Category Archives: Fundamentalist terror

Lithuanian authorities launch investigation into fake German rape story | News | DW.COM | 17.02.2017 Trump-Putin Duo Do it Again

Vytautas Bakas, chairman of the Lithuanian parliament’s Committee on National Security and Defense, said on Friday that a probe had been launched into the incident amid growing concerns over the spread of so-called “fake news” meant to sow distrust between locals and NATO allies.”The police are conducting [the investigation],” Bakas told DW in a phone interview. Furthermore, he added that Lithuanian authorities had been preparing for such incidents, which he called “information attacks.”

Source: Lithuanian authorities launch investigation into fake German rape story | News | DW.COM | 17.02.2017

Donald Trump: White House flatly denies plan to mobilise National Guard troops – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official described the document as a very early draft that was not seriously considered and never brought to General Kelly for approval.However, DHS staffers said on Thursday they had been told by colleagues in two DHS departments that the proposal was still being considered as recently as February 10.DHS spokeswoman Gillian Christensen declined to say who wrote the memo, how long it had been under consideration or when it had been rejected.The pushback from administration officials did little to quell outrage over the draft plan. Two Republican governors spoke out against the proposal and numerous Democratic politicians denounced it as an overly aggressive approach to immigration enforcement.Democrats Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said he was appalled at the report saying, ” I just hope it’s not true”.Mr Schumer called the concept “despicable” and said even considering the proposal would be “appalling”.”Regardless of the White House’s response, this document is an absolutely accurate description of the disturbing mindset that pervades the Trump administration when it comes to our nation’s immigrants,” said US senator Catherine Cortez Masto.Arkansas Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson said he would have “concerns about the utilisation of National Guard resources for immigration enforcement”, believing such a program “would be too much of a strain on our National Guard personnel”.Utah GOP Governor Gary Herbert would have serious concerns about the constitutional implications and financial impact of activating the National Guard to round up unauthorised immigrants, the governor’s office said in a statement.Senator Richard Blumenthal said: “This administration’s complete disregard for the impact its internal chaos and inability to manage its own message and policy is having on real people’s lives is offensive.”

Source: Donald Trump: White House flatly denies plan to mobilise National Guard troops – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Deportations: US “dreamer” arrest fuels fears of extreme action against illegal migrants | In English | EL PAÍS

“This is a matter of concern for everyone. We cannot trust the federal government’s promises.” These words, spoken by lawyer Marielena Hincapié, illustrate the general feeling among legal experts on immigration issues following the recent detention in Seattle of a Mexican man who was protected under Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Source: Deportations: US “dreamer” arrest fuels fears of extreme action against illegal migrants | In English | EL PAÍS

#BanThis

Leila Roumani Syria-USA 34, PROJECT MANAGER, MASTERS IN PUBLIC HEALTH AT HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

My father came in the late 1960s from Syria to do his urological residency in Ohio and Pennsylvania. He soon engaged and brought my mother along to join him in the U.S. After having my two sisters in Pennsylvania and finishing medical residency, they moved to Los Angeles, California where my father opened his first medical office and my parents delivered their third baby girl: me. We had several aunts and uncles who had settled in Los Angeles before us, so although my parents were far away from family, we still had a loving, progressive, intersectionality oriented, and social-justice minded Muslim and Arab community in Los Angeles to lean on. Today, six years into the Syrian civil war, I realize that my family would most likely be refugees if my parents had not moved to the US in the late 1960s when professional immigrants were encouraged and welcome to come. My parents proudly moved to a country that believed in opportunities for all and a ‘melting pot’ of diversity and inclusion. My parents have never missed an opportunity to vote since they were naturalized-something my father reminds us could not have happened in Syria. The US afforded my family opportunities and stability to build a better life.Why did your family come to the United States?They wanted to leave Syria because they wanted to raise their children in a country that upheld democratic ideals, free speech, and better opportunities.What would the U.S. be missing out on if you or your people were banned?My father’s sense of humor and Syrian-Lebanese food

Source: #BanThis

#BanThis

Rebecca A.Ethiopia – USA35, ATTORNEY BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

I was born in Ethiopia and remember having most of my mother’s family close by as I grew. Some aunts and uncles were already in the US, specifically to further their studies, and my sister (the only one I have) went on a trip with my grandparents to visit those aunties and uncles in Boston. Unfortunately, or fortunately as it were, my sister had an accident that brought her under the scrutiny of specialist doctors who diagnosed her with scoliosis. She needed surgery and so she, along with my grandparents, stayed longer than expected to find her medical care.At the same time, my parents were more directly feeling the repression of the current authoritarian regime in Ethiopia. It was 1986 and Mengistu Hailemariam was in power then. My father was most targeted and suffered through detention before it was decided that we could no longer stay there with out risking further harm. My mother and I left my father and traveled to Boston on our own. There, we were met by my sister, whom I hadn’t seen in what seemed to my 5 year old self as years. We lived with my mother’s parents and her brother and sister for a couple of years until my father was finally able to travel and join us. Since the my parents have worked on creating a new life for themselves. My father worked various jobs: cashier, taxi driver, security guard and my mother did the same (except for the driving part, she has always been a nervous driver). And my sister and I grew up in the US. Somewhat local, but the feeling that we were foreign or different ever present in our lives. I spoke to my mother right after the Executive Order banning Muslim travel came into effect. She lamented how she thought she had left a place like this. She was sad that she now has to encounter a world order that she was much too familiar with 30 years ago; a repressive and discriminatory government that she desperately needed to escape, but somehow has followed her still.Why did your family come to the United States?My family came to the United States to escape government persecution and repression.What would the U.S. be missing out on if you or your people were banned?A family who doesn’t feel like the holiday season has started until they have seen Die Hard at least 3 times. A mother and father who regularly help with their weekly church service. Two young black sisters who watch Seinfeld still and feel it resonate in their lives.

Source: #BanThis

Inoreader – Immigrants and Their Children Respond to Trump: #BanThis

There is so much we risk losing when any of us are banned. Unlike what is claimed by the administration, we are not banning the unknown, the evil, the ever illusive ‘other’. This order  is banning us – people who have been a part of the United States for generations and who make up this nation. Trump’s oversimplified rhetoric on immigration is a false depiction of our country, its history of immigration, and our struggles. #BanThis resists this erasure.To see more of this project and contribute to the campaign, follow them on Instagram at @banthiscampaign or check out their website at banthisthecampaign.org.

Source: Inoreader – Immigrants and Their Children Respond to Trump: #BanThis

Times May Change But Fascism Remains the Same | Dame Magazine – Trumpism, the latest run for Fascism!

If these arguments seem familiar, it’s because if you substitute Muslim for Jew and American identity for Christian identity, the cultural chaos and the backlash against women and those who are seen as not being part of the community are eerily similar. Donald Trump emphasizes exclusion and the marking of Muslims as a way of convincing Americans that there are distinctions between “real” Americans and “terrorists.” (The ideas are similar in his rhetoric about “Mexicans” and undocumented immigrants.) Trump’s executive order that banned Muslims from seven different countries was not about keeping Americans safe. His purpose was to convince his supporters that they have a claim to some sort of specialness that is due to having been born on American soil.While Trump uses different rhetorical structures to separate Americans by gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity, the purpose of his executive order was to create a sense of American identity that was based on one idea. According to Trump, Muslims cannot be true Americans. And, he believes, they cannot be admitted because, “In order to protect Americans, the United States must ensure that those admitted to this country do not bear hostile attitudes toward it and its founding principles. The United States cannot, and should not, admit those who do not support the Constitution, or those who would place violent ideologies over American law. In addition, the United States should not admit those who engage in acts of bigotry or hatred (including “honor” killings, other forms of violence against women, or the persecution of those who practice religions different from their own) or those who would oppress Americans of any race, gender, or sexual orientation.”The irony, of course, is that if “acts of bigotry … violence against women … or the oppression based on race, gender, or sexual orientation” are the criteria by which being admitted to the United States will be determined, millions of native-born Americans, including Donald Trump himself, should not be allowed to stay.It is a primary tool of the demagogue to convince their audience that a secret group lives among them. This secret group plots the larger community’s downfall; therefore, all the members of the community must not only swear allegiance to its chosen leader, they must all be willing to spy on other members of the group and turn them in should anyone suspect that a mole be working to bring them down.

Source: Times May Change But Fascism Remains the Same | Dame Magazine

Trump and Netanyahu are allies in a losing battle | +972 Magazine

The most important clue to solve this puzzle is Trump and Netanyahu’s obsession with attacking, controlling and manipulating the news media (indeed, this is one of the major sources of Netanyahu’s recent legal troubles). Admittedly, even within their own camps, they are extreme outliers in terms of crudity and relentlessness on this issue — something that surely has to do with their individual psychological makeup. But they are also emblematic of a broader approach on the right, which has fueled the rise of rigorously partisan and uncurious media organs such as Israel Hayom in Israel and Fox News in the U.S.Journalists are a major problem for the Israeli and American extreme right because, despite all their flaws, they occasionally do provide information and cover actual events. In other words, they reflect reality — however partially and inadequately.Reality is the greatest foe of the extreme right wingers currently in power. In the real world, Palestinians, Mexicans, Muslims, and many other groups that they do not like continue to exist, despite travel bans and land grabs. In the real world, international relations are crucial for the prosperity of both countries and cannot be flippantly dismissed. “Alternative facts” are easily malleable. Actual facts cannot be so flexibly managed. The extreme right is not creating “facts on the ground,” it is being undone by them, bit by bit.Netanyahu, Trump, and their allies are fighting a losing battle. Deep inside, they know this. If they truly believed otherwise, their disposition would be sunny and confident, not dark and fretful.This is not cause for complacency. Part of the reason these agendas will be defeated is precisely because people are not complacent — they are mobilized and agitated (at least in the U.S.; this kind of mass opposition seems to be further down the road in Israel and Palestine). Until they are stopped, Trump and Netanyahu can do great harm, some of which will be irreparable. Nonetheless, the struggle against them must begin with the insight that we are not fighting an ascendant and secure power, we are opposing a desperate and fearful faction.

Source: Trump and Netanyahu are allies in a losing battle | +972 Magazine

Donald Trump: The Role of the Media in Addressing the Threat – SPIEGEL ONLINE

So there we have it: Donald Trump, a misogynist and a racist businessman who verifiably made 87 false statements in the course of only five days of the election campaign, is no longer a candidate. He’s sitting in the White House. Here are three insights about this American president who has been in office since Jan. 20.First, in the two-and-a-half weeks since his awful inauguration speech, he has demonstrated that he will do what he said he would: He is ordering the construction of a wall on the border to Mexico, he is issuing xenophobic decrees and he is rattling America’s allies and international institutions and, by doing so, every aspect of global politics. He has already threatened Iran and North Korea. None of this comes as a surprise either, because even Trump’s voters knew that adviser Stephen Bannon is a man who considers wars to be useful.Second, Trump is also showing that he will do much that he did not announce in the campaign. He has ordered scientists not to conduct or publish research on topics of which he does not approve. He says climate change doesn’t exist and means it seriously. He stood by as one of his closest confidants invented the term “alternative facts” to create a parallel reality. Trump brings his children with him to high-level meetings, he hired his son-in-law as a White House adviser, he has spared countries in which he does business from his travel ban on citizens of predominately Muslim states, he has not divested himself of his company holdings, he has not released his tax filings (despite pledging to do so) and even had his adviser Kellyanne Conway claim that voters didn’t care. He now wants to undo banking regulations so that “friends of mine” can get easier access to money. Is he paving the way to cash in and further enrich himself while in office?Third, Trump has already proven some of the things we already knew about him. The perception people have of him is more important to Trump than anything else. Nothing was more important to him in his first two and a half weeks in office than the size of the crowd at his inauguration. Trump is a chronic liar and he proves this in one tweet after the other. Trump despises the media (he calls it the “opposition party” and says “As you know, I have a running war with the media”) as well as the judicial branch in the form of “this so-called judge” who didn’t rule the way that his ruler desired. Meanwhile, Trump claims the people protesting against him are “paid.”

Source: Donald Trump: The Role of the Media in Addressing the Threat – SPIEGEL ONLINE