(click on image to enlarge)
(Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune; the image refers to this abomination)
From the mouth of the delusional crackpot himself:
"It's working out very nicely," Trump told reporters. "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, and we're going to have extreme vetting, which we should have had in this country for many years."For visual evidence of how the crackpot's Muslim ban policy is "working out very nicely," let's take his lead that "You see it at the airports," and go here for how it's working at the airports in Seattle, Chicago, Dallas/ Ft. Worth, San Diego, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis and Philadelphia (there was also a huge demonstration at Washington Dulles). Also, here.
CNN reports on the reality of the clusterf*ck that has evil eminence Steve "Loose Cannon" Bannon's fingerprints all over it:
The policy team at the White House developed the executive order on refugees and visas, and largely avoided the traditional interagency process that would have allowed the Justice Department and homeland security agencies to provide operational guidance, according to numerous officials who spoke to CNN on Saturday.
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Department of Homeland Security leadership saw the final details shortly before the order was finalized, government officials said.
Friday night, DHS arrived at the legal interpretation that the executive order restrictions applying to seven countries -- Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen -- did not apply to people who with lawful permanent residence, generally referred to as green card holders.
There had been some debate whether green card holders should be even allowed to board international flights. It was decided by the Department of Homeland Security they could fly to the US and would be considered on a case-by-case basis after passing a secondary screening.
But the guidance sent to airlines on Friday night, obtained by CNN, said clearly, "lawful permanent residents are not included and may continue to travel to the USA."
As of Saturday afternoon, Customs and Border Protection continued to issue the same guidance to airlines as it did Friday, telling airlines that fly to the US that green card holders can board planes to the US but they may get extra scrutiny on arrival, according to an airline official.
Before the President issued the order, the White House did not seek the legal guidance of the Office of Legal Counsel, the Justice Department office that interprets the law for the executive branch. A source said the executive order did not follow the standard agency review process that's typically overseen by the National Security Council, though the source couldn't specifically say if that included the decision to not have the order go through the Office of Legal Counsel.
Separately, a person familiar with the matter said career officials in charge of enforcing the executive order were not fully briefed on the specifics until Friday. The officials were caught off guard by some of the specifics and raised questions about how to handle the new banned passengers on US-bound planes.
Regarding the green card holders and some of the confusion about whether they were impacted, the person familiar with the matter said if career officials had known more about the executive order earlier, some of the confusion could have been avoided and a better plan could be in place.(It doesn't warm our hearts much to know that, had "career officials" known more about the executive order, they could have helped put a better plan in place. That's exactly what we need - a bureaucracy willing and eager to enable this fascist's un-American plans in a more efficient way.)
As the folks at Lawyers, Guns and Money have it: "The Trump Administration’s Incompetence Is Exceeded Only By Its Malevolence, And Vice Versa".
Following a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, a Federal judge ordered a temporary restraining order blocking part of Rump's ban (judges in Seattle, Boston and Virginia have also weighed in):
Late Saturday night, a federal judge in Brooklyn temporarily halted parts of President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order that aimed to block the entry of Syrian refugees and impose a de facto ban on travelers coming from several Muslim-majority countries. [snip]
“The petitioners have a strong likelihood of success in establishing that the removal of the petitioners and others similarly situated violates the rights to Due Process and Equal Protection guaranteed by the United States Constitution,” U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly of the Eastern District of New York wrote in her order.Being the lawless, illegitimate fascists they are, Rump's Homeland Security (at the behest of Bannon, who is point fascist on implementation) is defying the court order and says it will continue to uphold Rump's directive.
And we're 8 days into this nightmare.
UPDATE: Rump's despicable order strands Iraqis with lawful visas that served as interpreters and aides to the U.S. military in Iraq. The next time we reach out for assistance from them to fight terrorists, does anyone think they'll risk their lives and those of their families to help us? Hell no.
