Month: November 2015

“Pouring into our country”

by digby

You’ll recall this inane Instagram from the other day, I’m sure:

What is our President doing?

A video posted by Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) on Nov 17, 2015 at 7:35am PST

Since then he’s said it dozens of times on the trail. He has specifically referenced one allegedly “missing” refugee in Louisiana:

Baton Rouge received one Syrian refugee over the summer, a man Catholic Charities helped for a few days before he left to meet family in another state.

Catholic Charities said Tuesday the man is the only Syrian refugee they have helped recently, and Louisiana State Police confirmed he had left Baton Rouge for Washington, D.C.

But the news of that one man set off a flood of phone calls Tuesday to the organization, especially misinformation that made some people believe the man had gone missing, Catholic Charities Executive Director David Aguillard said.

One caller even made several threats while on the phone with Catholic Charities, especially against Syrian refugees. State Police said they are investigating the threats and take them seriously.

A State Department official told WWL-TV that 14 Syrian immigrants had been placed in Louisiana, one in Baton Rouge and the others in Kenner and New Orleans.

“The Syrians that we have resettled in Louisiana are not out wandering willy nilly around the country,” Aguillard said.

Records from the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center show six Syrian immigrants arriving in Louisiana, all in New Orleans, since Nov. 1. The records also show the one Syrian refugee who landed in Baton Rouge arrived between June and July.

Catholic Charities officials said the man was by himself, and he stayed for only a few days before leaving to meet with family. But before he left, he had to submit paperwork to the federal government about changing his location, which refugees must do even if they are moving within the same city.

Refugees are “pouring into our country from Syria, we don’t even know who they are.”

This outright lie barely merited a mention. There are so many after all. It’s hard to keep track.

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by digby

This stuff is flooding my email box. It’s all about that right wing grift. But they are working themselves into a full fledged frenzy:

Digby, 


Even after the ISIS attack on Paris that killed more than 120 civilians, even after ISIS blew a Russian airliner out of the sky killing 224 more people . . .


. . . . and even though ISIS and al Qaeda say they have plans for massive attacks on America . . . 

President Obama’s own leaders of the FBI and Homeland Security say it will be impossible to prevent ISIS and al Qaeda terrorists from blending in with these 200,000 refugees from the Middle East and elsewhere. 


This is why I urgently need you to please do three things right now: 

My name is Frank Gaffney. I am the Founder and President of Secure Freedom – one of America’s leading advocates for our national security. 


I am writing to you because our research indicates that you are a well-informed American who votes regularly in elections, is respected in your community, and that you love America. 


The most serious threat to America today comes from militant Islam – which is why we have launched this NATIONAL CAMPAIGN to persuade Congress to immediately STOP all immigration from Islamic supremacist countries at least until we have an effective way to identify and exclude Jihadists. 


Congressman Brian Babin and others in Congress have introduced legislation that would do exactly this. 


Right now, approximately 3,000,000 Muslims live in America. The Muslim population in America is doubling every 10 years. 


According to a recent Secure Freedom survey of Muslims in America, 25 percent of those polled say they believe that “Violence against Americans here in the United States can be justified as part of the Global Jihad.” 


A survey by Wenzel Strategies reports that 46 percent of American Muslims believe that Americans who criticize Islam or parody Islam should face criminal charges. 


8 percent of those American Muslims surveyed believe that those who criticize Islam should be put to death, while another 9 percent are undecided on this. 


An actual majority of the Secure Freedom poll – 51 percent – said they thought “Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Shariah law.” 


15 percent say they believe Muslims should have their own Islamic Shariah Law court; and another 36 percent say they should be free to choose Shariah courts over American courts. 


Shariah Law authorizes the stoning to death of women who are accused of adultery, calls for the execution of apostates, and considers all man-made law – such as the U.S. Constitution and democracy — to be apostasy. 


Under Islam’s Shariah Law, a man owns his wife and is permitted to beat her or even kill her if she displeases him, for example by dressing in a way he does not like. 


By some estimates, approximately 1.9 million Muslims have come to America since 9/11. 


While many American Muslims are good, hard-working people who have assimilated into our country with its tradition of religious freedom and tolerance, surveys show that hundreds of thousands of Muslims in America are sympathetic to Islamic supremacism with its traditions of Jihadism and its brutally intolerant Shariah code. 


It doesn’t take more than a few committed Jihadists to cause mass-destruction – as we saw with the September 11th attack on America, the ISIS attack on Paris, the blowing up the Russian passenger plane, the mass-killing at Fort Hood by an Islamist U.S. soldier, and the massacre at the Boston Marathon. 


ISIS has declared it’s planning massive attacks on U.S. soil and may already have operatives in place ready to carry out these attacks. We know that ISIS, al Qaeda, and other Jihadist groups have been working to bring weapons of mass destruction into America for detonation in high-population areas. 


It’s not “racist” to want to stop immigration from counties that are hotbeds of Jihadism. For one thing, Jihadism is not a race. It’s a manifestation of a supremacist ideology, Shariah, that is every bit as dangerous to liberty and America as was Nazism or Communism. 


Islam is also now the world’s fastest growing religion. According to theAlmanac Book of Facts, the number of Christians in the world increased by 46 percent compared to a 235 percent increase for Islam during the last 10 years. 


So the world’s Muslim population is increasing 5 times faster than the world’s Christian population. 


The Muslim population is already doubling every ten years in America. 


Now President Obama wants to flood America with nearly 200,000 more refugees from places like Syria and the Middle East. He says the attacks on Paris and the blowing up of that Russian passenger jet by ISIS has not changed his commitment to bring Muslims by the tens of thousands from the Middle East and other parts of the world to settle in America – to become American citizens. 


This is why Secure Freedom has launched a FOUR-PART Battle Plan to educate America and persuade Congress that further mass-immigration from Jihadist Islamic nations to America is a serious threat to our nation’s survival, and must be stopped. 

Our FOUR-PART Battle Plan:


PART ONE: Educate tens of millions of Americans about this grave threat to America’s survival . . . and where their elected Representatives in Congress stand on this issue. 


Secure Freedom is mailing millions of VOTER EDUCATION letters (at a cost of about 60 cents per letter) on why the exploding population of Islamic Jihadists inside America and why President Obama’s plans to immediately bring 200,000 Muslim refugees from Syria and the Middle East to live in America is such a serious threat to America’s survival. 


We also publish and distribute a CONGRESSIONAL SCORECARD assessing how each Member of Congress votes on key national security issues, including on legislative efforts to restore sanity to our immigration policies and enforcement of relevant laws. 


This CONGRESSIONAL SCORECARD helps ensure that voters in the coming 2016 Elections can be informed and hold their representatives accountable at the ballot box. 


PART TWO: Make STOPPING all immigration from Jihadist Islamic countries a major issue in the 2016 Presidential and Congressional elections. 


With your help and support, Secure Freedom aims to launch a major national advertising campaign to inform Americans about the need to keep America safe from Jihad by stopping unchecked immigration from Islamic supremacist nations. 


PART THREE: Persuade every Member of Congress about the seriousness of this threat. 


Secure Freedom is recognized as a leading source of authoritative information on American security for political leaders and lawmakers. We interact regularly with members of Congress to share our reports that detail how serious the Jihadist threat really is inside America – and how this threat within our borders is growing by the day. 


PART FOUR: Bury Congress with 1,000,000 petitions and surveys every 60 days (110,000 surveys and petitions per week)until Congress STOPS all immigration from Islamic supremacist countries at least until we have an effective way to identify and exclude Jihadists. 


Politicians respond to pressure from voters – especially as an election approaches. With 2016 being a Presidential and Congressional Election year, politicians are especially sensitive to public opinion. 


When they receive a continuous, relentless, never-ending avalanche ofpetitions, letters, and phone calls from their constituents on a single issue, politicians tend to act. 


This is how issues get on a politician’s radar screen. This is how issues rise to the top of the legislative calendar for action. And politicians are always very interested in the results of surveys. 


This is why it’s so important that we receive your signed petition and completed survey. 

Why Your Immediate Donation Is So Urgently Needed


Our budget for the Battle Plan I’ve outlined here is $10.3 million. 


This budget must be raised with donations from patriotic Americans (like you) who understand what a dire threat Islamic Jihadism presents to America’s very survival. 


Frankly, the biggest danger we face is that too many people believe their individual actions and efforts don’t have much impact on Congress or on what happens in government. 


I hope you don’t feel this way. The truth is if we all act together and speak with one united and clear voice on this issue that’s so important to your safety, we can persuade Congress to act. 


Most of our friends and supporters are sending donations in the $20 to$50 range – though some are blessed to be able to send larger gifts of$100, $500, $1,000 or even more . . . 


. . . while our other wonderful friends are making an equal sacrifice by sending $15 or even just 10. 


Only you know what you are able to contribute. I just ask that you please contribute what you can. 


If everyone I am emailing just contributes what they can, I am confident we can raise the funds we need to generate enough voter pressure on Congress to STOP all immigration from Jihadist Islamic countries. 


Most immediately and urgently, we must stop President Obama’s plan to bring nearly 200,000 refugees – many of them Muslims from Syria and elsewhere – to settle here in America because we have no way to know who among them are trained ISIS or al Qaeda terrorist operatives – especially since we know Jihadists are planning massive attacks on American soil. 


So please help! Time is of the essence on this. The stakes are enormous. 


The America you love is disappearing quickly before your eyes. I will anxiously look to hear back from you by return mail in the next few days. 


Sincerely, 


Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
Founder and President, Secure Freedom 


P.S. Congressional leaders will act on this if they see a constant, relentless avalanche of petitions, letters, phone calls and messagesfrom voters demanding an immediate STOP to all immigration from Islamic Jihadist counties – and most immediately to stop President Obama’s destructive plans to bring 200,000 Muslim refugees to resettle here in America. 


President Obama’s chiefs of both the FBI and Homeland Security admit there’s no way to know who among these refugees will be ISIS or al Qaeda terrorists set on causing mass destruction in American cities. 


This is why it’s so important for you to sign your petition and complete your survey. 


Our goal is to bury Congress with 1,000,000 petitions and surveys every 60 days (that’s 110,000 per week) until Congress acts on this crisis that threatens the survival of the America you love. Please also keep in mind that it costs us about $10 to process your petition and survey. So at a bare minimum, I hope you will include a $10 Petition & Survey Processing Contribution along with your petition and survey. 


But we are also in urgent need of additional donations because it’s going to be enormously costly to collect and process 1,000,000signed petitions and completed surveys over the next 60 days. 


We must mail letters to millions of voters, buy advertising, use TV, radio, and the Internet to get the attention of tens of millions of voters for this threat and this campaign. So please help! 


The survival of America as you know it is literally at stake in this battle. Thank you for doing everything in your power to save the America you love for your children and grandchildren. 

Here’s the unfortunate thing about this. Yes, they are collecting money for God knows what purpose. It’s what they do. But they are working people up into a froth and they’re calling Democratic politicians and screaming about all this. And because Dems are far more sensitive to conservative pressure than Republicans are to liberal pressure (they believe voters are more right wing than they really are) this stuff can have an effect on policy.

If everyone who supports Bernie Sanders would sign this petition and call their Rep it could make a difference.

Say You Support Continuing the Refugee Program that Promises to Resettle Syrian Refugees 

In terms of the Syrian refugee situation we are now facing, now is not the time for us to succumb to racism and bigotry. In this moment, it is particularly important that we not allow ourselves to be divided by the anti-immigrant hysteria that Republican presidential candidates are ginning up. 

When hundreds of thousands of people have lost everything and have nothing left but the shirts on their backs, we should not turn our backs on these refugees escaping violence in the Middle East. Of course we have to investigate the backgrounds of people coming into the country — and we will — but to suggest that we would even turn away orphans is incredible. 

Support continuing the refugee program that promises to resettle 10,000 Syrians, mostly women and children, who are escaping violence in their home country.

I’m sure the wingnuts will be delivering petitions to congress. It would be nice if liberals could deliver some too.

What a bunch of suckers

by digby

People actually fall for this bullshit:

@digby56 @Salon  widows and orphans pic.twitter.com/I5AsuVgyTW

— MemeMurderer (@MemeMurderer) November 21, 2015

You know, when Americans disseminate that kind of  puerile ISIS propaganda to back up their cause it must make the jihadi terrorists laugh themselves silly.

*I should note that  I cannot tell if this tweeter @MemeMurderer sent that ironically or earnestly. Who knows? But the right has breathlessly passed around the video for several months and it’s being used as a retort to Obama’s line about people being afraid of 3 year olds. I actually think it makes Obama’s case.  But hey, maybe we should start arming the “good kids” in the day care centers so they can defend themselves against the toddler jihadis.

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A Frank Luntz Thanksgiving

by digby

I’m so sorry I missed this. The last cycle, Michele Bachmann served all the boys water. I doubt Carly Fiorina did the same thing:

DES MOINES — Seven Republican candidates sat around a mocked-up Thanksgiving table here on Friday night, gathered to discuss issues of hearth and home before an audience of more than 1,000 Christian evangelicals.

But rather than the social issues the candidates might have come ready to address before some of Iowa’s most influential conservative voters, geopolitics and the threat of terrorism intruded, as they are likely to at many American tables this holiday season.

Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster who served as moderator of the event, conjured a scenario in which New York City is attacked on Sept. 11, 2017. As president, he asked the candidates, whom would you immediately call?

He said their answers would be critical in helping the organizer of the forum, Bob Vander Plaats, a leader of the Christian right in Iowa, award his influential endorsement, which he has promised to announce soon.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida ticked off a list of federal agencies. But former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Carly Fiorina offered visceral responses that seemed more politically attuned to the audience, who had braved Iowa’s first snowstorm of the season to attend the event in Des Moines’s convention center.

“First thing you do, you get on your knees and you make a call to God,” Mr. Huckabee said.

“The first thing I would do, honestly,” echoed Mrs. Fiorina, “is fall to my knees and pray.”

Sure she would.

Trump, Kasich, Christie and Bush skipped the event. They aren’t seriously vying for the evangelical vote in Iowa. Of course, it’s hard to believe that Fiorina and Paul are either but they’ll go anywhere where there’s a forum.
Anyway, it appears that other than praying none of them had much to offer on Syria or terrorism. They did have a lot to say about a more serious enemy:

Early on, the forum was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, including two who held a banner reading “Deportation: a family value,” a reference to the candidates’ restrictive immigration positions.

The protests triggered a lengthy discussion of what candidates deemed the lack of civility on the left. Mr. Rubio blamed Mr. Obama for setting a divisive tone in political discourse. He “has deliberately divided Americans against each other for political gain,” he said.

“Did you ever notice,” Mr. Huckabee added, “liberals come to events like this and yell at us, but did you ever hear one of us going to their events and yelling?”

Well, except for stuff like this, he’s absolutely right:

(You’ll note that Democrats were equally upset by the protests as these conservatives are. But let’s not pretend that Republicans are more “civil” that Democrats.)

Anyway, ironically enough they immediately pivoted from calling for the smelling salts over liberal rudeness to a full-scale condemnation of political correctness, which is really a complaint that they aren’t allowed to be uncivil anymore:

The conversation turned to political correctness, which several candidates said was invoked by the left to silence dissent. “It’s used as a control mechanism, and it’s used for intimidation,” Ben Carson said.

“Why do these protesters want to stand up and scream?” asked Mr. Cruz, a champion debater in college. “Because they can’t handle the truth. They want to shout you down. We’re seeing universities all across this country with leftist coddled kids, usually with trust funds,” protesting against “microagressions.”

God, he’s such a smarmy piece of work.

In a kind of lightning round, the candidates were asked to name the greatest moral threat to the country.

“The loss of God-consciousness,” said Mr. Huckabee.

Former Senator Rick Santorum offered the “breakdown of the American family.”

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky: “Losing track of where rights come from.”

Mr. Carson: “Our willingness to adopt political correctness.”

Mr. Cruz: “The assault on our values coming from Washington, coming from the media, coming from Hollywood.”

Nobody can accuse Carson of being politically correct:

Mr. Carson was asked about his mother, who has Alzheimer’s. “If she didn’t,” he said, “she’d be out there with a shotgun, shooting all these liars,” a seeming reference to his opponents on the left.

With stuff like that and his insistence that there should be no laws or rules in warfare (“politically correct wars”) I’m beginning to think those stories about his murderous streak are really true.

Anyway, some bad news for Rubio:

Mr. Vander Plaats has said that conservatives must coalesce behind one candidate to ensure that the party would not be stuck again with an establishment nominee, like the ones they blame for defeat in the past two general elections.

He’s having a hell of a time walking that line and I don’t think it’s working. He can’t compete with the true Bible-thumpers or attract the angry-Trumpers. Cruz is the guy who is fluent in wingnut. I doubt the can attract any establishment types but at this point you have to wonder how many of them there are left.

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A dose of sanity
by Tom Sullivan

A dose of sanity in a minute, I promise.

Donald Trump is America’s crazy, right-wing uncle—and he’s coming for Thanksgiving. His Thursday comments about creating a Muslim database had me fantasizing whether Trump isn’t secretly asking himself just how far he can go before his Real American fans balk. Is Trump wondering, “What if I slipped lines from Mussolini into my speeches? Would they still cheer? What if I called for putting Muslims in camps? Would they pump their fists in the air?” Finally, Trump would throw up his hands and say, “Look at you idiots! This is the United States of America we’re talking about. You would really do it. Whatta buncha losers!”

I know. Not gonna happen.

Even though Trump tried to walk back the “unconstitutional, morally repugnant” comments, it was a Kinsley gaffe. In response, Chris Hayes recalled President George W. Bush’s “Islam is peace” speech at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. days after the September 11 attacks, and Jeb Bush’s people pounced:

Forced federal registration of US citizens, based on religious identity, is fasicm. Period. Nothing else to call it. https://t.co/XYee8dEgJr— John Noonan (@noonanjo) November 20, 2015

So it was a breath of fresh air to hear about Bernie Sanders’ “democratic socialism” speech the same day at Georgetown University. I haven’t had a chance to listen to the entire 90-minute speech, but Mother Jones extracted some key points from Sanders’ speech, calling it a “preemptive strike against those who would use the s-word” against him:

Almost everything [Roosevelt] proposed was called “socialist.” I thought I would mention that just in passing. Social Security, which transformed life for the elderly in this country, was defined by his opponents as “socialist.” The concept of the “minimum wage”—that workers had to be paid at least a certain amount of money for their labor—was seen as a radical intrusion into the marketplace and was described as “socialist.” Unemployment insurance (the idea that if you lose your job at least you have something to fall back), abolishing child labor, the 40-hour work week, collective bargaining (the rights of workers to engage in negotiations with a union), strong banking regulations, deposit insurance, and job programs that put millions of people to work were all described, in one way or another, as “socialist.” Yet as you all know, all of these programs and many more have become the fabric of our nation and in fact the foundation of our middle class.

Thirty years later after Roosevelt’s speech, in the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson fought for Medicare and Medicaid to provide health care to millions of senior citizens and families with children, persons with disabilities and some of the most vulnerable people in this country. Today Medicare does not seem to be such a terribly radical idea, to say that once they get old they should have medical insurance, but when it was proposed once again we heard right-wing forces describe these programs as socialistic and a threat to our American way of life.

In defining himself, Sanders went after the nativism of the Trumps and their ilk, but with a veiled dig at Hillary Clinton:

The next time you hear me attacked as a socialist—like tomorrow—remember this: I don’t believe government should take over the grocery store down the street or own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families of this country who produce the wealth of this country deserve a decent standard of living and that their incomes should go up, not down.

I do believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in America, companies that create jobs here rather than companies that are shutting down in America and increasing their profits by exploiting low-wage labor abroad.

I believe that most Americans can pay lower taxes if hedge fund managers who make billions manipulating the marketplace finally start paying the taxes that they should.

I don’t believe in special treatment for the top 1 percent, but I do believe in equal treatment for African Americans who are right to proclaim the moral principle that Black Lives Matter.

I despise appeals to nativism and prejudice of which we have been hearing a lot in recent months, and I do believe in immigration reform that gives Hispanics and others a pathway to citizenship and a better life.

I don’t believe in some foreign “ism”, but I believe deeply in American idealism.

I’m not running for president because it’s my turn, but because it’s the turn of all of us to live in a nation of hope and opportunity not for some, not for the few, but for all.

As the song says, Which side are you on?

Here is Sanders’ speech in full:

The song of conservatism

by digby

I just … oh dear. It’s cocktail hour:

A letter from Opa

by digby

Seeing the hate aimed at people looking to the US for savior, I can’t help but think of this letter from my Opa pic.twitter.com/oN2exwshEd

— Josh Schwerin (@JoshSchwerin) November 20, 2015

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QOTD: direct from Bizarroworld

by digby

I stole this from TNR, but it’s irresistible. It’s from Kevin Williamson at National Review:

Conservatives are always at a bit of a disadvantage in the theater of mass democracy, because people en masse aren’t very bright or sophisticated, and they’re vulnerable to cheap, hysterical emotional appeals.

I’m sure he’s talking about hysterical, emotional appeals like these:

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Ben Carson, foot in mouth again

by digby

This is a good point about Ben Carson’s idiotic racist comments comparing Muslims to dogs:

“If there’s a rabid dog running around in your neighborhood, you’re probably not going to assume something good about that dog,” Carson said at an event in Alabama this week. “And you’re probably going to put your children out of the way. That doesn’t mean that you hate all dogs.”

Conservatives will play like this isn’t outright bigotry and fear mongering. But they can’t play like Carson hasn’t once again revealed stunning cultural and geopolitical obliviousness.

To the practicing Muslims we hope to enlist against ISIS, dogs are unclean and disfavored animals, and to compare a Muslim to a dog is a profound insult. This isn’t some obscure dogma. It’s there for anyone with the patience to Google two words. Whatever their private views, most serious Republican foreign policy eminences would advise against antagonizing potential allies with heedlessly inflammatory language like this. But if they recognize the strategic value in not antagonizing Muslim populations, they’re basically ceding the point that “war against radical Islam” language is barely concealed incitement.

The dog thing is a big deal among a lot of Muslims who are not radical in the least. It’s really foolish to go there for a dozen different reasons. It wouldn’t matter as much if he were just some random racist citizen. There’s not much you can do about them. But he’s running for president and people who run for president should be knowledgeable enough to know to choose their words carefully when it comes to national security. Apparently, they don’t teach that in medical school.

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Trump, eliminationism and the feckless Dems


by digby

I wrote about Trump and the feckless Democrats for Salon this morning. I start off by recapping his creepy fascistic comments about registering Muslims for a tracking database. This one comment sums it up but there’s a lot more. (Click over if you haven’t seen them in detail.)

“We’re going to have to do things that we never did before. And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule. And certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy. And so we’re going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago.”

Here’s an excerpt of what follows:

Read on. It’s getting worse.

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