What a week. Walls, crowd size, telling the media to keep its mouth shut, rangers resisting, Haley acting undiplomatic at the UN, on and on this circus goes. The thin little bit of hope I hung onto that Trump *might* actually rise to the office is now out the window for good. So much stupidity and hypocrisy in such a short amount of time, it's really stunning. And depressing.
Yep. That's why I'm going dancing tonight and tomorrow. To try to cleanse my mind. This is a marathon, not a sprint. If you're participating in contacting congress-critters, keep doing so.
I can't fathom that this is sustainable. So the question becomes: is this our new normal or does something give?
I used the example before that while Prop 8 was a horrible decision, it was the type of thing to actually get people motivated enough to get involved. It forced people to take a stand and once and for all pick a side. I am hoping that this will have the same effect. The first week has been promising in terms of people bothered enough to say something, retweet, Facebook "like" etc. People are starting to have to choose and not just think, "eh, who cares." If it is sustainable, if it can turn into political activism, we will see. But for too long people have believed who occupies the White House doesn't matter. Their life won't change. But now we are talking about immigrant lists, gag orders, removal of healthcare and other things that directly affect a lot of people or people they know. And Gorbachev said, "it feels like the a World is preparing for war." Good luck to anyone planning on being "uninvolved" if that comes to pass. The speed at which the world appears to be shifting already is pretty spectacular. Curious to see how the U.K. reacts after PM May's visit. Everyone is saying how crazy things are inside, and I'm sure she's hoping to curry favor by being the only one treating Trump reasonably. However, self-preservation should prevent her from getting to cozy with a ticking nuclear bomb.
Here's a nice piece from Rachel Maddow making the point that pressure works, folks. Trump's spent a lot of time this week ostentatiously signing things to make it look to his base like he's doing things and "shaking things up," but most have little practical effect by themselves and some have already been walked back (like some of the gag orders). To be sure, some of his actions HAVE had a practical effect, and some pretty awful, (the Muslim ban in-all-but-name, for instance), but we need to pay attention and differentiate between the two. And keep up the pressure. That's a good example. We'll see if it can be sustained, but the energy does seem to be shifting left. On one level that's just par-for-the-course "for every action an equal and opposite reaction" type of thing. But the Tea Party built a sustained opposition. Even though their origins were more "astro-turf" than grass roots, once activated even the GOP honchos who helped launch them couldn't control them and it became a legitimate (if misguided) movement. What we've seen this week is far more organic and if it can be sustained, can constitute an effective resistance. As someone wrote of the huge women's marches last Saturday, "It started from a feeling of desperation, but once we came together, Saturday didn't feel like Day One of Trump; it felt like Day One of the Resistance."
We cannot normalize what is happening. Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day and he signs that anti-other executive order banning Muslims from Arabic countries where there are no business interests? His administration is starting us on a dark and horrible path. We cannot normalize that.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...sh-it-takes-almost-year-refugee-be-processed/ It takes a very long time for Syrian refugees to be vetted.
I've said it before, but if you WERE a terrorist trying to get into the US, doing so by posing as a refugee would make you just about the world's stupidest terrorist. There are many other ways to get in that are far simpler, FAR faster, and don't involve nearly such extensive vetting. A man named Daniel Drezner, whose synagogue was sponsoring a Sryian refugee family, only to be told they would not be let in now, had some NSFW advice for Donnie. In a related story, there has been a twitter account set up on behalf on the now-deceased passengers of the St. Louis, which in 1937 was carrying Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, but which was turned away from both Cuba and the US because there was too much sentiment that we didn't want too many of "those people" living here. The Story Behind a Viral Message About the Holocaust and Refugees
In answer to the topic. A resounding YES! I am totally exhausted. The weapons of mass distraction are working. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. No truer statement could be spoken. That is exactly what we did last night. I think I went a full two hours without my mind wandering back to the domestic terror we are facing.
Today is the worst, I think. As the stories come out of the people that had the misfortune of being out of the US when the order was signed. How do we even do this, and continue to claim we have any moral authority? These people have homes, jobs, families AND legal paperwork allowing them to be here. Whatever they have now is here, and who knows what they are facing if they are returned to their home countries.
And I'm going to put into words something that is starting to tickle in the back of my mind. We have just spent the last 8 years of too many people denying the legitimacy of President Obama's birth certificate. What is there to stop people from doing the same to other Americans? People who were born American citizens, but happen to be brown skinned (either Muslims or Hispanics)?
It's not their brown skin, it's their country and culture that disqualifies them. Many Iranians are white looking and they are not allowed here right now. My girlfriend is an adult very white(whiter than me and I carry German and Irish blood )looking girl permanent resident here who identifies with Shia AND Zoroanstrianism. Good thing she went home for 2 months last year and not this year. Yes we are concerned because this order affects us.
And look around and you will see very white Mexican people too with blonde hair and fair skin with freckles. This is not a brown issue but a country, economic and safety issue.
When I was talking about brown skin, I was not talking about THIS order but what comes next. In the statements made about the illegal votes cast for Hillary, you have comments about "people in voting lines not looking like Americans." Whatever that means, how can you tell someone is an illegal by looks, unless you are using skin color. If people in positions of authority believe that, then born and raised brown skinned Americas could get caught up in it too. In an environment, where it is okay to question the legitimacy of someone's birth certificate. In my speculation, their country is the United States, their culture is American.
And normally, I would say this sort of speculation is crazy talk. But there are several things that I thought, "That would never actually happen," that are happening. I no longer have any idea what the "end game" was by de-legitimizing Obama's birth certificate, and in the process refuting both the state health director and the state registrar. When official documents are not accepted as truth, it won't just be illegals at risk.
Only the cowards that don't believe in the reasons that America got strong to begin with. It appears to me that the terrorist have won and used an unlikely orange glow creature to do it. Got to give them credit. We got so afraid that we are willing to give up everything that this country allegedly stands for including our collective freedom.
That is one difficult message to break through the rock hard heads of the extreme right and the brain dead. All it takes is a change of opinion of the people in charge and YOU become the target and not them. If we allow this to continue we won't have to worry about 1st world problems. We will be completely 3rd world.
