Well, President PIE has been like a whirling dervish this week -- what with all the executive orders, pissing off nation after nation around the world (including some of our closest allies and most important trading partners), picking fights within his own executive branch of the government, declaring war (again) against the press and media, alternately schmoozing with and criticizing Congressional leaders, threatening to warmup the torture machines and re-open the black ops prisons, and, oh yeah, send out a tweet or two (every hour on the hour).
I find it curious that the Republicans -- including Candidate Trump -- and governors blew a gasket (or, in some cases, popped their catheters) every time President Obama signed an executive order. They were constantly invoking "checks and balances", "separation of power", and every other Constitutional buzzword they could think of while accusing him of being an imperial president, pretending to be king-like, dictatorial, authoritarian, and much worse -- all while they were on their way to the lawyer's office or their state's attorney general to reel off yet another lawsuit against the Obama administration. I know, here in Texas, for example, our former governor (now Secretary of Energy nominee) and our former attorney general (now governor), and current attorney general (now under indictment but still serving) have all taken pride in filing dozens of lawsuits against President Obama. Those same Republicans and state governors and attorneys general are doing cartwheels and double back flips of joy now that President PIE is the one spitting out executive orders right and left (well, actually, mostly right I guess).
I have been keeping busy reading executive orders and Presidential memoranda the last seven days. It has occurred to me that these documents may just be full of bluster and noise in order to please and appease the Trump troglodytes and to give Steve Bannon something to do (these things certainly read like something he might write).
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The above is as far as I got before DJT Day 8 got away from me. Then I woke up on DJT Day 9 and realized that I had been living in a fantasy world of hope and deception and that this whole thing is way more out of control than I thought. I immediately began to read that refugees from Iraq, Syria, and other Mid-East countries and who had been in the air in planes flying to the United States on visas issued by the U. S. Department of State (sometimes after a year or more of vetting by State, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI) when President PIE signed a new executive order on Friday afternoon were now being detained in airports all over the country. Lawyers for some of the refugees had already filed emergency habeas corpus proceedings seeking the release of their clients. Clients like an Iraqi man who had been helping United States military as an interpreter for more than ten years and who was coming to this country to reunite with his wife and children after two years of vetting.
Heart-wrenching stories began to circulate all morning as customs officers were seeking guidance from Washington as to the meaning and enforcement of the new bans on immigrants and refugees since Steve Bannon did not bother to check with U. S. Customs and other responsible agencies about the logistics and impact of his unconstitutional order. The question that immediately comes to my mind is this. We are already seeing mind boggling levels of leaks and incidents of whistle blowing from civil servants and career federal employees (not political appointees) who are dismayed with the events of the last week. I wonder how long will it be before the first courageous and principled individual will actually stand up and refuse to go along with one of President PIE's directives. I am also beginning to believe that the firewall against the destruction of our democracy is not going to come from the Republican majorities in Congress who are demonstrating no spine so far but, instead, from plaintiffs in lawsuits, their lawyers, and strong-willed judges who are guided by the United States Constitution and laws and regulations, as well as the tradition of precedent and the power of stare decisis as applied by lifetime appointments.
And they better all be ready because the firestorm is just beginning. As just one of many examples, President PIE's most recent executive order titled Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States (we can all get behind that, right?) actually provides for indefinitely banning refugees from Syria (perhaps currently the most threatened group of men, women, and children in the world endangered by the brutal Assad regime), immediately banning all refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries, and establishing new criteria for vetting and adjudicating refugee claims and admitting immigrants -- criteria which expressly "prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion (i.e., Christian) in the individual's country of nationality (i.e., Muslim majority countries)." Oh, yeah, the order also mandates a database with periodic public reports regarding foreign nationals in the United States who are convicted (or merely charged) with terrorism-related offenses or who are radicalized after entry into the country and engaged in or supporting terrorism-related acts. This sure sounds a lot like the Muslim ban and registry that Candidate Trump proclaimed during his campaign and which drew uniform criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike. Where are those rational Republicans now? Sounds to me like they have all drunk the kool-aid and joined the choir.
Come on, man.
P.S. After 8:00 p.m. on DJT Day 9 (a Saturday), in response to a lawsuit filed by ACLU lawyers, United States District Judge Ann Donnelly (sitting in Brooklyn, New York) issued a court order blocking key provisions of President PIE's executive order and prohibiting the federal government from deporting any of the individuals with U. S. issued visas who are being detained at airports around the country.
Federal Judges Block Trump Executive Order and Prohibit Deportations
A few minutes later, United States District Judge Leonie Brinkema (sitting in Virginia) issued a similar temporary restraining order blocking deportations for seven days pending additional briefing and a hearing. Unfortunately, both court orders came too late for some travelers who, despite their visas and legal entry status, had already been put on planes and returned to their country of origination. At DFW Airport in Dallas, Texas, a 70-year old Iranian grandmother with an immigrant visa issued at the United States Embassy in Turkey was put on a plane and sent back to Dubai leaving her son standing at the gate with no explanation as to what had occurred and why. Similar events unfolded at Kennedy Airport in New York, LAX in Los Angeles, Dulles International in Washington, D.C., and other airports across the country.
All the while, after issuing the unconstitutional executive order on a Friday afternoon knowing that courthouses would be closed as the order was implemented, President PIE was crowing about his action, telling reporters in the Oval Office, “You see it at the airports, you see it all over. It’s working out very nicely, and we’re going to have a very, very strict ban ..."
Come on , man.
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