Donald Trump

[Jose Jones]

Haha, war with Russia. Straight out of the alt-right handbook.

[Stickman]

Really hope this State visit goes ahead, they're already interviewing people on the News saying how embarrassing it will be for the Queen and Royal Family..... 

That for me is the best part, anything to shame those inbred parasites is ok in my book....

[Anubis]

Eliot Cohen pulling no punches in The Atlantic.

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/a-clarifying-moment-in-american-history/514868/

 

 

 

 

I am not surprised by President Donald Trump’s antics this week. Not by the big splashy pronouncements such as announcing a wall that he would force Mexico to pay for, even as the Mexican foreign minister held talks with American officials in Washington. Not by the quiet, but no less dangerous bureaucratic orders, such as kicking the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff out of meetings of the Principals’ Committee, the senior foreign-policy decision-making group below the president, while inserting his chief ideologist, Steve Bannon, into them. Many conservative foreign-policy and national-security experts saw the dangers last spring and summer, which is why we signed letters denouncing not Trump’s policies but his temperament; not his program but his character.

 

We were right. And friends who urged us to tone it down, to make our peace with him, to stop saying as loudly as we could “this is abnormal,” to accommodate him, to show loyalty to the Republican Party, to think that he and his advisers could be tamed, were wrong. In an epic week beginning with a dark and divisive inaugural speech, extraordinary attacks on a free press, a visit to the CIA that dishonored a monument to anonymous heroes who paid the ultimate price, and now an attempt to ban selected groups of Muslims (including interpreters who served with our forces in Iraq and those with green cards, though not those from countries with Trump hotels, or from really indispensable states like Saudi Arabia), he has lived down to expectations.

 

Precisely because the problem is one of temperament and character, it will not get better. It will get worse, as power intoxicates Trump and those around him. It will probably end in calamity—substantial domestic protest and violence, a breakdown of international economic relationships, the collapse of major alliances, or perhaps one or more new wars (even with China) on top of the ones we already have. It will not be surprising in the slightest if his term ends not in four or in eight years, but sooner, with impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment. The sooner Americans get used to these likelihoods, the better.

 

The question is, what should Americans do about it? To friends still thinking of serving as political appointees in this administration, beware: When you sell your soul to the Devil, he prefers to collect his purchase on the installment plan. Trump’s disregard for either Secretary of Defense Mattis or Secretary-designate Tillerson in his disastrous policy salvos this week, in favor of his White House advisers, tells you all you need to know about who is really in charge. To be associated with these people is going to be, for all but the strongest characters, an exercise in moral self-destruction.

 

For the community of conservative thinkers and experts, and more importantly, conservative politicians, this is a testing time. Either you stand up for your principles and for what you know is decent behavior, or you go down, if not now, then years from now, as a coward or opportunist. Your reputation will never recover, nor should it.

 

Rifts are opening up among friends that will not be healed. The conservative movement of Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp, of William F. Buckley and Irving Kristol, was always heterogeneous, but it more or less hung together. No more. New currents of thought, new alliances, new political configurations will emerge. The biggest split will be between those who draw a line and the power-sick—whose longing to have access to power, or influence it, or indeed to wield it themselves—causes them to fatally compromise their values. For many more it will be a split between those obsessed with anxiety, hatred, and resentment, and those who can hear Lincoln’s call to the better angels of our nature, whose America is not replete with carnage, but a city on a hill.

 

This is one of those clarifying moments in American history, and like most such, it came upon us unawares, although historians in later years will be able to trace the deep and the contingent causes that brought us to this day. There is nothing to fear in this fact; rather, patriots should embrace it. The story of the United States is, as Lincoln put it, a perpetual story of “a rebirth of freedom” and not just its inheritance from the founding generation.

 

Some Americans can fight abuses of power and disastrous policies directly—in courts, in congressional offices, in the press. But all can dedicate themselves to restoring the qualities upon which this republic, like all republics depends: on reverence for the truth; on a sober patriotism grounded in duty, moderation, respect for law, commitment to tradition, knowledge of our history, and open-mindedness. These are all the opposites of the qualities exhibited by this president and his advisers. Trump, in one spectacular week, has already shown himself one of the worst of our presidents, who has no regard for the truth (indeed a contempt for it), whose patriotism is a belligerent nationalism, whose prior public service lay in avoiding both the draft and taxes, who does not know the Constitution, does not read and therefore does not understand our history, and who, at his moment of greatest success, obsesses about approval ratings, how many people listened to him on the Mall, and enemies.

He will do much more damage before he departs the scene, to become a subject of horrified wonder in our grandchildren’s history books. To repair the damage he will have done Americans must give particular care to how they educate their children, not only in love of country but in fair-mindedness; not only in democratic processes but democratic values. Americans, in their own communities, can find common ground with those whom they have been accustomed to think of as political opponents. They can attempt to renew a political culture damaged by their decayed systems of civic education, and by the cynicism of their popular culture.

 

There is in this week’s events the foretaste of things to come. We have yet to see what happens when Trump tries to use the Internal Revenue Service or the Federal Bureau of Investigation to destroy his opponents. He thinks he has succeeded in bullying companies, and he has no compunction about bullying individuals, including those with infinitely less power than himself. His advisers are already calling for journalists critical of the administration to be fired: Expect more efforts at personal retribution. He has demonstrated that he intends to govern by executive orders that will replace the laws passed by the people’s representatives.

 

In the end, however, he will fail. He will fail because however shrewd his tactics are, his strategy is terrible—The New York Times, the CIA, Mexican Americans, and all the others he has attacked are not going away. With every act he makes new enemies for himself and strengthens their commitment; he has his followers, but he gains no new friends. He will fail because he cannot corrupt the courts, and because even the most timid senator sooner or later will say “enough.” He will fail most of all because at the end of the day most Americans, including most of those who voted for him, are decent people who have no desire to live in an American version of Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey, or Viktor Orban’s Hungary, or Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

 

There was nothing unanticipated in this first disturbing week of the Trump administration. It will not get better. Americans should therefore steel themselves, and hold their representatives to account. Those in a position to take a stand should do so, and those who are not should lay the groundwork for a better day. There is nothing great about the America that Trump thinks he is going to make; but in the end, it is the greatness of America that will stop him.

[Section_31]

Er

https://www.rt.com/news/375554-quebec-city-mosque-shooting/

 

French though aren't they, what do you expect. 

[magicrat]

If you believe that then go for it.

I can't convince myself of that.

 

Fair enough although the system isn't about to collapse or be swept away by any uprising of the people. The tide in the West is flowing in the opposite direction and we're on the cusp of a new era of demagogues . That didn't end well last time 

[dennis tooth]

Haha, war with Russia. Straight out of the alt-right handbook.

No it's from the usa head of the joint cheifs of staff as well as too Kremlin advisors and other senior us military honchos.

[dennis tooth]

Really hope this State visit goes ahead, they're already interviewing people on the News saying how embarrassing it will be for the Queen and Royal Family.....

That for me is the best part, anything to shame those inbred parasites is ok in my book....

It will go ahead.

[cloggypop]

https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/trump_muslim_ban_letter_sgnr/

[Rico1304]

It will go ahead.

Of course it will, I think the realists amongst us want to send a message. When he turns up it will be amusing to watch how the programme is arranged to keep him away from the general public.

 

Edit: although signing things on the internet may not be the wisest move if you are planning on visiting the US anytime soon.

[dennis tooth]

Fair enough although the system isn't about to collapse or be swept away by any uprising of the people. The tide in the West is flowing in the opposite direction and we're on the cusp of a new era of demagogues . That didn't end well last time

Well that would've happened under hilary. I think most would agree it's hard to predict what will happen.

I would describe Obama as a liberal demagogue and before him bush was not unlike trump in many ways. I think this far it's been rather exaggerated if you are from any of the countries in trumps list you wouldve been waiting years to get clearance and theyve been checking peoples phones and social media when entering the country and pretty draconian for a number of years now.

[dennis tooth]

Of course it will, I think the realists amongst us want to send a message. When he turns up it will be amusing to watch how the programme is arranged to keep him away from the general public.

 

Edit: although signing things on the internet may not be the wisest move if you are planning on visiting the US anytime soon.

Yeah but just to repeat the reasoning behind the petition is dubious and the queen hosts with full honours people much more dubious than trump and they keepthem away from the public as standard whther it be the bahrainian royals or whoever. For her diamond jubilee she hosted royal dictator human rights abusers from Brunei, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland and United Arab Emirates.

[dennis tooth]

https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/trump_muslim_ban_letter_sgnr/

It's not a 'muslim ban' (he did promise to do that but it's not remotely what being done here), obama has killed many innocent civilians but I guess I cant be picky and other than that its alright. His answer to it would be he is us president not the world president I imagine but it's a half decent effort of solidarity at least. If the citizens of the world can get together to organise a movement oppose us foreign policy we might get somewhere and trumps time in office would be worth it.

[Rico1304]

Yeah but just to repeat the reasoning behind the petition is dubious and the queen hosts with full honours people much more dubious than trump and they keepthem away from the public as standard whther it be the bahrainian royals or whoever. For her diamond jubilee she hosted royal dictator human rights abusers from Brunei, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland and United Arab Emirates.

Whataboutary. You do this on every single issue.

 

People jumped on the first petition that was raised, sure the wording isn't perfect and not everyone who signed it would agree with the detail but it's the sentiment that resonated.

[Hades]

Ex Arsenal player Lauren.

 

[dennis tooth]

Whataboutary. You do this on every single issue.

 

People jumped on the first petition that was raised, sure the wording isn't perfect and not everyone who signed it would agree with the detail but it's the sentiment that resonated.

Yeah the sentiment of emotional reaction of ignorance behind the argument in the rush to demonize and be manipulated by the mainstream media.

It also is hypocritical in seeking to sign off banning people from our country based on their beleifs and because we disagree with them.

I very much doubt you have read it would ever read 1984 and the two minutes of hate which encapsulates this nonsense quite aptly.

It's not whataboutery it's called having and using my own mind and rejecting being a vassal for another person's quite absurd agenda to put the queen on a pedastal.

Not quite sure why you should have such a problem with that.

[Jairzinho]

Lauren knows.

[dennis tooth]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/muslim-ban-exemption-donald-trump-theresa-may-fall-out-a7552321.html

 

Petition has failed.

[Section_31]

Dennis tooth is a clear and present danger,  to the national security of these United States. 

[Jose Jones]

No it's from the usa head of the joint cheifs of staff as well as too Kremlin advisors and other senior us military honchos.

Haha, of course. Another line straight from the unthinking.

[dennis tooth]

Haha, of course. Another line straight from the unthinking.

Wait, what?

[dennis tooth]

Clinton Gang Push for War with Iran 6

30 Jan, 2017 in Uncategorized by craig | View Comments

So what are the Clinton gang doing while Trump introduces anti-Muslim immigration discrimination? Oh, they are pushing for war with Iran, which might give pause to some who think the world would have been less awful had Hillary won.

 

Here is the front page of the resolution introduced into the House of Representatives by Democrat Alcee L Hastings, an extremely close ally of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who had to resign in disgrace as chair of the Democratic National Committee after WikiLeaks published emails establishing her corrupt endeavours to fix the primary elections for Hillary against Bernie Sanders.

 

The Resolution reads “To authorize the use of the United States Armed Forces to achieve the goal of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

 

Trump’s mad visa ban, which excludes Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States which are the main financiers, armers, ideologues and exporters of Salafist terrorism, turns out to be imposed on the countries which were on Obama’s watchlist. As the Hastings resolution shows, the anti-Iranian and pro-Saudi madness is bipartisan. To include Iran but exclude Saudi Arabia is further evidence of the twisting of US foreign policy to serve the interests of Saudi Arabia and its ally Israel. This infographic has been compiled based on research by the Cato Institute. I would add the caveat that it refers to terrorist attacks inside America.

 

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/01/clinton-gang-push-war-iran/c3zmmowweaalzjh/

 

More here:

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/01/clinton-gang-push-war-iran/#respond

 

Craig Murray another unthinker who has also been reading the altright handbook I suppose.

[Anubis]

 

It took little more than a week in office for President Donald Trump to thrust the nation to the brink of a constitutional crisis.

 

Late Friday, Trump issued an executive order forbidding millions of refugees, hundreds of thousands of visitors and 500,000 legal immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States. Over the following 48 hours, massive protests erupted in cities and airports nationwide, courts temporarily blocked major parts of the order, the administration defied the courts and Democrats called for an investigation into the administration’s defiance. As the weekend drew to a close, an anonymous White House official proclaimed the whole episode a “massive success story.”

 

The federal courts thought otherwise. On Saturday night, a judge in Brooklyn ordered the Trump administration to stop deporting refugees and visitors immigration authorities had previously cleared to enter the country. Two judges in Massachusetts ordered that travelers who were legally authorized to be in the United States shouldn’t be detained at or deported from Logan International Airport for a period of seven days. A judge in Seattle halted the deportation of two travelers. And a judge in Virginia issued an order requiring the administration to allow lawyers access to lawful permanent residents — also known as green card holders — whom Customs and Border Protection agents had detained at Dulles International Airport on Trump’s instructions.

 

When federal judges rule, government officials — up to and including the president — are supposed to obey or risk being held in contempt of court. A government that ignored the courts would be able to violate the law and the Constitution at will. So for more than two centuries, the nation’s courts have had the last word on what’s legal and constitutional — and what is not. “We are and will remain in compliance with judicial orders,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Sunday evening.

 

But there was little indication that the Trump administration has fully complied with the court orders — or that Trump’s inner circle even believed the administration had to do so.

 

“Saturday’s ruling does not undercut the president’s executive order,” a senior White House official told NBC News midday Sunday in reference to the Brooklyn judge’s decision. “All stopped visas will remain stopped. All halted admissions will remain halted. All restricted travel will remain prohibited.”

 

CBP officials refused throughout the weekend to obey the Virginia judge’s order to allow lawyers access to detainees at Dulles. “It’s not going to happen,” they told attorneys who hoped to represent the detained people. When Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) showed up at the airport shortly before midnight Saturday, CBP officials refused to meet with him, according to reporting by The Daily Beast’s Betsy Woodruff.  

 

“I am now of the belief that though this was issued by the judicial branch, that it was violated tonight,” Booker said, brandishing the order. “And so one of the things I will be doing is fighting to make sure that the executive branch abides by the law as it was issued in this state and around the nation. This will be an ongoing battle ... I believe it’s a constitutional crisis, where the executive branch is not abiding by the law.”

 

The next morning, four Democratic members of the House of Representatives went to the airport and tried and failed to convince CBP to obey the order.

“We have a constitutional crisis today,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), one of the four House members who went to the airport, tweeted Sunday.

 

 Follow

Rep. Don Beyer

 

 

✔

@RepDonBeyer

We have a constitutional crisis today. Four Members of Congress asked CBP officials to enforce a federal court order and were turned away.

8:08 PM - 29 Jan 2017

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”I am deeply disappointed by what happened at Dulles… and how the order was ignored,” Booker added later. “There must be accountability for this.”

 

 Follow

Cory Booker

 

 

✔

@CoryBooker

I was deeply disappointed by what happened at Dulles last night and how the order was ignored. There must be accountability for this. 

https://

twitter.com/repdonbeyer/st

atus/825797672258961409 

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8:49 PM - 29 Jan 2017

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Detentions continued in California, too, according to the state’s junior senator.

 

“I have received reports from attorneys in CA that agents are continuing to deny or delay entry to America to visa holders and others,” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) tweeted shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday. “This violates the federal court orders and it is imperative [Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly] ensures all staff are notified and comply with the law.”

 

On Sunday night, Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Richard Durbin (Ill.), the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general requesting an investigation into the agency’s handling of Trump’s executive order and response to the court rulings. The senators asked the IG to figure out whether any CBP officers disobeyed court orders, what they did, and who ordered them to do it.

 

“The United States Constitution means little if law enforcement agents disregard it,” Duckworth and Durbin wrote. “The American people are relying on your independent investigators to serve as a check against a powerful law enforcement agency that may be ... operating in violation of the law.”

 

The weekend’s events had all the makings of a constitutional crisis, two law professors told HuffPost.

Disobeying a court order “is a big deal for any government official — federal, state, local, executive, legislative, whatever,” said Abner Greene, a law professor at Fordham University. “Obedience to specific court orders is what keeps us from being a banana republic or fascist dictatorship. That’s a really big deal.”

 

The chaos “doesn’t just risk a constitutional crisis,” argued Michael Dorf, a professor at Cornell Law School. “Assuming the report is accurate, it creates one.” If the Trump administration believes that the court orders limiting the president’s executive order are unlawful, it can file an emergency appeal, Dorf noted. But “outright defiance,” he added, “can only be deemed disrespect for the rule of law.”

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-courts-constitutional-crisis_us_588ea5bfe4b0176377953710?section=us_politics

[magicrat]

Well that would've happened under hilary. I think most would agree it's hard to predict what will happen.

I would describe Obama as a liberal demagogue and before him bush was not unlike trump in many ways. I think this far it's been rather exaggerated if you are from any of the countries in trumps list you wouldve been waiting years to get clearance and theyve been checking peoples phones and social media when entering the country and pretty draconian for a number of years now.

He's only been there a week give him a chance. I don't think it is over reaction whether or not there may have been covert vetting previously.

Trump under the guidance of Bannon will not stop here. This is just for starters and i don't get parallels between Bush or Obama . This is bigly different  .

I know you think Clinton would have been petrol on the flames but I would still take my chances with her rather than live in Trumpton  

[dennis tooth]

Constitutional crisis is good. Anarchy can reign.

 

All coming along nicely.

[dennis tooth]

He's only been there a week give him a chance. I don't think it is over reaction whether or not there may have been covert vetting previously.

Trump under the guidance of Bannon will not stop here. This is just for starters and i don't get parallels between Bush or Obama . This is bigly different .

I know you think Clinton would have been petrol on the flames but I would still take my chances with her rather than live in Trumpton

I don't see much bigly difference other than the reactions to it.

Had Obama/clinton done this it wouldn't have elicited anything like the reactions and would've been called a wise move. Indeed these nationals on trumps ban list were already on the extreme vetting under obama trumps just gone one step further. Same with the yemen raid which was drawn up under obama. This is the country that locked up Japanese people just for being Japanese during ww2. That turned back board of news fleeing during the same period.

I'm happy resistance is becoming focused but I've seen nothing 'new'.