While Mr. Unpopular misgoverns, nation's mood gets uglier

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President Donald J. Trump is perhaps the least popular Chief Executive in U.S. history, according to the latest Gallup poll, published today by the venerable management consulting and polling organization founded in 1935 by George Gallup.

 Per today's poll, Mr. Trump's job approval rating shows that only 39% of Americans think the President is doing a good job. This is a slight improvement over the low poll results mentioned this weekend, when it was reported that only 37% of Americans believe that Trump is a good commander in chief.

 The low poll ratings come after the White House released Mr. Trump's proposed budget, America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again. This is the controversial preliminary plan by budget manager Mick Mulvaney to increase defense spending by $54 billion and fund the Mexican Wall - the President's pet project - with an additional $21.6 billion.

 To offset these expensive projects without raising taxes or endangering the Administration's promised tax cut for the wealthy, Mr. Mulvaney is planning to defund or slash the budgets of 18 agencies that Mr. Trump and his cronies consider inefficient or unnecessary.  The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and even the block grants that help fund Meals on Wheels are all in the gunsights of Mr. Mulvaney and his master, Donald J. Trump.

Meanwhile, outside Washington, DC, the American people are becoming more divided with each passing day. Feeling empowered by Mr. Trump's ascension to the highest elected office in the land,
racists are crawling out of the shadows and showing the world the ugly underside of the American dream.

 This past week, a waiter in California was fired from a Huntington Beach restaurant after he asked a customer and her friends for proof of residency when they ordered drinks.

According to a story at CNN.com: The exchange happened at the Saint Marc Pub-Café on March 11, according to CNN affiliate KABC.
"The fact that he said, 'I need to make sure you're from here before I serve you,' was completely unacceptable," Diana Carrillo wrote on Facebook after visiting the Pacific Coast Highway restaurant last Saturday with two friends.

The Saint Marc Pub-Cafe responded to Carrillo's complain by firing the waiter and posting this comment on its official Facebook page:

Saint Marc Pub-Cafe, Bakery & Cheese Affinage This very unfortunate incident has been handled internally through the termination of the employee at fault. We also contacted the guest and plan to donate 10 percent of this weekend’s sales to the charity of her choice, Orange County Immigrant Youth United. In no way are the actions of this former employee representative of the Saint Marc brand nor are they reflective of the opinions of anyone else on our team, including executive management. We have always celebrated being part of the diverse Huntington Beach community, which means valuing all guests and treating every individual with respect.


All well and good, but even though the restaurant took prompt action and made a public statement (albeit as a comment buried in a non-related post about St. Patrick's Day and March Madness), the waiter's attempt to act as a self-appointed ICE agent indicates that people now feel entitled to attack others based on race, religion, or immigration status. 

Mr. Trump's unfortunate campaign promise to build a wall on the Mexican border to stop a "flood" of immigrants who allegedly enter the U.S. with criminal intent and his infamous ban on Muslim refugees and visitors from several countries has emboldened racists and white supremacists to commit a wide range of hate crimes. 

These crimes are aimed at various targets. Most of them are Hispanics (even those born in the U.S.) and Muslims. Last month, a mosque in the Tampa area was damaged by arsonists who want to intimidate local Muslims. 

And in Kansas, two Indian men were shot at a bar in Olathe, near Kansas City, by Adam Purinton,  a 51-year-old white male who shouted "Get out of my country." One of the immigrants died, the other was seriously wounded. Another bar patron, Ian Grillot, was also wounded when he tried to intercede on the victims' behalf.    


Sources:

 http://www.gallup.com/poll/201617/gallup-daily-trump-job-approval.aspx

 http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/20/us/california-waiter-fired-trnd/

 https://www.facebook.com/SaintMarcUSA/photos/a.956773064353071.1073741829.956682897695421/1488852344478471/?type=3&comment_id=1491851047511934&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D

 http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/24/us/tampa-mosque-arson-florida/

 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/fbi-investigate-kansas-shooting-two-indian-men-hate-crime/

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