Chaos

Well what should we call it?  Over the last couple days I’ve heard; shit show, train wreck, a mess, chaos, turmoil and unprepared.  How about fucked up?  The first week of the Donnie Trump roadshow was rocky to say the least. And then last Friday things really got screwy.  But maybe we should cut our POTUS a little slack.  After all, Trump is used to starring in television shows.  Getting the lead role in the whole world isn’t something you master overnight.  Maybe Trump and cast just need a few takes.  There’s only one problem here, the Presidency isn’t a TV show.  In this job you don’t get dress rehearsals.  In this job when take one goes in the toilet a lot of other things get caught up in the vortex of crap and go down the sewer with it. You don’t get to say “Cut,” and then do take two.  

Actually there’s another problem here.  Our director and the entire cast and crew think that everything that went down with the travel ban went off just fine thank you.  It’s the critics and the audience that have it all wrong.  According to Trump’s agent, Sean Spicer only 109 people were inconvenienced out of 325,000 that entered the U.S. in a 24 hour period.  You know like one of the bit players tripping over a stage prop.  No big deal, let the show go on.  But maybe Mr. Spicer was underestimating the fallout - just a wee bit.

A breakdown by the Washington Post came up with the figure of 90,000 people being affected by the Trump travel ban.  

(Wait! Breaking news. Sean Spicer has just banned the use of the word ban even though he’s used the word ban and El Jefe himself has used the word ban.  But Spicer has blamed the media for using the word “ban” first.  So don’t say “ban” anymore.  You know, I think shit show pretty well sums it up)

But back to Spicer’s numbers game.  Spicer’s 109 was the number of people that the administration claimed were detained at airports.  Oh but wait, enter the dastardly Department of Homeland Security who looked at Spicer’s 109 and called “alternative fact,” (previously known as bullshit).  DHS claimed 348 people were detained at boarding.  

But wait, there’s more.  According to The Daily Beast, “… an additional 200 to 250 people were denied entry once their flights landed -- and they were part of a larger pool of 735 people at ports of entry who could have been barred from entering the United States.”  

But all of this just takes into account one stinking weekend.  The executive order covers a period of at least 90 days.  The Post article goes on,

“…visa holders will not be able to travel to the United States for at least 90 days. Or, if they are in the United States currently, they will not be able to leave and assume that they can return before the travel suspension ends.

Here's the breakdown by country:

Iran: 34,819 nonimmigrant visas, 7,179 immigrant visas

Iraq: 13,335 nonimmigrant visas, 2,010 immigrant visas

Syria: 9,770 nonimmigrant visas, 1,901 immigrant visas

Sudan: 5,039 nonimmigrant visas, 1,642 immigrant visas

Yemen: 4,472 nonimmigrant visas, 3,143 immigrant visas

Libya: 3,303 nonimmigrant visa, 272 immigrant visas

Somalia: 399 nonimmigrant visas, 1,078 immigrant visas.”

But that’s just the effect on the traveling public.  There’s a whole lot of collateral damage that Trump’s Scud missile claimed.  

Fortune Magazine reported that, “The move sent the market cap of the five biggest tech companies on the S&P 500 down by $32 billion Monday, as investors worried Trump's anti-immigration policies may cut into the workforces of tech companies.”  When it comes to 401Ks this administration is hell on wheels.

The credibility of the world’s most powerful administration took a few more wounds in this death by a thousand cuts.

Spicer claimed that the short notice in revealing the order was necessary to keep would-be terrorists from slipping in between announcement and implementation.  This advances the ludicrous notion that a “bad dude,” as our POTUS likes to put it, can simply walk into the embassy and get a Visa as if he were buying a ticket to the movies.  

And that pesky document called The Constitution reared it’s fussy little head with the notion that Trump’s order was playing loose with The First Amendment.  Trump’s order gives priority to individuals who belong to what is termed minority religions (read-Christian).  I may be wrong here but that sounds a lot to me like a religious test.  Section 5 (e), contains some unintended ironic humor in stating that the purpose is to rescue people from religious persecution.  Meanwhile back in America persecution of Muslims is turning into a right wing pastime.

The Trump boys insisted that this was not a Muslim ban and then on Saturday night Rudy Giuliani of all people dropped a dime on them.  Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro asked Giuliani whether the ban was religion based. Giuliani responded, “I'll tell you the whole history of it,” Giuliani responded “So when [Trump] first announced it, he said, 'Muslim ban.' He called me up. He said, 'Put a commission together. Show me the right way to do it legally.' “  Giuliani went on to say that the commission decided to focus on danger and not religion.

I wonder if the discussion in the Oval Office took up the notion that there might be a just a little bit of blowback?  You know like a few thousand people taking to the streets and airports?  Maybe Trump and company thought that the vox populi would stay silent on this particular outrage.  Whatever they thought or didn’t think, America went off the deep end.

And so traffic jams ensued, people missed flights; some had to hike miles to the airports; the police had to be called out and the usual hell that breaks lose when the Government fucks up…well…broke loose.  And I know that the Trump supporters will harrumph that it’s just a bunch of politically correct shit disturbers.  I’m sorry but when injustice happens then shit has to be disturbed. That’s how this country got started; a bunch of politically correct guys in tri-corner hats disturbed King George’s shit.

The whole seemingly haphazard, unplanned way this thing was unrolled puts into question the leadership and executive planning acumen of Donald Trump.  And yes I can’t believe I put the words leadership and acumen in the same sentence with Donald Trump.

Like many Americans I’m simply mortified by this.  I’m not much of an international traveler and after this I don’t expect to be.  America has turned it’s back on some of the most devastated people in recent history.  In one vindictive stroke of his poisoned pen Donald Trump turned world opinion against America.  Now Americans travelling abroad will know what a woman wearing a hijab in America feels when she gets hateful looks in the grocery store line.

And then there’s that other sticky little mess.  You know, like the whole world being pissed off at us.  That’s with the exception of the Al Qaeda and ISIS boys who’ve just put Trump on their Christmas card lists for generously handing them a recruiting tool.  

And while I have to shake my head over the injustice and the forsaking of the values that America was founded on and has touted since it’s birth, I’m also reminded that this isn’t the first time.  America has an unfortunate and dubious past when it comes to the treatment of immigrants.  

During the 19th century, Catholics were in the crosshairs of the intolerant and the America firsters.  In 1823, 1826 and 1828 the homes of immigrant Irish Catholic laborers were destroyed by angry mobs in Boston.  Philadelphia saw the burning of Catholic Churches in 1844.  The rationale for this violence was a fear that the influx of so many Papists,as they were called, would inevitably lead to America being under the rule of the Pope.  This fear carried into the 1928 Presidential election when Al Smith was defeated in large part due to the fear that he would be manipulated by The Vatican.

For a period of over 100 years it was fear of the Catholics.   And 200 years after that fear was born what do we have?  A fair amount of unfair Americans harboring  a paranoia that Muslims are going to sneak Sharia Law into our system and have us all bowing to Allah.  One would have hoped that over the course of more than 200 years we might have learned something.

With each day the whole episode get’s tragically wackier.  In a normal Presidency something of this magnitude might have been vetted.  But no, Donald Trump made a promise and he was sure as shit going to keep it.  He is bound and determined to make good on all of his odious campaign promises as quickly as possible so that his supporters can continue their diet of red meat and Kool Aid.  In a normal administration all of the key departments involved would have had a say.  At the very least they might have gotten a little bit of a heads up.  In a normal administration one would think that discussions would have taken into consideration world opinion. I wonder if anyone in the Oval Office brought up the notion that this might annoy that really large segment of  the world that’s anywhere to the left of the Nazi party.  But even if world opinion was brought up I imagine that Steve Bannon would have answered, “No worries, fuck the world.”

Finally I’m disappointed by half of this country - the paranoid, non-thinking, irrational half.  The half that, according to a new poll now feels safer with this ban (which isn’t a ban by the way).  Trump and Spicer and Kellyanne Conway have been peddling some snake oil that there was a clear and present danger and half the country has taken a big drink and glory hallelujah their fears have been quenched.  Half the country feels safe and secure now.  That doesn’t include me.  I’m scared shitless.  Not of terrorists from without but of the terrorists currently occupying The United States Government.

Posted by Paulie - San Francisco CA