Where to even begin with this? On Saturday, Donald Trump signed an executive order halting the resettlement efforts for refugees coming from all countries for 120 days, completely barred Syrian refugees from settlement efforts, and blocked reentry for foreign nationals from seven different “predominantly Muslim” countries (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen). It’s a “temporary Muslim ban,” which is exactly what he promised to do during the campaign. And people are shocked that, oh right, he actually did that stupid, illegal, dangerous, un-American and treasonous thing that he promised to do. The effect at airports around the country was chilling, as immigration officials and airport security officials indefinitely held immigrants (most of whom had valid visas, green cards or paperwork) for hours and hours, and some were even put on planes for deportation. A federal judge made an emergency ruling to stop deportations, but everything is still a huge, chaotic mess.
Everyone was justifiably outraged and sickened by this blatant act of cowardice, bigotry and hatred from the Trump administration. Here are just some of the reactions and stories to come out of this appalling bulls–t.
People descended on JFK and other airports. Congressmen came out to protect the detained immigrants, lawyers descended on airports to raise hell, and protesters started going HAM.
Kal Penn started crowdfunding. One commenter on his Instagram said he (Kal) doesn’t belong in America (because he’s Indian-American, I guess?) and so Kal met that racism with love: he started crowdfunding to raise money for the International Rescue Committee to protect Syrian refugees.
Mo Farah. I forgot that Olympian Mo Farah trains in America and lives here with his family, but he does and now might not be able to return to the US. He wrote a Facebook post about it, saying: “It’s deeply troubling that I will have to tell my children that Daddy might not be able to come home – to explain why the President has introduced a policy that comes from a place of ignorance and prejudice.”
Kumail Nanjiani has been tweeting a lot. You can see his Twitter here – he’s been talking about the political angles, but what I appreciate is how he’s talking about the intention behind the ban, which is to other-ize brown people in general.
Kim Kardashian has the receipts. Good for her.
Statistics pic.twitter.com/aSpyFuabct
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) January 29, 2017
Alyssa Milano stands up.
My best friend, Alaa Mohammad Khaled, is Muslim. His parents were Palestinian refugees. His brother is DJ Khaled. #RefugeesWelcome pic.twitter.com/qXOapgvvF7
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) January 28, 2017
Like, there are a million other stories – celebrity and non-celebrity – about this but the whole thing is making me feel sick to my stomach. I’m glad that there seems to be condemnation across the board, but it’s so painful that in 2017, in AMERICA, we have to condemn this, because it’s happening.
Last night, Trump was tweeting about World War III.
The joint statement of former presidential candidates John McCain & Lindsey Graham is wrong – they are sadly weak on immigration. The two…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2017
…Senators should focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration and border security instead of always looking to start World War III.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2017
When will this stop being the worst?
Oh, but no worries for Ivanka. While her father rips this country apart with his bigotry, ignorance and unconstitutional acts, she was on a date night with her husband.
Photos courtesy of Twitter, Getty.
IMO, there is no way Donald J. Twitler will last the full 4 years.
I really hope not. But at this point I’m a lot more worried about Bannon than Trump.
Yes, Bannon is chairing the National Security Council? WTF?
Bannon authored the executive order. He is nothing but evil, highly dangerous, and should not even be allowed to own a computer, let alone have a seat in the White House.
I agree. He’s terrible and dangerous.
Bannon is the puppet master. Trump wasn’t kidding when he said he had no intention of running the country. We stupidly thought he meant Pence would run it (which would have been bad), but, no, it was Bannon. Bannon is virulently racist.
I’m hoping that bannon doesn’t survive trump’s impeachment. that leaves us with pence’s crazy christian politics but better that than having to live through bannon’s nazi regime
@Shambles, Jeff Sessions helped write tat order and Paul Ryan reviewed it.
Its obvious he is pulling the strings. On Morning Joe this morning they said it was also Steven Miller and creepy Jeff sessions who also pushed it forward. Jeff freaking Sessions the proven racist. Trump isn’t in control of his President. Beginning to think the only thing and the his allowed opinion he has on his own is Twitter
Isabelle, yes. It’s like they let their puppet play with his twitter toy while they go about the business of dismantling our democracy. Like someone said above, it’s worse than I ever imagined.
I think Trump’s plan was to sign a bunch of executive orders, get the unflinching love of the American people, then grandly step aside to save the Trump corporation. It’s just all gone horribly wrong and now he is stuck. We know he has no interest in the job beyond how he and his family can personally profit from it so I suspect we are going to see more and more power going to Bannon.
As you should be, @ ESMOM, and all of Celebitchy.
Ladies and gents, please take the time to familiarize yourselves with Bannon’s “vision”. Also, Peter Thiel is very much involved in this, however, behind the scenes. Please take your time to learn about Mr. Thiel’s vision for our future.
These guys are straight out of a James Bond film.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/22/steve-bannon-trump-s-top-guy-told-me-he-was-a-leninist.html
We need Idris Elba as James Bond to save all of our asses.
If Trump is carried away in a strait jacket or persuaded to retire early by other means. Bannon will instantly lose influence. I suspect that is why the rush for all these executive orders, which are undoubtedly written hastily by Bannon. (I heard Trump read one out loud before signing and it sounded as though he had never read it before). Bannon knows that Pence or Ryan, next in line if Trump is removed, will bounce him out on his alcoholic-red ear right away. He wants to get as much of his putrid ideological agenda installed as possible before Trump is dumped because he knows he will also be dumped.
The righteous furor over all those people stranded by the immigration order is also a distraction from Bannon pushing out normal members of the National Security Council and installing himself instead, as well as the executive order about reducing regulations. Agencies such as the EPA will be severely limited by that order and public safety will be badly affected.
jwoolman, that reads to me like a very astute summary of the situation.
Bannon, an avowed Leninist, was quoted in 2014:
“Lenin,” he answered, “wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” Bannon was employing Lenin’s strategy for Tea Party populist goals. He included in that group the Republican and Democratic Parties, as well as the traditional conservative press.”
Bannon went on to state:
“National Review and The Weekly Standard,” he said, “are both left-wing magazines, and I want to destroy them also.” He added that “no one reads them or cares what they say.” His goal was to bring down the entire establishment including the leaders of the Republican Party in Congress. He went on to tell me that he was the East Coast coordinator of all the Tea Party groups. His plan was to get its candidates nominated on the Republican ticket, and then to back campaigns that they could win.
If this isn’t horrifically terrifying for people….
Why Twitter Is Talking About Steve Bannon With the Hashtag #StopPresidentBannon
http://time.com/4652785/steve-bannon-stoppresidentbannon-twitter-donald-trump/?iid=sr-link2
Because Trump is a puppet, who is being lead by the nose by Bannon. Bannon is the real power that is fueling this racist, Islamophobic agenda.
Be wary of Goebbels Bannon. Not only does he have a chair on the NSC, but the Joint Chiefs/intelligence/military personnel have been downgraded in status.
Be on alert for a Reichstag Fire incident in the United States within the month and it’s truly horrifying consequences on civil liberties.
As a follow-up to the Reichstag Fire the Nazis enacted the Enabling Law which essentially consolidated power legally into a dictatorship.
Then some other shizz happened after that…
And the joint chiefs are off the NSC. Because Bannon knows more than they do.
@Eric
This is truly petrifying. I have long suspected that it is in the interests of many of these characters to start a war. That would create a bunch of manufacturing jobs, stimulate an even further push to nationalism while simultaneously making people more amenable to the erosion of civil rights. The Christian Right will love it because nothing gets them hotter than seeing Muslims hurt. I expect an invasion within the next six months. To be honest, the hope of humanity now lies with China and Germany.
Call it what is it, Bannon = Nazi !
When they go after Artists, burning Books and building Camps, what then….?
Mark my Words, he only had started…
@Merry: Agree. I can definitely see a horrible war happening before 2020 because of who we have running this country right now. And some of the people who were saying ‘Trump can’t/won’t actually do the things he’s threatened’ are actually surprised by this.
@Suzy: This all sounds like a civil war is coming…
Trump is projecting again. He always accuses other people of doing exactly what he’s doing. Senators should stop talking about WWIII?! Cheetolini and Bannon are actively planning to start just that!!!!!!
My gut is telling me the Goebbels Bannon will set the strategy for a major offensive against ISIL within 6 months.
And, per comments made by Rancid Penis, the phone conversation Emperor Zero had with Putin over the weekend included a discussion about defeating ISIL.
So, per my earlier comment about the Reichstag Fire incident happening inside thd United States, Bannon will collude with Russia on an ISIL attack and the sanctions on Russia will thus be lifted, allowing for the complete destabilization of the Balkan states, Eastern Europe, and the partial collapse of democracy in the European nations of France, Germany, Italy, and possibly Great Britain.
Has anyone here seen this answer Bannon gave in an Daily Beast interview, this is what President Bannon believes, from a Daily Beast article ?
“I’m a Leninist,” Bannon proudly proclaimed.
Shocked, I asked him what he meant.
“Lenin,” he answered, “wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” Bannon was employing Lenin’s strategy for Tea Party populist goals. He included in that group the Republican and Democratic Parties, as well as the traditional conservative press.
The reporter later calls up to clarify the statement because he was still shocked it was said, Bannon denied ever meeting with him and giving the interview. This is the man now in charge of our country. So all of those Putin statements about not meeting Putin, seems Bannon will outright lie to the person he met,face. Bannon is a dangerous dangerous man.
I’m kind of hopeful this hashtag will get under Trump’s skin and he’ll push Bannon out a little just to protect is own fragile ego, “No I’M president!”
@Eric, actually alot of people found 9-11 and The Patriot Act to be the modern equivalent of the Reichstag Fire.
@Eric, you’re right, and what I am afraid of is that Bannon has Netanyahu working on a faked up attack on Israel that they will blame on Iran. I think they are gunning for Tehran and not ISIS. I also think they will re-institute the draft to curtail the freedom of young men and women who are protesting. But whatever nefarious things they are up to, the American people have got to be ready to protest and refuse their “trumped-up” war.
A psychologist recently broke the “Goldwater” ruler and declared Trump to be a malignant narcissist-the worst kind of narcissist! They seek to cause chaos, their most blatant lies are their version of the truth and are highly vengeful. You can bet that Trump is enjoying causing all this confusion and distress. You can add Bannon amongst the malignant narcissists too.
Holly – I agree about 9/11 and the Patriot Act already being our Reichstag fire. A conservative think tank had provided a report to Bush’s people arguing that in order to get their agenda pushed through, there would have to be something like a serious terrorist attack on US soil. Intelligence reports warned about that being likely before 9/11. My feeling is that certain people in Dubya’s Administration were watching and waiting and when they saw the hijacker movements begin, they deliberately did not take steps to intervene. Too many things were not done that were protocol when a plane gets that far off course, for example. I doubt that Dubya was directly involved, but they made sure he was out of town. It only takes a tiny number to accomplish that kind of “don’t interfere” operation. Very soon afterward, that anti-patriotic Patriot Act was installed.
People who assume nobody in our government could do such a thing should consider that our government killed more civilians by bombing Afghanistan in the two months after 9/11 than the hijackers had killed all together, and the civilian death tolls in Iraq and Afghanistan continued to climb. Between the two Gulf Wars, we killed hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians. We targeted clean water supplies in particular as well as other infrastructure modern civilians need. Our government is quite capable of doing atrocious things in the name of profit and ideology.
@ Eric
I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of the situation. I’ve indicated a similar position on another thread (the Julia Dreyfus dress post!) – the situation is CRITICAL. It may already be too late. The coup has been carried out; the reins of power are now firmly in Orange Caligula and Bannon/Goebbels’ hands; it will take major civil disobedience to get this democracy back. The parallels with Europe in the 1930s are too stunning to ignore. Trump’s Twitter reference to ‘WWIII’ was slip of the finger – he’s given the game away. His narcissistic personality, devoid of all morals and empathy, make it impossible for him to sympathise/empathise with other people or nations. If _anyone_ pisses him off, they’re fired; if it happens to be a country, well… fill in the picture. Europe is hanging on to its stability for dear life, Putin is chomping at the bit, waiting for the opportunity to grab more power/land, populist politicians are increasingly on the rise… If Le Pen gets in in France (now increasingly likely given the recent financial revelations surrounding Fillon…), we’re basically screwed.
Sorry for sounding ignorant.. but once elected, how can a President leave their post (non voluntarily in this case, and apart from dying I guess)?
Michael Moore thinks he will be impeached:
Here’s what’s going to happen, this is why we’re not going to have to suffer through four years of Donald J. Trump, because he has no ideology except the ideology of Donald J. Trump. And when you have a narcissist like that, who’s so narcissistic where it’s all about him, he will, maybe unintentionally, break laws. He will break laws because he’s only thinking about what’s best for him.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Michael-Moore-predicts-Donald-Trump-wont-last-10609090.php
He can be impeached. Here is a simplified version of impeachment:
A majority of the members of the House must vote for these charges in order to impeach the president. After the charges of misconduct are filed, the Senate has the power to try impeachment cases like a court. Two-thirds of the senators must vote for conviction. (from congressforkids.com).
Thanks Swak. The question for me is when, if ever, it will be politically expedient for Republican congress to ditch him. He would have to so damaging to the party that the only way to salvage their careers would be to impeach. But what series of events would have to occur for this to happen? How big a crime would Teflon Don have to commit to be impeached? If anybody can answer this for me, I’ll rest easier.
They can be impeached as stated by others. They can also resign like Nixon did because he knew he would be impeached.
If Trump is impeached we get Pence. He will do the same crap but figure out how to do it legally.
Not sure if we should just ride this wave and let the republicans ruin their party.
Nixon appears to have been a little averse to shame. He jumped to avoid the ignomity of being pushed. Does Trump have any sense of shame? I think he is a full blown narcissist with an insane self image. Even after impeachment he would still be tweeting about his imagined popularity. He will never ever resign not unless one of the shadowy intelligence organisations drugged, extorted or physically threatened him into it.
It’s time to start chanting, “lock him up.”
I’m from Brazil and I thought last year with Dilma impeachment was chaotic….I was wrong. This is worst. What America has done ellecting this guy.
I’m still not convinced America elected him. More like Russia installed him via covert and illegal means.
As you tell from his approval ratings and the protests, he is not acting in accordance with the will of most Americans. That’s the good news. The bad news is the SOB is still President. And every day he does more damage like a big, spoiled, deranged, orange, bull in a china shop.
@Radley – I kept thinking Russia likely used some sophisticated mechanism to defraud the system. But in actuality, the apathy of the voters is what got him in. When you realize that only 45% of eligible voters actually voted and that more than half of those voted for Hillary (she won the popular vote), what you have is a president who was “elected” by about 20% of the population. The 20% who believed Russia’s fake news and swallowed the propaganda hook, line and sinker.
Radley to be convinced go on the Daily mail and read the comments.
Not one single person on there is against Trump.
@NastyWoman and paolanqar
The piling on and groupthink doesn’t shock me at all. I know Trump has a lot of support out there. Still none of that changes that less than 100,000 votes won Trump the presidency. Unless there’s a full and transparent investigation I will always suspect Russia helped deliver key swing state votes via hacking. I don’t care how many knuckle draggers on are on the Trump bandwagon. The margin that decided this is suspiciously small. And I can imagine there’s officials out there who suspect something but don’t want to be the whistleblower that turns American democracy upside down or de-legitimizes a candidate they supported.
I still remember that documentary where Ohio voting machines were hacked, votes changed and the hacker didn’t leave a trace. So that may be possible too. It may not even be possible to point to actual hacking, even if it did happen. Royally screwed.
Low voter turnout is an issue in every election. I don’t think that was the difference maker here.
The American people did not. He lost the popular vote. The Electoral College had the ability to become faithless electors and vote for someone other that tRump, but they did not. Thus, this sh*tshow belongs to the EC.
@NastyWoman- say what you will about apathetic voters ( they existed), but he STILL lost the popular vote by some three million. The EC misplaced their spines when they chose not to act as faithless electors.
Radley, I believe you are 100% correct . Just look at the nearly 10 minute video of his motorcade on Inauguration Day.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VvurIeETabU
It’s creepily empty of supporters. The votes for him were somehow inflated. You can fake numbers, but not bodies, and there were none in the stands. Yes those who voted for him are loudly supportive, but there is nowhere near as many as the election results would lead us to believe. I’m not normally a conspiracy theorists but I’m with Keith Olberman who calls this a coup
Did you see today’s Google Doodle? I think it deserves its own post.
I’ve seen it, I’m glad that companies like Google stand up to DT in their own ways.
Bannon makes Cheney look almost nice in my opinion.
Just don’t give him a gun.
Cheney was all about money, that is it. A man like him can be swayed or bought. Bannon and Trump are about power, revenge and crashing the system. They are much worse.
no.
IMO, he won’t last one. Check out the twitter accounts @ roguepotusstaff and @ whitehouse leaks trump admin.
There is dissent at 1600 Penn, and soon enough even our congress critters will realize he is a dangerously malleable tool, and Bannon is just dangerously insane.
Do you think so though? Do you think enough Republican senators will be willing to fall on the sword and possibly end their political careers and pass up all that lobbying money? I’m not so sure. I doubt if he’ll get impeached because we are basically a plutocracy now and I don’t know if enough Republicans will be willing to take on the responsibility of removing their elected leader. I think Russia has already started WWIII, or basically the Cold War never ended. It’s still very much going on, imo. I will always suspect Russian hacking too in the election outcome but our election system is fatally flawed without Russian involvement. I just don’t see how impeachment will move through with all these turds in both Houses now. Steve Bannon is truly chilling. I don’t know what’s happening honestly, but I do think the next world war is already well underway, it just hasn’t turned hot yet… It is so insane that only a small minority of people actually supported Trump and yet, here we are. Surreal.
@Just JJ-
But here’s the thing- they may have to fall on their swords to save their posteriors because of his undressed, flagrant abuses of power. At some point, public unrest will grow even greater and there will be no option.
JustJJ- the Congressional Republicans will be watching polls and phone calls from their own constituents. Once they decide it’s riskier to back Trump than to oppose him, they will start to oppose. Those who don’t have much of a spine and put party over country will shift however is needed to get re-elected. There are some who saw the danger during the campaign and refused to support Trump then, but the real shift now will depend on public opinion in their own districts and states. Senators not up for re-election for four to six years or not planning to run again might be the bravest.
Putin owns McConnell.
I’m agree with jwoolman – I think it all depends on the tone they get from their constituents. If they hear a lot of dissent and pressure to take action, maybe.
If you live in an area with a GOP representative or senator, don’t let up. Keeping using your voice.
@ Justjj
100% – I agree. Scary and chilling. He won’t be impeached. We’re all in deep shit.
I will eat my hat if Trump is still president at the end of the year. I think he’ll either get impeached and actually voted out of office, unlike Bill Clinton, or he resigns like Richard Nixon. This is how bad things have gotten; I am now praying for a Mike Pence presidency. He’s shitty, but he won’t tweet us into a nuclear war.
“Move Trump, get out the way, get out the way, Trump, get out the way”
— Protesters in DC with a rendition of the Ludacris classic
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedNews/status/825816063208280064
We’re organising marches today all over UK, in protest.
A petition to avoid his state visit has nearly 1,3M signatures (in one day and a half).
We won’t solve much (May the Appeaser is bending in all possible ways to the Orange Cheeto) but we will #resist.
Thanks to the Brits except of course the Pretzel Prime Minister May. Watching her at the joint news conference in Washington was really painful. Coward anyone?
I dont doubt that she is spineless but then in this particular case does she have a choice other than to bend the knee? Her country is brexiting and its critical they get the bilateral deals in place asap. Plus, who knows what Putins up to, she has to kiss Cheeto ass to ensure that Nato stays intact and he doesnt completely realign Europe. Then he is too friendly with Le Farge and extreme right wingers in the UK, she needs to undercut those relationships. I mean I hate her for the Brexit idiocy but does she really have a choice but siddle up to the orange weasel?
@Merry – yes she does have a choice.
She could put our dignity before dollars.
There is ALWAYS a choice, and she is making the wrong one. And I say this as someone who lives in Britain and will suffer financial losses if and when our economy goes to shit.
Remember those pictures of the British Royal family meeting Hitler? This shit will haunt us.
@Merry: she has done a lot to offend the EU and tried to show that you don’t need them because of USA, Turkey and so on. The better reaction would have been to acknowledge that Britain needs to make compromises and get a deal with Europe.
She’s a hopeless incompetent. She thought appeasing a fascist would give her the threat of a US trade deal as a card in the upcoming Brexit negotiations.
Instead, we have #muslimban and the whole world, including her own citizens, revolting in disgust and she has isolated us even further than we were already isolated.
And, I’m afraid to say, this is the woman who sent out GO HOME vans in high immigrant areas when she was the relevant minister. She probably thinks the #muslimban is a fine idea.
Theresa May is the Neville Chamberlain of our time.
I really, really hope the UK retracts its invitation to Trump. That may go a long way toward snapping the “just give him a chance” folks out of their state of inertia. The same crowd that is pro-Trump is at least marginally pro-Brexit, although most of them don’t really understand it. They would be shocked if the country they perceive as our closest ally with a similar “populist” movement issued a smack down.
I hope the whole world uninvites him. Then he can go to his favorite Moscow hooker hotel with his BFF Vlad and do you know what.
But, seriously, he needs to become a pariah to the whole world. Something needs to happen to move the ass kissing Congress to act.
Honestly, May and the Tories have been so spineless, it isn’t true.
Thank you!!! A rejection from Britain would send a strong message.
protests in Toronto have shut down the US Embassy this morning.
Bless you, Canada.
Not too fast. We’ve also have had a racist moron who shot and killed 6 people in a mosque yesterday night. At least it was called a terrorist act… But I don’t feel like Canada’s so blessed today
Watching the petition numbers go up in real time is making me happy:
http://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/171928
And here is Prime Minister May being booed with people shouting fascist and racist at her in Cardiff today:
http://www.independent.ie/videos/world-news/video-theresa-may-is-booed-over-her-response-to-trumps-ban-before-flying-to-dublin-35409186.html
All my London rellies will be at Downing Street tonight.
Wow!! You’re almost up to 1.5 million, the same number of attendees at king donald the insane’s investiture.😂😂😂Congratulations and roll on.✊🏻✊🏻✊🏻✊🏻
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! It’s bigly yuge, isn’t it?!
This is a sad admission from a woman clutching at straws: I sat and watched the total go up for almost all of yesterday evening. I even kept clicking to the map view to check my own constituency totals.
It is so unbelievably embarrassing to be an American right now. I feel like protesting is my new full time job.
Tinkles didn’t even get a million at his coronation. That’s why he was acting so crazy about the numbers. He couldn’t stand it that the black guy got more than he got.
Our (Australian) Prime Minister had a phone call with Orange45 on Sunday morning. Trump said he will honour Obama’s deal with Australia to accept and resettle over 1000 asylum seekers currently locked up in our off-shore detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island. However, when this latest atrocity hit the news, all PM Turnbull had to say was that he wasn’t going to comment or interfere in another countries (border control) policies. Every day, Turnbull reminds us just what a pusillanimous git he is. Can’t be upsetting the apple cart so early in the piece, eh? Or ever.
Have we ever had a more p!ssweak and cowardly Prime Minister? No morals, no conscience, no spine.
People in the UK and elsewhere need to keep their governments from joining in with any wars and warlets started by Trump. If they can get their governments to stop treating him like a normal President, that would be helpful. Don’t phone him. Don’t visit him. Don’t invite him over to your country for tea. You cannot trust anything Trump says he will do for you. Your interests have to be elsewhere, the US is unreliable. Form alliances and trade agreements with countries that still have some sanity in their governments. We are being held hostage by a lunatic and his merry band of nazis. Sorry.
And Steve Bannon is now on the US’ National Security Council. Scary.
And notice how Trump slipped that in during the midst of the chaos of the ban? No accident there. Scary times.
Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine at work.
@HappyMom Yup. Classic distraction.
And NO ban on countries where tRump has business interests.
Please CB keep up the political posts. They may be devisive but this is not a time for ignorance or complacency.
These Friday-weekend surprises remind me of the celebrity PR way of diminishing coverage of negative stories.
Yes Holly, I don’t know why we aren’t hearing more about the fact that the ban excludes all of the countries that Trump does business with. He is mixing up our foreign policy with his own personal business motives. This is the conflict of interest that everyone was warned about, but now that it happens, they do nothing. Off to try to get through to my congressional reps…
Bannon terrifies me. If there ever was going to be the next Hitler I’ve got him pegged…
Exactly, some poster said we had to begin the vetting process “somewhere.” Let’s start with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, which accounted for the 18 terrorists in 9/11. Saudi Bin Laden and Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri planned the attack. However, Trump has LLCs in Saudi Arabia and 2 registered companies in Egypt. Bin Laden’s Saudi brother-in-law was arrested for the 1993 WTC bombing plot and deported (Warning #1, America). Stopping terrorism is well and good even if you’re looking in the wrong place America, but why isn’t the administration looking to stop mass shootings like Newtown, Aurora, Killeen? Were those victims not important enough, or is it just easier to target the “other,” which doesn’t seem to include crazy white guys with guns?
TERRIFYING.
Trumps Joseph Goebbles.
Bannon is a Nazi who wants to destroy the United States of America and all other democratic countries! So is Trump!! This country is full of traitors who would rather have him re-engineering things than do what’s right. Country over Party, didn’t Jefferson or another one of the founding fathers write that? For godssake. We better all get used to protesting. I’m heading over tonight to protest our Repub Gov’s State of the State speech, which I’m sure will be all rosy and full of a bunch of lies. So far the webpage for protesters says about 800 people are going to show up for the protest. We’re small but mighty so far. RESIST!
In less than two weeks in office, he has made America WEAK, not GREAT.
You know what? Yes, and no. He is a dangerously malleable narcissist with a dangerously megalomaniacal right hand man ( Bannon), but his Constitutional abuse has united this country against him like it hasn’t bee united in DECADES. That, my friend is the silver lining. The people are speaking and will not be ignored.
I’m off to make a donation to the ACLU- they’ve seen a recent surge in online donations, but donations must not stop.
Also, if you are an Arcade Fire fan, they have a powerful and sonically fantastic song out featuring Mavis Staples called “I Give You Power”, from which 100% of proceeds go to the ACLU. Give it a listen, then buy it. Fight this mad f****r tooth and nail until he & his underlings are GONE.
@NSSB
300,000 people donated $24mil to the ACLU this weekend. It’s 6 times larger than the amount the ACLU has ever received in one YEAR. (Per NPR this morning)
#resistOrangeJuliusCaesar
#resistGoebbelsBannon
The only bad thing about the ACLU is they also work with the NRA and fight any legislation on limiting gun ownership sadly.
(Just explaining why I wouldn’t personally donate to them)
Oh geez, it was a harrowing weekend. I’m not sure how much more my heart can take of this upside down world. Right now I’m disheartened by all the screaming of “liberal hypocrisy” because “Obama did the exact same thing in 2011.” First of all it’s not the exact same thing. Secondly, I see that NOTHING will prompt people to second guess heir support of Trump. I’m sick.
And Ivanka and her hubby made me want to rip my hair out. Not that I’m surprised they could be so tone deaf.
Trump is now saying Obama made the original list of the 7 countries that he has pointed out. NPR has a good article about the countries he did not put on the list. If you google “countries not banned by Trump”, it pops up.
If you google that term you also find an article on the NYTimes by a law professor- very enlightening
Thanks Marlena, I’ll have to read that one also.
So I’m finally going to have to ghost my own mother over all of this crap. She can see my kids, but that is it. My aunt and cousin were talking about this and she pops in with Obama picked the seven countries, Saudi Arabia already has an extensive vetting process you people need to fact check and do your research. She then posted some lengthy facebook post about people spreading lies and mistruths and how irresponsible they were for not fact checking and doing their research. To back up her claims she put up a meme from NumbersUSA, an article from Conservative Times, one from The National Review, and a statement from Trump himself. I called her out on her hypocrisy for trying to accuse other people of using fake news while using fake news (Donald Trump’s statements= fake news)! She stood her ground going on and on about how this wasn’t about Trump’s business interests and how people needed to do their research. I plugged some of her responses into Google and guess what came up?? Breitbart/InfoWars style fake news sites! She wouldn’t let this go and then her favorite echo chamber, my dumb racist aunt, was posting the same things and then pulling out the ol strawman “I wish you people cared as much about the unborn and homeless veterans as you do these refugees and illegals.” Bam, both have been hidden. This is the last straw. My mother is a gaslighting extraordinaire who tries to tell me I’m naive and I’m giving myself and my daughter a bad reputation. Done. Done. Done. And before I hid her, my mother was still digging in her heels to defend Trump. I said go ahead and follow your dear leader… right off the cliff he leads you to. I don’t think that went over well.
@SharkBait
Stay strong. Please know you’re not alone. I thought my parents’ attitude towards The Orange Turd was unbelievable. And they listen to my ranting and just shake their heads and say, “IT’LL ALL WORK ITSELF OUT!” Last night I told them “I can’t believe you are my parents – you were both immigrants from Fascist Germany! How can you support this fascist pig? I can’t stand it . It’s so upsetting, I can’t sleep.
@SharkBait and @Chrissy so sorry it has come to this with your family. I have family members who are trumpers, and what I have done is just not engage with them. Maybe that’s not the best response, but I feel like if they as adults don’t understand history and politics enough to see what is happening (we all went to the same schools), then I don’t have energy to explain it to them. I am not one of the people who think we need to reach and and make the trumpers understand. I think they just don’t care about other people as much as they do themselves and their little circles, and you can’t teach caring. I am focusing on my friends and family who do care, and we are calling our legislators and attending protests. And sending what money we can to organizations like ACLU and Sierra Club. Take care and stay strong through these hurtful times.
Please don’t isolate yourselves from your families. He’s not worth that. All agree that politics is off the menu. We all had political views before cheeto. Why let him divide and conquer!
Yeah we took one day off of politics to go day drinking and I woke up yesterday morning to this sh*t. Unbelievable.
Trump is even ruining day drinking.
LOL..YES all of our finest American traditions!
When I see BS about “liberal hypocrisy” because “Obama did the exact same thing in 2011” I cut and paste this:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/no-barack-obama-jimmy-carter-9717520
Not that they care, but that’s today’s tactic to keep myself sane: no engagement, just a firm rebuttal and I walk away. I also called my senators’ offices and those of my representatives to make my feelings known.
Alot of right wingers keep bringing up the idea Obama “picked the 7 countries” and he signed the “Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015.” This is a good article that details what that was and how it differs strongly from what Trump is doing: http://heavy.com/news/2017/01/barack-obama-ban-refugees-did-iraq-iraqi-muslim-trump-jimmy-carter-iran-iranian-immigration/
Oh, the hypocrisy of the right. How dare we question the legitimacy of the Prez ( I guess they did not do that to Obama for 8 years??🤔)
Let’s take a listen to Paul Ryan in this video while we think about how he is supporting his Fuerher :
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rep-paul-ryan-presidents-dont-write-laws/
Judging by Ivana’s picture, Hershey’s has released a new KISSES flavor:
SHAMELESS SWIRL
In answer to ivanka
http://twitter.com/angelarydell/status/825585757444308992
And in the mirror her husband has his hand on her ass. So classy.
Quite naturally, the Grifter in Chief did not impose a ban on the majority Muslim countries where he has businesses. Or even on the countries linked to 9/11.
http://twitter.com/cjayesq/status/825412536111661056
And his ban also discriminates based on religion: people from those countries who practice Christianity are given priority. Of course.
And since we never saw his taxes we do not know what exactly he gains from sparing these countries. There is an execellent NYTimes article by a law professor that makes that connection. The american people have no way of knowing if someone bribes Trump because we do not what companies her owns and where.
If congress doesn’t impeach him over this, they have no shame.
Oh, wait a minute, never mind…
I am a little bit upset at my democratic reps for not standing up a little more strongly over this.
That plus the terrorist attack on a mosque last night which is the direct consequence of Trump’s hate rhetoric had me cry all night long.
Yes. But bless PM Trudeau, he is sending a strong, clear message he will not bend to Trump’s will.
for real. Canadians are lucky to have someone like that as a PM.
And I screamed “YES!” when I heard him call it what it was – a terrorist attack. “Terrorist” is not limited to acts committed by brown people.
@anonymous Canadians are not “lucky”. They made a much smarter choice when they were asked to vote! The CHOSE him, just like the majority of the US population chose Trump by either voting for him or staying home on election day.
My son and I were talking yesterday morning, wondering when it would be Canada’s turn. Wasn’t 10 hours later it happened. PM Trudeau’s statement welcoming immigrants was the first good news I heard this weekend.
@Zip, please, please remember that he did not win the popular vote, so a majority of Americans did, in fact, NOT vote for him.
@zip, we actually elected a slightly less unhinged Trump for almost a decade. He was a legit politician though, so also had more restraint and said things less clearly.
He wanted only ‘old stock’ canadians, disliked muslims, gays, women and pretty much anyone who wasn’t rich white and a dude. There are strong rumors his wife is a lesbian, but they won’t divorce because God Is Watching or some crap.
Our system provides checks and balances that made it harder for him to change stuff, but he muzzled our scientists, made immigration significantly harder and cut funding to health care and infrastructure.
He was elected because people were upset at the corrupt liberals and didn’t trust them. The third party (NDP) had a large resurgence with Layton (RIP you beautiful beautiful man), a charistmatic man of the people. Liberals voting for him also helped bring about a conservative victory by diluting the liberal vote.
Any of this sound familiar?
Canada has been through semi- Trump and we hated it so much we elected Hot Hair the Selfie minister. He may be a bit self interested, but he cares about his people, all of them. He is kind, he is welcoming and he is thoughtful. I think he may be the most Canadian Prime Minister we’ve had in a long time.
I have never been so proud to be Canadian as when Trudeau speaks for us.
Now I’m just scared Kevin O’Leary will come and ruin it all.
@Detritus, let’s not also forget that Harper had also put a gag on NGOs; they couldn’t mention abortion if they wanted federal fundings. And gagged scientists too…
I’m not a big fan of Trudeau, but I’m still glad he’s our PM right now and for 3 years and that Harper is gone.
Trudeau’s responses to both the muslim ban and the shooting (calling it a terrorist act) were correct
Detritus – well, we in the US have provided you with a horrible example of what happens when you allow a Trump-like creature get power, so you can use our chaotic situation to persuade. You’re welcome.
I fear we should expect terrorist attacks all over the world, especially at American embassies and in countries that still, for some reason, support America. trump is a massive ISIS recruiting tool.
Part of me thinks this is what Trump wants: to provoke a terror attack in order to rally/unite Americans behind him and his agenda.
Kitten – Yes. That’s exactly what he wants. Nothing will stop terror attacks, so I’m just waiting for the next one and hoping it’s NOT one of the countries he’s targeting, as that would justify his hate.
Kitten- totally agree. I feel it’s only a matter of time now until we are attacked and he will use it to push his agenda further and make it a “if you’re not with us, you’re with them” situation. Frightening times.
I started to believe that too. His actions are like throwing gasoline to the fire.
You’re probably right. This ban is called “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States”, but the Trump administration is a lot more likely to provoke terrorist acts than prevent them or discourage them.
Aren’t we still lacking foreign agents across the board still? Because the diplomats were all essentially fired last week. We should be worried…China is apparently saying war with us is “likely”, we have no heads of security, top ranking officials are resigning across departments, and we are now the top recruiters for ISIS.
While I am scared (I live in a terrorist target) my need to resist is bigger. I was at two protests this weekend and its just the beginning.
I don’t want to put a penny of my money in Tiny Hand’s pockets, and any building with Trump in huge letters is a natural target for terrorism.
I agree with you Kitten. Also if anyone follows Feminista Jones on twitter, have you seen what she says about the protests?
She believes Bannon wants Trump to egg on protestors, hope things get out of hand and riots or violence starts and then send in the National Guard. Especially somewhere like Chicago. That way he proves himself to his followers.
I completely agree that Trump would love to provoke an attack. He and Bannon know the kind of power that the patriot act gave Bush and that is what they want. Once that happens, we can all kiss our civil liberties goodbye.
I agree that’s likely what’s happening. Antagonize opposition, both at home and abroad. I think he wants to send the military in for some big shock and awe crap and then pat himself on the back and call himself a hero. It’s so gruesomely disgusting.
But mysteriously, no ban on countries where he has business interests, one of which happens to be a country where actual terrorists that actually committed a terrorist attack on US soul came from.
The very terrorist attack he invoked three times when signing his executive order to ban people from other countries
my parents cancelled their trip to the US today and are going to spend their tourist money in australia. my friends and I discussed what products to avoid from now on that are coming from US companies. Germans are furious about this. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE dear americans, end this madness!
Yeah, my parents and I were planning a trip to Miami during our summer vacation but we’ve realised that that’s not a great idea. Especially considering how much damage has been done in exactly 10 days of Emperor Baby fist’s presidency.
same here . was planning to go on a 2 weeks road trip in California with my partner and 2yrs old son next spring and we’re switching to a nice retreat in Bali.
I am partly of North African descent with dual citizenship and even if I myself am not muslim I am scared to death to being held or something because of my last name. So Bali it is!
I was planning one for the end of this year for the Star Wars VIII premiere (been a lifelong fan and would have preferred to go for Rogue One, but couldn’t make it because the budget didn’t allow it).
Right now, though, I’m passing on that and will try go to another country that has decent screens/a premiere instead.
“Please please please dear Americans, end this madness!”
I understand what you’re saying here, and I know you have nothing but good intentions. But comments like this one are truly starting to frustrate me. We TRIED to stop the madness. Over half the country did not vote for him. He still got in. We screamed at the electoral college not to let him in. They did it anyway. MILLIONS of us marched in the streets to show that he does not speak for us.
We are doing absolutely everything we can. Comments like this make me feel like people outside the US see this as our fault, like we’re just letting this happen. I know we all had a hand in getting our country to this terrifying place, but the truth is that we are just as horrified and devastated as everyone else. We did not want him as our president. We’re trying so hard to fight this, and every day it looks like the power of good is slipping further and further away as we descend into madness. We’re trying everything we can to stop the madness. It’s hard to be fighting your ass off and then feel like everyone else in the outside world thinks you’re not doing enough.
YES! You seriously ready my mind.
I feel exactly like you, Shambles. I know the OP meant no harm by it but it is super-infuriating to read comments like that at this stage.
no, i do think you guys are doing enough, on the contrary I am in awe of all the activism in just one week.
I might be interpreting the other post wrong, but please know that we non Americans – in my case in Europe – feel helpless, as we cannot join the marches, call the representatives or vote next year, but fear that his actions will directly affect us too through global instability. That is why we are putting all of our hope and faith on the US citizens to help avert this catastrophe.
I used to live in the US, was a Green card holder and was so mad at myself for not booking a flight to join one of the marches. All I can do and have done so far is donating to ACLU, Kal Penn’s crowd founding, Planned Parenthood and i subscribed to the NY times (eff Trump and his disdain for the free media). If there is something else you can think of, we can do to help you in this fight, please share.
@Shambles @Kitten – what Maria said.
Please understand, it’s NOT coming from a place of anger or frustration at you, it’s more like a plea to keep fighting because as American citizens, you’re our best hope to mitigate the fallout of this.
I’ve taken out subscriptions/donations to all the American and British press outlets I know that have nailed their colours to the mast against Agent Orange (that’s the NYT, the Guardian, Wall Street Journal and if anyone can suggest more that would be great- I love the Independent but they sadly ceased publishing the print version). I’ve decided this is the least I can do, to help someone hold his feet to the fire.
I understand where you’re coming from and right now, it’s Americans themselves who are kneedeep in the bullsh*t. So it’s not use to dump on you guys from the outside. Especially because we all have our own gross politicians (I assume the OP is German like me so he/she knows exactly who I mean).
But (I’m trying to tread lightly here, please don’t get mad) this situation is not a product of one election cycle. When that man decided to run on this platform of hate and verbal diarrhea, it was already too late. Republicans, the Tea Party, and various other assh*les had put everything in place long before. Fox News has been at this for how long? And where were the marches then? Did anyone pay attention during Midterms? I’m speaking as someone who is a little grateful that this went sideways in the U.S. first. It made me realize if I want to affect change, I have to do it before some Hitler-esque douchebag gets too far. I know it’s hard to see these things coming sometimes but more often than not, people just think “Oh this will never get out of hand.” and then … well.
I believe the American people won’t just stand by while this … thing ruins their country. It just seems to me that this is not who you are and I don’t think you’re not doing enough. It’s just a little late.
ETA: Yes, what Maria said. We really need you guys to do the work because we can’t.
@ Shambles what Maria and teacakes said, I can see a lot of you guys are busting a gut to try and work this out – what we all need right now is a concerted effort across the world to stand by you, anything to help, anything to stop this insanity.
@ Shambles, i will still buy american products i love, because the companies may have a diff, opinion and are not TrumPets !
I will still looking for collaboration with american artists, no matter what happens…
And i hope i can still Travel the US (i want), because i know so much people are not like Agent Orange, quite the opposite.
To tergiversate is easy, to support maybe better?
We do have to see one thing, a lot of people sat out and didn’t vote. Trump only won because Republicans showed up and while some blue states showed up overall Democratic turnout was lower. Bitter Bernie,s, supporter sexism against Hillary, pure apathy, believing Hillary would win and buying into the Russian trolling falling into apathy. Trump is only in office because of less than 70,000 votes in the rust belt. That is it. We have the 2018 midterms coming up and not one Democrat should sit out and not vote. 2018 is very important because it may stop these actions Trump is implementing if the Senate is democratic. Protest, resist and vote in 2018.
I live in Massachusetts where two federal TROs were issued late Saturday night against Trump’s Muslim ban. I marched through the streets of Boston on the day of the inaugural with union representatives. I participated in the women’s march. I have spent the last week calling numerous members of Congress on a variety of issues. I have written to my on the fence governor. I have donated to Planned Parenthood, NHELP, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Park Service, and the ACLU. I have sent emails to the White House. I protested at Logan Airport Saturday night. I protested at Copley Swuare yesterday. My state’s AG is itching to sue Trump. I live and work in sanctuary cities. We are pressuring the Governor for a sanctuary state. Elizabeth Warren is one of my senators – and she’s the least liberal of the delegation. Short of moving to Ryan’s district, what more must I do.
@teacakes, Vanity Fair, Teen Vogue, and GQ have all been doing their part to #resist. Vox.com and Talking Points Memo have also been killing it, but they’re ad-funded. Oh, and subscribe to Slate Plus.
I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to be a sane, normal American in this mess. The US is truly a country divided.
But, I have to say, as an outsider – to know that nearly HALF of eligible voters didn’t vote at all in this election makes me think I will never understand the US. One of the candidates up for election was a dyed-in-the-wool fascist, and THAT didn’t mobilise people to show up? WTF?
And yes, I am well aware of gerrymandering and voter suppression laws in many states, and the fact that the election is (stupidly) held on a working day and that polling stations were shut down to make voting more difficult etc. etc. All important points.
BUT, just like Brexit, the fact that so many people ostensibly on the left (including millennials) were complacent, didn’t turn up, or voted for someone other than Hillary because they were too pure and perfect to vote for an imperfect candidate makes me frustrated beyond belief at the US.
So while it may be annoying to hear non-Americans complain about Trump, I’m sorry, but your fellow Americans DID inflict him on the world! The fact that so many on the left didn’t show up at all means that, yes, we will continue to criticise the US for unleashing this psychotic fascist on the world stage. Sorry, but there it is.
The rest of the world is still picking up the pieces of George W’s legacy (destabilisation of the Middle East, refugee crisis etc.), not to mention every other goddamn war we’ve followed the US into. So, while I’m sorry that sane people who didn’t vote for this monster have to put up with the criticism from outside the US, my sympathy only goes so far.
@teacakes. Washington Post, Mother Jones, Atlantic Monthly, The Nation.
@kath gerrymandering doesn’t effect the Presidential election nor the Senate. Gerrymandering primarily effects state elections and Congress, the house of representatives whom represent counties in the state. Gerrymandering divides up among county lines and districts in those areas, every so many years those districts get redrawn. So its why is effect each state and the house of representatives but doesn’t effect the Presidential race, which makes it even more hair pulling when people don’t show up for it the Presidential election
As someone with connections to Germany, I can say that Merkel’s nose isn’t clean either. Neo-Nazism is on a serious raise over there, as well. There seems to be a tendency throughout the world to start leaning towards right wing extremism. The Idiocracy reaches further then America, unfortunately.
Typical whataboutery. America has always ignored it’s silent racist majority and pointed fingers to Europe. Remember all the article about neo-nazism and anti-semitism in europe the NY Times printed? Where were their pieces on America?
Chickens coming home to roost.
Yeah, not planning to visit the US for the next four years unless it’s work – which I will try to avoid. (I’m not white and I’m paranoid.)
@mazzie – same here. I’m a lifelong Star Wars fan who really wanted to see one of the movie premieres in its land of origin but after this, I do not think I’m visiting the US anytime in the next four years.
I’m not Muslim but I am brown, and I don’t think I’m being paranoid.
I would suggest you take your money elsewhere (from Australia) – it’s leadership is SUPPORTING Trump.
America definitely isn’t alone in electing an Authoritative ruler.
In no universe could Malcolm Turnbull (Australia’s PM) be described as “Authoritative”.
He is widely regarded as the most spineless PM in 50 years and is relying on the US to bail him out politically with a deal on refugees – much to the disgust of the voting public. His approval rating is heading towards the single digits and just about every story in the news yesterday was what a weak, useless tosser he is – so it’s definitely not a case of ‘Australia’ supporting Trump – just a handful of Liberal party members.
In fact, I dare say Trump’s presidency will see the end of the ANZUS treaty. We’ve had enough of carrying America’s bags since 1951 and following the US into every stupid, pointless war since then.
Same here. All my tourist money goes either to Europe or Canada.
Was just in Berlin myself so I can confirm. Was asked by every German I met what the heck we were thinking. I just apologized for the stupid people that voted for him. We are under threat.
The fact that this EO came in on Holocaust Remembrance Day was like a punch to the gut
@ Nicole, not all of us are like that, alot of us know that the most Americans did NOT voted for Him, so you have all my sympathy….
We fear the situation because we learned from what happen 80 Years ago, now a Nazi and his Nazi- Group (the guys behind him) is leading the USA, that’s frightening….. this Guy belongs only to one List, the List of sexual Offenders, and should be never allowed a political function, and Bannon (the Übernazi) should not be allowed to own a cellphone or a Computer, and should be under permanent observation of the CIA….
What Suzy said, Nicole. He did not win the popular vote and decent people are horrified that he was able to win and take office.
Now we can only hope that Paul Ryan and Congress grow a pair and impeach him so the vermin he brought into the government slither back under the rocks they vacated to come to DC.
Hitler didn’t win the popular vote either and America doesn’t treat Germany with kiddy gloves.
@Shambles & Kitten I am sorry my post hurt you. That was not my intention. It is more like what Maria has written: “we feel helpless in Europe” and what teacake said: “it’s more like a plea to keep fighting because as American citizens, you’re our best hope to mitigate the fallout of this”. don’t give up fighting. we are on your side and wish we could do more!
I completely get it and thanks to you and all the posters who elaborated. Also, I know people have been marching and protesting in other countries. Just seeing that inspires us and makes us feel less alone in our fight.
We will continue to do our best to resist.
THANK YOU. Your reply made me change my mind about the g20 summit that takes place this july in hamburg where I live. I wanted to leave the city because I expect crazy protests specially when Trump is still president and takes part in the summit. but now I am going to join the protesters! we ALL have to stand united! please look at great britain this evening. marches and protests all over the place. you are not alone!!
Ida, please know that many, many American citizens will never give up fighting as long as Trump or any other psychotic nutcase is in office. Many of us are having trouble sleeping at night as we see what has happened to our country. I have been on the phone all morning trying to reach my representatives, but the lines are overwhelmed with other people doing the same. People are calling, writing, donating, and marching. My nephew just put up a post on his facebook page consisting of an apology to the world on our behalf!
We, the citizens can only voice our protest. It is up to the legislative branch to accept calls for investigations that will be ruled upon by the judicial branch. The problem arises in that the legislative branch is thoroughly controlled by the GOP, so it will be a more circuitous method of civil lawsuits through the judicial branch which we hop will eventually bring fruition to our desire to remove him. Please remember that a plurality of the citizenry rejected him with a sound thrashing in the popular vote. It was the electoral college members, without the spine to be faithless electors who did this to us and you. It sickens me daily.
The electoral college has failed in their only purpose. They need to go.
““Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” there is no caveat in there which says “as long as they are not Muslim”, I am not a refugee, I am not a Muslim but I am a first generation immigrant and this shakes me to the core but not as much as it makes me angry, both my sons who were born in this country took part in the women’s marches and both of them are part of the protests defending the right of refugees to come to this country.
Unconstitutional and Inhumane !! You cannot hide racism and hatred being a screen of patriotism and keeping the country safe, that goes for the cheeto dusted oompa loompa too!
The chosen child and her hubby are poster children for “Tone Deaf” , something about Nero and a fiddle, while Rome was burning, comes to mind…..
Scarlett was typing the same quote lower down the thread, your’s wasn’t here when I posted – oh well, it can’t be said often enough anyway.
This is appalling that a country built off the backs of slaves and immigrants would do this nativist claptrap I was so agitated saturday I went on a donation spree now i gotta live like a Pauper all week but f*ck it! I also urgue everyone once again to get your am calls to your congressmen and reps ( I did Marco Rubio is a disgrace of a human being, per ush)
I am utterly speechless at what this world has become.
We are on the path of Holocaust n.2
Yes, sadly. But with social media, etc., the rest of us are not going to stand idly by while our Muslim brothers and sisters are targeted.
A country built off the backs of slaves, a country responsible for the Trail of Tears, for pretty much wiping out the land’s indigenous people, a country where Jim Crow laws took over, where people were lynched, a country where people had to use different water fountains, different restaurants, different schools, sit on the back of the bus all because of the color of their skin, a country where people were hosed down in the street like animals for marching for their civil rights, a country where women had to fight to be able to vote and to have their voices heard, a country where the president ignored an epidemic of men dying at rapid rates from a mysterious new disease all because he didn’t agree with “their lifestyle”, a country who started more than one unnecessary war, a country who claims to honor veterans, but does little to help them after they come back home, practically ignoring issues like PTSD, drug use and homelessness, a country that claims separation of church and state yet countless congressmen and elected officials insert their religious beliefs into their politics, and now a country that has implemented a draconian ban on Muslims.
How was that man ever going to make America great again, when I’m not too sure America has every really been great at all.
Yes, and enslaved people whose descendants have unjustly never received reparations.
From Wiki: John Conyers introduced the “Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act” (H.R. 40) in January 1989, and has re-introduced anew this bill each congressional term. This bill calls for the creation of a commission to research the history of slavery and its effects on current America, resulting in recommendations on how to remedy this injustice. Its current version was introduced and referred to committee on January 3, 2013.
Never in my life did I think we could get to this point. Agent Orange is trying to start WWIII. The arrogance and total disregard is sickening. He has DHS ignoring court orders and no respect for the judiciary. They are acting like dictators. None of this will end well. And Giuliani admitted that Trump’s executive order is a back door order to ban muslims. That’s religious persecution.
I found the following on the web….all these so-called religious right wingers should heed the words
Pope Francis: You cannot reject refugees and call yourself a Christian
“The sickness or, you can say the sin, that Jesus condemns most is hypocrisy, which is precisely what is happening when someone claims to be a Christian but does not live according to the teaching of Christ. You cannot be a Christian without living like a Christian,” he said.
“You cannot be a Christian without practicing the Beatitudes. You cannot be a Christian without doing what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 25,” a reference to what is known as the Parable of the Judgment or the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.
The parable is found in Matthew 25:31-46, and reads in part:
“For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, A stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
“I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’
Borrowing off Twitter – If Jesus came to America today, chances are he will not be allowed in……
He certainly wouldn’t be embraced by today’s “Christians.” Too liberal and soft with all that love thy neighbor mumbo jumbo. On top of that, he was a freeloader, no job, bumming around the country with a band of bros, depending on the kindness of strangers for room and board. Definitely not the kind to MAGA.
If Jesus came back today the religious people would kill him again. Christians voting for Trump should be ashamed, ashamed and they need to look into the Bible they supposedly follow. It appalls me the most they voted for him as a Christian. Read he Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’s own version of an inauguration address and see what he says about the the poor, weak and forgotten.
He’d also be a little bit “too brown” for their tastes.
Bannon wants to destroy America. Read some of his old quotes. It’s scary.
Bannon is the real Nazi, Charles Manson looks like a fluffy Kitten in comparison to Bannon….
Jesus was at one point a refugee (as a child, fleeing with his parents to Egypt).
Not only a refugee he was an illegal hiding out from another countries ruler and law.
But right-wing evangelicals reject the Vatican entirely and extreme right wing Catholics, like Ryan, reject this Pope. They court the Catholic vote with anti-abortion rhetoric but otherwise, they reject all Catholic teachings on charity, social justice, and the death penalty. In response, they will parrot back some quote by one of the Grahams who supports Trump.
I’m convinced the world is going to end. There’s no way this will last 4 years and all the spinless politicians will let him wreck havoc until the world indeed ends.
My family thinks I am hysterical for wanting to prepare for a Doomsday scenario, but I believe Trump (well, more like Bannon) wants to start WWIII. If something does not change very soon…well, I can’t predict what will happen but I believe we will be in even trouble than we are already (which is hard to comprehend). It has been less than 2 weeks.
Meanwhile in the UK millions of us are sickened & embarrassed by spineless, cowardly Theresa May kissing his wrinkly orange arse.
Secondly, yes, Steve Bannon on the Security Council is – jesus I’m running out of words to describe how despicable & frightening this all is.
Thirdly, way to go Kim Kardashian (there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write) – those are powerful stats.
You know the world’s tilted on its axis when Ed Miliband is seeming vaguely statesmanlike & talking sense …..
May did indeed look… something close to servile during the press conference.
When Kim K is posting relevant facts, and my two red-as-can-be, typically spineless Senators have issued statements that admit how poorly done this was, it shows how crazy this situation is.
I think those stats originally came from one of the Rogue government sites, not a Kardashian because I saw them Saturday and I follow all the Rogue sites but I don’t follow any Kardashians
That’s just where she probably picked them up, or someone in the chain did that eventually landed on her account. But she helped publicize among her particular group. She deserves credit for that.
Never thought I’d say this, but I’m glad Kim shared that on social media.
So did you see the bit in London Times where Teresa May had to help Donnie down the stairs because he is afraid of stairs? I want to believe this is real.
I chose to believe it’s real. Trump probably hasn’t had to walk down actual stairs in many years. Y’all remember that famous elevator descent!!
Oh, Ivanka, like we really need to see your husband grope your ass while you dress like Jiffy Pop popcorn. At least you aren’t exploiting your kids this time.
Trump is tweeting this morning to mock Chuck Schumer and the refugees. Brags about doing this, then blames it on Delta
Jiffy Pop!! That’s the very thing! I read “baked potato in foil” descriptions, but Jiffy Pop is spot on. (No offense to good old Jiffy Pop.)
Jiffy Pop! Damn I needed that laugh!!!
I saw a tweet that had Ivanka in her dress, and a small immigrant child on a beach wrapped in a silver foil-looking trauma blanket. Underneath it said, ‘who wore it better?’
:O
I know, I saw that, too. Just when I think I can’t get more outraged or appalled. Ivanka is such a tool. But plenty of her and Trump’s supporters are merrily carrying on without a care for what’s happening, either. They just chime in every once in a while with “sore loser!”
That mirror reflection was what caught my eye. She is merely a privileged ornament.
I am scared out of my mind. This is not going to end well. For anyone.
Especially with Trump tweeting about WWIII. You know how he always accuses others of what he is actually guilty of. I’m scared that the fact that he is accusing others of looking to start world war III means he is kind of wanting to do it himself.
Impeachment can’t begin soon enough.
It’s coming down the pike for sure: impeachment or 25th amendment invoked. He won’t last, guaranteed.
But the fight will not end after his impeachment. We will still be left with the rest of his administration to battle against.
The new president will create his own administration. Unfortunately, Pence will want to create a Christian theocracy, so not sure how much better off we’ll be. But maybe that was the whole idea: have Trump elected, let him do exactly what he’s doing, he’s impeached, Pence sails in and he looks so much better (by comparison) that he can put his agenda in place with little resistance.
Once he goes they go. Some aids may be left to help with the transsition but those right handed henchman are gone. Don’t think Pence would keep them, definitely not Paul Ryan.
I think the resistance has shown we will fight whatever Christian craziness Pence will try to bring. He might be a horrible misogynist, but I don’t think he’s a crazy narcissist. It’s lose lose. I honestly hope Trump gets impeached before his first year is up. I hope it will be a lesson to those who said we need a non politician, orange, narcissistic, billionaire, conman, butthole mouth, non PC, facist as president. Because that seems to be working out greeeaaaatttt.
Although, sadly, a lot of them think it is. I’m not sure if the comment about my mother will get through moderation, but I’m currently ghosting her for her ride or die defense of Trump (using fake news sites to call out people she is accusing of using fake news to smear her precious Trump).
To me it doesn’t matter who they replace them with. My battle is against an entire political party that wants to erode our civil liberties, not just Trump.
@Shark Bait-That must be so difficult. I’m really close to my mom but I’m not sure I’d be able to look at her the same way if she was still defending Trump at this point.
But will he even leave office if he’s impeached? He has already shown that the laws of this nation do not apply to him. He has already violated a court order. The judicial branch is no longer even included on the White House website: http://gizmodo.com/why-is-the-judicial-branch-missing-from-whitehouse-gov-1791763815
And aside from appointing Bannon to the Nat’l Security Council (which is downright terrifying) he signed an executive order to increase the size of the military. He’s surrounding himself with generals. This is a coup in the making. If Congress doesn’t act soon (and by soon, I mean this week), it will be too late.
He won’t resign like Nixon—we will be subjected to a long drawn out impeachment process because he is too much of a narcissist to back down.
This 100% !
I fervently hope impeachment will go forward. Pence is vicious, but he does not have the charisma and celebrity that trump does. And the trump family has to get the hell out of our government or they will steal everything including the candlesticks from the White House. Pence is probably not yet in as deep with the Russians (hopefully). And we can fight him directly on the separation of church and state issue.
ITA, adastraperaspera! Pence had something like a 30% approval rating in his state and would likely have been voted out. He lacks the brutish charisma of Baby Fists, and I think a lot of the authoritarian-worshiping racist “good ol’ boys” won’t find him nearly so sexy. We at least need to dump Drumpf as a symbol that we won’t tolerate fascism and bigotry. If we need to follow with an impeachment of Pence, so be it.
If we impeach Trump, will Bannon go too?
Yes. Bannon is Trump’s Nazi adviser. He would be booted out right away if Trump is dumped. Trump’s family will be out, hope they get frisked first. Conway would be out. His press secretary likewise. Probably cabinet people would stay only until Pence decides whether or not he wants to replace them. Same with everyone, really.
Ivanka’s husband seriously gives me serial killer vibes.
I am in shock that this is the world that we are living in….has history taught us nothing??…seriously we need to stop all this hate and start respecting each other. If we were all the same and believed in the same things then this would be one boring world…our differences is what makes us stronger and not weaker.
I don’t understand Ivanka’s husband at all. Isn’t he Jewish? Doesn’t he fear that they will turn on him, because Banner and co will.
Yes-he is Jewish and his grandparents are Holocaust survivors. His extended family (including his brother) are Democrats. He’s been seduced by the power.
His Grandma even did talks on the holocaust because she was a survivor.
There are youtube videos of her.
In my more charitable/hopeful moments, I imagine he and Ivanka are there to act as a counterbalance to Bannon et al. But more likely they think they and their friends/family are immune. As you said, they’re likely wrong.
ETA Also, money is more important to him than anything else.
What does his family think of this?
In Nazi Germany, you only had to be 1/4 Jewish ancestry to be stripped of citizenship, relieved of all property, and shipped off. Even if you were born in Germany and didn’t identify as Jewish or participate in the faith in any way. Kushner should read some history books and wake up. Oh, and don’t do anything to go against daddy-in-law or his cronies.
I think he is working with Netanyahu and Bannon to fake up an attack on the settlements that they will claim is coming from Iran. Putin is fine with this for now, I’m sure. He will destroy Israeli hardliners after he’s taken out everyone else.
@dodgy – I don’t understand him at all either. Is it that power corrupts and strips you of a moral compass? I guess so.
I mean he is a conservative Jew and he is ok with the fact that the Trump administration he is a part of issued a statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day that had no mention of the 6 million Jews that were killed?! They didn’t have the word(s) Jews/Jewish/Judaism in the statement! They said they did it purposefully so it would cover all of those who suffered in the Holocaust. I mean that is some subversive denial BS right?
And then Priebus on Sunday defends saying “I mean, everyone’s suffering in the Holocaust, including, obviously, all of the Jewish people.”
Kushner’s family fled Nazi Germany. I just don’t understand how he is not wildly offended by this.
But nope, instead he’s out partying on Saturday night with his Chipotle foil-wrapped burrito of a wife.
Moneypowermoneypowermoneypower. He’s as disgusting as donald, ivanka, uday and qusay.
Kushner is in this for himself. He figures that he will be okay and that is all that matters to him.
Trump’s son-in-law is not only Jewish by heritage. He is a practicing Orthodox Jew serious enough about his religion that Trump’s daughter converted. His family is baffled at how he can work side by side with Steve Bannon, who is so anti-Semitic that he didn’t want his daughters going to school with Jewish children. He might think he can do some good for Israel as well as for his own bottom line, but he really has made a deal with the devil.
You guys. 2 of my Jewish friends, living in California, defiantly told me that they voted for Trump because they believe that the Islamization of America needs to stop and America needs to me a better ally to Israel.
They told me that parallels between this and the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany are nonexistent, because Jews were nice, law abiding citizens, who spoke the language, integrated nicely, and never carried out terrorist attacks, whereas Muslims are violent, out of step with American values and hell bent on imposing their laws on us, rather than accepting ours. They literally told me that they believe that their specific minority will be untouchable because of Kushner, and that they more or less agree with deportations and bans on Mexicans, Muslims, etc.
And just today, I saw another Jewish friend from California “like” something stupid in a group “we stand with Trump” or some such. I’m honestly horrified. I feel like these people are, essentially, saying that Holocaust was actually not a bad idea, but it is unfortunate that it was applied to the wrong people – the Jews. Had it been used against someone else, they would have gotten behind it.
Please, don’t attack me for being anti-Jew. I still have a lot of lovely, lovely Jewish friends who are anti-Trump and speaking up for their Muslim brothers and sisters. I’m not in any way generalizing ALL the Jews, but the first two paragraphs are how I feel about Jews who share stories of Holocaust and “Vote for Trump” on their Facebook wall back to back.
I get it. I’m Jewish and most of my Jewish friends are completely anti-Trump. I do know 3 who are pro-Trump and they boggle my mind. I just wrote up a FB comment on one who posted something snarky and then deleted it because there’s no point.
Good summation.
http://twitter.com/janeygodley/status/825491292339699712
And also… this just in folks – The new Trump administration has removed mention or links to The Judicial Branch of our government on whitehouse.gov
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/donald-trump-judiciary-judges-muslim-ban-immigration-government-white-house-website-branches-a7552566.html
Whaaat?
WTF. this is a nightmare that won’t stop.
I guess it’s back up now, after everyone freaked out.
Well, that shows the value of freaking out – let’s keep it up! They are pushing the envelope to see what they can get away with. We need to watch them like hawks.
Yeah I thought the same thing, Steerpike. Same thing happened when the GOP tried to gut the govt of ethics while we were all asleep.
We need to keep making noise.
President Bannon strikes again. I honestly thought that Dick Cheney’s evil immortal ass was terrible during the Bush administration but Bannon is worse. Why bring up Bannon when Trump is the president, you may ask? Because Trump cannot even string two half decent sentences together let alone craft something like this on his own. the Orange Pile of Sh-t is running the country like he is running his companies, someone else does all the work and he puts his name on it. Nazi Steve, Priebus, and Pence are doing all the illegal leg work and he just signs it. Now, Nazi Steve is on OPS’s security council.
This ban is also not even going to work because of what we know about lone wolf terrorists. Most of those murders/daesh are either from predominately white Christian countries or from a country not on that list. Anyone can be a Muslim it is a religion not a type of brown person. Anyone remember John Walker Lindh.
I read somewhere that most if not all of these EO are illegal, but they will need to go through the system to be overturned. A lot of people are going to be hurt while this is going on.
Lastly, I really dislike EVERYONE who voted for him, the people who did not vote at all, and the protest voters. I hope every last one of those people are really enjoying this.
Yes. I do have some resentment for the non-voters and protest-voters (and think those are the people we need to work on reaching for the next election- not the Trump voters). But the Trump voters? I have ZERO patience for anyone preaching about ‘politeness & tolerance to the Trumpsters and the leader they’ve chosen’ right now or the people who try to put harsh criticism of Trump, his wife/daughter, and his supporters on the same level as hate crimes, racism, misogyny, and homophobia. Some of the obvious false equivalencies on Trump/Ivanka/etc. threads over the past few months have been grossly ignorant.
Anyone who voted for Trump is partially responsible for the bad things that happen to people because of this administration. You made a bad decision, and we have every right to criticize that.
….this is all Bannons doing, through Puppet Trump……
I’m pretty ashamed to be an American right now.
Ashamed. Bewildered. Angry. Yet so proud of all who are standing up to Trump (and TPTB). We will not be ignored by the ignorant.
Don’t, be one of the proud Americans who are fighting back. ((hugs))
Channel that shame into action.
Write a letter template, send it to all your friends and family to send to their elected reps and law enforcement agencies. Shame will get us nowhere, we need action!
Don’t be ashamed, fight him!
Don’t be ashamed get Angry. War is at our doorstep and being ashamed can lead to apathy and defeatism. F’ck Trump, resist and get angry about it. There is such a thing as righteous anger and this is a time in which we need to utilize it.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” This is what made America great – not this nincompoop. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed by despair, the only answer for me is to do something, sign petitions, march, protest, all over the world to protest against this blithering maniac. Anybody in my part of the world it’s at 6.00pm today Victoria Square, Brum City Centre.
My French aunt emailed my mom yesterday to tell her that they want to Statue of Liberty back.
We will continue to fight with every resource we have. New marches and protests are forming every day.
@ Kitten, it’s like I posted upthread, in reality it’s far too late to play the ‘blame- game’ what’s the point of that? It’s not going to actually do anything to change the situation, protest, sign petitions, fight back is the only thing that will work right now, and everyone needs to remember, no one is fighting as hard as Americans to change this, stop effing blaming and start bloody supporting.
Thanks, Frisbee. I see the tide turning on social media and other forums. People are getting angrier and angrier. It’s a good thing. We need that anger to fight back as hard as we can.
Nah, take responsibility for your racists!
All this hate mongering has got to stop and thank goodness people are not going to stand for it. No one is immune to the sickness of hate and in Quebec, Canada, people in a mosque last night were killed. I don’t know many details yet but Muslims are in danger just as we all are from lunatics and racists. Trump shines a light on what we DON’T want our societies. I am loving all the marches going on right now against corrupt Trump’s hypocritical and ill-advised policies.
After the election I tried my hardest to understand the people who voted for him. I read all the articles, read the book Hillbilly Elegy, talked to people who had felt like this was the best of 2 bad options, the friends who are one issue voters, either Right to Life or pro-Israel. I defended them on Facebook and in real life. And now I want to scream at all of them: LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!!!! Look at what a total a-hole he is. How he’s making EVERYthing a million times worse. How he’s changing the very essence of our country. I am enraged and sickened all day long because of the horrors that he is unleashing.
THIS. One million times.
Remember when Bill Clinton lied about getting a blow job from a woman older than 21? That was terrible, right? Good thing republicans were there to protect us from that.
This whole weekend I’ve just been rage spiraling. I am lucky (I guess? Maybe?) to be represented in the federal government by Democrats who were actively speaking out again the Muslim ban this weekend, but I still make sure to contact their offices (even if it’s to say thank you). Do fake Christians believe in karma? Because if I’m Mike Pence and Paul Ryan, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night for fear that it was coming for me.
I’m with you. The rage is almost unbearable at times.
I am totally consumed by this. I am usually really even-keeled but I alternate between rage and sadness. I worry about my 16 year old son having to register for Selective Service in 2 years with this maniac as President.
Ryan is busy tweeting this morning that he must act immediately to save us all from evil Obamacare. Nothing else matters. Ryan sleeps fine at night.
This doesn’t help any with my rage. I read that Washington Post article where all the republicans are wringing their hands about how they’ll replace Obamacare. THEY’VE HAD YEARS OF COMPLAINING ABOUT IT AND HAVE NOTHING TO REPLACE IT. They’re all worried that their consituents might die and be unable to vote!
He’s tweeting about Obamacare to distract everyone from the fact that he used to think a Muslim ban was wrong.
I think he sleeps in a coffin, actually, since he is Eddie Munster.
I listened to Obama’s last interview on Pod Saves America and when he was asked about his happiest, proudest moment he described the day that he signed the ACA. It absolutely breaks my heart to see these vultures callously decimate what was an incredibly complex public healthcare system that took years and years to create and put into place.
Paul Ryan has absolutely no problem with a Muslim ban. His only problem is that someone might think he supports the ban. He just cares about avoiding the appearance of being a bigot; not the bigotry itself.
Yeah, between this and Putin decriminalizing domestic violence in Russia (and some of the reactions to it by our Trump-supporting Murricans over here) I’ve been feeling in a similar way.
My parents fled Iraq with my two brothers , and me in 02 to the UK with nothing more than the clothes on our back… I was 8 so Britain is the only home I’ve ever really known , even have a Brummie accent fgs , and this weekend has horrified me bcos my country of origin is Iraq even though I have a british passport which initially meant I wouldn’t be allowed to enter (i think now they have said as long as ur not flying from one of those 7, and have a British passport) and I agree with Sir Mo it does make u feel like an alien… it also makes my heart ache for the people who are in the position my parent were in where all they wanted was a better life, and a life without fear . Everytime I read a Trump supporter say they felt “forgotten” by the previous administration I honestly want to slap them upside their head, bcos as forgotten as you may feel as a white American you have still things others can’t even dream about…
I hear you, my friend. Any sensible person feels like an alien right now.
On history’s timeline, the US (birthed on stolen land) seems to be in our terrifying teen years — More might than foresight, more action than thought, and an overall inability to see the essential value of dissent and give due weight to, and deep consideration of, history’s generous lessons.
I offer my hands, love and support to people from any: country, faith, sexual orientation or gender identity, color, age, shape or size, who want to live in peace and build a safe and happy life. Let’s herd the evil back into its dark cage. I feel like a Horcrux count should begin.
An Iraqi-Brit with a Brummie accent will never be an alien to me.
Lol thanks sixer , i still get the odd shocked expression when I open my mouth, I like to think of myself as an Iraq/Aston hybrid 😂
As a born and bred Brummie with said accent you’ll never be alien to me either.
Ahh ur a brummie too? lol cb is a small world
Not that small luv, I think there’s only the two of us on ‘ere!
But I’m a fan of Brummies.
Thanks Sixer, we’re a fan of you too so I hereby appoint you an ‘onorary Brummie, just promise you’ll never try to do the accent! (it’s impossible apparently)
I lived in Sutton Coldfield for a while & I *LOVE* Brummies 😀
& I like to think I do a mean Brummie accent – or more Black Country maybe….
@ Pip Thank you, after years of being rubbished we have suddenly started to become popular – or maybe we always were but people were to embarrassed to admit they actually like our sing songy accent – which is NOTHING like a Black Country accent 🙂
Peaky Blinders did a pretty good job of it, all those accents were ok, pity they all did them from different parts of Brum which was a bit discombobulating…
I’m actually petrified by all this. I don’t even know what to think. I live in toronto where white people are actually the minority. I myself am white and love that my children get to be around so many cultures and creeds. But this whole thing that trump is doing. I don’t get it. I don’t know how to stop it. Will he be assassinated because of this? Can he be impeached for basically doing a hate crime? How can we get him out. He’s going to start world War 3.
‘We’ can’t get him out – what we can do is make sure this shit doesn’t start happening in Canada. We learned this morning that Canada is not immune. Please call/email your elected reps, tell them where you stand. Support the immigrant communities around you.
White people may not be the majority in the GTA, but you guys still have a tonne of social capital that comes with the privilege of being white. Use that capital to support the rest of us. It’s the Canadian way 🙂
Oh, this shit is already in Canada. Kellie Leitch, Christopher Alexander and Kevin O’Leary are running for leadership of the Conservative party – Stephen Harper’s old stomping grounds and Leitch is dogwhistling the Islamophobia loud and clear. “Drain the canal’ vs. ‘Drain the swamp,’ screening immigrants for ‘Canadian values’ but won’t articulate what they are. Railing against elites while being white, a doctor, in politics, family involved with the conservatives. Wanting to defund the CBC, our public broadcaster.
Quebec also has a history of Islamophobia. Pauline Marois wanted a ‘Quebec values’ bill, Harper tried to use the niquab as a wedge issue in the last election.
It’s up here.
Mazzie
This is what I was going to say. There are a lot of people who hate Trudea, partially based on his father. There are also just a lot of racist, bigoted, jerks in Canada. It’s a different climate in a lot of ways, but there’s always going to be ‘those kinds of people’ who like to make other people miserable.
Right now, it sucks. The Liberal party in Nova Scotia has done a lot of damage as of late when it comes to teachers. If they strike, this will be the first teachers strike to happen in Nova Scotia. And the way Stephen McNeil is treating them – I can’t blame them if they strike. The problem is – I can’t vote for this moron. I can’t. I have a family full of teachers and was going to be one myself. He also managed to really screw with nurses not that long ago as well. He’s a terrible politician, and he’s really quick to turn the public against necessary services such as nurses and teachers.
But if it comes down to the threat of O’Leary type folks, I’m going to have to go out there and vote for the liberals. It sucks, because I want this petty man out of power – but I don’t want to risk that allowing more ground for the racist, homophobic, ‘only cares about western Canada’ portion of the government to gain control. Trudeau really needs to keep bringing his ‘A game’.
It seems more like North Korea than Russia, as the days pass, though Russia is not far behind I am certain.
My thoughts and feelings echo those already posted. Keep strong, keep fighting back. Love trumps hate, every time.
Not a day goes by without me thinking ” this cannot be happening” and still it does….
This is why I want to rage at people who scream “BUT PENCE IS WOOOOORSE!!!!!”
Mike Pence is terrible. That we can all agree on. But we lived 8 years under an religious idiot name GW Bush. And even with 9/11, an illegal war and financial crises, we survived.
Steve Bannon is what terrifies me. And right now he is Trump’s mind. He’s in full control. This is an evil man who wants to destroy the system, create chaos and nuke the middle east. Bannon has to go. Trump has to go. And if that means that we have to put up with Pence, then so be it.
Totally agree.
Absolutely.
I want to rage at the irresponsible people who voted for them! Mike Pence would be a big time terrible. Trump has now proven he doesn’t know what he has to do for the country or just doesn’t give a damn. I’m scared to see what Bannon thinks he has the right to do. He’s crazy
I don’t know that I agree about Pence. Dudya wasn’t a religious fanatic like Pence is. I fear Pence and Banning working together. Religious extremist on one hand and pure evil on the other. Terrifying.
According to the WH insiders, Bannon and Kuschner are working together and elbowing everyone else out. Pence is their bumbling fool that they’ll send out for photo ops. Remember, Trump was trying to back out of having Pence as his VP. He is not someone who is in his inner circle.
@Jenns – wasn’t Pence Kushner’s suggestion? I recall reading that Trump didn’t want him but Jared convinced him.
Pence is another Kushner/Bannon mouthpiece.
But what about Ryan – have read reports that he’s another one pulling Trump strings?
Possibly. Trump was considering Christie, but he came with way too much baggage. I could see Kushner pushing for Pence because he appealed to the evangelical base. But still, I don’t think he is tight with Trump/Bannon/Kushner.
As for Paul Ryan and his stupid, smug face, he just wants to push his tax cuts, medicare program and healthcare repeal. I don’t think he likes Trump at all. His final tweet before the election was a picture of just him and Pence. Trump wasn’t nowhere to be seen. I think Ryan would turn on Trump in a second to put Pence in. But he’s too much of a spineless coward or weasel to make a move right now. I think he’s just using Trump to try and push through his own agenda.
There is gossip from the Hill Pence has been locked out. Steve Miller, Kutchner and Bannon are in control. Morning Joe this morning said slimy Jeff Sessions was in on the executive order to ban as well.
So if Pence somehow becomes president, for whatever reason (impeachment most likely) will he push out Bannon and Kushner?
Yes. Pence would choose his own advisors. And knowing Pence, he would probably choose God and Jesus.
But that’s still better than Bannon.
Yes. We’re living in a horror movie where the evil monster is a bloated, nazi puppet master who pulls the strings of his stupid orange puppet, creating havoc for the sheer sh*t of it. None of the alternatives are good but Bannon definitely needs to go
And hitler was just a chancellor. When the president died, Hitler declared himself the leader of the German people but avoided calling himself “president” because he feared people would revolt. He demanded the military swear blind allegiance to him, and then strong armed the German people into voting almost unanimously for his regime. I have been thinking (wrongly) that Trump is Hitler 2.0. He’s not, he’s just the court jester posing as president. Bannon is the real Hitler. Paul Ryan, etc., are Goebbels, Himmler, etc. Once their pieces are in place, cue the death or impeachment of Trump so they can take over. Kushner will be a casualty and never see it coming.
Agree anyone is better than Trump and Bannon, both are just evil men.
You are spot on.
Hellish nightmare of a weekend. Tiny bright spot was all of this amazing anti-trump street art on HuffPo.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/anti-trump-street-art_us_58820c24e4b070d8cad1ead2
Ivanka was on a date with her Jewish husband. Not to detract from this, but I found Trump’s All Lives Mattering the Holocaust memorial day profoundly disturbing. That is some European-style anti-sémitisme and I don’t know how Ivanka’a husband can stomach this gross Nazi filling Trump’s ear.
Dollars > Dignity
He and Ivanka are in it for the money they will make from insider trading
“That is some European-style anti-sémitisme and I don’t know how Ivanka’a husband can stomach this gross Nazi filling Trump’”
Some people have no problem selling their souls for money/power. jared kushner is one of those people.
Oops, my autocorrect now does it in French too. If being Jewish meant enough for him to get Ivanka to convert–how can he throw it away now? And I don’t understand how he can do this; the Holocaust is at the center of modern Jewish identity. If you are going to deny that, then toss your identity entirely.
It was classic Holocaust denying. One of the people who called it out was our wonderful Senator Tim Kaine. What a great VP he would have been.
His grandparents are rolling in their graves right now. He is disgusting.
Meh, they are firing up the white Christian base, and so vanilla’d the Holocaust statement down. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I imagine Miller and/or Bannon are behind that Holocaust statement. because they are opportunists playing to the base. Miller is Jewish, but that doesn’t mean a thing with this fringe nut job, elevated to the White House, along with Bannon.
What a motley crew he has surrounding him. Ugh.
I have no respect for Jared Kushner. He’s Trump-lite. Arrogant, vengeful, hateful and overestimates both his intelligence and capabilities. He’s a pawn in Steve Bannon’s game. When things blow up in Israel, ole Jared will be the Jewish face of disaster.
Ivanka needs therapy. She’s clearly very messed up. A well packaged monument to a lifetime of abuse. She knows better than anyone that her father is unfit for office and that her husband is a thirsty idiot. Yet she enables it all. All the nips, tucks, tweaks and implants in the world can’t hide that she’s a sad sad case.
Kushner is in it for one thing – power! He doesn’t need the money as his family are billionaires.
As for Ivanka, she’s in it for the prestige of being arm candy to a powerful man.
Oh, she is in it for the power for herself
What is european about his American born american raised american anti-semite?
If you don’t know the difference between the level of institutionalized antisemitism in Europe vs America, I don’t have the time to explain that much of history to you.
Right, because America has been so great to jewish people.
Choke on your american exceptionalism.
You guys are fantastic – an oasis of sanity and solidarity on the ugly ugly internet.
But – while your outrage and anger is fantastic , please, act on it too.
Americans – write to/call your representatives on ALL Levels (local, county, state, fed. ALSO contact your Law Enforcement agencies. It is important for them to know where you stand.
Brits – Please please contact your MP’s TODAY. There is meant to be a debate in parliament tomorrow. Now is the time for us to tell our representatives how we feel.
Everyone else – let’s try and step out of our echo chambers, if we can.
Now I’m going back to looking at pictures of dogs on the internet.
Many Republican members of Congress are blocking their phone lines. Email them.
Darrell Issa is my rep, unfortunately. I called this morning-it took a while but I did get through.
A list of where every senator/governor stands on the Muslim ban.
http://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hSGjyWJZIQJpGz4V2ftX_qioCgBtL59oJkkhx146nFE/htmlview?sle=true#gid=0
Of 292 Republican members of congress, eight have spoken out against the ban.
I’ve seen that doc in a couple of other places too. Those who remain silent should be utterly ashamed of themselves. I wonder how many of them posted something about the Holocaust Remembrance Day and are totally ignorant of the hypocrisy they’re displaying.
I’m not a religious person, but I take some twisted comfort in imagining Paul Ryan arriving at the pearly gates and being asked by St. Peter: “Not so fast. Where was your sense of Christianity when the helpless needed you? Sorry, can’t come in. Back the way you came.”
Then I’m reminded that there are people, here and now, whose lives are being turned upside down because this petulant man-child wanted to show the world how big and tough he was and be applauded by a bunch of cruel and ignorant racists.
Great document. Thank you for sharing.
One of the things that struck me about it:
Only 8 Republican Senators explicitly supported the measure. The VAST MAJORITY ARE SILENT!
See to me that shows they KNOW this is wrong but they are such WEASELS that they can’t find it in themselves to speak up.
PATHETIC.
I seem to know my MP’s phone number by heart, tbh. But Corbyn is pressuring Labour MPs to pass Article 50. I can only shout and push, and if that goes tits up, try to Brexit Britain myself.
Those rogue Labour MPs think that they can use the recent court case ruling and the vote to over turn the vote result – they want to stop Brexit. I may loathe gormless Corbyn but he is at least behind the vote result thou he has always been a Brexiter.
MP emailed. Yesterday! Can’t get to London but rellies are and have contributed to the crowdfund for the stage and sound.
MP emailed – check (he’s a Conservative but wth, got to make the effort), will march tonight (check) – and you’re right we all need to try.
DO NOT put on Parliament TV. Boris Johnson is a national embarrassment. (On the upside, Dennis Skinner, LOL).
When Bannon was illegally installed by trump in our security council this weekend, I thought of Jo Cox. Her murderer supposedly got many of his crazy ideas from US Neo-Nazi groups. Bannon has happily inspired, advertised and grown all those groups and more. In my book, he is an accomplice to her murder. How many more capable, caring and hard working people are going to be assassinated by him and his ilk? This all makes me sick. RESIST!
Just got back from Exeter’s demo. Sixlets knackered!
All the Trump supporters have crawled back under their stones with this issue. A huge chaotic mess which is what we would expect from this “president”. It’s only week 2. I shudder to think what else is in store.
No. They’re out. They have their script. They claim Obama did the same in 2011; he didn’t but reality is not their strong suit. They’ll show you a clip of Clinton talking about security from 1995 and ask why he’s not labeled racist because nothing has changed in two decades. Then they’ll whine that he is just protecting us and we need to give him a chance
I’ve seen a little bit of that-but I’m sure I’ll see more as they try and defend their choice to turn our country into a fascist dictatorship.
I’ve read Trump supporters saying they’re glad this is happening. Part of the reason they voted for him was to get these people out. I’m sure they didn’the expect him to be so cruel and with a scary guy like Bannon. Some must be too embarrassed to admit what a mistake voting for Trump was so they say they’re happy.
They’re gleeful. Had to delete my Facebook because I wanted to set fire to it. I truly honestly don’t understand Trump or his followers. i thought we had evolved past this already.
@ nastywoman, I totally understand. I did that too. But now, I am fighting with no remorse. I throw it right back in their faces. If I am the only voice they hear besides faux news, I want to make sure I am innundating them with sound reasoning from the opposition, if it only cracks their gleeful fascade, I am fighting. I like to look at it as subliminal messaging 😉
My mother and racist aunt are truly happy about this. They are both Islamaphobes, though. My mother freaked out about women in burquas at a hospital once. She was screaming to security about them and said it’s not right we can’t see their faces and they could be hiding weapons. So there you go.
Shark Bait – your terrified mother must have never seen a Catholic nun in the old style habits they wore when I was a kid. All that showed was their face. Has she never been to a funeral where women wear a veil over their face for privacy as they grieve?
This obsession with how other women dress seems so bizarre to me. Does your mother realize that weapons today can be hidden in a pocket or a purse? Just ask merchants how easy it is to hide shoplifted merchandise under a modern coat. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Your mother’s terror is the result of Fox News and Donald Trump and friends hammering away to promote false statistics and trying their best to scare people under the bed. We need to figure out how to immunize people against such liars and use some common sense before diving under the bed in fear.
He is removing the chair of the joint chiefs from the NSC and installing his own people. We are witnessing a take over of our democracy. The refugee ban, as horrific as it is, is a smokescreen to take our attention away from his business deals and restructuring of our government.
It has reached such insanity that I’m almost wishing for a generals’ coup.
That’s what I think too. This is horrific but can be rolled back. He and Bannon are trying to distract from their NSC takeover.
If anyone would ever have told me alt-right Steve Bannon, a founding member, from that nut job, so-called news site Breitbart News, would be so influential in the White House, I would have laughed, and said, “Never in a million years. America has progressed too far for those alt-right conspiracy bigots.” The joke is on me.
@ Jayna, stop calling it alt-right, it is called NAZI ! He is a Nazi.
It’s like calling Zombies, Post-life Brain foodies…..
Eh. I don’t know if the semantical stuff matters at this point. “Alt-Right” is pretty much synonymous with white supremacy at this stage.
History will not remember this man kindly. I take comfort in knowing in the future when he’s rightly excoriated for being an absolute incompetent horror of a President that he won’t be able to tweet back lies and delusions in defense of himself. He’ll be rotting in his grave. And intelligence, decency and common sense will have the last word. His legacy is toast.
Oh Cheetolini, if only you’d never run for President, most of the world would never have known that you’re evil incarnate. You would’ve just been the tacky, birther idiot and attention whore from bad reality tv.
I think a quote from the son of Palestinian Muslim refugees is appropriate here: Congratulations, you played yourself.
I always take comfort in knowing that I’ll be on the right side of history.
He will go down as the worst president in history. “A Yuge Catastrophe” will be the headline when describing his presidency.
I said that to a friend last night when we were commiserating about a few of our friends who are still defending his actions. I said that they are on the wrong side of history. They are the people that would have been griping about the whiners of the civil rights movement.
No matter how many people call you a snowflake, a libtard, a crybaby etc, try to gaslight you, try to accuse you of inciting fear or maligning Trump’s name… hold strong.
I’m proud to be on the right side of history.
I feel this is truly a time of moral testing for the history books. It brings me joy thinking how many of these people will be seen by history for what they are (cough Paul Ryan cough). It may not be in my lifetime, but history does not forget shit like this. I only hope this time isn’t smoothed over for future generations.
I just hope that there isn’t a major terrorist attack or assassination, because you KNOW this orange radioactive piece of shit and his toxic swamp of racists will use it as a readymade excuse to bomb anywhere they want and do anything to minorities (Dubya’s administration wrote the playbook on that).
That’s probably why they are trying to provoke an attack.
Right. While many are praying for Agent Orange to be assassinated, that wouldn’t be a good thing, because he’d be seen as a martyr in retrospect, and the thought of that is soul-corroding…
Something tells me he wanted to start with our southern border but was advised against it for obvious reasons. We are living in dangerous times.
Maybe he’ll get wars going on two fronts, overseas and civil.
This makes me sick, there can be no tolerating this, NONE. Someone please get the neo-Nazi off the National Security Council.
And Rudy Guiliani actually admitted that this was indeed a ‘Muslim ban’ because guess what, he helped draft it! I hope all these pieces of shit burn in hell.
Multiple Russian “rumored” KGB agents have been murdered in the past week. Rumor has it they got “talky” about what happened in your election.
Donald Trump is not the rightful US President but the silence from so many about him taking office speaks volumes about your country and your values. We are at your mercy because you stockpile nuclear weapons and are not afraid to use them. Trump, I imagine is less afraid of using them then any president prior to him.
George W. Bush may have been an imbecile but Trump is a malicious imbecile which is so much worse. We have been doomed by the Russians and the sadly not small portion of the U.S who think like Trump that have made the US believe that someone like him could actually be elected.
Thank you Kasia. Very interesting
Yes I saw that about the KGB agents. That story is getting no traction in US press. I read about it in the Daily Fail.
Rachel Maddow covered it some.
Yes-but it needs to be covered more by CNN and Fox.
I’m looking into Rachel Maddow’s video. Thanks for letting us know! This is HUGE!!!!
I think that you are in denial because Trump is indeed supported by a high percentage of Americans… I’m a member of some groups on Facebooks focusing on growing African Violets and its members usually are older women from Midwest, Alaska, etc. OMG, they wholeheartedly support Trump’s new initiative…Whether or not Russia is a bad guy is not so important at this point.
You’re right, in Trump’s base,who voted for him, is fully in support of his actions. They are energized by his actions. None of them are questioning him, except some wish he wouldn’t tweet about the silly stuff. BUT he is not bringing on new believers who are getting behind his pregnancy. To be a successful president , you have to have a higher approval rating than he has. I suspect the next poll will be even lower.
@Jayna – The typo of ‘his pregnancy’ startled me, then made me laugh.
Now that would be some alternative fact news there! He’s really a woman and is carrying his own spawn at 70.
For anybody interested:
http://realtimepolitics.com/2017/01/26/breaking-man-who-exposed-trumps-shady-ties-to-russia-found-dead-do-you-think-trump-is-a-criminal-yet/
Thanks for that link, Kitten. I wish this story would get more traction with our milquetoast press.
I had a terrible feeling that was coming.
Notice how Trump has tweeted about a multitude of things, but zero, zip about the Mosque attack in Canada.
I was thinking about this while getting groceries. When 9/11 happened, the world rallied for the USA.
We did it because it mattered. They needed help, and everyone worldwide gave it willingly.
This is just such a slap in the face, for all of us. This alienation of the US like they are so much superior to the rest of the world.
I hate him. The only other person I loathe as much is my mother, who as I have said here previously, is exactly like him. It’s almost an indescribable rage/helplessness to even know where to start to deal with it. Logic makes no difference, emotions are thrown back in your face and mocked.
Sorry for what you have go through with your Mother, children of Mothers with Narcisstic personality Disorder really suffer, and your’e right, he has def. NPD!
I’ll now and forevermore refer to Trump as President Gwen Stefani– cause “this shit is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s. “
Don’t insult Gwen. Just call him President Shit is Bananas. LOL
I went to two protests it DIA (Denver) this weekend. Small, but mighty! Beautiful gatherings–people singing, holding signs of welcome.
My sign said :”The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” -Leviticus
Because, you know, some people love the Old Testament when it’s convenient (homosexuality is wrong blah blah) but seem to forget there are also commandments about loving your neighbor and helping the needy. I’m so glad to see people really resisting.
This reminds me of HP7 when the Ministry of Magic was questioning muggle born witches and wizards, claiming they were not really wizards and taking their wands and putting them into Azkaban for ”stealing” precious magical blood with being born. That was scary to read and even scarier to imagine that there are people in this world who believe they are for some reason better than the others. That these people use hatred, violence, and prejudice for their own benefit. Trump is the worst I hope he will crash and burn Icarus-like rather sooner that later. And all of his administration too.
Yes!
This is like the real-life version of Hogwarts under Umbridge – draconian and discriminatory laws passed under the guise of “security”, eventually leading to a section of citizens having their legitimacy questioned and being stripped of their rights, with the help of a manipulated media.
My new name for Ivanka is Magda Goebbels.
This is all so horrible, it really is. But I feel like the more we protest, or rage against Trump, or panic, the more firm in their stance the pro-Trump supporters get. They think we all just need to calm down and that it’s just temporary and that it’ll make us more “secure”. We need to somehow make people realize that this hurts our country, that this will hurt THEM too! Because I guess they don’t have any empathy towards foreigners? But it won’t do any good to attack the for it. It’ll hit home for them if they think it’ll hurt their income. I see other posters saying they’re changing their travel plans to avoid traveling to the US. How much will it hurt our economy if tourism nosedives? If other countries put trade embargos on us? We can only stop this madman Trump by finding common ground with others who support them, because right now Trump has set up all liberals as the enemy of his supporters, and it’s convenient for them to have an enemy as a scapegoat for all their issues, and they believe the enemy is us.
I truly do not know what it would take for our elected officials to wake up and do the right thing, sooner rather than later.
Trump has set up the press as his enemy, he has said this by calling them the opposition party. Also, when I see full support of this from Trump supporters I’m not making peace with them. They don’t deserve that offer or our empathy. If they want to stand on the wrong side of history I hope their moral demise meets them and learn from it. Its best if we work through the rights channels, put heat on our elected officials, utilize law, lawsuits and openly protest and never ever be silent.
One of the saddest parts of this whole mess is that the western world is constantly punishing people for the instability and chaos caused in their homelands largely because of the interference of the western world. From propping up strongmen to giving weapons to warring groups to better enable them killing each other, the western world helped make this mess and doesn’t want to take any responsibility for it. Instead, they paint entire groups of people as murderous thugs who hate our freedom. Lies. The western world has fueled the hate for decades by their very deliberate actions. It’s infuriating!
I couldn’t agree with you more.
I had a close friend in Syria when this mess started. They were not any worse off than the US is right now, with Trump in charge.
What we should do is ban Trump et al. from planet Earth. Make this one of the universal laws. Send them flying out of our solar system. I believe even the Universe doesn’t want these parasites to live either so I fully trust it would make sure they don’t spread even further through its own realms.
I was reading this while Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” started playing.
But he did say he was going to do this during his campaign and for some inexplicable reason people thought he wouldn’t. Susan Sarandon said she was more scared of Hillary than Trump, I saw a tweet from a woman whose husband was being detained and she was complaining that she voted for Trump and is now disappointed in him, say what? If you were married to or is a moslem, why on earth would you vote for him or did they think the wall will only keep away the mexicans? The amount of people who voted against their self interest is unbelievable and we haven’t got to healthcare and medicare which he is planning to decimate, we are all in for a nightmare.
Hillary warned us that she was the only thing standing between us and apocalypse and we sneered her and now people are on twitter asking where she was and she needs to speak up, she did and all the media cared about was email, so here we are.
100%
emails email emails
Yup. Everyone thought that he only meant the hateful part against “other” people, not them. A friend of mine who voted for Trump texted me last week saying that her ACA coverage was going to be canceled. I said “Good. Now you know why the rest of us were telling you to vote for Hillary.”
That’s a recurring theme among my relatives who I think voted for Trump, either blind denial or outright ignorance than none of his policies would impact them. One lives in HUD-subsidized senior housing while her son receives disability checks due to mental health issues, another is self-employed and has recently been diagnosed with advanced-stage melanoma. He’s had to start a gofundme page to pay for treatment because he outright refuses to buy into an ACA plan since it is all an evil democratic plot to take his hard-earned money.
But but ..EMAILS!
So pissed off at the “But Hillary is so much worse” brigade.
As I have posted before, nothing the Big Bad does surprises me. My friends, the book of Revelation is being enacted play by play. He is enabled by traitor Jews (Kushner). He first pretends to be Israel’s bestie, then betrays them. A psychic has predicted he will assassinated in October. The Antichrist is assassinated, then miraculously survives. He is described as loud, boastful,and proud, speaking with a “voice of authority “. In one word Trump. The prophecies of Malachai say the 112th pope (Francis), will be the last and secretly in the service of Satan. There was video of lightning striking the Vatican when he was elected. I could go on and on. WE MUST STAND . WE MUST FIGHT TRUMP AND HIS EVIL. WE MUST LOVE AND HELP OUR FELLOWS. WE ARE ABOUT TO SEE THE FEMA CAMPS PUT INTO USE. BUT MUSLIMS ARE ONLY THE START.
Oh please, as a Jew I take offense in the Jew the traitor non-sense. Jared kushner doesn’t represent the Jewish world-wide community. And honestly, the conspiracy theories are insults to one’s intelligence.
Let common sense and the idea that God created us all equal be employed in tackling the problem named Trump without relating it to so called prophecies.
Loved closing with Date Night in Trumplamd. Not to be missed: ACLU raised $24 million on line this weekend. Normal year online donations $4 million.
Trump SAID he would do these disgusting things. Those of us who did not vote for him can be disgusted with it, but we should not be SURPRISED. #GetWOKE
We often think, Not In My Backyard, Not My Problem. But when the civil liberties soon start cutting across the board to every single person who is not a White Male, hopefully we will remember to use our voices.
People need to be patient, resist, and GET OUT THE VOTE in 2018 and everytime therafter.
#LessonHopefullyLearned
As an American living in Canada, I am starting to get concerned on coming back to the US much. So much unrest, I may cut my trips back this year.
Trump is a predator. He is the definition of rankism. Elevates himself to demean others. He’s probably loving this . Ugh.
I think he is very much loving this right now. He loves the power … he lives for it.
Which is why I love the British petition against his state visit. That his level of vulgarity has to be discussed in parlement. After reading some comments here, I’d also go for a “give back the statue of liberty” petition. If good sense, empathy, compassion can not reach the Trump supporters, maybe humiliation will show them how great their America is?
An ex of mine father is from Libya and had a green card in the US for over 30+ years. He recently went back to Libya and now their whole family fears they’ll never see him again or be able to visit him. This is the stuff that makes me ill.
My cousin has family in Iran who were on their way over to visit her, and they had to cancel. She has a niece here in the US who was going to have her visa meeting last week, and it was postponed. They are afraid she will be sent back to Iran, where she’s in danger since she has had a divorce here from her US citizen husband. On top of that, my cousin had to cancel her work trips out of the country and also their vacation to Mexico, because as a dual citizen she is afraid she may not get back in. This is a horrible, unforgivable ban that must be crushed.
I’m absolutely terrified. I’m not American and so feel a little helpless with what I can do to help, like a previous poster above.
I noticed something on social media yesterday. I follow a lot of prominent, liberal journalist, authors, activists, etc and normally I would say the comments are 60/40 likeminded individuals/die-hard Trumpsters. The 40% of comments being rather vile. On posts yesterday (or the day before, I cannot keep up, it’s been a hell of a week) about the 20% tax on Mexican imports, were all “WTF!!?? That means WE end up paying for the wall, right?”. Not a single “haha, you lost, we won, Benghazi, lock her up” type comment. They should care more about ObamaCare and their fellow human beeings but if the threat of more expencive beer and guacamole starts a thoughtprocess, well, I’ll take what I can get…
Last night I also noticed two comments on a Trump-tweets to the tune of “I voted for you, I’m disappointed, focus on business and taxes instead of refugees”. Only two mind you but they are the first I have ever seen.
Trump isn’t getting backlash but Ryan is. He’s ignoring it but his constituents aren’t as happy as they were
@NorthernStar, I am actually suspicious that Putin is still employing companies that hire English speakers to pose as commenters on social media and websites. I noticed that many of the negative messages about the Women’s March, for instance, followed the same script of “those irresponsible protests who littered DC” and etc. It’s just impossible to tell who these negative commenters are. Also, when you hear people who are supposedly liberal/progressive calling for violence against trump, etc., I think a lot of that is put in place by Putin to try and break down our commitment to non-violence. I do hope that trump voters will start feeling the pain once their insurance is taken away, as well as higher prices on goods from Mexico. Sometimes it takes pain for people to care about anything, since caring about other people seems difficult for them. Troubling times.
YES. Do not underestimate the amount of effort Putin & Co. put into these kinds of astroturf propaganda ops. They are a very cheap way of pursuing geopolitical goals — vastly, vastly cheaper than military action, and require less expertise and access than something like hacking voting machines.
It’s a good idea to strongly object to any calls for violence that you read in forums. As you say, the odds are high that it’s a paid troll trying to discredit protests. Even if not – maintaining a nonviolent approach is crucial for other reasons.
I love the political coverage–it’s like the one sane place I can read it and not scream. But could we replace Trump’s ugly face with more pleasant things like kittens, pizza, a young Ralph Fiennes? Hell, even a festering boil. Thanks.
I agree. The images of him are difficult to stomach. Not to mention that dictators use their own images to wear down and discourage the opposition. Kitties please! Or otters! Or puppies!
About a year ago, I wrote President Obama thanking him for Obamacare and telling him I had just gotten my citizenship. At the time I received a generic letter back, but today I just received another letter dated January 16. I think its a letter he sent out to all the people that wrote him over the years, he talked about diversity, how everyone is welcomed here in america, and how this country is a melting pot. I couldn’t help but cry! These past 10 days have been horrible and hard. We currently don’t have a president we have a loose cannon.
You don’t want to live in a “melting pot”. That means all those who come to America must melt into one being. In Canada, we call it a “tossed salad”. People keep their customs and own language, can wear their ethnic clothing and not feel forced to “melt” into one big pot of nothing where everyone is the same.
So happy that you have your citizenship @Babs! Hang in there and keep protesting trump. We will get rid of him in time, though it is of course very painful right now.
This is only the beginning of the 4th Reich – its only a matter of time before Capitol Hill has its night of daggers. Hitler was another puppet, with Himmler and others pulling the strings.
Lets not let Kushner off the hook here – he has his fingers in the pie just as much as Bannon. Come on CIA/FBI go rogue and release what you have on Trump/Bannon etc.. and their ties to Russia. PLEASE PLEASE!!
As for the Republicans, they are finished – when this hell finally ends, no one will vote for them again. Surely they can see this, right?
In French we have a saying “après moi le déluge”. That more or less means me, myself first. Let happen what may ( as in the end of the world) after I’m gone. This is what I hope they’re thinking. Because the alternative is that they actually are in agreement with him.
Can we all agree that Mel Gibson is not getting an Oscar this year?
😀
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
The Dallas Mayor spoke Saturday on it after it affected DFW, one of the largest hubs in the country. I was very impressed and proud of what he said and felt he made several great points about it.
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/video/category/news/3613872-dallas-mayor-addresses-dfw-airport-situation-regarding-immigration-order/
The Governor of Washington has also slammed Trump and Washington is the first state to sue Trump over his executive actions. I wish other politicians were stepping up like this.
And you know all the idiots who’re supporting the orange, baby-handed orangutan were going ballistic when Obama was signing executive orders left & right. And I support NEITHER Obama or Trump, which apparently makes me a “leftist propagandist” in alt-right circles. So be it.
Alt-Right = Nazi, so that’s what your surrounding is….hmmmm…show me your Friends, and i say you who you are….
I’m getting really confused here. How are we supposed to try to tackle the problem of all the Al-Queda/Isis – related mass shootings we’ve had under Bush and Obama if we don’t at least start properly vetting people who come into the country? And I’ve been wondering – since the Bush administration (NO love there) – what is Homeland Security really for?
Oh, where to begin.
We are vetting people. The vetting is currently taking in excess of two years.
Attacks by Al Queda? None of the 19 men responsible for the 9/11 attacks were from a nation Trump has banned.
ISIS? ISIS refused to accept Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Trump’s ban would not have blocked the Tsarnaevs (Boston Marathon bombing), the Mt Hood shooter, the San Bernadino shooter, or the Pulse nightclub shooter. Those last three would have been deterred by better gun laws but Trump opposes gun laws.
If you are concerned about national security, you should be outraged that Trump removed the 5 joint chiefs of staff from the NSC and replaced them with Bannon.
ETA and the vast majority of the mass shootings had nothing to do with ISIS or Al Queda but were committed by supposedly law-abiding white, WASP, male US citizens.
I don’t know what your sources are, but it doesn’t sound like we’re vetting everybody if anyone can just walk in through Mexico.
Better gun laws? Fort Hood was already a gun-free zone, wasn’t it? That law didn’t stop him.
I still don’t see how Homeland Security has helped things – we’ve only had more terrorism since then…and that was, what – 2001 or 2002?
I don’t know from where you’re getting YOUR sources but all non-citizens must have a valid visa at any point of entry in the US (unless they’re from visa waiver country, which proves this ban is actually shite). And in case they have a green card they’ve been vetted more than you and your entire family put together.
What does Mexico have to do with the Muslim ban?
Is an immigration lawyer a decent source? Because here he describes in detail what our extreme vetting process is right now: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/cosmostheinlost/2017/01/26/extreme-vetting-refugee-process/
My sources are the actual laws. Those who committed terrorist acts in this country would not be stopped and none of them entered through Mexico, especially not the ones who were BORN here. I noticed you avoided that when you pivoted from ISIS yo Mexico. Yes, stricter gun laws. The Ft Hood shooter brought his guns with him and he should never have been able to buy those guns.
And holly, there will ALWAYS be terrorism. Terrorism has existed as long as humans have and will exist as long as humans do. It is a act, not an ideaology. WW1 began with an act of terrorism.
And holly, there will ALWAYS be terrorism. Terrorism has existed as long as humans have and will exist as long as humans do. It is a act, not an ideaology. WW1 began with an act of terrorism.
Holly, 3/4 of the illegal immigrants in the States flew in, and they didn’t come from Mexico. There are stats that prove it.
@lightpurple, if it seemed like I was “avoiding” and “pivoting” (strong wording there), I was running out of time to type a longer response before heading into work. I see some folks have given me some links to read and I shall do so within the next few days.
Obama had a strong vetting process. It’s not like the previous administration was letting people pour through unvetted quickly. Vetting was a lengthy process.
There is no easy answer to this, and it’s very complicated for any POTUS. But to pretend like Obama did nothing over the last eight years, nor our Intelligence, is wrong or that they were not worried or focused on ISIS is wrong.
There’s just many ways as far as how ineptly Trump has handled this that makes it chaos, and, again, throwing out lies. Even Chris Wallace, on Fox News, called out some bullshit alternative facts from Kellyanne, with real facts in an interview. I appreciate what Republicans McCain and Graham said in a joint statement they put out also.
How about getting your news from sites other than Breitbart or Drudge? No one just “walks” over the border. There is border patrol (with dogs), fencing, natural barriers, etc. in place. The number of people who actually cross the border is miniscule; certainly not worth the cost of a multiple billion dollar wall that Mexico is NOT going to pay for and that will end up costing the middle class taxpayers money (because, of course, the rich will actually get tax CUTS under this administration).
Nice assumption, but I didn’t get that from Breitbart or Drudge. I saw footage of it years ago.
Please don’t jump on Holly just for asking legitimate questions. Just answer the questions. Hardly any regular news sites have been explaining how vetting actually works – which they should have been doing as soon as Trump started up with his ban and extreme vetting nonsense during the campaign. They should have a brief summary of the actual process in every article reporting Trumpian nonsense.
Holly – for ages we have had special arrangements with our immediate friendly neighbors Canada and Mexico. Some years ago after 9/11 the process was tightened up for both countries. I remember when they said they would start requiring either passports or something like them for US citizens to cross into Canada and back again, it was a sad change. Also expensive. When I was a kid, there was nothing to it. Pulled up to something that looked like a toll booth briefly, I suppose the adults had a brief chat, then poof we were all in Canada free to go wherever we wanted. I only remember eating on the side of the road using a portable stove, but I was rather young. There’s more to Canada than that! Although I obviously was very impressed by the portable stove.
But the reality is that you are far more likely to get hit by lightning than to be the victim of a terrorist attack. It really is a very rare event even now. That’s why it’s news. People need to get their fears in perspective.
You might not realize, but ‘seeing footage from years ago” is no better explanation than Breibart.
Holly, one of the cable news networks has been featuring numerous segments on what is really along the US-Mexico border. A longtime reporter (Ed Lavendara) is touring various places, talking to residents, border agents, etc. It would be more relevant than whatever you saw years ago.
John Oliver did a brilliant piece last year on the idea of the Wall, what it would cost, the logistical problems with building it, and the problems with maintaining and policing it.
Thank you, jwoolman. I agree about just wanting some answers without the emotional aspect. News used to be presented in an almost clinical way, which it should be.
@Lambda, I know, but it’s the truth – I think it was on a DVD, but I can’t recall which one.
@Kitten (I think it was), thanks for the paleos article. I did read it, and it did provide some clarification.
Holly, I’m all for a secure homeland, but at what point do we sacrifice our democratic ideals, our civil liberties and our very way of life to guarantee security for those that are deemed worthy of protection? How much freedom are you willing to surrender?
Wal-mart sells guns right? What if in some crazy alternate universe it was decided that since a very small minority of Wal-mart customers have used their guns to commit violent crimes it made perfect sense to round up and detain every person in the country that had bought something there (even if it were just groceries or kitty litter) until the authorities could determine they were not a threat? What if your unbalanced second-cousin had made threats online? Are you OK letting the feds search your home, sift through your entire internet history, ban you from traveling, and freeze your bank accounts until you could prove the Christmas present you sent him last year wasn’t in support of his wacko conspiracy?
Where do we draw the line? I’d say North Korea has a very secure homeland, but would you want to live there?
Exactly, jetlagged.
If we abandon our freedom in favour of fear, then what exactly are we protecting?
Holly – Trump is too ignorant to know that extreme vetting is really what refugees have been going through for years. First they have to get accepted as refugees by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and that office decides if they need to be relocated to another country and then which country will take them. For the US, then several US agencies (such as Homeland Security) get involved and the applicants have to pass all their tests. Then they get language and cultural training and they have to have a sponsor in the US (often religious groups do this for people without other options, and not necessarily people of the same religion) who will help them get settled and with anything they need. The whole process takes at least one to two years before a refugee can get on the plane. It was obvious to me during the campaign that neither Trump nor his spokespeople knew anything about the current process. Trump just wants to get rid of Muslims, period. That’s what his idea of extreme vetting is.
Getting family members into the US takes quite a while also even if they are not considered refugees, whether for visits or as permanent residents. People trapped at airports in the US and elsewhere last weekend included spouses, children and parents of people already in the US. Some had already sold everything they had and then were not let on the plane despite the fact that all their papers were in order and they had visas. Elderly parents coming to visit for the last time or coming so their children could care for them were detained for 24 hours and kept separated from their families. People who had left the US to see family and attend funerals and take care of ailing parents were blocked from coming back to their families in the US. Students were blocked from coming back to their schools in the US. Likewise for people who were working in the US. You can imagine how heartbreaking it all was for everyone concerned. The time required to get family members here was enormous and now they were threatened with being sent back.
There was absolutely no urgency justifying this ridiculous and heartless situation. If Trump had simply done the normal thing and had the relevant agencies review the order first, they would have explained how much trouble it was going to cause to do it instantly, how dubious the legality was, how the vagueness of the order was going to cause massive confusion, and also could tell him how the current vetting system actually works. I think Bannon was counting on chaos, though, to distract from his other maneuvers.
well said.
my father was a political refugee, and it took him more than 10 years to get to the US. the process for coming to the states is incredibly difficult, and trump is talking out of his a**.
Trump has a tweet blaming a Delta computer outage for bring the problem at the airports. And someone tweeted him back, “I think President Bannon is lying to you.” LOL
People can be very clever. My favourite tweet so far was in response to Trumps’ pic of him, writing his inauguration speech.
One guy quipped “does it start 4 russian whores and 7 hacks ago”?
still makes me laugh out loud.
Good one. LOL
If people made a thing of referring to President Bannon, it would drive Trump crazy.
😂
For much needed giggles, also check out how hard his hotel chain’s Twitter site is being trolled.
A Delta computer outage?!? At all the airports? Forcing people to be detained for up to 24 hours and threatened with being sent back?!? And President Tweeter expects us to believe that?!?!?!? What a maroon.
Being detained by ICE, no less. When they didn’t fly in on Delta. Sure. Whatever, Donald.
My cousin called me yesterday upset and depressed. She had to cancel her family vacation to Mexico because she, her husband and her kids are dual US-Iranian citizens. They live in Kansas City, so this isn’t something only hurting people on the coasts (which the airport protests show). Even though supposedly dual citizen are not going to affected, I told her to stay put in the US for now. I don’t think anything is clear at all. Which is what trump wants. He wants chaos and he is creating it daily.
And to hell with Bannon!!! That move angers me more than anything. I am calling my legislators daily to object to this. They aren’t acting much like they represent me and my needs, though. I live in a Red State right now, and it’s clear all these Republicans are traitors to their nation!
I’m not even american but this is so damn scary. It may be far fetched -or maybe not so much- but it reminds me of what fascism and nazism did in their beginning.
Oh Lord, apparently he’s announcing his Supreme Court pick tonight…
https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/826063267760046080
He wasn’t supposed to announce his pick for another two days or so. He moved it up I think to get the attention off of all his other snafus from the weekend.
It was originally scheduled for tomorrow morning, guess its now tomorrow night. Hill rumor its the one his sister recommended and he did it out of pure spite because people wanted him to chose the more conservative one, Goresuch. Its rumored he is picking Hardiman. Who knows really but that is the rumor.
Trump and his family need to face prison once he is impeached or imprisoned. Then anyone who supports Trump needs to have a trump tattooed on their forehead so that we can identify who the racists are and isolate the most from the rest of the sensible people. Let’s see how trump and his rotten supporters like being labelled and singled out.
There is a site called Groopspeak (sent to me on Facebook) and it shows the Governor of Washington State slamming Trump’s gross incompetence and calling trump an enemy of the U.s. and his acts “highly illegal”.
That speech was a beautiful thing to see. We need to encourage other democratic politicians to step up like that.
@Steerpike
Gov Jay Inslee is a hero. The speech was electric.
The quick response of protesters and pro bono lawyers at airports was very heartening. Even Kim Kardashian did something helpful by posting statistics. Good for you, Kim.
What a horrible thing to do to people. There was no urgency, but the Orange Maroon and the Nazi Drunkard (the real writer of the order) didn’t even bother to pass this order (or any order) past the relevant agencies. Someone would have told them how stupid it was 1) to do it at all and 2) to do it immediately, predictably stranding people at airports here and elsewhere.
And somebody had better have a proper sit-down talk with the Orange Maroon about the original rather extreme vetting that has always been done with refugees. I don’t think he has a clue about it but has just been pulling rhetoric out of the air. He must think someone wakes up in the morning, decides they want to be a refugee, and then hops on a plane and from then on wanders casually around the country. Actually they go through one or two years of hoop-jumping before they even get on a plane to the US. Starts with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. First it is decided if they qualify as refugees, and then if they need to be relocated to another country and then which one. Then if they are coming to the US, several US agencies become involved, starting with Homeland Security. English and cultural classes are involved also and US citizens have to sponsor each refugee. A local church here sponsored a Cambodian refugee family many years ago and has helped them with everything needed. A small local Jewish congregation sponsored some Latvian Jews many years ago also. During the weekend protests, one Muslim family caught in the Trumpian Trap was sponsored by a Jewish synagogue somewhere else.
Of course, now we know that by “extreme vetting” the Orange Maroon just means keeping Muslims out but letting Christians in. Oops, a couple of Christian families from Syria were sent back last weekend. (Who knew that Syrian Christians were brown? So confusing. Sad.) The Orange Maroon doesn’t seem to know that more Christians were accepted in the US last year than Muslims. He is still spouting the nonsense that floods of potentially terroristic Muslims are coming but persecuted absolutely benign Christians are being blocked.
I honestly think it was Bannon testing your institutions. Create a constitutional crisis by sending out unconstitutional executive orders and see a) how far they stuck and b) which institutions fell into line and which didn’t.
Resisting observers should take clear note of which agencies and institutions followed the order and who followed the rule of law/constitutionality.
I think you’re right. He is incredibly devious. I put NOTHING past him.
@Sixer, well, our Justice Department lost the Acting Attorney General tonight and Immigration and Customs lost its director too because one reviewed the Executive Order against the Constitution and found it indefensible and the other refused to go against the orders of three federal judges. ETA The words “betrayed the US” were used in the memo announcing the termination.
And the Orange Lump is having a full scale temper tantrum on Twitter.
@jwoolman, those states Kardashian tweeted came from one of the rogue EPA sites originally. She’s just cutting and pasting.
Lightpurple- of course Kim was copy-pasting. I didn’t expect that she buried herself in the library to come up with the statistics herself…. But she passed along those stats to her own mob, many of whom might never have seen them otherwise. That’s definitely A Good Thing to be encouraged.
My bet is that she didn’t get them straight from the rogue site but rather they have been forwarded multiple times before they reached her. Which if so is Another Good Thing, since every person in the chain is likely to pass it along to yet another group of people who wouldn’t see them otherwise.
“She also serves who only copies and pastes and forwards…”
Lightpurple – we saw the AG’s action just as we went to bed tonight and now I get up this morning I see the firing and the language of betrayal. Truly – I think these are tests of institutional resilience.
(I’d be correct in thinking your judiciary swears fealty to the constitution, not the president, right? As in, rule of law, not rule of government? Like ours swears on the crown as the symbol of the rule of law, not government.)
@Sixer, yes. Our oath of office is to the Constitution. Of course, any person serving within the Executive branch serves at the pleasure of the Executive, and our AG is in the Executive Branch but our federal judges, although appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, also swear loyalty to the Constitution and once in place do not answer to the President.
What I don’t get is that no one in America seems to be agitating for change to the political system that allowed this to happen.
Why do you allow yourselves to be stuck with a two party system that encourages voter apathy when those two parties don’t offer them a palatable option?
Why do you want to stay with a system that delivers a leader who didn’t win half the vote?
Why does someone with no political experiance like Trump even be able to gain a presidential nomination?
There is so much wrong with the system, why don’t you want to fix it?
Or do you….but we just don’t hear about it? Because now is the time people should be demanding it.
People do want it changed but Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell will never allow that to make it out of committee.
All these protests though, which are impressive and heartening to see should be about political change. That’s how you achieve it. Massive, continual public protest that is difficult to ignore. To me it seems that should be the protesters focus.
Change the system.
And don’t allow your president the right to appoint people to positions of power who have not been held up before the voting system…..and dont allow him the right to enact law without it going through congress. It’s not a true democracy otherwise. This was a disaster waiting to happen and the American system of Government caused it.
@Sunshine-If only it was as easy as you describe to undo a political system that has been in place for 200 plus years. If only it was as simple as the people protesting and uprising or simply “not allowing” the president to do things that we deem reproachable. Please remember that there are Americans and politicians alike who have a vested interest in NOT disrupting the two-party system.
No offense but your analysis of the American electoral system strikes me as rather naive. These things don’t occur in a vacuum.
Obama would have loved to pass everything through Congress but how was he supposed to do that with a GOP majority blocking him on every front? He used executive orders as a last resort to accomplish what he wanted to politically. Nobody was crazy about the idea because it allows a preceding president to come in and easily reverse those EOs, but Obama did so out of sheer desperation. But even then, passing through Congress doesn’t mean much when you have a majority rule system in place. Even in a three party system, one (or two) parties will always end up losing out.
We have an incredibly complex (and yes, at times infuriating) political system here in the US, but to insinuate that this is solely a failure of the American people, that we should have somehow anticipated that after 8 years of social change, we’d be back here again, is really unfair.
*succeeding not preceding. Ugh.
Plus, people are idiots who know nothing of the structures and efficacies (or deficits) of the democratic systems under which they live.
Here in the UK we even had a referendum to get rid of our useless first past the post system for electing representatives AND VOTED NO. That’s how thick we are.
sorry. Comment posted twice.
If my FB feed is anything to go by, the people who yelled the loudest last year about how the two-party system was corrupt and broken appear to doing precisely jackshit now to help develop viable third parties in the US.
@Kitten,
It’s not naive. I come from a county which did dissasemble its political system from two party. And yes neither of the two parties wanted that but it became obvious the people were so fed up they couldn’t ignore the issue. You can achieve it and you shouldn’t simply accept something because it has been there for 200 years. This Trump induced trauma is the American people’s chance to try change to something better if they want it.
A third party doesn’t have to “miss out” we have proportional representation. Every party that receives more than 5% of the vote is represented. Everyone knows their vote counts. Every law must be passed through parliament. We have coalition government which as a result moderates the worst of the left and right political extremes and forces Politicians to cooperate. We know when we vote from who our Primeminister will be choosing his cabinet. He cannot just pluck extremists out of thin air to be placed in positions of power.
It can be done. There are systems already out there. There are countries who have managed to implement them and citizens who have shouted loudly enough to enforce change.
This is your best opportunity to try and force the issue if Americans are truly eager for change.
It is naive to think there are not other, better alternatives for your country than the status quo.
Oh and if you are a democracy then the system that gives you a Leader like Trump IS the fault of the American people. I am sorry but it is.
If it is a political system imposed upon you that you do not want then you are not a true democracy, are you. I think there needs to be some facing up to hard facts by Democrats that they themselves contributed to the situation you have now. Encouraging the system to evolve the way it has for their own gain is one way they have done that. There is a lot of hand ringing and brow beating here but no true unified cry for change which suggests it is not truly wanted.
Now if people are foolish enough to vote “no” to change like they did in the UK then so
Be it…the majority didn’t want it and will have to wait a long time till their next chance but democracy worked. They had their vote.
From outside the country it seems no one in America is even asking for the ability to vote for change or willing to investigate options for a fairer safer system. Yes you are a big country, yes your system is complex. But it is broken….and some of us little countries could teach you how to fix it if you were only willing to listen and not dismiss us as naive. We do have political studies here.
If the power of those massive demonstrations across your country could be focused into a voice for change do you really think they could easily be ignored?
Bring it on then, where and how should we begin the change? Broad brush strokes.
Sunshine – we have a winner-takes-all system with no voter quorum. Don’t know current numbers, but back in the 1980s, 25% of Congress had run for election unopposed. They were literally the only name on the ballot. And unlike the Soviets, we did not have the option of voting “no” to a candidate. A single vote is enough to elect them. Maybe even zero votes… And 99% of the registered voters can boycott the election because they don’t like any of the choices, and it really doesn’t matter. In the Soviet Union, a voter boycott paralyzed the government and they had to make changes.
So 47% of registered voters didn’t vote. This means Trump was elected by about 1/4 of the registered voters (and by three million less that voted for Hillary Clinton because of the electoral system, giving all electoral votes in a state to the majority winner, no matter how tiny the difference). In addition, there were people who couldn’t vote even if they wanted to do so: too young, purged from the polls, draconian voter identification requirements recently installed by Republicans, limited voting times and limited voting machines and broken machines. Many people are afraid of losing their jobs if they stay too long to vote during working hours. Apparently several million people were kept from voting by voter suppression tactics introduced once relevant parts of the Voting Rights Act expired recently. Gerrymandering also alters district lines to make majorities of the incumbents more likely (that’s generally the Republicans at the moment).
Plus those damned machines without paper backup make recounts impossible. Recounts have always been important in our system and the safest way to do them is by hand on paper ballots. Any candidate can call for one, so one third-party candidate did. People all over the country donated millions of dollars in a few days for recounts in just three states that Trump won by small margins, but proper recounts were blocked by Trump’s lawyers and state officials – even with money donated to pay for the cost. It’s estimated that about 80,000 votes spread over three states gave Trump the electoral votes needed to win. 80,000 votes is a tiny difference in a country this size and recounts should have been mandatory, along with forensic examination of machines without paper backup.
What all this means is that Trump did not get anything close to half the vote. He didn’t even get voted in by 1/4 of the adults in the country when you consider all the people who were not registered or whose registrations had been cancelled. But winner-takes-all lets him think he has a mandate even though most of us are actually not represented by him or by Congress. Parliamentary systems work very differently. I’m sure they must have their own problems but people at least have more of a chance to have some representation of their views in government.
@jwoolman,
I know. I know all of this and I know in detail how the American system works. This is why I say your system is broken and undemocratic.
This is why I say your best protest is to protest for change.
There are better ways.
There are more democratic ways.
There are ways that mean voters are not so disenfranchised by lack of choice they simply do not vote.
America is no longer a democracy.
Sunshine this a discussion better suited when gd Rome isn’t burning. You are seeing the cherry tree in a forest of Fascist fu**kfaces running our country and you think you can cut idown the forest with rainbows and optimism. This is now, we need to focus on NOW we don’t have the luxury of thinking about 20 years from now. We may not even have any system for the people with the way this clown is driving through our Constitution full speed ahead and his army behind him.
Sunshine – First we have to try to prevent Trump from unraveling everything. Really, that takes priority. He is able to do so much damage so fast in so many ways. People are going to die because of some of his actions, and not just in wars. For example, trashing the ACA will kill people who can’t afford expensive medication (thousands of dollars per month) or other treatment. If they reinstall low lifetime limits on claims, more people will die because those limits are easily reached with one serious injury or illness. If small hospitals close due to loss of ACA funds, people will die on the way to hospitals much further away. If they don’t keep the pre-existing conditions clause, people with any kind of pre-existing condition once again will not be able to get medical insurance. And some will die. The ACA was the first ray of hope in our miserable health insurance system that drains so many of us (I had to quit when they wanted 53% of my income) but doesn’t deliver care when we actuallly need it. Unregulated profit-driven medical insurance, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries are deadly. Obama is right to consider signing the ACA as his greatest achievement, even with its flaws.
Making changes in the election system and the basic approach to government is an enormous task for us and I really don’t think many people see it as enough of a problem to change it. We have so many other problems, it’s overwhelming. Yes, it’s a Catch-22. If we had a more representative government, it would be easier to deal with our problems.
Remember many of our states are bigger than many countries. I’m in a relatively small state of five million people and I know quite a few countries smaller than that. The distances here are very large also – it takes only three hours to drive across the width of my state,, but six hours to drive across our bigger neighboring state. It usually takes people a few days to drive from coast to coast (something like 2500 miles for the continental USA) although if drivers take shifts and drive continuously and don’t need too many bathroom breaks – they could probably do it in closer to two days on the highways. If your country is a lot smaller in distances and population, your experience may not be as relevant as you think.
For us, just shifting from electoral vote to popular vote is a huge undertaking, and that aspect probably is the most likely one to be changed eventually. Ordinarily it would take an Amendment to the Constitution, meaning state legislatures would have to all vote to ratify after it passes the Congress. Amendments to the Constitution are quite difficult to achieve. The Equal Rights Amendment has been languishing for decades. It was first proposed in 1923 but didn’t get passed by Congress (2/3 majority required) until 1972. Then it had to be ratified by 3/4 of the states within 7 years, but came up short. They keep trying… but here we are in 2016 and no ERA yet.
As an alternative path to the popular vote, some states have pledged by legislation to allocate their electoral votes according to the national popular vote rather than according to the state vote. Many more states will have to sign on before this will happen. All the states currently pledging (only about 11?) are ones that are “blue” and voted for Hillary Clinton. The “red” Republican states show no interest in changing the electoral vote system. Both in 2000 and in 2016, the Republican Presidential candidate won by electoral votes while losing the popular vote. Most state legislatures have Republican majorities (at least 33, I think). We need 38 states to ratify any Constitutional Amendment. People have been talking about getting rid of the electoral college for decades, I remember it being discussed when I was a kid and I’m old as dirt.
To be honest, we need to first work on 1) removing the many obstacles to voting despite Republican majorities, 2) making the voting mechanisms secure, and 3) removing the ability of incumbents to gerrymander, putting the drawing of district lines in the hands of nonpartisan groups.
The voting machines are vulnerable and most do not have paper backup. That has to change, and hand recounts of paper ballots has to become normal and unblockable as the best protection against machine tampering at all levels. Each state runs elections in its own way, so there’s another enormous undertaking. It isn’t a matter of just getting things passed in the national legislature for us.
No @Isabelle, the time is exactly NOW because of exactly what you said. If change doesn’t happen now it never will. If you don’t change something you will end up back here in a nano second, just with a different fascist in charge. Protest his action and agitate for change at the same time. They not mutually exclusive. And it’s not rainbows and optimism either. It’s a last chance effort to prevent this ever happening again and it may not work but while people are watching the system fall apart around them…,.thats when they are likely to act.
I can’t help but noticing, Sunshine, that you talk in semi-platitudes, while I also agree with the vector of what you’re saying. Concretely, what changes you have in mind and what are the ways to achieve them?
@jwoolman—I have spent time in the States. I know the country is vast and the task ahead of you would be huge. I know in some ways it is not comparable to us but the point remains. Supposedly the biggest democracy in the world is not actually a democracy at all.
Stick with what you have by all means but it doesn’t seem to be working and for a place as big as you are there are other alternatives. Some of which you describe including adjustments to the electoral college.
Yes it’s hard to shift anything when both Parties in your two party system do not want change but look at the protest voice at the moment. As well as trying to stop your current issues that protest needs to call for electoral change. If/when Trump stuffs up so badly he is impeached and something more normal ensues people will quickly forget their fear and go back to apathy about voting change. And then you will get another Trump and continue to have the majority in your country not participating in the voting process.
I just wonder what it would take for people to stop defending the electoral system and start looking outside America for solutions.
I know it seems insurmountable but that doesn’t mean people who are up in arms about Trump shouldn’t be writing letters to the editor, harassing their congressmen, getting the message out there that this whole situation boils down to a system that has done you in.
Americans have achieved a lot of other huge social change in the past that would at one time have seemed “impossible” Race issues in the South for one. This can be done too. And now is the perfect time to push start it. At the SAME time as trying to stop your fascist regime. Every time someone speaks about this, every protest, the point should be raised. Our system did this to us.
@Lambda I can’t tell you what you should change. It’s not my country. But people should at least educate themselves on how other democratic Republics run their politics.
Things to aim to achieve I would say were: making sure the result acurately reflects the popular vote. Ensuring people who are not Democrat or Repubilcan get representation and their voice heard so they want to participate. A serious look at controls on Presidential Power and more voter input as to the Presidents appointments.
What you should do. As I said, raise the issue yourselves. Comment about it. Get it into people’s consciousness, talk about it with friends, raise it every time Trump comes into discussion, make sure people KNOW this is a system Failure. As an individual start small and make those you can reach think about it.
I never see it mentioned here although nearly everyone is anti Trump. This is exactly where you should be discussing it.
The most I have seen is people dumping on third party voters saying it is all their fault. It is not. They are allowed an opinion outside the two main parties. Don’t dump on them. Work to change the system So they have a voice.
As I said. Stick with what you have because it is too hard….too big….to try and change. Stick with it because you have had it for 200 years and it is American so therefore the best….and then you are stuck with this kind of result.
Or start small and do what you can to bring the issue to the notice of those you can.
Never mind. Spicer gave a statement over the mosque killings.
I’m being kinda fatalist here so bear with me.
Sean Martin Bormann Spicer said at the presser that the WH is reviewing military readiness within 30 days. War with ISIL is imminent. In the simplest terms this would be a disaster with massive loss of life overseas and terrorists cells blooming inside the US. If Russia decides to help thd US, then the US is doomed.
It occurred to me this morning that the border wall isn’t being installed to block out Mexican and Central Americans; it’s being constructed to keep US citizens locked in.
JFC you’re scaring me, Eric.
Yeah, me too.
The only way out will be on military transport.
Canadian immigration lawyers are about to get rich.
An item on Facebook: Mexico and Canada will each build a wall. Europe has offered to throw in a roof.
This is exactly why I will never understand why the Democrats didn’t push back harder after the election when it became clear that Hillary had won by a landslide. That should have been a moment of Constitutional Crisis, but instead everyone just went “oh, well, you know … technicalities … “
Yeah that turns my stomach too. How Hillary and all the Dems on The Hill were just like “Oh well, peaceful transfer of power,he deserves a chance.” No. He clearly does not. Wtf.
Sadly, a lot of our Democratic leaders are spineless. They let George Bush snatch the presidency from Al Gore (who also let it happen).
don’t dwell on the past, move to the future and get him out now.
I will not add anything else to what’s been said about this ban other than it’s sickening. My own father said to me “The world needs to keep an eye on Trump. This is how it begins. This is how it began with Hitler in Germany.” #WeRemember
On a more superficial note – Why is he still tweeting from his personal account? What’s even the point of the POTUS account?
Your father is right!!!
One nugget of hope is that Sean SS Spicer also said Emperor Zero was moving his SCOTUS (or SCROTUS) pick up from Thursday to Tuesday.
Perhaps Pol Pot-belly can see the writing on the wall regarding impeachment proceedings?
To all the gods past and present, let this be the case!
Sadly I think it’s about him distracting from the Muslim Ban. Every news cycle tomorrow will be dedicated to his pick.
Will someone please deport this toad?
“Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for.”~ Barack Obama
We have to keep our heads and keep fighting for what we know is right and not allow our voices to be silenced into submission.
http://deadline.com/2017/01/obama-blasts-donald-trump-travel-ban-in-first-statement-since-leaving-office-1201897555/
I heard part of today’s The Takeaway(NPR). They discussed the protests surrounding the EO. They said some supported it though and interviewed a man wearing a MAGA hat who said he was amused that one of the detainees was an Iraqi who had worked for the USA in Iraq. Ponder that for a moment if you doubt trump supporters are soulless ghouls. He was AMUSED that a man who risked his life to assist us in this godforsaken war was detained as a threat. I thought I knew what hatred was when cheney was in office. Those were halcyon days compared to now.
Oh my! The Acting Attorney General Sally Yates has instructed the Justice Department NOT to defend the ban. They’re going to fire her tomorrow probably, but it must be said: that lady has steel ovaries.
He could fire her.. and knowing what a child he is that is probably what he is going to do. He can’t help himself.
He just fired her.
They fired her tonight and put one of Cheeto’s people in. God help us all!
Director of ICE gone too.
Boobie Barbie has spent years enjoying watching her concrete-hard knockers try to bounce while she walks forward, head ducked, smiling to herself. Her husband is a major dweeb who deserves the air-headed Boobie Barbie.
Yeah, just as scared and disgusted as you all. Here’s a website that finds the closest swing state county nearest your zip code with an election coming soon. And they will email you ways you can help a democrat to get elected in that area. https://swingleft.org/
And just as I said.. He fired Sally Yates.
Another Richard Nixon Saturday Night Special, only of course, Nixon was coherent.
Yeah-Jesus, did you ever think you’d think back on Nixon with fondness?
He also just fired the acting director of Immigration & Customs Services.
Nobody running State, Justice, Border Patrol or ICE and other agencies gone rogue.
If the Dept of Justice Office of Legal Council approved the order they need to prove it. Show me the memo! They’ve been so sloppy about this Executive Order that I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t go through that process. He called up Guiliani and asked him how to do a Muslim ban LEGALLY smdh
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/316726-giuliani-trump-asked-me-how-to-do-a-muslim-ban-legally
Given that the head of the Department of Justice is the Attorney General, the Office of Legal Council would not be sending anything to the President without running it through the AG. That’s the chain of command.
Sessions was also involved in the drafting but he isn’t AG yet and Trump is blaming Democrats for McConnell not scheduling things.
I can’t breathe.
I said on election day, that thousands of activists were launched. Here is the guidebook.
https://www.indivisibleguide.com/
The guidebook to resistance to be clear….
Everyone should read the article that @Ain’tNoTelling posted above.
I’m posting it again:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/22/steve-bannon-trump-s-top-guy-told-me-he-was-a-leninist.html
This rings 100% true to me. I remember shaking my head when reporters & progressive leaning pundits would say “I thought Trump was done when he attacked John McCain!” because it was clear they had no clue what has been brewing on the right for a long time. The people who made Trump president HATE McCain, Lindsay Graham, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell, etc and trust me, that hate pre-dated Trump’s ascendancy. They call them RINOs and consider their views on immigration reform apostasy. You should visit some rightwing sites (if you can stomach it) and read the comments. The hate for the Republican establishment is off the charts and only rivaled by the hate for Hillary and Obama. In their fevered brains McCain, Ryan, et al were too soft! They rolled over for Obama and the so-called”libtards” too much. SMDH. They LOVE what Trump is doing now and are too dumb to realize Trump’s simplistic plans won’t do jack to help bring back their jobs, defeat ISIS or whatever else they expected him to do.
I’ve been reading this site for years (over a decade?), but this is my first comment.
I appreciate everything you have been writing to keep readers informed and enraged! Keep up the good work.
Okay, the list of his horrible statements and acts is officially, at least in my mind, too long to list at this point. The only way to fix this is to do what you can, whether that is to march, donate to the ACLU, donate to planned parenthood, if you live in red state hound your politicians to do the right thing and give money to viable candidates if they won’t, if you live in a blue state hound your politicians to do the right thing (or you will vote out their rears).
To misquote Nike, get off social media (sometimes) and just do it.
Stick to gossip Celebitchy and stay out of politics about which you know very little.
See, that’s the thing. Until BabyFists declares martial law; we all have the right to talk about politics, whether we know a little or a lot. And this isn’t just “politics” that we are discussing; we are discussing controlling laws like the Constitution of the United States of America, particularly the First and Fourteenth Amendments and basic human rights.
You should have given that advice to Trump. Much more appropriate to him
You know very little about the discussions on these threads.
So you think a celebrity as POTUS shouldn’t be discussed on a site that deals with celebrity news items? I can’t help you there.
One thing that I could not shake about this ban is “What are they really hoping to accomplish?” We know it’ll be ineffective at keeping us safer. The vetting process is already extremely long, people are radicalized over the internet nowadays and the list itself is missing two of the “riskier” countries – Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Other than Trump throwing red meat to the morons in his base I couldn’t see what the point was.
Well here we go:
“Trump’s top advisors on immigration, including chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior advisor Stephen Miller, see themselves as launching a radical experiment to fundamentally transform how the U.S. decides who is allowed into the country and to block a generation of people who, in their view, won’t assimilate into American society.”
Wow. Just wow.
People shouldn’t be scared of their government – government should be scared of the people. That phrase been ringing in my head over the past few days.
Thank you for the commentary Celebitcht keep up the good fight!
This ANIMAL needs to be stopped! He’s seriously hurting our country, and setting us up for more attacks.
I live in one of the Asian countries Trump is claiming that we owed more money to America, this looks to me very typical of trump bullying people who are incompatible to him. He is going to suck the life out of each and every countries from now on, so good for you Americans.
He lost the popular vote and stole the election. The majority of the American people do not support him.