The Immigration Ban Is a Headfake, and We’re Falling for It

If the goal is to test the extent that checks and balances can be circumvented/authoritarianism implemented, then showing up in protest is absolutely effective, especially when it pressured CBP officials to follow the court order. At airport protests, the illegality of the order and executive coup when the courts were not complied with was a huge, huge focus.

Before November I would not have upvoted this story. But given that Steve Bannon is in WH to come up with ideas to 1) end international co-operation 2) destroy existing democratic institutions 3) create a nation state on the shared heritage identity (descendants from a specfic group of European countries practicing a specific religion), such theories do not seem out of place

&gt; Second, pay journalists to watch for the head fake. That’s their job. Become a paying subscriber to news outlets, then actively ask them to more deeply cover moves like the NSC shakeup. We can no longer breathlessly focus media attention on easy stories like the immigration ban. The real story is much more nuanced and boring — until it’s not.<p>This finally convinced me to get an online subscription to the New York Times, after trying to avoid paying anything for news for years. It makes sense to me to think of a subscription not so much as product-purchase, but more like a patreon-like pledge of support.<p>I kinda wish I could get one to the WSJ too, but their prices seem too high :&#x2F;

Although I agree this is likely a setup for more to come, I disagree that this is a &quot;headfake&quot;.<p>A &quot;headfake&quot; implies it achieves nothing if one&#x27;s opponent ignores it. In this case, if there was no pushback, then he would have successfully banned green card holders from seven nations. Then it would receive even less coverage&#x2F;reaction when he adds an eighth nation, a ninth, a tenth, and so on... Pretty soon, you&#x27;ll only have legal immigration from nations Steve Bannon deems worthy.

I loathe Trump, and despise Bannon, and I wouldn&#x27;t put it past them to have some dirty tricks, but this conspiracy theory doesn&#x27;t pass muster<p>The political optics of having to &#x27;roll back&#x27; are not beneficial for POTUS, because it would be an admission that he&#x27;s &#x27;wrong&#x27; - and he does not like to be wrong.<p>Second - if the ACLU can &#x27;win&#x27; cases against the administration - this is hugely damaging for them, as it speaks to their lack of credibility to everyone except the hardcore followers - it gives momentum to their opponents - and a &#x27;permanent record&#x27; of things to wail about for 4 years.<p>More importantly - it weakens them vis-a-vis the GOP controlled congress.<p>Right now - Trump is strong, only because he has a very solid base support. The GOP do not like Trump, but right now they are afraid of his wrath - politically. And Trump will go a long with most of what they want so it&#x27;s not so bad.<p>But - if Trump is weakened too much, then the GOP don&#x27;t have to listen to him, and they&#x27;ll start fighting him on agenda issues.<p>The reason Trump is rushing through this stuff is not for issues of power - it&#x27;s popular politics: he has the power &#x27;now&#x27; to do some things - and may not have it later. He&#x27;s trying to appear as though &#x27;he&#x27;s done what he&#x27;s said he&#x27;s done&#x27;.<p>Also - the refugee ban is not even meaningful, other than in terms of perception. There will be some disruption for 90 days, and then things will be as they were. This is political theatre, not a conniving power grab.<p>A few more things like this from Trump and he will be weakened, he could feasibly be the biggest &#x27;lame duck&#x27; president ever, though surely he will make a lot of noise during that period.<p>If the GOP abandons him, he can only scrawl together so many executive orders - granted, he&#x27;ll wield his veto power like a drunk king ...

‪During the 20 years of Berlusconi in Italy, we called this tactic &quot;weapons of mass-distraction&quot;. Indeed, they worked.‬

Trump did promise to make our country more secure. Whether he is testing power at the same time or not, it doesn&#x27;t really matter. We have allowed the President too much power and it needs to be fixed.

This is always obvious to me. I think at this moment Trump&#x27;s wet dream is that some frustrated person from these 7 nations might do something really stupid that will help him go even harder after Muslims and other minorities.<p>Asians, Mexicans etc. are next on the anvil.

This should be downvoted as horribly misleading. This idiot is FACTUALLY and PROVABLY wrong.<p>One instance which is easy to demonstrate is the line that the President &quot;removed a permanent military presence from the NSC&quot;.<p>The military is on the Council according to LAW. No president can change that.<p>SOURCE: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.law.cornell.edu&#x2F;uscode&#x2F;text&#x2F;50&#x2F;3021" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.law.cornell.edu&#x2F;uscode&#x2F;text&#x2F;50&#x2F;3021</a><p>Now stop repeating crap that isn&#x27;t true. It takes away from real issues, and divides the country on YOUR Headfake.<p>HN readers deserve better. Much better.

At least I don&#x27;t feel so crazy now for thinking this...

How many sheep will read this, assume it&#x27;s true, and not realize it&#x27;s somebody&#x27;s daydream?