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President Donald Trump: The Thread


Steve9347
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This Is What It Looks Like When the President Asks People to Snitch on Their Neighbors

 

In April, the Trump Administration launched what it called the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) hotline, with a stated mission to "provide proactive, timely, adequate, and professional services to victims of crimes committed by removable aliens." But internal logs of calls to VOICE obtained by Splinter show that hundreds of Americans seized on the hotline to lodge secret accusations against acquaintances, neighbors, or even their own family members, often to advance petty personal grievances.

 

The logs--hundreds of which were available for download on the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement web site despite containing extremely sensitive personal information--call to mind the efforts of closed societies like East Germany or Cuba to cultivate vast networks of informants and an atmosphere of fear and suspicion.

 

The reports rarely involve the sort of dangerous criminality that Donald Trump campaigned against. Despite the VOICE office's statement that the service "is not a hotline to report crime," callers are using it to alert Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to minor infractions, or merely to the presence of people they suspect of being undocumented immigrants.

 

Together, the logs are a grim running diary of a country where people eagerly report their fellow residents to the authorities, or seek to bring the power of the immigration police to bear on family disputes. On May 25, 2017, one man called to say that his stepson was violating a restraining order by parking his car near his house. He didn't want his wife to know that he was trying to get her son deported:

 

Caller stated the illegal alien (step-son) is a drug addict, unemployed, homeless and living in his car that he parks at [address redacted by Splinter]. Caller stated the subject is a danger to society and wants to know why he was not taken into ICE custody. Caller stated the subject recently missing his court hearing [number and date redacted by Splinter] and is now in probation violation. Caller provided A number, name [redacted by Splinter], DOB, and COB. Caller stated he does not want his wife to know and prefers not to be reached at his cell number [redacted by Splinter] that he shares with her.

 

This is how authoritarian police states crack down--they rely heavily on people turning each other in.

 

The kicker here is that ICE still has the completely unredacted database full of the snitchers' names, ohone numbers, addresses and SSN's posted on their website.

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http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/201...rto-rico-215668

Just weeks ago, the military response to Hurricane Harvey in Texas was rapid and powerful. In preparation for Hurricane Irma, the Trump administration again ordered up an extensive military relief operation.

 

But when Hurricane Maria struck at full strength several days later—precisely as advertised, and similar in scale to Harvey—the U.S. military simply called off the huge resources it had mustered for Hurricane Irma. An inadequately small military contingent was left on its own for nearly two weeks to help with the damage. If there was a plan for disaster relief it was not publicly apparent. And on-scene commander—crucial in crises this large—was not appointed until nearly 10 days after landfall.

 

No less an authority than the three-star general who reversed the disastrous initial federal response to Hurricane Katrina back in 2005, retired Army Lieutenant General Russel Honoré, said as much. “We’re replaying a scene from Katrina,” he said on NPR about Maria on Thursday. “We started moving about four days too late.” That seems overly generous.

 

And yet in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, American citizens are waiting for the USNS Comfort hospital ship, which won’t arrive until next week. Ten days after landfall there was no real air bridge. Likely dozens upon dozens of heavy helicopters are needed to move supplies until trucks are offloaded. And reservist units specifically trained for long-term humanitarian relief, water purification, medical care and military police? As of this writing, there is absolutely no sign of them. Ten days in, a few Marines, small Army elements and the Puerto Rican National Guard were ashore on their own.

 

In contrast, the United States eventually put 60,000 federal and reserve troops into New Orleans after Katrina after 2005, Honoré noted. Puerto Rico will need far more, he said.

Edited by StrangeSox
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It's time to stop ragging on the current President. To borrow from Dennis Green: He is who we thought he was. It's now time to shift the focus to the people who can and should remove him from office. He is unqualified, undignified and ill-prepared. Since there's no where to Peter Principle him up, the only other place to go is out. Time to yell at the House to impeach and remove. And yes, I understand who is next in line and next in line after that.

 

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QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Oct 3, 2017 -> 03:21 PM)
It's time to stop ragging on the current President. To borrow from Dennis Green: He is who we thought he was. It's now time to shift the focus to the people who can and should remove him from office. He is unqualified, undignified and ill-prepared. Since there's no where to Peter Principle him up, the only other place to go is out. Time to yell at the House to impeach and remove. And yes, I understand who is next in line and next in line after that.

 

It is precisely that which made this idiot electable from both sides of the aisle.

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His incompetence and pettiness is getting Americans in Puerto Rico killed right now. He seems bent on provoking NK into a nuclear confrontation. He's constantly diminishing the standing of the US around the world.

 

Why should people stop criticizing him and pointing out his many, many failures only 8 months into a disastrous presidency?

 

To wit:

 

Trump denies Puerto Rico request to let hurricane victims use food stamps for prepared hot meals: report

 

Trump meets hurricane survivors in Puerto Rico

Autoplay: On | Off

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello says that the federal government has denied the U.S. territory's request for its citizens to redeem food stamps for ready-to-eat hot meals, amid widespread food shortages and power outages in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

 

The nearly 1.3 million people on food stamps in Puerto Rico — almost 40 percent of its population— are unable to use the benefits of the federal program to buy fasts food or pre-prepared meals at supermarkets, according to The New York Times.

 

Food-stamp recipients are usually prohibited from buying hot foods and other items that can be eaten “in store” such as sandwiches, soup or pizza.

 

Puerto Rico requested the administration temporarily lift the restrictions on the program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

 

So far, the administration has refused, even after granting similar waivers in Texas after Hurricane Harvey and in Florida after Hurricane Irma.

 

Actually, incompetence is too forgiving. This is malevolence.

Edited by StrangeSox
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QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Oct 3, 2017 -> 03:21 PM)
It's time to stop ragging on the current President. To borrow from Dennis Green: He is who we thought he was. It's now time to shift the focus to the people who can and should remove him from office. He is unqualified, undignified and ill-prepared. Since there's no where to Peter Principle him up, the only other place to go is out. Time to yell at the House to impeach and remove. And yes, I understand who is next in line and next in line after that.

I think the republicans are using him for these tax cuts because he is more than willing to lie through his teeth. I think once the cuts go through or once they fail, a lot of these politicians who have looked the other way will turn on him. IMO, this is unprecedented behavior.

 

Pence is bad IMO ( I know a couple of people who live in Indiana who were doing cartwheels he got his current job), but he's better than Trump. Time to put in the second stringer.

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QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 3, 2017 -> 03:27 PM)
His incompetence and pettiness is getting Americans in Puerto Rico killed right now. He seems bent on provoking NK into a nuclear confrontation. He's constantly diminishing the standing of the US around the world.

 

Why should people stop criticizing him and pointing out his many, many failures only 8 months into a disastrous presidency?

 

To wit:

 

Trump denies Puerto Rico request to let hurricane victims use food stamps for prepared hot meals: report

 

 

 

Actually, incompetence is too forgiving. This is malevolence.

 

Um duh. But like I said years ago, when you use this same terminology to describe moderates, it loses all meaning and opens the door for the truly incompetent. Trump just happened to walk in and be the recipient of it.

 

Sadly with the divide still out there, he stands a way too good of a shot at re-election.

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 3, 2017 -> 03:35 PM)
Um duh. But like I said years ago, when you use this same terminology to describe moderates, it loses all meaning and opens the door for the truly incompetent. Trump just happened to walk in and be the recipient of it.

 

Sadly with the divide still out there, he stands a way too good of a shot at re-election.

Yeah, because insulting a moderate president and blocking him at every single possible opportunity totally cost the opposing party the election in 2016.

 

I guess that's just one of those things that's ok if you're a Republican. You can call the opposing president Hitler and it helps you win elections because Republicans are ok with that, but god forbid a Democrat points out that the guy literally just defended Nazis.

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 3, 2017 -> 03:43 PM)
Yeah, because insulting a moderate president and blocking him at every single possible opportunity totally cost the opposing party the election in 2016.

 

I guess that's just one of those things that's ok if you're a Republican. You can call the opposing president Hitler and it helps you win elections because Republicans are ok with that, but god forbid a Democrat points out that the guy literally just defended Nazis.

 

It gave us the two worst political candidates in modern history, you might be OK with that, I am not. But like you said, it is OK when it benefits your guy.

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 3, 2017 -> 03:45 PM)
It gave us the two worst political candidates in modern history, you might be OK with that, I am not.

The only reason one of them was the "worst candidate in modern history" is the use of a private email server, which was the worst thing ever for 12 months and is again of course ok today.

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 3, 2017 -> 03:47 PM)
The only reason one of them was the "worst candidate in modern history" is the use of a private email server, which was the worst thing ever for 12 months and is again of course ok today.

I still think both parties could have done a lot better.

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 3, 2017 -> 03:35 PM)
Um duh. But like I said years ago, when you use this same terminology to describe moderates, it loses all meaning and opens the door for the truly incompetent. Trump just happened to walk in and be the recipient of it.

 

Sadly with the divide still out there, he stands a way too good of a shot at re-election.

 

 

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 3, 2017 -> 03:45 PM)
It gave us the two worst political candidates in modern history, you might be OK with that, I am not. But like you said, it is OK when it benefits your guy.

 

The first post is ironic when you add the second post.

 

Guess you think Jill Stein is better than Hillary? And that Eugue McCarthy guy was definitely better...

 

 

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Democrats are responsible for conservatives backing Trump through the primaries and in the general election because they called their political opponents too conservative in a political campaign.

 

Republicans are not responsible for their rhetoric that was and remains 100 times worse. For some reason, we haven't seen a comparable radicalization of the Democratic base, but rest assured, whatever happens, conservatives will not be to blame.

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QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 3, 2017 -> 04:05 PM)
Democrats are responsible for conservatives backing Trump through the primaries and in the general election because they called their political opponents too conservative in a political campaign.

 

Republicans are not responsible for their rhetoric that was and remains 100 times worse. For some reason, we haven't seen a comparable radicalization of the Democratic base, but rest assured, whatever happens, conservatives will not be to blame.

 

Yeah it isn't like a socialist almost won their nomination or something...

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 3, 2017 -> 04:09 PM)
Yeah it isn't like a socialist almost won their nomination or something...

 

Sanders is a New Deal democrat to the (slight) right of most mainstream European parties, and he lost by a few million votes.

 

People who did back Sanders, myself included, didn't do it because Republicans called John Kerry and Barrack Obama extremist liberals. I honestly don't know what sort of mechanism for that happening you're envisioning.

 

edit: Actually, mentioning Europe makes me think it's worthwhile to point out the shifts that are occurring throughout western democracies right now. People aren't voting for right wing nationalism in Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, etc. because Democrats called Mitt Romney a conservative. There are uniquely American aspects to Trump and his rise for sure, but he's also part of a global shift.

Edited by StrangeSox
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QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 3, 2017 -> 04:13 PM)
Sanders is a New Deal democrat to the (slight) right of most mainstream European parties, and he lost by a few million votes.

 

People who did back Sanders, myself included, didn't do it because Republicans called John Kerry and Barrack Obama extremist liberals. I honestly don't know what sort of mechanism for that happening you're envisioning.

 

edit: Actually, mentioning Europe makes me think it's worthwhile to point out the shifts that are occurring throughout western democracies right now. People aren't voting for right wing nationalism in Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, etc. because Democrats called Mitt Romney a conservative. There are uniquely American aspects to Trump and his rise for sure, but he's also part of a global shift.

 

So it is all coincidence that one party has pushed radically left, but total logic that the other one has pushed radically right, even though the same political undercurrents exist for both.

 

Sure, why not. If that is what it takes.

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 3, 2017 -> 04:27 PM)
So it is all coincidence that one party has pushed radically left, but total logic that the other one has pushed radically right, even though the same political undercurrents exist for both.

 

Sure, why not. If that is what it takes.

Frankly I hope that widens the center for a new party to emerge.

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