Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Everybody saw this coming.

He really is that stupid.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Consistently wrong since 2002

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / The New “Improved” Muslim Travel Ban Struck Down

The New “Improved” Muslim Travel Ban Struck Down

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Amazing how much of a prissy little old man Lord Smallgloves looks in this clip — that pursed-lipped, finger-wagging, unnaturally-curved backbone posture is every neutered assistant principal reprimanding the “young toughs” for their unseemly camaraderie. The opposite of #WINNING!

… “The order he blocked was a watered-down version of the first order that was also blocked by another judge and should have never been blocked to start with,” Trump said during a rally in Nashville. “This new order was tailored to the dictates of the 9th Circuit’s — in my opinion — flawed ruling.”

Trump called the court actions blocking his orders “unprecedented judicial overreach.”…

“And let me tell you something, I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place,” Trump said.

The President’s comments came during a previously scheduled campaign rally. It took place shortly after US District Court Judge Derrick Watson blocked Trump’s executive order. The new travel ban was set to take effect Thursday.

The new executive order removed Iraq from the original list of seven banned countries, stripped away language about prioritizing religious minorities in the refugee admissions process and did not include an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. But it still banned citizens of six Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — and temporarily stopped the admission of all refugees…

As the “bad news” drew jeers from the crowd, Trump explained that he needed to be cautious in his criticism, an apparent reference to the flak he took after calling the first federal judge who ruled against his executive order a “so-called judge.”

“I have to be nice otherwise I’ll get criticized for — for speaking poorly about our courts. I’ll be criticized by these people, among the most dishonest people in the world,” Trump said referring to reporters in the room.

Still, Trump argued that the judge’s decision to block the order — which agreed with arguments that the ban targeted Muslims on the basis of their religion — was founded on political, not legal grounds.

Trump also managed to knock his former 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton, during his criticism of the order as he argued that presidential powers should give him the right to block the entry of any class of individuals.

“The law and the Constitution give the President the power to suspend immigration when he deems or she — fortunately it will not be Hillary … ” Trump said as his crowd of supporters burst into cheers and deafening chants of “Lock her up! Lock her up!”…

He’s turning his occupancy of the Oval Office into a godsdamned nostalgia tour for all the worst political “hits” of the last sixty years, from attacking civil rights marchers to ginning up fear of transgender individuals potentially lurking in public bathrooms.

There’s a popular concept in behavioral training: the Extinction burst. When a behavior that was once rewarded is no longer — when barking doesn’t elicit treats from a handler, or yelling about Those People doesn’t elicit social rewards from one’s peers — the organism may react with a furious burst of ever-more-frantic barking/yelling.

I’m hoping the Trump administration’s frantic attempts to criminalize everything Trump can’t make a profit from, and the corresponding frenzy of his loyalists, is a groupthink extinction burst — a last rage against inevitable social change. Doesn’t mean he, and his minions, aren’t an immediate danger to the rest of us… but it’s some consolation to know the natural progression (cue: extinction).

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  3. 3.

    jl

    Good news.

    And the dope Miller is wrong, there is no ‘policy outcome’. The ban still makes no sense even on its own terms, since the Trump gold states are still left out. Only policy is Trump’s need to fulfill a dangerously stupid and vicious campaign promise that got him some votes from frightened bigots.

  4. 4.

    BlueDWarrior

    The problem is that with sufficiently motivated and ‘nihilistic’ people, they can make a society totally unworkable (even discounting the use of nuclear/biological/chemucal agents).

    A lot of Republican thought appears to be centered around ensuring that only Republicans and/or conservatives can ever govern; otherwise they will throw so many spanners into the works of society that society stops functioning properly.

    They can get away with it to date because 40% of the population agrees, or will not accept the reality in front of them. And our business is figuring out how to get that ratio down.

  6. 6.

    opiejeanne

    @BlueDWarrior: Did you see the latest budget cuts that will eliminate the $3 billion community development block grants that support Meals on Wheels, heating for the poor in winter, housing assistance, and more.
    I am reeling from this one. Even blue jays feed their elderly.

  8. 8.

    TrabbsBoy

    This whole thing makes me so tense. Of course the idiotic, bigoted ruling should be stuck down, but it’s also like saying to ISIL “Boy, you know what would really fuck America up now?” Impeachment cannot come fast enough.

  9. 9.

    jl

    The 9th Circuit Deep State! Gotta break it up and deport the judges. Take away their green cards.

  10. 10.

    opiejeanne

    @TrabbsBoy: Amen.

    I just noticed a bit of news that the Philippines have begun impeachment proceedings for Dutarte. The news plus the election in the Netherlands may mean that there are lines that will not be crossed, and the pendulum has started to swing back.

  11. 11.

    BlueDWarrior

    @opiejeanne: That’s a nut that I dunno how to crack. It seems like they believe that it is an admission of weakness that someone from ‘on high’ has to help them do something they think should be done for themselves. Even though I highly doubt they would pass it up themselves. It’s a psychological conondrum that I don’t have the wereithall to resolve.

    ====

    On a seperate note, I’ve been thinking about something over the last couple of hours as it becomes apparent that the center-right coalition will survive the challenge from the far right in the Netherlands Parliment.

    Is it just me, or does it appear that the old center-left ‘social liberal capitalist’ paradigm that worked in the late 90s for the Democrats and Labour parties around the world has finally run its course? It seems like all across the world, the bulk of the retreat of ‘the Left’ seems to come in the center-left losing the thread of the political conversation, and the far left (however each country defines it) finding the thread, but not having enough numbers to overtake the natural center-right coalitions that already exist.

    I liken it to the (sorta) micro case of the US and Congress. The bulk of the Democrats losses in Congress have come from the center and center-left, as they lost to right and far right Republicans in ‘purple’ territory. Our liberal core is relatively safe in Congress, but being a 45% minority gets you all of nothing legislatively.

    I wonder why our side of the center has seemingly collapsed while theirs appears stable…

  15. 15.

    magurakurin

    “And let me tell you something, I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place,” Trump said.

    Does he not realize that he is the president? Does Bannon have that tight of control over him? Who was stopping him from going all the way? Certainly there is no one with legal authority in the White House who could stop him…so, why didn’t he go all the way if that’s what he wanted? It is completely his decision to make. Fuckwit…and the people who cheer him can all go DIAF.

  16. 16.

    Kropadope

    @magurakurin:

    wanted to do in the first place,” Trump said.
    Does he not realize that he is the president? Does Bannon have that tight of control over him? Who was stopping him from going all the way?

    Going all the way, if I read the statement correct, is what he did the first time and it also got shut down by the courts. Unfortunately for him, there is no portion of the way he can go. The sort of discrimination he wants to do is illegal. No amount of watering down will help.

  17. 17.

    TriassicSands

    Another so-called judge violates the sacred authority of the Supreme Trump, who threw a nice little tantrum (low key for such a baby) over the decision.

    @Kropadope:

    Yeah, but the 4 wingers on the Court, soon to be joined by a fifth, don’t see things that way. I’ll be very surprised if the SCOTUS nixes the travel ban.

  18. 18.

    Kropadope

    “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.

    Trump, your attempts to discriminate against people and declare whole classes of people as more suspect than others, regardless of what actual crime and terrorism statistics show, make us look weak.

    Thanks to the court, though, you got the “we no longer are” part right at least.

  19. 19.

    Kropadope

    @TriassicSands: One of the wingers isn’t really a winger, but a Libertarian. I would be mightily dismayed and marginally surprised if Kennedy ruled in favor of Trump’s travel ban.

  20. 20.

    TriassicSands

    @magurakurin:

    Who knows what goes on inside the sick head of little Donnie Trump, but he strikes me as incredibly insecure. That insecurity could lead him to lean on others, who will provide ready scapegoats if things go wrong.

    He clearly has no idea how to be a real president. I don’t know if it has occurred to him that all he’s doing is playing president. The way he responded to the AHCA would have been funny if it weren’t so serious. After all his talk about covering everybody with cheaper, better health care, he came out gushing over a plan that meets none of the criteria he set out except that it might lower the deficit a little bit over ten years.
    When people are “dying in the streets” he’ll be extolling the virtues of the Republican plan — whatever it ends up being, because it certainly isn’t going to be the AHCA as originally written. Maybe for the second go they’ll bring in some people who actually know something about healthcare.

  21. 21.

    sukabi

    @TriassicSands: @TriassicSands: no they’re not. They are meeting with the loonier members of their klancaucus and are working in a few little things like work requirements and stuff like that…because freedom or something.

  24. 24.

    magurakurin

    @sukabi: that’s what is so sick. Most of the opposition in the House is from the cretins who feel Ryan’s plan is too generous and not cruel enough.

  26. 26.

    TriassicSands

    @Kropadope:

    What Kennedy is more than anything is unreliable — for both sides, though if you think back over some of the Court’s worst decisions Kennedy lined up with the radicals. I’d bet everything I own on how Alito would vote on some issues and the same for Thomas. I wouldn’t bet on Kennedy.

  28. 28.

    TriassicSands

    @sukabi:

    I’ve always kinda hated emojis so I don’t use them. There’s no way you could have known it, but that last sentence was written with the absolute least amount of seriousness I could muster.

    Krugman claims there are conservative economists who actually know something about health care, but the idea that Ryan will use them seems as far-fetched to me as the likelihood that Trump will give up tweeting or suddenly become a decent human being.

  29. 29.

    magurakurin

    @sukabi: I saw that this morning. Some of them are on another planet. They actually make Ryan look like Mother Theresa

    Loudermilk also admitted that that he will not get his full wish list in this bill.

    “America is not ready for the health care reform I want, which is to get this city totally out of the health care business altogether,” he told reporters. “Because you even have conservatives out there asking us to do things like arrange insurance sales across state lines, cover pre-existing conditions, and keep children on their parents’ plan until they’re 26. So even conservatives want some federal interventions. But we still have to shift the needle in the right direction.”

  30. 30.

    TriassicSands

    @sukabi:

    They’re caught between the old rock and hard place because they have dissatisfied people on both sides of the argument. At least some governors, like Kasich, want Medicaid protected because the state gets lots of money for it. Meanwhile, over in Insanityland, the Freedom Caucus wants to wipe out virtually all government involvement in healthcare, because, as you say, “Freedom!” (That really should be printed in two-foot-high flashing red block letters.)

    I don’t see how they can please both sides. Of course, the governors don’t vote, but there are “moderates” (scare quotes are an obligation when using that word with Republicans) who aren’t likely to accept the idea of throwing millions of people out of healthcare coverage — not because they care about the well-being of people, but because they need their votes. I imagine if they finally come up with something that passes, when people do start dying the Republicans will simply claim those are people who decided that dying was more important than being shackled to a government-imposed healthcare policy. Remember New Hampshire’s famous motto: “Live free of healthcare or die.”

  31. 31.

    TriassicSands

    I heard Nancy Pelosi interviewed on Wednesday and it really irritated me. The interviewer would ask her a straightforward question that she could have responded to with a straightforward answer, but instead she led off every answer with a non-responsive talking point. In some cases she did get around to answering the question, but to me that answer was overshadowed by what seemed initially like evasion. I could understand if people rolled their eyes and tuned her out — missing the real answer.

    For example, she was asked about the mandate and should the government force people to have insurance. There’s a clear and correct answer to that, but she had to get her talking point in first, which I tuned out. Then, when most people had probably stopped listening, she explained about free-riders and the need to have a mix of healthy and sick people in any comprehensive healthcare system. She could have led off with that and it would have been effective. But no…

    I’ve always been opposed to term limits, but it is possible that at least some people can be in office so long that answering with talking points becomes first nature and giving straightforward responses becomes secondary. To her credit, she did get around to some better answers, but the talking points seriously diminished the effectiveness of her answers. I’d like to see more voluntary retirements of select Democrats. And the entire Republican Party.

  34. 34.

    Waspuppet

    @magurakurin: And boy, that quote isn’t a public statement that would indicate that the intent of the order is discriminatory, or based on anything other than a sober analysis of national security needs.

  35. 35.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Aren’t even his most ardent fans getting tired of the campaign rallies and same old tired lines – “among the most dishonest people” “really, really smart” “the people in charge are among the stupidest people in the world” (that last one is probably no longer operative but I wouldn’t put it past him to be dumb enough to let it slip)? So lame.

  36. 36.

    Jinchi

    “The order he blocked was a watered-down version of the first order that was also blocked by another judge”

    So the judge blocked a transparent attempt to force through a rule that had already been blocked by the courts?

  38. 38.

    Vhh

    @BlueDWarrior: the GOP center, aka RINOs is nearly extinct. Zip in House. 2-4 in Senate. What this means is that when the Right fails bigly, it’s a swing. This is what happened in 2006 and 2008, and may happen again in 2018.

  39. 39.

    clay

    “And let me tell you something, I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place,” Trump said.

    Please proceed, Mr. Trump

    I’m sure the courts would smack that down so hard and fast it would make your hair spin, and probably throw in a contempt charge to boot.

  40. 40.

    Miss Bianca

    Gee, it’s almost as if the judicial system has a problem with enforcing a blatantly racist EO…

    heh heh heh heh

  41. 41.

    J R in WV

    @magurakurin:

    These MoFos really think that healthcare is subject to market economic conditions, as if you can wait for a sale on heart transplants, or hold out until the price of chemo is forced down by a surplus in production.

    I know I shopped around for the very cheapest ortho surgeon when I needed joint replacements~!!! NOT… Only the best for my Momma’s boy. I suspect surgery is one of those things where you sometimes get what you pay for.

    The Republicans want to balloon the Defense budget, on the backs of the weak and starving the world around. I have trouble imagining a big picture economic philosophy more evil than theirs.

    Kill the elderly slowly in order to kill the young and healthy more effectively!

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