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Offline Flex

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Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« on: January 28, 2017, 02:51:51 PM »
Trump immigration curbs cause worldwide chaos, panic, anger
By Yeganeh Torbati and Doina Chiacu,Reuters


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's most far reaching action since taking office plunged America's immigration system into chaos on Saturday, not only for refugees but for legal U.S. residents who were turned away at airports and feared being stranded outside the country.

Immigration lawyers and advocates worked through the night trying to help stranded travelers find a way back home. Lawyers in New York sued to block the order, saying many people have already been unlawfully detained, including an Iraqi who worked for the U.S. Army in Iraq.

Confusion abounded at airports as immigration and customs officials struggled to interpret the new rules, with some legal residents who were in the air when the order was issued detained at airports upon arrival.

"Imagine being put back on a 12-hour flight and the trauma and craziness of this whole thing," said Mana Yegani, an immigration lawyer in Houston. "These are people that are coming in legally. They have jobs here and they have vehicles here."

The new Republican president on Friday put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily barred travelers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries. He said the moves would protect Americans from terrorism, in a swift and stern delivery on a campaign promise.

The ban affects travelers with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and extends to green card holders who are legal permanent residents of the United States.

Arab travelers in the Middle East and North Africa said the order was humiliating and discriminatory. It drew widespread criticism from U.S. Western allies including France and Germany, Arab-American groups and human rights organizations.

Iran condemned the order as an "open affront against the Muslim world and the Iranian nation" and vowed to retaliate. Of the seven countries targeted, Iran sends the most visitors to the United States each year - around 35,000 in 2015, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The ban extends to green card holders who are authorized to live and work in the United States, Homeland Security spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said.

It was unclear how many legal permanent residents would be affected. A senior U.S. administration official said on Saturday that green card holders from the seven affected countries have to be cleared into the United States on a case-by-case basis.

LEGAL RESIDENTS STUNNED

Legal residents of the United States were plunged into despair at the prospect of being unable to return to the United States or being separated from family members trapped abroad.

"I never thought something like this would happen in America," said Mohammad Hossein Ziya, 33, who came to the United States in 2011 after being forced to leave Iran for his political activities.

Ziya, who lives in Virginia, has a green card and planned to travel to Dubai next week to see his elderly father. "I can't go back to Iran, and it's possible I won't be able to return here, a place that is like my second country," he said.

Saleh Taghvaeian, 36, teaches agricultural water management at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, said he feared his wife would not be able to return from Iran after a visit.

In Cairo, five Iraqi passengers and one Yemeni were barred from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York on Saturday, sources at Cairo airport said. Dutch airline KLM [AIRF.PA] said on Saturday it had refused carriage to the United States to seven passengers from predominately Muslim countries.

Canada's WestJet Airlines said it turned back a passenger bound for the United States on Saturday in order to comply with the order. A spokeswoman did not say which country the passenger had come from.

At least three lawyers from the International Refugee Assistance Project were at the arrivals lounge at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, buried in their laptops and conference calls, photocopies of individuals' U.S. visas on hand.

U.S. AGENCIES SCRAMBLE

In Washington, the agencies charged with handling immigration and refugee issues grappled with how to interpret the measure. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were not consulted on the executive order and in some cases only learned the details as they were made public.

At the State Department, a senior official said lawyers were working closely with their counterparts at Homeland Security to interpret the executive order, which allows entry to people affected by the order when it is in the "national interest."

However, a federal law enforcement official said, "It's unclear at this point what the threshold of national interest is."

Senior administration officials said it would have been "reckless" to broadcast details of the order in advance of new security measures. The officials told reporters that Homeland Security now has guidance for airlines.

They dismissed as "ludicrous" the notion that the order amounted to a "Muslim ban." Afghanistan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Oman, Tunisia and Turkey were Muslim-majority countries not included, an official said.

Since it was announced on Friday, enforcement of the order was spotty and disorganized.

Travelers were handled differently at different points of entry and immigration lawyers were advising clients to change their destination to the more lenient airports, she said. Houston immigration lawyer Yegani said officials denied travelers with dual Canadian and Iranian citizenship from boarding planes in Canada to the United States.

The order seeks to prioritize refugees fleeing religious persecution. In a television interview, Trump said the measure was aimed at helping Christians in Syria.

Some legal experts said that showed the order was unconstitutional, as it would violate the U.S. right to freedom of religion. But others said the president and U.S. Congress have latitude to choose who receives asylum.

Lawyers from immigration organizations and the American Civil Liberties Union sued in federal court in Brooklyn on behalf of two Iraqi men, one a former U.S. government worker and the other the husband of a former U.S. security contractor.

The two men had visas to enter the United States but were detained on Friday night at Kennedy airport, hours after Trump's executive order, the lawsuit said. One of the men, former U.S. Army interpreter, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, was later released.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Jeff Mason, Roberta Rampton, Doina Chiacu, Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Mica Rosenberg, Jonathan Allen and David Ingram in New York; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Mary Milliken and Grant McCool)

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Offline Flex

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2017, 10:34:04 AM »
Trump wants to enlist local police in immigration crackdown
Jacques Billeaud and Amy Taxin, Associated Press.


PHOENIX (AP) -- To build his highly touted deportation force, President Donald Trump is reviving a long-standing program that deputizes local officers to enforce federal immigration law.

The program received scant attention during a week in which Trump announced plans to build a border wall, hire thousands more federal agents and impose restrictions on refugees from Middle Eastern countries.

But the program could end up having a significant impact on immigration enforcement around the country, despite falling out of favor in recent years amid complaints that it promotes racial profiling.

More than 60 police and sheriff's agencies had the special authority as of 2009, applying for it as the nation's immigration debate was heating up. Since then, the number has been halved and the effort scaled back as federal agents ramped up other enforcement programs and amid complaints officers weren't focusing on the goal of catching violent offenders and instead arrested immigrants for minor violations, like driving with broken tail lights.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio used the program most aggressively in metro Phoenix, and he became arguably the nation's best-known immigration enforcer at the local level in large part because of the special authority. In a strange twist, he was thrown out of office in the same election that vaulted Trump to the presidency, mostly because of mounting frustration over legal issues and costs stemming from the patrols.

In his executive order this week, Trump said he wants to empower local law enforcement to act as immigration officers and help with the "investigation, apprehension, or detention" of immigrants in the country illegally.

The move comes at a time when the country is sharply divided over the treatment of immigrants. Cities such as Chicago and San Francisco have opposed police involvement in immigration while some counties in Massachusetts and Texas are now seeking to jump in.

Proponents say police departments can help bolster immigration enforcement and prevent criminals from being released back into their neighborhoods, while critics argue that deputizing local officers will lead to racial profiling and erode community trust in police.

Cecillia Wang, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, said police bosses who want to get into immigration enforcement should consider what happened when 100 of Arpaio's deputies were given the federal arrest power.

The longtime sheriff used the authority to carry out traffic patrols that targeted immigrants. The patrols were later discredited in a lawsuit in which a federal judge concluded Arpaio's officers had racially profiled Latinos. The lawsuit so far cost county taxpayers $50 million.

"There are people like Joe Arpaio who have a certain political agenda who want to jump on the Trump bandwagon," Wang said, adding later that the Arizona sheriff was "most vocal and shameless offender" in the program.

When asked to comment on Trump's effort to revitalize the program, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said the executive orders would speak for themselves.

Traditionally, police stayed out of immigration enforcement and left those duties to federal authorities. But a 1996 federal law opened up the possibility for local agencies to participate in immigration enforcement on the streets and do citizenship checks of people in local jails.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement trained and certified roughly 1,600 officers to carry out these checks from 2006 to 2015.

The Obama administration phased out all the arrest power agreements in 2013, but still let agencies check whether people jailed in their jurisdiction were citizens. If they find that an inmate is in the country illegally, they typically notify federal authorities or hand them over to immigration officers. Today, more than 30 local agencies participate in the jail program.

Alonzo Pena, a retired deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who once oversaw such agreements with police agencies, said some officers were using the authority in ways that didn't match the agency's enforcement priorities.

He said federal officials need to closely monitor participants to ensure their actions don't veer away from the goal of catching violent offenders and confronting national security threats. "It's hard to regulate to make sure it's followed," Pena said.

In California, three counties nixed the program after state legislation and a federal court ruling in nearby Oregon limited police collaboration with immigration enforcement. Orange County still makes the immigration checks inside its jail and flags inmates for deportation officers, but won't hold anyone on behalf of federal authorities out of legal concerns.

"The window has narrowed to a large extent," said Orange County sheriff's Lt. Mike McHenry.

With Trump in office, the program has new life.

Even before the change in administration, two Republican county sheriffs in Massachusetts said they were starting programs. In Texas, Jackson County sheriff A. J. "Andy" Louderback said two officers will get trained to run immigration jail checks this spring and nearby counties want to follow suit.

Louderback said teaming up with federal agents will cost his agency roughly $3,000 — a small price to pay to cover for officers while they're on a four-week training course, especially in an area struggling with human smuggling. Once the program is underway, he said immigration agents will send a daily van to pick up anyone flagged for deportation from jail.

"It just seems like good law enforcement to partner with federal law enforcement in this area," he said. "It takes all of us to do this job."

Experts said Trump's outreach to local law enforcement will create an even bigger split between sanctuary cities that keep police out of immigration enforcement and those eager to help the new president bolster deportations.

"There is no question that in order to do the type of mass deportation that he promised, it will require him conscripting local law enforcement agencies," said Chris Newman, legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "It is going to balkanize things ... and we're going to see more of the extremes."

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline ribbit

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2017, 01:48:00 PM »
What is the play here?

Offline Flex

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2017, 03:27:21 AM »
Mas bands hurt as crime, visa ban affect visitors.
By Gail Alexander (Guardian).


Concerns about crime and US immigration are affecting Carnival 2017 as some mas bands are reporting that registration has been affected.

“It appears Carnival has taken a hit because of this as a number of bands have reported lower registration numbers so far for this year, including from overseas customers,” National Carnival Development Foundation (NCDF) chairman Mahindra Satram Maharaj told the T&T Guardian.

NCDF represents a number of large and small bands.

Maharaj said concerns have arisen due to campaign trail promises by the new US administration regarding deportation of undocumented people from the US. This was heightened by last weekend’s US visa ban on seven Middle East and African countries.

Last week, Culture Minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly confirmed that there had been declining or very stagnant tourist arrivals and dwindling audiences at Carnival events. Maharaj subsequently said bands have reported very, very slow registration, but added that band leaders are hoping for the usual rush in the last week before Carnival.

“A key deterrent to registration is the crime situation, particularly the bizarre types of crimes being seen in T&T. There have also been reports from members that some persons in the Diaspora — where we have a lot of masqueraders — have been reluctant to participate this year since they are uncertain about US immigration policies,” he said.

“We have about 40,000 people who normally come to T&T for Carnival. One or two bands have said their customers aren’t affected, but others have said they are. However, one band has said it’s getting many overseas customers.”

Lorraine Pouchet, of the T&T Tour Operators Association, said the US visa ban has prompted investigations on the number of people who may have booked Carnival costumes and paid for hotel rooms but cannot come due to fears about returning to the US.

T&T Hotel and Tourism Association president Hassel Thom said: “Since the US visas ban began last weekend, it will also trigger fear in the minds of those in the Diaspora, so we must ascertain how it will affect Carnival and we’re doing that research with stakeholders now.”

Other industry sources said fears in the Diaspora about difficulties to return home after Carnival were also fuelled by last weekend’s comments by MSNBC counter terrorism expert Malcom Nance who claimed T&T, the Bahamas and Brazil had more “terrorists” than the seven predominantly Muslim states the visa ban applies to. There are concerns that T&T nationals returning to the US might be red-flagged because of that.

BIG MAS BANDS MONITORING DEVELOPMENTS

Luis Hart, of mas band Hart’s, said yesterday registration with the band is normal so far and it is hard to say at this point if it will be affected by US immigration issues.

“We’re monitoring it,” he said.

Ayanna Kalicharan, of San Fernando’s multiple Band of the Year winner Kalicharan Carnival, said: “Registration is a little slower than normal but people are trickling in and we’re still aiming for the usual 1,000 membership figure. It’s still early so we expect it will pick up.

“Overseas customers are about five per cent of the band. So far, we’ve seen a three per cent level but we’re also seeing a lot of people who normally play mas in Port-of-Spain transitioning to San Fernando, so the gap is being filled.

“So far we haven’t heard crime concerns but it is a national issue. It would be good if police patrols are more visible around mas camps.”

Dane Lewis, of Island People, said officials of the band decided months ago to take this year off to observe Carnival since T&T’s product needed some “polish” and to have some “oxygen” breathed into the festival.

“It needs packaging, product identification, and various things and we thought we’d observe it this year as we’d like to make a meaningful contribution and add value for Carnival’s future,” he said.

Rosalind Gabriel’s renowned children’s band will not be out this year. Gabriel, who is marking 40 years in the business and is the head of T&T Children’s Bands Association, however, added that other kiddies bands are coming out as usual.

Tribe’s Dean Ackin said there was no change from previous years, where about one third of masqueraders come from overseas.

“We been sold out since last September,” he said.

The Hyatt Regency, as well as some guesthouses around Port-of-Spain—Alicia’s, Monique’s, Sundeck Suites—reported full Carnival bookings. Par-May- La’s Inn reported a couple cancellations, as did Hotel Normandie.

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Jumbie

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2017, 01:00:52 PM »
Re: Harts.. yea boi Syria on that list, but the Lebanese safe for now.

Offline Deeks

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #5 on: January 31, 2017, 04:25:16 PM »
allyuh "give the man a chance" !!!

Offline maxg

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2017, 06:48:31 PM »
allyuh "give the man a chance" !!!
the job is not football, hit or miss..and yuh could go back and practice till yuh get better..a chance ?..If he and his admin mess up, as he has proven many times already to do, plenty ppl coocoo bun, not just cook. I really not sure I want meh son going to Washington nah, buh I will pray for y'all.

Offline Sando prince

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #7 on: February 16, 2017, 06:51:57 AM »

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/ECN86L3cJkE&amp;t=416s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/ECN86L3cJkE&amp;t=416s</a>

Offline ribbit

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #8 on: February 16, 2017, 02:21:27 PM »
it's very important trump fail in washington. the deep state will make an example out of him. no one will ever try rushing the gate again.

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #9 on: February 19, 2017, 05:58:34 AM »
CARICOM LOBBIES TRUMP
COREY CONNELLY (NEWSDAY).


Caricom leaders are seeking to approach the new Donald Trump administration in the United States with a view to eliminating the threat posed to regional banking systems as a result of non-compliance with the controversial Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday revealed that a lobby team is being sought among Caricom leaders to steer the process, which is expected to cost the region some US$240,000.

“It is only for a short period, a specific assignment for $40,000 a month __ the period for which the lobbyist will he hired to carry out this specific exercise,” he told reporters in a news conference at the Diplomatic Lounge of the Piarco International Airport, shortly after his return to TT following the 28th Intersessional Meeting of the Heads of the Caricom Community in Georgetown, Guyana.

Rowley did not say if there was a deadline for the lobbyist team to be retained.

The Prime Minister said FATCA was one of the main items on the agenda at the two-day conference.

“The other area that was of great interest, and I would not say alarm, but strong concern is the whole question of the threat to our banking system and the threat that this poses to economic collapse in the region, if we are, in fact, to find ourselves determined as a high risk area and lose our correspondent banking facilities,” he said.

The move comes as the Rowley- led People’s National Movement (PNM) Government is seeking to bring closure to the controversial debate on the legislation with a vote on Thursday in the House of Representatives following the deliberations of a parliamentary Joint Select Committee (JSC) which had been appointed to consider dicey clauses in the legislation.

Rowley has, on more than one occasion, expressed his frustration with the Opposition for its reluctance to support the legislation.

FATCA was enacted by the US government in March 2010. It requires foreign financial institutions to report directly to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) all clients who are US citizens, green card holders living in the US or abroad, or foreign entities in which US taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest.

The legislation requires US citizens and green card holders with financial assets outside of the US exceeding US$500,000 to report these assets to the IRS.

Following last Monday’s sitting of the Parliament, the Opposition had called for the bill to be sent back to the JSC for one more week to complete certain aspects of the issue.

The JSC met five times between January 13 an February 1.

The Opposition has accused the Government of high-handedness in wanting to rush through the debate on the legislation in accordance with its own deadline and not the one set by the United States Treasury. Saying that FATCA continued to be a “front burner matter,” Rowley yesterday said Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne, at the last meeting of regional heads in July, was detailed by Caricom to lead the Community’s response in “lobbying at the various metropolitan areas” to ensure that Caricom’s banking system is not denied access to the correspondent banks which are necessary for our trade.” He said Browne presented a report on the exercise at the just-concluded meeting.

“It maintains that we are at great risk and a decision was taken at this meeting to encourage all countries to move with great urgency to ensure that we pass the necessary legislation to ensure that we are compliant with the international standards that are demanded of us and that we ensure that we make every effort to lobby in the relevant quarters so that our case is made known and we do not get treated adversely by accident,” Rowley said.

“Against this background, the work of the Prime Minister of Antigua Barbuda indicated that he had identified by that effort, that adequate lobbying arrangements be put in place but there was a cost to that and that cost is US$240,000.” Rowley said the heads have agreed that the cost of the lobby team should be incurred.

“The lobby should be hired and put to work to join the efforts made by Caricom to ensure that we stave off any further de-risking or loss of correspondent banking access because we, at the level of Caricom, understand the devastating effects that that is having on those territories which are already exposed to it and could have to those countries which may lose their correspondent banking business,” he said.

Commenting on the development yesterday, Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal said the regional leaders should have shown some fortitude.

“On the last occasion on Monday, I took note of the Prime Minister’s statement in Parliament and he did indicate he was on the way to Guyana to meet Caricom leaders to discuss FATCA,” he said.

“I got the impression that the Caricom leaders were meeting in Georgetown to surrender and to discuss the rate of their compliance rather than a critical appraisal of the FATCA.” Moonilal noted the initiative involving professors Kenneth Hall and Compton Bourne and former Barbados prime minister Owen Arthur, who had met recently in New York to discuss “a critical appraisal of the FATCA and the extent to which it hinders trade and development in the region.” “But the prime ministers of the Caribbean appear to have surrendered and the leaders should be showing more fortitude on these matters.” Moonilal said the region had produced late Cuban leader Fidel Castro, late Grenada prime minister Maurice Bishop and former Guyana president Cheddi Jagan and other distinguished leaders of the last generation.

“And they would turn in their collective graves when they here that the Caricom leaders surrender to this level of economic imperialism,” he said.

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad- Bissessar, in a letter dated January 13, 2017, wrote to President Trump asking him whether his government intends to nullify the FATCA.

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Flex

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #10 on: February 23, 2017, 05:39:02 AM »
Trump fears T&T’s ISIS ties
US report: President talks terrorism, foreign fighters in phone call to Rowley...
By Leah Sorias (Express)

 
A New York Times article claims the United States is worried about having Trinidad and Tobago, “ a breeding ground for extremists”, so close to it.

It says the Donald Trump-led administration fears Trinidadian ISIS fighters might return from the Middle East and “attack American diplomatic and oil installations in Trinidad, or even take a three-and-a-half-hour flight to Miami”.

The story, titled “Trying to Stanch Trinidad’s Flow of Young Recruits to ISIS”, was written by journalist Francis Robles, with con­tribution from former Trinidad Guardian news editor Prior Beharry.

The article said the issue of terrorism and foreign fighters was one of the topics Trump discussed with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley when he called him on Sunday.

“Law enforcement officials in Trinidad and Tobago, a small Carib­bean island nation off the coast of Venezuela, are scrambling to close a pipeline that has sent a steady stream of young Muslims to Syria where they have taken up arms for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL,” it stated.

“In contrast to the laws of many countries, it is not illegal in Trinidad to join the so-called caliphate, though the Government wants to change that,” the story noted.

RELATED NEWS

Trying to Stanch Trinidad’s Flow of Young Recruits to ISIS
By FRANCES ROBLES (NY Times)


ENTERPRISE, Trinidad and Tobago — By the time he was 17, Fahyim Sabur had memorized the Quran.

At 23, he was shunning calypso parties and giving private Arabic lessons in his neighborhood here in Enterprise, about 20 miles south of Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago.

A year later, he was on the battlefield in Syria, where he died fighting for the Islamic State.

“He never spoke to me about it,” said his father, Abdus Sabur, 56, who sells meat patties on the street. “National Security called me one day and told me, ‘Your son is dead.’ ”

Law enforcement officials in Trinidad and Tobago, a small Caribbean island nation off the coast of Venezuela, are scrambling to close a pipeline that has sent a steady stream of young Muslims to Syria, where they have taken up arms for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

American officials worry about having a breeding ground for extremists so close to the United States, fearing that Trinidadian fighters could return from the Middle East and attack American diplomatic and oil installations in Trinidad, or even take a three-and-a-half-hour flight to Miami.

President Trump spoke by telephone over the weekend with Prime Minister Keith Rowley of Trinidad and Tobago about terrorism and other security challenges, including foreign fighters, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said.

Trinidad has a history of Islamist extremism — a radical Muslim group was responsible for a failed coup in 1990 that lasted six days, and in 2012 a Trinidadian man was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a plot to blow up Kennedy International Airport. Muslims make up only about 6 percent of the population, and the combatants often come from the margins of society, some of them on the run from criminal charges.

They saw few opportunities in an oil-rich nation whose economy has declined with the price of petroleum, experts say. Some were gang members who either converted or were radicalized in prison, while others have been swayed by local imams who studied in the Middle East, according to Muslim leaders and American officials.

The young men found solace in radical Islamist websites and social media.

And in the call to jihad.

In contrast to the laws of many countries, it is not illegal in Trinidad to join the so-called caliphate, though the government wants to change that. One hundred to 130 people have made the trip to Syria from Trinidad, which has a population of 1.3 million, according to a former United States ambassador, John L. Estrada, and Trinidad’s minister of national security, Edmund Dillon.

By comparison, about 250 citizens of the United States, a country with 240 times the population, had joined the extremists or attempted to travel to Syria by late 2015, according to a House Homeland Security Committee report.

Per capita, Trinidad has the greatest number of foreign fighters from the Western Hemisphere who have joined the Islamic State, said Mr. Estrada, who stepped down after the inauguration of President Trump last month.

“Trinidadians do very well with ISIL,” Mr. Estrada said. “They are high up in the ranks, they are very respected and they are English-speaking. ISIL have used them for propaganda to spread their message through the Caribbean.”

Much of the information about the identities of those who went abroad comes from American intelligence sources, although local imams and Islamic leaders all said they knew several people, including women, who had left.

“I know whole families that went,” said Imtiaz Mohammed, president of the Islamic Missionaries Guild, which does charity work in Trinidad and the Middle East.

Juan S. Gonzalez, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said the bulk of Islamic State fighters from Latin America originated in Trinidad and Tobago. The numbers underscore a risk of lone-wolf attacks in the region, he added.

“As the United States continues to corner ISIS and defeat them, a lot of these guys aren’t going to feel they have safe quarters,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “Is the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, prepared for these guys to return back to their countries? This is a real vulnerability.”

He noted that people in the Caribbean enjoyed visa-free travel throughout the islands, which makes it fairly easy to travel to the Bahamas, and from there make a “short jump” to South Florida.

The United States, which encouraged Trinidad to tighten its laws, has hosted meetings with Muslim leaders at the embassy in Port of Spain, and paid for several to attend anti-extremism workshops in the United States.

Mr. Sabur, the young radical from Enterprise, is one of a handful of Trinidadians known to have died in Syria. Others include Shawn Parson, who appeared in an Islamic State recruiting video. He was targeted by an F.B.I. program that, with the cooperation of the military, sought to eliminate the group’s social media figures, often with drone strikes.

Last summer, Shane Crawford, also known as Abu Sa’d at-Trinidadi, perhaps Trinidad’s best-known Islamic State recruit, was prominently featured in an article in the group’s magazine, Dabiq, in which he called for attacks on Western embassies.

Mr. Crawford said he had been influenced by Islamic lectures and a Trinidadian Muslim leader, Ashmead Choate. Mr. Choate “attained martyrdom” in Ramadi, Iraq, the article said.

The genesis of today’s rising militancy, Mr. Crawford added in the article, can be traced to the failed 1990 coup, when a group of radical Muslims took legislators hostage in a siege of Parliament. When it was over, two dozen people were dead.

Yasin Abu Bakr, 76, who led that uprising and has since been released from prison, said the government had created a climate where young Muslims did not feel safe or welcome in the military or civil service. “This is total discrimination and isolation against young Muslims in Trinidad,” he said in an interview.

Trinidad’s attorney general, Faris Al-Rawi, said that after the coup, wearing Muslim garb “took on a certain appeal.”

“A lot of people who were not genuinely Muslim or otherwise took on the persona to carry on their thuggery,” he added.

Mr. Al-Rawi said Mr. Crawford was believed to have died in Syria. His mother, Joan Crawford, said she had heard rumors that he had been badly wounded.

Ms. Crawford, 62, said that her son had been falsely accused of plotting to kill the Trinidadian prime minister, and that this had diminished his professional prospects, even though he ran a fish business and had experience in plumbing.

“Once you are branded a terrorist in your own country, what could you do?” said Ms. Crawford, a former Spiritual Baptist who converted to Islam after her son did. “I did cry, because I knew I would never see him again. I did not get to say goodbye.”

Efforts to combat the flow of young Muslims to overseas battlefields have been complicated by the ambivalence toward, and sometimes support for, the jihadi cause among some imams and the recruits’ parents. In an interview that began and ended with a prayer, Mr. Sabur said he had welcomed his son’s death as a martyr: “I felt elated. Speaking about it now, I am overelated.”

The Trinidadian government last week introduced a series of amendments that would criminalize membership in the Islamic State and other extremist organizations. People who traveled to certain regions would be presumed to be doing so for terrorism, and the burden to prove otherwise would be on them, Mr. Al-Rawi said.

Mr. Mohammed, of the Islamic Missionaries Guild, criticized the proposed legislation, saying groups like his that make trips to the Middle East are often engaged in charity work and could be unfairly singled out.

“You can’t just go to a court and have a judge tell you that you are guilty with no evidence, just an assumption,” he said.

Mr. Mohammed has publicly denounced the Islamic State, but noted that his own United States visa and commercial pilot’s license had been revoked after a terrorism suspect passed through his Islamic center.

A senior intelligence official in Trinidad who was not authorized to speak publicly said he worried that the proposed legislation would make people who would have left for Syria plan attacks at home instead.

He said about 15 or 20 of the Islamic State recruits spent two weeks before their trips at a mosque in Rio Claro, about 50 miles southeast of Port of Spain. There, they attended an orientation, the official said.

Umar Abdullah, an Islamic activist, said he had been among those who encouraged the would-be fighters.

Despite having made thinly veiled threats to Americans in the past, which led a cruise ship on its way to Trinidad to turn back, Mr. Abdullah has since denounced extremism, and now says Muslims must work with the United States to “change the narrative.” It would be “stupid” to try to attack the United States Embassy, he said.

“At one point in time I was a strong believer in that, and I still believe it to some extent,” Mr. Abdullah said. “But to do something like that would put the Muslim community in harm’s way. We would not be able to stand the fallout of that type of action.”

The imam in Rio Claro, Nazim Mohammed, denied running an Islamic State training program, and insisted that he operated an elementary school and a weekly food program for the poor. But he acknowledged that two of his children and five of his grandchildren were in Syria, and that the adults were believed to be involved with the Islamic State.

“Killing and murdering is not Islamic,” Nazim Mohammed, 75, said in an interview. “Our program is to help people. You know how many people have come here for help?”

He insisted that his children did not notify him of their plans, and he shrugged off the group’s influence.

“Who is ISIS?” he said. “ISIS is just a few people.”

« Last Edit: February 23, 2017, 05:42:56 AM by Flex »
The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Deeks

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2017, 01:30:32 PM »
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-angry-twitter-spree-declares-complete-power-pardon-144011489.html

The President, according to Yahoo, thinks he can pardon himself if he found guilty of anything. Mighty Spoiler has the perfect kaiso for this hilarious scenario. The magistrate. ..."himself told himself ...."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RRBeim1PBw

« Last Edit: August 08, 2017, 08:49:54 PM by Deeks »

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #12 on: August 08, 2017, 05:25:01 PM »
Trump talking bold against N Korea. Two egomaniacs lacking diplomatic going at it.

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #13 on: December 01, 2019, 07:22:47 AM »
Viewing CNN, Trump prominently discussed ... Ever notice that there is "always" a person of African descent over Trump's left shoulder when he is on the campaign trail ... amongst those staged behind him? He could be in the least demographically diverse state in the Union and there will be "that person" ... occasionally persons ... directly over his shoulder.

Playing to the cameras 101.

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #14 on: December 19, 2019, 11:57:09 AM »
Just saw a bumper sticker that read: Elect a Clown, Expect a Circus. Spot on!

Offline Flex

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #15 on: October 02, 2020, 02:58:45 AM »
Trump & wife test positive for COVID-19
T&T Guardian Reports.


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus, just a month before the presidential election and after having spent much of the last year largely downplaying the threat of the virus.

Trump’s positive test came just hours after he confirmed that senior aide Hope Hicks, who had traveled with him several times this week, had come down with the virus. Trump was last seen by reporters returning to the White House on Thursday evening and looked to be in good health. Trump is 74 years old, putting him at higher risk of serious complications from a virus that has now killed more than 205,000 people nationwide.

“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” Trump tweeted.

In a memorandum, the president’s physician said that Trump and the first lady, who is 50, “are both well at this time” and “plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence.”

“Rest assured I expect the President to continue carrying out his duties without disruption while recovering,” he added.

The diagnosis, just weeks before the Nov. 3 election, marks a major blow for a president who has been trying desperately to convince the American public that the worst of the pandemic is behind them, despite a growing nationwide death toll of more than 205,000 and 7 million confirmed infections. And it stands as the most serious known public health scare encountered by any sitting American president in recent history.

Trump’s handling of the pandemic has become a major flashpoint in his race against Democrat Joe Biden, who spent much of the summer off the campaign trail and at his home in Delaware. Biden has since resumed a more active campaign schedule, but with small, socially distanced crowds because of the virus. Biden also regularly wears a mask in public, something Trump mocked him for at Tuesday night’s debate.

“I don’t wear masks like him,” Trump said of Biden. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from me, and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #16 on: November 16, 2020, 07:28:08 PM »
Just saw a bumper sticker that read: Elect a Clown, Expect a Circus. Spot on!

For the most part, even discounting his deliberate polarizing of the electorate using racism as a fissure, all he had to do was to get the coronavirus policy correct. Word of advances on vaccine development would likely have had a more favorable timing for his second term election hopes, had he not contributed to the death of so many.

Beyond that, it's incredible that some Latino voters were moved by a single issue consideration (the fear of Biden-Harris being "socialist communist nuts" ::), yet some Black voters couldn't be single issue voters in a year marked by activism in the streets around ... RACISM.
« Last Edit: November 16, 2020, 07:30:04 PM by asylumseeker »

Offline lefty

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #17 on: November 17, 2020, 07:45:42 PM »
Just saw a bumper sticker that read: Elect a Clown, Expect a Circus. Spot on!

For the most part, even discounting his deliberate polarizing of the electorate using racism as a fissure, all he had to do was to get the coronavirus policy correct. Word of advances on vaccine development would likely have had a more favorable timing for his second term election hopes, had he not contributed to the death of so many.

Beyond that, it's incredible that some Latino voters were moved by a single issue consideration (the fear of Biden-Harris being "socialist communist nuts" ::), yet some Black voters couldn't be single issue voters in a year marked by activism in the streets around ... RACISM.

the democratics under biden was offering up platitudes, patronizing pop culture fluff and very little in the way of substance on bread and butter issues the "party of the people" by the way paved the way for american manufacturing to be shipped abroad lock, stock and barrel and Biden still refuses to own up to Nafta costing america millions of good paying blue collar jobs. Imagine Republicans have managed to somehow grow working class support while democrats lose significant support despite d covid disaster that is Trump.....Pelosi playing games with stimulus with winter fast approaching was a dumbass miscalculation that made Democrats come off as callously political when people are suffering, "let them eat cake" moment 2.0
I pity the fool....

Offline Deeks

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #18 on: November 17, 2020, 08:52:33 PM »
Just saw a bumper sticker that read: Elect a Clown, Expect a Circus. Spot on!

For the most part, even discounting his deliberate polarizing of the electorate using racism as a fissure, all he had to do was to get the coronavirus policy correct. Word of advances on vaccine development would likely have had a more favorable timing for his second term election hopes, had he not contributed to the death of so many.

Beyond that, it's incredible that some Latino voters were moved by a single issue consideration (the fear of Biden-Harris being "socialist communist nuts" ::), yet some Black voters couldn't be single issue voters in a year marked by activism in the streets around ... RACISM.

the democratics under biden was offering up platitudes, patronizing pop culture fluff and very little in the way of substance on bread and butter issues the "party of the people" by the way paved the way for american manufacturing to be shipped abroad lock, stock and barrel and Biden still refuses to own up to Nafta costing america millions of good paying blue collar jobs. Imagine Republicans have managed to somehow grow working class support while democrats lose significant support despite d covid disaster that is Trump.....Pelosi playing games with stimulus with winter fast approaching was a dumbass miscalculation that made Democrats come off as callously political when people are suffering, "let them eat cake" moment 2.0

Nafta was a republican/big business plan to dominate the Americas. The Democrats approved the plan because the were accused of being on the side of unions, liberal, socialists and people who drag down the economy. But big business buss both of them throats by moving to asia where the labor was the cheapest at that time.

Offline lefty

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #19 on: November 17, 2020, 09:20:53 PM »
he voted for it, like Iraq, championed the crime bill dat disproportionately jailed black and minorities for petty crimes om long term sentences, there is plenty to call out biden on ...and even so do know that neo liberal are viewed as spineless cowards that alway capitulate to republican taunts

Biden is ah Republican lite jus like Obama
« Last Edit: November 17, 2020, 09:23:43 PM by lefty »
I pity the fool....

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #20 on: November 17, 2020, 10:49:43 PM »
he voted for it, like Iraq, championed the crime bill dat disproportionately jailed black and minorities for petty crimes om long term sentences, there is plenty to call out biden on ...and even so do know that neo liberal are viewed as spineless cowards that alway capitulate to republican taunts

Biden is ah Republican lite jus like Obama

Iz fighting words in these times to equate being a moderate with being a Republican. A moderate Democrat is a far cry from a moderate Republican.

Also, in the net, although Obama may have been more reserved and centrist in his policymaking than others to his left would have preferred, he was no where as near to floating with the prevailing wind as Biden has been since he took his first train from Delaware to DC.

Although Biden is quite fortunate to be the president-elect, he's not the same man who took that first train. He may surprise you. His heart is probably near Jimmy Carter's but without the convictions that consigned Carter to be a one-term president.

 He made a lot of decisions in the past that were based on "I want to be president some day" reasons. He wasn't necessarily trying to be on the right side of history; he was trying to stay on the road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Now that he has achieved that he might "relax" that approach.

Of course, presidents tend to start thinking about second terms and their legacy in office. Both influence daring policymaking. 
« Last Edit: November 17, 2020, 10:52:28 PM by asylumseeker »

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #21 on: November 18, 2020, 07:45:20 AM »
Just saw a bumper sticker that read: Elect a Clown, Expect a Circus. Spot on!

For the most part, even discounting his deliberate polarizing of the electorate using racism as a fissure, all he had to do was to get the coronavirus policy correct. Word of advances on vaccine development would likely have had a more favorable timing for his second term election hopes, had he not contributed to the death of so many.

Beyond that, it's incredible that some Latino voters were moved by a single issue consideration (the fear of Biden-Harris being "socialist communist nuts" ::), yet some Black voters couldn't be single issue voters in a year marked by activism in the streets around ... RACISM.

the democratics under biden was offering up platitudes, patronizing pop culture fluff and very little in the way of substance on bread and butter issues the "party of the people" by the way paved the way for american manufacturing to be shipped abroad lock, stock and barrel and Biden still refuses to own up to Nafta costing america millions of good paying blue collar jobs. Imagine Republicans have managed to somehow grow working class support while democrats lose significant support despite d covid disaster that is Trump.....Pelosi playing games with stimulus with winter fast approaching was a dumbass miscalculation that made Democrats come off as callously political when people are suffering, "let them eat cake" moment 2.0

You're proposing that Mitch McConnell is a saint?
« Last Edit: November 18, 2020, 07:46:56 AM by asylumseeker »

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #22 on: November 18, 2020, 08:20:27 AM »
Just saw a bumper sticker that read: Elect a Clown, Expect a Circus. Spot on!

For the most part, even discounting his deliberate polarizing of the electorate using racism as a fissure, all he had to do was to get the coronavirus policy correct. Word of advances on vaccine development would likely have had a more favorable timing for his second term election hopes, had he not contributed to the death of so many.

Beyond that, it's incredible that some Latino voters were moved by a single issue consideration (the fear of Biden-Harris being "socialist communist nuts" ::), yet some Black voters couldn't be single issue voters in a year marked by activism in the streets around ... RACISM.

the democratics under biden was offering up platitudes, patronizing pop culture fluff and very little in the way of substance on bread and butter issues the "party of the people" by the way paved the way for american manufacturing to be shipped abroad lock, stock and barrel and Biden still refuses to own up to Nafta costing america millions of good paying blue collar jobs. Imagine Republicans have managed to somehow grow working class support while democrats lose significant support despite d covid disaster that is Trump.....Pelosi playing games with stimulus with winter fast approaching was a dumbass miscalculation that made Democrats come off as callously political when people are suffering, "let them eat cake" moment 2.0

You're proposing that Mitch McConnell is a saint?
It would have been more politically astute to take what on d table which wasn't bad,  not great, but not bad and let mc Connell kill it...if he dared, remember senate republicans is always deficit hawks when is money for poor people,  d hold out position was supposedly over wording and ting dat was less important than getting funds into the hands of people in critical need, but d true motive was not give Trump a possivle boost, if was corporations did want dat money yuh woulda never see dat shit play off....
« Last Edit: November 18, 2020, 08:25:26 AM by lefty »
I pity the fool....

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #23 on: November 19, 2020, 07:24:52 AM »
the democratics under biden was offering up platitudes, patronizing pop culture fluff and very little in the way of substance on bread and butter issues the "party of the people" by the way paved the way for american manufacturing to be shipped abroad lock, stock and barrel and Biden still refuses to own up to Nafta costing america millions of good paying blue collar jobs. Imagine Republicans have managed to somehow grow working class support while democrats lose significant support despite d covid disaster that is Trump.....Pelosi playing games with stimulus with winter fast approaching was a dumbass miscalculation that made Democrats come off as callously political when people are suffering, "let them eat cake" moment 2.0

By the way, "working class" in America politically is often a euphemism that refers to/is subjectively meant to refer to persons who are "white" ... despite the fact that the actual landscape reveals a disproportionate representation of "people of color" engaged in activity of the kind. In that context, there is no surprise as to how/why Republican "working class support" has grown.

There is a subtext of the American working class voice as emerging from the "dominant culture". Indeed, recent studies show that despite comparable levels of unemployment as triggers that stimulate responsive policies aimed at mitigating the economic suffering stemming from the virus, the policies have been/were more responsive to economic suffering experienced by white males than by black males. So, at a determined threshold of suffering (say 16% unemployment), the policies appear to be more concerned about the ability of white workers to meet mortgage and related obligations than they were/have been about black workers satisfying comparable obligations.

Also, when there are personalities - such as Rick Santorum (former senator from Pennsylvania, now CNN's voice of conservatism) - who dismiss the notion that class has any relevance on the American landscape and is "Marxism talk", it becomes a tad clearer why education is important, racism has an enduring quality and why Trump's disinformation is a challenge to commonsense.

If that's what they feel about segments of American society, imagine what the frames of reference are when engaging policies that pertain to outside that boundary.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2020, 07:32:21 AM by asylumseeker »

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #24 on: November 19, 2020, 08:24:12 AM »
I meant to indicate that growth was across demographics imagine, his vote among black and Hispanic grew, set aside the oft dismissive view that GOP leaning blacks are self haters, the first step act, motives aside was a good step forward.....mass incarceration continued unfettered even while Obama was prez and got ZERO or almost zero attention yet the the corporatist vote bank that is the CBC was quite happy to endorse Eliot Engel over Jamaal Bowman....hmm
« Last Edit: November 19, 2020, 08:42:03 AM by lefty »
I pity the fool....

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #25 on: November 19, 2020, 07:01:22 PM »
I meant to indicate that growth was across demographics imagine, his vote among black and Hispanic grew, set aside the oft dismissive view that GOP leaning blacks are self haters, the first step act, motives aside was a good step forward.....mass incarceration continued unfettered even while Obama was prez and got ZERO or almost zero attention yet the the corporatist vote bank that is the CBC was quite happy to endorse Eliot Engel over Jamaal Bowman....hmm


No, it merely expanded the class of gullible, hypocritical, self-serving, self-loathing defenders of nonsense  ... who are in need of a mirror, history lessons, a gut check, multiple wake-up calls and a garbage can in which to dump their sense of exceptionalism and their tainted dose of race-neutral Kool-Aid.

Of course, one welcomes them contributing to the perfecting of democracy by having voted against the weight of electoral sentiment, but they have also perfected ignorance by ultimately choosing to act against their own fundamental interests in a nation in which the protections offered by the Voting Rights Act have been eroded and those erosions embraced by the exiting bigot.

Might I add, a patronising bigot who has had the gall to assert he's done more for black people than ... Only minstrels lap up those short-changing coins.

By all means, go to the circus and watch the clowns but don't become one by endorsing the clowns' unfavorable agenda as benign.

P.S. The CBC's support of an incumbent is good politics and a win-win for them despite the particular narrative of that race.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2020, 07:21:44 PM by asylumseeker »

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #26 on: November 19, 2020, 09:46:01 PM »
I meant to indicate that growth was across demographics imagine, his vote among black and Hispanic grew, set aside the oft dismissive view that GOP leaning blacks are self haters, the first step act, motives aside was a good step forward.....mass incarceration continued unfettered even while Obama was prez and got ZERO or almost zero attention yet the the corporatist vote bank that is the CBC was quite happy to endorse Eliot Engel over Jamaal Bowman....hmm


No, it merely expanded the class of gullible, hypocritical, self-serving, self-loathing defenders of nonsense  ... who are in need of a mirror, history lessons, a gut check, multiple wake-up calls and a garbage can in which to dump their sense of exceptionalism and their tainted dose of race-neutral Kool-Aid.

Of course, one welcomes them contributing to the perfecting of democracy by having voted against the weight of electoral sentiment, but they have also perfected ignorance by ultimately choosing to act against their own fundamental interests in a nation in which the protections offered by the Voting Rights Act have been eroded and those erosions embraced by the exiting bigot.

Might I add, a patronising bigot who has had the gall to assert he's done more for black people than ... Only minstrels lap up those short-changing coins.

By all means, go to the circus and watch the clowns but don't become one by endorsing the clowns' unfavorable agenda as benign.

P.S. The CBC's support of an incumbent is good politics and a win-win for them despite the particular narrative of that race.

I think u are not quite getting me, democrats need to bring the tangibles, quit the lip service and despacito moments or more black voters will start buying dat very said kool-aid, because if ah patronizing racist asshat could sign of on d first step to addressin ah historical wrong (selfish motives aside) dat was no where on d radar of d party dat always tellin yuh dey have back, den yuh tink people eh goh really start questioning dey loyalty, patronizing help is still help

interesting note, can't be bothered to dig up "The Hill" episode but do you know that many black youth potential voters said that they were declining to vote because Bernie wasn't on the ticket,though dat was before d covid ravages take hold, Biden's distinct lack "tangibles" still failed to energize a lot of would be voters and lead to what is an underwhelming result in what should have been a runaway race
« Last Edit: November 19, 2020, 09:52:12 PM by lefty »
I pity the fool....

Offline lefty

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #27 on: November 20, 2020, 09:03:58 PM »
I think this dude perfectly encapsulated my on the Democratic party and Republican the difference ia you always have fair idea how republicans really feel where as democrats  hug you tight to put a kick me sign on your back......the one truiy real guy backed off and now biden as expected is packing his admin with the swampiest of swamp...... Democrat  style
https://youtu.be/SKfMaJ-lAY8
I pity the fool....

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Re: Donald Trump first 100-days as U.S. President.
« Reply #28 on: November 22, 2020, 03:21:27 PM »
Trump considers targeting birthright citizenship with executive order in his last weeks in office, report says
Ashley Collman (Yahoo News).


President Trump is reportedly considering putting out an executive order in his final weeks in office to target birthright citizenship, according to two sources who spoke to The Hill.

Ending birthright citizenship — which guarantees citizenship to anyone born on US soil, regardless of the citizenship of their parents — has been something Trump's talked about doing since his 2016 campaign.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is an example of someone who gained her citizenship this way. Her Indian mother and Jamaican father were not yet US citizens when they had her in California in 1964.

When reached for comment, a White House spokesman said he wouldn't "speculate or comment on potential executive action."

President Donald Trump is considering an executive action to target birthright citizenship in his final weeks in office, according to two sources who spoke with The Hill in a report published on Friday.

Birthright citizenship is the policy whereby anyone who is born in the US is immediately granted citizenship, regardless of whether their parents have citizenship or not.

It's guaranteed under the 14th Amendment, which states in part that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." More than 30 countries — mostly in the Western Hemisphere — have birthright citizenship.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is an example of someone who received their US citizenship in this way. Harris's Indian mother and Jamaican father were not yet US citizens when she was born in California in 1964, but she became a US citizen.

Trump has been speaking out against birthright citizenship since his 2016 run for the White House, which was infused with anti-immigrant rhetoric. He brought the issue up again in a 2018 interview with Axios, in which he stated that he could issue an executive order to end the practice.

However, The Intercept reported in 2018 that this is "an idea rejected by an overwhelming consensus of conservative and liberal law scholars." A law written into the Constitution can only be ended through a new amendment.

Counter-arguments to birthright citizenship over the years say that the 14th Amendment has been misinterpreted.

"The Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment was clearly intended to guarantee that emancipated slaves would properly be recognized as U.S. citizens," RJ Hauman, government relations director at Federation for American Immigration Reform, told The Hill. Hauman's group is an anti-immigration non-profit.

"It is a fundamental misapplication of this clause that U.S.-born children of illegal aliens are granted automatic citizenship, much less the offspring of people who come here to simply give birth on American soil."

If the president finally issues a long-awaited executive order limiting birthright citizenship, it will be up to the Supreme Court to resolve this issue once and for all," Hauman said.

John Eastman, a fellow at the far-right Claremont Institute think tank, has also spoken against birthright citizenship's protection in the 14th Amendment.

Eastman has long claimed that one element in the 14th Amendment rules out birthright citizenship — the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof." Eastman told Axios in 2018 that this phrase means that for someone to get US citizenship at birth, their parents need to have a full political allegiance to the US, meaning green card holders or citizens.

Hauman and Eastman's ideas are far from the norm, though. Antonin Scalia, the late Supreme Court justice and one of the most conservative to ever sit on the nation's highest court, dismissed Eastman's theory in 2004, according to The Intercept.

According to The Hill report, the Trump administration is aware that it would immediately be challenged in court if they passed an executive order on the issue. They hope to get a ruling on whether the 14th Amendment protects birthright citizenship, according to one of the sources who spoke to The Hill and is familiar with the plans.

When reached for comment by Business Insider on Saturday, White House spokesman Judd Deere released the following statement:

"Since taking office, President Trump has never shied away from using his lawful executive authority to advance bold policies and fulfill the promises he made to the American people, but I won't speculate or comment on potential executive action."

Trump's national security adviser says ISIS bride Hoda Muthana has to provide proof of her alleged American citizenship if she wants to come back

Trump's threat to birthright citizenship is real. All 3 branches of government have been challenging it for years.

Paul Ryan rejects Trump plan to end birthright citizenship with executive order: 'You obviously cannot do that'

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

 

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