#MeToo movement is in the running for Time's Person of the Year.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Time magazine’s shortlist for the 2017 Person of the Year was announced on the “Today” show on Monday, and the #MeToo movement is in the running.

Time has been selecting a Person of the Year since 1927, using the title to recognize “the person or group of people who most influenced the news during the past year, for better or for worse.” 

This year’s list is a smattering of everyone from business moguls to world leaders to political movements. The finalists are:

• Colin Kaepernick 
• Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman 
• Donald Trump 
• The Dreamers 
• Jeff Bezos 
• Kim Jong Un 
• The #MeToo movement 
• Patty Jenkins 
• Robert Mueller 
• Xi Jinping

Okay let me just say that if the #MeToo campaign beats out Donald Trump for this award, that Trump will quite literally lose his shit.

And since I imagine that all of Trump's accusers will be included in the accompanying article, his twitter response will be epic indeed. 

Actually if Kaepernick, The Dreamers, or Robert Mueller win it will also inspire a fairly awesome response from Tangerine Twitler.

So I would be good with those as well.

It appears the Democrats may have popped the champagne cork a little early on DACA.

Courtesy of CNN: 

President Donald Trump is moving closer to a deal with Democrats that would protect hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation and put off funding for his marquee campaign promise of a border wall along the US-Mexico border. 

The bombshell developments, which were first announced in a statement Wednesday night by Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi and reiterated by Trump himself Thursday morning, were met with immediate outrage from conservatives and put pressure on the President's Republican allies in Congress. 

The two Democratic leaders announced that following a dinner at the White House, they had "agreed to enshrine the protections of (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program) into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that's acceptable to both sides."

Yesterday when this news first broke I saw a number of pundits looking not all convinced that this was actually going to happen. Rachel Maddow in particular talked about "getting it in writing."

And it appears they were right to be cautious, because these were Trump's tweets from this morning.

No deal was made last night on DACA. Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

The WALL, which is already under construction in the form of new renovation of old and existing fences and walls, will continue to be built.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

The lesson here is that nobody should take this asshole at his word EVER.

However it does appear that Pelosi and Schumer may have managed to move him just a little.

Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

...They have been in our country for many years through no fault of their own - brought in by parents at young age. Plus BIG border security

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

So MAYBE there is a little room to negotiate, but then again maybe not.

It really depends on who Trump talks to next, because his opinions seem to be based on who he talked to last. 

Breitbart celebrates Trump's decision to repeal DACA while the rest of the country recoils in disgust.

Oooh, a brown skinned person! How'd he get in here?

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is still notching policy wins after his return to the right-wing website Breitbart. President Donald Trump’s decision to end Obama-era protections for undocumented immigrants brought as children to the U.S. by their parents is a major victory for Bannon and Breitbart — and they know it.

“This is a huge step in the right direction for the Trump administration, and for Breitbart as we cover the stories that most of the rest of the media ignore on immigration like crimes committed by illegal aliens including so-called Dreamers, the economic and cultural effects on American workers of large scale legal and illegal immigration, and the forgotten man and woman President Trump honed in on during the 2016 race and in his inauguration speech,” a senior Breitbart editor who was not authorized to speak on the record told HuffPost. 

Breitbart was a primary source of the push to repeal DACA, which covers approximately 800,000 people. The site has sometimes published multiple stories per day promoting repeal and praising DACA opponents, while attacking Democrats and Republicans who support the program. At one point on Tuesday, nine of the site’s 10 most popular stories were about Trump’s DACA repeal (or, in one case, about Hillary Clinton’s DACA support). It’s no surprise that Breitbart sees a victory here: The site has served for years as the most prominent platform for anti-immigration organizations and politicians to promote their views.

However while Steve Bannon and the racist visitors to Breitbart are partying like it's 1899, the rest of the country is having a completely different reaction.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Voters overwhelmingly support allowing undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to stay in the country, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, placing President Donald Trump’s decision to wind down the controversial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program at odds with public opinion. 

A majority of voters, 58 percent, think these undocumented immigrants, also known as Dreamers, should be allowed to stay and become citizens if they meet certain requirements — a sentiment that goes well beyond the existing DACA program. Another 18 percent think they should be allowed to stay and become legal residents, but not citizens. Only 15 percent think they should be removed or deported from the country.

I guess most of these folks are not fans of Breitbart.

And then there were the protests: 

Thousands marched across the Brooklyn Bridge Tuesday evening in protest after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Trump administration is ending the DACA program. 

At least 13 were arrested, including one New York council member, adding to the 34 who were arrested hours earlier outside Trump Tower. 

Earlier in the day, hundreds of immigrants and advocates from across the tri-state demonstrated in Manhattan and in Washington, D.C. 

There were also other protests in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, just to name a few.

But what be most troubling to Trump is that this decision has created a rift between him and many of his evangelical supporters.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

Religious leaders, including some of the evangelicals who have remained steadfast in their support for Trump, expressed their disappointment that Trump would reverse the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. 

In a strongly worded statement, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called the decision “reprehensible.” 

“Now, after months of anxiety and fear about their futures, these brave young people face deportation,” they wrote. “This decision is unacceptable and does not reflect who we are as Americans.” 

The Catholic Church’s ties to dreamers are direct. About 1 in 4 U.S. Catholics are foreign born, and 34 percent of all Catholics are Hispanic, according to Pew Research Center. Still, the overall Catholic vote in 2016 was split between Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, though Hispanic Catholics overwhelmingly supported Clinton. 

The criticism was echoed by local Catholic leaders, including Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, who has a close relationship with Pope Francis. He called the decision “very regrettable and harmful.” 

The United Methodist Church was even sharper in its rebuke, calling the efforts to “rescind these protections, not only unconscionable, but contrary to moral work and witness.” The Evangelical Lutheran Church, a major mainline Protestant denomination, wrote that its members would “pray today for those that will suffer undue repercussions due to the end of this program.” 

Even some of the faith leaders closest to Trump urged him not to end the protection for young immigrants. Some prominent evangelicals signed joint letters compelling Trump to leave the program in place while Congress works on a more permanent legislative solution.

This decision has essentially only satisfied the most racist fringe of Trump's base, the neo-Nazi/KKK branch if you will.

No wonder Trump sent Jeff "The Keebler Elf"  Sessions out to make the actual announcement, while Trump himself hides under his bed.

It almost seems as if Trump is trying to get as many people as possible to hate him before he leaves office. 

Barack Obama's statement on Trump's repeal of DACA.

Courtesy of Obama's Facebook page: 

Immigration can be a controversial topic. We all want safe, secure borders and a dynamic economy, and people of goodwill can have legitimate disagreements about how to fix our immigration system so that everybody plays by the rules. 

But that’s not what the action that the White House took today is about. This is about young people who grew up in America – kids who study in our schools, young adults who are starting careers, patriots who pledge allegiance to our flag. These Dreamers are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper. They were brought to this country by their parents, sometimes even as infants. They may not know a country besides ours. They may not even know a language besides English. They often have no idea they’re undocumented until they apply for a job, or college, or a driver’s license. 

Over the years, politicians of both parties have worked together to write legislation that would have told these young people – our young people – that if your parents brought you here as a child, if you’ve been here a certain number of years, and if you’re willing to go to college or serve in our military, then you’ll get a chance to stay and earn your citizenship. And for years while I was President, I asked Congress to send me such a bill. 

That bill never came. (It is important to point out here, because I see even visitors to this blog who seem confused, that President Obama did not just suddenly decide to introduce DACA, He tried for quite some time to get Congress to pass a reasonable immigration policy, and when that did not happen he took it upon himself to do something.) And because it made no sense to expel talented, driven, patriotic young people from the only country they know solely because of the actions of their parents, my administration acted to lift the shadow of deportation from these young people, so that they could continue to contribute to our communities and our country. We did so based on the well-established legal principle of prosecutorial discretion, deployed by Democratic and Republican presidents alike, because our immigration enforcement agencies have limited resources, and it makes sense to focus those resources on those who come illegally to this country to do us harm. Deportations of criminals went up. Some 800,000 young people stepped forward, met rigorous requirements, and went through background checks. And America grew stronger as a result. 

But today, that shadow has been cast over some of our best and brightest young people once again. To target these young people is wrong – because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating – because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel. What if our kid’s science teacher, or our friendly neighbor turns out to be a Dreamer? Where are we supposed to send her? To a country she doesn’t know or remember, with a language she may not even speak? 

If Donald Trump goes after the Dreamers, Barack Obama may go after him.

Don't make me come back here.

Courtesy of Politico:

Former President Barack Obama plans to speak out if President Donald Trump declares his intention to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, according to a person close to Obama. 

Trump is expected to announce on Tuesday that in six months, he will terminate the Obama-era DACA initiative, which grants two-year work permits to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and stayed out of trouble. POLITICO first reported the news. 

Obama’s current plan is to post a statement on Facebook and link to it on Twitter, where the former president has more than 94 million followers. In his final presidential press availability, he suggested that he would speak out if Trump went after the Dreamers — and that it was one of the few issues where he would feel morally compelled to do so. He said he would not remain silent in the face of “efforts to round up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids, and send them someplace else, when they love this country.”

Yes my headline is a little hyperbolic, as it really reflects how I wish Obama would respond, rather than the measured and careful statement that he is certain to issue.

I know who Obama is, and I admire him immensely for the fact that he is forever the grownup in the room, the steadying presence, the man who keeps his head when all about him are losing theirs. (With apologies to Rudyard Kipling.)

And we will welcome his words, share them with others, and cling to them for the wisdom that they hold.

But they will change absolutely nothing, and Trump will keep right on taking a sledgehammer to everything that President Obama worked so hard to build.

That makes me incredibly sad, and almost uncontrollably angry.

Donald Trump is a bully.

I remember bullies from my years in public school.

Everybody always told me to take the high road, to not get down on their level.

But nothing made it stop, nothing made me feel safe, until I finally had enough and knocked them on their ass.

I guess in some ways I just want Barack Obama to knock Donald Trump on his ass.

Verbally of course, I would never suggest a physical confrontation. (Though I have every confidence 44 could beat 45's big orange ass with little effort.)

Is it wrong? Probably.

Will Obama ever do anything like that? Probably not.

But that does not stop me from wanting it.

And it does not keep me from thinking that ultimately Barack Obama may be left with no choice.

Dreamer dies trying to rescue people during Texas flood, his Mexican born mother will not be allowed to attend his funeral.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Alonso Guillen came to the U.S. from Mexico as a child. He died here, too: On Wednesday, he disappeared when his boat capsized while he was rescuing survivors of the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area. 

Family members recovered his body on Sunday from a creek in Spring, Texas, according to The Houston Chronicle ― just hours before reports emerged that President Donald Trump will end the program that shielded Guillen and others like him ― so-called Dreamers ― from deportation. 

Guillen, a 31-year-old disc jockey who came to Texas from Mexico as a teenager, never became a U.S. citizen. But he had a work permit and protection from immediate deportation as part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program ― DACA ― that then-President Barack Obama established in 2012. 

Last week, he headed south from his home in Lufkin, Texas, with a borrowed boat, insisting he wanted to help rescue flood survivors. His father, a legal permanent resident, wept on the sandy banks of Cypress Creek on Sunday as his son’s body was pulled from the water, the Chronicle reported. Jesus Guillen recounted to the paper how he asked his son not to go on the rescue mission with two friends, and that he thanked God for the time he had with his son. 

As Law Newz reports Guillen's mother will not be allowed to cross the border in order to attend her son's funeral:  

While Guillen’s father is a legal permanent resident of the United States, his mother, Rita Ruiz de Guillen is currently applying for legal status here–and unable to cross the border in order to bury her son. 

She had hoped U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials would be understanding of the situation and issue a humanitarian visa so she could properly mourn, but her request was denied and the grieving 62-year-old was sent back to Me exico after reaching the U.S. border. She said, through tears: 

“I’ve lost a great son, you have no idea. I’m asking God to give me strength. When we are with God, there are no borders. Man made borders on this earth.”

I'm sorry, putting politics aside where at least is the compassion for this grieving mother? 

I mean what are they afraid she will do, leave the funeral, disappear into the crowd, and then immediately start stealing American's jobs?

Jeb Bush's campaign continues its free fall as protesters interrupt speech in front of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Courtesy of CBS News: 

As Jeb Bush expanded on his support for a path to citizenship for some immigrants, immigration protesters cut him off with chants of "No hope without our vote!" 

Bush tried to make himself heard over the protesters, so that he could talk about his support for the children of undocumented immigrants, known as "DREAMers." He told the audience at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, "I believe that Dream Act kids should have a path to citizenship...I've been consistently for it and I'll continue to be consistently for it irrespective of what the political ramifications of that are." 

But Bush, like most of the Republican presidential field, does favor securing the border before taking action on the millions of undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. The Associated Press reported that the Texas Organizing Project planned the protests that disrupted Bush's speech. 

The group's communications director, Mary Moreno, told the AP that protesters wanted to call attention to "the hostile atmosphere being created by the GOP field of presidential candidates," and she said the Republican candidates wanted to "militarize the border" when there are already thousands of border patrol agents on the southern border.

If I had the capacity to feel sorry for Jeb Bush, which I don;t, I think I would be feeling sorry for Jeb Bush right about now.

The guy had this whole thing mapped out.

He had the name. He had the money, He had the political connections.

What he didn't have is a personality, or the ability to run a coherent campaign where his foot does not  end up him his mouth every two or three campaign stops.

At this point I don't think that it's inconceivable that Bush will drop out.

It won't happen today, but it certainly could happen, and it could happen earlier than anybody would predict.

Xenophobe Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is confronted by two Dreamers, and gets schooled.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) had a tense confrontation with two Dreamers in Iowa that was captured on video and posted to YouTube on Monday. 

The video's description identifies the pair as Erika Andiola and Cesar Vargas. In the video, Andiola approaches King and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), telling them she's a Dreamer who's originally from Mexico but was raised in the United States and is a graduate of Arizona State University. (Paul quickly got up and left.) 

"I know you want to get rid of DACA, so I want to give you the opportunity 'cause you really want to get rid of it, just rip mine," Andiola tells King as she hands him her identification card. "Go ahead and do that." 

DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, exempts many undocumented immigrants who arrived as children from deportation for a renewable two-year period and allows them to work in the United States. King voted on Friday for a bill that would end the program. 

"I just don't understand why you've been wanting to do that," Andiola says to King, who then stands up to confront the woman. 

"You're very good at English," King says as he grabs Andiola's hand. "You know what I'm saying." 

"I was raised in the United States," Andiola replies. 

"Right, so you can understand the English language," King replies.

You know the only thing I found more striking than the condescending attitude that Rep. King uses (Why does he keep asking her if she understands English?), and his groping of the woman while trying to get her to stop talking, is how quickly Rand Paul makes a break for it.

At the 20 sec mark Paul jumps up like he is running out on the check and gets the hell out of Dodge before he can be asked any embarrassing questions on camera.

As someone sang yesterday, "Rand on the run, Rand on the run.....