Saturday, February 11, 2017

One Crazy Week in POLITICS .


THE AWOL DEMOCRATS 
Democrats fight
Trump's nominee picks
by not showing up
for the hearings.
Chuck  Schumer .
Democrats walked out of the Senate ,Since at least one democrat must be on present for the vote to be held, the move will effectively delay and potentially prevent the confirmation votes on Mnuchin and Price.  The duo is among some of the more contentious selections to join Trump’s Cabinet. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) (1)>> issued a warning to Democrats last Wednesday, one day after the Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland expired without any Senate action: Don’t consider staging a similar blockade on any of President-elect Donald Trump’s high court nominees. The Democrats have been going AWOL . Their boycotting and not voicing questions to Trump's nominees  is troubling . The *current* and long standing rules of the Senate require one member of the minority party(ies) be present in committee for the committee to take a vote, in order to prevent 'secret meetings' by the majority party in control of the committees to ram votes through unanimously with just majority party committee members present. Going nuclear on that rule is actually much more consequential than ending the filibuster for SCOTUS nominees. Just think of the closed door mischief that would occur.The theatrics reflected growing concern over Trump’s travel ban for refugees and foreign nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, an order issued last  Friday with virtually no consultation with top government officials or senior lawmakers. In blocking Sessions, Democrats also cited the president’s firing  night of acting attorney general Sally Yates for refusing to defend the ban. Dems are flogging the emotions of their base and it's going to backfire on them. Refusing to show up for a vote is failure to do the job you promised to do. It's a coward's way out and it won't work. The only problem is the wish to de-legitimize the Trump election - and it's not going to work. Dems are flogging the emotions of their base and have people believing they can overturn the election results with protests. Congressmen are supposed to be LEADERS - time to start leading by doing your job.

THE TRAVEL BAN .

(2)>>The order, signed on January 27, denied entry to citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days and suspended the admissions of refugees for 120 days. The President the measures would (2.1)>>“keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the US” but the excluded countries did not include Saudi Arabia and other nations from which attackers in the US have hailed.It has sparked widespread chaos at airports and mass protests. The states of Washington and Minnesota sued the federal government over the travel ban, It also represents a pronounced shift in US counter-terrorism tactics and a sharp turn in the debate underpinning national security policy since the 9/11 attacks -- how to best
keep Americans safe and battle extremism at home and abroad without alienating Muslims in a way that could foster more radicalism.Meanwhile, legal challenges to Trump's moves herald the start of a constitutional showdown between the president's vision of an expansive activist presidency and the checks and balances built into the American political system meant to curb executive power. Legal stays issued by several judges against the measures are likely to be the first actions in a long, complicated legal challenge to the moves that seem almost inevitable to wind up at the Supreme Court. (2.2)>> Three federal judges grilled lawyers from the Justice Department and Washington state Tuesday night as they considered whether to lift a US-wide block on President Donald Trump's travel ban.The appeals court judges sparred with attorneys over the President's use of sweeping executive power, questioned the connection between the seven affected countries and terrorism, and launched into tough questions over whether the ban discriminated against  Muslims.President Donald Trump spent the weekend at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida, disconnected from White House staff and once again tweeting attacks on a federal judge

Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!
Trump rejected the storm of criticism whipped up by his immigration measures, blaming long waits at the airport for detained travelers on Delta computer outages -- which were confined to Sunday evening -- as well "the tears of (Sen. Chuck) Schumer." Just recently, Neil Gorsuch Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee has called the president's attacks on the judiciary "disheartening" after Mr Trump went after the appeals court considering his travel ban. He was also asked repeatedly about the president's response to the travel ban hearing, after Mr Trump this morning angrily denouncedthe three judges
hearing his travel ban appeal - describing the process as "disgraceful" and saying it was a "sad day" for the United States. No one can say that Donald Trump is scaremongering or even exaggerating,  he is acting on recent events that have caused carnage ALL over Europe. I personally think, its his own method that is all wrong . The "executive order " thing which if you remember when Mr. Obama was the President the Republican's hammer him over the constitutionality of his orders . Yet Mr. Trump has a no  problems pushing the paper During the telephone hearing, the lawyer representing the Justice Department, August Flentje, argued that the President had wide powers relating to immigration and national security. He contended that federal judges did not have the power to review Trump's executive order,  { UPDATE AS I WRITE THIS } We had some breaking news of course. (3)>> The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday wouldn't block a lower-court ruling that suspended the ban and allowed previously barred travelers to enter the U.S. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is possible. Is this whole thing OVER ? I think its not on a personal level . WE still have to fix our own immigration problems . The undocumented who are here to work , have no criminal backgrounds & have families , children should not be separated or deported till something legally can be ironed out . I feel less respect for anyone who is a criminal , anyone who comes into the country , gets a free hand out, commits murder , or robbery, for me I draw the line there is drawn as far as what constitutes deportations . BUT I will not split families of honest hardworking { illegals} that I would try to fix the immigration system so these honest people can become Americans.      There are a lot of serious issues with immigration , and we know it. (4)>>Trump's travel ban was the wrong way to start, Beyond the travel ban, Trump's oft-repeated campaign pledge to deport up to 3 million undocumented immigrants has created an acute need for removal defense attorneys. Illegal immigration into the United States is massive in scale. More than 10 million undocumented aliens currently reside in the U.S., and that population is growing by 700,000 per year.On one hand, the presence of so many aliens is a powerful testament to the attractiveness of America. On the other hand, it is a sign of how dangerously open our borders are. So just how do go about about fixing the problem without offending one group of people ? 
Milo Yiannopoulos. 
When the Berkeley College Republicans invited inflammatory Breitbart editor (5)>>Milo Yiannopoulos to speak on campus, over 100 faculty members signed letters of protest, urging the administration to cancel his visit, while an op-ed by veterans of the free-speech movement defended his right to speak.Violent protests at UC Berkeley Wednesday night not only forced the birthplace of the nation’s Free Speech Movement. The demonstrations also drew fire from President Trump, who hours later threatened in a tweet to cut off all federal funding to the prestigious university.“If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view — NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” Trump tweeted at 3:13 a.m. Pacific Time. In the United States, many of Milo's fans are also supporters of President-elect Donald Trump. Milo sees Trump the political disrupter as a kindred spirit. As he noted at the opening of the art show #DaddyWillSaveUs (during which he sat almost naked in a tub full of cow blood to honor Americans killed by undocumented immigrants), Trump's "Make America Great Again" has revived "the dissident element in culture -- punk, mischief, irreverence..." He celebrated Trump’s victory over political correctness in the media and among elite Republican circles.“Isn’t it remarkable that in just 20 years, punk, the spirit of dissidence in the country has gone from being a far left activist to wearing a MAGA hat,” he marveled as Trump supporters cheered. Much of Yiannopoulos’s Breitbart essay defends the alt-right from charges of racism (“Are they actually bigots? No more than death metal devotees in the ’80s were actually Satanists,” says Yiannopoulos), while virtually every critique (“The Racist Moral Rot At The Heart Of The Alt-Right,” says National Review’s Ian Tuttle) you will find (“Responding To The Alt-Right: Are They Bigots, Or Just Stupid Children?” asks The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro) of the movement (“Yes, The Alt-Right Are Just A Bunch Of Racists,” says The Federalist’s Robert Tracinski) focuses first and foremost (“You Can’t Whitewash The Alt-Right’s Bigotry,” says libertarian Cathy Young) on the obvious racism (“there are elements within Hitlerism and Nazism that I admire,” says Alternative Right’s Alex Fontana) alt-righters don’t even try to hide (“I don’t think we can pray away the gay, but maybe we can pray the blacks back to Africa?” says tweeter @_AltRight_).Republican president Donald Trump is one of Yiannopoulos’ idols and it’s not a hard guess why: Trump has perfected the art of the political as the performative, of somehow channeling impolite chaos into charm. As the riots at Berkeley College have proven , chaos  and Trump work together disguised as free speech .
Elisabeth Warren.
President Trump repeatedly referred to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren as "Pocahontas" during a bipartisan lunch meeting with senators earlier this week, according to sources. Mrs. Warren became the first female American Senator to be discriminated in Congress while trying to read  a letter written against (6)>>Sessions by the wife of the late Martin Luther King Jr. But Republicans immediately took offense to Warren reading King’s words on the Senate floor. Senator Steve Daines of Montana warned Warren that she was violating Senate rules against impugning another senator. She continued reading King’s letter anyway. “Mrs. King's views and words ring true today,”Warren said. “The integrity of our Justice Department depends on an attorney general who will fight for the rights of all people. An honest evaluation of Jeff Sessions’ record shows that he is not that person.” Civil-rights advocates and lawmakers have expressed concern over Sessions’s record on race and immigration, as well as statements he’s made in the past. Sessions has been criticized for calling the N.A.A.C.P. “communist-inspired” and “un-American,” and for allegedly calling a black assistant U.S. attorney “boy.” After Sen. Elizabeth Warren was silenced when she tried to read from a letter written by Martin Luther King’s widow about Sen. Jeff Sessions, her Democratic colleagues took up the effort to continue expressing their opposition to President Trump’s attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions. Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont all spoke up Wednesday and read from the three-decade old letter of Coretta Scott King, which she had written to protest Sessions’ 1986 nomination to be a federal judge.In it, King had argued that as a federal prosecutor, Sessions had used his power to “chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens.” {You can read the full letter here}. Of course, Democrats did what they do best in response - unleashed a social media frenzy of hurt fellings capped by the hashtag #LetLizSpeak. But Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) - the Senate's top Democrat - had the last word... "If the average American heard someone read a letter from Coretta Scott King ... they would not be offended, It seems to me that we could use Rule 19 almost every day on the floor of the Senate. This is selective enforcement."  For Mrs. Warren  , silenced at best , perhaps discriminated against because of her sex , since her male colleges were allowed to finish reading King's letter .   What called are "Senate Floor Rules" by the ruling majority ,   and despite your naive plea of "freedom of speech".  there ARE some rules in life that you have to follow;Try actually READING the Constitution before you start addressing anything in Congress these days . Adieu !


NOTES AND COMMENTS: 

 (1)>>issued a warning to Democrats last Wednesday.  Since the Republicans blocked 1 SCOTUS justice and another 88 federal judges from being filled by a DEM president {OBAMA} , the Democrats are absolutely justified to behave in similar fashion if they are so inclined, true? There's nothing in our Constitution that says only Republicans can make appointments to our courts, although the prospect seems to fill so-called "conservatives" with delight. Since Democrats don't count, they should just follow the Republican plan of the last 8 years. Dems won't win, but they should obstruct - following the lessons of the Republicans taught them over the last 8 years. (2)>>The order. More than 100,000 visas for foreigners inside and outside the United States have also been revoked, at least temporarily, a government lawyer said in federal court on Friday.After a review of the screening process, the order says officials may give recommendations for indefinite bans. Other countries may be added to the list as well.(2.1)>>“keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the US”    The White House released a list of 78 terror attacks around the world on Monday, saying  most of them did not get sufficient attention from the media. The release came after  President Donald Trump appeared to accuse the media of covering up terrorist attacks by not reporting them. (2.2)>> Three federal judges. Three federal judges appointed by three presidents will be hearing arguments Tuesday over whether a court ruling Friday afternoon halting President Trump's travel ban should remain in effect.The judges, from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, will hear arguments from both sides via phone at 3 p.m. Pacific time. They are Judge Richard Clifton, an appointee of George W. Bush, Judge William Canby Jr., an appointee of Jimmy Carter, and Judge Michelle Friedland, an appointee of Barack Obama.  (3)>> The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals  The ruling was the first from an appeals court on the travel ban, and it was focused on the narrow question of whether it should be blocked while courts consider its lawfulness. The decision is likely to be quickly appealed to the United States Supreme CourtThat court remains short-handed and could deadlock. A 4-to-4 tie in the Supreme Court would leave the appeals court’s ruling in place. 
(4)>>Trump's travel ban was the wrong way to start. "Make no mistake—once the clouds of panic and confusion begin to settle, it’s almost certain that Trump’s executive order will be ruled in clear violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which explicitly says that no person can be “discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person’s race, sex, nationality, place of birth or place of residence.” "Seeing as nationality was the dog-whistle here for religion, that curtain will be pulled... (5)>>Milo Yiannopoulos.  Milo Yiannopoulos is a fervent supporter of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Referring to Trump as “Daddy,” the ostentatiously gay British media personality provides a camp component to the presumptive Republican nominee’s fan base. The news that the Breitbart senior editor had received a reported $250,000 advance for his book "Dangerous" (to be published in March 2017) has set the publishing and literary worlds aflame (Breitbart itself is already calling it "booklash.") For Milo (he goes by one name) is no ordinary writer, but a media figure who has made himself famous for his right-wing, extremist views.Positioning himself as the defender of victimized white males, he goes after those he sees as their antagonists: feminists, people of color, and immigrants, cloaking his hate speech under the mantle of the right to free expression. He's banned for life from Twitter (for his harassment of African-American actor Leslie Jones). (6)>>Sessions by the wife of the late Martin Luther King Jr.  Early in the week, Senator Steve Daines (MT) was presiding over the U.S. Senate when Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA) began reading Coretta Scott King’s letter detailing the racially-motivated voter suppression tactics of Jeff Sessions in Alabama. As you probably know by now, Sen. Mitch McConnell evoked an obscure rule to silence her and Sen. Daines agreed, telling Sen. Warren to “take a seat.”

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