward.

Then, Schumer will hold a second vote on proceeding to the same legislative vehicle, but this time with the understanding it will be used to carry funding for Ukraine, Israel and other foreign assistance priorities but without the negotiated border security reforms.

Enough Republicans are expected to vote to move this bill. It needs 60 votes to advance.

  The Hill

Unconscionable

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 02/07/2024:

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld admitted, “I'm not sure it's 5,000 a day. But it's not my problem not to know that,” and insisted he would not read the bill to find out. “I’m not playing that game,” he said.

  Media Matters

Emergency border deal

President Joe Biden on Friday urged Congress to pass a bipartisan bill to address the immigration crisis at the nation’s southern border, saying he would shut down the border the day the bill became law.

“What’s been negotiated would — if passed into law — be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country,” Biden said in a statement. “It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”
  Politico

Guess who opposes this? That's right: Trump and MAGA House Republicans. They don't want to fix the border problem. They want to campaign on it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 02/07/2024:

The old bastard is still an SOB

This is the GOP.  They don't want to fix problems.  They want to campaign on them.

Despicable.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Typical GOP maneuver

Republicans are not interested in doing anything but having power.  But when something does get done (eg. infrastructure), they claim credit.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Dude, they seized it

That fentanyl isn't killing anyone.  

Also, why is there a demand for it?  If there's no demand, there's no traffic.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

A little logic might go a long way

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.