Resistance Report: ‘President Trump and his advisers like losing,’ taunts ACLU
ACLU TAUNTS TRUMP. President Trump’s off-camera signing of a revised executive order temporarily barring entry to the U.S. of people from six majority Muslim countries, and all refugees from all countries, touched off a smattering of small protests Wednesday night.
Outside the White House, a group of 100 to 200 people gathered first on the Pennsylvania Avenue plaza in front of the building before being shooed away by Secret Service and regrouping in Lafayette Park. There, an array of speakers condemned the order, but remarks from the newly emboldened American Civil Liberties Union stood out for their obvious taunts of a president who has sought to make his personal brand synonymous with winning. These taunts have become a hallmark of the ACLU response to Trump since the first executive order, which he signed in late January, was blocked by the courts.
“Let’s make no bones about it: Today’s ban is the Muslim ban 2.0, a reincarnation of the original, failed, defeated Muslim ban that was blocked by courts across the country,” said ACLU legislative counsel Joanne Lin. “Now, for some reason, President Trump and his advisers like losing, and they like losing badly, over and over again.”
She recounted the short history of protests at airports and around the country against the ban, as well as the successful court efforts to block the deportation of people at airports and halt implementation of the executive order.
“Round one resoundingly resulted in defeat for President Trump and victory for the American people and the Constitution … faced with humiliating defeat, the president was forced to throw away his original ban, which he has now replaced with a repackaged ban,” she said. “Now, hard as he may try to mask this or spin this, we all know that President Trump cannot disguise his discriminatory ban. Let’s be crystal clear about this: Today’s revised executive order is the Muslim ban 2.0. …. It’s too late now, Mr. President — you let the cat out of the bag long ago, and there’s no way to cloak your naked, ugly, discriminatory intent. And guess what, President Trump? Your Muslim ban 2.0 is still unconstitutional and still illegal! The Constitution does not tolerate religious discrimination, and neither do the courts.”
QUIET RIOT. “Central Valley Rep. David Valadao found a way to open his doors to people in his hometown without having to face protesters, hecklers and the public berating that scorched his Republican colleagues up and down California in recent weeks. Instead of staging a free-for-all town hall in a high school gym, on Monday afternoon the former dairy farmer invited local residents into his Hanford office for one-on-one, 10-minute chats,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “No shouting. No demonstrators or police. No politician on stage nervously pacing back and forth. And no TV news crews recording it all.”
THE PASSING OF AN ERA. Activists in Ohio mourned the lack of town halls with , along with end of the world as they know it, reports the Columbus Dispatch:
“About 200 people filled the rows of the First Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday night in honor of Sen. Rob Portman’s town hall that never was.
“The In Memoriam, hosted by activist organization Indivisible Columbus, was a tongue-in-cheek gathering for local speakers to deliver eulogies on everything from immigration rights to facts, education, and representative democracy.
“‘One of the reasons we styled this event as a memorial is that we wanted to drive home the seriousness of what I see as our senator’s so-far complicity in the erosion of the fabric of our democratic republic,’” organizer Meryl Neiman said.
“’He says that he’s held town halls, but a closed fundraiser or a speech at a manufacturing facility is not a town hall.’”
STANDING ROCK COMES TO WASHINGTON. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which for much of the past year has been protesting the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline on its territory, announced last week that it will lead a march in Washington, D.C., this Friday. The Native Nations Rise March on Washington will be preceded by a three-day installation of tipis on the grounds of the Washington Monument, starting Tuesday, March 7th, along with on-site speakers.
“They want us to believe the fight is over — but we can still win this. We can unite in peaceful, prayerful resistance against this illegal pipeline,” said a statement by Chairman Dave Archambault II of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. “Now, we are calling on all our Native relatives and allies to rise with us. We must march against injustice — Native nations cannot continue to be pushed aside to benefit corporate interests and government whim.”
THE CRAFTIVISTS ARE BACK. The Pussyhat Project that gave the women’s marches of Jan. 21 their distinctive look is holding a Pussyhat Global Virtual March on International Women’s Day, when the Women’s March organization has called for a general strike under the rubric, “A Day Without a Woman.” The hat knitters are calling for supporters to “Put on your pussyhat, make a sign about where you are and what you are for and take a picture” on Wednesday — flooding social media with images of the pink knitted or crocheted caps and the hashtag #pussyhatglobal. It’s also encouraging those who take the day off from work to consider gathering in knitting circles to make more hats.
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