“We’ve always been at war with Eastasia” Miller added.
Trump and the Trumpettes object to the word “considering.” Done deal, people. Just ask future Secretary of Homeland Security Joe Arpaio.
Sorry, but they have a point. There is a huge difference between a registry of American citizens based on their religion, and a registry of temporary US visitors (non-citizens) based on their country. I think it is important to distinguish, even for opponents of the idea.
They’re both terrible ideas, but for different reasons.
The former (a registry of citizens) is by far the more awful, un-American, and probably unconstitutional one. And yes, Trump clearly advocated it during the campaign (before issuing the retraction). But it is not what they are proposing now.
The latter (a registry of non-citizen visitors) is a lot less shocking to me. The government already knows the country of origin of all visitors on visas. It sounds as if the registry just adds the ability for the government to track location and conduct periodic interviews. Here’s why I am not shocked: I live under pretty much the same system, as an American living in Japan. I have to inform them within 14 days of any address change, and anybody renewing visas has to submit paperwork and talk to an official periodically.
I’d be a lot less disturbed by the revival of NSEERS if it were applied uniformly to all temporary residents, since this is similar to how other countries track immigrants. But applying it only to certain countries, which is a blatant proxy for a religious criterion, is the problem.
[EDIT: 2 minutes and 1 google search later, mea culpa. Most US visitors on visas already have to report address changes. So what the hell does this registry add? Now I am just confused.]
I believe there is a devil’s bargain between Ryan/McConnell and DT/Bannon which is approval of medicare voucherization and tax cuts in exchange for letting DT have a free hand to appoint as many extremists he wants to key cabinet departments. I also think a part of that bargain will be to look the other way as DT and co figure out a way to get an actual national police force w/budget and authority, which he will use to target immigrants and his other enemies. This may be a new force within Homeland Security or within an existing law enforcement agency like the FBI. There is much to fear from a DT Administration, but the ability of the executive to directly police and intimidate perceived domestic enemies is among the scariest of scenarios.
What makes you think that Trump gives a damn about protecting Medicare in the first place? His word?
A national police force would be a dire thing.
“President-elect Trump has never advocated for any registry or system that tracks individuals based on their religion, and to imply otherwise is completely false”
Oh, yeah.
Arpiao is currently out of a job …so there’s that.
We face this in science all the time. People think they know the answer in advance, so they design the experiments to give them them answer the want and disregard all of the data that does not support the answer they imagined they would get. The are many radicalized individuals, Muslim and otherwise, that live in countries that do not even require visas to enter the US (e.g., EU countries and Canada). So, if I say that we are going to “follow” individuals from these five (mostly Muslim) countries, all that does is encourage bad actors from other non-visa countries. Trump’s plan focuses on a small, easily identifiable target, but will not solve the problem. This will only give him talking points for his admirers.
All the Rapist administration is proving by saying this is a registry is certainly coming.
He is not showing leadership and management skills that he claims are wonderful, if people in his sphere are in the news saying that his administration is more than willing to track people by religion. Where on a passport is there a demand for a religion? His spox are fearmongering about how they can identify a person by the country from where their passport is originated.
As soon as the first terrorist attack hits, you are going to see Trump administration repression of Constitutional rights and abuse of certain (all?) minorities that will make your head spin.
from the article
But this “special registration” system was selective. It only applied to people on non-immigrant visas (including tourism and work visas). It only applied to men over the age of 16. And it only applied to people from a list of countries the Bush administration considered “havens for terrorists.”
There were 25 countries on the “special registration” list. Twenty-four were majority-Muslim countries. The 25th was North Korea.
its already here, it just needs to be reinstated.
it was considered legal on account that the judicial branch thought the executive branch would never misuse its established powers to violate the Constitution.
I assume that they’re also working on a Christian registry, right?
. . . and it is going to happen. It is going to happen. It is the world we live in. The Obama approach was to advocate for calm and level-headedness, not to freak out in fear. Respond with cool, dispassionate vigilance, search for the instigators, eliminate them if possible, tweak our security and investigation resources as necessary, consult with our friends and allies, and then get on with our lives. The Trump approach - at least the approach we should probably expect given what we heard from El Orange during the campaign - is to yell “Fire” as loud and as hysterically as possible, ramp up the fear and loathing of our enemies, real and perceived, and then propose something completely ridiculous, unworkable, and morally repugnant, like banning Muslims from entering the United States. He has spent much of the past 12 months walking back from that proposal; but do you think he will continue to be as “moderate” on the subject the moment someone claiming ISIS allegiance shoots up a train station somewhere - especially if it is in the USA?
The bit about registering American citizens didn’t come up. The whole argument has been over immigrants.
I agree with your scenario 100%. I would only add that the first move will be to blame President Obama for the attack.
I am a US ex-pat and a legal resident living in Spain. All I have had to do in the last 10+ years is to fill out a form and submit paperwork. Oh, and I have to pay a small fee. Once approved, I then have to get a new ID card (called a NIE), which shows that I am resident, like the so-called “green card”. No one checks up on me and police have never asked to see it. And I don’t look Spanish. 
I do have to show ID to withdraw money from the bank, but not to deposit money.
Got an interesting email this morning. Suggests that if Trump et al create a registry of Muslims, we all sign up for it.