For those wondering how popular vote loser Donald Trump would react to a string of court rulings that halted—temporarily, at least—his hate-fueled Muslim ban, this may give a clue … a statement, supposedly from the Department of Homeland Security, but clearly written in the fetid bowels of the White House:
The department's statement said: "President Trump's Executive Orders remain in place— prohibited travel will remain prohibited, and the U.S. government retains its right to revoke visas at any time if required for national security or public safety," according to the DHS statement.
Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to the White House, said that nothing in the judge's order "in anyway impedes or prevents the implementation of the president's executive order which remains in full, complete and total effect."
That kind of sounds like a big “fuck you,” doesn’t it?
How do you destroy a democracy? You do it fast. You do it while people still think traditions have meaning. You do it while people still expect policies to be followed. You do it while people still believe that institutions have value. And if it takes coming in on a weekend to erase democracy … you make that sacrifice.
On Friday, Donald Trump signed an executive order abruptly cutting off travel from seven predominantly Muslim nations. But Trump’s order avoided nations where he does business as well as those that were home to the 9/11 terrorists. If the religious bigotry wasn’t obvious enough, Trump followed up by making it clear that Christian refugees get special treatment while Muslims are left behind—a blatant violation of the first amendment.
Trump’s order was so poorly planned and executed that the result wasn’t just clearly immoral, it was also confused and chaotic. With not just refugees, but ordinary immigrants, including many who were already working in the United States, caught up in the misrule.
Watching not just US policy, but the last grains of the nation’s moral standing scrawled away with Trump’s bigoted order didn't bother Republicans. Who found they had something to say on every topic — except that of families torn apart, legal immigrants stranded in airports, and people who had put their lives on the line to serve with the United States being denied the admission they were promised.
But Democratic legislators did come forward and continue to speak out against Trump’s “xenophobic” order and in defense of the people trapped between two worlds by a regime that would rather frighten Americans with the boogeyman of nonexistent danger than uphold the values that truly made America great.
As Trump signed a new brace of executive orders (including one that invites the Secretary of Defense to take another look at torture), Trump was asked about his Muslim ban. His response was to deny that it is a Muslim ban and also to deny the evidence of world-snarling f*ck up visible on every television screen.
I’ll say it this way: Trump is a madman with delusions of tyranny. Every vote for him, no matter how innocuous, is one step closer to his dystopian fascist America.
The federal court for the Eastern District of New York issued an emergency stay halting President Donald Trump’s executive order banning entry to the US from seven majority-Muslim countries tonight, following widespread protests at airports around the country.
The court ruled on a habeas corpus petition filed by the ACLU on behalf of Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, who were denied entry to the US upon landing at JFK airport in New York City and detained indefinitely by Customs and Border Patrol. Darweesh spent a decade working for the United States military in Iraq as an interpreter and engineer and had been granted an entry visa after background checks; Alshawi had been granted a visa in order to join his wife and son who are already permanent residents of the US after their similar service with the US military.
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Judge: "Class is pretty well defined as outline in the papers - otherwise would be reviewing stays for a hundred people" so stay is national
The executive order is now frozen until the case can briefed, probably in February.
No one who is currently being held can be sent back to their country of origin, but whether they will be released is unclear.
The judge ordered the federal government to provide a list of all people currently held in detention.
According to the ACLU's lawyer, there still can be no new arrivals from countries under the ban, but the ACLU — and other organizations — are working to file additional suits to roll back other portions of the order.
A conservative friend told me he did not understand why I and so many others are so angry about this election. Why can’t we move on, and let President Trump govern. Here is my answer.
Want to know why I am so angry that Trump is now our president? First and foremost, it has nothing to do with Hillary, Bernie, or any third party candidate. This has nothing to do with Republican, Democrat, or Independent. Just get that out of your head right now.
I am angry because my friends, people I care about, people I thought I knew voted for a vile disgusting human being. It has nothing to do with policy, and everything to do with the man himself. If Trump had run as a Democrat, and agreed with me on every single policy position—I would not have voted for him based on character alone.
He has mocked the disabled, and the handicapped. He was endorsed by the KKK. He ran on a platform of division and hate. He has an avowed racist on his staff, Steve Bannon, who has allowed Breitbart to be used as an outlet for “alt-right”(racist neo-nazi) propaganda. I have no doubt in my mind that Trump is a racist. It bothers me that my friends voted for a racist. There is no defense for that.
He treats women as objects; you actually voted for a man who said that he could grab a woman by the pussy, he said this while his wife and newborn son were at home in New York. Better candidates have lost races for lesser things. He is a misogynist. If you think women should be treated in that manner, if you gave him a pass on that, you should be ashamed of yourself.
His temperament—how can you trust a man with the nuclear codes who does not have enough self-control to not send a tweet at 3 AM disparaging the latest person who made fun of him, or pointed out one of his many lies? Speaking of lies, I was raised to always tell the truth. I have raised my son in the manner, now we have a president who cannot tell the truth—this is far beyond a normal politician’s lies. It isn’t just him, it is his staff too—alternative facts? Really? I will call it what it is—a fucking lie.
Greenpeace activists with mad rock-climbing skills hung a message for all of us behind the White House this week.
Greenpeace activists with mad rock-climbing skills hung a message for all of us behind the White House this week.
After last week, it should be clear to anyone with a pulse and intermittent cable or Internet access that science is now under full assault by the usual suspects. Emboldened by their slim electoral win in the form of popular vote loser Donald Trump, conservative extremists are chomping at the bit and frothing at the mouth at the thought of eliminating research that might produce inconvenient facts, and going full Lysenko on the rest. And when we say science is under assault, what we really mean is scientists, and by extension, all of the rest of us who depend on their work. There may be a science-based demonstration in the early stages of planning:
We have not settled on a date yet but will do so as quickly as possible and announce it here. Although this will start with a march, we hope to use this as a starting point to take a stand for science in politics. Slashing funding and restricting scientists from communicating their findings (from tax-funded research!) with the public is absurd and cannot be allowed to stand as policy. This is a non-partisan issue that reaches far beyond people in the STEM fields and should concern anyone who values empirical research and science.
There are also organizations already up and running that protect science and foster an open, progressive atmosphere. We’re going to need them and more. Because here’s just a few highlights of Trumpco’s first few days in office:
There is resistance in this nation, a sort of vicious, national immune response to a foreign pathogen invading the body politic. It is already huge, it is at every level andin every community, and it is growing. Join it.
Keith Ellison (l) and Tom Perez duke it out for DNC Chair.
Keith Ellison (l) and Tom Perez duke it out for DNC Chair.
Welcome back, Saturday Campaign D-I-Y’ers! For those who tune in, welcome to the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic campaign. Each week, we discuss issues that help drive successful campaigns. If you’ve missed prior diaries, please visit our group or follow Nuts & Bolts Guide.
While this series has focused on what it takes to build a successful campaign and successful county and state organizations, I’ve been taking January and February to talk about how you, as a voter and activist, make a difference through elections in your local community and party.
For the next few weeks in a row, the DNC will be hosting Future Forums, this week in Houston, Texas—then Detroit, Baltimore, and of course the final vote in Atlanta. I've been fortunate to receive a lot of emails and questions about proposals and positions held by candidates for different offices, and how they might impact the rank and file Democratic voters. This week, to match the DNC Future Forum, I hope to answer some of your questions in comments about the DNC elections, the purposes of these offices, and how proposals advanced by candidates may impact you.
Donald Trump says it’s "working out very nicely," but his Muslim ban isn’t just detaining grandmothers in airports, it’s leading to massive, organic protest around the country. Airports are a major focus of protest, since that’s where people are being detained as they seek to enter the country.
The protests have led to inspiring scenes of resistance (check some out below) … but we should not have to resist this. What this president is doing is so ugly that even knowing he did not win the popular vote, even polling showing the nation is not behind him, cannot protect America’s reputation. Only fighting back and winning, however long that takes, can begin to make this right.
Who's afraid of the people? Apparently nearly every Republican lawmaker
Who's afraid of the people? Apparently nearly every Republican lawmaker
Republicans lawmakers gathered in Philadelphia this week to work on their agenda to repeal healthcare from 20+ million people, gut Medicare and whatever other bad-for-the-American people legislation they may be working on for 2017 and beyond. Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, and Mike Pence were all there with Congressional republicans.
From the moment they arrived, the resistance was everywhere. Protesters surrounded their hotel, alternating chants of "Shame! Shame! Shame!" and "Ass-holes! Ass-holes!" No doubt they couldn’t wait to get out of Philly, back to their cushy Georgetown residences and well-guarded D.C. offices. They planned to return to D.C. in a privately chartered train car, but these tough-talking Republicans were too cowardly to even enter the train station:
“They totally had a private chartered train waiting for them at the station that pulled away empty because none of the GOP were willing to walk into the station,” one protestor on the scene told us. “The Amtrak agent had called for the boarding of the charter train number, over and over announcing its departure,” she said, “and then conferred with the protest organizers, who then announced it to the crowd.” Whereupon the crowd cheered. It was a fitting and triumphant end to a week that saw so many in Philadelphia responding to the absurd madness and craven greed of the Trump presidency in a way that the city’s founders would have been both proud of, and there for.
Well done, Philly. Well done. This is the type of action that Republicans should be greeted with in every city across the country.
Legal immigrants are locked in limbo. Refugees who had followed the long path of vetting and approval required to enter the United States are now unable to escape dangers to themselves and their children. As Americans gather to protest the actions of the vain, ignorant, cruel, braggart occupying the White House, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau displays the kind of leadership that makes a nation round
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To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada
Khaled Abdaan and his family are Iraqi refugees living legally in the United States, and expecting a legal visit from his 77-year-old mother, Sihaam Abaas. Except that between the time Abaas boarded her flight in Dubai—with a visa obtained weeks earlier—and when the plane landed in the United States, Donald Trump signed his unconstitutional Muslim ban. When the plane landed in Dallas, Abaas and nine others were detained and are expected to be sent back:
By 3 p.m. Saturday, Abdaan hadn’t heard from his mother for two hours.
“I’m disoriented,” he said. “I’m worried because she is older. Has she taken her heart medication? I don’t know.” [...]
“They told her they changed the regulations and her visa is not valid anymore,” Abdaan recalled his mother saying in a text. Then, communication stopped.
“She was asking when I’d be able to come see her,” Abdaan said. “I told her I don’t think I can.”
Abdaan told The Daily Beast that “An official told me he was just following the law.” Following the law is an interesting concept here, since what the president is demanding be obeyed as law is in violation of the ultimate American law, the Constitution. But the historical resonance of saying “I’m just following orders” might be a little much here.
This is monstrous. We’re talking about a 77-year-old woman who hasn’t seen her son or grandchildren in four years, because the American government—led by a fearful, insecure, bigot—is targeting people based on their religion. This will go down in history as one of the nation’s most shameful periods.
Today, we’re all feeling sick, sad, and enraged over the abuse and chaos Trump is dealing out toward refugees and immigrants. If you’re like me, you’re literally vibrating with a desire to do something more, something right now.
Well, here’s something you can this very instant: Donate to Democrat Jon Ossoff, an investigative filmmaker and former congressional staffer who’s running in a special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. That’s the seat that’ll soon be vacated by Rep. Tom Price, Trump’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services—and dismantle Obamacare, brick by brick.
But something rather amazing happened in this seat in November: It rebelled against Trump. While voters in this suburban Atlanta district backed Mitt Romney by a hefty 61-37 margin four years ago, Trump won it by just a single point. This is a conservative area, no doubt about it, but if Democrats can link the GOP to Trump here, Ossoff—who’s been endorsed by Georgia Reps. John Lewis and Hank Johnson—could pull off a stunning upset.
The election hasn’t been scheduled yet, though it could happen as soon as April. But there’s no time to wait. This will be a very difficult race (you can read more background on it here), but we could send an extraordinary message if we win, so GIVE NOW.
