During the Bush 43 administration, I was frequently ashamed of my country, but there weren't multiple new things to be ashamed of every day. In my worst nightmares during that time I could never have imagined something like this.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
Egyptian officials said the family had visas and were in transit when they were prevented from boarding the EgyptAir plane to New York’s JFK airport.
Fuad Sharef, 51, and his wife and three children were instead forced to board a flight back to Erbil in Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, he told AFP.
Trump had on Friday signed a sweeping executive order to suspend refugee arrivals and impose tough controls on travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
“I had sold my house, my car, my furniture. I resigned from work and so did my wife. I took my children out of school,” said Sharef of the family’s preparations to resettle in Nashville, Tennessee under a special immigrant visa.
Back in Erbil, the pharmaceutical industry manager, who had previously worked for an NGO subcontracted by the US aid agency, said he was devastated.
“Donald Trump destroyed my life. My family’s life. I used to think America was a state of institutions but it’s as though it’s a dictatorship,” he said.
“For a decision like this to come out and be implemented immediately, and against whom? Against a valid visa holder.”
“I put my life at risk, working with the Americans at a time that it could have gotten you killed,” he added.
I knew this administration would be horrifying, but I still don't think I was prepared for how horrifying it would be on so many levels.
NPR noted today that Trump very notably did not suspend arrivals from several predominantly Muslim countries in which he has business interests.
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“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
A federal judge has issued a stay against the executive order banning Muslim immigration (though I believe it currently only affects people who are already here or currently in transit; nonetheless, this is still a victory). This is Tangerine Trujillo’s first encounter with the system of checks and balances, and I expect he will not take it well.
As Loomis points out, the nationwide protests against the order no doubt expedited its shitcanning. Hopefully we will see more of this.
ETA: Adam Silverman at Balloon Juice has a good overview of how much of a clusterfuck this really is. It is readily apparent that one hand does not know what the other is doing.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
It would be such a horrible idea for china.
Even if they could hold military ground, why go for the slow method?
US the giant bear just threw away an easy royal flush because it's just a bear and oh look at this China the normal sized poker playing bear has decided the game will be settled by claw swipes!
Most of them seem to be here, although I think Week 9 is only on her Facebook so far.
Week 10's up now on her site, and:
Quote:
Here's week 11:
1. A revised tally for the Women’s March, came in between 3 and 4 million marchers, making it the largest protest march in US history.
2. Hundreds of protestors coming to the Women’s March from Canada, were turned away at the US border.
3. Trump defensively responded with outright lies about his inaugaration crowd. Spicer said, “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inaugaration — period.” When pressed on this lie on NBC, Conway said Spicer’s false claims were, “alternative facts.”
4. Numerous reporters were arrested while covering the inauguration protests. NBC reporters were released, while others were charged.
5. In true authoritarian form, Trump declared his inauguration day to be the National Day Patriotic Devotion.
6. On the Monday after he was sworn in, a group of Constitutional scholars, Supreme Court litigators and WH ethics lawyers filed a suit claiming Trump violated the Constitution by receiving foreign payments.
7. The Boston Globe ran an op-ed titled, “The President’s House Is Empty.” The Week 2 list mentioned Melania and Baron living in NYC, now apparently Trump is too, and we have normalized this item.
8. The WSJ reported that Flynn — in addition to Page, Manafort and Stone — is under investigation for links to Russia.
9. Days after his inauguration, Trump called the National Park Security, reportedly upset about a retweet of a side-by-side photo of his inauguration next to Obama.
10. As of the Sunday evening after being sworn in, Trump still hadn’t severed his ties to his businesses as promised. After the media caught this, documents were filed later that day.
11. The WH switchboard no longer has a person answering the phone.
12. Breaking decades of precedent, Conway said Trump would never release his tax returns, saying the American public is not focused on this, (ABC poll last week showed 74% of Americans want his returns released).
13. Despite Trump’s proclamation of having a “great meeting” and “long standing ovations” at a meeting with the CIA, it turned out that Trump’s paid employees were the ones cheering, and his relations with the intelligence may be getting worse.
14. Without explanation, the CDC cancelled a Climate and Health Summit, scheduled to take place in Atlanta.
15. Trump’s staff continued to tell multiple outright lies, daily, including statements about the size of the federal workforce, crowd size, and voting fraud.
16. Massive leaks coming from the WH staff portrayed Trump as impulsive and childish, in stories published by the NYT and WAPO.
17. The State Department’s statement of apology for past LGBT discrimination was scrubbed from the official website.
18. Trump signed an executive order, reinstating AND expanding to an unprecedented degree, the Global Gag rule. He signed the order in the company of all white man (see photo below).
19. Days after being sworn in, Trump told lawmakers that 3–5 million illegal ballots cost him the popular vote. Next day, Spicer repeated the same lie.
20. Trump froze EPA grants.
21. Trump banned EPA employees from providing infomation to reporters or on social media, about new contracts or grants.
22. Later, Trump banned multiple federal agencies from communications with members of Congress and the media.
23. Trump threatened to send Federal Troops to Chicago, citing false claims about crime rates.
24. Republican legislators around the country proposed a series of bills, which would make criminalize peaceful protests.
25. There were public stories of multiple arrests, disapearances and deaths of Russian intelligence agency officers for leaks related to Trump’s dossier and interference with US election. There was also news of a possible public trial.
26. Trump’s AG nominee, Sessions, said he would not commit to recusing himself from Trump related investigations. This is counter to requirements of DOJ rules.
27. Advisors for Germany’s Merkel said they were still struggling to open communications channels with the Trump administration days after the inauguration, and that they have “given up” on him acting “presidential.”
28. On Wednesday, the WH released an email to the press, titled, “Praise for President Trump’s Bold Action.”
29. Trump ordered billions of funding cuts to UN agencies, and took action towards pulling us out of treaties, including Climate Change.
30. Mother Jones reported that some of Trump’s foreign business partners attended his inauguration, and were given VIP treatment.
31. Trump mandated that EPA scientific studies undergo a review by his political staff, before being released publicly.
32. Trump called for an investigation into voter fraud, then delayed signing the executive order. Media uncovered that several Trump insiders are registered to vote in two states.
33. Trump said torture “absolutely works,” putting him at odds with his staff on a draft torture order. For now, Trump said Mattis could override him.
34. At his CIA speech, Trump said of Iraq, “We should’ve kept the oil. But, okay, maybe we’ll have another chance.” He kept that mantra alive during the week, endangering our troops serving in Iraq.
35. Protests continued around the country, including major marches in Philadelphia and NYC.
36. In a bizarre interview with ABC, Trump continued his false claim about voter fraud, and also fixated on the crowd size of inauguration, showing David Muir a photo, and also saying, “We had the biggest audience in the history of inaugural speeches.”
37. The Economist downgraded the US on its democracy scale, to a “flawed democracy.”
38. The entire senior staff of the State Department left. It was unclear if they resigned or were fired, ahead of Trump’s incoming nominee, Tillerson, who has no diplomatic or government experience, taking office.
39. Trump signed an executive order to build The Wall. The Mexican President said Mexico would not be paying for The Wall, and canceled a previously scheduled trip to meet with Trump in DC.
40. The WSJ Editorial Board slammed Trump for his treatment of Mexico, and for floating a 20% tariff, calling him a “foreign-affairs neophyte.”
41. Bannon said the media should “keep its mouth shut,” and referred to them as “the opposition party.”
42. NPR reported that Trump signed a record number of executive actions in his first week; but unlike his predecessors, none about ethics.
43. Trump replaced the leader of a federal agency which overseas the use of Federal land, including the controversial Trump hotel in DC.
44. Business Insider reported on a memo between Igor Sechin, the CEO of Russia’s state oil company, and Trump ally, Carter Page, offering a stake in the Russia’s state oil company, in exchange for lifting of US sanctions.
45. Trump issued a statement on Holocaust Memorial Day that did not mention Jews, breaking a precedent of past Democrat and Republican presidents.
46. Same day, Trump signed an executive order banning citizens from 7 Muslim-majority countries from entering the US for the next 90 days. Trump also announced plans to increase the number of countries.
47. Trump said Christian refugees would be given preference, a clear violation of our constitution.
48. Trump immigration ban did not include countries in which Trump has business interests.
49. Trump hinted at dropping US sanction against Russia in the lead up to his first official call with Putin. In response, McCain said if Trump lifts sanction, Congress will restore them.
50. Much of Trump's foreign policy is being decided and carried out by two men, Bannon and Kushner.
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Peering from the top of Mount Stupid
ETA: Adam Silverman at Balloon Juice has a good overview of how much of a clusterfuck this really is. It is readily apparent that one tiny hand does not know what the other is doing.
From that thread, regarding the idea that Trump could be impeached and replaced by Pence:
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Originally Posted by Punch those Nazis!
It is true that a lawful evil is easier to fight than chaotic evil.
I had much the same thought, though I'm not entirely certain. As awful Trump is, Pence might actually be worse. Unlike Trump, Pence is actually competent. (And he's probably smart enough to keep a lot of his misdeeds out of the news.)
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“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
I've been wondering about that... Like what would Pence do with Bannon? Would he turf him and the white nationalists? What about Devos? Tillerson? Flynn? Sessions? Pruitt? Carson ?
I'm sure he would keep some of them But if he replaced any of them, they would have to be with someone at least marginally better. Wouldn't they?
Pence is a horrible, horrible person. He is disgusting. But he still might be better than Trump. It feels like if Pence was POTUS there would be an almost zero chance of no more democratic free elections. With Trump the chance seems non-zero. Like uncomfortably above zero. It's just over a week into his presidency and things are scary as fuck.
Yeah. A Jewish friend of mine keeps going on about how this feels like 1930s Germany all over again. She's all but convinced that there won't be an election in 2020 -- or if there is, that it will be an "election" in name only.
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“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
I feel that way too. I am more afraid of Trumps successor than of Trump himself: his narcissism seems to seriously hinder his ability to be effective. But if someone more intelligent and capable steps into his shoes, we're all in deep doodoo.
I'm not sure it's possible to be worse than Trump at this point.
Beyond that, too, nobody voted for Pence. Not even the idiot shitbird Trump apologists really have much emotional investment in him. Some anti-choicers maybe, but not much more. And being the VP to a disgraced former president isn't a very powerful position to come from.
Make no mistake, Pence would suuuuuuuck. It would be miserable, and I suspect I wouldn't be cutting down much on calls and letters and stuff if he were to take over. But I think we'd all be slightly less worried that he'd start WWIII because of some petty late night vendetta.
WHAT IN THE HELL DID I JUST WATCH???????????????????????????WHEN HAS A PRESIDENT EVER DONE THIS???! IM SCREAMING!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/LupgicIyUz
Friday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, held every year on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The White House, which issues a statement on the day every year, is being criticized for the one released on Friday which honors the “victims, survivors, and heroes” of that time, but fails to make any mention of the Jews or anti-Semitism.
Many thought it was odd that Donald Trump declined to honor Jews specifically, who, history shows, were the most persecuted group during the Holocaust. When CNN asked for some kind of clarification, Trump administration spokeswoman Hope Hicks said that “despite what the media reports, we are an incredibly inclusive group and we took into account all of those who suffered.” In comparison, both Barack Obama’s and George W. Bush’s statements mentioned either Jews, Israel, or anti-Semitism by name.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus spoke to NBC’s Chuck Todd on Meet the Press Sunday morning, further defending the President’s choice of words. “We acknowledge the horrible time of the Holocaust and what it meant for history,” Priebus said, adding, “You know that President Trump has dear family members that are Jewish, and there was no harm or ill will or offense intended by any of that.”
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This is textbook holocaust denial, or specifically soft holocaust denial “minimization.” Basically, it’s a denial that Jews were targeted specifically. Oh yes, it’s sad that there were so many people who died during the war, but there’s no reason to single out the Jews as victims. Wars are just tragic and sad, generally.
The comments are also worth reading (as they usually are on LGM), as some of them explicate further on other ways in which this is so repulsive.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith