A federal judge in Hawaii issued a nationwide order Wednesday evening blocking President Trump’s ban on travel from parts of the Muslim world, dealing a stinging blow to the White House and signaling that Mr. Trump will have to account in court for his heated rhetoric about Islam.
The ruling was the second major setback for Mr. Trump in his pursuit of a policy he has trumpeted as critical for national security. His first attempt to sharply limit travel from a handful of predominantly Muslim countries ended in a courtroom fiasco last month, when a federal court in Seattle halted it.
Mr. Trump issued a new and narrower travel ban, affecting six countries, on March 6, trying to satisfy the courts by removing some of the most contentious elements of the original version.
But in a pointed decision that repeatedly invoked Mr. Trump’s public comments, the judge, Derrick K. Watson of Federal District Court in Honolulu, wrote that a “reasonable, objective observer” would view even the new order as “issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion, in spite of its stated, religiously neutral purpose.”
Mr. Trump lashed out at Judge Watson during a campaign-style rally in Nashville late on Wednesday. Raising his voice to a hoarse shout, Mr. Trump accused the judge of ruling “for political reasons” and criticized the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which upheld the earlier decision against his administration and will hear any appeal to the Hawaii ruling.
“This ruling makes us look weak, which by the way we no longer are, believe me,” Mr. Trump said, to mounting cheers from a loyal crowd.
Mr. Trump even said he might reissue the initial version of the order, rather than the one blocked on Wednesday, which he described as “a watered-down version of the first one.”
After he signed the revised ban, Democratic attorneys general and nonprofit groups that work with immigrants and refugees raced back into court against Mr. Trump, alleging that his updated decree was still a thinly veiled version of the ban on Muslim migration that he had pledged to enact as a presidential candidate.
Judge Watson, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, ruled that the State of Hawaii and an individual plaintiff, Ismail Elshikh, the imam of the Muslim Association of Hawaii, had reasonable grounds to challenge the order as religious discrimination. And he concluded that allowing the travel restrictions to go into effect at midnight, as scheduled, could have caused them irreparable harm.
Judge Watson flatly rejected the government’s argument that a court would have to investigate Mr. Trump’s “veiled psyche” to deduce religious animus. He quoted extensively from the remarks by Mr. Trump that were cited in the lawsuit brought by Hawaii’s attorney general, Doug Chin.
“For instance, there is nothing ‘veiled’ about this press release,” Judge Watson wrote, quoting a Trump campaign document titled “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
Baked chicken, cabbage, mash potatoes with gravy, cornbread Mmmmmm …I’m a southern girl :)
What’s up with Dump-Russian investigation? Turn up the heat on this MOFO & take HIM OUT.
https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/842437867708264448
Joy ReidVerified account
@JoyAnnReid
Seriously, what kind of person wakes up in the morning thinking, let’s cut Meals on Wheels! And Sesame Street!!? Unreal. #TrumpBudget
https://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow/status/842232696856297472
https://twitter.com/Alt_McDonalds/status/842399009683693568
https://twitter.com/KeeganNYC/status/842406208870985728
Trading Races
New Card Game Questions What It Means to Be Black
Trading Races: The game where Rachel Dolezal and Rosa Parks duke it out for the sake of conversation.
What does being Black mean to you? A new game aims to make players grapple with that question.
In Trading Races, players are dealt a hand of five cards that feature images of people who are Black—or who profess some measure of “Blackness.” To win books, they must “out Black” their competitors by convincing them that they tossed the Blackest card on the table. It’s like Spades, except Harriet Tubman is the Big Joker.
As creator Kenyatta Forbes writes on the game’s Kickstarter page, the game rests on the “malleability of race,” where players are forced to talk through their assumptions about what it means to be Black. Rosa Parks, Huey P. Newton, Omarosa Manigault, Kanye West and Rachel Dolezal are all included in the deck, which is available for a $25 pledge. The campaign ends March 12. Watch a video about it below.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1004093005/trading-races/description
Trump and the Parasitic Presidency
Charles M. Blow
MARCH 13, 2017
We have now passed the 50-day mark of the Donald Trump administration and one thing is clear: There is no new Trump.
There is only the same old Trump: Dangerous and unpredictable, gauche and greedy, temperamentally unsuited and emotionally unsound.
If you were trying to create in a lab a person with character traits more unbecoming in a president, it would be hard to outdo the one we have.
He continues to have explosive Twitter episodes — presumably in response to some news he finds unflattering or some conspiracy floated by fringe outlets — that make him look not only foolish, but unhinged.
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As The Hill reported on Saturday, “President Trump paid a visit to one of his golf courses again Saturday, marking apparently his ninth visit to a golf course in the seven weeks since he took office.” The site pointed out, “Trump has made several weekend trips to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., as well, calling the property the ‘Winter White House.’ ”
In February, numerous media outlets pointed out that Trump was spending on travel in a month nearly as much as what the Obamas spent in a year. This doesn’t even include the travel and security costs of Trump’s children or the cost of Trump’s wife and son remaining in Trump Tower in New York, at least for now, which is estimated to cost taxpayers hundreds of thousand of dollars a day.
This was particularly jarring because Trump had been a chief critic of the amount of money the Obamas spent on vacations. Indeed, Trump tweeted in 2012: “President @BarackObama’s vacation is costing taxpayers millions of dollars — Unbelievable!”
No, what is unbelievable is the staggering nature of the hypocrisy of Trump and his current spending and the near silence of Obama’s conservative critics.
Trump appears to view the Treasury as a personal piggy bank and the presidency as a part-time job.
Full @WashingtonPost survey of who is up, who is down and who is out in @realDonaldTrump’s federal budget proposal. https://t.co/R9VQoASDTR pic.twitter.com/SLBnvqNY2F
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) March 16, 2017
btw, in 2009 it was *Obama* who fielded Q’s for hrs re: Obamacare. Trump sends Price to CNN 2nite b/c Trump has no idea how insurance works
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) March 16, 2017
As Muslim ban flops again, Team Trump is its own worst enemy
03/16/17 08:00 AM—UPDATED 03/16/17 08:10 AM
By Steve Benen
Even if no one at the White House has ever been charged with a crime, members of Team Trump are probably familiar with the opening phrases of the Miranda warning: “You have the right to remain silent… Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law.” When it comes to Donald Trump’s Muslim ban, it’s advice the president and his aides should try to keep in mind.
The original version of the administration’s Muslim ban failed in the courts, with judges quoting Trump and his cohorts to prove that the policy was discriminatory. Last night, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson, a federal judge in Hawaii, blocked implementation of the Muslim Ban 2.0, by again citing remarks from the president and his allies.
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/842377879216394240
Who gives a shit, Maggie!
New polling: Americans are unimpressed with GOP health care plan
03/16/17 09:24 AM—UPDATED 03/16/17 09:42 AM
By Steve Benen
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham yesterday, “Donald Trump is so excited about barnstorming America in Democrat [sic] Senate district states where he won [by] double digits like Missouri and Indiana and North Dakota and Montana.” The point wasn’t subtle: Ryan believes Senate Democrats from red states can be pushed to support the Republican health care plan by a president who’s eager to apply pressure.
In theory, that makes perfect sense. In practice, red-state Dems probably aren’t too worried about an unpopular president barnstorming through the country, pushing an unpopular bill.
The new Fox News poll, for example, shows Trump’s approval rating dropping to 43%, down five points from the network’s previous survey. The same poll found the health care plan the president is pushing is even less popular than he is:
“Do you favor or oppose the Republican health care plan that would replace Obamacare?”
Strongly favor: 17%
Somewhat favor: 17%
Somewhat oppose: 14%
Strongly oppose: 40%
Lips Pursed
Huck: Trump Should Ignore Travel Ban Ruling, Like Jackson With Trail Of Tears
ByALLEGRA KIRKLANDPublishedMARCH 16, 2017, 10:37 AM EDT
President Donald Trump may want to avoid taking legal advice from former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
After a federal judge on Wednesday ordered a hold on Trump’s revised travel ban, Huckabee urged the President to ignore the ruling, citing Andrew Jackson’s refusal to enforce an 1832 Supreme Court decision affirming the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation. Jackson rejected the decision in Worcester v. Georgia, leading to the forcible expulsion of some 15,000 Cherokee from Georgia along the Trail of Tears. Some 4,000 died on that journey.
According to Huckabee, this is a solid historical precedent.
“Hoping @POTUS tells Hawaii judge what Andrew Jackson told overreaching court,” Huckabee wrote on Twitter. “I’ll ignore it and let the court enforce their order.”
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Other stalwart Trump supporters have held up Jackson as an example for the President to follow.
William Johnson, chairman of the white nationalist American Freedom Party, told TPM last year that Trump may need to override the judicial and legislative branches to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
“You could have a Trump do what Andrew Jackson did when he defied the U.S. Supreme Court and had the Trail of Tears,” Johnson said at the 2016 American Renaissance conference, a gathering of white nationalists, pointing out that the president “controls the armies.”
https://twitter.com/SteveKopack/status/842367466080739329
Increase defense spending and build a fucking wall is going to keep America safe?
SLASH/BURN TACTICS to government agencies that protect our food, water, drugs, housing, finances, health our very survival? HOW DOES THIS COMPUTE, MOTHERFUCKER?
Well… Like he said, he’s going to make America Grate Again, and again and again and again.
Obamacare Repeal Bill Takes Another Step Forward, Passage Still In Doubt
By ALICE OLLSTEIN
Published MARCH 16, 2017, 10:42 AM EDT
After mere minutes of debate, the House Budget Committee narrowly approved the GOP bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, 17 to 19. Three hardline conservative Republicans on the committee—Reps. David Brat (R-VA), David Gary Palmer (R-AL) and Mark Sanford (R-SC)—joined every single Democrat member in opposing the bill, but were unable to muster the numbers to stop its passage.
The bill had been expected to squeak through the Budget Committee, though the exact number of Republican defections was up in the air. The bill next goes to the House Rules Committee, where it could see significant revisions.
The successful vote to advance the bill comes amid a wave of criticisms of the legislation from the left, right, and center, and admissions from House leadership that it cannot pass in its current form.
Conservatives lawmakers in the House are trying to pull the bill farther to the right, fighting to impose work requirements for people on Medicaid and speed up the freeze of the Medicaid expansion. But moderates in the House and Senate—especially those from states who opted to expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of people—tell TPM these changes could drive away their votes.
Ryan Alone
ByJOSH MARSHALL
Published MARCH 15, 2017, 10:37 AM EDT
Here’s where we are. Speaker Ryan from about an hour ago: “This is something we wrote with President Trump.”
In other words, let me invite you back on my sinking boat. Ryan went on to say: “This is something we wrote with the Senate committees. So just so you know, Maria (Bartiromo), this is the plan we ran on all last year.” So he wants to invite a lot of people onboard.
As the Trumpcare/Ryan bill has endured a murderous three days, there’s been a growing move, from various feral and high profile Trump supporters outside the White House, as well as Breitbart News, to say the bill is at least politically a disaster and that Ryan is to blame.
Is this really what Trump and Republicans ran on, as Ryan claims?
Clearly, this is not what President Trump ran on.
The key is that Trump clearly does not know or care enough about health care policy to know whether he was lying or not. Will everybody get care? Of course. And it will be the best care. And it’ll be cheaper. This is just sales flimflam but he said it. Trump was assured it would be awesome and that was good enough for him.
That makes the situation volatile and unpredictable. Trump’s ideological commitment to this bill? Basically zero. Trump’s commitment to being loved and not looking stupid? Incalculable. Trump seems at least temporarily imprinted with the access/freedom Ryan mantra. But there’s every reason to think that is just skin deep. Trump may not care in any deep sense about millions of people losing their insurance coverage. But he did say his genius and deal making power would make things awesome for everyone. He wants everyone happy and loving him. This bill is not good for that agenda.
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/842386262820503554
https://twitter.com/TUSK81/status/842396601406578688
Will Republicans Settle For Only Passing Obamacare Repeal in the House?
by Nancy LeTourneau March 15, 2017 3:42 PM
A week ago when I asked what would happen if the GOP failed to repeal Obamacare, I thought I was going out on a limb. While the Republicans were facing an uphill climb at the time, no one was actually contemplating failure. But today, that is obviously a very real possibility.
A huge tell came this morning when Speaker Ryan seemed intent on making sure that he isn’t alone when/if that ship sinks.
Matt Fuller is even suggesting that Republicans might be willing to re-define success.
Trump Said the Words ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism.’ Now What?
Everything Trump has said about ISIS and the battle to re-take Mosul has been wrong.
by Nancy LeTourneau March 16, 2017 8:00 AM
During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump said he had a great health care plan, a great infrastructure plan and a secret plan to defeat ISIS. We now know that all of that was a lie. On ISIS, he signed an executive order after the inauguration calling on the military to submit a plan within 30 days to defeat ISIS. In late February, General Mattis submitted a preliminary secret plan.
Another outrageous lie Trump told during the campaign was suggesting that President Obama was the “founder of ISIS” and Hillary Clinton its co-founder. That was based on his assumption that the way Obama ended the war in Iraq created the opening for ISIS to establish territory in that country as part of their caliphate.
All of that was going on as the U.S. military worked with Iraq to reclaim large swaths of territory from ISIS – leading to the final battle to retake Mosul. Once again, Trump wasn’t impressed. He claimed that the military offensive in Mosul was actually an elaborate, international conspiracy to help Hillary Clinton’s campaign and suggested it was a “total disaster” because it wasn’t kept secret.
I say all that because since the election, Trump has gone completely silent about what is happening with ISIS in Mosul. Yesterday we got another report that probably explains that silence.
In other words, everything Trump said about ISIS in Iraq and the battle to re-take Mosul was wrong.
Trump thinks he has a magic wand. Wave a little and all he wishes for is done. Well, that’s not exactly the case in Middle East. It rarely is.
Now, many things led to the rising of Daesh. (isis) For one, The founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the current leader al-Baghdadi created this monster in theory as they was detained together in Camp Bucca, Iraq. The US installed a shia president Malaki, who treated the sunni Muslims very bad. Isis goals have been to change leadership in both Iraq and Syria. Yes, Obama abandoned Iraq too early I think. But who knew, right?
As for today. Daesh is losing ground by the day. The reason it’s quiet is because of all the nationalities on the ground fighting for various causes. It’s a very delicate situation with Turkey who attacks the Kurds, Iran who’s the enemy of the US, and so on. So far the US is doing the right thing but 30 days is a ignorant presidents dream. No reality. :) I liked your comment.
A Bad Day For the White Nationalists
by Nancy LeTourneau March 16, 2017 10:32 AM
Yesterday brought some bad news for the Bannon/Miller wing of the White House. First of all, there was an election in the Netherlands.
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Secondly, U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson issued a ruling on Trump’s travel ban 2.0.
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But perhaps the most delicious part of this ruling went beyond the words to the symbolic.
Pretty cool that Muslim ban blocked by Chinese-American AG arguing on behalf of Syrian-American plaintiff before a Native Hawaiian judge.
— Julia Carrie Wong (@juliacarriew) March 16, 2017
The Decline of Black Business
And what it means for American democracy.
by Brian S. Feldman
At the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., a hallway of glass display cases features more than a century of black entrepreneurial triumphs. In one is a World War II–era mini parachute manufactured by the black-owned Pacific Parachute Company, home to one of the nation’s first racially integrated production plants. Another displays a giant time clock from the R. H. Boyd Publishing Company, among the earliest firms to print materials for black churches and schools. Although small, the exhibit recalls a now largely forgotten legacy: by serving their communities when others wouldn’t, black-owned independent businesses provided avenues of upward mobility for generations of black Americans and supplied critical leadership and financial support for the civil rights movement.
This tradition continues today. Last June, Black Enterprise magazine marked the forty-fourth anniversary of the BE 100s, the magazine’s annual ranking of the nation’s top 100 black-owned businesses. At the top of the list stood World Wide Technology, which, since its founding in 1990, has grown into a global firm with more than $7 billion in revenue and 3,000 employees. Then came companies like Radio One, whose fifty-five radio stations fan out among sixteen national markets. The combined revenues of the BE 100s, which also includes Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions, now totals more than $24 billion, a ninefold increase since 1973, adjusting for inflation.
A closer look at the numbers, however, reveals that these pioneering companies are the exception to a far more alarming trend. The last thirty years also have brought the wholesale collapse of black-owned independent businesses and financial institutions that once anchored black communities across the country. In 1985, sixty black-owned banks were providing financial services to their communities; today, just twenty-three remain. In eleven states that headquartered black-owned banks in 1994, not a single one is still in business. Of the fifty black-owned insurance companies that operated during the 1980s, today just two remain.
The Trump “presidency” is not only extremely dangerous, it is ridiculous. Every time see that clown on TV, he is saying something outrageous and stupid, a constant reminder that we are in deep trouble.
Good Morning, Everyone 😐😐😐
A travel ban, targeting Muslims while Mr Trump have the origin of terror at the lunch table in the White House. How does that work? Let me see… He told the prince of Saudi Arabia yesterday that they’re “the good guys”. And we’re talking extremism, at least according to western standards. Wahhabi is the correct word. Same branch of Islam as Daesh (isis). The harshest interpretation of the Quran imaginable. As shown in certain propaganda films. “The good guys”? It’s embarrassing. Doesn’t Trump have any advisers that could save him from making a complete fool of him self?
And sorry for bad spelling. :)
Trump can’t stop himself. He won’t listen to anyone. He’s been doing this his whole life and not going to change. What have you done, America?