Obama ends wet foot/dry foot for Cubans

[BroncoBot]

Is this a politically motivated move? Has to be right? Don't get why we have different policies for different countries. If you want to come to USA, great. But come here not for a handout, but to work and make your life (and our country at the same time) better. If you come here to be a weight on society and cause trouble, I hope Trump lives up to his threats and kicks your can back to wherever you came from.

[snoscythe]

I think we are seeing the most blatant attempts by a lame duck president to do all he can to delegitimize his successor.

Wet foot/dry foot is just the most recent example. He now has boxed Trump into a situation where he either has to leave this new status quo in place, or lose a measure of legitimacy on his hardline immigration stance if he reinstates wet foot/dry foot. Unfortunately, Rubio and Cruz will be able to exert pressure on Trump to do exactly that during the confirmation process for Trump's cabinet. Rubio is already threatening to vote against Tillerson and others. So now the build-a-wall-kick-the-illegals-out candidate will become a President and within his first 30 days reinstate a policy of permitting illegal immigration, and Dems will have fodder to fight the rest of his immigration policies for the remainder of his presidency.

The report on the election hacking was more of the same. Obama declared in early December that the Russians did the hacking and that they did it to help Trump--before any agency had actually investigated those allegations. Only after he declared what happened did he direct the intelligence agencies to find out what happened and leave no stone unturned....oh, and by-the-way, it must be done before Trump's inauguration. (Just ignore for a second the fact that no federal agency has yet to complete their investigation of the Dallas police shootings over six months ago). So how surprised were we supposed to be when DNI James Clapper, a known perjuror ("the NSA is not collecting metadata on millions of Americans without their knowledge" *enter Snowden stage right*) churns out a report supposedly supported by six different intelligence agencies who've completed their investigations in under a month, that "yep, Obama was dead-on". So, on the basis of this report (which every independent cybersecurity firm who has reviewed it has found it woefully lacking and/or unsupported) Obama immediately imposes sanctions on Russian officials and boxes Trump in. Trump can either enter the Oval Office and leave the sanctions in place, which the left and MSM will take as a tacit admission that the report is true, or he can ease or remove the sanctions and have the left and MSM take that as Trump's tit-for-tat for his Russian buddies getting him elected.

Obama just keeps doing it too. A sting operation last week revealed that the leaks from Trump's national security briefings (which the MSM attributed to sources inside Trump's camp) in fact are coming from within the intelligence community and/or Obama administration. A supposedly Russian generating smear folder was "accidentally" leaked by the same body of folks, and on and on and on. And the media remains on Obama's/Hillary's team and is more than willing to play their part in undermining the president they never wanted before he can even take his oath of office.

[jvquarterback]

Good for Obama. I really don't care what his motivations are - this is the right thing to do. This gives Trump cover for something he should do anyway. Rubio and Cruz can pound sand. And if they decide not to support Tillerson who cares? Tillerson has already said he supports sanctions on other countries which was his main selling point to begin with. That and he wants to provide Saudis with more intelligence in their war against Yemen. I think you can find plenty of people with that.

I also don't see Trump losing anything by walking back the sanctions on Russian individuals. He can just tell everyone Obama and the DNI are full of crap. Everyone knows it already.

Obama still underestimates Trump.

[nuk13]

Thanks Sno. This is comprehensive. As I've said elsewhere the democrats are a lot better at this than the republicans. The republicans just take it and we lose freedoms.

[SpiffCoug]

Good for Obama. I really don't care what his motivations are - this is the right thing to do. This gives Trump cover for something he should do anyway. Rubio and Cruz can pound sand. And if they decide not to support Tillerson who cares? Tillerson has already said he supports sanctions on other countries which was his main selling point to begin with. That and he wants to provide Saudis with more intelligence in their war against Yemen. I think you can find plenty of people with that.

I also don't see Trump losing anything by walking back the sanctions on Russian individuals. He can just tell everyone Obama and the DNI are full of crap. Everyone knows it already.

Obama still underestimates Trump.

Sorry, I know this is a few days/weeks back, but I'm trying to understand your second sentence. Are you saying the US returning Cubans asylum seekers back to the communist regime is correct?

[jvquarterback]

Yes. If they are truly political refugees that is something different. But most Cubans are economic refugees no different than Mexicans, Ugandans, or Vietnamese. Cubans shouldn't have special status and Obama was right to rescind the program. I hope Trump continues that policy change (and I can't say that about very many Obama policies).

[SpiffCoug]

I guess I'm just surprised you'd want to return them to a country where the government has literally stole everything from the people, imprisoned them, and given them no form of recourse or redress.