Trump blocks veterans

[billvon 3,131]

A week ago Spicer said that tweets are "considered official statements by the president of the United States.”

So it would be good to get such tweets to Americans, I imagine. If they are official statements by the President and all.

Today Trump blocked VoteVets from his Twitter feed, a group of over half a million US veterans and their families. I guess they're not real Americans to him.

[TriGirl 349]

Was watching C-SPAN today (yeah, I do that). A congressman from Illinois was introducing a bill to expand the Presidential Records Act to include social media. No shit, he called it the COVFEFE Act (capitalized because he turned it into an acronym).

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/illinois-rep-introduces-covfefe-bill-archive-trump-tweets/story?id=48000604

ETA: Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement (COVFEFE) Act

See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus

Shut Up & Jump!

[gowlerk 2,283]

TriGirl

Was watching C-SPAN today (yeah, I do that). A congressman from Illinois was introducing a bill to expand the Presidential Records Act to include social media. No shit, he called it the COVFEFE Act (capitalized because he turned it into an acronym).

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/illinois-rep-introduces-covfefe-bill-archive-trump-tweets/story?id=48000604

ETA: Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement (COVFEFE) Act

Awesome. But it should be posted to the "joke of the day thread" instead of here!

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[BIGUN 1,502]

billvon

A week ago Spicer said that tweets are "considered official statements by the president of the United States.”

So it would be good to get such tweets to Americans, I imagine. If they are official statements by the President and all.

Today Trump blocked VoteVets from his Twitter feed, a group of over half a million US veterans and their families. I guess they're not real Americans to him.

He didn't block all veterans; just those belonging to a Democratic PAC. They're quite the partisan group. Look up Jon Soltz; the founder and Doug Band - The two top dogs of VoteVets. They only speak for one side of the veteran population.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[billvon 3,131]

>He didn't block all veterans; just those belonging to a Democratic PAC.

Yep, just half a million. I guess their party affiliation is more important than their sacrifices.

Well, we can't risk having Trump offended by their opinions, precious snowflake that he is. He deserves his safe space, too.

[RonD1120 62]

billvon

>He didn't block all veterans; just those belonging to a Democratic PAC.

Yep, just half a million. I guess their party affiliation is more important than their sacrifices.

Well, we can't risk having Trump offended by their opinions, precious snowflake that he is. He deserves his safe space, too.

Maybe it is just a waste of his time. I don't know anything about this group but half a million membership sounds like an exaggeration.

So far President Trump is doing right by the veterans and is in favor by the majority.

Look for the shiny things of God revealed by the Holy Spirit. They only last for an instant but it is a Holy Instant. Let your soul absorb them.

[BIGUN 1,502]

billvon

>He didn't block all veterans; just those belonging to a Democratic PAC.

Yep, just half a million. I guess their party affiliation is more important than their sacrifices.

Well, we can't risk having Trump offended by their opinions, precious snowflake that he is. He deserves his safe space, too.

500k led by a former Clinton advisor making noise vs. The 4.8 million Vets who voted for Trump. The thing is even the 500k will benefit from the VA changes that'll be made. On a similar note; I really wish Trump would keep his thumbs off Twitter and use his Communications Directors.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[DanG 1]

Quote

500k led by a former Clinton advisor making noise vs. The 4.8 million Vets who voted for Trump.

Why should a government official get to block access to official communications to anyone? What difference does their numbers or political affiliation make?

- Dan G

[BIGUN 1,502]

DanG

Quote

500k led by a former Clinton advisor making noise vs. The 4.8 million Vets who voted for Trump.

Why should a government official get to block access to official communications to anyone? What difference does their numbers or political affiliation make?

They still have access through representation. I see it as kinda like any social media... Once the noise to signal ratio gets out of proportion... Block the noise.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[SkyDekker 1,465]

BIGUN

***

Quote

500k led by a former Clinton advisor making noise vs. The 4.8 million Vets who voted for Trump.

Why should a government official get to block access to official communications to anyone? What difference does their numbers or political affiliation make?

They still have access through representation. I see it as kinda like any social media... Once the noise to signal ratio gets out of proportion... Block the noise.

Except the Administration has decreed that Trump's tweets are official statements by the President of the United States.

[BIGUN 1,502]

SkyDekker

******

Quote

500k led by a former Clinton advisor making noise vs. The 4.8 million Vets who voted for Trump.

Why should a government official get to block access to official communications to anyone? What difference does their numbers or political affiliation make?

They still have access through representation. I see it as kinda like any social media... Once the noise to signal ratio gets out of proportion... Block the noise.

Except the Administration has decreed that Trump's tweets are official statements by the President of the United States.

Not quite yet... but it'll get there.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/12/politics/quigley-covfefe-act/index.html

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[DanG 1]

Quote

Not quite yet... but it'll get there.

No, it has already happened. Spicer stated that Trump's tweets should be considered official statements by the President.

Let's make an analogy. Would it be okay if the White House published a booklet about a policy issue and forbid any copies to be distributed to a certain group of citizens? That's what is happening here, it's just in digital form instead of printed.

- Dan G

[BIGUN 1,502]

DanG

Quote

Not quite yet... but it'll get there.

No, it has already happened. Spicer stated that Trump's tweets should be considered official statements by the President.

Let's make an analogy. Would it be okay if the White House published a booklet about a policy issue and forbid any copies to be distributed to a certain group of citizens? That's what is happening here, it's just in digital form instead of printed.

White House national security advisor Sebastian Gorka told CNN one day earlier that there's a difference between tweets and policy and @realDonaldTrump's feed is the former, not the latter.

“It’s not policy, it’s social media,” Gorka said in a tense back and forth during which he accused the media of over-obsessing Trump’s tweets. "It's not policy, it's not an executive order, it's social media. Please understand the difference.”

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-s-tweets-official-statements-spicer-says-n768931

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[SkyDekker 1,465]

And an official statement by the President is also not policy, it is a statement.

And his tweets have been declared official statements. And the president has been actively blocking US citizens from accessing those official statements.

[BIGUN 1,502]

Spicer doesn't have the authority to declare anything... another twit on the stage who doesn't know shit from a good grade of peanut butter.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[normiss 905]

9th District says official, as did Spicey

[SkyDekker 1,465]

BIGUN

Spicer doesn't have the authority to declare anything... another twit on the stage who doesn't know shit from a good grade of peanut butter.

You are right, he doesn't get to declare, he gets to communicate the declarations if you will.

Which means if he has communicated that, then unless there is a rectification, that has been the declaration.

(Is it really that hard to admit you missed it?)

[DanG 1]

Did you read your own link?

Quote

"The president is president of the United States," Spicer said, "so they are considered official statements by the president of the United States."

I see you are pivoting from "no one ever said they were official" to "no one can declare them official."

Just admit you're wrong. Or think about how you would have reacted had Obama blocked members of the NRA from viewing his Twitter feed.

- Dan G

[JerryBaumchen 1,471]

Hi Keith,

Quote

Spicer doesn't have the authority to declare anything

During Watergate, Nixon tried to declare the tapes as his personal property. The SCOTUS ruled against him.

And I am very sure that any form of communication from Trump would be ruled in a similar manner; that they are official forms of communication.

It is just a different medium.

Jerry Baumchen

[jakee 1,609]

Quote

The thing is even the 500k will benefit from the VA changes that'll be made.

What makes you think that?

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[BIGUN 1,502]

JerryBaumchen

Hi Keith,

Quote

Spicer doesn't have the authority to declare anything

During Watergate, Nixon tried to declare the tapes as his personal property. The SCOTUS ruled against him.

And I am very sure that any form of communication from Trump would be ruled in a similar manner; that they are official forms of communication.

It is just a different medium.

Jerry Baumchen

Afternoon, Jerry.

I "get" everyone's position, but it's still "should be regarded as," not "It is and here's the Act, Law, etc." As you mentioned; it took a SCOTUS opinion for the Nixon tapes. I believe the same [type] formality will need to occur before "It is." As to Marc's point. Yes, the Ninth Circuit used Trump's tweet while rendering their ruling. And, the fact that Spicer had said the week before, "Tweets are to be considered official..." which the Ninth Court also used... However, their ruling also said that because of Spicer and the tweet... that it should fall into the "Legal Arena," so let's dive deeper into that ruling:

My position is best described in this way...

Quote

Several Twitter users blocked by President Trump have threatened to file suit, alleging that his Twitter account constitutes a public forum, rendering their exclusion an unconstitutional content-based restriction of speech.

They are represented by Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, who, in a letter to the White House Counsel, contends that Trump’s decision to block critics “suppresses speech in a number of ways.”

Blocked users cannot search for or easily view the president’s tweets without logging out, and are “limited in their ability to participate in comment threads associated with [Trump’s] tweets.”

The question turns upon our understanding of the purpose and character of Trump’s twitter presence. Is @realDonaldTrump simply the private Twitter account of a man who happens to be president, or does it constitute a designated public forum, as asserted by Jaffer?

A designated public forum is a government-controlled space set aside for expressive activities. While the government may establish time, place, and manner constraints on speech within a designated public forum, it may not impose content-based restrictions on expression therein.

Public forums are usually imagined as physical spaces in which citizens may express themselves, but this need not be the case. In Rosenberger v. University of Virginia, the Supreme Court determined that, by establishing a policy of funding student newspapers, the University of Virginia had created a public forum from which it could not exclude qualifying publications simply because they expressed religious, rather than secular, opinions.

However, the fact that designated public forums may be non-physical, coupled with Trump’s status as President of the United States, is probably not a sufficient basis to deem his Twitter account a designated public forum. The courts have generally determined that designated public forums must be owned by the government in an official capacity, or used for official government communication.

It is unlikely that Trump’s Twitter account represents a government-controlled property. Twitter is a private company; while Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad established that a privately owned theater leased by the government may be considered a public forum, even as President, Trump is simply a Twitter user, bound by the same terms of service as everyone else.

Twitter allows its users to block accounts they’d like to avoid, and one block-happy user happens to be president. In effect, Trump’s becoming president does not nationalize the private Twitter account that he used before ascending to the nation’s highest office, and will likely continue to use when his tenure in the White House ends.

A determination that Trump’s account represents a designated public forum would greatly undermine Twitter’s ability to establish rules for the digital pseudo-commons it maintains.

Finally, it is difficult to understand Trump’s tweets as official government communications of the sort that might push his account into designated public forum territory.

While Trump often announces decisions via Twitter, these releases are accompanied or followed by official statements from the White House. Furthermore, Trump does not restrict his twitter presence to the conveyance of official policy, often using it to fire back at detractors or criticize members of his own administration.

Can we really regard “Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’ ??? Enjoy!” as an official government communication?

In any case, do not expect debate regarding extension of the public forum doctrine to Internet properties to subside any time soon. As human communication increasingly moves online, and voters continue to demand authenticity from their representatives in government, the line between official and private digital communications will remain somewhat blurry.

Nevertheless, for libertarians, the current legal paradigm suggests a satisfactory balance between the property rights of social media firms and users, and the First Amendment rights of both government officials and their critics. Ultimately, social media users benefit when firms are allowed to manage their digital commons as they see fit, freely experimenting with new features and means of interaction.

The nationalization of politicians’ personal social media accounts would stymie this process, needlessly dividing platforms into venues governed by an evolving understanding of what makes for an enjoyable user experience, and state fora held back by crudely applied terrestrial standards.

SOURCE: http://www.newsweek.com/do-you-have-constitutional-right-read-trumps-tweets-625585

Truly, I see both sides and I think its going to take another SCOTUS decision to determine which way the flag is going to blow.

Keith

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[normiss 905]

Maybe the BILLION dollar budget shortage the VA Secretary is complaining about?
Or the removal of unemployment benefits for veterans?
Or maybe because the VA Secretary support medical weed?

[JerryBaumchen 1,471]

Hi Keith,

Quote

I see both sides

I 'think' that I do, also. But, I could be way off base.

Quote

I think its going to take another SCOTUS decision

Yup, and I am OK with that. However, I still think that they will rule that any form of communication is official.

To me, it is simply another case of technology being ahead of court decisions.

Jerry Baumchen

[DJL 235]

BIGUN

Spicer doesn't have the authority to declare anything... another twit on the stage who doesn't know shit from a good grade of peanut butter.

I'm not sure how to interpret your take on this (which is oddly fitting of a conversation about Trump's Tweets) but I think you're trying too hard on this one. He's the damned President and if he uses smoke signals to say something it's the President's statement. Just because people can't wrap your heads around modern electronics doesn't mean they can play ignorant to messages that our President makes. Trump saying something online is not different than Trump saying something in the Rose Garden with microphones in front of him or to an aide, a reporter, a homeless man on the street. It's a metaphorical megaphone of the modern age. He's not a private citizen anymore, he's the chief ambassador of the entire country.

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

[Skwrl 56]

RonD1120

So far President Trump is . . . in favor by the majority.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/trump_favorableunfavorable-5493.html

Are there elves and orcs in the fantasy land that you live in?

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