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‘how bill clinton paved the way for donald trump’s deportation policy’..

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(excerpt..)

The pernicious legacy of Clinton’s 1996 immigration reform.

Congress and President Bill Clinton passed a set of rules in 1996 that expanded the category of persons eligible for ‘removal’ that limited common forms of relief for people facing removal and that made removal based on criminal convictions more ‘expedited’.

These rules said that judges could not consider relief in removal proceedings when the person facing removal had a criminal record.

These rules governing ‘criminal aliens’ were part of a broader set of legislative rules designed to reduce the ‘cost’ of immigrants in general — new legal immigrants for example were ineligible for public assistance and poorer American citizens and legal residents could no longer sponsor immigrants under family reunification provisions.

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Source: Debating the big questions on immigration, part 2: How Bill Clinton paved the way for Donald Trump’s deportation policy – Salon.com

jeremy corbyn opines on donald trump..

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donald-trump.jpg

(excerpt..)

Jeremy Corbyn has called out Donald Trump’s presidential election politics – accusing him of replacing an economic strategy with blame for ‘Muslims Mexicans and women’.

Mr Corbyn – who has already called on Europe’s socialists to solve the problems of working people being wooed by right-wing parties – said the US President-elect had won his election by blaming minorities for society’s problems.

(cont..)

Source: Jeremy Corbyn accuses Donald Trump of blaming ‘Muslims, Mexicans and women’ for society’s problems | The Independent

‘george carlin was right: donald trump is america’.. 

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As a wise comedian says – we must own Trump — he didn’t fall from the sky and yes he is a reflection of our nation.

(excerpt..)

George Carlin was a master comedian – which is to say he was more than funny: He possessed a genius insight into human nature and the workings of our society.

Carlin was perhaps most famous for his standup routines on topics such as the foolishness of believing in God – the ‘seven dirty words’ and the folly that is national or ethnic pride.

But during a long career that contained many gem Carlin made an observation that is especially insightful for describing this political season and Election Day.

Carlin said the following:

‘Now, there’s one thing you might have noticed I don’t complain about: politicians.

Everybody complains about politicians.

Everybody says they suck.

Well where do people think these politicians come from?

They don’t fall out of the sky.

They don’t pass through a membrane from another reality.

They come from American parents and American families – American homes – American schools – American churches – American businesses and American universities and they are elected by American citizens.

This is the best we can do folks.

This is what we have to offer.

It’s what our system produces: Garbage in – garbage out’.

(cont..)

Source: Heaven help us — George Carlin was right: Donald Trump is America – Salon.com

‘bill maher annihilates trump-supporting white evangelicals’.. 

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We are owed an explanation from the so-called values voters.

(excerpt..)

Bill Maher was in a somber mood the last Friday before the election – warning of a ‘slow-moving right-wing coup’ happening in the country and scolding the media to ‘do your fucking job’.

He admitted he was terrified about the election Tuesday – as many of us are.

The one silver lining to the whole relentless shit storm for Maher is that for once religion was not dragged into the presidential contest.

The general election contest was remarkably free of Bible-thumping and Republican voters rejected all the supposedly pious clowns in the primary.

For Trump – Maher pointed out – the Ten Commandments all have ‘an LOL at the end’.

He routinely breaks them all.

Maher got off a number of good lines.

(cont..)

Source: Bill Maher Annihilates Trump-Supporting White Evangelicals for Being the ‘Shameless Hypocrites They Have Always Been’ | Alternet

‘do you want to live in donald trump’s new york or bob dylan’s america?’..

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Bob Dylan is the author of America over the last 50 years.

Donald Trump is the vandal trying to roll it back.

(ed: this link has a very tasty bob dylan best-of/melange of songs..well worth the effort/memory-jog)

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‘Ironically it is that faith in the self that has made New York a great city.

And it’s the same faith in self that made Donald Trump a pariah.

Donald Trump’s problem isn’t that he believes in himself — it’s that he believes in nothing else.

Do his positions on the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Iran Nuclear Deal mean more to him than winning the election?

I – no mind reader – can’t say but I suspect a man who changed his political party and his position on abortion – the Iraq War and outsourcing cares less about the particular decisions being made and more that he is the one making them.

Why can Trump give no coherent argument as to why we should make him president?

Because to him explanation is extraneous.

His only selling point is that he — the smartest guy he knows — agrees with what he’s saying.

‘I’m great.

I have a history of winning.

I make the best deals’.

That sounds less like a guy I want to have a beer with and more like a 7-year-old who won one of the 15 first-place ribbons in Self-Esteem camp but it has replaced all political discourse.

The closest he’s come to a foreign policy plan is calling Chinese people “motherfuckers,” which in the name of even-handedness I tried and it did virtually nothing to erase the trade deficit.

He doesn’t have to explain himself — he believes in himself.

Belief supplants explanation.

If you have faith in yourself then the explanation should be unnecessary.

This is the real damage of the Trump campaign.

It has murdered language as a useful rhetorical tool in our election.

(cont..)

Source: A tale of two populisms: Do you want to live in Donald Trump’s New York or Bob Dylan’s America? – Salon.com