February 16, 2017

Today will be remembered in our family for generations.

Today my daughter met the finest President this country has had since Lincoln.

She is an executive in a company that has been closely aligned with Democratic politics and a high profile supporter of the President in Chicago. The President has visited the office several times since she joined the company but this was the first time she was able to meet him.

I have felt such an affinity to Dr. Dunham who was working in Indonesia at the same time I was and we may have even crossed paths at the embassy or possibly at the Borobudur Hotel in Jakarta.

I had the feeling that many of us shared that when he was speaking about taking the country to a new place through relentless optimism, courageous reconciliation and strengthening those that are struggling that he was speaking directly to me.

I found it difficult to hang around DU when were being trolled by people who constantly tried to pick at the President and found that it contributed to a return of my bizarre but troublesome affliction of vertigo attacks and had to take drastic steps to step away. Fortunately changes were made so that I could return but I still have to temper my tendency to over commit my passion.

My daughter still lives in a normal world where people who lead like President Obama are the expected norm and so she casually sent me this text:

"I just shook Obama's hand. Busy now, have volleyball after work. Dad, I will call you tomorrow".

I just wonder if I will ever be able to return to a world where somebody like Obama is President and it is considered so commonplace that you could tell your Dad with a text and a casual "will call you tomorrow" after meeting the President. I am so glad that she still lives in that world. It seems like it has been a light year since we lived there. In the Granttribe it will be incorporated into our family history and passed on for generations.

February 15, 2017

Trump to Palestinians: Your Fired.

A radical turn against 30 years of consensus amongst all of the West and most of the Muslim Middle East was abandoned with a flippant and very Kardashian: Whatever.

If there is no 2 state solution then you are condemning millions of Palestinians to a colonial status. No besides Trump and Netanyahu believes that this is possible.

This goes beyond complicating the situation in Israel it means that when the US comes to an agreement, when it broker's a coalition among NATO and other countries and reaffirms it for decades, that it can all be reversed when a 31 year old son in law of the Nut in Chief tells his father in law that he should abandon central pillars of US international policy.

From here on out, for a considerable time, no other country will give the word of the US any value.

February 15, 2017

Here is the proof that the Trump campaign had early contacts with Russia Intelligence

They went to the mat at the convention for a radical and surprising reversal of sanctions against Russia. There was no electoral advantage in making the change. They were sending a signal that they would bring the bacon home after the election.

February 14, 2017

No, younger Democrats, this isn't like Nixon. This is like Nixon on crack.

Edited to add:

This is what a President on crack looks like when he has a press conference


The speed of the collapse of the honeymoon and the level of infighting is moving at the speed of light

The break in at the Watergate was a single thread with a few side threads.

We are witnessing an exponential explosion of leads, gaffes, betrayal, perfidy, use of government for personal gain and possibly outright treason.

Take a look at this picture

?quality=85

It shows

1) Violation of security of classified documents

2) Use of government to advance personal assets

3) Potential violation of classified material by cyber malware: There is a very good chance that the "flashlight" download they are using for the country club guests to view the classified material has malware that is stealing the document and sending it out in real time (much greater violation than anything that Secretary Clinton did):


The Hidden Piracy threat of Flashlight Applications
https://www.wired.com/2014/10/iphone-apps/

4) Not to mention the general level of buffoonery that they are showing to the entire world

Nothing Nixon did was this haphazard and the truth is if he hadn't recorded it he would have gotten away with it.

Trump isn't just recording it he is charging people to watch him fuck it up while he is doing it and letting them record it.

February 12, 2017

Trump has erased the line that separated the US between President Obama and Dictator Putin

Thoughtful people watching Trump run for President realized that each time he would bellow some authoritarian populist pablum that he was either approaching or crossing some invisible intellectual line, but it would receive a huge reaction from the angry herd that he corralled into his rallies. We kept hearing from ‘normal Republicans’ that Trump would ‘pivot’ after he got the nomination, after the first debate, after this point or that.

When we watched in horror as Trump was soundly defeated in the election but had won one of the most improbable electoral college wins the part of America that thinks about the country an inch deeper than the most sentimental platitudinous tripe realized that the chances were good that our government would cross the line and eventually become an abuser of power that imposes the power of government to brutally destroy innocent lives.

That line was crossed on Thursday.

Eight years ago I was interviewing a Border Patrol Agent in Las Cruces New Mexico. He was angry that the Obama administration had drawn a line and that the Border Patrol, Customs and ICE would “no longer be able to enforce the law”.

I asked him what he meant and he said that they were ordered not to go into Las Cruces and arrest known illegals ( Border Patrol range of 100 miles next to the border put the city within their normal area of operations). “We know where they are, they are working on construction sites in full view of everyone, but we can’t go after them.”

I answered, “So you signed up for the Border Patrol so that you could be like Tony Soprano”. He had a shocked expression. He had told me that he had worked in construction in San Diego.

I asked him if, while he was working construction in San Diego, he had ever worked on a project an as it was approaching completion ICE would show up and arrest dozens of illegals. He said, “all of the time”.

I explained to him that the employer knew who the illegals were and had never paid their social security taxes and as they approached the end of the project missed a couple paychecks promising a big bonus ‘next week’. His face showed surprise as I explained that it was the contractor who had called ICE in order to cover up their own illegal actions and pocket hundreds of thousands of illegal profits. These criminal contractors didn’t even have to pay a “Tony Soprano” type, they could call ICE or the Border Patrol to do the job. “Is that why you signed up for the Border Patrol?”. He gave me a sheepish “No”.

President Obama drew a line of decency that put ICE/Border Patrol on the side of finding and removing real criminal aliens. Using those services to focus on dangerous criminals made all of us safer. Trump has erased that line to brutalize innocent families and all of us are more at risk because instead of chasing gangs ICE is now chasing mothers of US citizens.

There is no doubt that Trump made the decision to erase the line that President Obama installed to use the forces of border security to concentrate on criminal elements and has now directed them at innocent undocumented workers who supporters of Secretary Clinton have worked for after losing in the courtroom in Seattle.

Erasing the line protecting the sanctity of Family Reunification

The one unifying principle for Republican and Democratic politicians on migration and refugee policies over the last 7 decades has been focused on “Family Reunification”. Trump has threw that away and instructed ICE to take the next undocumented person they could find and throw them out of the country and ignore President Obamas’ previous orders.

Republicans like to say “If you outlaw guns only outlaws will have guns” and there is an element of truth to that. It is also true that if you have ICE chase down law abiding undocumented aliens then they will get those who report in as instructed and the illegal violent aliens will be left alone. Trump’s actions were aimed at destroying an innocent family but it also means that the government’s resources are no longer focused on aliens with criminal records, and we are all less safe because of that.

I have no doubt that the actions against Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos and the hundreds that have been detained by ICE since then are a pique of revenge for losing his appeal on the Muslim ban. Trump has personalized the instruments of state power and is using it to concentrate his personal position. It is exactly how has Putin has ruled.

Right now the Department of Homeland Security’s ICE investigation unit is not looking at intercepts for the violent gang that was their objective. I guarantee you right now that DHS investigators have been instructed to find some connection with undocumented aliens and Nordstrom.

Tomorrow hundreds of law abiding families, many of them with US citizens in the family, will face the brutal force of government law enforcement officers that should be used to protect us. One of the reasons that they are being targeted is that we support them. It is Trump’s payback.

I know that this is a long post but there is one more element that needs to be pointed out. Guadalupe García de Rayos was arrested based on a raid by former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in 2008 when she worked at Golf Land in Phoenix. What triggered Arpaio’s raid? Maybe it was a competitor to one of his supporters. Maybe one of the customers were angry at how they were treated.

After she was arrested Guadalupe followed all the instructions that the court had given her. Why was she even instructed to go to the ICE office while others arrested were told that under President Obama’s instructions they were to be ignored? Because the AZ prosecutor had over charged her with a felony for using a Social Security number to get an ID. Because it wasn’t a violent felony she was safe behind President Obama’s line of reason.

All of the 7-10 million undocumented workers who show up to work have provided a fictional SS number so that they can work. What is the result or harm of this action? We have 7 million people contributing into the Social Security Trust fund who will never be able to claim for the benefits that they are paying for. It is one of the unspoken reasons why, even though Americans are living a decade longer and paying out much more than the original calculations anticipated, there is so much money in the Trust Fund. This is Guadalupe’s crime, she has been helping pay for our Social Security with no chance of getting the benefit.

Thousands of families in the US will be attacked this week but millions are now living in fear because Trump has crossed the line. It is the line that separated us from President Obama and the dictator Putin.

February 6, 2017

While everyone was reacting to "US murders like Putin" BS, Trump caved on taking on the ACA in 2017

The ACA was going to be done on the first day, finished, period.

In the O'Reilly interview Trump conceded that there isn't going to be any change this year and they are going to start with a new "replacement" sometime next year.

January 30, 2017

Trump's likely Supreme Court Nominee leaked (Ha!)

https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/sesROsjRu_wLiXqqnKcJDQ--/aD00MTI7dz02MTg7c209MTthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg--/

A draft of the proposed announcement has been leaked:

"Judge Stern is not just a friend of mine but an experienced judge who has demonstrated before the American people that he has one of the best judging mines in the world. He is very judgemental, a key quality that a judge must have. Judge Stern doesn't have to look for presidents or look up things in legal books. He can just look at someone and know if they have talent. Look at his wife, Beth Ostrosky Stern is a 10, if you want to see just how good a judge is look to see how hot his wife is, I mean come on what could be more important than that.

Stern is going to be great, he is going to make the Supreme Court great again. We can bring in cameras and put it on pay-per-view and the Supreme Court can start pulling its weight and not just be free loading. This is going to be great. In fact I am probably going to start arguing cases before these guys myself. I have words, I have better words than they have. I mean who understands what the hell a "demurrer" is. This is going to be huge".

January 30, 2017

The real price of Trump's cowardice.

In the two years that Trump has been actively campaigning for President there have been five major terrorist attacks in Europe, 3 in France, 1 each in Belgium and Germany. In addition there have been a number of other minor attacks and the total number of casualties is over 300 dead 1200 wounded.

In response Europe has not succumbed to fear but embraced and continued to take in large numbers of refugees, many more times than the US.

In a time of real crises Roosevelt calmed the nation by reminding it that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.

Even though during the same time period the US has a statistical negligible exposure to terrorist attacks Trump has stoked fear and like a coward has cut and run. Europe has stood up and America is now cowering.

Here is what now haunts the sentient part of the United States; Should the US be the target of another major terrorist attack (which his actions have made more likely) this coward will not be looking for multilateral approaches to fight ISIS but turn to the military and demand Tactical Nuclear responses.

By inserting Bannon into the NSC and taking out the Joint Chief and the Defense Secretary he is politicising weapons of mass destruction and turning the US into an unstable military power that operates on a hair trigger of fear and reaction.

January 28, 2017

Stopped by the nearest Mosque, made a few friends and dropped off a note.

Dropped by my nearest mosque, made a few friends and dropped off this note:

As-salamu alaykum,

On this day where the President of the United States attempts to codify bigotry that is contrary to the spirit of Declaration of Independence, the advice of the founding fathers and the letter of the Constitution I would like to simply say,

I stand with you.

As someone who follows a different faith tradition I would like you to know that there are many who share in the disgust of the President’s opprobrium. I have been privileged to live and work with Muslims in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Some of that work involved working with Muslims to assist Vietnamese refugees, Cambodians to assist Muslim refugees and people of different traditions to assist Afghan and Iranian refugees that resettled into the United States.

I know Muslims who have worked for the US government for decades to fight against our common enemies. They will no longer be able to visit the US.

The actions of the President will not stand. They will be ridiculed by people who will resist religious bigotry and by people who have lived and worked with people outside the US and understand that the President’s arguments lack facts, wisdom or maturity.

We all know that this administration is a temporary occupier of the Presidency and that successors will return to the traditional expression of American values of religious tolerance, international friendship and embracing a search for universal moral self evident truths.

The greater problem is in educating the millions of his supporters who continue to engage in bigotry. Even though they remain a minority of the country they are a constant drag on progress not only against Muslims but also against people of color and the poor.

They do not know that Muslim scholars and philosophers have been instrumental in the foundation of Western values, philosophy and science. They do not know of Ibn Rushd whose original works on Aristotle and Plato were the foundation of Western Civilization’s re-integration of their work after the Dark Ages.

They do not know of ibn Musa al-Khwarizimi whose work translated into Latin laid the foundation for Western mathematics. When someone says that they want to eliminate Arabic influences in our education system I ask “how are we going to run computers on Roman Numerals?”.

They are not aware that much of Sir Isaac Newton’s work was drawn directly from Alhazen who laid the foundations of the scientific method six hundred years before Bacon and Newton would borrow heavy from his works.

From Aristotle to Ibn Rushd to ibn Musa al-Khwarisimi to Alhazen to Bacon to Newton the advance of civilization has always been the result of a free exchange of ideas that requires not just the free interaction of people from different traditions but a hunger for friendship among all peoples.

Influenced by thinkers from various cultures, different religions, all races we all toil under the same sun face the same moral challenges, the same test of bravery for defending principle and the same pursuit of Truth. Ultimately we all face the same end where we leave a legacy for standing for compassion, understanding and truth against fear, bigotry and lies.

President Roosevelt advised that “All we have to fear is fear itself”. While Trump has succumbed to that fear please be assured that millions of us stand with you.

In solidarity with American Muslims,

grantcart

January 27, 2017

Why Donald Trump is 100% wrong about his claims about vetting of refugees

Trumps groundless calls for increased vetting of refugees has the same foundation of fact that his claim for widespread voter fraud, without any foundation whatsoever.

The facts are that people who enter the United States under refugee application are MUCH more carefully vetted than other visitors, like students, business people, or tourists. The process requires multiple levels of scrutiny for refugees over a lengthy process in camps where there is a large and motivated community to assist in vetting while other types of visas go through a single examination of assets, application and interview.

To understand the process you need to understand that there are two types of asylum for refugees: Countries of First Asylum and Countries of Second Asylum. With a few exceptions virtually all of refugees resettled into the US are the result of Second Asylum.

Second Asylum Processing.

Since World War II understanding how to assimilate refugees has become very sophisticated and is based on two important principles, they are:

1) The best possible solution is for the refugees to receive immediate protection (in First Asylum Countries) and work to pacify the situation so that refugees can return to their country of origin.

2) In the case where return is not possible then all efforts will be made for family reunion.

While all Second Asylum countries have various levels of support to assist refugees integrating into their new society (Scandinavian countries, for example need extended support to assist in difficult language adjustment) it has been well established that reuniting with relatives, even distant relatives like 2nd cousins, is a ‘force multiplier’ that makes successful integration much faster.

For this reason refugees entering into a First Asylum camp will first meet with a UN worker to establish a detailed family tree and an initial interview. This tree is compared with other family statements that are made in multiple camps. They are repeatedly told that if they misrepresent any facts it could make resettlement impossible.

These dossiers are made available to the resettlement countries assigning any country that has a family member the first option. For the US the next step is an interview with a service contracted with the state department. There are a dozen but the most well known are Catholic Refugee Services and IRC. The people who interview the refugees do this full time for years on end and like anyone who does the same thing over and over again become very skilled on discerning deception. Working with the caseworker is a trusted national that provides translation assistance and also skilled at evaluating statements of fact.

If the applicant family is a candidate for resettlement it then goes to a State Department Refugee Officer who has consular experience. The names of relatives and known associates are run through data bases developed by the CIA and anyone with an unusual connection or question is red flagged for extensive review.

One of the key elements that is overlooked in the hyperbole is that the process usually takes 2 years and during that time must live in a community of refugees from the same area who are highly motivated to find any enemies for two reasons. The first is that anyone from the regime (or ISIS) that is trying to go to the US is also the same enemy that caused them to lose their home and as you can imagine these people are filled with hatred for people from the regime/ISIS that caused them so much harm.

Secondly if you provide information that correctly reveals a terrorist (or a Viet Cong, for example) to the US you will immediately go to the front of the line and be resettled immediately. The fact is that the refugee camps had the best information because these were the communities where people closest to the US were already leaving.

For example in resettling refugees from Vietnam we would get information about Viet Cong that were planning to join the exodus (ironically the Viet Cong were harshly treated by the North Vietnamese) BEFORE they even left country. There were numerous cases where VC who tried to mix in with other refugees were identified at sea before they even reached the refugee camp.

Over the last 30 years we have resettled more than 1 million refugees including large numbers from Islamic countries and the record shows a very successful record. The median income for whites in the US is $ 59,698 while Vietnamese, for example, is $ 59,405.

The reality is that if someone intended to enter the US for terrorist operations it would be much easier and several years faster to enter as a student, travel ling businessman or a tourist than as a refugee and you only have to look at the 19 involved in the 9/11 attacks to see the proof.

The call for suspending refugee resettlement until better vetting methods are in place is another Trump lie.

They are again using fear and security concerns to promote racial and religious bigotry.