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carbon-mantis Collector Of Fine Oddities from Trumpland Since: Mar, 2010 Relationship Status: Married to my murderer
Collector Of Fine Oddities
#171351: Jan 30th 2017 at 7:55:28 PM

@ Convoy on the last page, probably militia nutters. The ones where I live have a load of old surplus vehicles in various states of disrepair.

iflewaway someone from somewhere Since: Dec, 2016
someone
#171352: Jan 30th 2017 at 7:56:56 PM

[up][up][up] Here's an excerpt from his Wikipedia page, namely his failed nomination to Alabama's district court.

At Sessions' confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, four Department of Justice lawyers who had worked with Sessions testified that he made racially offensive remarks. One of those lawyers, J. Gerald Hebert, testified that Sessions had referred to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as "un-American" and "Communist-inspired" (Sessions said he was referring to their support of the Sandinistas[22]) and that they did more harm than good by trying to force civil rights "down the throats of people."[23] Hebert, a civil rights lawyer,[24] said that he did not consider Sessions a racist, and that Sessions "has a tendency sometimes to just say something, and I believe these comments were along that vein."[25] Hebert also said that Sessions had called a white civil rights attorney "maybe" a "disgrace to his race." Sessions said he did not recall making that remark and he did not believe it.[22]

Thomas Figures, a black Assistant U.S. Attorney, testified that Sessions said he thought the Ku Klux Klan was "OK until I found out they smoked pot." Sessions later said that the comment was not serious, but did apologize for it, saying that he considered the Klan to be "a force for hatred and bigotry."[26] Barry Kowalski, a prosecutor in the civil rights division, also heard the remark and testified that prosecutors working such a gruesome case sometimes “resort to operating room humor and that is what I considered it to be.” Another DOJ lawyer, Albert Glenn, said, “It never occurred to me that there was any seriousness to it.”[27][22][25][26] Figures testified that on one occasion, when the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division sent the office instructions to investigate a case that Sessions had tried to close, Figures and Sessions "had a very spirited discussion regarding how the Hodge case should then be handled; in the course of that argument, Mr. Sessions threw the file on a table, and remarked, 'I wish I could decline on all of them,'" by which Figures said Sessions meant civil rights cases generally. Kowalski, however, testified that he believed “[Sessions] was eager to see that justice was done in the area of criminal civil rights prosecutions.”[27]

Figures also said that Sessions had called him "boy," which Sessions denied. Figures testified that two assistant prosecutors had also heard Sessions, including current federal judge Ginny Granade. Granade denied this.[19][28] He also testified that "Mr. Sessions admonished me to 'be careful what you say to white folks.'"[29] In 1992, Figures was charged with attempting to bribe a witness by offering $50,000 to a convicted drug dealer who was to testify against his client. Figures claimed the charge was retaliation for his role in blocking the Sessions nomination. Sessions denied this, saying that he recused himself from the case. Figures was ultimately acquitted.[30][31][32]

In short, he's extremely racist, too racist to be a district justice for Alabama in the 1980s.

edited 30th Jan '17 7:59:05 PM by iflewaway

something
SciFiSlasher from Absolutely none of your business. Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#171353: Jan 30th 2017 at 7:57:25 PM

A specific questions about arts under Trump-what would happen to any bands/musicians who try to protest Trump?

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."
ViperMagnum357 Since: Mar, 2012
#171354: Jan 30th 2017 at 7:58:46 PM

[up]What happened to Pussy Riot in Russia, if they are lucky.

edited 30th Jan '17 7:58:55 PM by ViperMagnum357

LinkToTheFuture A real bad hombre from somewhere completely different Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
A real bad hombre
#171355: Jan 30th 2017 at 7:59:32 PM

[up][up]If you were talking to me, I know about Sessions, but what's the full story with Yates?

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#171356: Jan 30th 2017 at 7:59:38 PM

News:

Hidden Danger Of Trump Immigration Orders: Dismissal Of Court Orders: "...Even as lawyers won temporary stays in federal courts, reportedly government officials ignored the full extent and continued to deport at least some travelers."

Feds Blow Off Judge and Congressmen to Enforce Trump’s Orders at Dulles: "...immigration lawyers at Dulles said it didn’t get adequately enforced. Instead, CBP kept the Dulles detainees—and it still isn’t public how many lawful American residents were held there, and for how long—from having face-to-face conversations with attorneys."

Courts Stay Trump's Order Targeting Muslims, but Confusion Reigns: "At Dulles International Airport on Sunday, lawyers and activists feared federal officials were ignoring court decisions staying the president’s executive order restricting travel from several mostly Muslim nations."

It seems most of the confusion is centered at Dulles International Airport.

Crisis Mode: What happens if Donald Trump refuses a federal court order.: "...We reached out to a number of eminent constitutional-law scholars and asked them to handicap what will happen next if it appears that the federal government is intent on ignoring the orders of the courts. Most agreed that there is no clear modern precedent for the federal government deliberately defying a court order, and that if it turns out that is indeed what’s happening, we will be entering uncharted waters. But a few others offered some more specific guidance."

Basically, there will be "several rounds" before this becomes a genuine constitutional crisis.

How opponents may challenge Trump's order in court: Discusses the legal basis for challenging Trump's executive order.

Rulings on Trump’s Immigration Order Are First Step on a Long Legal Path: "...the court orders, from judges in at least four cities, were just the initial steps in litigation that may last for years.

The orders were provisional, aimed at maintaining the status quo. They were limited in scope, applying only to people on their way to the United States or already here. They did not rule on the larger question of whether Mr. Trump’s executive order was lawful."

Senate Democrats Call For Investigation Into Trump Officials’ Failure To Obey Court Orders

So we are probably looking at the early stages of what could be an extended legal battle. But good people are standing up and holding Trump accountible.

My own opinion is that Trump can hold out for awhile, but eventually he will be forced to backtrack. The further he goes with this, the greater the crash will be when he eventually has to back down. He is risking the credibility of his administration on a single issue the first month of his term. He doesnt have a master plan, he's acting on impulse and refusing to back down. But he isnt winning.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
iflewaway someone from somewhere Since: Dec, 2016
someone
#171357: Jan 30th 2017 at 8:00:31 PM

[up][up] I'm sorry, I misunderstood. Basically, she stood up to him for his illegal and immoral orders, and she was fired. It mostly means that Trump is very serious about the ban, and he will fire anyone who gets in his way, no matter how vital they are. Eventually, everyone with a spine will either be fired, quit, or worse, leaving Trump surrounded by useless yes-men and puppeteers like Bannon.

Basically, this:

edited 30th Jan '17 8:05:06 PM by iflewaway

something
LogoP Party Crasher from the Land of Deep Blue Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: You can be my wingman any time
Party Crasher
#171358: Jan 30th 2017 at 8:08:22 PM

What if he treats this like a reality show and fires the person he dislikes the most every week?

It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.
HextarVigar That guy from The Big House Since: Feb, 2015
That guy
#171359: Jan 30th 2017 at 8:08:48 PM

Your momma's so dumb she thinks oral sex means talking dirty.
LinkToTheFuture A real bad hombre from somewhere completely different Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
A real bad hombre
#171360: Jan 30th 2017 at 8:09:35 PM

OK then. Yeah, it doesn't bode well

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
RBluefish Since: Nov, 2013
#171361: Jan 30th 2017 at 8:10:10 PM

Lot of stuff happening tonight...

Tomorrow's executive order on cybersecurity has supposedly been leaked. It would...place the Department of Education under the authority of the Secretary of Defense? The fuck? (Relevant passage here.)

Senior staffers on the House Judiciary Committee helped Orange House aides draft the executive order implementing the Muslim ban, without the knowledge of party leadership. Separation of powers? What separation of powers? That's for democracies.

Bannon praises Sessions, calling him the fiercest advocate of Trump's agenda and saying that we are "witnessing the birth of a new political order. No, asshole, I think we're actually witnessing the rebirth of a very, very old one.

Speaking of Sessions, he praised the racist 1924 law that banned all Asian immigration, which was penned by eugenicists.

"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
Pseudopartition Screaming Into The Void from The Cretaeceous Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Screaming Into The Void
#171362: Jan 30th 2017 at 8:21:45 PM

Tomorrow's executive order on cybersecurity has supposedly been leaked. It would...place the Department of Education under the authority of the Secretary of Defense? The fuck? (Relevant passage here.)

What they're saying: "We need to give future generations a competitive advantage in computer security."

What I'm concerned they're actually thinking: "We want to use the education system as a propaganda and indoctrination tool note  under the guise of national security."

Might be a stretch, but I am at the point where I will not rule anything out.

Wryte Since: Jul, 2010
#171363: Jan 30th 2017 at 8:25:55 PM

Can we stop posting so many reaction video embeds, please? It's getting a little Facebooky.

RBluefish Since: Nov, 2013
#171364: Jan 30th 2017 at 8:27:09 PM

[up][up] That was exactly the thing that first came to mind for me, so I wouldn't call that a stretch at all. At this point, we'd be fools not to assume the worst at every turn.

"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
iflewaway someone from somewhere Since: Dec, 2016
LinkToTheFuture A real bad hombre from somewhere completely different Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
A real bad hombre
#171366: Jan 30th 2017 at 8:35:30 PM

That Frum article seems like the most likely scenario to me. Not a Fourth Reich, but a gradual slide into a slimy, illiberal, kleptocratic country.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
fruitpork Since: Oct, 2010
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#171368: Jan 30th 2017 at 8:47:47 PM

Tomorrow's executive order on cybersecurity has supposedly been leaked. It would...place the Department of Education under the authority of the Secretary of Defense? The fuck? (Relevant passage here.)

Considering who would be in charge of the Dep. of Education otherwise, I'm thinking that I'd rather have James Mattis over Betsy DeVos any day.

This just goes to show, though, that Trump indeed wants to muddy up the waters with inter-department squabbling and disunity.

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#171369: Jan 30th 2017 at 8:51:18 PM

The real tragedy of all this is that absolutely none of this is new. Not a single thing.

The world has seen multiple xenophobic, ultranationalist autocracies, and most of them are very well-documented with tons of historiographical and sociological work put into understanding the factors that led to those regimes existing, how the government functioned during those regimes, and finally the effects they had on the population and the rest of the world. The most famous one of them all has been immortalized as the greatest evil known to mankind.

But all for that bluster it feels like way too much of the american public learned absolutely nothing from what they were taught in school or the media, beyond some shallow action movie narrative about how the nazis were the ultimate evil that was fought back by the great America. Apparently some people fail to understand how and why they were so bad and how their feelings about muslims, black people, homosexuals and whoever else that isn't white and straight is exactly the kind of attitude that led to people like the nazis being created and seizing power in the first place.

And this isn't a case of an insidious political mastermind putting on a convincing face and then quietly installing fascism and kleptocracy into the government. All the information that could have prevented this from happening was there for everyone to see.

The media put a spin on things and definitely made it all worse, but at the end of the day that doesn't change the fact that people saw Trump. They saw him being a complete idiot, they saw the horrible autocratic things he was saying, they saw his incendiary statements towards minorities, they saw his sexism and casual disregard for women, they knew he had no political experience, they saw him backpedal on multiple things, they saw it all.

And what really gets me isn't the conscious virulent racists like the alt-right. They're scum but white nationalism has been around for a very long time, and obviously they'd support fascism.

No, what gets me are the "average", mild-mannered people who made excuses (and continue to make them, whether it be for their choice of voting for him in the first place, or everything he's done so far just a little over w eek in) and managed to justify voting for him...because of what? A vaguely defined antipathy for Clinton rationalized via a bunch of scandals, all the accusations of which Trump was equally guilty of? His nostrum salespitch about their jobs coming back, despite him never explaining how he's going to do it? Wanting to "drain the swamp" despite him being part of the elite they so despise and being the very example of the slimy and amoral Corrupt Corporate Executive?

Were ANY of those things worth installing what will at best be a foul, illiberal kleptocracy where the people have no voice or power to change things anymore and minorities are continuously the victims of casual racism and police brutality? Not even getting into how it could be even worse than that.

We've read all those articles about Trump voters in rural enclaves who don't have much contact with the outside world or much education. It makes sense to me that they would become the people who would vote for Trump but I don't think I can ever forgive them, much less anyone else who has even less of an excuse.

Sorry for preaching to the choir here but this week has really made all of this sink in.

edited 30th Jan '17 9:13:40 PM by Draghinazzo

TropesForever God forbid women do anything from wait where is she Since: Sep, 2016 Relationship Status: I wanna be your dog
God forbid women do anything
#171370: Jan 30th 2017 at 8:55:49 PM

[up][awesome]You've put it in the words that have failed most of us. Me, at least.

thebeatles.com/careers
RBluefish Since: Nov, 2013
#171371: Jan 30th 2017 at 8:56:31 PM

Indeed. [awesome]

"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#171372: Jan 30th 2017 at 9:08:26 PM

[up][up][up][awesome]

Part of the problem is that we've been taught that racism is bad, but we're not taught why it's bad or what it actually is.

Reminds me of that old "Drugs are bad, m'kay" thing from Southpark.

edited 30th Jan '17 9:11:41 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
historyism Since: Jul, 2013
#171373: Jan 30th 2017 at 9:10:25 PM

[up][up][up][up]This is literally my first ever post – just to say that your comment was really spot on.

edited 30th Jan '17 9:10:38 PM by historyism

LinkToTheFuture A real bad hombre from somewhere completely different Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
A real bad hombre
#171374: Jan 30th 2017 at 9:11:31 PM

For sure.

American liberal democracy met yet go down the drain not with a bang, but a whimper. The idea of an illiberal, Russia, Turkey or Venzuela-esque state gives me a visceral reaction that can only be described as grossing me out. The alternative, of course, is darkest-timeline fascism. If that happens...ugh.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
vandro Shop Owner from The little shop that wasn't Since: Jul, 2009
Shop Owner
#171375: Jan 30th 2017 at 9:11:47 PM

Rather good post, Draghinazzo. Can't muster the same sentiment though, people make mistakes, and might learn from them someday.


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