Thursday Open Thread | I thought that there were only 3 African Countries on the Unconstitutional Banned List?

Posted on March 23, 2017 by rikyrah

And, since it has been blocked by judges…WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

There was an Africa trade meeting with no Africans because all their visas got denied
by Harriet Marsden

Each year, delegations from Africa meet with officials and business leaders in the US for the African Global Economic and Development (AGED) Summit.

This year’s event took place at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles.

But unfortunately, one crucial aspect was missing from the summit – any Africans.

None of the invited delegates were able to attend, due to being denied a visa at the very last minute.

Mary Flowers, chair of the summit, told VOA that during the previous three summits around 40 per cent of attendees were denied visas.

She estimated that around 100 guests, from Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and South Africa, were unable to attend.

According to Flowers, many who had applied for their visas weeks or months in advance were only called for embassy interviews days before they were supposed to travel.


I have to say that most of us feel it’s a discrimination issue with the African nations.

We experience it over and over and over, and the people being rejected are legitimate business people with ties to the continent

You feel it’s a discrimination BECAUSE IT’S DISCRIMINATION.

You have White Supremacists IN the White House…

You better believe it’s discrimination.

Those of us against that Travel Ban told you right after the first one….’Only 3 African Countries’ on it..

The entire continent will be on it before the end of 2017.
Bet.on.it.

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65 Responses to Thursday Open Thread | I thought that there were only 3 African Countries on the Unconstitutional Banned List?

  1. Liza says:
    March 23, 2017 at 10:54 pm

    Cute.

    Wishing everyone a happy #NationalPuppyDay pic.twitter.com/R74bj1nciI— John Lewis (@repjohnlewis) March 23, 2017

    //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Reply
  8. Ametia says:
    March 23, 2017 at 6:40 pm

    so now these MOFO Gopers want a bipartisan fix for Obama care?

    GTFOH!

    Reply
  12. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 6:31 pm

    Brandon Friedman‏Verified account @BFriedmanDC

    It’s almost as if there’s a race to repeal Obamacare and confirm Trump’s Supreme Court justice before the indictments begin

    Reply
  17. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 3:52 pm

    The GOP Health Bill Promises “Access” And “Choice.” Don’t Believe It.
    by William Berkson March 23, 2017 10:37 AM

    With their proposal to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, Republicans are proposing to take away subsidized health care insurance – and more than a trillion dollars in benefits – from 24 million people in the middle class and poor over the next decade and redistribute over 80% of the proceeds to the rich through tax cuts. But the Republicans have put a fine veneer over this “reverse Robin Hood” swindle – they argue that Americans will enjoy both better “access” and “freedom of choice” – when the reality is that they will have neither, in any meaningful way.

    The GOP’s promises have all the hallmarks of a classic con, which typically includes three steps: (1) An effort to confuse and mislead the “mark,” in this case, the poor and middle class; (2) Winning the mark’s alliance against an imaginary third party, in this case, “big government”; and then (3) Taking their money.

    The heart of the con is conservatives’ conflation of “access” and “freedom of choice.” Conservatives imply that freedom of choice includes access, when in truth these are two very different things, particularly when it comes to health care.

    “Freedom of choice” means no one is forcing you to choose one option over another. “Access” means you actually have some options open to you, including the means to exercise your choice. Meaningful freedom requires some of both—options and choice. If you have the money to purchase a bunch of attractive options, but are forbidden the freedom to buy any of them, the claim of “access” to those options becomes meaningless. Similarly, if you have complete freedom of choice, but no money to purchase any of the attractive options, your claim to “freedom of choice” as to how to spend your money is meaningless. To label either extreme—choice without options, or options without choice—as a precious “freedom” is a cruel trick.

    Reply
  18. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 3:51 pm

    Forget Truth. For Trump It’s All About Winning
    by Nancy LeTourneau March 23, 2017 11:40 AM

    Today Time published an interview that Michael Scherer conducted with Donald Trump. The topic was how he has handled truth and falsehood in his career. It is obvious that the president was prepped that this would be the focus of the discussion and his responses demonstrate that whether something is true or false is never part of his calculation. In Trump’s mind, everything is centered around proving himself to be right and winning.

    For example, here is the president’s opening statement:

    I predicted a lot of things, Michael. Some things that came to you a little bit later. But, you know, we just rolled out a list. Sweden. I make the statement, everyone goes crazy. The next day they have a massive riot, and death, and problems. Huma [Abedin] and Anthony [Weiner], you know, what I tweeted about that whole deal, and then it turned out he had it, all of Hillary’s email on his thing. NATO, obsolete, because it doesn’t cover terrorism. They fixed that, and I said that the allies must pay. Nobody knew that they weren’t paying. I did. I figured it. Brexit, I was totally right about that. You were over there I think, when I predicted that, right, the day before. Brussels, I said, Brussels is not Brussels. I mean many other things, the election’s rigged against Bernie Sanders. We have a lot of things.

    One could take that list and demonstrate how Trump actually got some of those things wrong, or wonder what he means when he said “Brussels is not Brussels.” But a major take away is that he spends no time attempting to get at the truth (which is sometimes complex) and zeros in completely on convincing himself that he was right. In the process, he feels the need to take a dig at Scherer by saying “some things that came to you a little bit later.” That is nothing but a statement of dominance.

    Trump also spent a lot of time claiming that Rep. Nunes has now vindicated what he tweeted about Obama wiretapping him and adds that he has “articles saying it happened.” When confronted with other lies – like the one about 3 million undocumented people voting, that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated on 9/11, and that Ted Cruz’s father was with Lee Harvey Oswald – he doubles down on the lies. On the last one, Trump’s defense is that it was in a newspaper.

    Reply
  19. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 3:50 pm

    Republicans Own This Health Care Debacle
    by Nancy LeTourneau March 23, 2017 12:40 PM

    There are two reasons why I won’t refer to the Republican bill to repeal/replace Obamacare (AHCA) as “Trumpcare.” The first is that to suggest that Trump actually “cares” about the impact of this bill on the American public strains the imagination.

    The second reason is that Trump is actually a johnny-come-lately to this whole fiasco. He simply embraced the repeal of Obamacare to further his standing with the Republican base to launch his presidential ambitions. On the other hand, whether the Republican bill passes today or not, they need to be held accountable for this fiasco because they have always been against any kind of meaningful health care reform.

    In 2013 Josh Marshall released a memo written by Bill Kristol dating back to 1993 when the Clinton administration was in the midst of working on health care reform. In it, Kristol laid out a strategy of total obstruction for Republicans.

    ……………………………………………

    In the end, with an assist from the insurance companies, Republicans were able to stop the Clinton health care reforms.

    The Republicans revived the strategy of total obstruction when Obama initiated his efforts to reform health care. They were successful in stopping any Republican from voting for it – but were unable to keep it from passing a Democratically dominant Congress. During the discussion and after it’s passage, Republicans lied ruthlessly about what came to be known as Obamacare. It was described as government controlled health care that included death panels and would lead to job losses, to name just a few.

    In addition, the Republicans launched law suits against Obamacare and came close to stopping it’s implementation via a case that made it to the Supreme Court. In the end, many Republican governors and legislators decided that ideology and obstruction would win out over the financial and health interests of their own citizens and refused to expand Medicaid.

    Throughout all of that, Republicans vowed to repeal Obamacare and cast many unsuccessful votes to do so. They even shut the government down for a while over it.

    The charade that Republicans ever had any better ideas of how to reform our health care system was exposed almost immediately after the 2016 election when they gained majorities in congress combined with a Republican president. We’ve watched them go from “repeal and replace” to “repeal and delay” and back to “repeal and replace.” Now we know that their “replace” plan will actually mean that 24 million Americans lose their health insurance, rich folks will get a huge tax cut and Medicaid will be decimated – leaving the situation worse than before Obamacare was passed. That is because their only goal has always been to stop health care reform.

    It is not just Donald Trump that owns this debacle. Dating back to the days when Ronald Reagan suggested that Medicare was a socialist plot, Republicans have always been against anything that was designed to help Americans get access to health care.

    Reply
  20. SouthernGirl2 says:
    March 23, 2017 at 2:46 pm

    But but Trump was going to win, win, win… wassamatta?

    https://twitter.com/politico/status/844994781289828352

    Reply
  21. SouthernGirl2 says:
    March 23, 2017 at 2:09 pm

    LOL! So true!

    I am Proud to be from the South ~ Where tea is sweet & Accents are sweeter
    Summer starts in April
    Front Porches are wide & words are long
    Mac & Cheese is a Vegetable
    Pecan Pie is a staple
    Y’all is the only proper pronoun
    Chicken is fried & Biscuits come w/Gravy
    Somebody is always drunk & borrowing money
    Everything is Darling & someone is always getting their Heart Blessed

    Reply
  22. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 2:00 pm

    Americans reject Republican health plan in striking numbers
    03/23/17 02:01 PM
    By Steve Benen
    A week ago, there was ample evidence that showed Americans just weren’t buying what Republicans were selling on health care. National survey data from Fox News, Public Policy Polling, and the Kaiser Family Foundation showed most of the country souring on the GOP’s American Health Care Act, which some call “Trumpcare.”

    Of course, polls can change, and in the case of the Republican legislation, public attitudes have, in fact, shifted – but not in a direction GOP leaders will like.

    American voters disapprove 56 – 17 percent, with 26 percent undecided, of the Republican health care plan to replace Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. […]

    “Replacing Obamacare will come with a price for elected representatives who vote to scrap it, say many Americans, who clearly feel their health is in peril under the Republican alternative,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.
    The same poll found 43% of respondents “strongly” oppose the Republican plan. How many “strongly” support it? A whopping 6%. That’s not a typo.

    Reply
  24. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 1:00 pm

    Trump’s ability to separate fact from fiction is evaporating
    03/23/17 10:49 AM—UPDATED 03/23/17 01:43 PM
    By Steve Benen

    Donald Trump told reporters yesterday he felt “somewhat” vindicated about his wiretap conspiracy theory following the bizarre press conferences yesterday from House Intelligence Committee Chairman David Nunes (R-Calif.). The president then turned to Twitter to promote messages saying how right he was.

    This was an odd reaction. There’s more to this story than the specific details in the president’s tweets, but the fact remains that when he was making the case for his conspiracy theory, Trump said he was personally targeted, and Nunes said the opposite. He said the surveillance was illegal, and Nunes said the opposite. He said Obama was personally involved, and Nunes said the opposite. He said the surveillance was before the election, and Nunes said the opposite. He said this was all part of a campaign-related scheme, and Nunes said the opposite.

    In other words, Trump was “vindicated” to the extent that the president got literally every detail wrong.

    I mention all of this because it’s emblematic of a leader who continues to struggle, in alarming ways, to separate fact from fiction. If you haven’t read Trump’s newly published interview with Time magazine’s Michael Scherer, it’s well worth your time. The questions about the president’s awareness of reality and appreciation of objective truths are only going to grow louder as a result of some of his more ridiculous comments.

    Reply
  26. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 12:33 pm

    And I’m supposed to care because?

    Health & Science
    New research identifies a ‘sea of despair’ among white, working-class Americans
    By Joel Achenbach and Dan Keating March 23 at 12:01 AM
    Sickness and early death in the white working class could be rooted in poor job prospects for less-educated young people as they first enter the labor market, a situation that compounds over time through family dysfunction, social isolation, addiction, obesity and other pathologies, according to a study published Thursday by two prominent economists.

    Anne Case and Angus Deaton garnered national headlines in 2015 when they reported that the death rate of midlife non-Hispanic white Americans had risen steadily since 1999 in contrast with the death rates of blacks, Hispanics and Europeans. Their new study extends the data by two years and shows that whatever is driving the mortality spike is not easing up.

    Offering what they call a tentative but “plausible” explanation, they write that less-educated white Americans who struggle in the job market in early adulthood are likely to experience a “cumulative disadvantage” over time, with health and personal problems that often lead to drug overdoses, alcohol-related liver disease and suicide.

    “Ultimately, we see our story as about the collapse of the white, high-school-educated working class after its heyday in the early 1970s, and the pathologies that accompany that decline,” they conclude.

    The study comes as Congress debates how to dismantle parts of the Affordable Care Act. Case and Deaton report that poor health is becoming more common for each new generation of middle-aged, less-educated white Americans. And they are going downhill faster.

    Reply
  27. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 12:30 pm

    Reports: Koch Groups Promise Money In Exchange For Vote Against GOP Bill
    By MATT SHUHAM
    Published MARCH 23, 2017, 10:54 AM EDT

    Groups funded by the Koch brothers will financially support Republicans who vote against the House GOP’s American Health Care Act, several outlets reported Wednesday.

    According to CNN, groups affiliated with Charles and David Koch – the conservative billionaire industrialists with an extensive network of political advocacy organizations – have unveiled a “new pool of money” to fund things like advertisements and mailings in defense of congresspeople who vote against the American Health Care Act.

    CNN did not describe its source for the story, but printed a statement from Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-funded group, who said: “We want to make certain that lawmakers understand the policy consequences of voting for a law that keeps Obamacare intact.”

    “We have a history of following up and holding politicians accountable, but we will also be there to support and thank the champions who stand strong and keep their promise,” he continued.

    Politico also reported on the fund, described as a “seven-figure” reserve fund.

    Reply
  28. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 12:29 pm

    Where things stand with the Republican health care bill
    03/23/17 12:47 PM
    By Steve Benen
    It’s hard not to feel some trepidation about writing a piece on where things stand with the Republican health care bill, because the existing dynamic is subject to dramatic changes at a moment’s notice. But fortune favors the bold, so let’s dig in.

    Is the American Health Care Act going to pass today?

    That’s largely dependent on which version of the American Health Care Act we’re talking about. The original bill is dead. The revised bill, written in secret in the middle of the night earlier this week, doesn’t have the votes.

    So we’re just waiting for the bill’s inevitable failure?

    Not so fast. Overnight, there was talk of a new effort that would move the bill sharply to the right in order to make members of the House Freedom Caucus happy.

    What kind of changes are House GOP leaders prepared to offer?

    As of noon (ET), there is no new bill, but multiple reports suggest the Republican leadership is prepared to start scrapping essential health benefits – provisions in the Affordable Care Act that require insurers to cover things like prescription drugs and maternity care – in order to woo right-wing members.

    You’re making it sound as if some House Republicans believe the existing bill isn’t cruel enough.

    Yep.

    If the new, more far-right version becomes the official bill, will it pick up enough Freedom Caucus votes to pass?

    There is no headcount on this – the bill doesn’t yet exist, and may never exist – so no one knows for sure. For some Freedom Caucus members, scrapping essential health benefits is nice, but it’s not enough. Complicating matters, the House GOP’s center-right members are already running away from the bill, and their opposition will stiffen if the legislation becomes even more regressive.

    Reply
  31. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 12:11 pm

    Ivanka Trump’s West Wing job isn’t just unethical. It’s also dangerous.

    Laws against conflicts of interest protect national security.
    By Helen Klein Murillo and Susan Hennessey
    March 23 at 6:00 AM

    The president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, is set to join his administration in an unspecified, but reportedly influential policy role. She claims she will not be a government employee despite having an office in the White House, holding a high-level security clearance and performing government work.

    In a statement, Ivanka Trump concedes that there is “no modern precedent for an adult child of the president” but pledges to “voluntarily” comply with ethics rules. What the first daughter fails to acknowledge is that the very nature of her proposed role breaches ethical standards to which previous administrations have adhered for generations. That ethical breach does more than “shake up Washington” by breaking with norms and decorum — it threatens our national security.

    At their core, ethics rules are national security rules. They are designed to guard against conflicts to reassure the public that individuals trusted with matters of immense national importance are guided only by the best interests of the country. But from the earliest days, President Trump and his children have violated these standards. The president’s questionable conflicts-mitigation strategy put his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., at the helm of his business without removing his financial interest in the companies. One need only look at photos of the two seated in the front row at the White House announcement of Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court to grasp how insufficiently that separates the president from his business interests.

    Reply
  32. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 12:04 pm

    Sam Stein‏Verified account @ samsteinhp 1h1 hour ago
    More
    Whoa. as flagged by the DCCC, Republicans are now fundraising on the false claim that Obama spied on Trump

    Reply
  36. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 10:48 am

    Commentary: Ryan Makes It Clear That Cutting Medicaid to Pay for the Health Bill’s Tax Cuts for the Wealthy Enables
    Deeper Corporate Tax Cuts in Tax Legislation to Follow
    MARCH 20, 2017
    BY CHYE-CHING HUANG

    House Speaker Paul Ryan has made a key Republican motive for pushing ahead with the House GOP health plan explicit in recent interviews:[1] passing the health package first facilitates deeper tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations in subsequent tax legislation.

    That’s because the House GOP health plan reduces revenues by nearly $900 billion over the decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), including $592 billion in tax cuts largely for the wealthy. Passing these tax cuts now as part of a health package allows the GOP to offset their cost through cuts to health care spending — particularly in Medicaid, which CBO estimates the House health care bill cuts by $880 billion over ten years. If these tax cuts were part of tax reform legislation rather than being in the health bill, Republican leaders would have to offset their cost on the tax side to maintain revenue neutrality, as they have said they would do, limiting how sharply they can cut tax rates.

    Instead, because these tax cuts are in the health bill, Republicans can, in writing their tax bill later this year, make much deeper cuts in tax rates — particularly for corporations — than they otherwise could do. As Ryan explained in a recent interview with Maria Bartiromo:[2]

    RYAN: […] And so yes, it is important that we get this [the health plan] done so that we can do tax reform. Because this bill also takes out about $900 billion in tax increases, the Obamacare tax increases are taken out which makes it $900 billion easier to reform the tax code afterwards… That’s why this is really important.

    BARTIROMO: Look, some people see this as a bigger tax cut than anything obviously. Because you’re taking out certain taxes–

    RYAN: It’s about a trillion dollar tax cut. This is about a trillion dollar tax cut.

    BARTIROMO: And I get that. But wouldn’t it have been easier to tax reform first [….]

    RYAN: Because it’s one of the highest priorities we have. Our committees, frankly, weren’t ready to be able to write tax reform in this space of time. They’re getting ready now. They’re still working on it. And more importantly, it would have been a trillion dollars more difficult to do tax reform had we done that first. That’s a big deal.

    A trillion dollars, just to give you, in your mind a perspective, that’s 10 percentage points on rates for businesses. So our blueprint, the House blueprint,[3] it takes the corporate rate from 35 to 20; a trillion dollars is the 20 to 30 difference. This is how big that is. And so taking tax reform with a bigger trillion dollar number in it makes it really hard to do. That’s why doing this first makes tax reform that much easier to accomplish.

    Reply
  39. Liza says:
    March 23, 2017 at 10:18 am

    Yep.

    Ivanka Trump reminds me of a plantation mistress. Her essential function is to make the horrorific reality into something more "genteel"— Bree Newsome (@BreeNewsome) March 23, 2017

    //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Reply
  40. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 10:03 am

    the EVERLOVING PHUCK?!?!?!

    Disgusting: The AHCA now has a clause that allows states to revoke Medicaid if a women hasn’t gotten a job 8 weeks after giving birth!

    — National NOW (@NationalNOW) March 22, 2017

    Reply
  41. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 9:38 am

    John Harwood‏Verified account @ JohnJHarwood 44m44 minutes ago
    after WH signals it will scrap essential health benefits to gain Freedom Caucus votes, GOP leaders fear Caucus will demand more at WH today

    Reply
  42. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 9:36 am

    Topher Spiro‏ @ TopherSpiro 2m2 minutes ago
    More
    I’m getting some intel that COMSTOCK (VA) is on the fence. Calls are getting through to her Loudon office: 703-404-6903.

    Reply
  43. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 9:32 am

    the case for passing Trumpcare is that it has to be passed, which is not a good case https://t.co/lfRYN027s8

    — Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) March 22, 2017

    Reply
  44. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 9:32 am

    Dear #GOP moderates: Vote no on #Trumpcare & you may lose primary. Vote yes & you will lose the general. Good luck! https://t.co/g4vTewS4SX

    — Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 21, 2017

    Reply
  45. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 9:31 am

    This is a tactic: Daring Members to explain to their voters why they tanked repeal/replace after 7 years of promises. => https://t.co/SNoH3NkQEl

    — David M. Drucker (@DavidMDrucker) March 22, 2017

    Reply
  46. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 9:31 am

    Handy district-by-district guide to ACA enrollment beneficiaries, compiled by @charles_gaba https://t.co/l3ULGR1mxe

    — David Frum (@davidfrum) March 21, 2017

    Reply
  47. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 9:30 am

    “You come explain to the American people how 24 million of them lost coverage.” —Elizabeth Warren challenges GOPers https://t.co/KrjxJQ59FU pic.twitter.com/ebS28YSyAF

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 23, 2017

    Reply
  48. sittinducks says:
    March 23, 2017 at 5:30 am

    Africans are being marginalized everywhere.

    Reply
  49. rikyrah says:
    March 23, 2017 at 12:36 am

    Good Morning, Everyone 😐😐😐

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      March 23, 2017 at 7:31 am

      Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone.

      Yes; the ILLEGAL BAN is to discriminate against PEOPLES of COLOR.

      Too late MOFOs, BLACK FOLKS are here.

      You dragged us over here in chains, and we aren’t going anywhere.

      Reply

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