Trumpenstein Knows Walls and How to Pay for Them

what eye thynk:  In a memo to The Washington Post, Donald Trump has finally answered the question of how he plans to pay for that big wall between the U.S. and Mexico: He's going to conviscate the money Mexican immigrants wire to families back home every month.  Or, he says, the Mexican government can make a one-time payment of $5-10 billion, after which he will allow the flow of immigrant money to continue onto its south-of-the-border destination.

"It's an easy decision for Mexico," Trump's memo claims.  It's also an example of another not very well thought out La Donald idea--like deporting all illegal aliens and doing it humanely but without breaking up families. (Do you ever wonder if he gets these ideas in his sleep and wakes up before the common sense fairy appears?)

Republicans have whined, cried, screamed, beat their chests, threatened impeachment (whatever happened to that idea, guys?) over what they perceive as Barack Obama overstepping his rights as President; but here's Mr. Rich White Trash announcing that he will force Mexico to pay by using the Administrative Procedure Act to claim the existence of a non-existent emergency in order to personally change a rule in the USA Patriot Act anti-terrorism law, all to facilitate his grand scheme.  And from the GOP?  Silence.

Beyond the questionable legality of this insane idea, there are the logistics. How does he plan on identifying money sent by illegal residents from that sent by legal residents? Or from people who aren't of Mexican heritage at all? As President Obama said, "The notion that we're going to track every Western Union bit of money that's being sent to Mexico, good luck with that."

And let's not forget that aforementioned plan to wash U.S. soil clean of all illegal residents.  Once they and their families are all on the far side of the border, whose money does he intend to confiscate to pay for this monument to Trumpist stupidity?  

Maybe he can solve that conundrum during a nap between rallies in New York this week.  I can't wait.

Just laying out the facts:

Trust Trump -- "He Was Sent from God"

"During his rally in Mesa, Arizona, Trump declared that he would build a border wall taller than the airplane hanger that was being used as the event venue.

The GOP hopeful then introduced Jamiel Shaw, whose son was killed by an undocumented immigrant in 2008.

"That's why we need Donald Trump.  Because Donald Trump is going to make it safe again.  Nobody cares.  It's all about illegal aliens, that's all they care about.  They don't care about us as Americans.  Trump wants to make America first, okay.  We need that...  This is our time to live on Earth.  Why do we have to be under this oppression from illegal aliens?...  We've got to stand with Trump, and you have to trust him the way I do because I believe that he was sent from God."

eye'm thynkin':  I'm sorry Mr. Shaw lost his son, but no amount of self-delusional wishful thinking is going to get God to care one iota about American politics or what "they" are doing in Washington to "oppress" U.S. citizens. Furthermore, having been force fed the type of hate-filled ranting that Mr. Trump has specialized in over the past months, I can guarantee that Mr. Rich White Trash is not going to be number one on God's good-guy list any time soon.

Read more at Raw Story

Republicans Should Stop Debating Until They Have Something New to Say

what eye thynk:  The latest in what seems to be an unending parade of Republican debates was so like those that came before that you have to wonder if the candidates weren't just lip-syncing to recordings from previous performances.  Boring would be an understatement.

The love-fest between Trump and Cruz was worthy of a chuckle or two--

Trump: I've "gotten to know (Cruz) over the last three or four days.  He has a wonderful temperament."  (Sounded like he was deciding which dog to take home from the rescue society.)

Cruz: "The judgment that every voter is making of every one of us up here is who has the experience, who has the vision, who has the judgment to be commander in chief.  That is the most important decision for the voters to make." (I don't want to be accused of being back-stabbing flip-flopper, so I'll just use a minute or two to remind people that they want someone with experience (me), vision (me), and judgment (me); and hope no one notices that I never answered the question.)

For myself, one of the few stand-out moments was Trump's response to Wolf Blitzer asking how his plan to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. would result in the defeat of ISIS.

"Our country is out of control.  People are pouring across the southern border.  I will build a wall.  It will be a great wall.

As far as in the migration...where they're going...tens of thousands of people with cell phones with ISIS flags on them...I don't think so, Wolf.  They are not coming to this country. And if I'm president...and if Obama has brought some to this country they are leaving, they're going.  They're going."

Sarah Palin couldn't have said it better herself.

I was naive...

...because I feel the same way.  

While I've chronicled the haters in Washington and beyond who have demonstrated they are unable to accept a black man living in the White House, I'm still surprised at how many and how rabid is the bigotry against minorities, gays, women, non-Christians in the general population.  My generation was supposed to be the one that put that behind us and allowed us to move on.  I wonder now if we accomplished anything at all.

Canada to Syrian Refugees: "You're Safe at Home Now"

Hagop Manushian, a Syrian refugee who arrived in Canada on Friday,
was reunited with his granddaughter Rita

(Any underlines are mine.)

"Prime Minister Justin Trudeau greeted a planeload of weary Syrian refugees landing in Toronto (on) Friday, telling the first to disembark that 'you're safe at home now' as he handed them winter coats.

'Tonight they step off the plane as refugees, but they walk out of this terminal as permanent residents of Canada,' Mr. Trudeau told government employees gathered at the airport.

'This is a wonderful night where we get to show not just a planeload of new Canadians what Canada is all about, but we get to show the world how to open our hearts and welcome people who are fleeing extraordinarily difficult straits,' the prime minister said...

...Few parts of the country seem to be without some kind of sponsorship group.  In the Muskoka district of Ontario, a popular vacation destination north of Toronto that re-elected a Conservative to Parliament in October, Jody White, a local resident, said that she was connected with other people considering sponsorship after she telephone the Huntsville, Ontario congregation of the United Church of Canada."

eye'm thynkin':  While we have Republican candidates calling for a complete moratorium on Muslim refugees, Republican governors trying to refuse Middle Eastern refugees, and "Christian" universities advocating their students carry guns to terrorize Muslims, Canada is showing the U.S. what class looks like.  

They are demonstrating that "conservative" doesn't have to stand for hate, and that some Christians still follow Christ.

Read more at The New York Times

December 1 - More Stories You'll Find at Political Pollution

1 - Former U.S. Special Services Commander Confirms: Bush Invasion of Iraq Created ISIS

m'eye thoughts: Don't worry. His brother is going to go back over there and solve the problem. Third times the charm!

2 - Please Stop Syrian Refugees from Raping Michele Bachmann

Remember when she was stupid but good for a laugh?  Retirement has turned her stupid into ugly and it ain't funny anymore.

3 - Michigan Law Takes Effect Eliminating Gun License Screening by Local Boards

Clearly Michigan lawmakers have been swilling the NRA Kool-aid.

4 - My anger is not toward him, toward the gunman... (photo)

The words of the brother of Ke'Arre Stewart, one of the people killed in the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shootings.

Go to Political Pollution

How to Recognize a Christian? Just Ask Jeb!

"It's tempting to give Jeb Bush credit for being far less ridiculous than Donald Trump on, well, pretty much everything.  Over the last week, as Trump's radicalism has exceeded any normal boundaries of propriety, the former governor has been willing to call out the New York developer for going too far.

But if Bush is going to claim any credit for taking the high ground, he's going to have to stop dipping his feet in the same waters in which Trump is taking a swim.

Last week, for example, the Florida Republican argued that the United States should reject Syrian refugees for reasons he has not yet explained.  Bush later clarified that some refugees might be able to enter the country, but only if they're members of a religious group he approves of.

'You're a Christian--I mean, you can prove you're a Christian.' Jeb inexplicably argued."

Read more at MSNBC

"...Jeb Bush said in a radio interview Tuesday that 'you can tell when someone is a Christian in the Middle East... I can promise you that,' Bush told New Hampshire radio host Jack Heath. 'By name, by where they're born, their birth certificates.  There are ample means by which to know this.'...

...On Tuesday, Bush also repeated that he feels the country has a 'moral obligation' to support Syrian Christians."

Read more at Buzz Feed

eye'm thynkin':  So only people  BORN Christian and given a name off a pre-approved list would pass the ex-governor's sniff test?  No one else would be deemed good enough for Jeb? I find it difficult to imagine Jesus asking for proper ID before welcoming anyone into his temple.

A 1941 Dr. Seuss Cartoon for 2015 Republicans

"Dr. Seuss was actually a political cartoon contributor for New York's PM Newspaper for part of his early career. This was his piece on October 1, 1941. 

(It was created) in reaction to the fact that most Americans opposed Adolph Hitler's anti-Jew policies while also being opposed to granting safe haven to refugee Jews.

And here we are again today, over 74 years later, where people are being executed by an occupying force and need to get out of the country...

...You want America to be a hero to the world.  Well, here's the news flash: heroes take risks... There are gobs of refugees in so many other countries, countries that aren't separated from ISIL by an ocean... And yet, they're the ones stepping up.

So much flag-waving.  So much faux patriotism.  You just want America to be viewed as a hero, but you want to make her a coward... You demand the world's respect without wanting to do any of the work, without taking any of the risk...

...Other countries are (stepping up), but your big, tough, macho Republican leaders are cowering like children.

We're turning our back on desperate people who need us, and the rest of the world is picking up our slack.  And don't think the rest of the world doesn't notice.

eye'm thynkin':   Fifty years from now, will America be remembered as the wolf?

Read more at Patheos

Donald Trump Doubles Down on His Bid to Be the 21st Century Hitler

"On Thursday night, an NBC reporter gave Donald Trump a chance to back away from his alarmingly proto-facist proposals to close mosques, increase surveillance on American Muslims, and issue special IDs to identify Muslim-Americans.  But Donald Trump did what Donald Trump does--doubling down and plunging deeper into the abyss, saying that he would forcibly register the 5 to 12 million Muslim-Americans in a government database.  'I would certainly implement that--absolutely.'  At this point, he's gone beyond simple racebaiting and rabble-rousing and into a realm of politics that ends very badly.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party of Germany forcibly registered all German Jews and monitored them--before driving them into ghettos and to the gas chambers... Joseph Stalin and the USSR forcibly registered and monitored ethnic minorities before resettling them through brutal mass deportation... Apartheid South Africa used registration and ID cards to oppress and subdue the black majority.  At this point, Trump has playfully endorsed forced registration, special ID cards, and mass deportation of illegal immigrants--and that's why this circus isn't funny anymore.  A reporter even asked Trump straight-up how his policy differed from Nazi Germany's and Trump replied only with 'You tell me.'"

eye'm thynkin':  Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican Party seem to view "If we do not learn from our mistakes, we are doomed to repeat them" not as a warning, but as a challenge.

Read more at Occupy Democrats

Donald Trump Loses to Muslim U.S. Marine

"Donald Trump, who has spent the week embracing his inner Nazi, has officially been put in his place by a Muslim U.S. Marine.

Sergeant Tayyib Rashid, a veteran of the Marine Corps, took a special offense to the GOP presidential front-runner calling for Muslims to have to wear ID badges to track and identify their religion.

In perhaps one of the greatest mic drop moments of all time, Rashid tweeted, 'I'm an American Muslim and I already carry a special ID badge.  Where's yours?'"

eye'm thynkin':  Perfect.

Read more at Addicting Info

Couldn't have said it better myself.

The truth hurts.

November 20 - More Stories You'll Find at Political Pollution

1 - A FACTUAL explanation of the refugee process from someone who knows the system.  It's worth reading. A quote: "First, you do not get to choose what country you might be resettled into...you can not simply walk into a refugee camp, show a document, and say, I want to go to America."

m'eye thoughts: It makes the (mostly) Republican anti-Syrian cowardice look even worse.

2 - Here are 47 Democrats Who Joined Republicans and Voted Against Syrian Refugees

There are links to each coward's Twitter and Facebook accounts.  I'm ashamed to say that two of the people on this list are from Ohio.  Feel free to let them know how you feel about this.  I did.

Go to Political Pollution 

Syrian Family Waits 3 Years, Indiana Gov. Turns Them Away

The Republican party sees these children as the enemy

"Indiana Gov. Mike Pence has won the prize for the biggest piece of shit in America.

Two Syrian refugee families who had been approved to be moved to the United States and were scheduled to arrive in Indianapolis on Thursday have been officially told they are not welcome.

I want to hear not one damn thing from Republicans about the 'Christian' thing to do from here on (out).  Not one damn thing.  Not one fucking stupid, sanctimonious, pompous-ass thing about Christian values or American exceptionalism... 

...The letters also told Exodus Refugee Immigration Inc. and Catholic Charities Indianapolis to notify its national resettlement agencies that all subsequent arrivals be suspended or redirected to other states.

One of the families has been waiting in Jordan for three years before getting approval to move to the U.S., according to the New York Times.  The family of three will be resettled in New Haven, Conn. the Times reports."

eye'm thynkin':  This was written by Hunter of Daily Kos, and he (she?) is one angry blogger, and rightfully so.  Two SYRIAN families--both thoroughly vetted, one that has been waiting three years to find a home away from the civil war that has made their country unlivable--have been rejected by the land of "bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses" because FRENCH and BELGIAN citizens terrorized Paris last week.  

If this makes no sense to you, you are not a rabid Christian-in-name-only racist Republican like Governor Mike Pence, or Senator Ted Cruz, or Governor Chris Christie, or Donald Trump, or...

Read more at Daily Kos

France Shames GOP, Welcomes Syrian Refugees

"France vows to take in 30,000 Syrian refugees...

It has long been said that the true definition of courage isn't the absence of fear, but rather the ability to take action in the fact of fear.  In the wake of a horrific terror attack in the heart of Paris, France's actions are about as courageous as could ever be asked of its people."



eye'm thynkin':  Dear GOP: This is what courage and compassion look like. 

Read more at Addicting Info

November 18 - More Stories You'll Find at Political Pollution

1 - Bobby Jindal Suspends Presidential Campaign

m'eye thoughts: Kinda makes me feel sorry for Louisiana.  He'll be back there full time now.

2 - Ben Carson is Struggling to Grasp Foreign Policy, Advisers Say 

Gee, who would have guessed.

3 - Tennessee GOP Lawmaker Wants to Round Up All Recent Syrian Refugees in the State

Because simply rejecting Syrian refugees is so yesterday.

(Apparently Tennessee schools don't teach anything about WWII or the disgrace of our Japanese internment camps.)

Go to Political Pollution

New Speaker of the House, Same Old Lies

(Any underlines are mine.)

"White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest blasted Paul Ryan after the Speaker went on national television and falsely blamed President Obama for the Republican refusal to allow a vote on immigration reform...

...Ryan said, 'Yeah, I think he's proven untrustworthy on this issue.  He tried to go around Congress with an Executive Order to rewrite laws unilaterally...I do not believe we should and we won't bring immigration legislation with a president we cannot trust on this issue.'...

...At the daily (White House) press briefing. Press Secretary Josh Earnest reminded the world that it was Ryan who helped to write the bipartisan immigration (bill) and then stood with Republican leaders in the House who refused to bring the bill up for a vote...

...'It's a little hard for him to make the claim that somehow the president hasn't acted in good faith on immigration when Speaker Ryan actively thwarted a compromise he himself helped to broker."...

...The administration will be routinely hammering Ryan if his 'bold vision' for the House involves blaming President Obama for everything that he refuses to do."

eye'm thynkin':  "Bold vision" must be Republican-speak for "same ol', same ol'."

Read more at Politicus USA

Quote for Monday - October 19

Ann Coulter appeared on The View last week to promote her latest book in which she bemoans what she sees as fact: that immigrants are turning the U.S into "a Third World Hellhole."

She refused to back down on her opinion that immigration is permitted only because the rich need maids and Democrats need the votes.

Nicaraguan native Ana Navarro pointed out that, unless Ms. Coulter was claiming to be Native American, her ancestors were also immigrants.

Ms. Coulter replied:

monday quote:

"I am--I'm a settler.  I'm descended from settlers, not immigrants."

You just can't argue with this kind of stupid.

There would be an awful lot of politicans going the wrong way...

...with Donald Trump leading the parade.

Because sometimes you just have to laugh...