Well, it's been a pretty interesting weekend!
Continuing to issue Imperial diktats executive orders like they were going out of style, Great Leader issues another clumsy, ham-handed one that is, well, downright un-American. This one slams the door on people from a list of seven countries that he believes support terrorism.
(Interestingly, none of those countries are home to his business interests....)
And you know, part of his trouble is that he doesn't run these things past his advisors first. But that's not likely to help much these days. When you remove the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - you know, the guy who knows everything about our armed forces (what we have where and what they're capabilities are) and the opposition forces (what they have where and what they are capable of) - from the innermost circle of national security advisors, and replace him with someone who has zero experience in either politics or international affairs; someone whose claim to fame is running a website.....
One of the countries on the list is Iraq. The place where we are fighting ISIS, and are relying heavily on local forces.... Where Iraqi translators and informers have risked and are still risking their lives to fight along side of us.....
Spontaneous protests arose in cities like San Francisco, New York, Boston, and other cities with international airports.
Mike Rawlings, the mayor of Dallas, issued an apology to the dozens of people who were detained at Dallas-Fort Worth International. "This is just not good for our city," he said. "It’s not good for our state. This is a welcoming place. We want you here."
Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham spoke out against the order, but so did Corey Gardner (R-CO) and Lamar Alexadner (R-TN).....
Business leaders also issued statements:
"We have many employees from the named countries, and we do business all over the region. These employees and customers are critical to our success and they are our friends and our partners. We stand with them." - Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric, in a memo to employees
Apple's Tim Cook said the firm "would not exist without immigration, let alone thrive and innovate the way we do."
"We will neither stand by, nor stand silent, as the uncertainty around the new Administration’s actions grows with each passing day." - Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks
"I am here because I am a refugee." - Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, who emigrated to the United States from Russia at the age of five, at a protest at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday.
"This is not a policy we support." - Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, in an internal memo
The ACLU reported that over the weekend, they received six times as much in donations - over $24 million - as they did for all of 2016. Over 350,000 people donated (that's more people than attended the inauguration), many of them for the first time, according to a spokesman.
Acting Attorney General Sally Yates said today (1/30/17) that the Justice Department would not defend the order in court, saying she did not believe defending the order would be "consistent with this institution's solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right."
And as I was typing this, the news came over that she's been fired. The White House said Yates "has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States" and portrayed her actions as political.
Buckle up......