Promises, Promises...

I always really hated this song... so, listen to it, LISTEN TO IT AND SUFFER LIKE WE ALL HAD TO IN THE EIGHTIES!!!

So, back to Crazy Promises...

Crazy Promise #3:  Banning the Muslim Immigrants

On Dec 7, 2015, the anniversary of the "day which will live in infamy," then-candidate Donald Trump and his team pronounced a demand that was essentially a ban on all Muslims entering the United States, much to the delight of the his devotees and right-wing pundits, without much of a further thought on the subject, let alone that little anniversary thing, beyond digging the hole deeper.

By May of the following year, it was "merely an idea, not a proposal."

So then, on Jan 27 of this year, President Donald "Wow, didja' ever imagine that?" Trump signed Executive Order 13769, banning travel from seven mostly poor, troubled, war-torn (including war-torn by us!) and mostly Muslim countries.  It was done with people banned already in flight to the US.  Banned in mid-air.  The Trump people said it was intentionally done as such - wouldn't want to give a heads-up to the ter'ists, DUH!  Not that many ter'ists ever came here from any of those countries, as opposed to from say, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, or any of the more developed and "friendly" (with friends like that...) nations we have over there.  It included people who had risked theirs and their families lives to collaborate with the US on our completely failed "Mission Accomplished" in the Middle East.  Lawsuits followed quickly, Trump had to fire the acting-AG and others as they couldn't comply on ethical and legal grounds, and the courts found the ban violated the Establishment Clause, harmed the States, and had to be re-written in a competent and Constitutional way.

So, today, March 6th, we have a new Executive Order.  It's certainly more polished than the Cuneiform  product we got last time, so we'll see how it stands up.  But it's the same idea.

It doesn't "ban all Muslims," folks.  Just one's from some really poor, screwed-up places.  At least he had the decency to remove Iraqis from the list.  That was just horrible on soooo many levels.  But the name of the order, "PROTECTING THE NATION FROM FOREIGN TERRORIST ENTRY INTO THE UNITED STATES," is a crazy promise that is not here kept.  Expect the courts to be swept into this again shortly.

JMJ

Crazy Promises...

Donald Trump took Crazy Promises to a whole new level this past campaign season, but it's not like the GOP hasn't been playing the same game a long time now.  Well, now the GOP - and Trump is ostensibly one of them now - has majority control of the White House, Congress, the courts, and 2/3rds of the state governments.  So, what about all those Crazy Promises?

Crazy Promise #1:  The Wall

The other day, a Mexican politician climbed a section of wall that was already built and sat there, to prove a point.

“I was able to scale it, climb it, and sit myself right here,” (Mexican congressman) Guerra said in a video. “It would be simple for me to jump into the United States, which shows that it is unnecessary and totally absurd to build a wall.”

Tangentially, Trump also realized that there's no way we're getting rid of millions of people, most of whom have been here for a long time now, and it's time to start talking at least 'legal status,' if not citizenship.  Conservatives and are not happy with this.

The Wall itself is estimated at anywhere from 12-22 billion dollars, of which DHS has identified 20 million dollars so far to put toward it.  To pay for it, Trump floated a 20% tax on imports from Mexico, which lasted about a day, and then maybe just on exports, no, and then morphed into this BAT (border-adjusted tax) idea, which actually may be a very good way, in general, to compete with countries that rely heavily on VAT taxes (value-added taxes which, in a practical sense, often work the same way) instead of income taxes.  Of course, most all those countries also have universal healthcare too, so employers there still have a big edge.  Either way, Mexico will not be paying for this silly Wall - you will.

Crazy Promise #2:  Repeal Obamacare

During President Obama's terms, the Republicans in the House voted to repeal Obamacare 67 times.  They haven't voted on it since Trump's swearing-in.  Say's John Boehner (who shortly after a few rods with the Pope, quit his job), “They’ll fix Obamacare, and I shouldn’t have called it repeal and replace because that’s not what’s going to happen. They’re basically going to fix the flaws and put a more conservative box around it.”

Let's keep to these two for now.  Any more, and we'll have more comments than I could possibly address!

JMJ