The mangle awaits.

Guys, I’m back, but we got back late and, of course, there was too much to do late last night and this morning to put a proper post together. So just a few quickies so we can start a new comment thread, as the last one is getting unwieldy.

1) Canada is paying attention to us. My highly unscientific eavesdropping/taxi drivers poll, which has a +/- Everything margin of error, reveals that no one sees our position as enviable, moral or even smart. So there’s that.

2) Toronto is on a Great Lake, like Chicago, and is windy, like Chicago. Fortunately there are coffee houses and cocktail bars about every seven or eight doors, for warming purposes.

3) I watched the news from home obsessively. And this, while far-fetched, is disturbing.

Very full plate today. Best start eating.

Posted at 10:22 am in Current events, Same ol' same ol' |
 

31 responses to “The mangle awaits.”

  1. Suzanne said on January 30, 2017 at 10:48 am

    I was just about to share that far-fetched but disturbing link. I’m already on the edge and I sure didn’t need to read that. But I did.
    I fear we are all on a ship that is about to sink and the GOP leadership is still deluded that Trump/Bannon with throw them a life preserver. Nope. Won’t happen. And Bannon will laugh while they drown and Trump will count his money.

    370 chars

  2. Deborah said on January 30, 2017 at 11:23 am

    This is creepy too http://motherboard.vice.com/read/big-data-cambridge-analytica-brexit-trump

    Mind control.

    110 chars

  3. jcburns said on January 30, 2017 at 11:38 am

    Did you know the State Department had an established ‘dissent channel’? I didn’t. Now I’m wondering how long it will survive the wrath of President Drumpf. Why? because they just drafted a stinging dissent to the immigration ban.

    362 chars

  4. Deborah said on January 30, 2017 at 11:42 am

    I am really upset since last night. I got a chance to have a good long conversation with one of my husband’s students who’s Iranian. She is the sweetest young woman and my husband says she’s very smart. She seemed very happy-go-lucky but when I asked her about how the ban is impacting her, she told me how stressed out she is. Her family can’t go to her graduation now and she’s afraid that if something happened to one of her family members before she graduates she wouldn’t be able to be with them and then come back to finish her courses. Her parents keep trying to tell her not to worry, just to concentrate on her studies these next few months but she said it was very hard on her. She was very careful how she expressed herself, because of course she doesn’t know me very well, but after a while she poured her heart out. She doesn’t wear a hajib and her family encouraged her and her sisters to get educated in the US or Europe because they would have more opportunities etc. I didn’t ask if she and her family were Muslim, I got the feeling that they don’t practice it if they are. She also had a beer, so probably not. But that is beside the point. I felt so sad for her and so embarrassed that my country is doing this to her and her family.

    1252 chars

  5. Sherri said on January 30, 2017 at 11:45 am

    The most troubling part of that article, and the most troubling, but not surprising part of the weekend, was about CBP. CBP already has unrivalled police powers when you cross the border and a jurisdiction that extends far beyond the border. The ACLU had to sue them up here to stop their habit of driving around areas far from the actual border and stopping people just because they looked like immigrants.

    CBP ignoring court orders is chilling.

    https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone?redirect=constitution-100-mile-border-zone

    557 chars

  6. jcburns said on January 30, 2017 at 11:48 am

    If you look at the CBP’s vastly increased resources (some growth in that area would certainly be warranted after 9/11, but jeez, this much?) it’s hard not to think: National Police Force, answerable only to the Executive.

    221 chars

  7. ROGirl said on January 30, 2017 at 11:48 am

    I thought about the chaos whirlwind and protest fatigue ruse, covering up what they’re really doing, but I wasn’t thinking coup. Not implausible, though.

    153 chars

  8. Sherri said on January 30, 2017 at 12:02 pm

    Kara Swisher continues to kick butt and take names with tech leaders and their relationship with trump: http://www.recode.net/2017/1/30/14436502/peter-thiel-bumpy-trump-silicon-valley

    Shadow President Bannon is evil. trump is cruel and vindictive and a bully. You don’t cooperate with bullies and evil, you fight.

    317 chars

  9. Sherri said on January 30, 2017 at 12:09 pm

    I just called my Congress member, Rep. Suzan DelBene, who is Way and Means, to suggest that CPB’s budget be defended until they obey court orders. Obviously, that won’t happen, but I wanted to convey my belief that any and all creative ideas for reining in this rogue agency should be explored. Rep DelBene was at SeaTac on Saturday, so I know she’s willing to take a stand on this issue.

    388 chars

  10. Sherri said on January 30, 2017 at 12:09 pm

    Defunded, not defended!

    23 chars

  11. brian stouder said on January 30, 2017 at 12:18 pm

    Didja notice today’s Google graphic?

    More than a little timely, I’d say

    74 chars

  12. Sherri said on January 30, 2017 at 12:19 pm

    I had to try three offices before I could even complete a call to Senator Murray; both the Seattle office and the D.C. Office couldn’t even take a phone call. I called the Everett office and got a person.

    204 chars

  13. Icarus said on January 30, 2017 at 12:37 pm

    Deborah at 4, “She also had a beer,” I don’t know if you have a religious background but as a recovering Catholic I think we tend to think of other religions as not deviating from their devoutness or religious rules while we do. i.e. Catholics aren’t suppose to have per-marital sex or use birth control. But many do. So why would you think there aren’t Muslims who drink?

    377 chars

  14. Sherri said on January 30, 2017 at 12:37 pm

    The good news? The ACLU received $24 million in online donations this weekend. The bad news? They’re going to need it.

    118 chars

  15. MichaelG said on January 30, 2017 at 1:06 pm

    I don’t find the Zunger column far-fetched at all. Frightening, yes. But not far-fetched.

    This whole business is making me pause any plans for a future trip.

    To piggy-back on yesterday’s talk about LAX, there is construction underway at the airport. You can expect virtually all flights out of there to be delayed 30 – 90 minutes. This can also cause gate hold delays upon landing as the aircraft occupying the gate your aircraft is scheduled into may not have departed yet. I’ve experienced both in the last few weeks.

    532 chars

  16. Deborah said on January 30, 2017 at 2:32 pm

    Icarus, I was raised in a very religious family, Lutheran, beer drinking by Lutherans is highly encouraged. Ha ha.

    When I was still working, the companies I worked for had many projects in the Middle East. When the architects returned from travel there they reported observing lots of Middle Eastern men drinking booze at private dinners etc. We all do plenty of stuff when we know we can get away with it.

    409 chars

  17. john (not mccain) said on January 30, 2017 at 2:35 pm

    “Far-fetched but disturbing” has been used a lot recently to describe things that subsequently happened. Which means it’s a helluva lot more than just disturbing. I wish I’d joined the army so I knew how to use a gun.

    219 chars

  18. Sherri said on January 30, 2017 at 2:52 pm

    Don’t give liars anonymity! It’s bad enough to be a stenographer for lies on the record, but inexcusable to print lies from unnamed “senior administration officials.” No name, no room in your story.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/01/29/unnamed-white-house-official-on-implementing-travel-ban-it-really-is-a-massive-success-story/

    360 chars

  19. Dexter said on January 30, 2017 at 3:16 pm

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38800907
    My friend in Montreal posted on her Facebook that she was grieving and shocked…I thought she was being funny because her team’s goalie ,Carey Price,had allowed a point-blank goal in the All-Star game…no, it was because six were dead and five critically injured at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre. Two have been detained, one as a witness in the Quebec City venue. It seems here there has been sparse coverage but then again I don’t watch news past 7PM or in the mornings very much.

    540 chars

  20. Deborah said on January 30, 2017 at 4:18 pm

    I’m taking my first Lyft trip this afternoon in LA. I took my first Uber trip here a few days ago right before I found out that Lyft pledged a million dollars to the ALCU, I have to say it was a lot easier to set the trip up on Lyft than Uber, so it’s a win/win.

    262 chars

  21. Deborah said on January 30, 2017 at 4:42 pm

    You guys liked that illustration of anus face Trump that I linked to here, some of you bought the t-shirt. Here’s another fabulous illustration, different artist and can’t tell if it’s available as a t-shirt, yet anyway. It seems to be only available to view through FB so hope this works for you https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154408043588224&id=583433223&set=a.97293928223.91031.583433223&source=48

    421 chars

  22. brian stouder said on January 30, 2017 at 5:04 pm

    Deborah – good stuff.

    You know – that Steve Bannon guy strikes me as the most “interesting” (read: evil) person in the Trump administration.

    Donald is a genuine ignoramus, who personifies that Rumsfeld construction about the worst-case situation – “don’t know what we don’t know” (as opposed to known unknowns, etc)

    Bannon strikes me a as a black-hearted drone; he knows what he wants, and puts his efforts toward that, and that’s it.

    And indeed, it’s bad enough that he’s a documented wife-beater; but he also seems to go out of his way to “look the part”.

    Honestly, I think if/when Trump fires Bannon, the chances of Trump having to be impeached will drop markedly

    682 chars

  23. Sherri said on January 30, 2017 at 5:05 pm

    Customs agents at Dulles forced lawful permanent U.S. residents to give up their green cards this weekend, according to a complaint filed Monday in Alexandria federal court. Tareq Aqel Mohammed Aziz and Ammar Aqel Mohammed Aziz were flying from Yemen to the U.S. Both had been granted immigrant visas because their father, who lives in Flint, Mich., is a U.S. citizen.

    When they arrived at Dulles Saturday morning, the Aziz brothers were handcuffed and their immigration paperwork was seized, according to the complaint.

    They were given documents to sign and allegedly told that if they did not, they would be removed from the U.S. and barred from coming back for five years. They were not allowed to see attorneys.

    Under pressure, their attorneys say, they signed documents they did not understand, giving up their American visas, and agents stamped “cancelled” on those visas. Attorneys are asking for their visas to be returned, the forms they signed to be invalidated and for them to be returned to the United States.

    Attorneys they believe it is possible many of 50 to 60 other legal permanent residents at Dulles were likewise tricked into giving up their status there. The lawyers say they hope to learn the identities of those individuals through the discovery process.

    I had heard this was happening, but this is the first confirmation I’ve seen. CPB at Dulles seems to have been especially heavy handed, but I read stories on Twitter of this happening elsewhere, too.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/01/30/trump-says-all-is-going-well-on-immigration-order-amid-questions-and-confusion/

    1648 chars

  24. Sherri said on January 30, 2017 at 5:28 pm

    A friend forwarded me this comparison of Spicer/Bannon with Goebbels, in their own words: http://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/unsettling-echoes-joseph-goebbels-1933-sean-spicer-2017-steve-bannon-2017/

    199 chars

  25. Heather said on January 30, 2017 at 5:33 pm

    I thought this Twitter thread offered a concise explanation of Bannon’s leanings: https://twitter.com/scsazak/status/826035714810900480

    135 chars

  26. Sherri said on January 30, 2017 at 5:42 pm

    My school board member friend is in DC attending an NSBA Advocacy Institute, meeting with Senators and the like. She says there’s a protest going on outside: “Hey, hey, ho,ho, Betsy DeVos has got to go!”

    203 chars

  27. Scout said on January 30, 2017 at 5:44 pm

    Because sometimes you just gotta turn to Photoshop to blow off some steam.

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C3c9z_OVcAAG_Wl.jpg:large

    131 chars

  28. MichaelG said on January 30, 2017 at 6:41 pm

    He do love videos of him signing stuff.

    39 chars

  29. David C. said on January 30, 2017 at 6:47 pm

    I’m all for protest especially against Wetsy Betsy, but “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho” has got to go. We can do better.

    107 chars

  30. Jean Shaw said on January 30, 2017 at 7:30 pm

    Not at all surprised by that coup piece. The best we can hope for is impeachment.

    In the interim, Bannon, Kushner, Pence, and Priebus are jockeying for power. They might want to read about the Night of the Long Knives.

    221 chars

  31. Sherri said on January 30, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    Any analysis of Bannon also has to take into account his Church Militant views: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/us/church-militant-theology-is-put-to-new-and-politicized-use.html

    Neo-Nazi, anarcho-capitalist, how about we settle on evil?

    244 chars