UPDATE:
And what does the President of the United States say about the weekend chaos?
The commander-in-chief tweeted some great alternative facts early this morning:
“Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage… protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer. Secretary Kelly said that all is going well with very few problems. MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!…There is nothing nice about searching for terrorists before they can enter our country. This was a big part of my campaign. Study the world!”
But you know something, Mr. Trump? Senator Schumer’s tears are America’s tears and those tears will soon be translated into a movement that your silly, little tweets can no stop.
Original Post:
Calling Trump’s perhaps Unconstitutional — certainly ill conceived and ill-implemented — travel ban “the exploitation of fear” and the victims of his actions the “roadkill of Trump’s posturing,” Fareed Zakaria revealed a few facts on his CNN GPS show that certainly are inconvenient for Trump and his minions.
Referring to the seven countries affected by Trump’s ban and the threat they pose to Americans, Zakaria referenced a study by the prestigious CATO Institute and tallied the number of Americans killed on U.S. soil between 1975 and 2015 by citizens of those countries:
Let me save the government some money and offer up the data right now…Iraq – zero, Iran -zero, Syria – zero, Yemen – zero, Libya – zero, Somalia – zero, Sudan — zero.
We may still remember that the terrorists who created the greatest havoc and caused the greatest carnage ever on U.S. soil came from Saudi Arabia and then were given safe passage in Afghanistan — neither country is on the travel ban list.
As to how these particular countries were chosen, Zakaria says it was “truly mysterious,” before observing, “None of the Muslim majority countries that have a Trump hotel, building or office are on the list.”
On the “exploitation of fear,” Zakaria mentions, “From the birther campaign to the talk of Mexican rapists, Trump has always trafficked in fear mongering.”
And now, to “present himself as the country’s protector,” Trump had chosen to “punish ordinary men, women and children who are fleeing terrorism and violence,” Zakaria says.
In an opinion piece, the New York Times Editorial Board, calling Trump’s Muslim Ban “cowardly and dangerous,” took note of “the injury and suffering this ban inflicts on families that had every reason to believe they had outrun carnage and despotism in their homelands to arrive in a singularly hopeful nation.”
Referring to the “first casualties” of Trump’s “bigoted, cowardly, self-defeating policy,” — “families that had every reason to believe they had outrun carnage and despotism in their homelands to arrive in a singularly hopeful nation,” — the Times laments:
It must have felt like the worst trick of fate for these refugees to hit the wall of Donald Trump’s political posturing at the very last step of a yearslong, rigorous vetting process. This ban will also disrupt the lives and careers of potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have been cleared to live in America under visas or permanent residency permits.
The Times continues:
The order’s language makes clear that the xenophobia and Islamophobia that permeated Mr. Trump’s campaign are to stain his presidency as well. Un-American as they are, they are now American policy. “The United States must ensure that those admitted to this country do not bear hostile attitudes toward it and its founding principles,” the order says, conveying the spurious notion that all Muslims should be considered a threat. (It further claims to spare America from people who would commit acts of violence against women and those who persecute people on the basis of race, gender or sexual orientation. A president who bragged about sexually assaulting women and a vice president who has supported policies that discriminate against gay people might well fear that standard themselves.)
The editorial chastises “Republicans in Congress who remain quiet or tacitly supportive of the ban should recognize that history will remember them as cowards.” It also bemoans the silence of Trump’s secretary of defense, Jim Mattis, who was “cleareyed about the dangers of a proposed Muslim ban during the election, saying that American allies were reasonably wondering if ‘we have lost faith in reason.’”
The Times concludes:
[Mattis’] silence now is alarming to all who admire his commitment to American security. Mr. Mattis and other senior government officials who know better cannot lend their names to this travesty. Doing so would do more than tarnish their professional reputations. It would make them complicit in abdicating American values and endangering their fellow citizens.
~.~
Watch this great video of the peaceful protests at San Francisco International airport Saturday night, recorded and edited by the author’s nephew Wallace Colyer.
Lead image of San Francisco International Airport protests, courtesy Wallace Colyer
