How Long, How Long Has That Brain Train Been Gone?

He stood there and swore on not one, but TWO bibles that he would uphold the Constitution of the United States. 

In a single stroke of the pen, he trampled on the Constitution. He has instituted a ban on travel from 7 countries with Islamic majorities. That executive order had prevented green-card holders from returning and entering the US only because they were coming from one of those countries. That order has barred the door to Iraqi and Syrian nationals who put their own lives and the lives of their families on the line to work with American forces overseas.  

Cato Institute, 2016

The seven countries were initially targeted before Trump came to power. But it's interesting to note that the countries who have supplied the most terrorist attackers on US soil are the same countries Trump has business dealings in, and are not on the watch list.

But here's an interesting factoid: Foreign-Born Terrorist Country of Origin, 1975-2015

And for your amusement, here's a list of how Americans do die:

Freakonomics of Extreme Extreme Vetting - Huffington Post

I don't know about anyone else, but those armed toddlers scare the shit outta me. 

Jane and Sarah Savitsky
arrived New York from London
April 6,1908

This is not a game. The current executive order is NOT who we are as a country. Unless you are a card carrying member of an indigenous American nation, YOU are the result of immigration. The Siegfried clan arrived on these shores sometime around 1649, they fought in the Revolution, then in Civil War, in World War I, and World War II, and they are the result of immigration. The Schwaidelson, Savitsky, Sklar, and Simon families all arrived in the early years of the 20th century....as immigrants passing the Statue of LIberty as they arrived at Ellis Island. We are all immigrants. And now, there is a president who would shut that golden door? What happened to giving us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free? 

Did we not learn from sending Jews back to Germany on the St. Louis? Did we not understand the Vietnamese struggling to get on the last helicopters leaving Saigon? Have we lost our humanity and well as our national conscience?

That the current American President is a toddler armed with nukes, has no bearing on our response. If you voted for him, you need only ask yourself: where is the line?

Is this the path to authoritarianism?

The discrediting of the press is a first step. By calling all news organs liars, and pushing to bar/ban certain members of the press from the pool because they had the temerity to question the president's actions is one step. Wednesday, Steve Bannon said,

The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while. I want you to quote this. The media here is the opposition party. 

In the same interview with the NY TImes, Bannon referred to himself as Darth Vader and the president was "elected by a surge of support from 'the working-class hobbits and deplorables.'”

Really? The press is the opposition? Not the Democrats. Not the Independents. The press. The same press that is specifically mentioned in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 

Disenfranchisement of the military and intelligence community is the second step. Removing the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense from the permanent NSC table is a remarkable step in that direction.The president has installed a man with extreme right-wing and white supremacist views in a position to exert control over the military. Policy making is moved away from those with experience and expertise and put into the hands of amateurs. The border debacle is a prime example of unpreparedness. 

Bullying and threatening world leaders doesn't do much for the US no matter what the president and his schoolmates think. The President of Mexico,  Enrique Peña Nieto, had the perfect response to the president's bullshit about the wall and a trade war: Fuck you. He cancelled the visit and if nothing else, won lots of global gold stars for doing just that. Of course, he managed to talk to the president over the weekend, but both men have agreed not to talk about it. ...which makes me think Mr. Peña Nieto reiterated his "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on," position. 

Okay. I can hope, can't I?

Today, the president spoke quite confidently about how pipelines are built and shipped:

Speaking to a group of small business leaders, Trump described a process that "hurts the pipe" — suggesting that many miles of America's pipelines contain substandard parts which presumably would have to be replaced. But he simultaneously indicated that he is not actually familiar with how pipelines are made, using a variation of "I imagine" three times and saying "I assume" as he explained the process.

"These are big pipes. Now, the only way I can imagine they [ship them] is they must have to cut them. Because they're so big, I can't imagine — they take up so much room — I can't imagine you could put that much pipe on ships. It's not enough. It's not long enough," he said.

"So I assume they have to fabricate and cut, which hurts the pipe, by the way," he said.

A spokesperson for the Association of Oil Pipe Lines said he had never heard of foreign pipe makers cutting segments into portions to send them overseas. Manufacturers create pipes in lengths that can be shipped rather than chopping up vast lengths of pipe.

TransCanada, the company behind the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, also told CNBC that pipes it buys from overseas are not cut into smaller segments before being shipped.

The White House did not immediately return a CNBC request for further explanation.                                        CNBC  - January 30, 2017

Problem was, it was total bullshit and they guy knew less than nothing about pipelines, oil, or anything else for that matter.

Wanna talk about the president's staff all using private email servers not government provided servers? Or the chief of staff apparently tweeting his twitter password to the immediate world? Boy, if a democrat did that, they would be all over him or her. But I guess it's now okay. 

So here's the question to my GOP and politically conservative readers: where is the line for this guy? What's it gonna take for you all to wake up and smell the burning coffee? How much longer are you all gonna pretend this is normal for a world leader? 

We sit at the brink of civil war and a third world war. How much longer are you all gonna pretend this isn't happening?

Just curious.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Sick of watching the news? Watch old movies from the 30s.

You'll thank me for this.