New Yorkers let Trump know it isn't going to be easy to take the country

Niemoeller

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. 
"Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. 
"Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. 
"Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
-- MARTIN NIEMOELLER, German pastor

If there is one lesson people rarely seem to learn from this famous quotation, it's that when you live in a country where the government starts coming for people, never think you'll be spared.

Eventually, everyone is a threat to a paranoid ruler.


Ever since the stunning news on election night that Donald Trump had somehow managed to "win" the presidency, I have felt sick with the apprehension of what was coming. I know people who said to me that I should give him a chance. After all, he might be better than I thought.

Well, Nixon wasn't.

Americans at JFK.

Neither was Reagan.

George W. Bush was worse than I thought.

So I had no reason to have any optimism this time. And when Trump's appointments to his cabinet and staff got more and more ridiculous, it was apparent that my pessimism was justified. Once he took office, giving perhaps the worst inaugural address ever, bad turned to horrible very quickly.

Trump decided to remove the director of National Intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from the National Security Council, replacing them with his chief of staff and his counselor.

Reince Priebus and Stephen Bannon.

The former chair of the Republican National Committee and the former head of Breitbart News.

Think about that for a minute. It isn't as if either man has some previous experience that would give him the kind of insight needed for such crucial things. Priebus is a glorified PR man and Breitbart a crypto-fascist.

And horrible turned to unspeakable when Trump all of a sudden decided on a 90-day ban on Muslims from seven countries entering the United States. As bad as it sounds on the face of it, Trump included in that ban people from those countries who are permanent residents (green card holders) of the U.S. from re-entering the country if they had been traveling outside our borders.

Now Muslims aren't the most popular people in America these days, and I'm sure Trump and his people thought no one would object too much if that was where his crackdown started.

He didn't figure on New Yorkers.

Now Trump is from New York, but some of the most disdainful comments I have heard about him have come from New Yorkers. And the sign in the picture is from Kennedy International Airport, letting Trump know they they're not even going to accept his first step.

Bravo, New York.

Bravo.