Well of course I am. Lots of sensible folks are posting negative things about ICE online. ICE are a bunch of assholes.

Yeah, bet she’s feeling really loved right now.

That’s my read on it too. Trying to have it both ways, and not exactly succeeding at it.

It’s my understanding that the executive does not have the authority to unilaterally change official geographic names. As of my writing this, the name “change” has NOT been adopted by the United States government. Congress granted that authority to the US Board of Geographic Names in 1890. Unless accepted by the US BoGN, it changes nothing. I suppose Congress could rename it if they passed a bill that the president signed into law overriding that authority for that specific case, but until they did so, it’s not official.

Here is the link to the US Geographic Names Information system page showing the current official name of the Gulf of Mexico: https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names/558730. Note the list of accepted variant names, which still doesn’t include “Gulf of America”.

Google are saying here that they will only change it on maps if it’s made official by the US Government, which has not happened yet. That’s why they haven’t made any change yet, and won’t unless Trump gets the US BoGN to do his bidding.

Edit: well that didn’t take long. They already made made the change.

Nah, he just does this every so often. He’ll say something surprisingly sensible and moral like this when speaking of the cuff or reacting to new events, and then quickly backtrack on it when he remembers what the GOP want him to say. He knows his usual stances on topics are wrong, he just forgets to keep that to himself occasionally. It’s extremely frustrating being one of his constituents.

I give it 24 hours, give or take, for Senator Spineless to remember who his masters are and publicly backtrack on this comment. It’s weirdly not rare for him to say something good and sensible like this, but it’s unheard of for him to not quickly denounce such statements in favor of the party line.

The name “change” hasn’t even been adopted by the United States own government, because the president does not have that authority. Congress granted that authority to the US Board of Geographic Names in 1890. I suppose Congress could rename it if they passed a bill that the president signed into law overriding that authority for that specific case, but until they did so, it’s not official.

Here is the link to the US Geographic Names Information system page showing the current official name of the Gulf of Mexico: https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names/558730. Note the list of accepted variant names, which still doesn’t include “Gulf of America”.

I just checked there, and they have not renamed it, nor have they listed the new name as a recognized alternate name.

Whether of not an executive order can override the government agency specifically granted that authority by congress is of no concern to them. By law, the Board of Geographic Names is the final authority on geographic names. If they don’t go along with this change, then the Trump admin would have to file an inter-government lawsuit about it.