● Trump didn't wave when he got on Air Force One! He wants to suppress the media!
● Kelly Conway punched someone at the inaugural ball. She's dangerous!!
● OMG! He didn't want black performers at the inaugural because blacks didn't vote for him! What a racist!
● Trump is fuming and obsessed with the negative coverage. He's a monster!
● Trump lies! Politicians can't lie! Wait, yes, I know Pharell said that "everybody lies" when Hillary got caught lying about everything, but that's different!!!
● The Trump team is at each other's throats. His own people hate him! It's CHAOS in the White House!
● Trump is using a private email server! Arrest him! They arrested Hillary for that!
● Trump is making decisions based on late-night political talk shows! He's not competent to be president! Steven Colbert told me so!
● It kind of looks like Melina is uncomfortable around Trump. He must be an abuser!
● Kelly Anne Conway wore red, white and blue! How dare she wrap herself in flag colors!
● Trump's ex and his trashy daughter tried to get their hair done for free!
● Trump isn't paying his private contractors for work done at one of his properties! He's a fraud!
● My God! Why won't Trump release his taxes? We MUST KNOW WHAT'S IN THEM! Help us Wikileaks!! Hack our President!
● Trump is breaking the law by fixing the typos in his tweets... OMG, somebody stop this man! He's changing history to cover up his crimes? He has no right to speak to the public except through the media!
● The "entire management team" at the State Department resigned! Don't you see how he's destroying the government? These aging civil servants never retire in such large numbers! Six of them! Think of all the lost experience!
● If Ben Carson lets Trump properties get HUD contracts, there is nothing anyone can do!! He's a criminal! How dare Elizabeth Warren vote for him!!!! Traitor!!!
● Trump is trying to silence agency employees who refuse to follow his orders! He's a dictator!
● Steve Bannon told the media to "keep their mouths shut!" He's trying to silence us! I don't even know what the context of the quote was!
● OMG! He's signing Executive Orders to do things! Where did he get that power?!! What about Democracy! How can a President do this? Well, other than Obama that is.
● OMG! He threatened mayors who threatened to resist him with consequences! How dare he fight back! This man is worse than Hitler!
● He removed the bust of Martin Luther King from the White House! The racist!
● He wants to bring back torture!
● How dare he waste time investigating voter fraud!
● He claims Obama left him a letter, but won't read it to us!! All Presidents do this, but we don't believe him! Obama won't betray us like that!
I'm enjoying the heck out of this. These idiots have lost their hive mind. All Trump needs to say is "Boo!" and they jump a mile high screaming bloody murder. Best of all, this is keeping them from putting together a useful defense against Trump's agenda. Ha ha! I mean... Grrrr, he's coming to get you!!! Boo!
81 comments:
In the most ridiculous moment this week, the retards who keep "the doomsday clock" have moved it closer to midnight. Talk about naked politics.
We should get a giant chest and keep claiming that it's getting closer to opening or closing and if it opens something horrible jumps out... like a giant clown with diarrhea.
Obama Derangement Syndrome was a thing, too, ya know. ;-)
As for me, I can let many things slide... but any faith I had in our immature, unimaginative, feckless, wreckless, egomaniacal, intellectually-stunted commander in chief who's more interested in his inauguration numbers than governing evaporated a long effing time ago.
(And I say that as someone who was kinda rooting for him during the primaries - who wants to look at Ted Cruz' face for 4 years?!) :-)
Yeah, a lot of things are blown out of proportion... and even much on your list is much ado about nothing (hell, I even admire Conway for her dress - she went for it!) but there's a thin line between TDS and, you know, being an upstanding citizen who gives a shit about the future of western civilization!
The hiring freezes I get - the gag orders I don't. I both love and hate that we have "rogue" NASA and NFS Twitter accounts. Bannon's a schmuck, as are 99% of Breitbart employees. And the Atomic Clock was started by Manhattan Project scientists in the 40s - hardly retards.
As an addendum, when he was elected you told me life wouldn't change, nor would the lives of my LGBT/minority friends (uh... both of them). :-)
Do you still believe this to be the case? I'm sincerely asking.
Scott, Yep. There was Bush Derangement Syndrome too. But this one is by far the most intense, the most crazy and probably the most disingenuous.
"Gag orders" as you put it are how the government effects policy. It doesn't let every government employee act independently. It's never has. And if it did, it would lead to chaos. And let me point out, that you would not like rogue accounts if it was people you disliked... like Trump people doing it under a Hillary admin. Government can't function if it's parts get to play around.
What Bannon said actually made sense. He was telling the media that they need to shut up and listen to the public if they want to understand why they've lost the public's trust. That's it. Spinning it into a shut up "order" is nonsense.
As for crowd size, how do you say "more interested"? That's PR, Scott. Trump spent his days signing orders and getting people appointed. Big deal if he wasted a few minutes on crowd size? Obama spent his first day dive bombing NYC to get a sandwich.
There's no substance here, Scott. In fact, the irony, is that the left is talking about everything BUT the substance. Fine by me!
On the addendum, yes. Nothing's changed. That's my point. This TDS is just people inventing molehills and turning them into mountains of paranoia because they are continuing their tantrum. There's no substance to any of this.
Trump's picks have been much more reasonable than you would have gotten with other GOP types -- all very "corporate." His policies remain remarkably practical and well within the mainstream.
And let me point out three things you probably haven't heard:
1. In repealing Obamacare, Trump has made the point that he wants everyone to have coverage, including the 30 million who currently don't. That's hardly a draconian attempt to let sick people die.
2. On gays... One of the "hard core right-wing evil racist anti-gay" justices on Trump's short list of Supreme Court justices has sided with gays and transsexuals in the two cases he handled on the matter. Again, that's not the PR.
3. Elizabeth Warren said she voted for Ben Carson because he promised to protect LGBT right and minority housing rights.
Andrew -
Believe me, I know there's a silver lining and perhaps I just need more time to find it. I hate that I'm even posting this at all, but if I'm going to, it's gonna be here! :-)
"Corporate" isn't quite the positive buzzword you might think it is, BUT I know it could be much worse. It may not sound like it, but I know it. But where you see substance, I just see more reality TV and a guy more concerned with his image. I'm sorry but that's how I see it.
Scott, "Corporate" is not a good word in my book, but it should be as far as your friends are concerned. In this case, it means someone who isn't going to make ideological gestures. It means someone who will go along with whatever is concerned normal in society so as to achieve the goal of efficiency.
That means, he's not going to be trying to fight things like the LGBT wars.
As an aside, he spent MLK day with MLK's grandkids talking about how to fix the inner cities. Again, that's not consistent with what the left would have you believe.
Oh oh. Now someone has analyzed the film and Trump didn't wait for Melina before he walked up the steps from the Presidential limo into the White House! Ahhhh! The bastard!
Oh, and Trump "lied" about the murder rate in Phili going up (he "slandered the police") when he said he wanted policies that make people feel safe again. It turns out the rate went up in 2014 and 2015, but it went down by 3 in 2016! The lying bastard!
He's out of control! //eye twitches
Ames Woods says, the liberal meltdown is "delicious
As James Woods says ...
Jed, I am truly enjoying it. There is such smug nastiness and intolerance imploding in each of these squeals and I'm savoring it, especially as they continue to lash out so nastily. Talk about just deserts!
.....Ooh Ooh...I've got one! Trump is going to come into each marcher's home and sexually assault every female he sees unless we all band together and become "fierce" and keep talking about our vaginas!
My family members who marched cannot seem to list a "right" that men have that women don't, except for "abortion." ....sorry...the "right to choose." And and Trump will deny them that "right!" Seriously, that's all I've heard as to why they were marching. Oh, and to have a world where THEIR daughters will be "fierce" and not subject to men even looking at them (ogling, leering, etc...) They will be the first Mother's in history who will want their daughters to grow up strong. No Mother's ever wanted that for their daughter's until this march brought it public.
As far as the press, we are witnessing the slow death of an institution never held in high regard (except for its own members). First Clinton and then Obama were the executioners in chief. Good riddance. I get my news from internet sites I find reflect my reality. I don't need to be told what someone said and what they meant by their statement.
TGFTI (Thank God For The Internet)
Haven't read the full article yet, but that is one of the best openings you've written.
Wow, what's really getting crazy is the Hollywood types who are having nervous breakdowns- Shia LeBeouf and Mischa Barton have both been incarcerated/committed for public meltdowns related to the election.
I know people are upset, but really. Also disturbing that Hollywood is now just not so subtely hoping for a Presidential assassination. Never watch Scandal, but for some reason I had it on last night. The scuttlebutt is that the producers "delayed" the episode for obvious reasons - the assassination of the "President-elect (wishful thinking I am sure.)
Thanks, tryanmax! That does seem to be the history of things.
Bev, Right now, the left is in the middle of the biggest emotional breakdown I've seen in my entire life. It is bizarre. It is irrational. It is whiny as hell. It is violent. There is nothing comparable I can think of.
Patriot, That's the other problem with the Womyn's March... they have no idea what they want. They want everything to be different somehow so they stop feeling like failures. Good luck with that. Failure comes from within, ladies.
Every losing party is leaderless and angry the January after an election loss (the leader of the party was the person who just discredited him or herself by losing).
That being said, each derangement (which started with Bush) has been more deranged than the last.
Like I've said before, I'm not sure the derangement hurts. Crazy talk can fire up the fringe (which is a key part of the base) one just has to find something that resonates.
Of course, the other party won't gain real traction up until the governing party actually starts doing stuff people feel (not just signing legislation or making promises) and object to. As a result, opposition traction normally takes several months if not years.
Anthony, while that is all true. This new iteration of "derangement" has made a turn to irrational and violent.
By the way, there was the March for Life today. Every year for over 40 years people have been marching in DC to protest the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide.
"The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of development." —Pope Francis
“The fight for the right to life is not the cause of a special few, but the cause of every man, woman and child who cares not only about his or her own family, but the whole family of man.” – Dr. Mildred Jefferson, first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School
Abortion was also opposed by early feminists.
“Child murderers practice their profession without let or hindrance, and open infant butcheries unquestioned.... Perhaps there will come a day when...an unmarried mother will not be despised because of her motherhood...and when the right of the unborn to be born will not be denied or interfered with.” —Sarah Norton, early suffragette
"Sweeter even than to have had the joy of children of my own has it been for me to help bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so that their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them.” – Susan B. Anthony
“Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.” —Alice Paul, author of the Equal Rights Amendment
“Every woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear an unwished-for child, nor think of murdering one before its birth.” —Victoria Woodhull, first female candidate for President (And a tad too optimistic)
"The gross perversion and destruction of motherhood by the abortionist filled me with indignation, and awakened active antagonism." —Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, first female physician in America
And even Mary Wollstonecraft, the first modern feminist, described abortion as an exploitation of women in her Vindication of the Rights of Woman:
"Women becoming, consequently weaker, in body and mind, than they ought to be have not sufficient strength to discharge the first duty of a mother; and… either destroy the embryo in the womb, or cast it off when born. Nature in everything demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom violate them with impunity… [M]en ought to maintain the women they have seduced… on means of stopping an abuse that has an equally fatal effect on population and morals."
Just got back from watching Air Force beat Army in College Hockey. Lots of fun. Great game.
Saw that John Hurt died. RIP
Kit, I can honestly say that I saw almost no coverage of that today. I saw no articles mentioning the crowd size. I definitely saw no articles suggesting that this would become a new movement or telling me how to deal with a sexist mate who doesn't understand why this was important. No article on Madonna's vagina. No article on pussyheads. No list of celebrities twittering away how this was the dawn of a new age for humanity. No article mentioning how brave these people were. No article showing all of their best signs. No article hushing up the vast piles of pollution and garbage they left.
You get the point. MSM crickets.
BTW, Trump today disclaimed torture because he's going to let General Matthis make that decision and run the DOD as he should... i.e. he's letting the experts run the military. So much for that fear.
He's apparently made super nice with Theresa May and they were all giggly. He's even going to meet the Queen. Special relationship. Check.
The same people who freaked out about Trump's proposal for a 20% tariff on Mexican goods are falling in love with 2-3%, which would more than do what Trump is after.
And there are now many articles debunking the State Department thing, each of which points out that it was provably false with as little research as pulling up their organizational chart. Whoops.
Nobody covers the March for Life much because its not news at this stage. Its a yearly thing (and has been for decades) which always has the same focus. What is there to talk about?
The only thing resembling news that came out was that Trump's SC nominee is going to be very pro-life (par for the course for Republicans, but still worthy of note).
Pro-lifers aren't marching for the right of states to make a decision, they are marching because they believe the yet to be born should have the same right to life as the born. In the next few years I think abortion is going to either be banned or very hard and expensive to legally obtain in most places.
That is going to force a reckoning of sorts because right now the narrative is gullible, powerless women are tricked or coerced into abortions by legal abortion providers but once the clinic is removed from the picture...
Traditionally women aren't prosecuted for abortions (that was the case even in the old days), but that is changing (dozens of women in the US have been prosecuted for fetal harm and several have been prosecuted for abortion). That of course makes sense. Murder or hurt your kid, go to jail, you can't say 'I'm the mom, I have legal immunity!'.
As in Latin America (where the rate of abortion is higher than the US, though the laws are more draconian than any current US law) I suspect abortion will go underground, with only the really naïve (people whose actions let the system know of the pregnancy) or the really injured (people whose abortions resulted in serious complications which resulted in a visit to the hospital) getting caught.
In related news abortions and pregnancies continue to plummet (as they have for several years).
I believe abortions will continue to decline no matter what state or federal law says.
I hope the fertility rate increases a bit if/when the economy starts doing better. It won't do much better (that would go against against patterns one sees everywhere).
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/11/health/us-lowest-fertility-rate/index.html
The US fertility rate fell to the lowest point since record keeping started more than a century ago, according to statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 1909, the government began keeping track of what's called the fertility rate. The general fertility rate is the number of births out of 1,000 women between the ages of 15 to 44.
-----
The US fertility rate has been in a steady decline since the post-World War II baby boom. Back at its height in 1957, the fertility rate was 122.9 births per 1,000 women.
The latest quarterly CDC data also indicate the larger pattern of women having babies later in life.
As birth rates increased among women in their 30s and 40s, the rate among teenagers and women in their 20s dropped.
END QUOTE
https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2016/us-teen-pregnancy-birth-and-abortion-rates-reach-lowest-levels-almost-four-decades
Teen pregnancy, birth and abortion rates in the United States all reached new historic lows in 2011, according to two new analyses (national and state) from the Guttmacher Institute. In 2011, about 553,000 pregnancies occurred among teen women aged 15–19, for a national rate of 52.4 pregnancies per 1,000 women in that age-group. This is the lowest rate observed in the last four decades, and it marks a 23% decline from the 2008 teen pregnancy rate of 68.2. National teen birth and abortion rates have also declined sharply: in 2011, there were 31.3 births per 1,000 teen women (down from 40.2 in 2008) and 13.5 abortions per 1,000 teen women (down from 18.1 in 2008).
------
“Teens have become more successful at preventing pregnancy than they were in the past. Sexual activity has remained constant among this age-group, but birth and abortion rates have both decreased dramatically,” says lead author Kathryn Kost. “The available evidence suggests that increased contraceptive use is the primary driver of this decline.”
Although rates of teen pregnancy and its outcomes have declined among all racial and ethnic groups, wide disparities persist. In 2011, pregnancy rates among non-Hispanic black teens (92.6 per 1,000) and Hispanic teens (73.5 per 1,000) were more than double the pregnancy rate for non-Hispanic white teens (35.3 per 1,000). Similarly, teen birth and abortion rates differ substantially across racial and ethnic groups. These disparities mirror those found in unintended pregnancy rates among all U.S. women of reproductive age, which are several times higher among women of color than among white women.
END QUOTE
On Trump's immigration order... before anyone reading the news panics about "innocent Muslims being sent home from America", here are the details.
1. The order applies to seven countries. Five are at war. One is under a coup -- Turkey. The other is Iran.
2. So far, it sounds like 7 or 8 people have been affected, with 6 of those trying to fly from Cairo to the US.
3. It applies only to people who don't have green cards or visas yet. No one gets sent home.
4. It will last only 3 months.
You may resume your panic.
Anthony, Nobody covers the March for Life much because its not news at this stage. Its a yearly thing (and has been for decades) which always has the same focus. What is there to talk about?
The problem with this explanation is that it lets the left decide that only things that benefit the left are "news" because they always already know what the right wants.
Moreover, the left would tell you, in regard to their marches, that the mere fact of a march is news, as is the (exaggerated) size of the march, the stories of the people who attended, the signs they displayed, the "powerful" messages, the way the world will not change in response, etc.
Oh oh. Now they're protested at JFK airport (wasting NYC funds) because people from sh*thole war zones won't be able to come here for three months! The horror... the horror.
I think what we need to be asking is are they wearing Pussy Burqas?
All I can add at this point is thanks for cutting through the panic and spin Andrew, Bev, and tryanmax! It's going to be a long 4-8 years of this stuff, huh?
- Daniel
You're welcome, Daniel. Just sit back and enjoy the theater.
In terms of 4-8 years, the left's drones don't have the attention span for that. They'll be done by June. Then the left will need to change strategies.
Andrew,
There's some debate on whether or not it affects those with green cards. I'm serious. While air
Yahoo News and Reuters have quoted a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, Gillian Christensen, who said it does.
LINK
LINK
A Green Card signifies that a person is a permanent resident of the United States.
More on Green Card holders:
David French, no Trump fan himself, said "The plain language of the order doesn't apply to legal permanent residents." (i.e., Green card holders)
source
Yet there are a number of reports that the DHS and Customs are applying to Green Card Holders.
Now, there are plenty of reasons for Green Card holders to return home. For instance, I think I remember reading somewhere that many are required to return home for a medical checkup to make sure they don't bring any diseases to the US (even if they've been here for over a year). Also, they may be visiting relatives for special events. This is allowed and legal.
If the Green Card thing is true then these are my theories:
(1) DHS bureaucrats are trying to sabotage Trump's administration by applying the EO in an overly harsh manner.
(2) Customs and Border Patrol agents want to feel important and tough and are acting like a-holes.
(3) Some combination of 1 & 2.
Andrew,
I remember the Washington Post covering the manifestly conservative Tea Party rallies heavily if unsympathetically. Like I said, novelty counts for a lot.
One man who was detained at the airport and released said he likes Trump. :-)
LINK
If you want to know where I stand on Trump and the Left, here is a clue:
I don't like Trump, I just don't trust him. On anything. I think he's a deeply insecure narcissist and I find many of his hardcore supporters* to be borderline insane or ideological sellouts (see; Hannity, Sean).
That being said, the hysterical anti-Trump left annoys the crap out of me. So anything that contradicts their narrative makes me happy.
We could save the world from "climate change" if only everyone would stop hyperventilating over every syllable. The good news is that they can only scream "THE SKY IS FALLING" so much and then people stop taking them seriously. At some point, people need to live their everyday lives and will tune out because they will realize perhaps the sky is not falling.
And yes, the Tea Party was treated, at the very least, "unsympathetically"...until we started effecting elections and then we became "dangerous".
Oh, and yeah, all hell has broken lose at JFK airport in NYC. Hundreds are protesting. So what? 12 people are being held for further vetting for 24 hours. My grandfather had sit it out at Ellis Island for 2 weeks (some waiting longer which is why there are old dormitories there) before he was allowed to take that final boatride to the mainland. That's after he proved he has a sponsor, a job, a place to live, and money in his pocket. Then, until he became a naturalize citizen, he had to appear in person every month at the immigration office to confirm...he had a job, a place to live, and money in his pocket.
Okay, correct me if I am wrong, but the ACLU has just won an injunction where EDNY Judge has ordered that the Gov't must provide a list of all illegals and potential deportees. And the ACLU is hailing this a victory? It seems, if I am right, they have just been played. And those Sanctuary cities will have to release this information to the Feds to complete this report...
Bev, The "deportees" issue is a red herring. I think they're going to find there are none. And then they will have to switch to "they're lying!!!"
Kit, The NYC thing sounds like confused agents who didn't know what they were supposed to do and overstepped.
ACLU also won a ruling on the Executive Order: Those who had already received visas before the Executive Order went into effect cannot be detained/deported by DHS until a ruling has been issued by the courts.
So, it people with valid visas and green cards were being detained by Customs officials enforcing the Executive Order.
Here is where it gets weird: From what I can tell, the Executive Order, as written, did not effect Green Card holders or those already granted Visas.
More on this as it develops.
"Kit, The NYC thing sounds like confused agents who didn't know what they were supposed to do and overstepped."
That is what I'm thinking.
It appears the White House only released the details of the order to the DHS as (or after) they released it to the press. That is the best I can figure. In that case, it was a screw-up.
There are also reports of Bannon and Miller, two of Trump's aides, running around the back of DHS Kelly and telling agents they had to do a total block on all arrivals from those countries; including those who already had visas. I'm putting this as unconfirmed.
If that is the case, though, then Bannon and Miller need to be fired. ASAP.
Or at least a very stern, come-to-Jesus meeting with Donald Trump about the proper roles of the media people in the White House.
I'm also seeing reports that the CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) officials at Dulles are refusing to permit lawyers to meet with the detained individuals there in violation of a federal court order.
That is what the lawyers are saying, at least. From Washington Post:
"At 11:35 p.m., about 80 protesters and lawyers started chanting “Contempt of court!” and “Let them in!” as lawyers said officials were ignoring the federal judge's order requiring that they have access to people being detained."
LINK
My wife just showed me an "interesting" discussion on Facebook involving some of her idiot friends. There is an "argument" going around on the left which says that Trump is banning immigrants from "countries whose citizens have never attacked the US"... like Somalia.
People are responding by pointing out things like Black Hawk Down, which these leftist drones are now claiming was all an invented story.
So apparently, Iran never killed American Marines in Beirut. Yemen never attacked the Cole. Mogadishu never happened. No one in Iraq has ever attacked Americans. Libya never blew up discos in Germany, or killed an American ambassador in Libya. Etc.
Andrew,
The left has lost its nind.
Kit, At this point, I believe nothing until we've had the chance to see what is actually written, how it gets handled and how the Trump team responds. There is far too much being made up right now. We are in a free fire liars poker zone right now in our politics.
Ultimately though, I think the fact that we are talking one airport and 12 or so people total all at one time suggests that this was just a mistake.
Kit, They have. My wife has been shocked to see friends and family lie about things, whine about things they know aren't true, and call her every name in the book just for saying she supports him.
It is a genuine emotional breakdown on the left right now.
We're talking about two airports, JFK and Dulles. Not one.
But that is why I put half that stuff as unconfirmed. I'm still waiting for more to come in.
Kit, Was it at Dulles too? I thought it was just the one group at JFK the other night? The translator.
Either way, two incidents does not a policy make. And the outrage is bizarre... if genuine.
Yep. Washington Post* is reporting that people were being detained at Dulles (not sure on current status, last I read they were still being held despite federal court order).
And looking at the Boston Globe it appears there was at least one detention, a Hamed Hosseini-Bay, at Logan Airport in Boston. He, like those at JFK, has since been released.
So that means, by my count, 3 airports.
*Washington Post fairs far better than the NYTimes on what I call the headline-to-eyeroll ratio. You add up the number of headlines on, say, the front page or the politics page, and you add up the number of headlines that cause you to roll your eyes. Divide the total number of headlines by the number of headlines that caused you to roll your eyes and you have the headline-to-eyeroll ratio!
This is what I'm seeing from a cursory look at various newspapers:
—Los Angeles Times report that seven were detained at at LAX but eventually released.
—Chicago Tribune says that 13 were held for questioning at Chicago O'Hare but have now been released.
—NBC Philadelphia says two Christian Syrian families were detained at Philadelphia International Airport.
—At Atlanta, Georgia's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport "11 travelers were held for hours." (Atlanta Journal Constitution).
This was not just one or two airports.
At the White House Trump said to reporters this morning, "It’s not a Muslim ban, but we were totally prepared. You see it at the airports, you see it all over. It’s working out very nicely."
Still, it could have been something done by the administration to prove they are "getting tough." As far as I can tell, outside of Dulles, all of the detained individuals were released. Only Dulles, last I heard, appears to be holding out.
If I receive more I will tell you here.
As far as the optics, I don't think it's good. I mean, detaining two Christian families and handcuffing an interpreter for the US Army for 17 hours can't look too good.
Also, given the dissonance between what happened at the airports, acknowledged approvingly by Trump himself, and what the EO he signed actually said, there is quite a lot to be concerned about.
I don't put it past the Left to screw this up, though.
re Dulles: The reports of them not being able to meet w/ attorneys is as of now, 2am Eastern, 2 hrs old.
Reuters reported that 109 people who were in transit were stopped at airports.
Good night.
Kit, I have no concern over the optics at all. This is one of those things that keep those people who are already crazy all hot and bothered, but pretty much gets ignored by the rest or even pushes the rest further into Trump's arms. Here's why:
1. These are people from terrorist countries. #youdeserveitsoIdon'tcare
2. Their inconvenience is less than most travelers experience on a regular basis from one issue or another. #nosympathy/#I'vehadworse. And their headline quotes are ridiculous. #whiners
3. Their numbers are tiny compared to the millions who travel. #notabigdeal/#molehillnotamountain
4. The left has overplayed their hand for days now and this is just one more thing on the pile of never-ending, reflex whining. Moreover, they've way overplayed this. No one has actually been hurt -- no one deported, no one arrested. Just delayed. Yet, the left has turned this into death camps and mass deportations. #fakeoutrage/#crywolf
Moreover, the left has tried to parlay this into open borders for Muslims. That's a nonstarter. #pretext
Not to mention, there is a pretty clear sense that the left is lying about the order and what it does. #notbuyingyourcrap
So I don't see this resonating at all. And the lack of the usual GOP suspects dropping to their knees and crying kind of suggests they see it the same way.
Good night.
BTW, the hastags I tossed in there are the responses I'm seeing on some of the social media I watch when leftists show up and try to get everyone upset about this. Not the hashtags themselves, but the ideas behind them.
I see no evidence that this is an issue that is changing anyone's mind in any direction.
A couple more thoughts...
1. If you want to PISS people off, go make airport travel more difficult. Protesting at airports is a stupid idea. And if something happens like a security incident, then your whole movement become "terrorists." Not smart.
2. HuffPo is giving these protests the same treatment at the Pussyhead rally. The problem is, you can't have competing spontaneous movements of the same people. It reeks of astroturf and rented protestors. Having the two protests together essentially cancels them out.
3. I'm reminded of the peaceniks in the early 1980s. They were constantly attacking everything Reagan did. They blocked trains, held rallies, threw rocks, and held mass demonstrations against the war monger Ronald Reagan. The end results... nothing because the public supported Reagan. This stuff is nastier, less focused, and less principled. What's more, Trump is stronger than Reagan was at this point and less inclined to care what people think. I think the left burns out in disgrace by summer.
So Trump shouts 'MUSLIM BAN!' during his campaign, then makes a reasonable at first glance (though the devil is in the details) move temporarily ending movement from certain Muslim countries (well short of a Muslim ban) and his detractors are shouting 'MUSLIM BAN!'. How utterly predictable.
*Shrugs* I don't see the Democrats benefitting from this politically. Its a safe bet the general public is more worried about Muslim terrorism than whatever rights are at issue.
Andrew,
They kept a former US Army interpreter handcuffed for 17 hours. I've never had to go through that at an airport.
Trump dropped the ball. Big time. His administration behaved incompetently and maybe unlawfully. If this is an indication of how his administration will be run we are in for a hell of a lot of trouble.
And the reason most were released is because of the court order. The court ordered the DHS and CBP to release those they detained.
Kit, I don't see anyone who cares who wasn't already upset at Trump. I am seeing only reactions like Anthony's: "Trump said he would ban Muslims. He issues an order that sounds rational. It seems narrowly tailored to get at terrorists only. A few people got caught by mistake. No big deal. The left is whining... again. Don't care. What time is the game on today?"
The details aren't relevant.
Andrew,
"A few people got caught by mistake"? First, it was about a hundred. Second, I think everything we saw in the past 48 hours was on purpose.
Trump wanted a strong-arm push at the airports. He pretty much gave his approval to it yesterday morning. That wasn't "by mistake." It was intentional.
He did this to put a finger in the eye of the media and the left and rouse his "BAN ALL MUSLIMS" base. It might be, for the time being, good domestic politics but it is awful policy.
And it was wrong for him to do it. The EO he signed did not include LPRs or those in transit but the administration directed the CBP to target them anyway.
There is something wrong with that. Maybe they felt that, if called on it, they could throw the CBP under the bus. I don't know. But something smells very wrong.
Kit,
Think back to before Trump entered your life...
If a President had proposed a 90 day halt in immigration from 7 countries that are in the midst of terrorist civil wars (or Iran) so we could evaluate our vetting process, would you have thought this was "awful policy" or that anyone outside the truly loopy left would consider this a bad thing... even if a hundred people were "wrongly" detained for a few hours? Or would you have thought this was a good and rational idea?
Do you think the left would have said a word if the president had been Obama? Did they protest when he first put the same vetting Trump is trying to tighten into place?
Would you really accept that such a policy would be aimed at a "ban all Muslims" base, even though it only covers seven countries and like 3% of the Muslim world? Or would you consider such an attack a leftist smear?
Andrew,
I'm NOT TALKING ABOUT THE FREAKING PAUSE! I'm not talking about the Executive Order, itself.
I've stated my views on it. Here and elsewhere. It's legal. It's kosher. There is logic to it. Implementing a 4 month pause is not what I'm frustrated at.
I'm talking about the IMPLEMENTATION!
FOR THE 500TH TIME: The Executive Order as it was written did not affect Lawful Permanent Residents or those traveling to the US in transit. Yet, the CBP, apparently under direction from the administration (Bannon & Miller, specifically) enforced it against them.
That is what I'm screaming about.
Andrew,
Also, if you are going to debate me at least respond to what I actually wrote. Not what you imagined I wrote.
That is what I'm screaming about.
That's the problem, Kit. The rest of us aren't screaming.
As for implementation versus the order itself, that's a distinction without a difference for the public. To them, this is one event, and it's an event the public isn't concerned about. The left didn't bother with the distinction either. They attacked the moment it was issued and they've kept the same attacks throughout because they don't care about the specifics either. To them, this is about swinging Muslims into the anti-Trump camp.
In terms of your specific objections, all administrations have hiccups. At this point, there is nothing we know with any certainty except that the order was misinterpreted somewhere along the chain and today the administration (Reince Priebus) says it doesn't apply to green card holders. That's it so far.
Before I go on. I acknowledge that this may not have much play with the public and the left's over-the-top freakout calling for Open Borders and their Taxi Strike (seriously, they're doing that) could bolster Trump. Well, I'm not a leftist and if their actions help Trump then that's on them. Not me.
What I'm saying is that the implementation and the unclear direction from the Trump White House and their haphazard implementation of the EO raises serious questions about their competence and the way they intend to govern.
Maybe this is just the administration getting its sea legs. I hope it is.
Kit,
And that I can agree with. If Trump issued a decent order and Bannon went behind his back and told people to misinterpret it, then there is a problem that needs to be fixed. If Trump ordered Bannon to do it, then there is a bigger problem. It it was all just a mistake, then it's just how things go. Executive Orders often need sorting out before they run smoothly.
Glad we agree.
We do.
I sent you an email elaborating, by the way.
Kit, I responded. :)
New derangement alert.
Trump, who has Jews in his family and is a big supporter of Israel is being accused by Huffpo, the ADL and NBC of "whitewashing the Holocaust" by not mentioning "Jews" in his statement on the Holocaust.
FYI, it's a well-written three paragraph statement that says what most of these statements stay about evil Nazis and darkest hour, depravity, tolerance, never again, etc. But apparently, Trump is going to _____???
Idiots.
Andrew - As for Trump's Holocaust Remembrance Day..it is the nearly the exact same speech given by at least Gov. Cuomo (NY/D) and PM Justin Trudeau (Canada/Hunk) made.
As I have explained repeatedly. YES, 6 million Jews were exterminated...along with 5 million Homosexuals, Gypsies, Priest/Nuns, Physically/Mentally challenged, and many who either got in the way or tried helped save all of the above. None of that includes the "Holocaust" that the Japanese perpetrated on China, Korea, and the treatment of our soldiers/sailors in their version of concentration camps.
The real scope of lives lost as a result of both German & Japanese aggression has been estimated to have been between 50 and 80 millions soldiers & civilians including women, children, and all of the above.
We should never forget because of so many Jews died, but we also should to remember because of ALL of those who died.
Bev, Tim Kaine, the failed VP candidate called it "Holocaust denial." What an ass!
If I were a Jew, I would find this cynicism offense, frankly.
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