Good news!

Last night, the Ninth Circuit court ruled against the Trump administration and decided not to lift the temporary restraining order. This means that people with green cards and visas can continue coming into the country just as they did before the order was issued. I'm not entirely sure what it means for the refugee portion of the order.

The TRO will remain in place when the case is behind reviewed based on its merits. This means they granted the restraining order based on the likelihood for the State of Washington to succeed as well as the arguments presented by both sides. Meanwhile, Trump's people can either take the case straight to the Supreme Court or back to the district court to figure out more details. Which would be better for them, because the Supreme Court hates it when they get sent cases before all other available options have been tried.

Wow that is great news. So happy to hear that.

I even heard this morning he's going to recognize the One China policy as well.

Yeah. I wonder if President Xi Jinping said something to him that made him change his mind.

We know that the Trump administration has been releasing censored versions of his telephone conversations with foreign leaders (this is allowed, but just because something is allowed doesn't make it right). We know this because full transcripts have been leaked and confirmed by the other governments. So we know that whatever was said on the call probably won't be released by the US government.

So if he recognizes the One China policy, it means China will be more willing to negotiate with us.

This semester I'm taking a class on international diplomacy and conflict resolution. It's taught by a former UN diplomat. So what I'm learning is pretty strictly pro-UN, and most of our assignments have been actual UN documents and international treaties. But what I'm learning is that negotiations only work when both parties have leverage. (Which is a pretty duh kind of statement, but as I have just learned a lot of research and data collection went into confirming it). Right now, China has more leverage than us in a lot of ways. So negotiations won't be easy to begin with. And I don't trust the Trump administration to do a good job.

So I think this decision makes it a little less likely that China will take actions against us in the near future, but I'm not putting much faith in that hope. The people involved, both in the US government and the Chinese government, are too impulsive and reckless.

Edit: I also want to share this story. It's really hard to read, but it's important. This is a really well researched version of the first military operation Trump approved, that resulted in numerous civilian deaths and the death of an 8-year-old American citizen, as well as costing the life of an American Marine. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is a really great group that does a lot of reporting from war zones and this is pretty much the only story around that's using the Yemeni villagers as sources. The lesson I took from this story was, once again, that traditional methods of military engagement are not appropriate for dealing with conflicts when enemy combatants are so thoroughly embedded in these small communities. It will be impossible to resolve the conflict without cooperation from villagers, and villagers will never cooperate with people who kill them indiscriminately. https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2 ... aid-yemen/

Well Trump is all about making his name look good. Just look at how he's handling the situation with his stupid daughters line of crap being "sold" at some stores. Acting like a baby when they don't want to be associated with that name. Even though they said it's because the line isn't selling well. I highly doubt that is the real reason but that's ok they said something else. Not like people don't know the real reason and can't blame them either.

I'll try to read that article when I feel better. Stopped myself from passing out today. (my normal yearly nap time)

I hope class goes well for you. Can't wait to hear all the stuff you learn in it. Nice you get to learn from someone right there dealing with all that stuff. And I did hear about the crap attack. Some people say he had to but others, majority, of people were against what he did. Rushed in and it failed big time. Otherwise I don't know much. I read he sent people in to fight and choose to ignore it. Didn't want that bad read in my head for the day.

I also love history! I listen to history podcasts a lot. And I find that when you know your history, you develop a much deeper understanding of what is happening now.

I'm a huge Star Trek fan, so I've been really loving George Takei's advocacy against the ban. He was actually interned by the US government when he was a child, so its really important for him to be an advocate right now, when so many people in the Trump administration keep using Japanese internment as a precedent for what they want to do.

Ya I'm really impressed with Takai. He's truly an amazing man. Watched a vid he did of a interment camp and talked about what he saw and went through. Gave me more of an appreciation of what happened. If it wasn't for my ex I'd still be blind to know what really happened in WWII and how the whites got the name cracker. My god that is a horrible word to say.

Of course...history isn't giving us much at the moment.

So this week...

Michael Flynn resigned after it became apparent that he might be the first person in American history to violate the Logan Act, which prohibits American citizens negotiating with foreign governments on behalf of the American government without the American government's approval. During the transition and the campaign he was in contact with a Russian ambassador. That's as far as I want to go on that right now, because it's really not clear if he was just an idiot or if this was an outright conspiracy.

Then it turns out that a lot of Trump campaign aides were in "constant" (FBI's word, not mine) contact with members of Russian intelligence services during the campaign.

Also North Korea released another missile on the weekend--which actually isn't that surprising, they do it every couple years--but then Trump and Abe dealt with that in full view of Mar-a-Lago club members? Who took photos of the whole thing and posted it on facebook? The Trump administration is saying nothing important was actually discussed at the dinner, but I read the comments on those facebook posts before they got taken down, and the guests were absolutely discussing what people were doing, where security forces were standing in the room, what weapons they were holding, what their names were and what was being discussed at Trump's table. Once again, Sean Spicer the Press Secretary appears to be lying about things that are easily proven false.

Speaking of missiles, Russia has some fancy new ones that violate one of the treaties that ended the Cold War AND two Russian spy ships have been spotted off the coast of Delaware yesterday and Connecticut this morning. And the Russians are really upset over Flynn's departure. They keep referring to him as "our man in Washington."

I'm finding this website very helpful. It's called What The Fuck Just Happened Today and it recaps everything the Trump administration does in an easy and digestible way.

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/

Holy crap. That would explain why on twitter trumpimpeachmentparty is trending. Jesus christ. That is alot to take in. ..... This is really not good at all. Russia is really one place no one wants to be dealing with since it's still crappy over there. This is gonna take awhile to let it sink in for sure.

Thank you for that link, Pwale! I will add it to my daily news cycle on the internet as a nice summary of all the BS that flows so freely from this administration. :)

I've also been following a twitter feed for White House leaks: Rogue POTUS Staff
Take it with a healthy dose of skepticism, because it's unverified. For good reason, mind you - if this person(s) really is in the WH they have to take great pains to protect their identity and job to keep doing what they're doing. But from what I've seen, it's accurate to what's happening. If nothing else it adds an entertaining background to some of the absurdity.

If this administration was a television show, it would be universally panned for being too unbelievable.