Showing posts with label islamophobia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label islamophobia. Show all posts

Friday 7 July 2017

The fight continues in US Court of Appeal against Trump's 'Muslim Travel Ban'


Business Insider, 29 June 2017:

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The state of Hawaii asked a federal judge in Honolulu on Thursday to clarify a US Supreme Court ruling that reinstated parts of President Donald Trump's revised travel ban, arguing that the Trump administration had interpreted the court's decision too narrowly.

In a court filing, Hawaii said the US government intended to violate the Supreme Court's instructions by improperly excluding from the United States people who actually have a close family relationship to US persons.

The 90-day ban took effect at 8 p.m. ET along with a 120-day ban on all refugees.

On Monday, the Supreme Court revived parts of a travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority countries, narrowing the scope of lower court rulings that had blocked parts of a March 6 executive order and allowing his temporary ban to go into effect for people with no strong ties to the United States.

The court agreed to hear arguments during its next term starting in October to decide finally whether the ban is lawful.

The Supreme Court exempted from the ban travelers and refugees with a "bona fide relationship" with a person or entity in the United States. As an example, the court said those with a "close familial relationship" with someone in the United States would be covered.

The Trump administration decided on the basis of its interpretation of the court's language that grandparents, grandchildren and fiancés traveling from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen would be barred from obtaining visas while the ban was in place.

In its court filing, Hawaii echoed criticism from immigrant and refugee groups that the Trump administration had defined too narrowly who should be exempted.

Hawaii called the refusal to recognize grandparents, fiancés, and other relatives as an acceptable family relationship " a plain violation of the Supreme Court's command."

The State of Hawaii’s  latest motion is Civil Action No. 1:17-cv-00050- DKW-KSC EMERGENCY MOTION TO CLARIFY SCOPE OF PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION



Around the same time this motion was filed, the Trump administration announced on the US State Department website that it was removing “fiancé” from the list of relationships not considered bona fide:

Upon further review, fiances are now included as close family members.

UPDATE

U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is reported in The Guardian to have ruled on 7 July 2017 that it did not have jurisdiction to weigh in on this particular aspect of the matter:

In a statement, Hawaii Attorney General Douglas S. Chin said the ruling “makes clear that Judge Watson does possess the ability to interpret and enforce the Supreme Court’s order, as well as the authority to enjoin against a party’s violation of the Supreme Court’s order placing effective limitations on the scope of the district court’s preliminary injunction.”

Sunday 29 January 2017

Where Australians stand when it comes to Trump's travel/immigration bans of 27 January 2017


At 30 June 2015, 28.2% of Australia's estimated resident population (ERP) (6.7 million people) was born overseas [Australian Bureau of Statistics, Estimated Resident Population by Country of Birth, 30 June 1992 to 2015]

Of these a total of 166,310 individuals born in the listed countries are potentially affected by the U.S. travel/immigration ban by presidential order on 27 January 2017 [PROTECTING THE NATION FROM FOREIGN TERRORIST ENTRY INTO THE UNITED STATES]:

Iran 53,510
Iraq 68,180
Libya 2,510
Sudan 23,380
South Sudan 4,410
Syria 13,660
Yemen 660

When one adds to this an unknown number of Australians who have travelled to these countries since 1 July 2011 and face the possibility of being denied a U.S. tourist or work visa on that basis, the number of Australia citizens and permanent residents potentially affected grows.

Smartraveller.gov.au:

Changes to entry requirements from 27 January 2017


The US State Department has advised visa issuance to nationals of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen has been temporarily suspended following the signing of the Executive Order on Protecting the Nation from Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals on 27 January 2017.

Australians who are dual citizens of Iran, Iraq, Sudan, or Syria are no longer eligible to apply for an ESTA to enter the United States under the VWP. Any of these Australians who have previously been issued an ESTA are likely to have the ESTA revoked.

Australians who have travelled to Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen since 1 March 2011 will also no longer be eligible to apply for an ESTA to enter the United States under the VWP.
If you are affected by these changes and wish to travel to the United States, you will need to apply for a non-immigrant visa at a US Embassy or Consulate. Exceptions from these travel restrictions will be made for Australians who have travelled on official Australian Defence Force or Australian Government business. No exceptions will be made for government officials or ADF members who are dual citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan.

The Secretary of Homeland Security may waive these travel restrictions on a case by case basis for travellers from the following categories: Australians who have travelled on behalf on international organisations, regional organisations or State and Territory governments on official duty; Australians who have travelled on behalf of a humanitarian NGO; Australian journalists who have travelled for reporting purposes; Australians who have travelled to Iran for legitimate business-related purposes following the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on 14 July 2015; or Australians who have travelled to Iraq for legitimate business-related purposes. Those travellers who are potentially eligible for waivers do not need to apply separately for this – an application will be automatically generated by the ESTA questionnaire.

For further information regarding the changes, visit the Embassy of the United States of America in Australia, the United States Department of State Visa Information or the United States Customs and Border Protection website. You should also speak to your nearest US Embassy or Consulate for further assistance on visa applications.

If you need to apply for a non-immigrant visa, the United States Visa Information Service for Australia encourages applicants to apply at least three months in advance of the intended date of travel.

Sunday 4 December 2016

An Australian Tale In Seven Tweets


From the keyboard of Blue Mountains resident @R_Chirgwin:

Scene: Katoomba Station, crowded with tourists. A skinny busker is singing “When the Droving’s Done” in an Irish lilt.
Enter: Nazi Skinhead.

Nazi Skinhead: [Spits on Asian tourist]
Busker: [Interrupting song] [In Irish accent] “Oi. You! Don’t bring that shit onto our patch!”

Backbacker: [Upbraids Skinhead for some minutes]
Crowd: Applause
Skinhead: [Raises fist}
Backpacker: [Raises guitar]

Backpacker: [Guitar raised] “You got more fookin’ reach than this, matey?”
Skinhead: “I’ll be back tomorrow!”
Backpacker: “Fookin’ go ahead”

Backpacker: “Cause even on a Monday, there’ll be more of us than there is of fookin’ you. And I see you spit again, ya fookin’ DONE.”

And the tourists and the locals gathered around the Asian who got spit on, and everybody crowded the skinhead so he missed the train.

And the backpacker remembered what bit of an awful song he’d quit at, and took up “Till the Droving’s Done” like no damn thing happened.

Monday 28 November 2016

Trump discussing U.S.-Mexico border wall and Muslim register


This is U.S. president-elect Donald J. Trump holding a transition meeting at one of his golf courses - presumably for a bit of free advertising.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

However, Buzz Feed noted on 22 November 2016 that the photo opportunity advertised something else as well – what was being held in Secretary of State for Kansas and counsel for the Immigration Law Reform Institute Kris Korbach’s left hand:

Image enlarged, rotated and cropped

According to Buzz Feed:

Kris Kobach, reportedly jockeying for a position in the Trump administration, is an immigration hardliner reportedly advising Trump and was the author of a now-defunct post-9/11 registry program, called NSEERS, for immigrants from Muslim countries…..

The first three points on the paper read:
1. Update and reintroduce the NSEERS screening and tracking system (National Security Entry-Exit Registration System) that was in place from 2002-2005. All aliens from high-risk areas are tracked.
2. Add extreme vetting questions for high-risk aliens: question them regarding support for Sharia law, jihad, equality of men and women, the United States Constitution.
3. Reduce intake of Syrian refugees to zero, using authority under 1980 Refugee Act.
The rest of the paper is either fully or partially obstructed by Kobach’s arm.
Neither Kobach or the Trump transition team immediately responded to request for comment.

There is also mention of Trump’s planned border wall between the U.S. and Mexico – with the “entire 1,989 miles planned for rapid build”.

Monday 14 November 2016

Trump's America: and so it begins.....


This is what that brutish, openly racist, divisive braggart, the U.S. president-elect Donald J. Trump, has unleashed........

Raw Story, 12 November 2016:

A Los Angeles area substitute teacher has been fired after a student recorded him taunting Latino sixth graders about the election of Donald Trump, telling them their parents were going to be deported, reports NBC4.

According to Jennifer Reynaga, she expected Latino students to be harassed after the election of Trump who made bashing immigrants,and Mexicans in particular, a cornerstone of his campaign.

“I would think the kids would do it, but I never thought a teacher would do it,” said Reynaga said in an interview.

The Reynaga family turned over the recording, captured with another student’s cellphone, to the school district where the unidentified substitute physical education teacher can be heard speaking to students at Bret Harte Middle School in South Los Angeles.

“If you were born here, then your parents got to go. Then they will leave you behind, and you will be in foster care,” the teacher can be heard telling Reynaga’s 11-year-old daughter.

When the sixth grader asked how Trump would find them, the teacher replied, “I have your phone numbers, your address, your mama’s address, your daddy’s address. It’s all in the system, sweetie.”

After being confronted with the audio tape, school officials fired the teacher, with LAUSD officials saying they had no further comment due to pending personnel matters.


Shaun King is Senior Justice Writer @NYDailyNews
Shaun King Verified account @ShaunKing
White Students in DeWitt, Michigan formed a physical wall of students to block Latino kids from entering the school This is from a parent.
         RETWEETS 3,781
         LIKES 2,154
 
Shaun King Verified account@ShaunKing
Parents at Shasta High School in Redding California just wrote me and said white kids brought "deportation letters" for Latino students.
     RETWEETS 3,420
     LIKES 1,751
;
3:40 AM - 11 Nov 2016

@ShaunKing #Charlotte "@dakotainthecity I found this under my windshield wiper at my own house. I'm in disbelief"

More
11 November 2016
The texts in the green come from a school admin in Bucks County, Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia.
11 November 2016

YAHOO! News, 11 November 2016:

A 'victory' parade announced by the Loyal White Knights, a KKK chapter, will take place in North Carolina during December. "Trump's race united my people," read the announcement, according to the News Observer.

David Duke, a former Imperial Wizard of the KKK, hailed Trump's election "one of the most exciting nights of my life" and rejoiced in the fact that "our people" helped him keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House.

The KKK's official newspaper lent their backing to Trump during the election campaign, and the president elect was forced to distance himself from the hate group's support. Last week, the Trump campaign sent out a statement that the property billionaire "denounces hate in any form".

In 1927, Donald Trump's father was arrested after a KKK riot in Queens when over 1,000 white-robed Klansmen marched through the Jamaica neighbourhood.

A Daily Star article stated that Trump Senior was detained "on a charge of refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered to do so."….

Nyle DiMarco Verified account @NyleDiMarco
"This is white America now. Take your retarded self and go somewhere else now," towards American Sign Language (ASL) user #TheTrumpEffect
          RETWEETS 4,392
;         LIKES 3,876

10 November 2016

@ShaunKing This from my friend Nichole...























Anti-Trump rally - with comment from Trump supporter who believes that before becoming president-elect Donald Trump "travels the world feeding the kids"

I'm so effin furious. This happened in Delaware. Mind you, this is Day 1 of Trump being elected. Media & police need to be on this.
Shaun King Verified account@ShaunKing
Placed on their car in NC. "Can't wait until your 'marriage' is overturned by a real president. Gay families = burn in hell. Trump 2016"
         RETWEETS 11,438
         LIKES 7,572
1:38 PM - 10 Nov 2016

Royal Oak Middle School, Royal Oak Michigan, 9 November 2016
STATEMENT, November 10, 2016

ROMS Incident

We are committed to providing a safe, secure, and supportive learning environment for all students.
R.O. Supt. Update Nov. 10 2016
Yesterday, November 9, 2016, there was an incident during one of the lunches at Royal Oak Middle School that was captured on video and posted to social media. In the incident a small group of students engaged in a brief “build the wall” chant. School personnel in the cafeteria responded when this occurred.

We are committed to providing a safe, secure, and supportive learning environment for all students. We addressed this incident when it occurred. We are addressing it today. We are working with our students to help them understand the impact of their words and actions on others in their school community. Our school district and each building in it works every day to be a welcoming community for all, inclusive and caring, where all students know they are valued, safe and supported.

Because of the strong emotions and intensity of rhetoric that the posting of this incident to social media has elicited, we have had families express concern regarding student safety. Know that we work with our partners in law enforcement on responding to any and all threats that have been or will be made involving our students or schools.

In responding to this incident – indeed in responding to this election – we need to hear each other’s stories, not slogans, we need to work towards understanding, not scoring points, and we need to find a way to move forward that respects and values each and every member of our community. We will be working on this in school today. Please work on this with us.

Sincerely,
Shawn Lewis-Lakin, Superintendent of Schools
Royal Oak Schools: A Community of Excellence

My first set of photos from tonight's Anti-Trump Protest in Chicago. Hate will never win.

10 November 2016

Anti-Trump rally San Francisco

Via neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, 9 November 2016:
David Duke@DrDavidDuke
This is one of the most exciting nights of my life -> make no mistake about it, our people have played a HUGE role in electing Trump! #MAGA
         RETWEETS 3,883
         LIKES 2,048
6:14 PM - 9 Nov 2016

Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump
Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!
        RETWEETS 31,519
        LIKES 98,806

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has recorded over 200 incidents of intimidation and harassment since election day:


United States Senator for Nevada Harry Reid (DEM), press release, 11 November 2016:


Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following statement about the election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States: 

“I have personally been on the ballot in Nevada for 26 elections and I have never seen anything like the reaction to the election completed last Tuesday. The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.

“White nationalists, Vladimir Putin and ISIS are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory, while innocent, law-abiding Americans are wracked with fear – especially African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, LGBT Americans and Asian Americans. Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.

“I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics.
Hispanic Americans who fear their families will be torn apart, African Americans being heckled on the street, Muslim Americans afraid to wear a headscarf, gay and lesbian couples having slurs hurled at them and feeling afraid to walk down the street holding hands. American children waking up in the middle of the night crying, terrified that Trump will take their parents away. Young girls unable to understand why a man who brags about sexually assaulting women has been elected president.

“I have a large family. I have one daughter and twelve granddaughters. The texts, emails and phone calls I have received from them have been filled with fear – fear for themselves, fear for their Hispanic and African American friends, for their Muslim and Jewish friends, for their LBGT friends, for their Asian friends. I’ve felt their tears and I’ve felt their fear.

“We as a nation must find a way to move forward without consigning those who Trump has threatened to the shadows. Their fear is entirely rational, because Donald Trump has talked openly about doing terrible things to them. Every news piece that breathlessly obsesses over inauguration preparations compounds their fear by normalizing a man who has threatened to tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African Americans. Their fear is legitimate and we must refuse to let it fall through the cracks between the fluff pieces.

“If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate. Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans. Donald Trump may not possess the capacity to assuage those fears, but he owes it to this nation to try.

“If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.”

Trump's frequently racist comments during the presidential election campaign would have come as no surprise to those who knew his background.

Here is a piece of Trump family history which Trump refuses to admit - his father appears to be one of seven robed men arrested in a 1,000 strong contingent of Klu Klux Klan members who attempted to enter a 1927 Memorial Day March.

Donald Trump’s childhood home at 175-24 Devonshire Road, Jamaica, New York where he lived with his parents Fred and Mary Trump according to media reports:







Vice, 10 March 2016:

But the particulars of the David Duke incident call to mind yet another news story, one that suggests that Trump's father, the late New York real estate titan Fred Trump, once wore the robe and hood of a Klansman……

In the decades following the 1927 rally, after Fred Trump had gone on to become a wealthy real estate developer and landlord to thousands of New Yorkers, he faced accusations of racism, some of which were relatively quiet and informal. In the 1950s, one of his tenants, folk icon Woody Guthrie, wrote in the lyrics of an unpublished song that Fred Trump had drawn a "color line" in his Brooklyn neighborhood. "I suppose / Old Man Trump knows / Just how much / Racial Hate / He stirred up," the lyrics go. According to Trump biographer Gwenda Blair, Fred Trump, who had close ties to the Federal Housing Administration in the 1950s, likely profited from racist practices that the government tacitly endorsed at the time.

Formal accusations of racial bias in Fred Trump's residential real estate business eventually materialized in 1973, around the time that his son Donald was taking over management of the company. In a lawsuit filed that year, the US Department of Justice alleged that Trump Management Corporation had violated the Fair Housing Act of 1968 by systematically denying people rentals "because of race and color." Fred Trump, testifying as company president, said he was "unfamiliar" with the Fair Housing Act, and that he hadn't changed his business practices after the federal law went into effect.

In 1975, the Trumps made a deal with the government to resolve the suit without an admission of guilt. According to a New York Times story from June 11, 1975, the Trump Management Corporation "promised not to discriminate against blacks, Puerto Ricans, and other minorities." But in 1978, the Justice Department filed another discrimination suit against the company, alleging that the Trumps weren't complying with the original terms of the 1975 settlement.

A 1979 story in the Village Voice chronicled the rise of Trump's real estate empire, including allegations of racial discrimination at properties managed by Trump. According to the Voice, when there were vacancies in a Trump housing block, rental applications were secretly marked with the applicant's race, and doormen were coached to discourage black people from renting. At times, Trump rental agents were allegedly told simply not to rent to black people. In 1983, the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal looked at two "Trump Village" residential properties, and found that they were 95 percent white.

In subsequent years, as Donald Trump morphed into a grandstanding tabloid celebrity, he developed a reputation for agitating the public about racially-charged issues. In 1989, he faced national criticism over full-page ads he took out in New York newspapers, warning of "roving bands of wild criminals" and calling for the return of the death penalty in a veiled reference to the Central Park Five. More recently, in the lead-up to the last presidential race, he reignited right-wing conspiracies over Barack Obama's birthplace, sending a team of investigators to Hawaii to uncover the president's true origins.

So the fact that race has become a central part of Trump's 2016 campaign should come as no surprise. Despite Trump's own insistence that he's the "least racist person that you have ever met," devoted racists like Duke are thrilled that The Donald has "sparked an insurgency." Trump may reject their endorsements, but that doesn't mean they've rejected him in return.

Some facts about Donald John Trump (born June 1946) – the self-proclaimed outsider and everyman - you may not know.
* Donald is not a self-made man. He was a ‘trust fund kid’.  His father was a wealthy builder and property developer who created million dollar trust funds while he was alive for each of his five children and a much larger one for his wife. Donald received regular dividends from his trust.
* On the death of his mother he also shared in the est. US$30 million trust that has been created for her.
* Donald did not establish the original Trump company, he took over the family real estate business E. Trump & Son in the early 1970s when his father retired, renaming it the Trump Organisation.
* Donald also borrowed a total of around US$26.5 million directly from his father whenever he found himself in financial difficulties and also relied on his father to guarantee business loans he organized with banks or act as silent partner in new projects.
* He also accessed trust money ‘loans’ on a number of occasions totalling at least US$9 million by the time he turned 50 years of age.
* After his father’s death in June 1999 a 53 year old Trump borrowed an est. US$30 million from the estate (est. to be worth around $200-300 million before taxes) to pay business debts and personal expenses.
* Trump’s three oldest children also inherited money from their grandfather’s estate.
* Donald declared businesses he owned bankrupt on six separate occasions – four times in the 1990s, once in 2004 and once in 2009.
* By the 1980s Forbes Magazine reportedly put Donald Trump’s personal wealth at est. US$200 million.
* Around 2000 Donald Trump and his surviving brother and sister cancelled a nephew’s medical insurance when the nephew challenged the terms of Fred Trump’s will – leaving a chronically ill infant without medical cover.
* In 2015 Donald was stating that his net worth was US$10 billion, although by 2016 Forbes was only placing his personal wealth at US$3.7 billion.
* Trump has an opulent lifestyle, with private residences in New York, Palm Beach, Bedford, Charlottesville and Beverly Hills. This posed photograph is of Donald, Melania and Barron in the penthouse at Trump Towers, Fifth Avenue, New York:
House Beautiful 9 May 2016: “The family at home”


These are some Australian's whose support of  Donald Trump may yet come back to haunt them.....

Janet Albrechtsen (foreground) Mark Latham (behind her left shoulder)
Malcolm Farr (seated fourth from left)
Pauline Hanson One Nation Party

Liberal Senator for South Australia Cory Bernardi
Liberal Prime Minster Malcolm Bligh Turnbull

“I have had, earlier this morning, a very warm and constructive and practical discussion with President-elect Trump.
 We canvassed a number of issues. Most importantly, we absolutely agreed on the vital importance of our strong alliance. I suppose as both being businessmen who found our way into politics, somewhat later in life, we come to the problems of our own nations and indeed world problems with a pragmatic approach. Mr Trump is a deal maker. He is a businessman, a deal maker and he will, I have no doubt, view the world in a very practical and pragmatic way.” [news.com.au, 11 November 2016]