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[Rowanas]

claiming he will end automatic citizenship for people born on US soil

Um.. what?  so all people born on US soil will have to apply for citizenship? All US babies will be non-citizens? If nothing else, the admin costs will be bonkers (job creation scheme, eh?)

Presumably children born to full US citizens will still earn automatic citizenship (which is how I got natural US citizenship, despite being born in a different country), but new babies born on US soil to non-citizen parents will no longer get automatic citizenship.

This is Trump though.  Presume nothing.

[Loud Whispers]

Um.. what?  so all people born on US soil will have to apply for citizenship? All US babies will be non-citizens? If nothing else, the admin costs will be bonkers (job creation scheme, eh?)

It means US citizenship will be given only to those through 1. Naturalisation by birth (parent(s) are US citizens). 2. Application (self explanatory). 3 A few special cases (like foreigners being given US citizenship for providing vital services to American units, like a translator for US forces for example).

[sluissa]

It's also one of the more solid parts of the constitution.

A little difficult to get that one through.

[Telgin]

The constitution is only useful to Trump as long as it's useful (e.g. second amendment), and he'd gladly use it for kindling if he thought it would fire up his base.  I'm not convinced anyone would try to impeach him over an executive order that's blatantly unconstitutional, nor would I anticipate much pushback from conservatives if he even called for a new amendment to change that part of the constitution.

[Doomblade187]

Apparently one of Trump's own appointed judges said that this won't work.

[BurnedToast]

So.. Trumps brain has shit itself today, claiming he will end automatic citizenship for people born on US soil with an executive order, complaining about "bad people" forming "an invasion", and a few more, like how Florida gubernatorial candidates "a thief."

I would make popcorn if this wasn't some heavy shit.

He can't, and everyone (except maybe trump himself) knows he can't. This is just a distraction from the whole "right wing bomber" then "right wing shooter the next day" news, and as an added bonus a way to whip his base up right before the midterms.

It's working too, now everyone is talking about this instead of the actual terrorist attacks we just had and the republican party will (once again) be held completely unaccountable for the rhetoric of hate spewing out of it.

[sluissa]

And there's not even the numbers to pull off an amendment if they tried. 2/3 of both houses and 3/4 of states to ratify they do not have.

[RedKing]

Um.. what?  so all people born on US soil will have to apply for citizenship? All US babies will be non-citizens? If nothing else, the admin costs will be bonkers (job creation scheme, eh?)

It means US citizenship will be given only to those through 1. Naturalisation by birth (parent(s) are US citizens). 2. Application (self explanatory). 3 A few special cases (like foreigners being given US citizenship for providing vital services to American units, like a translator for US forces for example).

#3 has dropped like a rock, as have even the attempts to get those folks to safety. Far too many stories of Iraqi and Afghan translators being killed while waiting for years to get visa approval to emigrate to the US (and to be fair, we're talking Obama administration there, not just Trump).

Which is surely not going unnoticed. Next foreign adventure we get ourselves into, we're likely going to have a hell of a time finding locals willing to risk life and limb on our behalf.

[misko27]

You also need Tribunes whose veto only lasts for as long as they are physically present in the premises.

This would single-handedly eliminate Trump's power. Dude is literally never working. Three hours on a good day.

That said, we do pretty much have a system similar to that with the filibuster (the real one, not the shitty administrative one). Stand and deliver!

If people start shooting up polling centers on election day then I'm leaving the country and you can enjoy your civil war.

At least in my state, polling centers have police at every location (actually, it's that's literally built into the system: we can't open the place up unless the police deliver the keys and other stuff to us, so every location has a police officer or two). And unlike the election workers, police get to work in shifts, so they aren't completely exhausted.

It's already necessary to enforce those "100 feet, no politicking" laws (and believe you me, people stand at the 100 feet mark on the dot), and you never know when someone will walk in and start harassing voters or election workers, so even a single policeman (it was a woman last time, for what it's worth) is a worthy investment. Unlike at, say, a public place of worship which meets every week.

Which is surely not going unnoticed. Next foreign adventure we get ourselves into, we're likely going to have a hell of a time finding locals willing to risk life and limb on our behalf.

You know, this is what people meant in Latinthread about there being smarter and dumber ways of going about war.

[Loud Whispers]

Which is surely not going unnoticed. Next foreign adventure we get ourselves into, we're likely going to have a hell of a time finding locals willing to risk life and limb on our behalf.

You know, this is what people meant in Latinthread about there being smarter and dumber ways of going about war.

'Gentemen, now that we have run out of money we have to think.' - Winston Churchill

[RedKing]

Which is surely not going unnoticed. Next foreign adventure we get ourselves into, we're likely going to have a hell of a time finding locals willing to risk life and limb on our behalf.

You know, this is what people meant in Latinthread about there being smarter and dumber ways of going about war.

'Gentemen, now that we have run out of money we have to think.' - Winston Churchill

Pfft...we never run out of money, we just make more.

[PTTG??]

I don't know how that works as a distraction, though. Doubling down on racist, far-right screeching only reaffirms his ties to the bomber and the various gunmen.

[Telgin]

At least people are mostly focusing on him trying to kick Mexican babies out of the country now instead of him being associated with bombers and shooters.  The outrage fatigue builds up and some people will forget it in favor of the newest thing that comes out of his mouth.

[PTTG??]

I disagree. This rapid-fire embracing of alt-right white nationalism makes his overall message clear.

Trump is trying to redefine what it means to be an American. He's clearly trying to create a legal distinction between immigrants and "native" citizens, which is as absurd as it is terrifying.

The white nationalist movement must be destroyed in the US and burned out to the root.

[Telgin]

I don't disagree on that last point.

To be honest, I'm not sure that distractions matter any more.  I'm sure that moderates exist somewhere, but from where I sit I don't see them.  I only see people who think Trump is the second coming of Jesus, and a small minority who think he's Satan incarnate.  To any of these people, the distractions don't matter.  If Trump fully embraced white nationalism, more than he already has anyway, I don't think all that many people would change their opinion of him.

I'm a defeatist person by nature, but the general resurgence of (sometimes extremist) right-wing ideology across the world has me feeling like any attempt to stop it is going to be fruitless.  I hope that it will flame out and that the pendulum will swing back to the left, but I don't really see any reason to believe that it will right now.

I voted, which is all I can do.  The rest is for me to sit back, watch and thank the emotionless void of the universe that I wasn't born as one of the Designated Victims of the current political landscape.