US Politics

[RabzonKhan]

As we all know, few days ago, Pres Trump issued an executive order that banned travel into the United States citizen from seven majority Muslim countries for three months (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen).

In my opinion, Trump’s ban is totally ridiculous and counterproductive, it does not improve our security, in fact, it played right into the hands of the religious terrorist (ISIS, AQ, Taliban), remember, the terrorists want us to turn this into a war of the West against Islam, they want to start a holy war between 1.7 billion Muslims and the West, particularly US, now, we don’t want to start an unnecessary war with all of them, because that will be a total disaster, our focus should be mainly on the ISIS, AQ, Taliban and other terrorist, and as a smart strategy, we should let the Muslim countries fight the terrorist, after all, it’s their war too, in fact, they are affected more than us, we can provide them financial, intelligence and aerial warfare help.

Now one can understand Trump administration’s fear about having people come in and commit terrorist acts, but that can be accomplished in a rational way, simply put, anyone who wants to come to the United States must go through “extreme vetting” (as Trump likes to call it), but banning entire countries is absolutely counterproductive and unnecessary, and as I said, it plays right into the hand of our enemies and badly tarnish our image abroad, or, perhaps tarnish it even more.

And, are the citizen of the seven countries really that dangerous as Trump and his supporters want us to believe, well, according to the New America org: “None of the deadly attackers since 9/11 emigrated or came from a family that emigrated from one of these countries nor were any of the 9/11 attackers from the listed countries.” Link

Now, one wonders what was the real agenda?

 

[T-72M1]

 

[T-72M1]

 

[Rashid Mahmood]

https://twitter.com/x/status/827399118326620162

 

[T-72M1]

https://twitter.com/x/status/827399118326620162

so ? everyone knew he was in showbiz/entertainment.

Linda McMahon is heading the small businesses committee or something for Trump now.

 

[Sanchez]

These are all forplays before Trump gang takes on China. A war or military conflict is imminent between China and the US on SCS/ECS not only based on the comments of hawkish Trump's assistants but also deduced from a famous Chinese prophet book published in the 7th century. It postulated that China would win over the West aggression once for all.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Never a dull moment, President Trump's telephone conversation with Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull reportedly didn't end well last weekend.

John McCain, Other Senators Call Australia’s Ambassador To Clean Up Trump’s Mess

How often will this happen over the next four years?

WASHINGTON ― Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called Australia’s ambassador to the United States Thursday morning to do damage control after President Donald Trump’s disastrous recent call with the country’s prime minister.

McCain said he expressed his “unwavering support for the U.S.-Australia alliance” in the call with Ambassador Joe Hockey.

“I asked Ambassador Hockey to convey to the people of Australia that their American brothers and sisters value our historic alliance, honor the sacrifice of the Australians who have served and are serving by our side, and remain committed to the safer, freer, and better world that Australia does far more than its fair share to protect and promote,” the senator said in a statement.

The reason McCain felt it necessary to seemingly state the obvious ― that the United States and Australia are strong allies ― is that Trump reportedly berated Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during a call Saturday. Read more

 

[F-22Raptor]

The Department of Homeland Security said Saturday it won't force airlines to block foreigners with visas from boarding planes into the U.S. under President Donald Trump's travel ban.

The move comes as the State Department also announced it has reversed the cancellation of visas under Trump's executive order, which bars people from seven predominantly Muslim nations from traveling into America. The State Department had said up to 60,000 foreigners had their visas "provisionally revoked" since the order went into effect a week ago.

The departments' decisions essentially back up a federal judge who on Friday halted Trump's executive order.

"Those individuals with visas that were not physically cancelled may now travel if the visa is otherwise valid," the State Department said, adding that it is working with the Department of Homeland Security to enforce the move.

On Saturday, normal air service resumed following the judge's decision, which Trump blasted in a series of tweets as "ridiculous."

The order by U.S. District Court Senior Judge James L. Robart means that holders of U.S. visas or green cards allowing them to live and work in the U.S. can fly into the country as before. Trump's order affected citizens of Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Yemen.

Qatar Airways issued a statement saying that, "as directed by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection," nationals of the seven affected countries and all refugees presenting a valid U.S. visa or green card allowing them to work in the U.S. would be permitted to travel to the United States.

Egyptair said the same thing.

"There is no stopping any passenger if they have a visa," Egyptair's manager for flights to New York, Hossam Hussein, told NBC by phone. He said people from any nation could travel to the U.S.

Lufthansa, too, said passengers previously blocked were now free to fly to the U.S.

Early Saturday, the International Air Transport Association sent a note to all airlines confirming that the ban, for the moment, was completely inoperative. Visas that were rescinded have now been reinstated, the note said. And business was back to the way it was before Trump issued his executive order.

"It is as if the Executive Order never existed," the note said.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement saying it had "suspended any and all actions" regarding the affected sections of the executive order. "DHS personnel will resume inspection of travelers in accordance with standard policy and procedure."

The statement said the Department of Justice intended to file an emergency legal action to overturn the stay.

"The Order is intended to protect the homeland and the American people, and the President has no higher duty and responsibility than to do so," the statement said.

Trump himself expressed his dismay at the court ruling in a series of tweets on Saturday morning, saying "the opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!"

On Saturday morning, people began immediately to resume efforts to fly to the U.S.

"I heard about the judge's ruling and I immediately got on a plane to Frankfurt to see if we got a connecting flight to Boston," said Saira Rafiei who is Iranian and heard about the news while she was in Tehran.

NBC News spoke to her as she waited for a plane in Frankfurt.

The temporary restraining order applies nationwide, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson's office said.

"The Constitution prevailed today," Ferguson said in a statement. "No one is above the law — not even the President."

The restraining order will be in effect until Robart considers a legal challenge filed by the U.S. attorney general, Ferguson's office said.

The White House press secretary said the administration would seek an emergency stay at the earliest possible time, and initially called the judge's action an "outrageous order." An updated statement issued a short time later dropped the term "outrageous."

"The president's order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people," both statements said.

The order, and its swift and seemingly unplanned implementation had created chaos in airports around the U.S. with people detained and families separated.

Among those reported temporarily detained were an Iraqi refugee who worked with the U.S. government, green card holders, students and professors. Protests erupted at several large airports across the country after Trump signed the order.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...-banned-countries-citizens-able-board-n716801

 

[WiderMan]

About damn time, travel ban was a catastrophic move that betrayed Moral and American values.

 

[RabzonKhan]

This heartbreaking story just shows how ridiculous Trump’s travel ban was. A four-month-old Iranian baby will now be allowed into the US for life-saving heart surgery, most probably after a federal judge in Seattle ordered a halt to Trump’s controversial travel ban. She was all set to have that surgery at a hospital (OSHU) in Portland, OR, but it was canceled after Trump announced his executive order banning travel to the US by people from seven majority Muslim countries.

Is she a terrorist Mr. President?

More on the story:

Iranian baby caught in travel ban will get surgery in US, hospital says

By Azadeh Ansari, Joe Sutton and Marlena Baldacci, CNN February 4, 2017

(CNN)An Iranian baby with a serious heart defect will soon get the medical attention she needs in the United States.

The girl and her family -- caught up in President Donald Trump's immigration ban -- have received an all-clear to enter the United States for critical surgery, officials at the Oregon Health & Science University's Doernbecher Children's Hospital said.
Fatemeh Reshad and her parents are expected to arrive in the United States in a few days, the Portland hospital said Saturday.
They initially had been scheduled to meet Sunday with doctors in Portland but had been barred from traveling from Tehran, Fatemeh's uncle, Samad Teghizadeh, told CNN.
Several congressional Democrats released a letter Friday evening asking Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to grant a waiver for the child and her parents.
The delay came after Trump's executive order put an abrupt stop on travel to the United States for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran. A federal judge on Friday temporarily stopped the order. Read more

 

[LA se Karachi]

 

[T-72M1]

lel

 

[Naheed Janjua]

For someone who has been in favour of progressive politics all my life, it may come as a surprise that I support the shakeup of the establishment initiated by President Donald J. Trump.

Representative democracy is failing worldwide mainly because of entrenched status-quo. Elected representatives of the people come to the corridors of power with high hopes, but find themselves cornered and helpless against the forces of stagnation unleashed by the establishment.

read more: Time to give Donald Trump a pat on the back!

 

[Providence]

? what is this all about ?

 

[asad71]

Bannon has long yearned for a civilizational conflict between the West and the Muslim world. Now he may get it
February 5, 2017 | Filed under: News | Posted by: The Bangladesh Chronicle
Steve Bannon’s war with Islam: Trump may not even understand his adviser’s apocalyptic vision

Bannon has long yearned for a civilizational conflict between the West and the Muslim world. Now he may get it
Jalal Baig

(Credit: Getty/Win McNamee/AP/Evan Vucci/Muhamed Huwais)
There seems to be considerable urgency right now to enshrine Donald Trump’s Islamophobia into law. Talk of an immigration ban, a Muslim registry and even internment camps once sounded like the machinations of a spray-tanned salesman looking to indulge the electorate’s need for a good villain narrative. Amid an atmosphere of overwhelming chaos, the early days of Trump’s reign have made clear, however, that Islam is Public Enemy No. 1 and serves as the centerpiece of Steve Bannon’s ethno-nationalist agenda. (Trump’s ban on immigration and travel from certain Muslim-majority nations is currently on hold, thanks to a Friday federal court order. That does nothing to resolve the larger questions.)

Bannon called Trump “a blunt instrument for us” in an interview last summer with Vanity Fair. He added, “I don’t know whether he really gets it or not.” That the former Breitbart executive editor would have an outsized role in a Trump administration should have been evident long ago. In Trump, Bannon found a petulant Twitterphile and a manipulable tool who has minimal interest in policymaking and little insight into his own limitations. As he sought an upheaval to remake an America rife with perceived threats, Trump was, as Lawrence Douglas wrote, “the proper vehicle to carry the fight forward.”

For Bannon, the fight is against Islam. There are echoes of Samuel Huntington’s 1993 essay in Foreign Affairs called “The Clash of Civilizations?” Huntington wrote of a world that had been divided along “fault lines” such as culture, which could spur conflict between Islamic civilization and the West. Bannon speaks of the current war with “jihadist Islamic fascism” in apocalyptic terms and sees it as the latest iteration, as Uri Friedman wrote, “of an existential, centuries old-struggle between the Judeo-Christian West and the Islamic world.”

Further, Muslim immigration gnaws at Trump’s foremost consigliere. He evinces ignorance in his ideas about sharia, yet uses the term frequently when discussing Muslim immigrants, who “are not people with thousands of years of democracy in their DNA.” Though roughly 100,000 Muslims have entered the United States in each of the last few years, he claimed in December 2015 that 1 million would be entering in each of the next two years.

These statements were a prelude to Trump’s “Muslim ban,” an executive order that was signed shortly after inauguration (and is now on hold, at least for the moment). Its swift enactment was the first sign that Bannon’s war on Islam had begun. He hastily crafted the ban without regard for the Department of Homeland Security — or for that matter the State, Defense and Justice departments. Soon court orders were being defied and acting attorney general Sally Yates was fired for her refusal to enforce Bannon’s opening salvo. Christian refugees would be given priority over others to enter the country, as an individual’s religious identity is apparently the only indicator of his or her suffering.

Bannon’s temerity was on full display as he sought to engineer the civilizational crisis that he has clearly relished for years. His consolidation of power was complete when Trump took the unprecedented step of offering Bannon — a man with no experience or background in national security, foreign policy or the military — a permanent seat on the National Security Council. (Yes, Bannon was once a Navy officer. He left the service in 1983.) Now the man who admires darkness, Satan and Darth Vader will influence major decisions of war and peace.

All this unrestrained jingoism risks causing a conflagration at a time of isolated fires that are being managed and contained adequately. As Robin Wright of the New Yorker noted, the Obama administration “has turned the tide on jihadism over the past two years. The two premier movements — the Islamic State and Al Qaeda — are both on the defensive.” In the United States, attacks by Muslims were responsible for only one-third of 1 percent of all murders in 2016.

Even Bernard Lewis, who fathered the phrase “clash of civilizations” when he wrote of the Arab world’s need to expunge Islam from its politics, cautioned against an exaggerated response to the Judeo-Christian world’s ancient rival. “It is crucially important,” he noted, “that we on our side should not be provoked into an equally historic but equally irrational reaction against that rival.”

But Bannon desires carnage.

Through the immigration ban and its associated rhetoric, jihadists and at least seven Muslim-majority countries have been given notice of the Trump administration’s intentions. This is a not a U.S. government that will call Islam a religion of peace, as George W. Bush did. Or one that will be reluctant to use the term “Islamic” to prevent giving groups like ISIS legitimacy, as Barack Obama did.

Yet ISIS is emboldened now because Bannon’s undaunted pursuit of a clash will help its goal to “eliminate the gray zone” of coexistence between Muslims residing in the West and their non-Muslim neighbors. ISIS hopes that Bannon’s stark intentions will make Muslims in the West disillusioned about its acceptance and tolerance, boosting recruitment and sympathy for their deranged cause. As Abu Omar Khorasani, a senior Islamic State commander in Afghanistan, said, “This guy [Trump] is a complete maniac. His utter hate towards Muslims will make our job much easier because we can recruit thousands.”

In addition, as Dan Byman, a staff member of the 9/11 commission, noted, Muslims in the United States may become more disenchanted “and thus easier to recruit or inspire to be lone wolves. In addition, it may make communities feel they are suspect and decrease vital cooperation with law enforcement. The hostile rhetoric that goes with these bans makes all this more likely.”

Source: Salon

http://bangladeshchronicle.net/2017...-west-and-the-muslim-world-now-he-may-get-it/