Tag: Refugees

A Ban Of A Different Color

We all recall the day that Trump issued his new EO about the banning of people from 7 specific countries…Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya and one and on….7 total.  We also remember the a judge issued a stay and then it was back to the drawing board.

Shortly after Trump issued his silly ban the Iraqis retaliated……

Iraq’s lawmakers on Monday backed a “reciprocity measure” that would bar Americans from entering Iraq in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s banning of Iraqis and citizens of six other majority-Muslim countries from traveling to the United States.

After this vote became public the M-IC went batcrap crazy…..they would not be able to rape the country for contractors and munitions and other assorted American expertise.  Not to mention the billions of dollars lost in profits if the Iraqi ban was upheld.

You can bet that there was a flurry of meetings at the Pentagon trying to find the right pressure to get this situation repaired……and guess what?

The clout of the M-IC is just amazing……

President Trump’s new immigration order will remove Iraq from the list of countries whose citizens face a temporary US travel ban, US officials say, citing the latest draft in circulation. Trump is expected to sign the executive order in the coming days. Four officials told the AP that the decision followed pressure from the Pentagon and State Department, which had urged the White House to reconsider Iraq’s inclusion on the list given its key role in fighting ISIS. Citizens of six other predominantly Muslim countries—Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—will remain on the travel ban list, the officials say.

The new order includes other changes as well. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the order before it’s signed, say the 12-page document no longer singles out Syrian refugees for an indefinite ban and instead includes them as part of a general, 120-day suspension of new refugee admissions. The officials also say the order won’t include any explicit exemption for religious minorities in the countries targeted by the travel ban. Critics had accused the administration of adding such language to help Christians get into the United States while excluding Muslims. Unlike under the first order, existing visas will be honored, the officials say.

If that ban was a real concern then Iraq would still be part of it…..this moronic ban was purely arbitrary and does NOTHING to protect American national security.

This change of heart proves it.

“Money talks and bullshit walks”…..and Trump has taken a walk.

Closing Thought–17Feb17

Before I begin my closing thought….

Ohio Players front man, Junie Morrison, has died….The Dayton, Ohio, vocalist and producer responsible for founding The Ohio Players and contributing to the rise of the Parliament-Funkadelic passed away today at age 62.

May he Rest in Peace.  He will be missed!

Because you will not hear this from racist bastards that push a lie!

With the New Year came the report that migrants/refugees went batcrap crazy in Germany and sexually attack many women…some say as many as 55 migrants committed these crimes…..

And of course those tiny mind slobbering at their keyboards on the Right jumped on this report and are still using it as of today to denigrate anyone that is not white.

But the report was baseless according to the police…..

Prosecutors are investigating two people for allegedly fabricating an account of a mass sex attack by Arab migrants in Frankfurt.

Claims that a “sex rioting mob” of around 50 men assaulted a group of women over the new year were reported by German tabloid Bild earlier this month.

The report, which suggested the attackers lived at a refugee shelter in central Hasse, was widely re-circulated by right-wing news sites.

Source: Mass sexual assault in Frankfurt by refugees ‘completely made up’ | The Independent

Sad how these few bigoted a/holes will hold on the a lie just to spread their disgusting paradigm….

In closing please enjoy the Ohio Players….Fire

Today is Friday and I am tapped out…..I go and begin a restful weekend (hopefully) and you do the same…..Be well, be safe….chuq

Refugee Ban Is Nothing New

Pres. Trump has banned some immigrants from entering the US….and all crap broke louse….people are protesting….bloggers are ranting….and the unwashed masses are rolling over and accepting the “fatwa”……

From David French, National Review: “To read the online commentary, one would think that President Trump just fundamentally corrupted the American character. You would think that the executive order on refugees he signed Friday betrayed America’s Founding ideals. You might even think he banned people from an entire faith from American shores.”

But I will do what I always do….give my readers a bit of a history lesson along this issue……

And since there are those that cannot shut up about this…one dimensional blogger is a thing…..I figure what the Hell I would point out a little history…but then there will be those micro brains that will have something to say about history….never the less history is history……

You see fellow readers this is NOT a new occurrence…..Pres. Arthur, FDR, Teddy, Carter and Reagan did similar actions….we have banned Chinese, Jews, people with HIV, etc……….

On Friday, Donald Trump barred citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen – from entering the United States for at least the next 90 days.

He also suspended the US refugee programme for 120 days, specifically banning Syrian refugees until further notice, reduced the number of refugees who would be admitted this year to 50,000 and specified that refugees who were from a religious minority and fleeing religious persecution should be prioritised.

Now that you are caught up with the local news….let’s move on to the historic perspective shall we?

But this is not the first time that the US has banned immigrants from its shores. Over the past 200 years, successive American presidents have placed restrictions on the immigration of certain groups.

Here are six occasions when laws have been passed to restrict some people from entering the country.

Source: Six other times the US has banned immigrants | | Al Jazeera

This ban is NOTHING…..it has been going on for at least a 100 years…….so sit down and let it play out….hateful language does NOTHING to solve the problem.

These people are human beings maybe now would be a good time to start treating them as such….this may be a new concept for some but it is never too late to try.

I have one question……why is Saudi Arabia and Egypt exempt from Trump’s now ban?

Why Do We Fear Refugees?

My weekend begins and my granddaughter is visiting and we are arguing something we do often….but it is light hearted and informative….

Recently she had a class project about the refugees and the conflicts that have created the flood of people.  She does her own research and she found some stuff that sort of made her worry……it seems she had found in her research and in her classroom that people seem to fear refugees……she asked why.

She found this animated piece on youtube that explains it somewhat and she shared it with me……

Zygmunt Bauman, one of the most influential thinkers of our time, says many Europeans’ fear of refugees boils down to the idea of the “precariat” – people whose lives are marked by precariousness, anxiety and fear.

Bauman believes that in this era of global upheaval and movement, seeing people who have lost everything reminds us of our own vulnerabilities – how we could so easily lose our homes, our jobs and our loved ones.

I could have given her my take on it…..if the world does not want to help these people then stop making the crisis possible….but I wanted her to find her answers on her own…..

I gave her an “A” for her diligence in finding the answer to her question…..

And all I can say is….”That’s my girl”.

Sabra And Shatila–34 Years On

Today’s news is the all important “one eyed snake” test that Trump had or that some late night host messed his hair up….this is what passes for news these days…your Pulitzer awaits!

30 years ago today the IDF allowed Lebanese militias enter a Palestinian refugees camps and allowed a massacre of woman, children and old people…..

Source: BBC News | PANORAMA | Sabra and Shatila: Dealing with facts

An interview with a person that was there that fateful day…….

On Sunday, the 30th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre was commemorated by people of different nationalities around the world. In Lebanon the commemoration was only observed by Palestinians living in refugee camps; Lebanese people were not concerned.

The massacre carried out by the Phalange, a Christian Maronite militia acting in full cooperation with Israel, was among the most atrocious episodes of recent history. But it is still absent from our collective Lebanese memory.

The Sabra and Shatila massacre is another taboo in Lebanon that needs to be addressed publicly and soberly; maybe admitting the wrongdoing could prevent us from further subjugating the Palestinian refugees who are residing here temporarily until they return to their occupied homeland.

Source: “They shot my father in the head”: interview with survivor of Sabra and Shatila massacre | The Electronic Intifada

Sadly this will not be reported….just like the IDF attack on the USS Liberty….this will be swept under the rug like anything negative about Israel.

The cost of foreign interventionism is immigration [Opinion]

Even the big news these days is not overseas but rather in Philly….the Dem Convention is underway…..while I still a interested in international relations I will be posting more on politics than geopolitics for the next few days….but never fear I will return to my fave subject after that……

You cannot turn on the TV or read a blog these days without the constant drumming of bullsh*t about the refugees……they are all worried about the influx of immigrants for they will spell the doom of the country.  Of course these are same predictions that were given when the Cubans showed up and then there were the Vietnamese and I am sure that there was some of these fabrications with the Chinese or the Irish or the Italians in days past…..

Have any of these semi-literate dullards ever consider that our interventions are causing some of the refugee problems?

Maybe if they work to help stop all the conflicts then they would not need to stroke out over the refugees that they created…..on second thought probably not……they prefer to spread the lies and innuendoes like peanut butter….

I realize to some I am wasting my time….so this press is for the more literate out there….

More than 4 million Syrians have left their war-torn country since civil war began in 2011, and with ISIS on the move that human flood seeking solace is unlikely to recede any time soon. This spate of refugees comes on top of lesser-known but equally desperate migrations from the sites of early entrants into the last 15 years of war in the Mideast: From Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, millions more seek the safety of the Western world.

The United States have been insulated from these migrant crises thanks to a lengthy, stringent refugee vetting process and the natural barrier of two giant moats in the form of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Our allies in Europe, however, have enjoyed no such guarantees of volition. Refugees are coming, whether they like it or not.

Source: The cost of foreign interventionism is immigration [Opinion] – Red Alert Politics

If you worry about the influx of “foreigners” then stop destroying their country…..or pay the price for the destruction.  That is just too easy to bitch and turn a blind eye….we Americans have been doing that for a century or so…..

It is simple…those that create the mass migrations should pay the price for that act……simple and tidy….it will not fly….NO one likes simple and tidy especially the Right wing.

The Rise Of Evil

I know that there are many in this world that are concerned with the rise of the refugee population in their countries…..the horrifying stories get lots more press than any heart warming one…….and in most countries in Europe there is a rise in the far right political parties…..

An Argentinian man has purchased more than 50 items of Nazi memorabilia from a controversial auction in Munich. The single purchase, said to have totaled more than $683, 000 (£462,000), included a jacket owned by Adolf Hitler and silk underwear that once belonged to Nazi military leader Hermann Goering.

Though the event was closed to press following public outcry, the items under the hammer were sold under the theme,“Hitler and the Nazi Grandees — a look into the abyss of evil,” and hailed from the private collection of John K. Latimer, the physician at the Nuremberg trials.

According to Bild, 50 people attended the auction of more than 169 Nazi relics. An undercover journalist from the German newspaper reported the room was filled with young couples, elderly men, and muscular men with shaved heads and tribal tattoos. The buyer reportedly used the number 888 — the neo-Nazi code for “Heil Hitler” — to make his purchases. One of the items he bought was a brass container Goering used to kill himself with hydrogen cyanide.

Source: Surging Far-Right Movements Across Europe Are Making Hitler Popular Again

It is sad….but at least we here in the good old USA do not have to worry about this sort of thing…….

A Polk County, Tenn., restaurant owner running for a congressional seat is outraging neighbors and the internet with an exceptionally racist campaign billboard, WTVC reports. “I am so enraged I can barely express myself without copious amounts of profanity,” Amy Hines Woody captioned her photo of the billboard on Facebook in a post that has apparently since been taken down. The billboard, which reads “Make America White Again,” was erected near her home by Rick Tyler. Tyler, who says he’s inspired by Donald Trump, is running a “campaign of explicit white nationalism,” according to Gawker. On his campaign website (which is also down; cached version here), Tyler says Trump has “loosened up the overall spectrum of political discourse.” He goes on to claim the “white American super majority,” needed to fight tyranny, is being destroyed.

While the “Make America White Again” billboard was removed Tuesday, Tyler is asking for donations to fund his other billboard ideas, including ones that read “Stop the Muslim invasion” and “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be miscegenators.” Tyler, who is running as an Independent and got a whopping 0.4% of the vote when he previously ran in 2014, has no realistic shot at winning. Therefore, Gawker states that “his candidacy is probably best read as an example of that which Donald Trump hath wrought.” Meanwhile, calls for a boycott of Tyler’s business, the Whitewater Grille, are coming from former customers and the Kiwanis of Ocoee, which calls his billboard “repugnant.”

The Theory of Recurring Cycles…….

Historic recurrence is the repetition of similar events in history.  The concept of historic recurrence has variously been applied to the overall history of the world (e.g., to the rises and falls of empires), to repetitive patterns in the history of a given polity, and to any two specific events which bear a striking similarity.  (Wikipedia)

Here we go yet again……

Thoughts?

Welcome To Refugee Island

(I should insert the theme from the old TV series “Fantasy Island”…..but that would be a bit much even for me)

Plus this article is pressed from the WaPo….I am not thrilled with this paper for it is as much a propaganda tool as it is a “news” source….

With all the stuff in the news about the plight of all the refugees from conflict one might think that this post would be about the Greek isle known as Lesbos….or refugee island.

Sorry to say that if that is what you think then you will be wrong.

The conflicts, especially those in the Middle East, have created a world problem…..people fleeing from these wars……the world knows them by their media designation….REFUGEES.

There are lots of opinions but most have NO footing in reality…..for you see most people are too damn lazy to research cause and effect….so they prattle on about something they have NO idea of what it truly encompasses.

There has been lots written on the possible solutions to this problem.  For me it is simple…if a country help create the problem then they are part of the solution.  But I am a lonely person with this…..

There are many that feel that these people are just looking for freebies….or a path to help destroy the “West”…..personally, it is just people that are trying to out run war and find a safe place for their families…..

There is one idea for a solution that I found that is a bit unusual…..please read and tell me what you think…..

Europe is now years into a refugee crisis of historic proportions, and, frankly, there’s no end in sight. Even well-intentioned efforts to stem the crisis have struggled: One high-profile diplomatic arrangement designed to cut the migration route through Turkey and Greece into Eastern Europe appears to have unintentionally diverted refugees toward even more perilous journeys from North Africa across the Mediterranean. The Institute of Migration says at least 1,000 people have died making that journey in the past week alone.

The sheer intractability of the problem has spawned a number of wild suggestions for imaginative — though not necessarily practical — solutions. The latest may be one of the most audacious: a proposal to build a man-made island off the coast of Tunisia that would serve as a haven for refugees hoping to make it to Europe.

Source: A Dutch architect’s plan to put Europe’s refugees on a man-made island near Tunisia – The Washington Post

Would you get behind this solution?  Would this be a more humane solution than the options now ahead of these people?

If you do not like this solution….do you have one as an alternative?

Turning Away Refugees Won’t Fight Terrorism

Well crap!  The hurricane season is 6 days old and already a tropical storm in the Gulf….looks like a long season to look forward to this year…oh goody!

This post ought to get the rabidly insane frothing at the mouth…..

Even with the election the continuing saga of the refugees that are running from the conflict in several countries….even with the election there are those that need a boost for attention from the media like Alan West or other low level Repub….

There are many Americans that have a burning fear of these people….most because they allow morons to throw fuel on the flames of fear…..they seem to fear these people….all of which in their little brains are only looking for hand-outs…..I guess that is easier than having a conscience…..or spending some time trying to understand the situation.

I read a piece about what is helping make this crisis that so many fear…….

“They make a desert and they call it peace,” is the bitter line Tacitus attributed to the British tribal leader Calgacus speaking 2,000 years ago of the devastation inflicted by the Roman army on the rebellious British. The denunciation has echoed down the centuries and been applied to many pacification campaigns, but it is peculiarly appropriate to what is now happening in Iraq.

Some 20,000 Iraqi soldiers, special forces, federal police and Shia paramilitaries are advancing on Fallujah, a Sunni Arab city held by Isis since early 2014. They are backed by the destructive might of the US-led coalition of air forces that have carried out 8,503 air strikes in Iraq and 3,450 in Syria over the last two years. Without such close air support, the anti-Isis forces in Iraq and Syria would not have had their recent successes.

Source: Air strikes on Isis in Iraq and Syria are reducing their cities to ruins – The Unz Review

After reading this article I thought I would press it for my readers to have a chance to also read it.  Sadly it will most likely make little difference because I suspect that there is a deeper reason or possibly a deeper ear at work.

Many American governors have banned Syrian refugees from their states. But that choice might not have the intended consequences.

That raises an ethical question, of course—do Americans deserve peace of mind more than Syrians refugees deserve safety? The more practical question though, is whether blocking Syrian refugees will stop terrorism.

Defined narrowly, the answer is a qualified yes: A Syrian refugee moratorium would block the narrow subset of terrorists who also happen to be (or are posing as) Syrian refugees.

Source: Turning Away Refugees Won’t Fight Terrorism, and Might Make It Worse | WIRED

There is more….the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a study and has issued a statement on the resettlement of refugees…..(this one will go unread)……

Germany must accelerate structural reforms to boost growth potential by broadening the participation of refugees, women, and older workers in the labour market, the International Monetary Fund has said.

The IMF recommended that Germany implement several reform measures to help revitalise potential growth and enhance the authorities’ leadership at the European level in the area,

Source: IMF: Refugees may hold key to Germany’s economic growth – AJE News

A lot to take in and sadly few will take the time……

Conflict Is Key to Understanding Migration

Before I start my week of pissing people off….my morning harvest……

Today I shall attempt to touch on the on-going situation of the refugees….I realize that this subject is one that creates lots of passionate responses…all that I ask is that the reader put aside any preconceived thoughts and actually read and think about the situation the world is facing.

The refugees from war have made the pages of the idiotic Right blogs and “papers”…..they are most concerned that some of these people may show up in a town near them….of course most of these dolts seem to think that all these people are after a “free ride” in America or worse…they are all terrorists in waiting to go and commit some heinous crime….

I have several friends in the Middle East….Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and Jordan and when we talk not one has ever asked about the “free stuff” the government gives out.  Maybe it is just the people that I know….but I do not think that is the case.

There have been reams of research on why these people have joined the ranks of the refugees……and all the research does not feed the lunatics and their far-fetched theories….but these people have never let facts get in the way of their disguised hatred…..

They, the deniers, are most critical of anyone who tries to help the world understand the refugee situation…the many aspects from economics, to climate to armed conflict……but fortunately their hateful words do not explain the reasons or the events and all they are doing is helping the idiots feed a delusion…..

If European policymakers are to address the migration crisis effectively, they must understand that it is a crisis largely born out of war.

The West’s current focus on the refugee crisis in Europe obscures the larger truths of a global crisis of displacement that endangers the international order. This is a crisis largely born out of war, and one that will be with us for decades to come. Understanding this reality is essential if Europe is to mount an effective response.

Deadly conflict, above all, is driving the massive exodus of refugees. Wars in Afghanistan, Somalia, and Syria alone were responsible for more than half of the world’s refugee population as of mid-2015. Forty million people—two-thirds of the world’s forcibly displaced—are displaced within their own countries by conflict and violence. The Middle East, with its political upheaval and conflict in recent years, has seen the fastest increase in forced displacement. Since March 2011, the Syrian war alone has accounted for almost 12 million displaced people, one-fifth of the world’s total displaced and over half of the country’s population.

Source: Conflict Is Key to Understanding Migration – Carnegie Europe – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Refugees are victims….not criminals…..and to paint them as criminals is doing a huge injustice to mankind.  Do you want others making snap judgements on you?

If they want to hate then they should not hide behind some made-up garbage….tell the world the real reason you hate these people.

Is it their religion?  Maybe it is the color of their skin…..maybe even that they are homeless….just what makes them so undesirable?