Now that Neil Gorsuch has taken the Supreme Court seat stolen from President Obama, let us put aside the fantasy that someday we will be able to get along with the Republican Party like we used to. We won’t. It will be self-defeating to try. When we are back in the majority, let’s plan on revising the Judiciary Act of 1869 to increase the number of Supreme Court Justices, and appoint Democratic nominees until the damage done by Trump is reversed. They will call it court packing (and for once they will be correct), they will call it unprecedented, they will call it unfair. And we should say nothing in response but “April 7, 2017.”
Month: April 2017
Trump suddenly cares about Syrian babies
We are supposed to believe that Donald Trump has an aversion to civilian casualties in wartime.
Yesterday’s chemical attack, a chemical attack so horrific in Syria against innocent people including women, small children, and even beautiful little babies, their deaths was an affront to humanity.
That would be a perfectly normal response from a normal leader. But coming from the guy who falsely said this:
We have to stop the tremendous flow of Syrian refugees into the United States. We don’t know who they are. They have no documentation and we don’t know what they’re planning.
about those same women and children. Trump is the guy who suspended the refugee program, specifically turning Syrians away in violation of the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Not only was he not bothered by the deaths of 93,000 Syrian civilians during the six years of the Syrian civil war, he specifically called on President Obama to leave Syria alone, not once but more than a dozen times.
He encouraged people to hate when it suited his short term political needs. Now his short term political need is to go to war against Syria, so he pretends to care about babies long enough to launch the missiles.
Donald Trump stands by serial sexual harasser Bill O’Reilly
Mr. Trump criticized media outlets, including The New York Times…while singling out Fox News and the host Bill O’Reilly for praise, despite reports this week that the veteran conservative commentator settled five lawsuits filed by women claiming sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior. The president then went on to defend Mr. O’Reilly, who has hosted him frequently over the years.
“I think he’s a person I know well — he is a good person,” said Mr. Trump, who during the interview was surrounded at his desk by a half-dozen of his highest-ranking aides, including the economic adviser Gary Cohn and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, along with Vice President Mike Pence.
“I think he shouldn’t have settled; personally I think he shouldn’t have settled,” said Mr. Trump. “Because you should have taken it all the way. I don’t think Bill did anything wrong.”
And this is only the first week of Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.
Trump’s response to chemical attack in Syria: blame Obama
Someone, probably the Syrian government, launched an attack using both conventional and chemical weapons that killed at least 58 people, including 11 children. The Trump adminstration condemned the attack and called it “heinous” and “intolerable,” but then proceeded to blame the Obama administration’s “weakness and irresolution” for it.
To the extent that reality still matters, what Obama actually did was seek congressional authorization for a military offensive against the Assad regime — authorization that Spicer’s Republican allies in Congress refused to offer. A guy by the name of Donald J. Trump was especially vocal in his opposition to Obama attacking the Assad government in Syria.
Bipartisan bill would end warrantless border searches of US persons’ data
From Boing Boing:
Under the Protecting Data at the Border Act, devices “belonging to or in the possession of a United States person” (a citizen or Green Card holder) could no longer be searched at the border without a warrant. Agents would no longer be able to deny US persons entry or exit on the basis of a refusal to allow such a search (but they could seize the equipment).
It doesn’t cover visitors or visa holders, but it does have bipartisan support in the Senate (Wyden D-OR; Paul R-KY) and the House (Polis D-CO; Farenthold R-TX).
The Customs and Border Protection agency conducted more warrantless device searches in Feb of 2017 than it did in all of 2015.
U.S. citizen detained three weeks by ICE
Rony Chavez Aguilar, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was held in ICE custody for nearly three weeks without being able to see a judge, and without knowing why he was being detained. His lawsuit states
ICE Chicago did not obtain a judicial warrant to arrest Plaintiff; has not provided a sworn, particularized statement of probable cause; has not promptly brought him before a detached and neutral judicial officer for a probable cause hearing; or has not brought him before a judge to understand the charges against him and receive important advisals regarding his due process rights, amongst other procedural protections.
It’s not a new problem since Trump’s inauguration, but I’m guessing we aren’t going to hear the President reading the Riot Act to the immigration cops any time soon.