Do you realize that Islamic terrorism has largely been absent from our news in recent years. It is down here since Trump took office and if Harris/Biden win the White House I truly believe we will see bold moves by the Islamist fanatics.
The killer identified on Friday was a Chechen immigrantto France. More here—nine detained by police.
Now jumping to the New York Timesand a detailed opinion piece by its editorial board that tells us that the Trump Administration has successfully turned off the immigration spigot (at least reduced the flow!) into American towns and cities.
Trump’s Overhaul of Immigration Is Worse Than You Think
This administration has attacked every aspect of the immigration system — and it won’t be easy to undo.
After the obligatory lead-in sob story…
….is a measure of how meticulously the Trump administration has pursued the destruction of immigration in America. Through administrative orders, strict enforcement and mere threat, the White House has attacked virtually every aspect of immigration, legal and illegal.
Stephen Miller was mentored in the US Senate by former Senator Jeff Sessions
This transformation of the American immigration system has been perhaps the administration’s boldest accomplishment, overseen with single-minded focus by Stephen Miller, a top adviser to President Trump with an affinity for white nationalism.
[I can’t believe the NYT is still relying on the liars at the Southern Poverty Law Center—ed]
A report this summer from the Migration Policy Institute outlined over 400 actions on immigration that had been enacted by a sprawling array of federal departments in the Trump era.
The effects are clear. Between 2016 and 2019, annual net immigration into the United States fell by almost half, to about 600,000 people per year — a level not seen since the 1980s — according to an analysis by William H. Frey of the Brookings Institution. (Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, that number has certainly decreased even more.)
The 2016-19 drop “is clearly a result of Trump’s restrictive immigration measures,” Mr. Frey told the editorial board, “including immigrant bans from selected countries, greater limits on refugees, and generating fear among other potential immigrant groups over this administration’s unwelcoming policies.”
Continue readingas the writers make it clear that some of what the Trump Administration has done to slow immigration can be quickly undone—like Biden’s promise to admit 125,000 refugees in his first year in office should he win.
But, other changes, some predict, will take years to undo.
Four more years of keeping terrorism out of America, and four more years to make it clear to the globalists that they will need to hire Americans at decent wages, and four more years to remake the Republican party should set us on course for another century of American greatness.
Earlier today I saw the news from last month that conservative cartoonist Ben Garrison has filed a multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League which claims he published an anti-Semitic cartoon. Read about the casehere.
Now I see that a Cincinnati Police officer isn’t going to take it laying down when citizens complained to the Citizens Complaint Authority (do you have one of these where you live???) claiming he used a ‘racist’ hand gesture at a public meeting held to discuss defunding the police.
Maybe the case of Nick Sandmann is just the catalyst we all needed! Go after these jerks whenever possible!
Cincinnati police officer sues over being ‘portrayed as a white supremacist’
A Cincinnati police officer filed a lawsuit against four people, alleging their social media posts and complaints to the Citizens Complaint Authority falsely portrayed him as a racist and white supremacist after he made the “OK” gesture in public at City Hall.
The suit, filed July 22 in Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, says police officer M.R. (who filed under a pseudonym) had been working crowd control in a noisy hallway during a Budget and Finance Committee meeting on June 24. A large number of protesters, fueled by outrage over the killing of George Floyd, had gathered to express their opinions about the city budget. Some wanted to defund the police.
And the hallway was noisy, according to the suit. Someone asked M.R. about another officer who recently left the scene; he made the “OK” sign by touching his thumb and index finger together.
NPR reported the Anti-Defamation League added the “OK” gesture to its “Hate on Display” database in 2019, saying some people associate the symbol with white supremacy.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has noted that the association started on the online imageboard 4Chan,where far-right users announced a coordinated hoax meant to bait left-leaning portions of the internet into embarrassing themselves by misidentifying the OK gesture as one linked to white supremacists.
Then real white supremacists started to use it. The SPLC report the gesture, although not exclusively or even mostly used by white supremacists, can be an effective public dogwhistle for some on the far right because it is so commonplace — like the original hoax, “what it’s about most of the time is a deliberate attempt to ‘trigger liberals’ into overreacting to a gesture so widely used that virtually anyone has plausible deniability built into their use of it in the first place.”
[….]
Judge Shanahan also granted anonymity to the officer who filed the suit while proceedings continue. A series of restraining orders will prohibit those named in the lawsuit from “doxxing” the officer, which means releasing his name or personal information with malicious intent. The officer’s attorneys said releasing that information puts the officer and his family in danger.
[….]
The lawsuit names four people as defendants: Julie Niesen, James Noe, Terhas White and Alissa Gilley.
Niesen and Noe posted false content about the plaintiff on social media, according to the suit.
White, who was present at the June 24 meeting, was “seeking to create conflict” by asking the plaintiff a series of questions, the lawsuit said. The next day, White filed a complaint with the Citizen Complaint Authority, in which White “falsely accused Plaintiff of using the ‘white power’ hand signal,” the suit said.
The SPLC actually does us a service by letting us know more about White House advisor Stephen Miller, one of the few Trump advisors to survive nearly four years in the President’s orbit.
Of course the SPLC doesn’t publish its“Extremist File” for our benefit (they use it to scare money out of gullible rich people***), but I found this an interesting read. All you have to do is skip over the writer’s snark and spin and find the events of Miller’s life edifying.
I had to laugh especially when the SPLC blasts Miller for supporting the Duke Lacrosse players when rape allegations ruined their lives, but never mentions that the players were exonerated and Miller was right!
Editor:I had this post ready to go early yesterday before my internet went out for the third time in recent months, so sorry if you have sent e-mails or comments and I missed them. I’m back on line at least for now.
Stephen Miller is credited with shaping the racist and draconian immigration policies of President Trump, which include the zero-tolerance policy, also known as family separation, the Muslim ban and ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Miller has also “purged” government agencies of civil servants who are not entirely loyal to his extremist agenda, according to a report in Vanity Fair.
Miller with former boss Senator Jeff Sessions. “In the spring of 2013, Miller and Sessions played a key role in ensuring the failure of a comprehensive immigration bill introduced by a bipartisan group of senators who became known as the Gang of Eight. “
And during the COVID-19 crisis, the Trump administration’s decision to halt the issuance of new green cards is yet another example of its hard line on immigration.
Through the conscious use of fearmongering and xenophobia, Miller implements policies which demonize immigrants, regardless of their immigration status, in an apparent effort to halt all forms of immigration to the United States.
[….]
Through his connections to the anti-Muslim movement, Miller landed his first job in Washington, D.C. as a staffer on Capitol Hill. In less than a decade, Miller would go from a congressional staffer to an adviser to the Trump campaign.
During this time, Miller influenced the editorial direction of the highly trafficked conservative website Breitbart.com, sharing white nationalist and anti-immigrant propaganda with their editors in an effort to buoy Trump’s run, according to leaked emails reviewed by Hatewatch. His role in the campaign included crafting then-candidate Trump’s nativist immigration platform, writing campaign speeches as well as being the opening speaker during rallies.
[….]
At a June 16, 2016, campaign rally in Dallas, Miller’s speech made clear the campaign then-candidate Trump was going to run and foreshadowed the nativist policies Miller and the administration would eventually pursue.
In speaking about the impact of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., Miller said, “You’ve seen what it does to living standards. You’ve seen what it does to wages. You’ve seen what it does in terms of transnational cartels. You’ve seen what it has done to the innocent victims of illegal immigrant crime … You have seen the death. You have seen the needless destruction because we can’t secure this border.”
Miller’s use of the state to vilify immigrants has led to calls for his resignation. After Hatewatch’s investigative reporting verified Miller’s white nationalist perspective, more than 80 Democratic members of Congress called for his resignation. Opposition to Miller and his agenda have also surfaced within the rank-and-file civil servants who are charged with discharging the administration’s policies.
If you are new to the immigration restriction movement, you will learn a lot from the SPLC’s hit on Miller.
***But, it is more than scaring money out of rich people, a hit piece like this is meant to remind you that this will happen to you too if you dare stick your neck out and do or say anything like what Miller has said and done.
Earlier this week, Margaret Huang, the (new!) president of the Southern Poverty Law Centerannounced the giveaway to NON PARTISAN groups promoting voter registration for people of color!
SPLC to invest up to $30 million on nonpartisan voter outreach
Image from 2017 campaign for Amnesty International, Margaret Huang in center.
I am thrilled to share with you that we’re launching the SPLC’s Vote Your Voice initiative to help support voter registration and mobilization efforts in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.
We’ll be investing up to $30 million from our endowment in nonpartisan, nonprofit voter outreach organizations in these states to increase voter registration and participation among people of color.
You know what would be so funny! Black and brown conservative groups in those states should apply for the grants and see if they are truly grants for nonpartisan voter registration! Opportunity to sue the SPLC if rejected???
Here is more of what Huang had to say:
As you know, our nation has a long history of denying voting rights to its citizens, especially Black and brown people, women and young people. While we have seen gains in voting rights and access in recent decades, since the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, there has been a resurgence of state-sponsored voter suppression that is targeting communities of color “with almost surgical precision.”
These tactics include purging voter rolls, blocking rights restoration efforts, eliminating polling places, scaling back early voting, instituting onerous voter ID laws, limiting access to voting by mail and other measures. As I’m sure you are aware, last Tuesday’s primary election in Georgia — a state that has been a hotbed of voter suppression efforts — was an operational disaster. It’s a deeply troubling preview of what the Nov. 3 election could look like.
This initiative is especially important right now, as millions of people across the country feel the urgency to make their voices heard this fall after the continued silence from our leaders on the many Black people being killed by police. Voting won’t solve this problem the day after the election, but in order to begin dismantling white supremacy, we need to ensure that every voter of color is able to cast their ballot without interference or hardship.
The work ahead of us will not be easy. The COVID-19 pandemic has and will continue to have a disproportionate impact on democratic participation for communities of color who have been harmed most deeply by the health and economic crisis and who will encounter greater barriers to voter participation given the new risks of voting in person on Election Day.
Throughout the five states where this initiative is focused, numerous organizations have been tirelessly working to promote voter registration and participation to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard and everyone’s vote is counted. Many of these groups struggle to secure the resources they need to conduct outreach due to a once-in-a-generation economic recession. They are also facing new barriers to reaching voters in an era of social distancing where face-to-face canvassing has been curtailed.
That’s where we want to help.
In addition to supporting voter registration and mobilization activities among voters of color, we’ll be seeking to particularly aid those who face the greatest barriers to participation, including returning citizens, young people, individuals who have been purged from voter rolls, and infrequent voters who are not usually contacted by outreach groups.
We’re also aiming to help groups build capacity in between federal election cycles — too much of this work is transactional where groups are only supported ahead of presidential and congressional elections. We plan to help sustain these organizations during local election cycles by providing multi-year grants.
Designating Antifa as Domestic Terrorist Organization Is Dangerous, Threatens Civil Liberties
Antifa, short for anti-fascist, is a broad, community-based movement composed of individuals organizing against racial and economic injustice. Those who identify with the label represent a large spectrum of the political left. The Trump administration frequently uses the term to describe any group or individual that demonstrates in opposition to its policies. Far-right extremists use similar tactics.
The SPLC’s official position on Antifa.
The move by the president is an unprecedented and alarming development with significant implications for the civil liberties of U.S. citizens, particularly those of color, who are already disproportionately policed. The designation would grant federal law enforcement broad powers, under the federal terrorism code, to surveil and investigate anyone labeled as antifa. It could also allow federal law enforcement to broadly target anyone involved in protests viewed unfavorably by the Trump administration, even retroactively.
President Trump’s announcement is rooted in politics, not the present realities of the terror threat in the U.S. Classifying antifa as a domestic terror organization has been a wish-list item for the president’s allies on the far right and in the conservative mainstream for years. The designation retreads some of the darkest moments in our federal law enforcement’s past, further victimizes communities that have already been wronged and presents a dire threat to the civil liberties of all citizens.
Check out the link under the photo above to see how hard it would be (but not impossible) to get a terrorist designation accomplished and see this story from CNN (yes, CNN) to learn more about Antifa and what they want.
The exact origins of the group are unknown, but Antifa can be traced to Nazi Germany and Anti-Fascist Action, a militant group founded in the 1980s in the United Kingdom.
Modern-day Antifa members have become more active in making themselves known at public rallies and within the progressive movement, says Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
“What they’re trying to do now is not only become prominent through violence at these high-profile rallies, but also to reach out through small meetings and through social networking to cultivate disenfranchised progressives who heretofore were peaceful,” Levin said.
[….]
While it can be difficult to distinguish Antifa activists from other protesters, some dress head to toe in black. Members call this the “Black Bloc.”
They also wear masks to hide their identities from the police and whomever they are protesting.
