Refugee ban = Political Kabuki?

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 4:59pm

Did you ever get the feeling that you need Toto to pull back the curtain, because this scene in the movie looks phony?
Consider for a moment Trump's order: PROTECTING THE NATION FROM FOREIGN TERRORIST ENTRY INTO THE UNITED STATES

Yeh, about that.

There’s no point in wasting time over the obvious: that America has bombed, directly or indirectly, five of the seven nations on Trump’s banned list. Sudan just escapes, but the US blew a packed Iranian passenger airliner out of the sky in 1988 and has raised no objections to Israel’s bombing of Iranian personnel in Syria. So that makes six. There’s nothing to be gained by reiterating that the four countries whose citizens participated in the international crimes against humanity of 9/11 – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Emirates and Lebanon – do not feature on the list. For the Saudis must be loved, cosseted, fawned over, approved, even when they chop off heads and when their citizens funnel cash to the murderers of Isis. Egypt is ruled by Trump’s “fantastic guy” anti-‘terrorist’ president al-Sisi. The glisteningly wealthy Emirates won’t be touched. Nor will Lebanon, although its tens of thousands of dual-national Syrians may have a tough time in the future.
But no, this vile piece of legislation is not aimed at nations. It’s targeting refugees, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Al-Qaeda has been, and continues to be, funded by the Saudi royal family. So if you really wanted to stop terrorists from coming into America, you would start with the Saudis.
What's more, Egypt is currently gripped by one of the most active ISIS groups in the world, so they should be included in the ban as well.

So this ban actually had nothing to do with stopping terrorists.

What it managed to do was stir up the Democrats.
But where were these protests when Obama deported a record number of people from the U.S. during his tenure as President?
Or when Obama did the exact same thing with Iraqi refugees?
And where are the protests against America bombing five of those nations, and thus helping to make those poor people refugees in the first place?

Nowhere.
So the protests appear to be more virtue signalling than actual compassion for refugees.

In the real world the United States has a long history of not welcoming refugees, while still taking in a lot of migrants.
In reality, this issue simply isn't high on American's personal radar.

It makes one think that the magician is trying to distract with the 'refugee ban' hand, while doing his sleight of hand elsewhere.

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Comments

Submitted by Steven D on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 5:26pm

I agree

This is distraction politics and the Dems are more than happy to play along. Meanwhile the House Repubs are gearing up to gut social security.

I expect the D's to do what they always do - roll over in the Senate when push comes to shove. But hey, D's are always willing to send out their big guns give speeches at big protest rallies. I'm sure they're all aflutter about organizing anti-Muslim ban marches and calling this an constitutional crisis even while the R's do the dirty work on destroying our social safety net so that the corporate Dems will be able to lie to the progressive base claiming that they weren't the ones responsible, nothing they could have done, and "Trump's a bad man isn't he?" It's like a bait and switch. Dems will be calling for Trump's impeachment (which everyone knows is not going to happen), and playing the fundraising "game," even sending out their emails and letters begging for more money to support more DNC approved Senatorial candidates to represent Wall Street interests.

—

"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 7:24pm

Thanks for the link to the article Steven

@Steven D I had read this before, but this article has more information in it.

Not the symbolic Uncle Sam, but Sam Johnson. Although he’s been a member of Congress more than a quarter of a century, it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard of him. He’s a lawmaker who holds a congressional seat, but just sits in it, achieving so little that he’s unnoticeable.

Good lord, he too has been sucking off the government's teat for 28 years and he is 80 years old. The people who have been in congress for this long cannot relate to what we normal people have to deal with. I wonder when was the last time he went to a grocery store or regular shopping for other items. Or when was the last time he had to drive his own car and pump his own gas or any of the other things we do on a daily basis. This goes for all of those members of congress who have been in office for decades.
And that little rodent Ryan who was able to get social programs when he was growing up has the audacity to say this.

Along with Uncle Sam and other top Republican leaders of Congress, Ryan intends to slash the little bit of retirement money that middle-class and low-income workers depend on. And ultimately, Speaker Ryan is out to kill our Social Security program altogether, piously preaching that dependence on such public “entitlements” weakens our nation’s morality.

After spending our entire lives paying in to SS, he thinks that we ask for our money back then it affects our morality.
GFYs everyone in congress who signs on to this.
But if they do cut SS then just maybe this will be the spark that gets people off the rumps and start fighting them.
Too many people are okay with what the police are doing to minorities and think that they deserve to be shot with rubber bullets, pepper spray, concussion grenades and every thing else that is done to people protesting..
They can go after SS when they give up their perks like these things.
I bet that just one of their daily meals costs as much as I get from the SNAP program each month.

Besides, a sermon on the morality of entitlements should never come from a Congress critter’s mouth. Speaker Ryan himself wallows in a mud pit of congressional entitlements that working stiffs couldn’t imagine: A $223,500 annual paycheck, free limousine and chauffeur, a maximum-coverage health plan, a tax-paid PR agent, a lavish expense account, free travel and, of course, a platinum-level congressional retirement program funded by the very taxpayers whose Social Security he’s out to kill.

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by kakumeiji maru on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 2:50am

Ryan is an asshole and a grade A hypocrite

@snoopydawg He got those Social Security survivor's benefits after his dad died of a heart attack when he was 16, which was how he paid for college. The fact that he now wants to get rid of Social Security and goes in for the bullshit of Hayek, von Mises, and Friedman indicates to me he is either incredibly dumb or a cruel, exploitative social dominator. He went to college thanks to a socialist program, and now he wants to pull up the ladder.

Well, I suppose he could be both incredibly dumb and a cruel, exploitative social dominator.

#1 I had read this before, but this article has more information in it. Not the symbolic Uncle Sam, but Sam Johnson. Although he’s been a member of Congress more than a quarter of a century, it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard of him. He’s a lawmaker who holds a congressional seat, but just sits in it, achieving so little that he’s unnoticeable. Good lord, he too has been sucking off the government's teat for 28 years and he is 80 years old. The people who have been in congress for this long cannot relate to what we normal people have to deal with. I wonder when was the last time he went to a grocery store or regular shopping for other items. Or when was the last time he had to drive his own car and pump his own gas or any of the other things we do on a daily basis. This goes for all of those members of congress who have been in office for decades. And that little rodent Ryan who was able to get social programs when he was growing up has the audacity to say this. Along with Uncle Sam and other top Republican leaders of Congress, Ryan intends to slash the little bit of retirement money that middle-class and low-income workers depend on. And ultimately, Speaker Ryan is out to kill our Social Security program altogether, piously preaching that dependence on such public “entitlements” weakens our nation’s morality. After spending our entire lives paying in to SS, he thinks that we ask for our money back then it affects our morality. GFYs everyone in congress who signs on to this. But if they do cut SS then just maybe this will be the spark that gets people off the rumps and start fighting them. Too many people are okay with what the police are doing to minorities and think that they deserve to be shot with rubber bullets, pepper spray, concussion grenades and every thing else that is done to people protesting.. They can go after SS when they give up their perks like these things. I bet that just one of their daily meals costs as much as I get from the SNAP program each month. Besides, a sermon on the morality of entitlements should never come from a Congress critter’s mouth. Speaker Ryan himself wallows in a mud pit of congressional entitlements that working stiffs couldn’t imagine: A $223,500 annual paycheck, free limousine and chauffeur, a maximum-coverage health plan, a tax-paid PR agent, a lavish expense account, free travel and, of course, a platinum-level congressional retirement program funded by the very taxpayers whose Social Security he’s out to kill.

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 12:22pm

Ryan also went to college on Social Security

@snoopydawg as a rich orphan.

#1 I had read this before, but this article has more information in it. Not the symbolic Uncle Sam, but Sam Johnson. Although he’s been a member of Congress more than a quarter of a century, it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard of him. He’s a lawmaker who holds a congressional seat, but just sits in it, achieving so little that he’s unnoticeable. Good lord, he too has been sucking off the government's teat for 28 years and he is 80 years old. The people who have been in congress for this long cannot relate to what we normal people have to deal with. I wonder when was the last time he went to a grocery store or regular shopping for other items. Or when was the last time he had to drive his own car and pump his own gas or any of the other things we do on a daily basis. This goes for all of those members of congress who have been in office for decades. And that little rodent Ryan who was able to get social programs when he was growing up has the audacity to say this. Along with Uncle Sam and other top Republican leaders of Congress, Ryan intends to slash the little bit of retirement money that middle-class and low-income workers depend on. And ultimately, Speaker Ryan is out to kill our Social Security program altogether, piously preaching that dependence on such public “entitlements” weakens our nation’s morality. After spending our entire lives paying in to SS, he thinks that we ask for our money back then it affects our morality. GFYs everyone in congress who signs on to this. But if they do cut SS then just maybe this will be the spark that gets people off the rumps and start fighting them. Too many people are okay with what the police are doing to minorities and think that they deserve to be shot with rubber bullets, pepper spray, concussion grenades and every thing else that is done to people protesting.. They can go after SS when they give up their perks like these things. I bet that just one of their daily meals costs as much as I get from the SNAP program each month. Besides, a sermon on the morality of entitlements should never come from a Congress critter’s mouth. Speaker Ryan himself wallows in a mud pit of congressional entitlements that working stiffs couldn’t imagine: A $223,500 annual paycheck, free limousine and chauffeur, a maximum-coverage health plan, a tax-paid PR agent, a lavish expense account, free travel and, of course, a platinum-level congressional retirement program funded by the very taxpayers whose Social Security he’s out to kill.

—

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by dfarrah on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 5:25pm

Not to mention

that BO had a 6 month ban and nobody peeped.

So, now I get to see Chuck Schumer, promise with every fiber of his body, that he will fight against this EO.

I just told him to go do something worthwhile, like create more jobs (to the TV....very effective ;))

—

dfarrah

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 5:50pm

Gawd, thanks for this essay

I was on DK answering some of my messages and looked at the diary that showed the many protests going on around the country and thought exactly what is in this essay.
Where were those people when obama continued to do the exact same things that Bush did?
Trump is banning people from coming into the country but no one gave a second thought to the people obama deported.
And remember when Hillary said that the children trying to escape the violence that we are responsible for should be sent back to tell parents not to risk sending their children here?
Didn't 10 or more of those children who were sent back murdered?

In case no one saw this
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-commando-dies-in-yemen-raid-that-...?

A U.S. commando died in a dawn raid in southern Yemen on Sunday that killed around 30 people including al Qaeda suspects and civilians, the U.S. military and local Yemeni officials said.

Why are there US troops in Yemen? Which part of the AUMF gave Obama the authority to put troops in Yemen?
But look, another leader of AQ has been removed from the war on terror. How soon before he's replaced?

The gunbattle in the rural Yakla district of al-Bayda province killed a senior leader in Yemen’s al Qaeda branch, Abdulraoof al-Dhahab, along with other militants, al Qaeda said.
Medics at the scene said 30 people were killed, including 10 women and three children.
The U.S. military said in a statement that 14 al Qaeda militants died in the raid, which netted “information that will likely provide insight into the planning of future terror plots.”
“The operation began at dawn when a drone bombed the home of Abdulraoof al-Dhahab and then helicopters flew up and unloaded paratroopers at his house and killed everyone inside,” one resident said, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Just killed everyone in the house no matter if they were terrorists or civilians.
And Barry can feel very proud that he left this program for trump to use.

Eight-year-old Anwar al-Awlaki - the daughter of U.S.-born Yemeni preacher and al Qaeda ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011 - was among the children who died in the raid, according to her grandfather.

“She was hit with a bullet in her neck and suffered for two hours. Why kill children? This is the new administration - it’s very sad, a big crime,” Nasser al-Awlaki told Reuters.

The ignorant people in this country think that it's the people from Muslim countries who are the terrorists who are doing the killings. Or never stop to think why anyone would want to attack this country.
How many more innocent people have to be killed before the people in this country are out protesting against these actions?
I am not going to hold my breath waiting for people to wake the f'cking up and see what their country is doing around the world.

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by dfarrah on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 6:03pm

It's all personal

@snoopydawg for these people and nothing else.

This election, along with BO's terms, demonstrated that most people are politically driven entirely by personal feelings and identity issues over any other driver.

What else could possibly explain the hypocrisy? Even a regular essayist here asserted that even if Trump did something good, she would not give Trump credit for it. If that isn't extreme bias, I don't know what is.

I was on DK answering some of my messages and looked at the diary that showed the many protests going on around the country and thought exactly what is in this essay. Where were those people when obama continued to do the exact same things that Bush did? Trump is banning people from coming into the country but no one gave a second thought to the people obama deported. And remember when Hillary said that the children trying to escape the violence that we are responsible for should be sent back to tell parents not to risk sending their children here? Didn't 10 or more of those children who were sent back murdered? In case no one saw this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-commando-dies-in-yemen-raid-that-...? A U.S. commando died in a dawn raid in southern Yemen on Sunday that killed around 30 people including al Qaeda suspects and civilians, the U.S. military and local Yemeni officials said. Why are there US troops in Yemen? Which part of the AUMF gave Obama the authority to put troops in Yemen? But look, another leader of AQ has been removed from the war on terror. How soon before he's replaced? The gunbattle in the rural Yakla district of al-Bayda province killed a senior leader in Yemen’s al Qaeda branch, Abdulraoof al-Dhahab, along with other militants, al Qaeda said. Medics at the scene said 30 people were killed, including 10 women and three children. The U.S. military said in a statement that 14 al Qaeda militants died in the raid, which netted “information that will likely provide insight into the planning of future terror plots.” “The operation began at dawn when a drone bombed the home of Abdulraoof al-Dhahab and then helicopters flew up and unloaded paratroopers at his house and killed everyone inside,” one resident said, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Just killed everyone in the house no matter if they were terrorists or civilians. And Barry can feel very proud that he left this program for trump to use. Eight-year-old Anwar al-Awlaki - the daughter of U.S.-born Yemeni preacher and al Qaeda ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011 - was among the children who died in the raid, according to her grandfather. “She was hit with a bullet in her neck and suffered for two hours. Why kill children? This is the new administration - it’s very sad, a big crime,” Nasser al-Awlaki told Reuters. The ignorant people in this country think that it's the people from Muslim countries who are the terrorists who are doing the killings. Or never stop to think why anyone would want to attack this country. How many more innocent people have to be killed before the people in this country are out protesting against these actions? I am not going to hold my breath waiting for people to wake the f'cking up and see what their country is doing around the world.

—

dfarrah

Submitted by Big Al on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 6:45pm

I'm not going to give Trump credit for a damn thing,

@dfarrah and you can't say it's because of identify politics for me because I'm not a democrat, never have been and never will be. It's got nothing to do with bias and everything to do with Trump and his regime being my enemy. Just like Obama and his regime was.

Submitted by dfarrah on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 7:04pm

Are you serious?

@Big Al You would not give credit at all where it is due?

That seems very harsh.

—

dfarrah

Submitted by LaFeminista on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 1:05am

What I actually said was the only chance of him doing any

@dfarrah good would be by error rather than design. When he stops trying to govern by diktat I might have more time for him. Then again he is a Republican with Republican majorities in both chambers, so I wont hold my breath waiting for anything good coming out of that vicious shower, especially when they will be aided by democrats in the senate.

Submitted by gustogirl on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 12:38pm

Personal feelings and identity politics

@dfarrah
are further driven by a lot of escalating propaganda in this country.

Submitted by Sunspots on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 7:06pm

"Suspects" and civilians,

@snoopydawg

and they count all males 15 to 90 as militants. So we don't know whether any of them were actually al Qaeda.

I was on DK answering some of my messages and looked at the diary that showed the many protests going on around the country and thought exactly what is in this essay. Where were those people when obama continued to do the exact same things that Bush did? Trump is banning people from coming into the country but no one gave a second thought to the people obama deported. And remember when Hillary said that the children trying to escape the violence that we are responsible for should be sent back to tell parents not to risk sending their children here? Didn't 10 or more of those children who were sent back murdered? In case no one saw this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-commando-dies-in-yemen-raid-that-...? A U.S. commando died in a dawn raid in southern Yemen on Sunday that killed around 30 people including al Qaeda suspects and civilians, the U.S. military and local Yemeni officials said. Why are there US troops in Yemen? Which part of the AUMF gave Obama the authority to put troops in Yemen? But look, another leader of AQ has been removed from the war on terror. How soon before he's replaced? The gunbattle in the rural Yakla district of al-Bayda province killed a senior leader in Yemen’s al Qaeda branch, Abdulraoof al-Dhahab, along with other militants, al Qaeda said. Medics at the scene said 30 people were killed, including 10 women and three children. The U.S. military said in a statement that 14 al Qaeda militants died in the raid, which netted “information that will likely provide insight into the planning of future terror plots.” “The operation began at dawn when a drone bombed the home of Abdulraoof al-Dhahab and then helicopters flew up and unloaded paratroopers at his house and killed everyone inside,” one resident said, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Just killed everyone in the house no matter if they were terrorists or civilians. And Barry can feel very proud that he left this program for trump to use. Eight-year-old Anwar al-Awlaki - the daughter of U.S.-born Yemeni preacher and al Qaeda ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011 - was among the children who died in the raid, according to her grandfather. “She was hit with a bullet in her neck and suffered for two hours. Why kill children? This is the new administration - it’s very sad, a big crime,” Nasser al-Awlaki told Reuters. The ignorant people in this country think that it's the people from Muslim countries who are the terrorists who are doing the killings. Or never stop to think why anyone would want to attack this country. How many more innocent people have to be killed before the people in this country are out protesting against these actions? I am not going to hold my breath waiting for people to wake the f'cking up and see what their country is doing around the world.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 5:59pm

OMG, this comment on the article I linked to

Looks like we are going to suffer selective amnesia just like many of us have said.

This raid is likely to be something that the Obama administration opted not to conduct because of the likely presence of women and children. Trump's sociopathic tendencies likely made it easy for him to call it on.

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 6:05pm

And the hypocrisy starts

@snoopydawg
Thousands of dead civilians on Obama's bloody hands are now forgotten.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 6:41pm

I challenged the comment

@gjohnsit I reminded her of what Barry did for his entire 8 years in office.
Many of us said that this was going to happen when Trump did the same things as Barry did.
Gawd, I disdain hypocrites.

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by dfarrah on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 6:06pm

It's worse than

@snoopydawg when Bernie was running.

—

dfarrah

Submitted by MarilynW on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 6:01pm

And yet the San Bernadino bomber was American born

his wife was Pakistani born but lived most of her life in Saudi Arabia and was travelling from Saudi Arabia when she entered the USA. Trumpites are forever bringing up San Bernadino to justify their Muslim ban.

—

To thine own self be true.

Submitted by dfarrah on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 6:05pm

It is not a Muslim ban.

@MarilynW It is a ban against several countries.

—

dfarrah

Submitted by MarilynW on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 10:40pm

"It is not a Muslim ban"

@dfarrah
It's a ban on Muslims of certain countries. Trump doesn't like the term "Muslim ban," that's why I used it. The son of one of his Cabinet used it and had his Twitter a/c taken down because of it.

—

To thine own self be true.

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 6:08pm

I'd much rather see a ban on Pakistani and Saudi immigration.

@MarilynW

—

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by Ellen North on Wed, 02/01/2017 - 10:00am

@The Voice In the Wilderness

@The Voice In the Wilderness

Whoops, recced by accident; personally don't approve of blanket bans against specific populations of whatever ethnicity/location.

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Fri, 02/03/2017 - 8:39am

Should have let everyone from Germany in during WWII?

@Ellen North To unrec, just click it a second time. Don't want any accidental recs.

—

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by ZimInSeattle on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 6:06pm

Good post. Agree completely. The Dems will fold

and get trounced in 2018. In the meantime they will be trying to rationalize why it's better to have the Pumpkin Fuhrer than Bernie as president. However, when you have Elizabeth Warren voting for Carson for HUD, and 13 other Dem senators voting against drugs from Canada, there aren't many Dems that need to fold. They're already on T-rumps side.

—

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

Submitted by riverlover on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 6:15pm

Any way the wind blows

@ZimInSeattle I could not live my life that way. I seek to stay the course.

—

Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Submitted by Timmethy2.0 on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 12:36am

Why did Warren vote for Carson?

@ZimInSeattle Are we playing the 11 dimensional chess game again?

—

Beware the bullshit factories.

Submitted by Big Al on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 6:35pm

This shows Trump is fully on board with the fake war OF

terror. The U.S. has a history of funding, training, assisting and organizing radical islam to do it's dirty work in the middle east and beyond. It's funded Al Qaeda and ISIS and worked with Saudi Arabia, Israel and others. This shows that Trump is not going to change course in the neocon originated fake war OF terror but actually expand it. All his bullshit about non-interventionism and no regime changes was just that, bullshit. Like Obama's bullshit that got him the Nobel peace prize. Some people got fooled again.

Submitted by Timmethy2.0 on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 8:03pm

Oil profits and war profits uber alles

@Big Al @Big Al Since Trump isn't going to do anything about the climate crisis, except try to make it unfixable, it's on us to switch to electric from renewable sources. Save the planet, starve the oil monster and deprive the war monster of conflicts to exploit.

—

Beware the bullshit factories.

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 2:29pm

@Big Al I never thought Trump was

@Big Al I never thought Trump was going to stop the War on Terror. I'd like to see the politician who could do that, or who even had the guts to try.

What Trump might stop is a nuclear war with Russia. He could maybe do that, because the powerful are not in agreement on whether nuclear apocalypse is a good idea. That gives the politicians wiggle room to actually exercise a little control over policy.

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by Big Al on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 3:14pm

If it came to that point, why would you think Trump would

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal stop it? He's off the charts on everything else, his advisors in the past have said if we have nukes we better be prepared to use them. I think his following the war OF terror script shows he'll follow the entire script. Relative to Russia, it's still going to be the U.S. way or the highway and Russia won't play that game. They're (Lavrov) on record in recent days saying nothing has changed with Trump, the danger of war is still as high as ever. The scientists in charge of the Atomic clock agreed.

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Tue, 01/31/2017 - 9:21pm

@Big Al Because Trump doesn't

@Big Al Because Trump doesn't talk like a PNAC crazy person about Russia. He doesn't say that he'll respond to hacking of data by launching military attacks on Russia and China. Both of them. He didn't say that the first thing he was going to do in office is make sure our nukes were good enough to meet any threats we might receive.

I'm not saying I'm feeling safe. After all, at the end of the day, I bet it's not really the President who decides. Trump's cute turnaround on nukes after he won the election made me think probably somebody from the Pentagon had had a conversation with him. But when it comes to Trump, I don't think either his evil (quite real) or his craziness (probably real, maybe a reality-tv-show conceit) works toward nuclear armageddon. What matters to Trump is that Trump has a good time. That means getting evermore money and power for Trump, so that he can get whatever he wants. Nuclear armageddon would interfere with his great life.

I just don't think he's the right kind of crazy to want to push the button. Not like Cheney, or Pence.

I'm going to be a lot more afraid AFTER they impeach Trump and replace him with a religious fundamentalist.

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by crescentmoon on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 7:16pm

Once, again, thank goodness

Once, again, thank goodness for you all. I have been ranting to my husband about my thinking that we are being played. I just said that what is noticeable is the lack of discussion about why these people are refugees in the first place. And, I can't help but think that not only have we destroyed these countries but the plan comes right out of the neocon playbook, Project for a New American Century. Nothing has changed except the crazy has been turned up. By design? I feel we are being manipulated to cheer on the furthering of their world hegemonic goals by exploiting our good hearts and intentions. The democrats are another story. They work for the same masters. They are playing their part.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 7:49pm

That is amazing, isn't it crescentmoon

@crescentmoon how easy it was for the government to get people on board with the upcoming war with Russia even though it has been planned for over a year or more.
They didn't believe that Saddam had WMDs, but are believing that Russia interfered with the election and the electrical grid in Vermont even though that was debunked the next day.
The war with Russia could easily be the last war ever fought on this planet. That's the good news, but the bad news is that it could wipe out most of the human race.
Oh well that's good news for the animals and plant life and other things that the human race has been decimating.
The propaganda is right out of Goebell's playbook.

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 2:30pm

@snoopydawg If it's a nuclear war,

@snoopydawg If it's a nuclear war, I doubt that most of the plants and animals will survive.

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by Ellen North on Wed, 02/01/2017 - 10:14am

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

As usual, you're right, unfortunately. Whatever the radiation doesn't kill, a decade or more of global dimming and increased drought following will pretty much polish off what remains of the industrially poisoned, militarily damaged and already failing global ecological system, and there goes global oxygen production, among many other things. And such results have been found in more comprehensive simulation using modern methods even of older data to be anticipated even from a local nuclear exchange between two countries using the smaller, modern nukes, never mind any much larger ones between superpowers. MAD in both senses even to consider that.

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by kakumeiji maru on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 8:13pm

This is absolutely political kabuki

And I am sick of it.

Let's break all of these jerks.

The Democratic Party and the Republican Party must be destroyed. Both of them. Preferably at once.

Returning to the matter at hand, Rania Khalek has been talking at length on Twitter about how this isn't actually about stopping terrorism, considering that Iran has contributed fewer fighters to ISIS than the United States has, and considering that Saudi Arabia has actually been arming the Salafists in Syria.

For the time being I am inclined to welcome the support that is being shown to the people affected by the ban, even if they are doing it for the wrong reasons, but I will keep strongly in mind that a lot of these people are just normie bourgeois liberals who will disappear into the cornfields as soon as it's a Democrat doing it. Hopefully we'll be able to radicalize some of them, but most of them are not reliable and probably cannot be convinced, and we will have to keep that remember that at all times.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 11:43pm

Here is another article that says the same thing about the hypo

@kakumeiji maru about the hypocrisy of the people who are protesting against what Trump has done.

“Supporters of Barack Obama, and liberals in general, are disingenuous frauds. They had no issues protesting the likes of the amoral warmongering George W. Bush or the racist xenophobe, Donald J. Trump, however when it comes to Barack Obama they can find no reason to protest his mass murdering escapades. Obama supporters were recently nostalgic and teary eyed after he gave his last major speech as president of the United States, yet can find little reason to shed tears over the masses of civilians who were destroyed directly as a result of Obama’s policies. Where were the emotions and tears when men, women and children were getting blown to bits by USA drone attacks, indiscriminate air strikes and bombs?…Those who protested the racist and xenophobic Trump, but not Obama or Clinton, are nothing more that disingenuous frauds and amoral cowards.” (“As Obama Exits the White House, Never Forget His Destructive Imperialist Legacy“, Solomon Comissiong, Black Agenda Report)
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/26/double-standards-where-were-the-l...
I replied to the person who wrote that Barry wouldn't have bombed the house and killed the civilians because he doesn't have sociopathic tendencies and wrote that during Obamas's tenure he bombed that hospital in Afghanistan. Another person said that it was just a mistake when that happened.
I don't think that I am going to have to stop reading comments on certain websites for the next 4 years because I'm not going to be able to tolerate the amount of hypocrisy coming from Obamas's supporters.
They think that he was the best president ever since FDR and ended two wars and hasn't started any new ones.
I just don't understand how people can be so damned blind to what he did to the people in this country and the people in the Middle East and Ukraine.

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by kakumeiji maru on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 2:40am

That's a sharp article

@snoopydawg

On one level I completely agree with it. Certainly, at bare minimum, these people believe in a fraud. Obama did loads of terrible stuff, and he was not criticized nearly strongly enough for it. However, although I find myself becoming more and more radical on this point, I also feel a need to moderate myself somewhat. I suspect that we will need to convince at least some these people to come over to us. Many of us were once where they are now. Some of them probably are willful frauds, particularly the types who don't care at all about the Trump voters (or the assumed Trump voters) who are going to lose their health care because of Trump, whose reactions to people in such situations is "fuck 'em." Others on the other hand are probably what one person described as "sleep-walking NPR Dems." So I think that we need to make a distinction between people who believe in a fraud because they were fooled by it, and people who are frauds themselves.

To some extent, I used to be one of these people who were fooled into believing in a fraud. I was against what Bush did because what Bush did was horrific, and that was when I really became politically aware (though I was never much of a protester). And then Obama was elected and I allowed myself to go to sleep. I stopped paying attention. I let "team loyalty" and the admiration that I had previously felt for Obama color my view of him, and that and a general apathetic malaise held me back from protesting what he was doing. I gradually woke up and realized that things were not right; the economy wasn't getting better, the wars were dragging on and on, and so on. However, it was a long process. As you can see by virtue of the fact that I openly call Obama a murderer further down, I no longer feel a sense of "team loyalty," but it took a long time for me to get there.

One way or another, it will probably be necessary to convince some of these people to come over to us. If we had the numbers to win as we are now, we would have won already, and unless we're going to go full Leninist and operate as a vanguard party, we'll probably need more people with us; and I think that even Lenin would agree that it is good to have as many people as possible with you. There's a lot of mileage to be gotten out of mobilizing the demobilized -- the people who have either never voted, or who have long since dropped out of the system out of disgust. However, we probably also need to get some of the people who were like I used to be, whether they currently cheer for the Democrats or the Republicans. I don't want to coddle these people, but at the same time I don't want to drive them away.

For me, this election has been like an awakening for me, the point at which I decided that enough was enough and that a line had to be drawn. I hope that in the future I am as steadfast in my criticism of Democrats when they are in power as I am of Republicans when they are in power. One of the things we need to do is awaken those who are still sleeping, and sound the alarm.

Submitted by GusBecause on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 4:22am

I agree. The sleepers are waking up

@kakumeiji maru and that's a very good thing. Its alright to be contemptuous of their 8 yr sleep while Obama was at the helm, but I for one am delighted to see people in the street and on line seeking news and info from non MSM sources. I was heartened by a conversation yesterday with a family member who was completely apolitical, too busy living to give a shit, who told me that he cant stop checking the outraged news commentaries about Trump, and it's the demonstrations and virulent reactions on social media that triggered that interest. He said he then checks other sources to find out what's really going on, and is for the first time realizing what was going on and is still being done in his name. Im pretty sure he went be going back to sleep any time soon.

#9.1 On one level I completely agree with it. Certainly, at bare minimum, these people believe in a fraud. Obama did loads of terrible stuff, and he was not criticized nearly strongly enough for it. However, although I find myself becoming more and more radical on this point, I also feel a need to moderate myself somewhat. I suspect that we will need to convince at least some these people to come over to us. Many of us were once where they are now. Some of them probably are willful frauds, particularly the types who don't care at all about the Trump voters (or the assumed Trump voters) who are going to lose their health care because of Trump, whose reactions to people in such situations is "fuck 'em." Others on the other hand are probably what one person described as "sleep-walking NPR Dems." So I think that we need to make a distinction between people who believe in a fraud because they were fooled by it, and people who are frauds themselves. To some extent, I used to be one of these people who were fooled into believing in a fraud. I was against what Bush did because what Bush did was horrific, and that was when I really became politically aware (though I was never much of a protester). And then Obama was elected and I allowed myself to go to sleep. I stopped paying attention. I let "team loyalty" and the admiration that I had previously felt for Obama color my view of him, and that and a general apathetic malaise held me back from protesting what he was doing. I gradually woke up and realized that things were not right; the economy wasn't getting better, the wars were dragging on and on, and so on. However, it was a long process. As you can see by virtue of the fact that I openly call Obama a murderer further down, I no longer feel a sense of "team loyalty," but it took a long time for me to get there. One way or another, it will probably be necessary to convince some of these people to come over to us. If we had the numbers to win as we are now, we would have won already, and unless we're going to go full Leninist and operate as a vanguard party, we'll probably need more people with us; and I think that even Lenin would agree that it is good to have as many people as possible with you. There's a lot of mileage to be gotten out of mobilizing the demobilized -- the people who have either never voted, or who have long since dropped out of the system out of disgust. However, we probably also need to get some of the people who were like I used to be, whether they currently cheer for the Democrats or the Republicans. I don't want to coddle these people, but at the same time I don't want to drive them away. For me, this election has been like an awakening for me, the point at which I decided that enough was enough and that a line had to be drawn. I hope that in the future I am as steadfast in my criticism of Democrats when they are in power as I am of Republicans when they are in power. One of the things we need to do is awaken those who are still sleeping, and sound the alarm.

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 2:32pm

@GusBecause It doesn't look

@GusBecause It doesn't look like an awakening to me. It looks like a convulsion of partisan anger at the fact that Trump and not Clinton got into the White House. It's just using all the issues near and dear to the left-wing heart to make it look moral.

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by kakumeiji maru on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 5:57pm

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal That probably is

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal That probably is a significant part of it, and it is a part that we must guard against. I have no desire to be used by partisan Democrats. I've had quite enough of that to last me a lifetime.

Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I think that we might be able to enlist some of these people to our cause. Some of them are probably partisan hacks, frauds, and hypocrites; I have no idea how many. But we need to get more people on our side if we're going to topple the Democrats and the Republicans.

Submitted by Ellen North on Wed, 02/01/2017 - 10:46am

@kakumeiji maru

@kakumeiji maru

Thing is, it's TPTB which need to be toppled; the Dems and Repubs are just their puppets, used to make the coup seem legal and as a blind to the people.

It's the polluting industries/corporations/monopolies and the billionaires which must be targeted as the cause, not just the symptoms and lackeys they use.

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by MarilynW on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 10:49pm

I don't view the protests as partisan

and not that political. Both parties are opposing the ban on Muslim people in 7 countries where Trump does not do business. There is a global protest against this barbaric US policy.

—

To thine own self be true.

Submitted by kakumeiji maru on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 12:20am

You may be right

@MarilynW I hope you are, anyway. There is a distinct possibility that the actual rank-and-filers who showed up for the protests actually showed up because they give a damn. At the very least, many of these people would probably be open to a more radical appeal. The thing to do will be to continue to mobilize them if/when Democrats regain power. Power must be held accountable, and we must continue to remind everyone of the Democratic Party establishment capitulated to Trump/paved the way for Trumpism.

What we definitely want to forestall and avoid is the Democratic Party swooping in and taking credit for things that leftist organizations and regular people did on their own. I think that was what gjohnsit was talking about, and also that while this sort of nonsense needs to be opposed, we also have to keep our eyes on the other things that are going on. We must oppose not only Trumpism, which is the symptom of the disease, but also the disease itself, which is "the merciless, unyielding logic of late capitalist neoliberalism, with its unconquerable institutions and its indifference to their problems." The disease has been delivered to us by both Democrats and Republicans alike.

Submitted by MarilynW on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 9:38am

"Regular people did this on their own,"

@kakumeiji maru
It was too spontaneous to have been politically organized. Being Canadian, I did not look on the protestors as "Democrats" I just saw compassionate human beings.

Trump and his actions are a world problem and this event proves that.

—

To thine own self be true.

Submitted by Ellen North on Wed, 02/01/2017 - 10:47am

@kakumeiji maru

@kakumeiji maru

Damn, I wish I had extra recs for this!

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 2:33pm

@MarilynW Not exactly the case:

@MarilynW Not exactly the case:

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by Creosote. on Tue, 01/31/2017 - 2:52am

Pardon, hit reply by mistake.

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal ...

Submitted by Ellen North on Wed, 02/01/2017 - 11:06am

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

I keep wondering how much of this may also be also have been intended to keep eye-witness accounts of what's actually going on in places like Syria out of America, especially in view of those (potentially including journalists) merely having visited such countries being barred/delayed, and regarding the recent prevention of even award-winning journalists even from neighbouring Canada from covering NODAPL...

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by kakumeiji maru on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 1:06am

Also, this seems like a good place to share this

The US imperialist war machine keeps turning. At best, Trump is only going to point the war machine in a slightly different direction, hopefully one that doesn't start a nuclear war, but he has so far showed no sign of actually wanting to dismantle the war machine. The war machine is still claiming victims.

It is a sign of how bipartisan our imperialist war machine is that Abdulrahman al-Awlaki was murdered by Obama in a drone strike in 2011, and his sister Nora was murdered by Trump in a US raid in Yemen today. Abdulrahman al-Awlaki was sixteen years old when he was murdered. His sister Nora was eight years old. Neither one of them had any connections to terrorism apart from being the children of Anwar al-Awlaki. They were both children when they were murdered, and Nora could probably barely remember her father. In the raid that claimed Nora's life, 30 people were killed, including ten women and children. That's what our brave men and women in uniform are being used for: murdering women and children.

Trump is a monster. Obama is a monster. Before that, George W. Bush was a monster, and so on and so forth. Unless something truly unprecedented happens, the person who comes after Trump will probably also be a monster. It is the entire system that is monstrous, and it is the entire system that we must attack and destroy.

As the author of that Tweet puts it, "Recognize the continuity. Trump is barbaric. But he isn't abnormal. He is extreme. But he isn't new. Resist the whole system, or we lose."

Warning: the following videos contain extreme blood and gore (first video only), Nazis, and gallows humor. They are not safe for work, and probably not safe for life either if you have a delicate constitution. They come from a horror series, and it shows. I decided they were suitable to post here because I think they do a fairly good job of portraying the horror that the US inflicts on much of the world, and the madness that is American foreign policy.

The following is how I imagine a large portion of the rest of the world sees the United States. I certainly imagine it's how Anwar al-Awlaki's surviving relatives see the United States.

Induction, then destruction! Who wants to die?!

And this is what I imagine is more or less going through the minds of the people who run our government:

Submitted by peachcreek on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 2:35am

I am bothered and a bit bent,

with the notion that very few of you appear to know someone with a green card.
Or are illegal. Or a family with legal children but the parents are not.

Yeah, I get it. Obama sucked too. I agree.
But keep in mind the *people* who are impacted here. This affects people's lives in ways most of us can not imagine. Go ask them how they are feeling right now.

Anyone that fights fascist, racist, capitalist fucks are OK with me. Even former Hillary supporters. (Most of 'em anyway)...

Submitted by MarilynW on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 9:19am

Reaction to a global event

@peachcreek
caused by Trump is boiled down to "where were you when Obama did it?" There is more to the world than the US and it's two dominant political parties. More to the world than left infighting.

All I saw were people who had thought they were coming to a safe place being penned in at airports. And people overseas, Imagine waiting 3 years for a visa, going through all the steps necessary to obtain one and then having someone at the airport tear up your plane ticket as you were preparing to board the plane.

You said it Peachcreek, thanks!

Yeah, I get it. Obama sucked too. I agree.
But keep in mind the *people* who are impacted here. This affects people's lives in ways most of us can not imagine. Go ask them how they are feeling right now.

—

To thine own self be true.

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 2:46pm

@MarilynW If you pay no

@MarilynW If you pay no attention to how entrenched power is maintaining itself, you will never get the policy changes you seek. We've already tried the strategy you and peachcreek advocate, when we focused on opposing Bush, Cheney, and the Republicans because they were evil individuals in an evil party. We went partisan and individualistic. It didn't turn out well.

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 2:46pm

@MarilynW If you pay no

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 10:59am

Who says i don't know someone with a Green card

@peachcreek
I see protestors doing the right thing, but ONLY now that a Repub is in the WH, and only in ways that don't reflect back on Obama.
Don't confuse skepticism with lack of understanding.

You can't claim the moral high ground whenever it is politically convenient.

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 2:44pm

@peachcreek I view it the same way

@peachcreek I view it the same way that I view right-wing civil liberties proponents who were completely silent while Bush gave us Patriot Acts 1 and 2, legalized torture and assassination, and basically instituted a police state. Suddenly, when Obama started doing it, they become on fire to protect the 4th amendment, due process, the rule of law.

Am I glad these right-wing guys (they seem to be mostly guys) were out protesting against the police state under Obama? Yeah. Do I trust them? No. Do I expect them to protest now, when Trump does the same thing? No.

Clinton supporters are the same way. They're here now, because a political figure they hate is doing it. But they sure weren't upset by Hillary's position on deportation, which was brutal. If Hillary (or any Democrat) gets in in 2020, they will, once again, cease to be upset, cease to protest. How do I know? Because they weren't upset three months ago.

Apparently this is nitpicking and just not important in the face of the real human suffering these policies produce. But if you have a policy goal without paying attention to how political power is currently working, you're not going to gain any ground toward your policy goal. How political power is currently protecting itself is by distracting people through partisan hatred and an attempt to funnel all the hatred and rage of the populace onto one individual. That way, the populace will, at best, only take out one individual and his party, temporarily. Like we did with Bush and the Republicans. You might have noticed how much policy change this approach created.

So if you and others want to go to town on Trump and the Republicans, fine. Just understand that policy improvements you get, if any, will be both weak tea and short-lived. While people focus on taking out Trump, the establishment will crank along, running its austerity/war profits machine down the same road it's been travelling for about twenty years now.

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by CB on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 3:10am

Moon of Alabama has a good report on the visa ban as well

as the recent US attack in Yemen where they lost a soldier.

Outrage About Trump Exposes "Librul" Hypocrisy
The current "librul" outrage about Trump's announced policies is somewhat amusing. Yes, these policies are bad, very bad. Trump is bad. But so was Obama and so is Clinton. Protesting the policies of one while not protesting when the other implemented the same policies is insincere grandstanding.

Wherever you look, those Trump policies are building directly on, or simply repeat Obama policies. The now theatrically outraged people swallowed those without a word of protest.
...
There was no outrage today from any of the U.S. "libruls" and their media outlets about last nights failed U.S. military raid in Yemen. The rural home of a tribal leader's family, friendly with some Yemeni al-Qaeda members, was raided by a special operations commando. A U.S. tiltrotor military aircraft was shot down during the raid. One soldier was killed and several were wounded. The U.S. commandos responded with their usual panic. They killed anyone in sight and bombed the shit out of any nearby structure. According to Yemeni sources between 30 and 57 Yemenis were killed including eight women and eight children (graphic pics). The U.S. military claimed, as it always does, that no civilians were hurt in the raid.

One of the killed kids was the 8 year old daughter of al-Qaeda propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki. (The targeted family is related to al-Awlaki's wife.) The girl was a U.S. citizen. Under Obama the CIA had already assassinated her father and her 16 year old brother. With Obama's active help the Gulf countries have been bombing and destroying Ýemen for nearly two years. No U.S. demonstrations were held against this war.
...

Submitted by DonMidwest on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 7:55am

Meanwhile, David Brock not dead yet

James Carville Calls For Democrats To Work With David Brock

Establishment dems, the ones who set the stage for Trump as noted in your article, and the ones who zapped Bernie, they still have money and are trying to hold onto the party .....

It will be hard for the Democrats to maintain that they are taking the moral high ground while funding people like Brock. Once again, Sanders was popular because he represented a change in politics. Clinton’s refusal to denounce Brock reinforced the widespread view that she was not truthworthy or principled. Carville and Democratic donors however appear intent on staying with that strategy while denouncing Trump for his tactics.

Submitted by DonMidwest on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 7:58am

What, could it be.... Bankocracy???

From ‘Draining the Swamp’ to Bankocracy: All Trump’s Betrayals

The Great Vampire Squid Revisited

Whether you voted for or against Donald Trump, whether you’re gearing up for the revolution or waiting for his next tweet to drop, rest assured that, in the years to come, the ideology that matters most won’t be that of the “forgotten” Americans of his Inaugural Address. It will be that of Goldman Sachs and it will dominate the domestic economy and, by extension, the global one.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, when President Teddy Roosevelt governed the country on a platform of trust busting aimed at reducing corporate power, even he could not bring himself to bust up the banks. That was a mistake born of his collaboration with the financier J.P. Morgan to mitigate the effects of the Bank Panic of 1907. Roosevelt feared that if he didn’t enlist the influence of the country’s major banker, the crisis would be even longer and more disastrous. It’s an error he might not have made had he foreseen the effect that one particular investment bank would have on America’s economy and political system.

There have been hundreds of articles written about the “world’s most powerful investment bank,” or as journalist Matt Taibbi famously called it back in 2010, the “great vampire squid.” That squid is now about to wrap its tentacles around our world in a way previously not imagined by Bill Clinton or George W. Bush.

No less than six Trump administration appointments already hail from that single banking outfit. Of those, two will impact your life strikingly: former Goldman partner and soon-to-be Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and incoming top economic adviser and National Economic Council Chair Gary Cohn, former president and “number two” at Goldman. (The Council he will head has been responsible for “policy-making for domestic and international economic issues.”)

Submitted by hellinahandcart on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 9:06am

I completely agree... Trump's drama is a blanket over the more

sinister schemes going on in Congress.
If you think their plans for nixing SS and Medicare are the only 'behind the curtain' schemes, it gets worse. I'm not usually a big fan of Alternet, but this article checks out as valid:
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/corporate-america-inching-even-closer...

Here's a paragraph from the article that resonated with me (and I'll tell you why, after):
"But ALEC doesn’t just fight for states’ rights over the federal government. It fights for states’ rights over everything else, including local governments. After focusing on state legislatures for decades, they now hold decisive control in states across the country, which they have used to stalemate state budgets, and push an avalanche of “state preemption” laws to entrench state control over local towns, villages, cities and counties." (The bolding is mine)

O.k., the N.C. "bathroom bill" is a perfect example of the state overturning all cities/counties' ordinances or bans... the state taking power away from all of its' "towns, villages, cities and counties." Everyone went hair-on-fire about the social ramifications, while ignoring the ramifications of the state power grab. I took special notice, because here in Tennessee, the state overthrew a Nashville-city ban on discrimination against LGBT citizens-- in 2011-- by INVALIDATING THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTIES, CITIES, TOWNS, ETC., in the entire state of Tennessee.
Attorneys tried to sue the state, but STATE judges found "no standing."

Please, read the article... I understand it may seem a bit tinfoil if you haven't been exposed to it-- and affected by it-- first hand. But when McCrory passed the N.C. bill, I knew he was just copying what had been done in other states (Tennessee, for sure)-- that this was just cookie-cutter legislation. To what end, I wondered, when he copied TN.'s bill-- not realizing at thE tIme that 32 other states had either passed or were working on passing bills that would give the state ultimate say.
This is the kind of ROT that is going on behind all the drama. Please let us stay focused on the man behind the curtain.

Submitted by Ellen North on Wed, 02/01/2017 - 11:26am

@hellinahandcart

@hellinahandcart

This is how they break up the Union and create separate corporate/billionaire fiefdoms across America...

Going by what I've read, it seems probable that Google gets California (or at least a chunk of it) via secession, where Obama, according to previously published hints, follows many other powerful politicians to a lucrative new career, in his case as a venture capitalist in something which appears related to the thoroughly government-integrated Google's Singularity project.

It ain't just about the bots...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/22/robots-google-ray-kur...

Are the robots about to rise? Google's new director of engineering thinks so…
Ray Kurzweil popularised the Teminator-like moment he called the 'singularity', when artificial intelligence overtakes human thinking. But now the man who hopes to be immortal is involved in the very same quest – on behalf of the tech behemoth

Robot from The Terminator
The Terminator films envisage a future in which robots have become sentient and are at war with humankind. Ray Kurzweil thinks that machines could become ‘conscious’ by 2029 but is optimistic about the implications for humans. Photograph: Solent News/Rex

Carole Cadwalladr

Saturday 22 February 2014

sinister schemes going on in Congress.
If you think their plans for nixing SS and Medicare are the only 'behind the curtain' schemes, it gets worse. I'm not usually a big fan of Alternet, but this article checks out as valid:
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/corporate-america-inching-even-closer...

Here's a paragraph from the article that resonated with me (and I'll tell you why, after):
"But ALEC doesn’t just fight for states’ rights over the federal government. It fights for states’ rights over everything else, including local governments. After focusing on state legislatures for decades, they now hold decisive control in states across the country, which they have used to stalemate state budgets, and push an avalanche of “state preemption” laws to entrench state control over local towns, villages, cities and counties." (The bolding is mine)

O.k., the N.C. "bathroom bill" is a perfect example of the state overturning all cities/counties' ordinances or bans... the state taking power away from all of its' "towns, villages, cities and counties." Everyone went hair-on-fire about the social ramifications, while ignoring the ramifications of the state power grab. I took special notice, because here in Tennessee, the state overthrew a Nashville-city ban on discrimination against LGBT citizens-- in 2011-- by INVALIDATING THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTIES, CITIES, TOWNS, ETC., in the entire state of Tennessee.
Attorneys tried to sue the state, but STATE judges found "no standing."

Please, read the article... I understand it may seem a bit tinfoil if you haven't been exposed to it-- and affected by it-- first hand. But when McCrory passed the N.C. bill, I knew he was just copying what had been done in other states (Tennessee, for sure)-- that this was just cookie-cutter legislation. To what end, I wondered, when he copied TN.'s bill-- not realizing at thE tIme that 32 other states had either passed or were working on passing bills that would give the state ultimate say.
This is the kind of ROT that is going on behind all the drama. Please let us stay focused on the man behind the curtain.

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by hellinahandcart on Fri, 02/03/2017 - 2:42pm

Yep.

@Ellen North

States selling all of the public land to private interests/companies is part of it, too.

Submitted by EdMass on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 9:50am

As of Monday AM

it appears that the "other hand" might well be the Supreme Court nominee. A week and half into this Admin and Dem heads are spinning so fast they are having difficulty deciding what to rail against first.

—

Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

Submitted by featheredsprite on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 12:37pm

The chaos that Trump has caused

would give Bannon an excuse to impose martial law, which I think he would love to do.

There is an article on Zero Hedge
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-29/color-revolution-under-way-america
that supports that idea [without mentioning Bannon].

Heavy repression plus gutting social services plus plummeting economy equals all out shooting war.

—

Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

Submitted by blue drop on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 12:51pm

it's what we're thinking in our household

It makes one think that the magician is trying to distract with the 'refugee ban' hand, while doing his sleight of hand elsewhere.

daily Trump headlines just provide a distraction away from whatever he is doing behind the scenes. the media AND the Democratic leadership is eating it up. instead, they need to be looking behind the curtain and they'll find things much more unnerving.

Submitted by Ellen North on Wed, 02/01/2017 - 11:30am

@blue drop

@blue drop

Recced but if you look to see who's helping to pull those curtain-strings across, you'll see the corporate media AND the Democratic leadership shielding owners/donors/employers...

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by blazinAZ on Mon, 01/30/2017 - 5:24pm

it's a distraction from the Nat'l Security Council appointment

I've been saying all weekend that this ban is a distraction from the appointment of Bannon to the NSC, and the removal of the Joint Chiefs from the same organization. I'm not a fan of the NSC, but Bannon has absolutely no reason to be there except to force through his fascist agenda without restriction.

The suffering of the people being detained or returned to the countries they're fleeing from is horrific, but as others have said, no different from the suffering of Honduran children (and others) turned away by Obama, an action endorsed in the most callous terms by Hillary Clinton. And the Jews turned away before WW II, etc., etc. This is the history of this country, despite what it says on the Statue of Liberty.

My biggest concern over this ban is the Homeland Security employees (including Customs officials) who are ignoring court orders and refusing to speak to elected attorneys general. When asked who they report to, the answer has been "Donald Trump" -- and uniformed cops are protecting them.

In my NoDAPL essays I write all the time about lawless people in uniform, and here are more. When the real crackdown starts, it will be ugly and deadly.

—

There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

Submitted by Ellen North on Wed, 02/01/2017 - 11:46am

@blazinAZ

@blazinAZ

Wasn't the Statue of Liberty and inscription a gift from France to Americans? The symbol certainly made for good PR and no doubt helped smooth over such as Ellis Island discriminatory 'IQ test' immigration policies, albeit accepted at the time of their use.

However, it appears that the Lady of Liberty has been effectively privatized for corporate profit for quite some time now, as a result of austerity policies.

http://nypost.com/2004/04/08/the-statue-of-liberty-scandal-who-owns-the-...

Opinion
THE STATUE OF LIBERTY SCANDAL: WHO OWNS THE LADY?

By Eric Fettmann

April 8, 2004

... The real issue is the one cited by Grassley: The National Park Service, he said, “might have given too much control of a prized national asset to a private foundation.” ...

... Few people know that the private fund-raising foundation formed long before the Park Service even contemplated restoring the statue. Its founders: a corporate marketer Richard Rovsek, the noted architect John Burgee and advertising exec John Morrissey, whose agency handled Chrysler’s account.

The whole point was to market the Statue of Liberty (Ellis Island was only an afterthought) as a corporate merchandising scheme – or, as the foundation touted it, “a monumental profit opportunity” for corporate sponsors.

The feds only joined in when they saw the possibilities – particularly after the the foundation recruited Chrysler’s Lee Iacocca, then at the height of his popularity, as chairman. (As the Wall Street Journal noted at the time, only Iacocca “could convince 90 corporate officers that the Statue of Liberty belongs only to them.”)

The Interior Department appointed a federal advisory commission that was supposed to actually plan the details of the restoration – but the panel didn’t even meet for two years. Not that it mattered: Iacocca chaired both commission and foundation; the private group, accountable to no one, simply swallowed up the public one. ...

... As Grassley said, “Some of these foundations seem to exist only to perpetuate themselves. Unfortunately, it looks like the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Foundation might be in that category.” ...

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.