Mediaboss Marketing

Concern spread through the Milwaukee Bucks locker room following Fridays road game against the Toronto Raptors. The Bucks were scheduled to fly back to Milwaukee hoursafter President Donald Trump issued an executive order forU.S. Customs and Border Protection officials to ban immigrants fromseven predominantly Muslim nations from entering the country, and the teams 10th overall pick, Sudanese-bornforward Thon Maker, was naturally on the plane back to his adoptedhome in America.

Maker wasborn in war-torn Wau, Sudan, now part of independent South Sudan. Sudan is among the countries listed onTrumps order, along with Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen; South Sudan is not. Makers family escaped to Uganda when he was 5 years old, and theymoved to Australia as refugees thereafter. He emigrated to the U.S. in 2011, where he played high school basketball for three yearsuntil finishing his prep career in Canada. Hetravels on an Australian passport, and Bucks officials confirmed Saturday the 19-year-oldreturned from Toronto to Milwaukee without incident.

[Follow Ball Dont Lie on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tumblr]

Hes back, Bucks senior vice president Alexander Lasry, the son of Milwaukees team owner and Moroccan immigrant Marc Lasry, said in response to concern from fans on Twitter. But we have to pray for those who arent as lucky. This is a massive problem and not who we are as a country.

The younger Lasry, whoworked under former President Barack Obamas White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, expanded on his thoughts about Trumps executive order on social mediaSaturday:

I appreciate all the fans concerns and prayers for Thon, he added, and today a Sudanese refugee who fled oppression and is an incredible young man will make his second NBA start. Im incredibly excited and proud of him. Hes a symbol of what makes America great and all immigrants believe about America. But whats going on in the U.S. right now isnt about Thon. Its about all the other incredible immigrants and refugees who will make the U.S. a better place that cant come into our country. This is not who owe are as a country and doesnt live up to our ideals.

Sorry and let me continue by saying what Trump says about immigrants and refugees just isnt what I see. I see incredible people who come here to create a better life for their families. Its why my dads family came here from Morocco. We must continue to share the stories of incredible immigrants and refugees who make America GREAT. Proud that Thon and my dad will be shining examples every day.

Not long after NBA leadershipreached out to the State Department regarding how this executive order would apply to players in our league who are from one of the impacted countries namely Maker and Los Angeles Lakers forward Luol Deng (a British citizen also born in Wau, Sudan) a federal judge ruled a significant portion of Trumps policyunconstitutional, allowing immigrants with valid visas or refugee status to enter the country without risk of being detained by border police.

On Saturday night,Maker indeed madehis second careerNBA start, against the Boston Celtics.

By Sunday morning, Trumps administration was already negotiating publicly for a compromise that would allow for extreme vetting of immigrantsincludingthose with green cards, dual citizenship and perhaps even people from more countries than the seven originally listed and that is of particular concern to members of the NBA competingin a a global league with many Muslim players.

[Sign up for Yahoo Fantasy Basketball | Mock Draft | The Vertical | Latest news]

Brooklyn Nets forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, a Muslim born and raised in Pennsylvania, got choked up while discussing the subject with New York-based reporters prior to Saturdays game against the Minnesota Timberwolves (who also feature Muslim players Gorgui Dieng and Shabazz Muhammad).

Read More

Via the New York Post:

We try to teach people not to point the finger, blame a whole [group]. You cant judge a whole group by ones actions at the end of the day. And I feel like thats not right. Thats definitely not right, Hollis-Jefferson said Saturday before they faced the Timberwolves. You cant speak for all Muslims, because all Muslims hearts arent like that. Most of them are pure, really believe in a different way and a different livelihood.

At that point, Hollis-Jefferson had to look away at the Target Center wall, and compose himself, apologizing for getting emotional.

This is kind of hard. My bad. This is kind of touching just being a part of that community and a part of that family, Hollis-Jefferson said. I feel like this should definitely be handled differently, and I feel like more people should definitely speak up and act on it just because its B.S. at the end of the day.

[]

I kind of feel like things could be handled differently. Me being Muslim, me knowing a lot of Muslims, its definitely, definitely heartbreaking to see, said Hollis-Jefferson, who was born in Pennsylvania. A lot of my college friends are Muslims, and their families are in some of those countries. Just seeing that, my heart goes out to them, how they feel about it and everything. Its definitely a tough situation to put people in.

A number of Muslim NBA players, past and present, echoed Hollis-Jeffersons thoughts on the ban:

Former NBA player Nazr Mohammed is a Muslim raised by Ghanan immigrants in Chicago, where his father was murdered. Soon after posting the above tweet, hewas inundatedwith support on Twitter:

Neither Maker norDeng are scheduled to travel toToronto again this regular season, but the Bucks could face the Raptors in the playoffs. On Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus suggested on Meet the Pressthat immigrants like Makerwould likely to be subjected to further questioning when you come into an airport, so this is surely not the last wewill hear ofthis issue in the NBA.

Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Dont Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

View post:
NBA players, executives denounce Donald Trump's Muslim ban as 'B.S.' - Yahoo Sports

President Donald Trump elevated the role of his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, this weekend, as part of an ordered a overhaul of the National Security Council aimed at streamlining the deliberative process.

The presidents reform shrinks the roster of regular members of the National Security Councils Principals Committeea premier gathering in the U.S. governments foreign policy decision-making processby removing several officials, including the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as regular members. The pair will attend when "issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed," the president's memorandum stated. The committee, chaired by either the National Security Advisor or the Homeland Security Advisor, is often the final step where policy is shaped before being presented to the president for sign-off.

The promotion of Bannon to the principals level represents a historic break with the non-politicization of the NSC. Republican Sen. John McCain, called it a radical departure from tradition Sunday. The keeper of the presidents populist flame, Bannon will be treated the same as the presidents chief of staff, Reince Priebus, with a standing invitation to the full National Security Council meetings chaired by the President.

In the early days of Obama administration, Cabinet officials strenuously objected when political aides attended NSC meetings on Afghanistan policy, prompting the then-president to reverse course. The elevation reflects both Bannons outsized role in the presidents inner-circle, which extends far beyond the political role of his predecessors, and the presidents buy-in to Bannon promotion of an America First foreign policy, which is a departure from mainstream Republican foreign policy.

A bipartisan collection of former NSC officials expressed worry that the new NSC structure provided a mechanism for excluding the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from meetings. An administration official said the new organization structure was not designed to exclude the two officials, but rather to provide them the option of skipping when they feel they arent needed.

But former national security officials said the move could lead to an inferior deliberative process. I did object to political advisers attending NSC meetings, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates told TIME Sunday, but that concern pales in importance to my concern over restrictions on the attendance at NSC meetings of the Chairman and the DNI.

Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, who held the job until January 20, was more blunt. This is stone cold crazy. After a week of crazy, she tweeted. Who needs military advice or intell to make policy on ISIL, Syria, Afghanistan, DPRK?

According to the memorandum, the National Security Advisor and the Homeland Security Advisor, who convene the principals meetings, determine the agenda and the attendance beyond the required core group. Michael Flynn, the National Security Advisor who has long faced skepticism among the foreign policy establishment and has a history of making incendiary statements about Muslims and others, could have the ability to bar both top officials from the top-level meetings, former officials warned. Others worried that the new structure would rely on Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, a former general who received a congressional waiver to take the posting, to represent the views of the uniformed military, which is no longer his role.

An administration official contested the notion that the reorganization as designed to keep the officials from the meetings, saying the decision was "more about respecting principals time."

The new structure, the official added, provided the officials flexibility and freedom from unnecessary meetings. "There are going to be a lot of issues where you don't need the DNI or CJCS since their equities aren't necessarily affected, the official said, specifying some meetings of the Homeland Security Council as an example.

The administration official cast the reorganization as part of a broader effort to reform the National Security Council, which massively grew in size and import during the Obama administration. Rice, in her final months, began some of the reorganization, touting in her final days that she shrunk the councils staff by 10 percent. The new structure is designed to prioritize policy outcomes, the official said, while eliminating unnecessary meetings and paperwork. The former NSCs, "Interagency Policy Committees are being replaced by smaller "Policy Coordination Committees.

"The real overarching theme here is to push decision-making down to the appropriate level, the official said, adding, "I think there's an intention to fix what's widely considered to be a broken interagency process."

A bipartisan paper published by fellows at the Center for American Progress and the Hoover Institution earlier this year features top officials complaints about bloat and time-consuming process within the NSC. The administration official said it reflected Flynns thinking about the former NSC and guided the reorganization.

The NSC staff will shrink further under the new structure, the official confirmed, but the extent off the staff reductions were not yet clear. The official maintained that while few staffing announcements have been made publicly, the NSC staffs ranks of senior directors and career staff is almost completely filled.

The first meetings of the National Security Council, the principals committee, and the deputies committee have not been scheduled yet, pending the confirmation of the rest of the Cabinet, and the nomination and confirmation of sub-Cabinet posts.

Read the original post:
Trump National Security Council Shake-Up Elevates Stephen Bannon - TIME

Wall Street Journal

Silicon Valley Leaders Target Donald Trump's Travel Restrictions Wall Street Journal Leaders from across the technology industry criticized President Donald Trump's temporary ban on foreign nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, ending weeks of cautious engagement with the new president, whom many in Silicon Valley opposed. Silicon Valley hits back on Donald Trump's refugee banThe Independent Apple, Google and Facebook condemn Donald Trump's travel banFinancial Times all 170 news articles »

Read more:
Silicon Valley Leaders Target Donald Trump's Travel Restrictions - Wall Street Journal

New York Times

Donald Trump's Orders, Refugees, Chinese New Year: Your Weekend Briefing New York Times President Enrique Pea Nieto of Mexico canceled a meeting with Mr. Trump because of his plans to build a border wall and suggestions that a 20 percent tax on Mexican imports to the U.S. could help pay for it. The idea of a wall isn't new. In 2006, a ...

Visit link:
Donald Trump's Orders, Refugees, Chinese New Year: Your Weekend Briefing - New York Times

Here are five takeaways from President Donald Trump's first full week in office:

President Trump thrives in crisis mode, and his method is chaos. The first seven days of his administration have been a blur of order and disorder, distraction and progress, movement, backtracking and public arguments. In other words, its very Trump.

What has emerged is a president who is comfortable shaking up established norms by throwing, and tweeting, nuggets into the news stream with the same regularity that he did as a candidate. His musings, including several that have no basis in fact, are making allies anxious and enemies furious. But that may be all according to plan.

Counselor Kellyanne Conways turn of phrase from the first weekend of the Trump presidency is already established in the political lexicon. Thats not just because its easy to mock on Twitter. Its because it looks increasingly like a White House strategy to establish its own standards for truth.

That means treating the press, to quote chief strategist Steve Bannon, as the opposition party. It also means claiming outright falsehoods as fact, as the president has in describing the crowd size at his inauguration and in maintaining that millions of undocumented immigrants swung the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. The Trump team is creating a messaging universe that reaches a base thats skeptical of the mainstream media. They are creating fights in areas that used to be off-limits, challenging the very definition of truth.

A flurry of executive actions have marked the early days of the Trump era. That means progress toward keeping campaign promises such as the border wall, extreme vetting for refugees from some Muslim countries, repealing Obamacare and scaling back trade deals. Or, at least, its the perception of progress: In many cases the true impact of these orders isnt what the Trump team says it is. Only legislative action will repeal and replace Obamacare, and accomplish things like setting up the funding mechanisms to start work on a massive wall along the Mexican border.

In that regard, theres no real progress a week in. Members of Congress of his own party are confused about the next steps, and worried that the next presidential tweet could veer them off-message for days or longer.

If its America first, we know whos not. Trump has already begun his assault on globalism, with moves to end trade deals, order up the border wall and move away from international climate accords. His actions on the wall provoked the president of Mexico to cancel a planned trip to the United States. He put the new prime minister of Great Britain in an awkward spot during her U.S. visit, with his anti-NATO rhetoric and public endorsement of tortures efficacy. And Trump still hasnt brought himself to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom hes scheduled to speak to for the first time over the weekend.

The Trump team, it seems, still does not want to be taken literally. A border tax was announced by the White House, only to be rescinded hours later. The president himself said he is convinced that torture works, but added that hell probably let his Defense secretary overrule him. Executive orders have been scheduled but pulled back, with drafts circulating widely in advocacy circles. The president casually mentioned that hes got his Supreme Court pick lined up to be announced next Thursday, and twice called the prime minister of Great Britain by her first name. Hes still Tweeting media observations and picking up the phone himself, taking a freewheeling style made famous on reality-TV shows right into the White House.

Continue reading here:
ANALYSIS: 5 Takeaways From Donald Trump's 1st Week in Office - ABC News