Churlish. Trump's letter stunk of Stephen Miller.

[underpants]

churl·ish
/ˈCHərliSH/Submit
adjective
rude in a mean-spirited and surly way.

There were several completely unnecessary (the whole thing was) including the "your prerogative" part. Miller grew up in a conservative world that has convince itself that simply goading or "triggering" liberals will cause the liberals to overreact and screw up. Miller was mentored by David Horowitz. Steve Bannon espouses this a lot. It's normal pablum on talk radio. Yes it's really to stir up their own people but they really think they can coerce the other side into action.

This follows their self validated dogma of how policy, their specific ideas, directly results in changes in human behavior. Their economic policy is still built on giving to the top by taking fromeveryone else. It will force the lowers to be driven and ...the bootstraps thing. Trump's brutal border policy is thought to influence the thinking of people thousands of miles away - once they hear about the separations they will stop coming.


Speaking of talk radio - this childish act by Trump is like another Christmas to them. It's full on party and celebration there now. The problem is that from outside their house everyone has already put away the decorations and this is just going to make them look MORE weird.

[empedocles]

1. The impulse attack had to be trump. Somebody, probably Miller, wrote the letter.

Lawyers probably confirmed military plane was a quick way to go as Commander in Chief.

[RHMerriman]

3. The thing is, Speaker Pelosi and the rest of the codel have an obvious counter

The thing is, Speaker Pelosi and the rest of the codel have an obvious counter:

All it takes is single Democratic (or even, imagine that, a responsible Republican) governor to offer the Speaker ANG assets on state active duty.

Obvious possibilities would be the DC ANG, whose inventory include Boeing C-40s (the military version of the long-range, Boeing Business Jet/VIP version of the 737); the NY ANG, with Boeing C-17s (the four-engined strategic airlifter), and/or the Hawaii ANG's Boeing KC-135s, the air refueling jet which has a passenger and airlift support mission.

Something to keep in mind is that each of the 50 states and four of the US territories (including DC, Puerto Rico, etc.) have their own armed forces (Army National Guard, Air National Guard, and State Guards/Defense Forces) and any governor can order them to state active duty ... Guard duty can be under US Code Title 10 (presidential call-up, federally funded); Title 32 (gubernatorial call-up, federal funded); or State Active Duty (SAD), which includes a gubernatorial call-up and state funding.

Under the US Constitution and the US Code, and state/territorial law in the 50 states and four territories, if a state chose to do so, and was willing to fund it, they can acquire, crew, and operate ANY weapon system or military organization it chooses to ... up to and including (arguably) strategic weapons and delivery systems.

Federalism is a hell of a thing.

The other potential option, of course, would be if one of this nation's allies offered the use of their strategic aircraft - the RCAF's VIP and strategic airlift inventory includes C-17s and VIP versions of the Airbus A310s... perhaps Prime Minister Trudeau could schedule a visit to Canadian forces in SW Asia and/or Europe.

Trump would melt into a puddle...

[underpants]

4. Well I learned something today

Thanks

[RHMerriman]

6. No problem...

No problem...

Any US governor has more power and legal authority regarding organizing military forces than anyone else in the United States but the president, and much more so than their peers in (say) Canada, where the provincial premiers do not have anything remotely equivalent.

[Gothmog]

2. Miller is upset that the SOTU he wrote may be delayed

Link to tweet

[underpants]

5. Yeah. I think Miller has had a lot of personal time with Trump recently

He's always around - hell this makes W's 6-8 people running the White House look like a house party - but Trump has been so secluded and wondering around an empty building (he's made several statements and tweets about it) that Miller has probably been one of the few people who has his ear on a daily basis.

Boy I got my money's worth out of that sentence.