volkris @volkris@qoto.org

@stefan

That's good news!

@six_grandfathers_mountain

In his role as president, Trump is authorized by this statute to punish people using the likeness.

Whether in his role as CEO or world class dirtbag he's doing something different is a separate matter.

As president here he's not acting to punish people despite being authorized to punish people if he sees fit.

This is a president not acting, whether there's also a CEO that is.

@z_everson

@paulc

Yeah, one thing that didn't get enough emphasis at SCOTUS oral arguments is that this refund process is already largely handled by US law.

It wouldn't cause chaos to issue the refunds since there are already systems in place to manage it. Adjustments are just part of life for these trade activities, so the refund would be just another adjustment, albeit a particularly large one.

The SCOTUS brought this up at argument, but I believe at the moment they misunderstood the answer.

Hopefully this was clarified starkly through briefs.
@glynmoody @JonChevreau

@six_grandfathers_mountain the key is your word "can do".

This would be about something not being done. The president is not going after these people.

It's a case of prosecutorial discretion. The administration doesn't consider it worthwhile to bring the hammer down on folks making beer pong paraphernalia.

@z_everson

@amalia22 yeah, Republicans have been celebrating how well Trump did with latinos.

@wms SCOTUS specifically refused to allow a person to be picked up merely because of skin color.

@Richard If Trump listened to his advisors he wouldn't get himself in so much trouble.

No, it's really not about him. Conservative media projects what amounts to an alternative reality, so it doesn't even matter what Trump does, they reinterpret his stuff on a daily basis.

So it doesn't matter what Trump's advisors tell him to do, because he won't do it anyway, and it doesn't matter if he does it anyway, because the narrative among his base is actually disconnected from what he himself does.

@dever @GoodComradeLolaDaviet

@davesomebody

I think you put your finger on it: the Democrats in charge right now have no idea how to engage with voters that they need to engage with, so they end up saying things that are counterproductive and harming their own causes.

We need to stop reelecting these same ineffective Democrats.

It's actually not that hard to engage with the other side. I do it all the time. Unfortunately we keep reelecting politicians that lack the skill to do it, and that's why we are where we are today.

@carnage4life

@Richard

We might not actually be in disagreement here. Trump has this core base that isn't some great majority, but they manage to get him over the line for election because they are barely enough to join with a coalition of other disaffected voters.

But the point is, Fox News type hosts spend everyday reinterpreting the stuff coming out of Trump for that audience, and it's kind of fascinating. Different hosts can't even agree on what he just said, but the audience hears what they want to hear too.

And that's why it doesn't really matter.

@dever @GoodComradeLolaDaviet

@faab64 I always emphasize, it wasn't inaction that was the problem, but that the left misunderstood what was happening and ended up actively promoting Trump.

They kept attacking the guy in ways that he was able to gain support from. They worked it exactly wrong. He wore the attacks as badges of honor, and Trump supporters amplified them because they loved it.

@dever

Keep in mind that for so much of Trump's base, it doesn't actually matter what he says or does. Never has.

So that list of issues like the mortgage and the workforce just really don't matter, because so much of the mainstream GOP media spend their days reinterpreting everything he says anyway, and starting different meanings that they want to hear.

This is a long-standing pattern that you can catch by tuning into their influencers every day of the week.

@GoodComradeLolaDaviet @Richard

@evdelen I don't think we need to go out that far. There's no reason to assume.

The simpler explanation is simply that Trump doesn't know what he's talking about, never knows what he's talking about, and there's no point trying to find any message in any of his statements like this.

Occam's razor would have us assume that he's just babbling like always.

@willie1foot Well, what action would you suggest?

@Dgun8 I think for a lot of them it's the sense that if they didn't take the job, someone worse would, and so they take the hit for the greater good.