Saturday, January 28, 2017

DESPICABLE, CHAOTIC TRAGEDY - THANKS, TRUMP

From the New York Times - despicable, chaotic tragedy.  Iraqis who put their lives and the lives of their families at risk to help the US are banned.  People from countries on the executive order list who have green cards are banned from reentering the US. This is our new president, only one week in office, and we are asked time after time to "give him a chance".  Not a chance of that for me.  Never in my wildest nightmares about a Trump presidency did I imagine such an ignorant, heartless dolt could do as much damage to our country and our international relationships in one week.
President Trump’s executive order on immigration quickly reverberated through the United States and across the globe on Saturday, slamming the border shut for an Iranian scientist headed to a lab in Boston, an Iraqi who had worked as an interpreter for the United States Army, and a Syrian refugee family headed to a new life in Ohio, among countless others.
....

Mr. Trump’s order, enacted with the stroke of a pen on Friday afternoon, suspended entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, barred Syrian refugees indefinitely, and blocked entry into the United States for 90 days for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
....


Confusion turned to panic at airports around the world, as travelers found themselves unable to board flights bound for the United States. In Dubai and Istanbul, airport and immigration officials turned passengers away at boarding gates and, in at least one case, ejected a family from a flight they had boarded.
Note: I have not previously used the picture of Trump at the head of the post, but it's time, or maybe way past time, as it so perfectly illustrates the message the president sends to the people of the country and to the world.  Of course, there is one exception, as even now the Trump maladministration is considering lifting sanctions on Russia, where his much beloved strong man and BFF, Vlad Putin, rules as despot.

UPDATE: From Talking Points Memo.
A federal judge in New York has issued an emergency order temporarily barring the U.S. from deporting people from nations subject to President Donald Trump's travel ban.

U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly issued the order Saturday evening after lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union filed a court petition on behalf of people from seven predominantly Muslim nations who were detained at airports across the country as the ban took effect.

Cheers broke out in a crowd of demonstrators outside a Brooklyn courthouse as the decision, effective nationwide, was announced.
Thank you, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)! I will make a donation now. We need the organization desperately in these times.

8 comments:

  1. I think this could all be just an elaborate ruse designed to be the first step in a legal separation from Malania, or a taste of the ill-conceived planing and careless implementation of our orange fascist leader.

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    1. I doubt it, but if that is the case, then I'm very sorry Trump couldn't find a better way than to take so many undeserving people down with Melania.

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  2. I note this order also affects permanent residents of the US (green card holders) who were abroad when this was signed but whose current citizenship was from one of those countries.

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    1. Yes, that's true. When will the GOP ostriches in Congress take their heads out of the sand? We have not seen protests in such large numbers since the Vietnam war.

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    2. It seems one student at the university where I work, a US permanent resident originally from Somalia, was held and handcuffed at JFK when she arrived back in the country from a research trip just after the order came down. She has now been released There may well be other students and scholars trapped abroad. The Association of American Universities has issued a protest over the order http://www.aau.edu/news/article.aspx?id=18366 Admittedly I doubt Trump has much use for universities.

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    3. I posted an update about the stay to the ban granted by a federal judge in New York. I hope the ruling becomes permanent as it makes its way through the courts.

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  3. I have been a citizen for over 25 years. Today I am scared. My White American husband and I travel more than 275 days a year. I am afraid while we are away yet another stupid executive order will come out preventing my kind to enter the country. This will get overturned by court soon but in the mean time the confusion and ill will we are generating is simply huge.

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    1. Purobi, my heart goes out to you and so many others who are afraid. Such unspeakable cruelty is shocking. I'll call my Congressmen on Monday. All are Republicans, so I don't know how much good it will, but we have to try. Much love and sympathy, m'dear.

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