Trump Admin Meltdown Thread Part III - A Democratic House

[BSF21]

Ted Lieu is just a fantastic light in all of the garbage on Twitter/in DC.

[brian]

The only word that properly describes this policy is evil.

[degenerasian]

Politically, the Vietnamese are by far the most republican and anti-communist among Asian-Americans. So way to shoot that small but vocal voter base.

I will have to study the details of this. I cant see this effecting US citizens but who knows.

[brian]

Politically, the Vietnamese are by far the most republican and anti-communist among Asian-Americans. So way to shoot that small but vocal voter base.

I will have to study the details of this. I cant see this effecting US citizens but who knows.

Shouldn't affect naturalized citizens, but presumably there are still many refugees (it almost seems silly calling them refugees after all this time -- some of them have been in the United States as long as I've been alive) who are still here under refugee status protections.

[degenerasian]

Politically, the Vietnamese are by far the most republican and anti-communist among Asian-Americans. So way to shoot that small but vocal voter base.

I will have to study the details of this. I cant see this effecting US citizens but who knows.

Shouldn't affect naturalized citizens, but presumably there are still many refugees (it almost seems silly calling them refugees after all this time -- some of them have been in the United States as long as I've been alive) who are still here under refugee status protections.

I can't see there being many from the pre-75 era especially. They were stateless when they came to the US so the first thing they would do is get US citizenship in order to have something concrete. The 79-82 boat people would have Socialist Republic of Vietnam documents but would want to get rid of them ASAP. Outside of that, there would be small pre-95 examples of Vietnamese not being US citizens.

[brian]

Politically, the Vietnamese are by far the most republican and anti-communist among Asian-Americans. So way to shoot that small but vocal voter base.

I will have to study the details of this. I cant see this effecting US citizens but who knows.

Shouldn't affect naturalized citizens, but presumably there are still many refugees (it almost seems silly calling them refugees after all this time -- some of them have been in the United States as long as I've been alive) who are still here under refugee status protections.

I can't see there being many from the pre-75 era especially. They were stateless when they came to the US so the first thing they would do is get US citizenship in order to have something concrete. The 79-82 boat people would have Socialist Republic of Vietnam documents but would want to get rid of them ASAP. Outside of that, there would be small pre-95 examples of Vietnamese not being US citizens.

I don't think it's as easy to get citizenship as you think. Certainly, a great many of them have been naturalized since then, but I'd bet there's still hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese who could be affected by this. There was about 1 million that were accepted as refugees between 1975 and 1980 alone. Some have died and some have naturalized and some have possibly even gone to other countries (it's possible some have even returned to Vietnam), but there's probably a lot who have just been living under their refugee status, started families, had kids, etc. since the one thing that literally has never been up for debate in this country is that we owed it to them to settle here since we fucked up their country a million ways to Sunday from 1954 to 1975.

[degenerasian]

Politically, the Vietnamese are by far the most republican and anti-communist among Asian-Americans. So way to shoot that small but vocal voter base.

I will have to study the details of this. I cant see this effecting US citizens but who knows.

Shouldn't affect naturalized citizens, but presumably there are still many refugees (it almost seems silly calling them refugees after all this time -- some of them have been in the United States as long as I've been alive) who are still here under refugee status protections.

I can't see there being many from the pre-75 era especially. They were stateless when they came to the US so the first thing they would do is get US citizenship in order to have something concrete. The 79-82 boat people would have Socialist Republic of Vietnam documents but would want to get rid of them ASAP. Outside of that, there would be small pre-95 examples of Vietnamese not being US citizens.

I don't think it's as easy to get citizenship as you think. Certainly, a great many of them have been naturalized since then, but I'd bet there's still hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese who could be affected by this. There was about 1 million that were accepted as refugees between 1975 and 1980 alone. Some have died and some have naturalized and some have possibly even gone to other countries (it's possible some have even returned to Vietnam), but there's probably a lot who have just been living under their refugee status, started families, had kids, etc. since the one thing that literally has never been up for debate in this country is that we owed it to them to settle here since we fucked up their country a million ways to Sunday from 1954 to 1975.

That's true, I would have to look up some numbers and US policies at the time.
My father coming to Canada in 1975 pretty much got granted Canadian citizenship in 1978. He didn't have to do anything, not even a test. He passed a government english class (which he has to take anyways) and that was enough. Much easier back then.

[Pruitt]

Why this, and why now?

Only half-joking, but did Trump have a bad interview with an Asian reporter? What could the possible benefits be from this - he's already got his immigrant scapegoats.

[brian]

Why this, and why now?

Only half-joking, but did Trump have a bad interview with an Asian reporter? What could the possible benefits be from this - he's already got his immigrant scapegoats.

It's just cruelty for cruelty's sake. Trump and his minions get off on it. There really is no other possible, plausible explanation.

[Joe K]

Why this, and why now?

Only half-joking, but did Trump have a bad interview with an Asian reporter? What could the possible benefits be from this - he's already got his immigrant scapegoats.

It's just cruelty for cruelty's sake. Trump and his minions get off on it. There really is no other possible, plausible explanation.

Also, he’s a white supremacist and Vietnamese people aren’t white. It’s fair to assume that he’s not thinking about the political benefits, or lack thereof, and is just going to do anything possible to make this country whiter.

[Pruitt]

I still, still to this day, try to think that there's some logic (even of the twisted variety) behind Trump and Company.

You think I'd learn.

[The Sybian]

Why this, and why now?

Only half-joking, but did Trump have a bad interview with an Asian reporter? What could the possible benefits be from this - he's already got his immigrant scapegoats.

It's just cruelty for cruelty's sake. Trump and his minions get off on it. There really is no other possible, plausible explanation.

Probably another brilliant idea from C+ Santa Monica fascist Stephen Miller.

I'm amazed at how many US Permanent Residents (green card holders) never become citizens. At the end of my Homeland Security days, I had to review A-files (former INS files) of resident aliens who were paroled into the country, meaning they were stopped at the border, and let in subject to deportation due to convictions for potentially deportable offenses. So many of these people came to the US as young children, and lived here for their entire lives, but never became citizens. Now because they pled guilty to the pettiest of offenses, they are subject to deportation because their dime store defense attorneys had no idea pleading made them deportable. Anyways, I never understood why they wouldn't take the steps to become citizens. I'm sure they never realized their possession of marijuana charge from 1975 could get them deported to a country they left as an infant, have never been to, and don't speak the language, but don't they want to vote? I guess not... Worse, people from countries that no longer exist, say Yugoslavia, don't have to be accepted by the country that now governs the land of their birth. A Yugoslavian from Zagreb gets status in the US, but didn't become a citizen gets deported, Croatia can refuse him, and he gets stuck serving a life sentence in an ICE detainment center for pleading guilty to unpaid parking tickets 30 years ago. He is fine, until he went on vacation to Toronto, and gets stopped at the border driving back home. Sure, he paid the $50 fine and the Judge told him it wouldn't affect his status... Sorry, but back to my point, what keeps people life long residents from getting citizenship?

[degenerasian]

I know some don't become citizens because their original country doesn't allow dual citizenship.
But for South Vietnam and Yugoslavia that don't exist anymore, there is no excuse.

But again, I realize that the path to citizenship in the US is more complicated than in Canada.

[duff]

I have a Nigerian friend who came to the US during college. He then served 4 years in the military, married a citizen but still hasn't taken his citizenship test. Now he is a professor at Notre Dame. I have no idea why he has never taken the test.

[sancarlos]

I have a Nigerian friend who came to the US during college. He then served 4 years in the military, married a citizen but still hasn't taken his citizenship test. Now he is a professor at Notre Dame. I have no idea why he has never taken the test.

My mother and father naturalized and became citizens when I was a kid. The test was super easy but my mum got flustered and managed to say there are 50 stripes and 13 stars on the flag. They let her pass anyway.

[The Sybian]

I have a Nigerian friend who came to the US during college. He then served 4 years in the military, married a citizen but still hasn't taken his citizenship test. Now he is a professor at Notre Dame. I have no idea why he has never taken the test.

Ask him. I'm really curious why people decide not to.

[A_B]

Because it never mattered before?

[The Sybian]

Because it never mattered before?

It always mattered, but it's much more publicized now.

[Pruitt]

I have a Nigerian friend who came to the US during college. He then served 4 years in the military, married a citizen but still hasn't taken his citizenship test. Now he is a professor at Notre Dame. I have no idea why he has never taken the test.

Ask him. I'm really curious why people decide not to.

Obviously a different situation as she was never under threat of deportation, but my wife has been here since she was 8. Didn't take the citizenship test until she was 45. Just never really got around to it.

[brian]

Every day a fresh new hell.

[Pruitt]

Tangentally - doesn't "Flotus" sound like a technical term for a kind of turd?

[Johnnie]

Sometimes the government just doesn't think through their acronyms/initialisms. Or they decide to create one unnecessarily.

Going through a Professional Military Education (PME) class called Airman Leadership School (ALS), instead of the word "objective" being used to overview a chapter, it was, I shit you not, TOOTLIFEST.

"The object of this lesson is for each student to..."

I think everyone did a course feedback form saying it was dumb and I think it eventually went away.

[rass]

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2018/12/12/walls-work

WE ARE BUILDING THE FIRST NEW BORDER WALL IN A DECADE.

DHS is committed to building wall and building wall quickly. We are not replacing short, outdated and ineffective wall with similar wall. Instead, under this President we are building a wall that is 30-feet high.

FACT: Prior to President Trump taking office, we have never built wall that high.

h/t

[Pruitt]

So 22 miles of wall done! Sleep well America...

FACT: Prior to President Trump taking office, we have never built wall that high.

Nice usage of the language.

[Gunpowder]

Outdated wall! This is insane.

EDIT: Shouldn't it be Wall Works, if that's the form you're going with in the article?

[Ryan]

FACT: Prior to President Drumpf taking office, we have never built wall that high.

[Johnnie]

Soooo... Translated from Russian? Where are the cyber warfare gurus in the CIA making a comment that the DHS website was hacked?

I swear I hate that everyone in the military send to be all about cyber security and making every little topic classified just to be safe only to see this shit happen and those same cyber security experts seemingly shrug.

[Nonlinear FC]

Who’s to say they knew what was reality but were saying that to pander to their base?

Maybe, but Occam's Razor. Perhaps you've had more luck than I trying to walk your parents through using even the most basic functions of a smartphone.

These guys legitimately do not know what they are talking about a good deal of the time. With that said, there is absolutely something to what LJ is saying, because they have young staffers that are writing these talking points. Typically, the truly ignorant stuff comes when they are engaging with a person providing testimony, because they are off script.

[mister d]

Saw on twitter speculation that targeting vietnamese people was a KKK dog-whistle:

[A_B]

This was too good to not make sure every saw.

[Brontoburglar]

when you swing like that, you gotta spell right

[Giff]

I love it so much when I crack up at a Tweet before realizing it's one of y'all.

[A_B]

when you swing like that, you gotta spell right

That might have been intentional, though i can't say for sure Me-Lame-ia.

[Nonlinear FC]

So, let's do a quick little recap. I'm doing this off the dome, so please add whatever you like.

* Russian spy agrees to go the cooperation route. Still unclear who she dealt with while she dug around the last 2.5 years
* National Enquirer dude gets immunity, so he can connect the hush money dots nicely.
* Cohen sentenced to 3 years, but he got leniency for being a good egg.
* Flynn no time, same reason.
* Trial for Manafort being a lying sack scheduled for January. Still not clear where all of that is headed, apart from him being put away for most of the rest of his life. Stay golden, Pony Boy.

Imma stop there, because I could go back and talk about papadapadobeedo and others that have been indicted, but it all gets deep in the weeds. To me, we've got Trump committing a felony with the hush money. I don't really know if spy, Flynn or Manafort stuff is going anywhere, but I *suspect* that the hush money angle was the easiest thing to sew up, so they went after it hard, and now they pretty much have that in the bag.

I also want to make a point that was made somewhere I can't remember, but is really important. The GOP/Trump want to keep talking about collusion as if it is a specific act where Trump directly interacted with Russian operatives. But really, what they say when they are being "serious" is that even if there was some collusion, that's not a crime. And, to some extent, they are correct.

BUT, a big aspect of federal law is "aiding and abetting" a foreign power to influence our election. And just his public comments about wanting Russia to hack Hillary's servers alone could very easily be considered aiding and abetting. But those of us who've been eagle-eying this know that there are lots of ways Trump's campaign appears to have been doing this through most of 2016.

And that, my friends, is the next shoe to drop. Painting the picture of all the different ways the campaign, including Trump and his inner circle, actively created an atmosphere and specific moments to assist Russian interference.

[tennbengal]

So...collusion then.

[DaveInSeattle]

Every day a fresh new hell.

[Pruitt]

Every day a fresh new hell.

The complete lack of dignity, style, gravitas and class from the Trumps is really unbelievable.

[sancarlos]

Hey, there was a tweet awhile back that included a great list of much of the shit Trump and his cronies have done in the past couple years. I tried to find it, but was unsuccessful. Can anyone locate it and provide it again?

Many of us visiting relatives this holiday season could use a little crib sheet.

[brian]

Mueller investigation has been such a big hit, it's going on the road - expanded to include illegal influence from Middle Eastern countries, especially Saudi Arabia?

[Pruitt]

Trump was in the room during hush money discussions with tabloid publisher