The Trump administration has already denied visas for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and his large delegation to attend the U.N. General Assembly later this month.
Fair, but they just wanted to buy a twelve pack of socks for $7.99. That’s nothing like getting a government-issued ID or anything else on the list. Nothing like it.
It’s just small-minded, tiny-handed fuckery from a pitiful incompetent deranged administration.
Okay, and that’s why I didn’t write that list initially: it’s not useful to my initial point. I instead provided two examples of diplomatic restrictions from situations that are similar in political outlook, then called what trump is currently doing “an absurd escalation of that privilege for no other reason than trump’s ego.”
He is not considering restricting all Iranians from shopping at costco (or “bulk goods / warehouse stores” to borrow what passes for their exact language), he is considering restricting the Iranian diplomatic visa holders from doing that. Since the title, while technically accurate, could be easily said to claim the former, I clarified. I don’t disagree at all that this is fucking absurd, just less so than it could have been interpreted to be.
(A peace offering: consulate or embassy staff in the US often buy goods that cannot be supplied by their home country (food, linens, etc.) at these warehouse stores for safety reasons (this is how the whitehouse kitchen operates, too). Given the sales volume, the direct control the customer has over the product from the moment of selection and the sheer quantity of the stores that are available in a given urban area, it makes it infeasible for a product to have been tampered with prior to it reaching the diplomatic staff. By restricting access, Trump would create a massive logistical complication and threat vector for the Iranians)
Fair, but they just wanted to buy a twelve pack of socks for $7.99. That’s nothing like getting a government-issued ID or anything else on the list. Nothing like it.
It’s just small-minded, tiny-handed fuckery from a pitiful incompetent deranged administration.
Okay, and that’s why I didn’t write that list initially: it’s not useful to my initial point. I instead provided two examples of diplomatic restrictions from situations that are similar in political outlook, then called what trump is currently doing “an absurd escalation of that privilege for no other reason than trump’s ego.”
He is not considering restricting all Iranians from shopping at costco (or “bulk goods / warehouse stores” to borrow what passes for their exact language), he is considering restricting the Iranian diplomatic visa holders from doing that. Since the title, while technically accurate, could be easily said to claim the former, I clarified. I don’t disagree at all that this is fucking absurd, just less so than it could have been interpreted to be.
(A peace offering: consulate or embassy staff in the US often buy goods that cannot be supplied by their home country (food, linens, etc.) at these warehouse stores for safety reasons (this is how the whitehouse kitchen operates, too). Given the sales volume, the direct control the customer has over the product from the moment of selection and the sheer quantity of the stores that are available in a given urban area, it makes it infeasible for a product to have been tampered with prior to it reaching the diplomatic staff. By restricting access, Trump would create a massive logistical complication and threat vector for the Iranians)