Skip to content

Not really Mo, no

Mo Farah, a runner who was knighted after becoming the most successful track athlete in Britain’s Olympic history, condemned the executive order banning people from certain Muslim countries, saying that “President Donald Trump seems to have made me an alien.”

You have a British passport, don’t you?

BTW, even with one of those in American law you are actually an alien.

66 thoughts on “Not really Mo, no”

  1. Trump’s order is a stupid piece of grandstanding that will have negligible impact upon the safety of Americans.
    Given that English is Sir Mo’s third language, I think it is a bit OTT to complain about a very minor misuse of it.

  2. Guess this is on-top here.

    Firstly, it was a stroke of genius to not mention the countries by name, but to refer to an Obama-era piece of legislation.

    Secondly, the religious-minorities phrasing was also a work of genius.

    So now, according to the anti-trump left, favouring refugees from oppressed minority religious groups in the countries of origin is suddenly bad.

    Because Christians.

    Note that the XO doesn’t say “xtians”, it says religious minorities. Which the press then reported as “xtians”, which is mostly true but intended to give a false impression.

    These guys are being quite easily played now…

    Have they not worked out that we can go straight to the source now rather than relying on their summary and interpretation?

  3. @john77

    Yes, he’s rather overreached himself with this one.

    It’s a rather pointless gesture in the first place, but even if he’d done it but not banned green card holders, those with existing visas, etc he could have defended it.

    After all, most of the nations he’s chosen will deny you entry on the basis of even having visited Israel, let alone being a citizen, so their whinging could easily be shown to be hypocritical and thus ignored.

    But in banning existing US residents, dual passport holders, etc, he’s over done it.

  4. @abacab

    Yes, I agree.

    I also quite like Scott Adams’ blog on the matter but there’s one major difference between his previous big announcements following by the dialling back – he actually put this one in to operation before any dialling back occurred

  5. This must be furor.

    ‘Most Read from The Washington Post: Judge halts deportations as refugee ban causes worldwide furor’

    More likely a worldwide yawn.

  6. @ Darren,

    Its only for 90 days. So yes, dialing back will occur.

    Anyway, whatever he does, the meeja shouts, obfuscates and lies. Blatantly as well.

    Only morons gives them credence.

    Funnily enough, a lot of my anti Trump friends on Facebook have been quite silent in the last few days, and the ones that are still shouting hitler or equivalent are being told to chill, which wasn’t the case before.

    I guess there is so much cognitive dissonance you can take.

  7. So the left leaning media have managed to get the lie out before the truth catches up with it. The lie is that its a permanent ban to Muslims instigated by a racist President. The reality is that it is a re-implementation of a left wing President’s original policy and it’s a ban on those whose journey originates from the listed countries, not those whose original nationality was from the listed countries. So Mo is fine, as is Zahawi, they can travel to the US from the UK.

  8. Good luck ‘negotiating’ with the Left. They believe he is Hitler, and nothing he could do will change that one millimetre. They are deranged.

  9. We are seeing Trump’s opening jabs. Keeps the opposition off-balance and get the supporters in the crowd cheering.

    It will be interesting to see where the real blows land.

  10. Look, Mo, President Trump isn’t criticising your running technique or the way you sell Quorn sausages is he?

    You do your job, let him do his.

  11. The Inimitable Steve

    Sir Mo also sez:

    “I was welcomed into Britain from Somalia at eight years old and given the chance to succeed and realise my dreams. I have been proud to represent my country,

    So much so he lives in America. Tho to be fair he didn’t specify which country he currently claims as his.

    My story is an example of what can happen when you follow policies of compassion and understanding, not hate and isolation.”

    Rotherham, Nice and Bataclan were also the result of gullible Westerners’ compassion and understanding, so sounds like a plan.

    Sure, we’ll get a lot more rapists, benefits cheats, clit-snippers and mad bombers. But some of them might be able to run really fast.

  12. abacab,

    Yes, this is the game, but I’m not sure I quite agree with his analysis about terrorism.

    This is really about votes and the American people. The sort of people who will or might vote Trump support this. It’s 48% of voters and I’m guessing that in the sort of people who will or might vote for him it’s a lot higher.

    I consider myself a pretty liberal sort of guy, and I don’t want more Muslims. Because I’m a pretty liberal sort of guy. Muslims in the USA are much like those here – more anti- than pro- homosexuality, overwhelmingly pro-big government. and around 1 in 5 support Sharia law.

  13. abacab,

    and just to add, it doesn’t matter if it’s constitutional or not. All that matters to those people is that Trump did this.

  14. Mo Farah is always trotted out as the poster child for immigration.

    What the press never mentions is that his two brothers are in jail for street robberies with knives.

    And I wish the exchange rate was one gold medalist for just two violent muggers. As you well know its much worse than that.

  15. Trump’s order is pure theatre.

    It is sold as preventing terrorism, but the countries selected are not ones with a history of exporting terrorism.

    Iran sponsors Hamas etc, but actual Iranians are not high in terrorist numbers. Iran is on the list because Americans don’t like Iran.

    Saudi Arabia produces heaps of Jihadis. Osama bin Laden, for example. But it’s not on the list because the US is allies with Saudi Arabia.

    Lebanon produces terrorists. Libya, not so much.

    Not a single one of the 911 terrorists would have been affected by this order. So it’s not about stopping terrorism.

    It’s about tinkering with unimportant things to pander to his base and enrage his opponents. The very thing that was worst about Obama.

    If he continues to try to govern like this he will be worse than Obama.

  16. The inimitable Steve

    Your second post, even by your standards soars to new heights – as regards Farah, he has shown his love of his adopted country by relocating to Oregon for most of the year. The ‘ban’ such as it is is unlikely to affect more than 100 people per month. Chickenfeed in the larger scheme of things….

  17. The Inimitable Steve

    Darren – this (along with The Wall) is just Trump’s opening move.

    Could be he’s miscalculated/botched the implementation/overreached, but I don’t think so. I reckon this was very carefully calculated and Trump’s team knew what to expect.

    Contra Scott Adams, this isn’t a negotiation tactic. It’s part statement of intent, part political shock-and-awe to keep the left in a state of constant shrieking outrage.

    Once Jeff Sessions is in place as AG I expect to see more comprehensive and permanent restrictions on kebab importation to the United States, including an end to the current madness where American taxpayers pay illiterate Somalians to colonise Minnesota.

  18. @Chester, no Trump is not going to be worse than Obama. What Trump is doing is reflecting the actions of the other side and highlighting that it was really the nasty side even though they wrapped it up in a veneer of morals and ethics.

  19. Chester Draws, I would suggest you are underestimating the need for theatre in politics.

    This policy is not about responding to past events. This is about signaling to people’s fears that the chaos in those listed countries is not going to be imported into the US.

    The left’s response to this has also been powerful. The Guardian is running photos of groups of Muslims praying in US airports,and of people using US flags as hijabs. What do you think the message being received by most Americans is?

  20. The Inimitable Steve

    Van_Patten – thanks. Mo Farah seems like a nice enough guy, and I don’t begrudge him his British passport, but I agree with Flubber on the ruinous exchange rate.

    Chester – he’s only been in office for 5 minutes. America wasn’t transformed from Bedford Falls to Mos Eisley Cantina in a day, and it’ll take longer than 4 or 8 years to mitigate (not even undo) the demographic carnage that was knowingly and with malice aforethought inflicted on it.

  21. Were I Trump the announcement would have been the end of all RoP migration for ever.

    That is the policy–along with making multiple marriages bigamy and ceasing to subsidise their breeding program with our taxpayers money–that will save the West.

  22. Bloke in North Dorset

    Amidst all this gnashing of teeth on the left they forget that they were happy to give Obama the powers that Trump is now using. If Obama had been the saint they claimed he was he would have restricted the use of EOs not expanded them.

    And on the same theme, it was Dems, let by Harry Reid, that got laws changed to make it easier to get nominees passed in the Senate.

  23. So Much For Subtlety

    Mr Ecks – “Were I Trump the announcement would have been the end of all RoP migration for ever.”

    Not enough. We don’t need a zero immigration rate. We need a negative immigration rate. The US and the UK.

    “That is the policy–along with making multiple marriages bigamy and ceasing to subsidise their breeding program with our taxpayers money–that will save the West.”

    No it won’t. It is too late for that to work. 40% of new born French citizens are Arab Muslims.

  24. Yes, stop all Muslims coming in. This should really be about the future of Western society, in 30 years time, not about (or not just about) how many people will be killed by terrorists next year.

  25. >America wasn’t transformed from Bedford Falls to
    >Mos Eisley Cantina in a day

    one of the major points of the movie was that BedfordcFalls was beeter off with GeorgecBailey financing a decent immigtant housing project (Bailey Village) as opposed to the Potter’sville that would have obtained had George never been born

  26. ‘according to attorneys who rallied popular protests around the country in support of detained refugees and travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries.’

    Where were all these popular protests? I didn’t see any.

    Let me say it again for the hard of hearing. Every Muslim has a book that says they should kill you. There is nothing else you need to know.

    “We need a negative immigration rate.”

    Exactly. Islam is not compatible with the Western world.

  27. The US constitution protects US citizens from the US government. It does not and cannot say anything about non-US citizens.

  28. Can anyone explain whether this Trump order adds anything to what Obama already enacted? It does not appear so.

  29. Some people are misreading the stupid and the overreach

    This move has made the left and the media (but I repeat myself) put themselves very visibly on the side of the Muslims. This will drive more normal people away from the left and the media.

    It’s a small step, but a good one.

  30. As has been noted earlier, re: Scott Adams, this is all tactics.

    Firstly the left as usual has shit its pants. Three months of this, let alone 4 years, and the vast majority of people are simply going to stop listening. Also the rabble will simply run out of steam. I would also like to see the FBI investigating Soros for funding rioting.

    Secondly, PJF are spot on. The left are promoting completely open borders. The people remember the photos from the Bataclan.

    BTW, how many people here know that the victims of the Bataclan were grotesquely tortured before they were killed?
    I would suggest not many as the French government did its utmost to keep that out of the press.

  31. Let the Fake News Media have their fun.

    ‘Never interfere with the enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself.’

  32. “Given that English is Sir Mo’s third language, I think it is a bit OTT to complain about a very minor misuse of it.”

    That’s fair enough but . . .

    1. He’s giving a public statement – might want to polish that up before you get in front of the press, Even if it is a rant on Facebook.

    2. He has a British passport so a) he was already an alien, before Trump even took office and b) I’m pretty sure that GB is not on the list of countries with an immigration hold.

  33. @David Moore,

    Re. the Grauniad pictures – yeah, the optics of that outside The Bubble are pretty bad…

    As are the “let them in” placards.

    Message to oridinary Joe Schmoe – we hate you, but we want these people let in in unlimited numbers.

  34. Bloke in North Dorset

    I’ve just read the EO, short summation:

    “There’s loads of different ways bad people could enter the US. I want a report on my desk in 90 days and because it involves a lot of work I’m suspending all immigration from … until I’ve got it and decided what to do next.”

    Seems a reasonable step to me.

    There’s no mention of Christians, only minority religions, and he also wants a report every 6 months on the number of terrorist incidents committed by aliens, including honour killings. Again, what’s not to like.

  35. I feel compelled tomask: why are Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey not on the list? Have there bee no terrorists from these countries?

    Why, I wonder, why?

  36. Anon: “Surely we should welcome that Mo will pay tax in the UK now”

    Would be migrants can pay their taxes elsewhere and we will keep our country. Cos it would be a lousy swap.

  37. “I feel compelled tomask: why are Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey not on the list? Have there bee no terrorists from these countries?

    Why, I wonder, why?”

    Because it was massively politically important to refer to the Obama Admin’s list.

  38. Ironman said: “I feel compelled tomask: why are Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey not on the list? Have there bee no terrorists from these countries?”

    The reason for drawing up the list is a concern that those countries cannot provide credible information about their people traveling to the USA.

    I would hazard a guess information the governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey provide to the USA government about their nationals is relatively easy for the USA government to confirm.

  39. Seriously?

    Saudi Arabia? The country that spawned and financed Al Qaeda. Egypt, homeland of the Muslim Brotherhood.

    As for Obama, he was and is a prick who always took the mor epolitically expedient route. Trump doesn’t need to be bound by choice, however. Just as Oba matter added countries to his list, so Trump could add countries to his. Yet he chooses not not. More specifically, he chooses not to add countries with whom he has business interests.

    Call me a cynic… and I’ll call you idiot dreamers.

  40. Because it was massively politically important to refer to the Obama Admin’s list.

    … given as a reply to your previous question.

    Trump could add countries to his. Yet he chooses not not. More specifically, he chooses not to add countries with whom he has business interests.

    Call me a cynic… and I’ll call you idiot dreamers.

    On this one, I’ll just call you a fuckwit.

  41. This. 100 times.

    “Only two weeks ago, Obama revoked a decades-old “wet foot, dry foot” policy of allowing entry to refugees from Cuba who made it to our shores. His move, intended to signal an easing of tensions with the brutal Communist dictatorship in Havana, has stranded scores of refugees in Mexico and Central America, and Mexico last Friday deported the first 91 of them to Cuba. This, too, has no claim on the conscience of Trump’s liberal critics. After all, Cuban Americans tend to vote Republican.

    Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444373/donald-trump-refugees-critics-wrong

  42. abacab

    So what? We know all about Barack Obama; you don’t need to tell us.

    Whatabouts don’t change the fundamental holes on the equation of the Trump policy: countries that should be included have not been. Is this due to he policy being i) ill-thought out and pointless grandstanding or ii) something more personal?

  43. @Ironman,

    It’s about entrapping the media into admitting they were deliberately not paying attention to the Obama admin’s policies.

    Something they walked into like Charlie Chaplin and a carried plank.

    Note that EVERYTHING he’s done that was not a direct campaign promise has been something that Barry did, or at least laid the obvious groundwork for. Here’s what Barry did to Iraqis for 6 months back in 2011 applied to a list of countries Barry wrote, for less period than he did it for. So the media’s hypocricy is laid bare.

    Also, they knew it would be all hashtag-muslim-ban with the MSM, so published the full text immediately and gave it to the media – so people, who now wouldn’t trust the media to report on what Trump said about the sun rising in the east, go and check it themselves, and lo and behold it’s not a “muslim ban”.

    The last admin had media manipulation in a benign environment when they were falling over themselves to fellate POTUS, this admin has media manipulation in a hostile media environment. And it’s clear they’re pretty good at it. Not perfect, some bollocks have been dropped, but he’s got them dancing to his fiddle.

  44. “It’s about entrapping the media into admitting they were deliberately not paying attention to the Obama admin’s policies.”

    No it’s not! He’s not that clever. And it shouldn’t be. It’s about him trying to be the President of the United States and trying to govern. So stop drawing irrelevant comparisons.

    Look, Trump is a fascist arsehole. Emile Yusupoff has summed him up perfectly on the ASI blog this morning. His economics are essentially Bernie Sanders’ and Jeremy Corbyn’s and Richard Murphy’s. They have nothing in common with Tim Worstall. He has no sense of liberalism at all. When we dive into whatabouts with Barack Obama we fail to apply a single set of standards; either they’re both right or they’re both wankers. I say these conditions of those two propositions.

  45. Ironman, whether you like him or loathe him, and agree with his policies or not, it has to be admitted that Trump isn’t as stupid and reckless as he seems. He’s conned you, and he’s suckered the left. And he has a team behind him who wargame everything.

  46. No it’s not! He’s not that clever.

    Look, Trump is a fascist arsehole

    Are you saying this because you have known this from many years of personal knowledge of the man or considered study? Or are you just regurgitating the views of the media who all declared that he would lose the election, that no women, soldiers, Republicans, farmers etc etc would ever vote for him?

    Was it Trump or Clinton who tried to disrupt their opponent’s meetings with violence? Clue: it was not Trump.

    Has he sent his supporters to smash newspaper offices?

    Has he conducted marches to intimidate people in big cities?

    When you learn the meaning of “Fascist”, get back to us. All you are doing is parading ignorance and stupidity and giving us the chance to laugh at your expense. And you are not signalling your virtue on this blog, of all places.

  47. Diogenes

    ” Or are you just regurgitating the views of the media..”

    Oh the ASI IS now “the media” is it?

    No. I watched him in the debates, thought about what he said and how he said it, asked myself what I thought, did what he said add up. Then I agreed with those who said he was a fascist. My view.

    I did the same with Bernie Sanders. I did the same with Jeremy Corbyn and Barack Obama and and and. I did the same with Tim Worstall when I first read him. That is why I ended up here.

    Look. He can win an election, or two, or.one hundred elections. You can all love him for it. The fundamentals won’t change. He doesn’t believe in liberalism. He doesn’t believe in markets – no he doesn’t. He doesn’t believe in free trade. He is a protectionist. His economics are Richard Murphy’s. We each either agree with him or we don’t. We then try to kid ourselves we sit somewhere to the right of centre or we genuinely sit there.

  48. On the other hand, Ironman, you are a credulous fool. I know that Trump polarises people. But he seeks to engage on a visceral level. You have the choice to engage at that level. I prefer to use the rest of my faculties. It is your choice to prefer not to understand what he is doing. You are not alone because the entire msm has been dancing to his tune, or trying to catch up.

    Detach yourself. You are being manipulated. If Trump is Hitler then you will be running a camp soon.

  49. Bloke in Costa Rica

    Ironman: Trump ticks a lot of boxes on the Big List of Terrible Political Ideas, it’s true. Obama ticked almost all of them. But Trump is trainable. Obama was not. Ultimately Trump is a pragmatist and Obama was an ideologue. Clinton is just a corrupt, scheming opportunist and the world dodged a bullet there. Calling Trump a fascist is dopey, because if he is then so is essentially every other Western politician with a hope of getting elected. I keep telling people that Trump simply is not as far out of the mainstream as he is portrayed. His route to the Presidency was unorthodox, and unlike many politicians he does at least seem to have a bit of follow-through on his campaign promises, but none of his positions is really particularly outré. They’re all comparable with those of past politicians none of whom caused a collective fit of the vapours. For all the wild talk you’d think he’s Greg Stillson, but he’s way less gung-ho than Clinton.

  50. “But he seeks to engage on a visceral level”

    That ranks right up there with Corbyn’s “for all his flaws”. But then, as with the batshit crazy Corbynistas, theTrump-blind simply will not see.

  51. Bloke in Costa Rica

    “Trump-blind”? You’ve more straw men than a Worzel Gummidge lookalike competition there. Those commenters here who are, shall we say, not anti-Trump are so rather tentatively and in acknowledgement that the guy is far from perfect. There might be full-throated see-no-evil support for him in other fora, but not here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *