Beyond Outrage

I was so infuriated yesterday by the news about Trump's Muslim ban that I literally couldn't write. We already knew the man was a walking, talking piece of shit, but that just drew it in high relief.

There are stories all over the place about the chaos at airports, the people who were returning home -- legal residents, mind you -- who were detained at airports or told they could not board their flights. The Age has a good summary, and points out one salient fact:

The new President is cravenly political in the countries he decided to put on a refugee and migrant blacklist. And his inclusions and exclusions don't make sense – unless your name is Donald Trump.

Trump claims to be motivated by the horrific September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, but the countries of which the 19 aircraft hijackers were citizens are not on the list – most came from Saudi Arabia and the rest from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon.

Also absurdly absent are Pakistan, Turkey and Afghanistan – all of them hotbeds of terror. In excluding them, Trump is grovelling to their leaders, not making a gesture to their people. . . .

In the 40 years to 2015, not a single American was killed on US soil by citizens from any of the seven countries targeted - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - according to research by the conservative-leaning Cato Institute.

But the same research shows that in the same period nearly 3000 Americans were killed by citizens of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Turkey — most victims of the September 11 attacks.

And oops, wouldn't you know it, Trump has multimillion-dollar business operations in all those countries.

In 2015, he registered eight hotel-related companies in Saudi Arabia, according to The Washington Post; in Turkey, two luxury towers in Istanbul are licensed to use his name; in Egypt, he has two companies; and in the UAE, he has naming and management deals for two golf courses.

(Emphasis added.)

Source:  Bloomberg

I doubt that anyone will be surprised by that little tidbit, and I'm sure it will just roll of his supporters' backs, like every other bit of reality they come in contact with.

For what it's worth, MoveOn has a petition, which you can sign here.

The American Civil Liberties Union is leading the fight. You can donate here.

The Age article via Nick's Place.

Footnote: NCRM has the complete text of the executive order.

Footnote 2: And it seems to have been as carefully planned as everything else these yahoos have come up with: nobody bothered to tell INS how to implement it.