Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Trump's latest anti-Muslim ban is a bad thing, an illegitimate thing, a fascist thing, a failure.


The new and not improved travel ban that targets Muslims tries to justify the need for national security with the claim that there are 300 investigations into refugees.

Not convictions. Not even prosecutions. "Investigations". Let me be clear, investigations clear people. Investigations into crimes or terrorism look at a lot of people, many who are guilty of nothing as a process of elimination.

In a separate piece of news, we learned today that apparently one of those who is being investigated, or at least having his right to travel reviewed, is Khazr Khan, the father of the Muslim soldier who gave his life to protect this country. Kahn and his wife spoke out during Hillary Clinton's campaign, parents who were subsequently shamefully vilified by Trump and his campaign. There is no evidence of any legitimate reason Khan should be singled out for this 'review' or investigation other than a politicized attack by Trump on this patriotic American citizen.

That taints all of these other supposed 300 'investigations'.

Since some 50,000 refugees entered this country just last year alone, and we have been taking in refugees since long before the Obama administration -- so what? What is the REAL significance of this vague assertion (another one without evidence)? The biological father of Steve Jobs came here as a Syrian political refugee back in the mid 1950s.

So who are these suspect refugees? Absent any other information as to how long they have been here, what screening they underwent in order to arrive here and in particular the information we have from Homeland Security that national origin is no predictor of terrorism and that most terrorists are radicalized AFTER arriving here, that assertion by the spectacularly less than honest Trump administration to justify, or attempt to justify, the anti-Muslm ban (and that is still what it is) is worse than meaningless.

I predict that this ban will fail for exactly the same reasons as the previous executive order -- because it is malicious, bigoted and incompetent.

So far the reality is that ZERO refugees from any of the remaining six countries have committed terrorist acts against the United States on US soil. And if actual terrorism is the standard, then we should be banning refugees and immigrants and visa seekers from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Chechnya, among others, and not from the countries Trump has singled out for apparently unfounded persecution.

We are not safer in the US, we are under greater fascism and authoritarianism. We are afflicted by official bigotry and hate and intolerance and ignorance. THAT is dangerous.

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