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THE ABSURD TIMES
Illustration: Favorite sign from massive demonstrations is FRANCE CALLED: THEY WANT THEIR STATUE BACK.
THE WAR ON FACT
BY
I. CANT
Our, or your, President has declared a war on fact, replacing it with what is well known now, "Alternate Fact".
His latest idiocy was his ban on immigration of any Muslims from certain countries, at least at first. There is, unfortunately for him, no legal definition of "Bad Dudes," so he left it with seven countries, none of which provided any immigrant who killed a single American on American soil. The chances of being killed by one from these countries in the future are, according to one source, one in 3.5 Billion.
Deaths caused by immigrants from which Trump owns property and are Muslim are 2,389 from Saudi Arabia, 324 from the UAE, and 162 from Egypt (according to the Cato Institute).
The ban on a specific religion is unconstitutional according to the first Amendment, as is the exception for Christians. Forcing those who did land while being in the air as the order was signed to give their social media "handles" is a violation of the Fourth Amendment (search and seizure) and the fifth (due process). The 14th or 15th is quite specific on "equal protection." Choosing countries in which he owns property or financial interests for exclusion would violate the now well-known "emoluments" clause.
The Attorney General has not yet been confirmed (Jefferson Beauregard Sessions) and the acting Attorney General refused to enforce it. She was fired. This reminds everyone of the "Saturday Night Massacre" of the Nixon Administration. This is when Elliot Richardson refused to fire a Special Prosecutor of Watergate, so instead he resigned, followed by his Action Attorney General, and so it stood until Nixon appointed Robert Bork to do it. Still, people wonder why Bork was not confirmed for appointment to the Supreme Court.
The first 100 days is usually thought of as the honeymoon period, but we seem to be heading straight to the divorce. Looking at the Gallup ratings, it took over 1,000 days for Bush senior's disapproval to be higher than his approval ratings. Clinton was the shortest, less than 600, but his ratings did go way up once the Lewinski scandal started. In 8 days, Trump achieved this.
We are still waiting for his investigation to prove the 3 to 5 million illegal votes cast for Hillary Clinton (he said he'd prove that). No matter, we are still waiting for the investigation of all the Brooklyn voters who disappeared from the voter roles, the Sanders voters.
He is about to name a Supreme Court nominee. I am out of here before that happens. You know what the idiot is doing, and my pointing it out would simply be redundant.
Later. Here is more if you can tolerate it:
President Trump's immigration order drew immediate legal challenges. On Saturday, the ACLU asked a federal judge to intervene in the case of two Iraqis detained at JFK airport. On Saturday night, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in Brooklyn ordered the men released as part of a nationwide stay on part of Trump's executive order. Her ruling temporarily blocked the deportation of valid visa holders, including those from countries listed in Trump's ban. In Boston, Carl Williams, a lawyer from the ACLU, announced the legal victory while standing in front of hundreds of protesters at Logan International Airport. Judges in California, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington quickly followed with similar rulings, and the Department of Homeland Security said on Sunday it would comply with the orders. But some lawmakers report Customs and Border Protection officers are defying the courts.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Omar Jadwat of the ACLU, your take—your organization's take on this executive order? What you did immediately?
OMAR JADWAT: Yeah, well, I mean, the take on it, maybe not too much I can add to that analysis except put some legal gloss on it. The take on it is that Donald Trump promised us a Muslim ban when he was running for president. Within a week of taking office, that's what he ordered. That's unconstitutional. It's subject to being struck down by the courts eventually, and we've won the first victory in that process with the stay that was ordered on Saturday. You know, there's more work to be done, obviously, in that process. But the degree to which this administration has been nakedly discriminatory—
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And it's unconstitutional why?
OMAR JADWAT: Because the government can't discriminate against a particular religion. It can't favor one religion over another. You know, and this does both, right? Not only does it ban people—it's an imperfect Muslim ban, right? Doesn't get every Muslim in the world, but it's a Muslim ban. And, as Donald Trump himself explained, there's a specific provision to favor Christians from among the refugees that would otherwise be banned.
AMY GOODMAN: So let's talk about exactly what happened in the courts. On Saturday, the ACLU asked a federal judge to intervene in the case of two Iraqis detained at JFK airport. On Saturday night, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in Brooklyn ordered the men released as part of a nationwide stay on part of Trump's executive order, her ruling temporarily blocking the deportation of valid visa holders, including those from the countries listed in Trump's ban. Now, if you could talk about who, Omar, these two Iraqis were—one of the Iraqis, a translator, who soldiers around the country started to stand up for, said, "He saved our lives." Talk about Darweesh.
OMAR JADWAT: I mean, so—I mean, and this, this is the face of who a Muslim ban hits, right? It's people like Nisrin. It's people like Mr. Darweesh, who worked for the U.S. military for 10 years in Iraq, put his life on the line for our country in a way that most Americans don't, and, because of what he did, you know, was trying to come to the United States and escape the possibility of retribution for what he had done for our country. We have a special immigrant visa process for folks who have helped the military abroad. He got one of these visas, got fully vetted for it, went all the way through the process, gets to the airport, and they say—well, they told him, you know, potentially that they were going to deport him back.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Let's go to Hameed Darweesh speaking at JFK after he was released.
HAMEED DARWEESH: This is the soul of America. Now, this is what pushed me to move, leave my country and come here. And I'm very, very thankful to all the people who come to support me. Thank you very much. And always, when we are kids 'til now, we know America is the land of freedom, the land of freedom, the land of the right.
REPORTER: What do you want to say to Donald Trump?
HAMEED DARWEESH: I like him, but I don't know. This is a policy. I don't know. He's a president, and I'm a normal person. But I have a special immigration visa in my passport, me and my family, because I worked with the U.S. government. I supported the U.S. government from the other side of the war. But when I came here, they said no. And they treat me as I break the laws or do something wrong. I'm surprised, really.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was Hameed Darweesh speaking at JFK after he was released from detention. But I wanted to ask you: The judicial order prevents any deportations, but not the denial of visas, right, to people coming into the country?
OMAR JADWAT: Right. And that's one of the reasons I say that there's much more work to be done in terms of challenging this ban and in terms of striking it down finally. This is, you know, the first step, and it's an important victory, obviously, for the people who had been stuck in airports. But more generally, it's a demonstration of the fact that both the courts, you know, can stand up to the president on these issues and that people around the country can make a huge difference by turning out and by supporting, you know, immigrants who are being threatened by the Trump administration.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, the turnout was astonishing around the country, thousands of people flocking to the airports.
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