WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Brooklyn came to the aid of scores of refugees and others who were trapped at airports across the United States on Saturday after an executive order signed by President Trump, which sought to keep many foreigners from entering the country, led to chaotic scenes across the globe.
The judge’s ruling blocked part of the president’s actions, preventing the government from deporting some arrivals who found themselves ensnared by the presidential order. But it stopped short of letting them into the country or issuing a broader ruling on the constitutionality of Mr. Trump’s actions.
I’ll give you three guesses as to which word does not appear a single time in the entire text of President Trump’s controversial executive order, and the first two don’t count.
Yep, that’s right: “Muslim.” This seems important, no? For one, you can’t screen for “Muslim,” anyway, so that doesn’t make sense. For another, there are many, many countries of a mostly Muslim population who are NOT on the list, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Indonesia. I’ve seen statistics that more than 80 percent of the Islamic world population isn’t affected. Some ban! So, the truth is that this is not a “Muslim ban,” but a TEMPORARY halt on American visa issuance for EVERYONE, NOT JUST MUSLIMS, from certain countries. But truth doesn’t matter now in our new world, and #MuslimBan makes a great hashtag, so here we are. The New York Times is already titling editorials on Trump’s “Muslim ban” that are so over the top, they’re difficult to read.
We are now one week into the Trump administration, and it is becoming clearer by the day that we are living in a post-fact world. Members of the media, driven by their new self-assigned role as the “voice of the resistance” after spending the last eight years as bootlickers/court stenographers, lurch wildly from one outrage to the next. “He’s fired the entire State Department leadership!” “Oh, Jesus, he’s shutting down the EPA!” “MY GOD, HE PHOTOSHOPPED HIS HANDS IN A PICTURE!!!” And then, after about 12 hours of FURIOUS TWEETING by journalists and activists, it turns out to be horse shit or normal stuff that presidents always do.
I’m worried about the collective mental health of my leftist countrymen. Seriously, at this rate they’re each going to have a stroke. Now, the hot thing on Twitter as I type this is for people to delete the Uber app. This is in response to Uber drivers, trying to make a living (MANY WHO ARE IMMIGRANTS), daring to pick people up from the airport while all the kids chanted and held up signs. But you can’t just delete the app, you have to screenshot it and post it so you can get likes and retweets. (And then quietly re-install it afterward.) I shit you not. We are infantilizing ourselves more every day.
But back to the main point of the last day or so: Trump’s executive order regarding new restrictions on travel and refugees. We will go over the relevant parts of that order line by line, which will make all of you more informed than 90 percent of the media and 100 percent of the people on Twitter using the #MuslimBan hashtag. The posturing on social media was crazy yesterday. It is freaking hilarious to me. Obama drones people into oblivion 24 hours a day for YEARS, and nobody gives a shit. But suspend immigration for a few months? From seven countries? Every white liberal in NYC pours into the streets. Trump would have been better off just bombing civilians.
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Brooklyn came to the aid of scores of refugees and others who were trapped at airports across the United States on Saturday after an executive order signed by President Trump, which sought to keep many foreigners from entering the country, led to chaotic scenes across the globe.
The judge’s ruling blocked part of the president’s actions, preventing the government from deporting some arrivals who found themselves ensnared by the presidential order. But it stopped short of letting them into the country or issuing a broader ruling on the constitutionality of Mr. Trump’s actions.
I’ll give you three guesses as to which word does not appear a single time in the entire text of President Trump’s controversial executive order, and the first two don’t count.
Yep, that’s right: “Muslim.” This seems important, no? For one, you can’t screen for “Muslim,” anyway, so that doesn’t make sense. For another, there are many, many countries of a mostly Muslim population who are NOT on the list, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Indonesia. I’ve seen statistics that more than 80 percent of the Islamic world population isn’t affected. Some ban! So, the truth is that this is not a “Muslim ban,” but a TEMPORARY halt on American visa issuance for EVERYONE, NOT JUST MUSLIMS, from certain countries. But truth doesn’t matter now in our new world, and #MuslimBan makes a great hashtag, so here we are. The New York Times is already titling editorials on Trump’s “Muslim ban” that are so over the top, they’re difficult to read.
We are now one week into the Trump administration, and it is becoming clearer by the day that we are living in a post-fact world. Members of the media, driven by their new self-assigned role as the “voice of the resistance” after spending the last eight years as bootlickers/court stenographers, lurch wildly from one outrage to the next. “He’s fired the entire State Department leadership!” “Oh, Jesus, he’s shutting down the EPA!” “MY GOD, HE PHOTOSHOPPED HIS HANDS IN A PICTURE!!!” And then, after about 12 hours of FURIOUS TWEETING by journalists and activists, it turns out to be horse shit or normal stuff that presidents always do.
I’m worried about the collective mental health of my leftist countrymen. Seriously, at this rate they’re each going to have a stroke. Now, the hot thing on Twitter as I type this is for people to delete the Uber app. This is in response to Uber drivers, trying to make a living (MANY WHO ARE IMMIGRANTS), daring to pick people up from the airport while all the kids chanted and held up signs. But you can’t just delete the app, you have to screenshot it and post it so you can get likes and retweets. (And then quietly re-install it afterward.) I shit you not. We are infantilizing ourselves more every day.
But back to the main point of the last day or so: Trump’s executive order regarding new restrictions on travel and refugees. We will go over the relevant parts of that order line by line, which will make all of you more informed than 90 percent of the media and 100 percent of the people on Twitter using the #MuslimBan hashtag. The posturing on social media was crazy yesterday. It is freaking hilarious to me. Obama drones people into oblivion 24 hours a day for YEARS, and nobody gives a shit. But suspend immigration for a few months? From seven countries? Every white liberal in NYC pours into the streets. Trump would have been better off just bombing civilians.
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, including the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq., and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, and to protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals admitted to the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Purpose. The visa-issuance process plays a crucial role in detecting individuals with terrorist ties and stopping them from entering the United States. Perhaps in no instance was that more apparent than the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when State Department policy prevented consular officers from properly scrutinizing the visa applications of several of the 19 foreign nationals who went on to murder nearly 3,000 Americans. And while the visa-issuance process was reviewed and amended after the September 11 attacks to better detect would-be terrorists from receiving visas, these measures did not stop attacks by foreign nationals who were admitted to the United States.
OK. So far, it’s the usual boilerplate.
Numerous foreign-born individuals have been convicted or implicated in terrorism-related crimes since September 11, 2001,including foreign nationals who entered the United States after receiving visitor, student, or employment visas, or who entered through the United States refugee resettlement program. Deteriorating conditions in certain countries due to war, strife, disaster, and civil unrest increase the likelihood that terrorists will use any means possible to enter the United States. The United States must be vigilant during the visa-issuance process to ensure that those approved for admission do not intend to harm Americans and that they have no ties to terrorism.
Any argument so far? Remember, this isn’t just the terrorists who got away with a hideous attack, these are all the fucktards that the FBI is constantly sweeping up in their anti-terror stings. Who even knows what that number is?
In order to protect Americans, the United States must ensure that those admitted to this country do not bear hostile attitudes toward it and its founding principles. The United States cannot, and should not, admit those who do not support the Constitution, or those who would place violent ideologies over American law. In addition, the United States should not admit those who engage in acts of bigotry or hatred (including “honor” killings, other forms of violence against women, or the persecution of those who practice religions different from their own) or those who would oppress Americans of any race, gender, or sexual orientation.
See how he loves you, women and gays?
Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.
That is a good policy. Pretty sure that one has been around for a while.
Sec. 3. Suspension of Issuance of Visas and Other Immigration Benefits to Nationals of Countries of Particular Concern. (a) The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence, shall immediately conduct a review to determine the information needed from any country to adjudicate any visa, admission, or other benefit under the INA (adjudications) in order to determine that the individual seeking the benefit is who the individual claims to be and is not a security or public-safety threat.
OK, here it comes. Get ready for ol’ racist Trump to start listing countries!
(b) The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence, shall submit to the President a report on the results of the review described in subsection (a) of this section, including the Secretary of Homeland Security’s determination of the information needed for adjudications and a list of countries that do not provide adequate information, within 30 days of the date of this order. The Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide a copy of the report to the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence.
(c) To temporarily reduce investigative burdens on relevant agencies during the review period described in subsection (a) of this section, to ensure the proper review and maximum utilization of available resources for the screening of foreign nationals, and to ensure that adequate standards are established to prevent infiltration by foreign terrorists or criminals, pursuant to section 212(f) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1182(f), I hereby proclaim that the immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the United States of aliens from countries referred to in section 217(a)(12) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1187(a)(12), would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and I hereby suspend entry into the United States, as immigrants and nonimmigrants, of such persons for 90 days from the date of this order (excluding those foreign nationals traveling on diplomatic visas, North Atlantic Treaty Organization visas, C-2 visas for travel to the United Nations, and G-1, G-2, G-3, and G-4 visas).
So the order is basically a stand-down for 90 days. The hysteria that was unleashed for even temporarily suspending immigration from Sudan was remarkable.
But wait…I didn’t see any countries listed. The only thing that is there is the link to the applicable United States Code, 1187, which you can read in full right here. What Trump is referring to is the list of countries not allowed to participate in the previous administration’s Visa Waiver Program. What is the Visa Waiver Program? Let’s read from the Border Patrol’s page:
The VWP permits citizens of 38 countries to travel to the United States for business or tourism for stays of up to 90 days without a visa. In return, those 38 countries must permit U.S. citizens and nationals to travel to their countries for a similar length of time without a visa for business or tourism purposes.
Concerned that foreign fighters could simply travel to one of those 38 countries and then gain visa-free entry to the United States, Congress passed H.R.158 – Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015, which President Obama signed into law. This basically stated that, even if you were a national of one of the 38 countries listed, if you had visited any one of a number of countries, you were ineligible to come to the United States without a visa. Those countries? At the time of the bill’s signing (December of 2015), the countries named were Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Sudan. Then, in February of 2016, the Obama administration added Yemen, Libya, and Somalia to that list. So there are your seven countries. Continuing with the executive order:
(d) Immediately upon receipt of the report described in subsection (b) of this section regarding the information needed for adjudications, the Secretary of State shall request all foreign governments that do not supply such information to start providing such information regarding their nationals within 60 days of notification.
This is basically demanding further cooperation of any foreign countries that won’t play ball in supplying our customs people with the right information.
(e) After the 60-day period described in subsection (d) of this section expires, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, shall submit to the President a list of countries recommended for inclusion on a Presidential proclamation that would prohibit the entry of foreign nationals (excluding those foreign nationals traveling on diplomatic visas, North Atlantic Treaty Organization visas, C-2 visas for travel to the United Nations, and G-1, G-2, G-3, and G-4 visas) from countries that do not provide the information requested pursuant to subsection (d) of this section until compliance occurs.
Play ball, or your peeps ain’t getting in. So far, this is pretty blah. Let’s skip ahead:
Hameed Darweesh The Man Just Released From JFK Says He Likes Trump. Look At @NydiaVelazquez 's Face pic.twitter.com/C3AWQqKxQt
— Klay Volk 🇺🇸 (@KlayVolk) January 28, 2017
Sec. 5. Realignment of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for Fiscal Year 2017. (a) The Secretary of State shall suspend the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 120 days. During the 120-day period, the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Secretary of Homeland Security and in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, shall review the USRAP application and adjudication process to determine what additional procedures should be taken to ensure that those approved for refugee admission do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of the United States, and shall implement such additional procedures. Refugee applicants who are already in the USRAP process may be admitted upon the initiation and completion of these revised procedures.Upon the date that is 120 days after the date of this order, the Secretary of State shall resume USRAP admissions only for nationals of countries for which the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence have jointly determined that such additional procedures are adequate to ensure the security and welfare of the United States.
They’re going to suspend the refugee program for 120 days while they identify weaknesses within the process. This is the part that everyone’s freaking out about. I don’t see what the problem is. Four months is not that long, and will hardly be the death of the republic. Maybe scrutinizing the visa process will keep us from having another Tashfeen Malik. Also, consider these next two paragraphs:
(b) Upon the resumption of USRAP admissions, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, is further directed to make changes, to the extent permitted by law, to prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual’s country of nationality. Where necessary and appropriate, the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security shall recommend legislation to the President that would assist with such prioritization.
This was done to try to help Christians and other small religious sects (the minority in Islam-dominated countries) by giving them preference when the refugee program did restart. I’m not sure if this is legal or not. Here come your Syrian refugee paragraph, the only country named in the executive order:
(c) Pursuant to section 212(f) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1182(f), I hereby proclaim that the entry of nationals of Syria as refugees is detrimental to the interests of the United States and thus suspend any such entry until such time as I have determined that sufficient changes have been made to the USRAP to ensure that admission of Syrian refugees is consistent with the national interest.
(d) Pursuant to section 212(f) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1182(f), I hereby proclaim that the entry of more than 50,000 refugees in fiscal year 2017 would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and thus suspend any such entry until such time as I determine that additional admissions would be in the national interest.
We took in 85,000 refugees in 2015. In 2016, that number went to 110,000. Trump wants to lower it.
(e) Notwithstanding the temporary suspension imposed pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security may jointly determine to admit individuals to the United States as refugees on a case-by-case basis, in their discretion, but only so long as they determine that the admission of such individuals as refugees is in the national interest — including when the person is a religious minority in his country of nationality facing religious persecution, when admitting the person would enable the United States to conform its conduct to a preexisting international agreement, or when the person is already in transit and denying admission would cause undue hardship — and it would not pose a risk to the security or welfare of the United States.
Somebody dropped the ball on that one yesterday, that’s for sure. The people already in transit were detained at the airports, causing a huge headache. The entire operation was botched from the jump. There seemed to be no planning whatsoever, and zero communication. Not a good look for a new administration. Implementing any policy this broad is going to have some snags, but this was executed poorly. Nobody seemed to know whether current visa holders, including our translator friend in the Tweet above, were to be let in or not. Work on it, boys. But it appears that currently approved visa holders were let in eventually.
I did like one section in particular. This was part of the order that called for completing the entry-exit tracking system, which hardly exists. A huge chunk of illegal immigrants are people who arrived on visas and never left. Nobody ever bothered to fix it. Until now.
Sec. 7. Expedited Completion of the Biometric Entry-Exit Tracking System. (a) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall expedite the completion and implementation of a biometric entry-exit tracking system for all travelers to the United States, as recommended by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
There you have it. Those were the main points causing all of the consternation. Now, you may think the new rules are stupid, or won’t work, or are immoral, or whatever. That is your right, and you may be correct. We’ll see. But people have to stop just making shit up. No, we aren’t going to stop taking in refugees forever; it’s a pregnant pause. No, it’s not a Muslim ban, because the vast majority of Muslim countries are exempt. But, like I said, we live in a post-truth world now. Just like “hands up, don’t shoot” is now engraved in liberal lore, the great Trump Muslim Ban of 2017 will now pass into history as fact.
Basic information is now being ignored. For starters, as a sovereign nation, the U.S. obviously has the right to decide who is going to come into America. A foreign national outside the United States has no right of entry. We have a tradition of taking in refugees to the country, which will no doubt continue. We have had a huge amount of immigration from the Middle East over the last 16 years, and there’s nothing wrong with dialing it back for a minute. These hysterics on social media seem to think that immigration flow must ONLY BE INCREASED, FOREVER, or you’re Stalin. Also, to see the very same politicians, government hacks, journalists, and former military members who have destroyed the basket case that is the Middle East pointing the finger in askance at Trump is a bit rich. I believe “CHUTZPAH” is the paper word here?:
This is nuts. Thousands of innocents who would enrich our nation now left to rot in camps/die in war zones across the world. #Solidarity https://t.co/K1BdXM3c69
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) January 26, 2017
I stand with the people gathered across the country tonight defending our values & our Constitution. This is not who we are.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 29, 2017
A judge has ruled that the refugees in transit will be allowed entry, which is fine. Liberals are taking this as a great legal victory, but the order only applies to those visa holders in transit. The Trump administration is certainly well within its rights to determine visa issuance, just like the Obama administration was when it banned Iraqis from receiving visas after finding out that terrorists were slipping through, or when, right before he left office, Obama, with the stroke of a pen, changed the Cuban “wetfoot/dryfoot” policy that had been around for decades. Of course, no outcry. It barely made the news. I fully supported Obama in both of those cases. Bill Clinton had temporary immigrant bans. George W. and Reagan had them. But everything Trump does is now seen as leading to the death camps, because we’re Nazi Germany now or something.
Follow me on Twitter as my fellow veterans and I discuss important issues:
https://twitter.com/BKactual/status/825154766174982146
Don’t worry, we’re still killing people in undeclared wars:
The death toll from a US raid on al-Qaeda in Yemen on Sunday has risen to 57 people, including 41 suspected militants and 16 civilians, a provincial official said.
Eight women and eight children were among those killed in the raid in the southern province of Bayda, the official said.
It would be Washington’s first strike on militants in Yemen since President Donald Trump took office on 20 January.
Sources in the region said the raid targeted the houses of three tribal chiefs linked to al-Qaeda and that an unspecified number of civilians were also killed.
But the provincial official said Apache helicopters also struck a school, mosque and a medical facility used by al-Qaeda members.
And still getting our best people killed:
SANAA, Yemen — The U.S. military said Sunday that one service member was killed and three others wounded in a raid in Yemen targeting its local al-Qaida branch, marking the first-known combat death of a U.S. soldier under President Donald Trump’s new administration.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement that a fourth service member was injured in a “hard landing” in a nearby location. The aircraft — presumably a helicopter — was unable to fly afterward and was “intentionally destroyed.”
The Central Command statement said 14 militants from al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen, formally known as “al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula,” were killed in the assault and that U.S. service members taking part in the raid captured “information that will likely provide insight into the planning of future terror plots.”
More veterans in Congress is a good thing:
Florida Congressman Brian Mast says he decided to run for office on a day seven years ago when he woke up in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The Army bomb technician had been serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan, as part of the Joint Special Operations Command. “We came to a place on the battlefield that I told my guys I was pretty sure that there was a bomb buried somewhere there,” Mast said. “I found it in a way I didn’t intend to.”
Mast stepped on an improvised explosive device and lost both of his legs and his left index finger in the blast. His injuries ended his 12-year military career, but not his commitment to service. “The most important lesson my father ever gave me was very shortly after I was injured,” Mast recalled.
“He said, ‘Brian, you can’t let this keep you down … You cannot let your kids see you sitting on your butt regardless of what happened to you, because your kids will think it’s an OK way for them to go through their life. That’s when I decided the most important fight of my life could be here in Washington, D.C. in another capacity.”
The father of three announced his candidacy for Florida’s 18th congressional district on June 8, 2015 and defeated five fellow Republicans in the primary election before winning the general election against Democratic businessman Randy Perkins.
Ladies, you’ve gotta see through this stuff:
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — We first told you about convicted “Army impersonator” Kyle Barwan last week.
Deputies say he pretended to be in the military and preyed on woman. Now another local woman is coming forward claiming she too got scammed out of hundreds of dollars.
25-year-old Shelby Thames says she first met Kyle Barwan online and became friends before he convinced her he was in the military, claiming to be a Green Beret.
She tells 10News Barwan eventually talked her into loaning him $600 claiming his money was tied up with the government. He also offered to repair her Playstation.
“He said he would fix it,” said Thames holding the empty box. “The next day he said he ‘sold it for 100 dollars, but already spent the hundred dollars.’”
Gucci Mane may owe an Army veteran an apology.
The rapper allegedly took Georgia-based veteran Charles Harris assigned seats at the Atlanta Falcons game last weekend.
When the “Gucci Please” rapper and his fiance wanted the seat, a stadium employee reportedly took the celebrity’s side and forced Harris to move.
The army vet was sat there to be featured as that week’s hometown hero. The seat exchange happened only 30 minutes before the segment.
Harris showed a supervisor his tickets and was returned to his original seats. Mane and his fiance Keyshia Ka’oir then left but not before Ka’oir supposedly copped an attitude.
SAN DIEGO – Ken Hartle, who as a Navy diver during World War II had the grim task of retrieving bodies from ships sunk by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 103.
Hartle died Tuesday afternoon at an Escondido, California, center for people with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Friday. A reporter was at his bedside with Hartle’s son and daughter three hours before his death.
Hartle may have been the oldest surviving Pearl Harbor salvage diver, said David Ball of San Diego, an officer with the Navy Divers Association.
Hartle and his fellow Seabees worked in the days before scuba diving equipment was commonplace. His heavy canvas diving suit and brass helmet weighed more than 200 pounds.
There is going to be some serious sexytime:
The first female infantry Marines will share fighting holes and tents with male Marines during field exercises.
“We’re not changing any of our tactical posture or breaking unit cohesion or adjusting anything to accommodate mixed genders while we’re operating in a field environment replicating tactical conditions,” said Maj. Charles Anklam III, executive officer for 1st Battalion, 8th Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
On Jan. 5, the battalion received three female infantry Marines: a rifleman, machine gunner and mortar Marine. Whenever the Marines are in the field, they will live, train and fight with their unit, Anklam told Marine Corps Times.
“Our female Marines will find themselves side-by-side their male counterparts in a fighting hole or in their living conditions for the execution of field or deployed duties,” he said in a Jan. 20 interview.
TARENTUM, Pa. – Several elementary students in the Highlands School District were harassed by a naked man while they were on their way to school Wednesday morning.
The man was in a window of the ground floor unit at the Keystone Apartments on 9th Avenue in Tarentum, according to police paperwork.
The children told the crossing guard they heard someone pounding on the window, and when they looked, they saw a man who was naked and trying to draw attention to himself.
That man was identified as Gregory Costanzo, 54.
When police questioned Costanzo, he told them they he got onto a chair in front of the window and stood there naked, the report said. Costanzo also admitted to knocking on the window to get their attention.
According to the police paperwork, Costanzo told police, “Little girls turn him on.”
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