“Council American-Islamic Relations announced an intention to sue President Donald Trump over his executive order banning most immigrants from Syria, and other countries that lack certain vetting standards and have issues with terrorism. Overnight, refugees who were in the air on the way to the United States are now being detained, and have also filed legal actions. The ban is perceived by some as a partial Muslim ban. Either way, at any trial, the law supports Trump’s order, and CAIR or others are likely to lose, completely, conclusively and quickly.”
——————–
“The Constitution gives Congress and the President exclusive, plenary control over immigration. This is how both Carter and Obama could single out various states or beliefs to exclude migrants on that basis, as both did.
First, the Constitution gives Congress the right to determine naturalization, and Congress gives the President express power to do as he did. Section 1182 of Title 8 directs the President can “by proclamation” suspend entry of “all aliens or any class of aliens” as the President “may deem appropriate” whenever the President merely “finds” any such alien group “would be detrimental” to the interests of the United States.
This extraordinarily broad power finds direct and clear affirmation by the Supreme Court in a sequence of decisions. As the court explained in the Valenzuela-Bernal case:
“The power to regulate immigration—an attribute of sovereignty essential to the preservation of any nation—has been entrusted by the Constitution to the political branches of the Federal Government.”
The Court, “without exception”, called this power “plenary,” empowering the Presidential prerogative as expressly delegated by Congress, with the right to “make rules for the admission of aliens.”
The Congress carved out protection only for a limited class of aliens: those who qualify for an immigrant visa. Even here, the only limits are race, sex, nationality, but no limits on the presidential power to exclude based on religion, terror designations, poor vetting documentation or anything that can be called a matter of “procedure.” All refugees can be legally excluded. All Muslims can be legally excluded. All Sharia law supporters can be legally excluded.”
I consider ex-pres. Obama to be the worst president the US has ever had. Ricky and hwesseli hold him in much higher regard.
Re. Pres. Trump, all I have to add at this time is that in less than a week he has signed EOs to protect our most fundamental right – the right to life itself. He reinstated the Mexico City policy to protect our most vulnerable ones, and he also signed an order to, at least in part, protect religious minorities (esp. Christian ones who have been the most persecuted in recent years).
In less than a week. Now what was it that Obama actually accomplished in all his eight years in office?
Tychicus, Study LBJ. Most of the programs that have ruined/are ruining the country were started by him. His justices helped give us Roe v Wade and many other abominations.
Ricky is correct at8:09. It was LBJ.
Killing Kennedy was the worst thing to happen to America since Killing Lincoln.
But Roosevelt had a hand in it in that he is the one who gave people the idea that they could get money from the government.
Carter was a good guy, but on the wrong track.
Obama knew what he was doing. It wasn’t incompetence, we elected a guy who, if not still a Muslim, was/is on their side. He hated the America he knew/knows.
An honest look at his record will show that.
He sent millions to the Palestinians in his last days in office.
I am reading a book by Bill Gertz called iWars, it tells the precarious position that Obama, but not only him, has put us in. We are very vulnerable.
Why does the electric grid have to be on the internet?
Chas is correct. Had John F. Kennedy lived he may have been one of the worst presidents in modern history. He certainly would not have been elevated to sainthood as he has been. LBJ did more to destroy the nuclear family than any other politician at any other time. This was especially visited upon the African-American population, but has trickled down to other “racial groups”. I worked with a middle class white woman whose 17 year old daughter became pregnant. They would have had to pay for everything out of pocket but someone explained that if the “kicked her out of the house” and she moved down the street with her aunt she would qualify for all sorts of prenatal care, welfare, WIC, etc.
It no longer makes financial sense for a couple who find themselves expecting a baby to do the right thing and get married. Therefore a woman is better off financially–at least for a few years—without the “baby-daddy” in the home.
I don’t remember much of a Carter presidency. I, in my bloated, egotistical knowledge of history, once made the comment that he would go down as one of our best presidents. I knew that he had gone to the Naval Academy and studied nuclear engineering. Therefore, he couldn’t be stupid. He, of all our presidents, knew the power and destruction he held in his hands. After a former military officer who served during that time got finished with me, I had a whole new perspective.
Obama was essentially Bernie Sanders with a tan and decent haircut. Had he known how to use power like LBJ, had he been able to hold on to Congress, things could have been much worse. Fortunately, he was distracted by golf and partially blocked by the Republicans.
It is interesting to read Carter’s first book after Reagan defeated him. He was petty and bitter. His account of the ride to Reagan’s Inauguration is unintentionally hilarious. That is the Jimmy Carter I remember. I think his attitude really improved over time.
I will put this out here. I am going to do this. I got the idea from an acquaintance in New Jersey.
:I want to start a movement or join one. From now on, if you are frustrated with your party or the other party end your post, rant, statement with #EARNMYVOTE on all Social Media platforms.
Send a louder message by registering as an Independent. This seems to be the responsible thing as both Democrats and Republicans seem to be concerned with winning and control not the real issues.
I think too many of them have lost their focus. Unregister your party…. that will get their attention and their ear.
#EarnMyVote”
Ricky, LBJ had years of backroom deals in his arsenal. No one else since him has had the muscle to call in favors the way he did. Obama certainly didn’t have it even if he hadn’t played so much golf
I lost all respect for the Carter’s after I read Rosalyn’s account of how they were “just packed up and kicked out” of the White House. What did she think had happened to Gerald Ford before them and every other president?
As time has gone on I have continued to lose respect for them until there is hardly any left.
“Many of President Donald Trump’s core political supporters had a simple message on Sunday for the fiercest opponents of his immigration ban: Calm down.
The relaxed reaction among the kind of voters who drove Trump’s historic upset victory – working- and middle-class residents of Midwest and the South – provided a striking contrast to the uproar that has gripped major coastal cities, where thousands of protesters flocked to airports where immigrants had been detained.
In the St. Louis suburb of Manchester, Missouri, 72-year-old Jo Ann Tieken characterized the president as bringing reason into an overheated debate.
“Somebody has to stand up, be the grown up and see what we can do better to check on people coming in,” she said. “I’m all for everybody to stop and take a breath … Just give it a chance.”
By executive order on Friday, Trump banned immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – and temporarily halted the entry of refugees.
In the electoral strongholds for Trump, residents seemed nonplussed about the uproar flashing across their television screens. They shrugged off concerns about botched execution, damage to foreign relations and legal challenges across the country.
In New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities, Trump’s action set off an outpouring of anger.”
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And by failing to have the agencies charged with enforcing the EO review it ahead of time, Trump and his White House aides acted like idiots.
It simply confirms all that I have believed since Clinton and Trump clinched their parties’ nominations: We are living in an Idiocracy. The good news is that Trump is as funny as the movie, though four years is a long time to keep laughing.
The attack on a mosque in Canada set off the usual reaction from globalist across the world, who just assumed it was an attack against Muslims. Problem with that is at least one of the perps is a Moroccan Muslim, and they were shouting “Allahu akbar!” as they attacked.
“World leaders immediately responded after the attack, some of whom also led with assumptions:
In France, President Francois Hollande condemned “in the strongest possible terms” what he called an “odious attack” in Quebec.
“It’s the spirit of peace and openness of the people of Quebec that the terrorists wanted to hit,” Hollande said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman condemned the “despicable” attack.
“If the killers intended to set people of different faiths against each other or to divide them, they must not and will not succeed in that,” Steffen Seibert said. “We stand in mourning beside the Muslim community in Quebec.”
The problem is that we don’t know the motive, which makes these statements presumptuous, at least. Until police identify the suspects and their motives, we don’t know if they wanted to attack “the spirit of peace and openness” or to divide people of different faiths. Those are certainly possibilities, but there are other possibilities too — personal vendettas, intra-faith disputes, and so on.”
—————————-
“One of two gunmen who shouted ‘Allahu akbar!’ as they opened fire at a mosque in Quebec City was of Moroccan origin, a witness and local media reported Monday, revealing the first details about the attackers in the massacre that killed six men.
The terror suspects were identified as Mohamed Khadir and Alexandre Bissonnette, the CBC reported. The two men were arrested soon after the shooting at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre Sunday night and were expected to appear in court later Monday, police told reporters.
One of the gunmen actually turned himself in, calling 911 less than 20 minutes later and giving officers his location in d’Orleans so they could arrest him, police said. The attack unfolded in the men’s section of the mosque.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the attack, calling it a “terrorist attack on Muslims.”
The attackers were students at Université Laval, a school in Quebec, a source close to the investigation told Radio Canada, saying one was Moroccan. Police said the suspects were not on their radar.”
—————————-
They probably all just assumed it was some white guys, because that’s what they wanted to believe.
Maybe Canada oughta consider a Trump style ban too, since their current system failed to notice the extremist they allowed in.
The Real, the shooting took place in a mosque. It doesn’t take an analyst to decide that Muslims were being targeted. Who else would one expect to find in a mosque? Furthermore, while one of the shooters is Moroccan, the other has an obviously French-Canadian name. It is possible that he converted, but then again, the Allahu Akbar may have been called in mockery: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-city-mosque-gun-shots-1.3957686. As for the Trump style ban, Morocco isn’t one of the countries under Trump’s ban.
Thank you, Ricky. I dislike the politicization of a senseless tragedy. It would not surprise me either way – that these were extremists targeting moderate Muslims, or that they were right wing extremists (it is not beyond the pale of possibility that a man from a Muslim background should become violently anti-Muslim). Quebec, with its past of ultra-Catholicism, and its present of ultra-liberalism, has its share of racism and xenophobia. Each province has its own culture, and Quebec is always focused on preserving its French-speaking identity, meaning that immigrants are sometimes unwelcome, partly because they would rather learn English than French. Whatever the motivation for the shooters, the outcome is the same, the murder of human beings. The men killed were the husbands of wives, fathers of children, sons of mothers, and brothers of sisters. They will be mourned.
Tychicus @11:50 Thanks for posting the article by French. He is a wise one. He was probably smart to reject Bill Kristol’s request that he play the role of Evan McMullin, though McMullin seems to continue to enjoy playing the role.
No one is denying the mosque was targeted. By who is what’s in question. Perhaps I should have clarified this,
“The attack on a mosque in Canada set off the usual reaction from globalist across the world, who just assumed it was an attack against Muslims.”
with “by a non-muslim.”
Because that is what everyone is assuming.
I’ve probably made some assumptions as well, which may yet be proven wrong. We shall see.
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And of course they will be mourned, no one suggested otherwise.
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Police are now saying one may have been a witness, not an attacker. But all official accounts up until now have stated it was more than one attacker, including your link above.
“A shooting at a Quebec City mosque during evening prayers left six people dead in an attack that Canada’s prime minister called an act of terrorism. Police initially arrested two men but later said just one remains a suspect.
More than 50 people were at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre when the shooting erupted Sunday night. In addition to the six who died, five were in critical condition and 12 others suffered minor injuries, University of Quebec Hospital Centre spokeswoman Genevieve Dupuis said Monday. The dead ranged in age from 35 to 65.
Quebec City court clerk Isabelle Ferland identified Alexandre Bissonnette and Mohamed el Khadir as the suspects. Police later said one of them was just a witness, though they did not say which.
One was arrested at the scene and another nearby, in his car on a bridge near d’Orleans where he called 911 to say he wanted to cooperate with police. Police said they did not believe there were other suspects but were investigating.”
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The story is that Trump first offered the Vice-Presidency to Kasich and was turned down. Time will tell whether he or Pence made the right decision. It is possible they both did. Pence strikes me as a man with the patience and modesty to deal with Trump. Kasich may have known that he could not have done the things Pence is called upon to do each day.
1. EOs aren’t inherently mere power grabs. They can serve a purpose and be perfectly legal and legitimate. Conservatives didn’t object simply to Obama signing EOs, but his abuses contained in some that he signed, in addition to his use of Presidential memoranda to, essentially, circumvent Congress.
2. The charge that pro-lifers only care about a fetus before it is born, but not after, is…how do you say in English…idiotic.
“Nor is what Trump has done particularly unusual, let alone extreme.
The countries involved in the 90-day suspension — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — weren’t named in Trump’s executive order. They were listed by the Obama administration as countries of special concern under a 2015 law that requires anyone who even visited one of these terror-prone countries to undergo special scrutiny before coming to the U.S. — even if they hail from a country that otherwise doesn’t require a visa to visit the U.S.
President Obama himself barred large groups of immigrants from entering the U.S. at least six times out of national security concerns, according to a review last June by the Washington Examiner. In 2011, the administration suspended refugee processing from Iraq for six months to make sure terrorists weren’t exploiting the program.
The Examiner also found that “President Bill Clinton issued six immigrant bans; George W. Bush six immigrant bans; and former President Ronald Reagan four. And in 1980, former President Jimmy Carter banned Iranians after Tehran seized the U.S. embassy.”
Nor is Trump’s refugee cap in any way draconian. Data from the Migration Policy Institute shows that, while the cap was higher under the previous two presidents, the actual number of refugees admitted over the past 15 years has been at or below 50,000 most of the time. In fact, the average number of refugees admitted under Bush was 48,000 a year.
In any case, Trump’s halt to Syrian refugees won’t make a difference one way or another in the Syrian refugee crisis. In the five years after the Syrian war started in 2011, Obama had admitted all of 1,883 Syrian refugees. Obama’s highly controversial decision last year to let in 13,000 didn’t make a dent in the 4 million-plus Syrian refugee population.
What’s extreme isn’t what Trump did, it’s the entirely out-of-proportion reaction from his political opponents, the press, and many weak-kneed Republicans.”
———————————
“President Donald Trump signed an order on Monday that will seek to dramatically pare back federal regulations by requiring agencies to cut two existing regulations for every new rule introduced.
“This will be the biggest such act that our country has ever seen. There will be regulation, there will be control, but it will be normalized control,” Trump said as he signed the order in the Oval Office, surrounded by a group of small business owners.
Trump’s latest executive action will prepare a process for the White House to set an annual cap on the cost of new regulations, a senior official told reporters ahead of the signing.”
———————-
Agreed, DJ. Spicer and Conway come off as abrasive and argumentative. At a time when the WH could make huge PR strides, along with giving the media a well-deserved beatdown, it’s too bad its spokespersons are so unpleasant.
I have no respect for President Carter. He was an inept president and a meddling former president. He did good work with Habitat for Humanity, but that’s about it. Well, he also paved the way for Reagan.
Cheryl, I agree. I was very disappointed when Reagan lost to Ford in 1976. However, the next four years gave him a real mandate for change in 1980. I shudder to think of the size of the mandate for change that may exist for some Democrat in 2020.
SolarP, Spicer reminds me of Ron Ziegler. He is just not a very good liar. Conway is as good at covering for Trump as Paul Begala was for Bill Clinton. I used to call him Paul BeGoebbles.
Leftists (and others) may be afraid of what our President is doing, but what we should be fearing is the fascist anarchy of public figures who are advocating physical violence toward anyone who disagrees with them. Actor David Harbour, while accepting his SAG award, began
by calling on his fellow actors to “cultivate a more empathetic and understanding society,” but ended with a screaming call to “punch some people in the face” with “soul, heart, and joy.”
An excerpt from former Pres. Obama’s last speech to the U.N.: “We’ve taken away terrorist safe havens, strengthened the nonproliferation regime, resolved the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomacy.”
It seems that Iran has conducted the second ballistic missile test this year, in clear violation of the UN agreement.
CBC News has identified three of the six men who died in Sunday night’s shooting at a Quebec City mosque as Khaled Belkacemi, a professor at Laval University, Azzedine Soufiane, the owner of a grocery store and halal butcher shop, and Boubaker Thabti, a Tunisian-born father of two…
Thabti moved to Quebec in 2011. His two children are three and 11 years old.
In addition to the six confirmed fatalities, five others who were injured are still in hospital…
…Soufiane, who was of Moroccan descent, had lived in Quebec for 30 years…
Belkacemi earned his bachelor of science in chemical engineering from Polytechnic School of Algiers in Algeria in 1983. He graduated with a PhD from Sherbrooke University in 1990.
His area of research focused on green chemistry and functional foods. Belkacemi was the keynote speaker at the 66th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference in Quebec City in October.
The suspect has been officially identified as Alexandre Bissonnette.
Kasich has always been a reasonably conservative Republican. Like Pence, he has been an effective governor of a large swing state.
He has not:
1. Given money to Schumer or Pelosi;
2. Supported a single payer healthcare plan;
3. Conned thousands using a fake “university”;
4. Had a long history of supporting abortion and Planned Parenthood;
5. Bragged about committing multiple sexual assaults;
6. Complained that the judge in his fraud lawsuit was Hispanic;
7. Been involved in over 3,000 lawsuits;
8. Attacked the appearance of candidates and their wives;
9. Believed Putin and Assange and attacked US and other Western intelligence agencies;
10. Compared the sexual performance of his wife and mistress in conversations with reporters.
Huh. I hadn’t realized that expanding Medicare to get that “free” ObamaCare cheese was considered the conservative position. A move that failed, and has now put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars the last 2 years.
“Ohio Governor John Kasich has spent no small amount of time on the presidential campaign trail discussing his decision to expand Medicaid to 650,000 able-bodied adults under Obamacare. But policymakers in non-expansion states should take a closer look at what’s actually unfolded in Ohio before considering going down the same path.
Kasich’s Obamacare expansion has enrolled more able-bodied adults than the state thought would ever sign up. This enrollment explosion has resulted in $2.7 billion of budget overruns in just the first two years of the program. The overruns have left lawmakers scrambling, as the state’s share of costs come due in the current biennium budget. Overruns also mean less funding for important budget priorities like public safety, education and the truly needy.
Lawmakers in non-expansion states should take note of the disaster currently unfolding in Ohio and be glad they haven’t subjected their own states to the same fate.”
———————-
“The Kasich administration initially projected Obamacare expansion would cost taxpayers $3.9 billion between January 2014 and January 2016. But in reality, Ohio’s Medicaid expansion has cost taxpayers $6.8 billion so far, meaning the expansion has already run $2.9 billion over budget.
With enrollment already exceeding maximum projections, these overruns are certain to continue for years to come. In fact, based on the most recent information, the Foundation for Government Accountability estimates that Kasich’s Medicaid expansion is on schedule to run nearly $8 billion over budget by the end of 2017.”
I will admit that Kasich is a Yankee and on that question he acted like many other Yankees. However, I would hope that we could all agree that he is nowhere near as big a Yankee as is Trump.
Two of my least favorite people in the entire world are Chuck Schumer and Donald Trump. The good news is that Trump is going to be humiliated on an almost daily basis for the next four years. The bad news is that Schumer is going to be doing the humiliating, except for those times when Trump does it to himself.
“U.S. President Donald Trump fired the federal government’s top lawyer Sally Yates on Monday after she took the extraordinarily rare step of defying the White House and saying the Justice Department would not defend his new travel restrictions targeting seven Muslim-majority nations.
The White House said on Twitter that Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, would replace Yates, an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama, as acting U.S. attorney general.
Yates on Monday told Justice Department lawyers in a letter that they would not defend in court Trump’s directive that put a 120-day hold on allowing refugees into the country, an indefinite ban on refugees from Syria and a 90-day bar on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.”
—————————-
JFK had the dubious advantage of dying young before his star would lose its lustre or fade away. He had his moments but much like Reagan on the other side of the fence its more myth than fact — or to use the current phrase “alternative fact”
Carter has aged nicely. He was a nice guy who became president at probably the worst time in the post war era. His post presidential career speaks volumes about his character.
When Reagan finished his presidency, the jury was still out on his administration. He was ranked 22 out of all the presidents but now is ranked 11th — there seems to be a certain nostalgia towards his era — a myth — that isn’t warranted. Personally I think he’s responsible for the decline of the US middle class but I’m not going to convince anyone here. However, its interesting to compare Reagan’s initial rank of 22 to Obama’s initial rank of 18th. Perhaps in 30 years he will be in 9th place. Certainly the comparison between Obama and his successor will increase Obama’s ranking.
FDR by the way ranks 1st in most historian surveys. He saved capitalism from itself as well as set the stage for the post war system — Bretton Woods, UN, etc. An economic legacy that lasted until 1973 and a diplomatic legacy that still has an effect.
Surprisingly the mosque shooting was not discussed but admittedly outside of classroom teaching I spent most of my day with “white” girls who suffer from anxiety and depression. It will be interesting to see if there is discussion tomorrow when the news is fully digested. There was a memorial or vigil at the city hall tonight. I walked the dog over and there was about 3-400 people — not bad on a few hours notice. The local mosque is half a block from my house — in the summer I sit on my porch sipping rye and ginger while the local Somali population walks to Friday prayers.
I now have the best police protection in the city. They’ve stepped up their local patrol of the neighbourhood during evening and morning prayers. This is in addition to their Thursday, Friday and Saturday night patrols since the nightclub district is a block the other direction. For some reason, my German Shepherd wants to attack the horses the police at night.
Despite the right’s claims to the contrary, the current EO is not the same as previous presidents. In Obama’s case he suspended the processing of visas, refugee claims, and green cards until a new process was developed. However, he did not suspend the current green cards and previously granted visas. Hence under Obama there wasn’t this mass confusion at the airports with people being detained on their way home from overseas. I linked yesterday of a 12 year old girl in limbo in Djibouti and two Yemeni brothers stuck in the Addis Ababa airport. Now it emerged that a 5 year old boy was handcuffed and separated from his parents. To top it off, Spicer thought it was the proper thing to do. Apparently, age should not be a factor when assessing risks. How much drugs do you have to take to be that paranoid? Incompetence influenced by paranoia is not a good combination.
The rule of law has also been diminished. A federal judge stated that those detained in Dulles were entitled to legal representation yet Customs officials refused access saying they were told by someone in the administration to ignore the court. One branch of gov’t, the executive, is refusing to adhere to the checks and balances and the basic rules of governance.
HRW @ 10;09 The “right” is making no claims to the contrary. The right is McCain, Kasich, McMullin and Sasse. Trumpkins are making those claims, but they are not the “right”. Trumpkins are a personality cult who are loyal to him rather than any set principles. The proof is that whenever The Orange One modifies his position on any item such as who will pay for the wall or who will be deported, or whether Hillary will be jailed, the cultists fall right in line with his new position.
I just wrote a long piece about my family’s brush with US Customs in Buffalo in 2003 but it somehow disappeared. Suffice to say my ex-wife was not impressed with their behaviour and has yet to return to the US. Customs agents have broad powers and are not limited by the same constitutional limits as police but they are the first impressions many people have of a country. The events of the past few days and the behaviour of the US Customs as they handcuff a 5 year old, refuse to allow lawyers despite a court order, leave a 12 year old stranded in Djibouti, etc will not leave a good impression outside of the US. Tourism, business conferences, etc will suffer and their dollars will go elsewhere.
(They refused entry to my ex-wife despite the fact she had a 10 year multi-entry visa — the US gov’t cancelled it a month prior to our visit but didn’t inform the many landed immigrants in Canada who had these visas. While at Customs, the agents, behind bullet proof glass, refused to allow my 5 year old daughter to use the washroom. When we went to the Cdn customs, not only was my daughter allowed to use the washrooms, the agents, at an open counter, gave her a colouring book and crayons while we waited for my ex-wife’s reentry papers to be processed — first impressions matter)
Krugman has an interesting piece on how the Trump admin and spokespersons seems to make stuff up as they go along mostly to avoid embarrassing Trump.
Sorry Ricky — Trump and friends belong to the right. They are right wing populists. They may not be Burkean conservatives or classical liberals (Friedman) but they are on the right.
We reject them. The Right officially refuses entry to Trump and all Trumpkins and orders them deported to the Left or a mental institution of their choice.
Wandering Views 
Critics of Trump’s temporary ban don’t seem to have much of a case.
http://lawnewz.com/celebrity/on-trial-lawsuits-against-trump-on-muslim-immigration-ban-will-fail-fast/
“Council American-Islamic Relations announced an intention to sue President Donald Trump over his executive order banning most immigrants from Syria, and other countries that lack certain vetting standards and have issues with terrorism. Overnight, refugees who were in the air on the way to the United States are now being detained, and have also filed legal actions. The ban is perceived by some as a partial Muslim ban. Either way, at any trial, the law supports Trump’s order, and CAIR or others are likely to lose, completely, conclusively and quickly.”
——————–
“The Constitution gives Congress and the President exclusive, plenary control over immigration. This is how both Carter and Obama could single out various states or beliefs to exclude migrants on that basis, as both did.
First, the Constitution gives Congress the right to determine naturalization, and Congress gives the President express power to do as he did. Section 1182 of Title 8 directs the President can “by proclamation” suspend entry of “all aliens or any class of aliens” as the President “may deem appropriate” whenever the President merely “finds” any such alien group “would be detrimental” to the interests of the United States.
This extraordinarily broad power finds direct and clear affirmation by the Supreme Court in a sequence of decisions. As the court explained in the Valenzuela-Bernal case:
“The power to regulate immigration—an attribute of sovereignty essential to the preservation of any nation—has been entrusted by the Constitution to the political branches of the Federal Government.”
The Court, “without exception”, called this power “plenary,” empowering the Presidential prerogative as expressly delegated by Congress, with the right to “make rules for the admission of aliens.”
The Congress carved out protection only for a limited class of aliens: those who qualify for an immigrant visa. Even here, the only limits are race, sex, nationality, but no limits on the presidential power to exclude based on religion, terror designations, poor vetting documentation or anything that can be called a matter of “procedure.” All refugees can be legally excluded. All Muslims can be legally excluded. All Sharia law supporters can be legally excluded.”
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I consider ex-pres. Obama to be the worst president the US has ever had. Ricky and hwesseli hold him in much higher regard.
Re. Pres. Trump, all I have to add at this time is that in less than a week he has signed EOs to protect our most fundamental right – the right to life itself. He reinstated the Mexico City policy to protect our most vulnerable ones, and he also signed an order to, at least in part, protect religious minorities (esp. Christian ones who have been the most persecuted in recent years).
In less than a week. Now what was it that Obama actually accomplished in all his eight years in office?
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Tychicus, Study LBJ. Most of the programs that have ruined/are ruining the country were started by him. His justices helped give us Roe v Wade and many other abominations.
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Ricky is correct at8:09. It was LBJ.
Killing Kennedy was the worst thing to happen to America since Killing Lincoln.
But Roosevelt had a hand in it in that he is the one who gave people the idea that they could get money from the government.
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It is not that Carter and Obama didn’t want to be as bad as LBJ, they were just too incompetent to do the damage done by Johnson.
Let us hope that Trump’s incompetence will limit his ability to damage the country. He is off to a good start.
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Carter was a good guy, but on the wrong track.
Obama knew what he was doing. It wasn’t incompetence, we elected a guy who, if not still a Muslim, was/is on their side. He hated the America he knew/knows.
An honest look at his record will show that.
He sent millions to the Palestinians in his last days in office.
I am reading a book by Bill Gertz called iWars, it tells the precarious position that Obama, but not only him, has put us in. We are very vulnerable.
Why does the electric grid have to be on the internet?
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Chas is correct. Had John F. Kennedy lived he may have been one of the worst presidents in modern history. He certainly would not have been elevated to sainthood as he has been. LBJ did more to destroy the nuclear family than any other politician at any other time. This was especially visited upon the African-American population, but has trickled down to other “racial groups”. I worked with a middle class white woman whose 17 year old daughter became pregnant. They would have had to pay for everything out of pocket but someone explained that if the “kicked her out of the house” and she moved down the street with her aunt she would qualify for all sorts of prenatal care, welfare, WIC, etc.
It no longer makes financial sense for a couple who find themselves expecting a baby to do the right thing and get married. Therefore a woman is better off financially–at least for a few years—without the “baby-daddy” in the home.
I don’t remember much of a Carter presidency. I, in my bloated, egotistical knowledge of history, once made the comment that he would go down as one of our best presidents. I knew that he had gone to the Naval Academy and studied nuclear engineering. Therefore, he couldn’t be stupid. He, of all our presidents, knew the power and destruction he held in his hands. After a former military officer who served during that time got finished with me, I had a whole new perspective.
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Obama was essentially Bernie Sanders with a tan and decent haircut. Had he known how to use power like LBJ, had he been able to hold on to Congress, things could have been much worse. Fortunately, he was distracted by golf and partially blocked by the Republicans.
It is interesting to read Carter’s first book after Reagan defeated him. He was petty and bitter. His account of the ride to Reagan’s Inauguration is unintentionally hilarious. That is the Jimmy Carter I remember. I think his attitude really improved over time.
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I will put this out here. I am going to do this. I got the idea from an acquaintance in New Jersey.
:I want to start a movement or join one. From now on, if you are frustrated with your party or the other party end your post, rant, statement with #EARNMYVOTE on all Social Media platforms.
Send a louder message by registering as an Independent. This seems to be the responsible thing as both Democrats and Republicans seem to be concerned with winning and control not the real issues.
I think too many of them have lost their focus. Unregister your party…. that will get their attention and their ear.
#EarnMyVote”
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Ricky, LBJ had years of backroom deals in his arsenal. No one else since him has had the muscle to call in favors the way he did. Obama certainly didn’t have it even if he hadn’t played so much golf
I lost all respect for the Carter’s after I read Rosalyn’s account of how they were “just packed up and kicked out” of the White House. What did she think had happened to Gerald Ford before them and every other president?
As time has gone on I have continued to lose respect for them until there is hardly any left.
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The left are using Trump’s EO as just another excuse to act like idiots.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-immigration-supporters-idUSKBN15E0BH?il=0
“Many of President Donald Trump’s core political supporters had a simple message on Sunday for the fiercest opponents of his immigration ban: Calm down.
The relaxed reaction among the kind of voters who drove Trump’s historic upset victory – working- and middle-class residents of Midwest and the South – provided a striking contrast to the uproar that has gripped major coastal cities, where thousands of protesters flocked to airports where immigrants had been detained.
In the St. Louis suburb of Manchester, Missouri, 72-year-old Jo Ann Tieken characterized the president as bringing reason into an overheated debate.
“Somebody has to stand up, be the grown up and see what we can do better to check on people coming in,” she said. “I’m all for everybody to stop and take a breath … Just give it a chance.”
By executive order on Friday, Trump banned immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – and temporarily halted the entry of refugees.
In the electoral strongholds for Trump, residents seemed nonplussed about the uproar flashing across their television screens. They shrugged off concerns about botched execution, damage to foreign relations and legal challenges across the country.
In New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities, Trump’s action set off an outpouring of anger.”
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And by failing to have the agencies charged with enforcing the EO review it ahead of time, Trump and his White House aides acted like idiots.
It simply confirms all that I have believed since Clinton and Trump clinched their parties’ nominations: We are living in an Idiocracy. The good news is that Trump is as funny as the movie, though four years is a long time to keep laughing.
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The attack on a mosque in Canada set off the usual reaction from globalist across the world, who just assumed it was an attack against Muslims. Problem with that is at least one of the perps is a Moroccan Muslim, and they were shouting “Allahu akbar!” as they attacked.
http://hotair.com/archives/2017/01/30/video-two-suspects-in-custody-after-massacre-at-quebec-mosque/
“World leaders immediately responded after the attack, some of whom also led with assumptions:
In France, President Francois Hollande condemned “in the strongest possible terms” what he called an “odious attack” in Quebec.
“It’s the spirit of peace and openness of the people of Quebec that the terrorists wanted to hit,” Hollande said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman condemned the “despicable” attack.
“If the killers intended to set people of different faiths against each other or to divide them, they must not and will not succeed in that,” Steffen Seibert said. “We stand in mourning beside the Muslim community in Quebec.”
The problem is that we don’t know the motive, which makes these statements presumptuous, at least. Until police identify the suspects and their motives, we don’t know if they wanted to attack “the spirit of peace and openness” or to divide people of different faiths. Those are certainly possibilities, but there are other possibilities too — personal vendettas, intra-faith disputes, and so on.”
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http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/01/30/suspect-in-quebec-mosque-terror-attack-was-moroccan-origin-reports-show.html
“One of two gunmen who shouted ‘Allahu akbar!’ as they opened fire at a mosque in Quebec City was of Moroccan origin, a witness and local media reported Monday, revealing the first details about the attackers in the massacre that killed six men.
The terror suspects were identified as Mohamed Khadir and Alexandre Bissonnette, the CBC reported. The two men were arrested soon after the shooting at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre Sunday night and were expected to appear in court later Monday, police told reporters.
One of the gunmen actually turned himself in, calling 911 less than 20 minutes later and giving officers his location in d’Orleans so they could arrest him, police said. The attack unfolded in the men’s section of the mosque.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the attack, calling it a “terrorist attack on Muslims.”
The attackers were students at Université Laval, a school in Quebec, a source close to the investigation told Radio Canada, saying one was Moroccan. Police said the suspects were not on their radar.”
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They probably all just assumed it was some white guys, because that’s what they wanted to believe.
Maybe Canada oughta consider a Trump style ban too, since their current system failed to notice the extremist they allowed in.
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http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444370/donald-trump-refugee-executive-order-no-muslim-ban-separating-fact-hysteria
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HRW and Roscuro, Our thoughts and our prayers are with Canada today. HRW, I am glad your students had your wise counsel today.
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The Real, the shooting took place in a mosque. It doesn’t take an analyst to decide that Muslims were being targeted. Who else would one expect to find in a mosque? Furthermore, while one of the shooters is Moroccan, the other has an obviously French-Canadian name. It is possible that he converted, but then again, the Allahu Akbar may have been called in mockery: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-city-mosque-gun-shots-1.3957686. As for the Trump style ban, Morocco isn’t one of the countries under Trump’s ban.
Thank you, Ricky. I dislike the politicization of a senseless tragedy. It would not surprise me either way – that these were extremists targeting moderate Muslims, or that they were right wing extremists (it is not beyond the pale of possibility that a man from a Muslim background should become violently anti-Muslim). Quebec, with its past of ultra-Catholicism, and its present of ultra-liberalism, has its share of racism and xenophobia. Each province has its own culture, and Quebec is always focused on preserving its French-speaking identity, meaning that immigrants are sometimes unwelcome, partly because they would rather learn English than French. Whatever the motivation for the shooters, the outcome is the same, the murder of human beings. The men killed were the husbands of wives, fathers of children, sons of mothers, and brothers of sisters. They will be mourned.
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Tychicus @11:50 Thanks for posting the article by French. He is a wise one. He was probably smart to reject Bill Kristol’s request that he play the role of Evan McMullin, though McMullin seems to continue to enjoy playing the role.
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Roscuro,
No one is denying the mosque was targeted. By who is what’s in question. Perhaps I should have clarified this,
“The attack on a mosque in Canada set off the usual reaction from globalist across the world, who just assumed it was an attack against Muslims.”
with “by a non-muslim.”
Because that is what everyone is assuming.
I’ve probably made some assumptions as well, which may yet be proven wrong. We shall see.
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And of course they will be mourned, no one suggested otherwise.
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Police are now saying one may have been a witness, not an attacker. But all official accounts up until now have stated it was more than one attacker, including your link above.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/6-killed-canada-mosque-shooting-100413552.html
“A shooting at a Quebec City mosque during evening prayers left six people dead in an attack that Canada’s prime minister called an act of terrorism. Police initially arrested two men but later said just one remains a suspect.
More than 50 people were at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre when the shooting erupted Sunday night. In addition to the six who died, five were in critical condition and 12 others suffered minor injuries, University of Quebec Hospital Centre spokeswoman Genevieve Dupuis said Monday. The dead ranged in age from 35 to 65.
Quebec City court clerk Isabelle Ferland identified Alexandre Bissonnette and Mohamed el Khadir as the suspects. Police later said one of them was just a witness, though they did not say which.
One was arrested at the scene and another nearby, in his car on a bridge near d’Orleans where he called 911 to say he wanted to cooperate with police. Police said they did not believe there were other suspects but were investigating.”
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This is interesting. Ten days in and Kasich is already positioning himself as the voice of “sane Republicanism”.
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/97234602/?client=safari
The story is that Trump first offered the Vice-Presidency to Kasich and was turned down. Time will tell whether he or Pence made the right decision. It is possible they both did. Pence strikes me as a man with the patience and modesty to deal with Trump. Kasich may have known that he could not have done the things Pence is called upon to do each day.
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Two separate thoughts:
1. EOs aren’t inherently mere power grabs. They can serve a purpose and be perfectly legal and legitimate. Conservatives didn’t object simply to Obama signing EOs, but his abuses contained in some that he signed, in addition to his use of Presidential memoranda to, essentially, circumvent Congress.
2. The charge that pro-lifers only care about a fetus before it is born, but not after, is…how do you say in English…idiotic.
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Aaaaahhhh Freak Out!! 😆
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http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/are-we-going-to-freak-out-every-time-trump-does-what-he-promised/
“Nor is what Trump has done particularly unusual, let alone extreme.
The countries involved in the 90-day suspension — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — weren’t named in Trump’s executive order. They were listed by the Obama administration as countries of special concern under a 2015 law that requires anyone who even visited one of these terror-prone countries to undergo special scrutiny before coming to the U.S. — even if they hail from a country that otherwise doesn’t require a visa to visit the U.S.
President Obama himself barred large groups of immigrants from entering the U.S. at least six times out of national security concerns, according to a review last June by the Washington Examiner. In 2011, the administration suspended refugee processing from Iraq for six months to make sure terrorists weren’t exploiting the program.
The Examiner also found that “President Bill Clinton issued six immigrant bans; George W. Bush six immigrant bans; and former President Ronald Reagan four. And in 1980, former President Jimmy Carter banned Iranians after Tehran seized the U.S. embassy.”
Nor is Trump’s refugee cap in any way draconian. Data from the Migration Policy Institute shows that, while the cap was higher under the previous two presidents, the actual number of refugees admitted over the past 15 years has been at or below 50,000 most of the time. In fact, the average number of refugees admitted under Bush was 48,000 a year.
In any case, Trump’s halt to Syrian refugees won’t make a difference one way or another in the Syrian refugee crisis. In the five years after the Syrian war started in 2011, Obama had admitted all of 1,883 Syrian refugees. Obama’s highly controversial decision last year to let in 13,000 didn’t make a dent in the 4 million-plus Syrian refugee population.
What’s extreme isn’t what Trump did, it’s the entirely out-of-proportion reaction from his political opponents, the press, and many weak-kneed Republicans.”
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Like, say, Kasich, McCain, and Graham……
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They whine, he works.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-executive-order-slash-regulations-151135855–business.html
“President Donald Trump signed an order on Monday that will seek to dramatically pare back federal regulations by requiring agencies to cut two existing regulations for every new rule introduced.
“This will be the biggest such act that our country has ever seen. There will be regulation, there will be control, but it will be normalized control,” Trump said as he signed the order in the Oval Office, surrounded by a group of small business owners.
Trump’s latest executive action will prepare a process for the White House to set an annual cap on the cost of new regulations, a senior official told reporters ahead of the signing.”
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Environmentalists, you’re up……
Cue the next Freak Out in 3, 2, 1…………..
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The one suspect remaining in custody is Bissonnette:
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http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/01/30/alexandre-bissonnette-mohamed-khadir_n_14495374.html
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Maybe superficial complaint, but Sean Spicer just isn’t a very smooth spokesman. He comes off as stuttering, sharp and irritated. It matters.
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Agreed, DJ. Spicer and Conway come off as abrasive and argumentative. At a time when the WH could make huge PR strides, along with giving the media a well-deserved beatdown, it’s too bad its spokespersons are so unpleasant.
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DJ, I agree. The original Baghdad Bob was much smoother.
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I have no respect for President Carter. He was an inept president and a meddling former president. He did good work with Habitat for Humanity, but that’s about it. Well, he also paved the way for Reagan.
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Cheryl, I agree. I was very disappointed when Reagan lost to Ford in 1976. However, the next four years gave him a real mandate for change in 1980. I shudder to think of the size of the mandate for change that may exist for some Democrat in 2020.
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SolarP, Spicer reminds me of Ron Ziegler. He is just not a very good liar. Conway is as good at covering for Trump as Paul Begala was for Bill Clinton. I used to call him Paul BeGoebbles.
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Leftists (and others) may be afraid of what our President is doing, but what we should be fearing is the fascist anarchy of public figures who are advocating physical violence toward anyone who disagrees with them. Actor David Harbour, while accepting his SAG award, began
by calling on his fellow actors to “cultivate a more empathetic and understanding society,” but ended with a screaming call to “punch some people in the face” with “soul, heart, and joy.”
Hide the children…
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/karen-townsend/2017/01/30/sag-actor-vows-we-will-punch-some-people-face-wild-applause#utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=sag-punch&utm_medium=marketing
(Video included)
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An excerpt from former Pres. Obama’s last speech to the U.N.: “We’ve taken away terrorist safe havens, strengthened the nonproliferation regime, resolved the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomacy.”
It seems that Iran has conducted the second ballistic missile test this year, in clear violation of the UN agreement.
How’s that working out?
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/01/30/iran-conducts-ballistic-missile-test-us-officials-say.html
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Trumpkin dictionary:
Sane = “weak-kneed”
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Good column by Dr. Michael Brown:
https://www.onenewsnow.com/perspectives/michael-brown/2017/01/30/are-you-bothered-about-the-reaction-to-trumps-executive-order-on-refugees-me-too?utm_source=OneNewsNow&utm_medium=email&utm_term=16786193&utm_content=557860118640&utm_campaign=28100
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Weak kneed fits Kasich. Though weak-kneed RINO who doesn’t honor the agreements he signed is probably more accurate.
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Three of the murder victims in yesterday’s shooting have been identified: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-city-mosque-shooting-victims-1.3958191
The suspect has been officially identified as Alexandre Bissonnette.
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Kasich has always been a reasonably conservative Republican. Like Pence, he has been an effective governor of a large swing state.
He has not:
1. Given money to Schumer or Pelosi;
2. Supported a single payer healthcare plan;
3. Conned thousands using a fake “university”;
4. Had a long history of supporting abortion and Planned Parenthood;
5. Bragged about committing multiple sexual assaults;
6. Complained that the judge in his fraud lawsuit was Hispanic;
7. Been involved in over 3,000 lawsuits;
8. Attacked the appearance of candidates and their wives;
9. Believed Putin and Assange and attacked US and other Western intelligence agencies;
10. Compared the sexual performance of his wife and mistress in conversations with reporters.
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Huh. I hadn’t realized that expanding Medicare to get that “free” ObamaCare cheese was considered the conservative position. A move that failed, and has now put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars the last 2 years.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2016/03/08/john-kasich-ohio-failed-obamacare-expansion/#23084df254a8
“Ohio Governor John Kasich has spent no small amount of time on the presidential campaign trail discussing his decision to expand Medicaid to 650,000 able-bodied adults under Obamacare. But policymakers in non-expansion states should take a closer look at what’s actually unfolded in Ohio before considering going down the same path.
Kasich’s Obamacare expansion has enrolled more able-bodied adults than the state thought would ever sign up. This enrollment explosion has resulted in $2.7 billion of budget overruns in just the first two years of the program. The overruns have left lawmakers scrambling, as the state’s share of costs come due in the current biennium budget. Overruns also mean less funding for important budget priorities like public safety, education and the truly needy.
Lawmakers in non-expansion states should take note of the disaster currently unfolding in Ohio and be glad they haven’t subjected their own states to the same fate.”
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“The Kasich administration initially projected Obamacare expansion would cost taxpayers $3.9 billion between January 2014 and January 2016. But in reality, Ohio’s Medicaid expansion has cost taxpayers $6.8 billion so far, meaning the expansion has already run $2.9 billion over budget.
With enrollment already exceeding maximum projections, these overruns are certain to continue for years to come. In fact, based on the most recent information, the Foundation for Government Accountability estimates that Kasich’s Medicaid expansion is on schedule to run nearly $8 billion over budget by the end of 2017.”
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AJ, It turns out that on the question of Medicaid expansion, the states divided largely in a North/South manner.
http://familiesusa.org/product/50-state-look-medicaid-expansion
I will admit that Kasich is a Yankee and on that question he acted like many other Yankees. However, I would hope that we could all agree that he is nowhere near as big a Yankee as is Trump.
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Two of my least favorite people in the entire world are Chuck Schumer and Donald Trump. The good news is that Trump is going to be humiliated on an almost daily basis for the next four years. The bad news is that Schumer is going to be doing the humiliating, except for those times when Trump does it to himself.
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This will escalate things…..
https://www.yahoo.com/news/backlash-grows-against-trump-travel-002244824.html
“U.S. President Donald Trump fired the federal government’s top lawyer Sally Yates on Monday after she took the extraordinarily rare step of defying the White House and saying the Justice Department would not defend his new travel restrictions targeting seven Muslim-majority nations.
The White House said on Twitter that Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, would replace Yates, an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama, as acting U.S. attorney general.
Yates on Monday told Justice Department lawyers in a letter that they would not defend in court Trump’s directive that put a 120-day hold on allowing refugees into the country, an indefinite ban on refugees from Syria and a 90-day bar on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.”
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Joe Carter (one of the former World blog moderators) offers this explanation of Trump’s EO on Immigrants & Refugees. . .
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-faqs-president-trumps-executive-order-on-immigrants-and-refugees
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JFK had the dubious advantage of dying young before his star would lose its lustre or fade away. He had his moments but much like Reagan on the other side of the fence its more myth than fact — or to use the current phrase “alternative fact”
Carter has aged nicely. He was a nice guy who became president at probably the worst time in the post war era. His post presidential career speaks volumes about his character.
When Reagan finished his presidency, the jury was still out on his administration. He was ranked 22 out of all the presidents but now is ranked 11th — there seems to be a certain nostalgia towards his era — a myth — that isn’t warranted. Personally I think he’s responsible for the decline of the US middle class but I’m not going to convince anyone here. However, its interesting to compare Reagan’s initial rank of 22 to Obama’s initial rank of 18th. Perhaps in 30 years he will be in 9th place. Certainly the comparison between Obama and his successor will increase Obama’s ranking.
FDR by the way ranks 1st in most historian surveys. He saved capitalism from itself as well as set the stage for the post war system — Bretton Woods, UN, etc. An economic legacy that lasted until 1973 and a diplomatic legacy that still has an effect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_presidents_of_the_United_States#Scholar_survey_results
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Surprisingly the mosque shooting was not discussed but admittedly outside of classroom teaching I spent most of my day with “white” girls who suffer from anxiety and depression. It will be interesting to see if there is discussion tomorrow when the news is fully digested. There was a memorial or vigil at the city hall tonight. I walked the dog over and there was about 3-400 people — not bad on a few hours notice. The local mosque is half a block from my house — in the summer I sit on my porch sipping rye and ginger while the local Somali population walks to Friday prayers.
I now have the best police protection in the city. They’ve stepped up their local patrol of the neighbourhood during evening and morning prayers. This is in addition to their Thursday, Friday and Saturday night patrols since the nightclub district is a block the other direction. For some reason, my German Shepherd wants to attack the horses the police at night.
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Despite the right’s claims to the contrary, the current EO is not the same as previous presidents. In Obama’s case he suspended the processing of visas, refugee claims, and green cards until a new process was developed. However, he did not suspend the current green cards and previously granted visas. Hence under Obama there wasn’t this mass confusion at the airports with people being detained on their way home from overseas. I linked yesterday of a 12 year old girl in limbo in Djibouti and two Yemeni brothers stuck in the Addis Ababa airport. Now it emerged that a 5 year old boy was handcuffed and separated from his parents. To top it off, Spicer thought it was the proper thing to do. Apparently, age should not be a factor when assessing risks. How much drugs do you have to take to be that paranoid? Incompetence influenced by paranoia is not a good combination.
The rule of law has also been diminished. A federal judge stated that those detained in Dulles were entitled to legal representation yet Customs officials refused access saying they were told by someone in the administration to ignore the court. One branch of gov’t, the executive, is refusing to adhere to the checks and balances and the basic rules of governance.
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HRW @ 10;09 The “right” is making no claims to the contrary. The right is McCain, Kasich, McMullin and Sasse. Trumpkins are making those claims, but they are not the “right”. Trumpkins are a personality cult who are loyal to him rather than any set principles. The proof is that whenever The Orange One modifies his position on any item such as who will pay for the wall or who will be deported, or whether Hillary will be jailed, the cultists fall right in line with his new position.
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I just wrote a long piece about my family’s brush with US Customs in Buffalo in 2003 but it somehow disappeared. Suffice to say my ex-wife was not impressed with their behaviour and has yet to return to the US. Customs agents have broad powers and are not limited by the same constitutional limits as police but they are the first impressions many people have of a country. The events of the past few days and the behaviour of the US Customs as they handcuff a 5 year old, refuse to allow lawyers despite a court order, leave a 12 year old stranded in Djibouti, etc will not leave a good impression outside of the US. Tourism, business conferences, etc will suffer and their dollars will go elsewhere.
(They refused entry to my ex-wife despite the fact she had a 10 year multi-entry visa — the US gov’t cancelled it a month prior to our visit but didn’t inform the many landed immigrants in Canada who had these visas. While at Customs, the agents, behind bullet proof glass, refused to allow my 5 year old daughter to use the washroom. When we went to the Cdn customs, not only was my daughter allowed to use the washrooms, the agents, at an open counter, gave her a colouring book and crayons while we waited for my ex-wife’s reentry papers to be processed — first impressions matter)
Krugman has an interesting piece on how the Trump admin and spokespersons seems to make stuff up as they go along mostly to avoid embarrassing Trump.
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“Nobody in authority understands basic economics.” Like a stopped clock, even Krugman is right every now and then.
The Mad Max movies are one of my guilty pleasures. When I saw Fury Road last year, I thought the lead villain looked somewhat familiar:
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Sorry Ricky — Trump and friends belong to the right. They are right wing populists. They may not be Burkean conservatives or classical liberals (Friedman) but they are on the right.
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We reject them. The Right officially refuses entry to Trump and all Trumpkins and orders them deported to the Left or a mental institution of their choice.
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