Your phrase for the day, the "Trump Slump."

Courtesy of Frommers:  

Though they may differ as to the wisdom of the move, the travel press and most travel experts are of one mind: They are currently drawing attention to an unintended consequence of the Trump-led efforts to stop many Muslims from coming to the U.S., pointing to a sharp drop in foreign tourism to our nation that imperils jobs and touristic income. 

It’s known as the “Trump Slump.” And I know of no reputable travel publication to deny it. 

Thus, the prestigious Travel Weekly magazine (as close to an “official” travel publication as they come) has set the decline in foreign tourism at 6.8%. And the fall-off is not limited to Muslim travelers, but also extends to all incoming foreign tourists. Apparently, an attack on one group of tourists is regarded as an assault on all. 

As far as travel by distinct religious groups, flight passengers from the seven Muslim-majority nations named by Trump were down by 80% in the last week of January and first week of February, according to Forward Keys, a well-known firm of travel statisticians. On the web, flight searches for trips heading to the U.S. out of all international locations was recently down by 17%. 

A drop of that magnitude, if continued, would reduce the value of foreign travel within the U.S. by billions of dollars. And the number of jobs supported by foreign tourists and their expenditures in the United States—and thus lost—would easily exceed hundreds of thousands of workers in hotels, restaurants, transportation, stores, tour operations, travel agencies, and the like. 

Apparently this is what the term MAGA means.

Literally everything this asshole touches turns to shit.

"You will not have my hatred." Message from a Parisian man to the terrorists who murdered his wife.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

YOU WILL NOT HAVE MY HATRED 

Friday night, you took an exceptional life -- the love of my life, the mother of my son -- but you will not have my hatred. I don't know who you are and I don't want to know, you are dead souls. If this God, for whom you kill blindly, made us in his image, every bullet in the body of my wife would have been one more wound in his heart. 

So, no, I will not grant you the gift of my hatred. You're asking for it, but responding to hatred with anger is falling victim to the same ignorance that has made you what you are. You want me to be scared, to view my countrymen with mistrust, to sacrifice my liberty for my security. You lost. 

I saw her this morning. Finally, after nights and days of waiting. She was just as beautiful as when she left on Friday night, just as beautiful as when I fell hopelessly in love over 12 years ago. Of course I am devastated by this pain, I give you this little victory, but the pain will be short-lived. I know that she will be with us every day and that we will find ourselves again in this paradise of free love to which you have no access. 

We are just two, my son and me, but we are stronger than all the armies in the world. I don't have any more time to devote to you, I have to join Melvil who is waking up from his nap. He is barely 17-months-old. He will eat his meals as usual, and then we are going to play as usual, and for his whole life this little boy will threaten you by being happy and free. Because no, you will not have his hatred either.

You are a better man than I Antoine Leiris.

Beau Biden, Joe Biden's son, has died of brain cancer.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

Former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, son of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, died on Saturday after battling brain cancer, the vice president said. He was 46. 

"The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words," Vice President Biden said in a statement released by the White House. 

"We know that Beau's spirit will live on in all of us, especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter," he said. 

Beau Biden had announced last year he planned to run for governor of Delaware in 2016. 

He was diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2013 and underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. After getting a "a clean bill of health" in November of that year, his cancer recurred in the spring of 2015, the vice president's office said. 

He sought aggressive treatment and had been hospitalized this month at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center outside Washington. 

His family was with him when he died. "Beau embodied my father's saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did," the vice president said. "In the words of the Biden family: Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known."

I had another post scheduled for this slot, but I simply could not let this unfortunate event pass without comment.

Here is the statement from President Obama:  

Michelle and I are grieving tonight. Beau Biden was a friend of ours. His beloved family - Hallie, Natalie, and Hunter - are friends of ours. And Joe and Jill Biden are as good as friends get. 

Beau took after Joe. He studied the law, like his dad, even choosing the same law school. He chased a life of public service, like his dad, serving in Iraq and as Delaware's Attorney General. Like his dad, Beau was a good, big-hearted, devoutly Catholic and deeply faithful man, who made a difference in the lives of all he touched - and he lives on in their hearts. 

But for all that Beau Biden achieved in his life, nothing made him prouder; nothing made him happier; nothing claimed a fuller focus of his love and devotion than his family.

 Just like his dad. 

Joe is one of the strongest men we've ever known. He's as strong as they come, and nothing matters to him more than family. It's one of the things we love about him. And it is a testament to Joe and Jill - to who they are - that Beau lived a life that was full; a life that mattered; a life that reflected their reverence for family. 

The Bidens have more family than they know. In the Delaware they love. In the Senate Joe reveres. Across this country that he has served for more than forty years. And they have a family right here in the White House, where hundreds of hearts ache tonight - for Hallie, Natalie, and Hunter; for Joe and for Jill; for Beau's brother, Hunter; his sister, Ashley, and for the entire Biden clan. 

"I have believed the best of every man," wrote the poet William Butler Yeats, "And find that to believe it is enough to make a bad man show him at his best or even a good man swing his lantern higher." 

Beau Biden believed the best of us all. For him, and for his family, we swing our lanterns higher. 

Michelle and I humbly pray for the good Lord to watch over Beau Biden, and to protect and comfort his family here on Earth.

No parent should have to bury their child, and I think that all of us who are parents, regardless of our political points of view, are grieving with Joe Biden right now.

So with that in mind I am going to include Sarah Palin's remarks as well courtesy of Facebook:

Our family's prayers are with the Biden family tonight on the loss of their son, brother, husband and father, Beau Biden. He was a veteran of the Iraq war and was awarded the Bronze Star in recognition of his service, and continued his service in public office as well. We enjoyed the short time we got to spend with his beautiful family during the VP debate in 2008. Rest in Peace, Beau. 

Psalm 18:2 “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” 

- Sarah Palin

Joe Biden has dealt with more loss in his life than I think most of us could bear, yet he still manages to walk through life with that huge smile plastered to his face while treating the people he meets as if he really cares about each and every one of them.

And that just might be because he does.

On behalf of myself, and all of us here at IM, I want to send our condolences to the Biden family.

Update: I think this is a much better picture to illustrate Joe Biden's love for his son.

Mother of Aurora shooting victim upset with John McCain's reaction at town hall. Husband would like a few minutes alone with the Senator.

As reported yesterday, John McCain made some rather insensitive remarks to a woman who attended one of his town halls, essentially telling her that she needed some "straight talk" and that she would NOT get the assault ban she was hoping for.

The video of the exchange made McCain look like an insensitive douchebag, and his office is claiming that it was edited to make him look bad:  

"This is an obvious case of selective editing to distort what Senator McCain actually said at Wednesday's town hall meeting," Rogers said. "As Senator McCain clearly said, his heart goes out to Mrs. Teves and her family and he is committed to working with members of both parties to try and prevent another senseless tragedy. And as he also said, Arizonans who come to his town hall meetings deserve to hear Senator McCain's honest opinion about this or any other issue, and the truth is that an assault weapons ban won't pass this Congress because of opposition from both political parties."

However the woman in question is not ready to let McCain off the hook quite so easily: 

“I was very surprised that a senator, who has been in office for over 30 years, would address a grieving mother, who just lost her son exactly seven months prior — yesterday was the 20th, I lost my son on 7-20-2012 — to tell me that I needed ‘some straight talk,’” Caren Teves said by phone.

Clearly this woman does not feel that the Senator understood her pain nor  offered her any hope of getting something serious done about the gun violence that ended her son's life.

But while SHE was simply disappointed her husband was simply livid: “The Senator owes my wife an apology - he is lucky I wasn’t there,” Tom Teves wrote in an email to TPM late Thursday. “He was a ‘tough guy’ with a grieving Mom - that is not who I want leading my country! The sad fact is I used to have a great deal of respect for the Senator McCain, not anymore.”

Father of shooting victim not pleased with Senator McCain's response to his wife.

 You know Mr. Teves looks like a pretty healthy specimen, I am guessing that old man McCain might want to take pans NOT to piss him off.

Part of Mr. Teves anger at the Arizona Senator stems from a response he received from McCain's office to an earlier letter: 

Teves said her husband recently wrote McCain a letter addressing the Aurora shooting, which took the lives of their son and 11 other people. But she said McCain’s office responded with a impersonal form letter that focused on an an entirely different massacre: the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn. Neither McCain nor his staff approached her after the town hall event, she added. 

“I was surprised at that,” Teves said. “It takes a lot for me to just get out of bed every morning. I mean, this is still so new and so fresh, that my son was murdered. And I just expected a little more respect from someone who’s been in office over 30 years, and his staff. Between that and the form letter that we received, it’s just, it’s appalling.”

I guess the McCain camp might as well just go ahead and blame the response to their letter on "bad editing as well, right?

You know I have probably said this before, but it certainly bears repeating, "Fuck John McCain!"

Joe Biden gives the most heartfelt, emotional and amazing speech ever to the families of fallen soldiers.

I know this is long, but I guarantee that by the end of it your feelings about Joe Biden will have changed dramatically.

I don't think there are too many politicians alive who can express such a connection to the families of those who have lost loved ones. I swear Joe Biden's heart must be three times the size of most human beings.

Obama/Biden 2012!

We knew who would NOT call, but we also knew who would. Update!

Courtesy of CNN:

Obama called Giffords on Sunday "to offer his support" and say that she, other shooting victims and the Tucson community are "in their daily thoughts and prayers," the White House said in a statement. 

"The president expressed amazement at the courage and determination Rep. Giffords has shown along her incredible road to recovery, calling her an inspiration to his family and Americans across the country," the statement added. 

I never had any doubt that President Obama would make it a priority to call Gabby today.  And I have known since I first saw this picture.

The comforter-in-chief would never let this day pass without making sure to let Gabby know that he is still thinking of her. Just like somebody else we know would take great pains to NEVER mention a word about the tragedy.

Today the people of Tucson will have the opportunity to tell Gabby just how proud they all are of her, and share her pain at the loss of those six innocent lives.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is among those in Tucson, Arizona, on Sunday to mark one year since a shooting rampage that left her and 12 others wounded and six people dead, an anniversary that her chief of staff said has been "difficult emotionally for everybody."

I will hopefully have footage of the event to update this post with later.

Update:  I don't have any video but I do have a news report to share:

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords led a crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance, her words ringing out across a cold Tucson night in a rare public appearance Sunday evening at a candlelight vigil one year after surviving a deadly shooting that killed six. 

The Democratic congresswoman stepped onstage to cheers from the crowd. Ron Barber, a staffer who was wounded in a deadly shooting one year ago, invited her to lead the audience in the pledge. 

The crowd chanted: "Gabby, Gabby." 

She limped to the podium, and husband Mark Kelly helped lift her left hand over her heart. After a year in which she has struggled to speak, Giffords recited the pledge with the audience, head held high and a smile on her face as she punched each word. 

The remembrance at the University of Arizona capped off a day of events, including a church service that drew hundreds in the afternoon and a citywide bell-ringing at 10:11 a.m., the exact time a gunman started shooting at a Safeway political event. 

With hugs and tears, southern Arizonans remembered the dead, the shattered lives and those who acted heroically after a gunman opened fire at an outdoor meet-and-greet that severely wounded Giffords and killed six.

This is the kind of strength that many might claim to possess, but few actually do.

I have to admit that I thought I was pretty formidable once, but compared to Gabby Giffords I don't consider myself too damn impressive.

Amazing woman.  Simply amazing.

Update 2: Picture of Gabby leading the pledge. 

How's that for a great end to the weekend?