2. NSEERS (the program) was a Bush backed country based registry system for travel from mostly Muslim countries; it included North Korea too
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) November 18, 2016
Via Dan Pfeiffer’s twitter feed. In the blizzard of Bad Trump News, I managed to miss this particular poisoned snowflake. Anybody want to explain it for us amateurs?
4. Why? cause everybody knows country based designations are irrelevant to where terror comes from & religion is not a passport designation.
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) November 18, 2016
6. No system of registration was used by Obama Administration; instead we focused on other metrics to create terrror/no fly/etc lists.
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) November 18, 2016
8. Red meat to the masses on the backs of a disfavored religion. Trump's folks certainly know the history of NSEERS but do not admit it.
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) November 18, 2016
9. Easier to scare the hell out of Muslim children, raise the ire of the ACLU and other groups, and then back down as if we were all mad.
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) November 18, 2016
ETA: Guess citing history didn’t test well in beta…
Trump surrogates are already citing Japanese internment camps from WW II as "precedent" for Muslim registry pic.twitter.com/DVnjtom0mc
— Brendan Karet (@bad_takes) November 17, 2016
sukabi
The latest internment crap is nothing new, bunch of assholes (michelle malkin and company) were suggesting that during the Wrecking crews’ administration.
Difference this time is there’s going to be an asshole in the wh that thinks it’s a dandy idea.
Dog Dawg Damn
@sukabi: I’d much prefer a dandy in the WH thinking it an asshole idea.
Joyce H
I assume other people saw the weirdness on Rachel Maddow? Kris Kobach, Trump ‘transition team member’ has been all over the airwaves talking about the Trump plans for immigration and deportation. But then the Trump folks put out a statement saying that Kobach is not on the transition team. Not that he was fired, but that he was never ON the transition team. So, opinions – are they gaslighting us or are all the crazoids freelancing? Should the news media demand to see letters of appointment before they start quoting anyone?
sukabi
@Dog Dawg Damn: me too.
Oatler.
I’m starting to believe the comic/horror buzz that this HAS to be a joke, or the most impeachable prez since right this minute.
opiejeanne
This joke has gone on too long and is not funny.
Can Hillary please be President now?
Joyce H
@Oatler.:
Today I saw mention of 25th Amendment, Section 4. So there’s that.
But of course, impeachment is ALWAYS going to be an option. This whole family, including Big Daddy, is so corrupt they don’t even recognize corruption. What normal people would see as blatant self-dealing, they would consider simply ‘… aaaaand a little something for me’ and perfectly routine.
Morzer
https://newrepublic.com/article/138717/jd-vance-false-prophet-blue-america
3Jane Tessier-Ashpool (a/k/a Lorinda Pike)
I’ve lived long enough to see a couple of pretty good administrations. A couple of less-than-effective administrations, but not dangerous. A couple of semi-dangerous administrations, and one damn dangerous administration.
But I have never seen a totally dangerous and bat-shit crazy administration. How much crazier does it have to get before the idiot media starts calling them out? When most of us are dead, or will that make any difference?
Seriously, MSM – are all of you crazy too, or just journalisticly lazy?
tkrr
The way I see it, white economic anxiety is a real thing, but it’s not an either-or. The racist vote is substantial, and they managed to drag the non-deplorables along for the ride with generous applications of scapegoating and tinfoil hattery. The end result is the same, but it seems to me that the motives make a difference for messaging.
Chris T.
@tkrr: Yep: 10% misplaced economic anxiety, 70% vicious racism and/or sexism, and 20% pure spite. (Your own crazy right wing uncle’s
mileagepercentages may vary.)Gretchen
@3Jane Tessier-Ashpool (a/k/a Lorinda Pike): Yes! This! We all want to believe that this is normal and it’s going to turn out ok. But this is not normal, so why is it so hard for the media to say it’s not? Probably the same reason that the media reported that it was equivalent that Clilnton had a private email server, and Trump had an email server that only communicated with Russian banks. Wait, not equivalent. Clinton’s emails, and even the DNC emails that had nothing to do with her, were way more significant than the server to Russian banks. Even now, I haven’t seen any real reporting on the latter subject, the shocking idea that a President-elect was colluding with Russian banks. No big deal, everybody! Clinton had emails!
Gretchen
Kansan here. I’m sorry to inflict Kris Kobach on the country, but I’m really glad to get him out of Dodge. What a horrible person he is. And what a terrible person he is to be in charge of making sure that elections are fair.
Raphael Kearns
Not to denigrate the military service of Carl Higbie but what in the world makes a Petty Officer First Class Navy SEAL an expert on security? Mr Higbie is described on numerous sites as a “surrogate” for Trump. I assume Higbie was fine as a Navy SEAL but I am unable to find any real background that makes him qualified to speak as any kind of expert on terrorism.
I wonder what kind of gig I could get on Fox News or in the Trump Administration? I was a US Navy Hospital Corpsman assigned to an infantry platoon with the First Marine Division in Vietnam. I then went to Nursing School and retired as a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy Nurse Corps after more than twenty years service.
I would think I should at least be “qualified” to be considered as Secretary of Defense, maybe Secretary of Health and Human Services.
CarolDuhart2
With all of this crazy, think of it as gaslighting combined with spitballing, and you got what you see here. Think of it as musical chairs, with the last idea they come up with being the one they actually implement.
It’s not so much economic anxiety-it’s status anxiety. Pancho and Leroy are now getting into positions where they can challenge that status easily, and question their opinions openly. And those deplorables hate that more than they hate losing $10k a year.
Joyce H
@Raphael Kearns:
How good are you at displaying slavish and fawning devotion to Donald Trump? That’s the only qualification that really matters these days. I mean, look at the State Department. The only name mentioned with any diplomatic experience has been John Bolton and he’s crazier than a nuthouse mouse, so crazy that Republican senators have gone on record saying not to nominate Bolton because he won’t be confirmed. Every other name floated, every single one, has been someone with NO foreign policy or diplomatic experience AT ALL.
Bill E Pilgrim
Now the Trump team is bragging that the head of the FBI tipped the election to them.
That the head of our largest law enforcement agency, meddling in the election by presenting what turned out to be completely baseless speculation, was enough to change its course and give it to Trump. Not denying it, bragging about it.
We often pay great heed to things like “internal polling” by campaigns; we hear about public polling, but the really good stuff is polling and intel that the campaigns themselves commission. And both the Clinton campaign and the Trump campaign have now said yes, based on our figures, Comey’s letters were enough to tip this election to the razor thin lead that Trump ended up with.
And the rest of the country, including most “liberals”, yawn and strike an arch, world-weary pose and say oh come now, you can’t blame that.
It’s astonishing.
MomSense
@Bill E Pilgrim:
I’m personally at defcon 1 over this. He told us for a solid month but we took his comment the wrong wAy.
This election is rigged. Believe me.
gene108
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Well, if Hillary had addressed white men’s economic anxiety, like Bernie would have, the election would not have been close enough to be influenced.
Why blame Comey, when it is all Hillary’s fault for being the worst candidate in the universe and the Democratic party’s fault for enabling. They deserved to lose.
I’m guessing that is what most liberals are thinking. I mean true liberals, and not the neoliberal corporatist whores, like myself, who grew to like Hillary and thought she would have made a fantastic President.
gene108
I will say Democrats do have a branding problem. Most folks are not quite sure what they stand for.
I thought Dems were getting over this with their open declaration for social justice issues this year, such gay rights, which I think they have committed and it will not be easy to walk back.
And had made a case on economic issues, but I guess the economic angle still is not clearly defined.
Bernie basically exploited this lack of definition on economic issues.
I am not sure how Democrats are going to define themselves on economic issues going forward, but it needs to be done to differentiate themselves from the corporate friendly Republicans.
Baud
@gene108: Not sure if we’re close to consensus on that. Anything not sufficiently left is labelled neoliberalism.
Bill E Pilgrim
@gene108: The thing is, even the basic logic is screwy here. There are many factors that determined whether she won or lost, I think the Clinton campaign itself would say okay, had we realized what was going to happen and focused on making promises about union jobs in the rust belt a little more rather than banking so much on how utterly repulsive Trump is to women and most, you know, sentient human beings, maybe that could have changed things in those states.
But that doesn’t change anything about the fact that even with that staying as it was, it’s now clear that she would have won without Comey’s interference, his interference that was near universally-condemned as improper, not only by Republicans but even some Trump supporters.
Being more or less skilled at a campaign is not in the same category as having a federal law enforcement agency step in to throw an election to someone.
The only analogy I can think of is imagining someone saves money for needed surgery that costs $50,000, and ends up with $52,000, just enough, with a little cushion. Then she gets mugged and an armed robber takes $10,000 of it that she was carrying in cash, so now she can’t get the surgery. Would anyone dream of saying “Well, it’s not the robber’s fault, if she had saved another $10,000, it wouldn’t have mattered!”
Baud
@Bill E Pilgrim: Agree with that too.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Baud: Another article about it:
Yes. Yes, it does.
Another Holocene Human
@CarolDuhart2:
Ding ding ding. Unions let Blacks on the seniority lists; unions are corrupt. Government said you can’t harass women and Blacks off the job. Government is corrupt. Liberals elected a Black man president; liberals are corrupt.
p.a.
tRump admin could set up a trust fund of $ saved by killing Medicare to pay off the future discrimination lawsuits those put on this useless list win.
Zinsky
@gene108: Democrats place all their faith in one person (e.g. Obama, Hillary, Bernie et al) without putting forth a cohesive, consistent set of policies that anyone can carry forward. Up until Trump, Republicans did the opposite – pushing a consistent set of policies (albeit bad ones), irrespective of the candidate. That’s why Democrats are not going to be a dominant party until they establish a cohesive set of policies (Bernie was a good start) and it is also the reason Trump will be a one-term president.
greennotGreen
@Another Holocene Human: I think I read in a review of Strangers in their Land , a National Book Award finalist in nonfiction, the angry right who became Trump voters believe that they’ve been waiting in line for their turn, and now other people (people of color, women, immigrants?) are cutting in line in front of them. But like most of their world view, I believe that is fallacious. Some jobs they used to get by default now go to the best candidate…who might not be a white man. And some jobs may actually go to someone who “cut in line” – an affirmative action hire for some group that wasn’t allowed in the queue for generations. And then there are the jobs that aren’t there anymore for anyone because of automation (probably irreversible) or off-shoring which is something Trump campaigned on and I agree needs to be addressed – not that he has the foggiest notion of how to do it without trashing the economy via tariffs.
So, really, it comes down to, once again, Republican voters not being able to identify the source of their perceived woes, and then voting against anything approaching an actual solution in favor of someone who gives them someone to blame.
Raphael Kearns
@Joyce H: I guess I’m overqualified for Secretary of State, I spent a year in Vietnam and 2 years in Japan in the 1960’s.
Matt McIrvin
It sounds as if what they’re planning is NSEERS revived, because it’s what they can get, but what they really want is ethno-religious registration.
father pussbucket
Trump’s constant lying is intentional psychological warfare:
Trump Is Gaslighting America
rikyrah
@3Jane Tessier-Ashpool (a/k/a Lorinda Pike):
What a fabulous comment, and should be a post into itself
Ksmiami
Trumps gonna get us all killed not from camps but from war. Stop worrying and just live. His election has put the world at existential risk. Hawking was right. Humanity will do itself in long before global warming
SFAW
@Bill E Pilgrim:
I’m sort of wondering why Comey still has a job. “Optics”? I understand that his term runs to 2023 or so, but it’s not clear that he couldn’t be fired for being an evil fuck.
Two of the last three FBI Directors (not counting Pickard, who was interim) have hated all things Clinton with a passion, perhaps Trump can get Jerome Corsi (or whoever hates the Clintons the most, or maybe Clintons plus Obama) as Director. Maybe Bannon has a pick, like Jimmy O’Queefe?
I’m so old, I can remember when the FBI was respected.
SFAW
@Gretchen:
On the plus side: after the inauguration, you won’t either, because Trump will send his brownshirts (in whatever form they take) to “explain” to the latter-day Fahrenthold or Eichenwald or Ari Berman that pursuing that investigation is “not a career- nor life-enhancing move.”
Yeah, I’m fucking cynical. What of it?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Joyce H:
They aren’t strategic enough in their thinking to plan out a gaslighting
Trump says anything to anybody so it’s not impossible he said something to make this guy think he’s on the team.
The crazies see this as their moment of vindication and letting their freak flag fly.
This is like the wingnut fantasy football from hell.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Morzer: Again, speaking as someone from these communities – it is economic anxiety, expressing itself threw racism because these are some really dumb fuckers. Also, going by my relatives – the racism is the older people, not the kids (at lest the “vote my self into hell before giving a blackman a break” kind of racism). So it will die down over time and that’s why they are in such a screaming panic this is their last change to save American.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Another Holocene Human:
Yes, exactly, and why do the want to do that – because they got their jobs back when it was effectively whites only need apply and created an artificial workers shortage so the fact they lived in an economically depressed community didn’t matter.
Capri
IMHO, There’s a direct line that can be drawn from the rising death rates and opiate addiction numbers in working-poor whites and the Trump election. Having death rates increase in any demographic in this day and age is remarkable. , it surely signifies something “big” out there and Trump exploited it.
I don’t usually share facebook meme’s, but one came across my feed that I can’t resist sharing:
“First they came for the Muslims, and we said ‘Not this time, motherfuckers.”