Saturday, January 13, 2018
Friday, January 12, 2018
Time to Say It: Trump Is a Racist - The New York Times
"When it comes to President Trump and race, there is a predictable cycle. He makes a remark that seems racist, and people engage in an extended debate about whether he is personally racist. His critics say he is. His defenders argue for an interpretation in which race plays a secondary role (such as: Haiti really is a worse place to live than Norway).
It’s time to end this cycle.
No one except Trump can know what Trump’s private thoughts or motivations are. But the public record and his behavior are now abundantly clear. Donald Trump treats black people and Latinos differently than he treats white people.
And that makes him a racist.
Is it possible to defend some of his racially charged statements by pointing out that something other than race might explain them? Sure. Is it possible that he doesn’t think of himself as a racist who views white people as superior to nonwhite people? Yes.
But the definition of a racist — the textbook definition, as Paul Ryan might say — is someone who treats some people better than others because of their race. Trump fits that definition many times over:
• Trump’s real-estate company was sued twice by the federal government in the 1970s for discouraging the renting of apartments to African-Americans and preferring white tenants, such as “Jews and executives.”
• In 1989, Trump took out ads in New York newspapers urging the death penalty for five black and Latino teenagers accused of raping a white woman in Central Park; he continued to argue that they were guilty as late as October 2016, more than 10 years after DNA evidence had exonerated them.
• He spent years claiming that the nation’s first black president was born not in the United States but in Africa, an outright lie that Trump still has not acknowledged as such.
• He began his 2016 presidential campaign by disparaging Mexican immigrants as criminals and “rapists.”
• He has retweeted white nationalists without apology.
• He frequently criticizes prominent African-Americans for being unpatriotic, ungrateful and disrespectful.
• He called some of those who marched alongside white supremacists in Charlottesville last August “very fine people.”
• He is quick to highlight crimes committed by dark-skinned people, sometimes exaggerating or lying about it (such as a claim about growing crime from “radical Islamic terror” in Britain). He is very slow to decry hate crimes committed against dark-skinned people (such as the murder of an Indian man in Kansas last year).
• At the White House yesterday, Trump vulgarly called for less immigration from Haiti and Africa and more from Norway.
If you think this list is incomplete, email me at Leonhardt@nytimes.com.
For more on this topic, read my colleague Nick Kristof wrestling with the topic during the 2016 campaign: “Here we have a man who for more than four decades has been repeatedly associated with racial discrimination or bigoted comments about minorities,” he wrote. “While any one episode may be ambiguous, what emerges over more than four decades is a narrative arc, a consistent pattern — and I don’t see what else to call it but racism.”
And Slate’s Jamelle Bouie: “It’s impossible to know what’s in his heart. But what Trump feels is less important than what he does.”
Time to Say It: Trump Is a Racist - The New York Times
My parents were from what Trump calls 'shithole countries' -... Joy Reid explains how her parents were from parts of the world where, according to President Trump, you'll find 'shithole countries' from which the United States should not accept immigrants.Joy Reid explains how her parents were from parts of the world where, according to President Trump, you'll find 'shithole countries' from which the United States should not accept immigrants. All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Judge blocks Trump administration plan to roll back DACA - CNNPolitics
"(CNN) A federal judge in California late Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration's efforts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Judge William Alsup also said the administration must resume receiving DACA renewal applications.
But the ruling is limited -- the administration does not need to process applications for those who have never before received DACA protections, he said."
Judge blocks Trump administration plan to roll back DACA - CNNPolitics
Monday, January 08, 2018
Saturday, January 06, 2018
Trump administration seeks $18bn from Congress for Mexico border wall | US news | The Guardian
“The Trump administration is seeking nearly $18bn from Congress over the next decade to start extending and reinforcing a border wall with Mexico, the first financial blueprint for the president’s election campaign promise.
Details of the plan revealed on Friday would fund 316 miles of new barriers and bolster an additional 407 miles of existing barriers, adding up to a significant expansion of walls and fencing along the southwestern border.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a branch of homeland security, submitted the details to Congress. Democrats and Republicans in Washington are gearing up for a fraught battle over the proposed wall and the status of young undocumented migrants, two issues that have become entangled and risk triggering a government shutdown on 20 January if no deal is reached."
Trump administration seeks $18bn from Congress for Mexico border wall | US news | The Guardian
Friday, January 05, 2018
Trump’s effort to stop publication of scathing book is a break in precedent - The Washington Post
"...The threats did not appear to work, at least as far as the book is concerned: Wolff and his publisher announced Thursday that publication had been moved forward four days to Friday because of what they described as “unprecedented demand.”
But legal experts and historians said the decision by a sitting president to threaten “imminent” legal action against a publishing house, a journalist and a former aide represented a remarkable break with recent precedent and could have a chilling effect on free-speech rights."
Trump’s effort to stop publication of scathing book is a break in precedent - The Washington Post:
Monday, January 01, 2018
How the news media distorts black families - The Washington Post
"During his campaign for the U.S. Senate, former Alabama judge Roy Moore answered a question about what it means to “make America great again.” According to Moore, America was great “at the time when families were united — even though we had slavery. They cared for one another. People were strong in the families.”
The claim that black families are in disarray and were better off under slavery is not new. During the GOP presidential primary race in 2011, candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum both signed a pledge against same-sex marriage that stated children born during slavery were more likely to be raised by a mother and father in a two-parent home than children are today. On the campaign trail in 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump described a nightmarish world for black Americans, rife with poverty, homelessness and crime, and asked for their votes by saying, “What do you have to lose?”
Outrageous, yes, but not surprising. If your impression of black families comes mostly from what you see in the news — and not just Fox News — then you might think black families have it worse today than when they were enslaved....
How the news media distorts black families - The Washington Post