Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Sunday, January 29, 2017

This Is Who We Are Now





The following post by Michael Arnovitz won't change the minds of the folks on the far right rabid blogs who refer to all Muslims/Moslems as "vermin." Those people are unreachable -- they are, to me, like people with a terminal disease. They can't be helped. 

But perhaps there are people whose minds are not as badly infected as those who wish to rid our country and planet of all Muslims. Perhaps we can reach those people and allow them to see how unAmerican and destructive Trump's policies are for the US and the world.

People are marching and reaching out to each other because over the past 8 days we've seen how much harm the Trump-Bannon Administration is capable of inflicting as a result of the mindless executive orders being signed by a know-nothing maniac.

Here's just one victim of the Trump-Bannon political evil. 





THIS IS WHO WE ARE NOW





BY Michael Arnovitz
This is Dr. Samira Asgari.


Dr. Asgari, a specialist in human genomics and genetics of infectious diseases, holds a doctorate from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. She authors papers with titles like, “Disease-Corrected Hepatocyte-Like Cells from Familial Hypercholesterolemia-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells,” and has given lectures on how rare genetic defects might make infants more susceptible to viral respiratory infections. (http://bit.ly/2kFyUkw)
Last May, Soumya Raychaudhuri (PhD, MD), an associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, attended a talk by Dr. Asgari at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. Dr. Raychaudhuri’s lab studies “the basis of autoimmune disease using techniques in human genetics, bioinformatics, and systems biology,” so both he and Dr. Asgari work in related fields.
He was impressed enough with her talk that he invited Dr. Asgari to work on a tuberculosis project at his laboratory. Dr. Asgari agreed, and was granted a J-1 Visa to work in the United States along with two years of funding for her research by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Earlier today, after months of planning, Dr. Asgari boarded a plane from Switzerland to Frankfurt. She then attempted to board a plane for the United States, where she was promptly rejected. You see, even though she lives in Switzerland, Dr. Asgari is an Iranian national. So she no longer qualifies for Trump’s America.
It doesn’t matter that she already had an approved Visa, and it certainly doesn’t matter than she was going to be engaged in high-level research aimed at defeating tuberculosis, Type 1 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis. She’s Iranian. She’s Muslim. She’s not welcome. With no other choice, Dr. Asgari returned to Switzerland where she now has no job and no place to live.
This is who we are now

24 comments:

Shaw Kenawe said...

ACLU of Virginia
11 hours ago ·

Victory: Muslim Ban Halted
VICTORY: ACLU Nationwide blocks Trump's unconstitutional Muslim ban. WATCH: ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero coming out of the court where the ACLU argued their case. This halt is nationwide.

Les Carpenter said...

Excellent article! A wonderfully crafted and highly rational paper as to why we should vehemently resist trump. Simple, straight forward, yet powerful.

Great post Shaw.Mr. Arnovich has it just right.

Anonymous said...


President Chaos

Infidel753 said...

I beg to differ. This is who they are, and always were. The Trump voters, the both-siderists who minimized the unique depravity festering on the right, the Republican cowards who fell into line behind the fascist orangutan even though they knew better.

We are the people who keep speaking out against actions like this, who turned out in millions last Saturday, who have kept up the pressure and made Trump and the Republicans back down on issue after issue.

This isn't who we are now. This is what conservatism is now. They did this. We're the ones who are going to fix it.

Michael K. said...

The Chinese Exclusion Act, the racist McCarran-Walter quotas,the anti-Catholic hysterias, the Smith Act exclusions and countless other such acts document that racist treatment of immigrants is American as apple pie. We flatter ourselves, as we have with racism, sexism, homophobia, even anti-Semitism, that we've grown past such bigotries. Not so. They never get defeated for good and all. And when they crawl out from under the rock, they must be called by name and fought. Battles can be, and have been, won. It's happened before and will happen again, but not as the default position.

Shaw Kenawe said...

First, reflect on the cruelty of President Trump’s decision on Friday to indefinitely suspend the resettlement of Syrian refugees and temporarily ban people from seven predominantly Muslim nations from entering the United States. It took just hours to begin witnessing the injury and suffering this ban inflicts on families that had every reason to believe they had outrun carnage and despotism in their homelands to arrive in a singularly hopeful nation.

The first casualties of this bigoted, cowardly, self-defeating policy were detained early Saturday at American airports just hours after the executive order, ludicrously titled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States,” went into effect.
--NYTimes editorial

Shaw Kenawe said...

Infidel753: "We're the ones who are going to fix it."

I can't speak for what Michael Arnovitz exactly meant by "This is who we are now," but I interpret it as his saying that by signing this bigoted and illegal executive order trump taints us all.

Instead of spending a quiet winter Sunday doing crossword puzzles, reading and then preparing a traditional Sunday Italian dinner, I'm putting on my marching boots and heading toward Copley Square for a protest march. For now, it's one way to let the Maniac in the White House know he doesn't have all of the American people behind his latest inhumane order. In fact, I'm betting a majority of us are against it.

Howard Brazee said...

Which of those countries does business with Trump?

Tyler Bamberg said...

You do know this is just as much Obama's fault correct? The public should be suspicious of Trump’s policies and the media should speak truth to power and demand answers from the administration. But the media should also be truthful with the public and instead of claiming Trump singled out seven countries, it should note that the US Congress and Obama’s Department of Homeland Security had singled out these countries. It should have told us about theTerrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015 rather than pretend this list was invented in 2017. Trump’s executive order said “countries of concern,” it didn’t make a list. That list was already made, last year and years before by OBAMA!.

Dave Miller said...

Would someone please ask Trump or his minions why Saudi Arabia and Egypt were excluded?

Dave Miller said...

All the American people Shaw? He doesn't have most...

Les Carpenter said...

I beg to differ. This is who they are, and always were. The Trump voters, the both-siderists who minimized the unique depravity festering on the right, the Republican cowards who fell into line behind the fascist orangutan even though they knew better.

We are the people who keep speaking out against actions like this, who turned out in millions last Saturday, who have kept up the pressure and made Trump and the Republicans back down on issue after issue.

This isn't who we are now. This is what conservatism is now. They did this. We're the ones who are going to fix it.


And now my rant in response to Infidel.

A) I agree with Shaw's interpretation, not your Infidel. Sorry.

B) There are MANY good conservatives. Rational. tolerant, and in fact taking the same quiet actions that Shaw is taking. Think fiscal conservative yet socially tolerant. Folks who view the world in a balanced way. Those who abhor what the neo-con, alt-right, and evangelical conservatism has done to conservative thought. Authoritarian nationalistic conservatism is what must be defeated. Not rational, reasonable, thoughtful, tolerant conservatism. Call me a classical liberal. There are millions like me.

C) There are also many good decent rationally thinking liberals and progressives. only an idiot would refuse to acknowledge the advances in society and the economy that are attributable in part and whole to liberal thought and action. Having said that I must add that there are extremes in the liberal/progressive movement that are as putrid as those on the far right. Why do I say this? Because they remind me of Lenin and Trotsky. Authoritarian dictatorial communism. Its as [putrid as it gets.

D) I despise authority over my life and right to do as I see fit with it in so long as I respect the rights of all others to do the same. Of course no person has the right to take action that injures another, either physically or financially. Nor do they have the right to take the life of another unless it is in an act of self. All defense.

C) All people have the right to vocalize their views, act in peaceful protest against actions they see as unjust, and vote their conscience. No one has the right to take that away from another, not even the government. Government is necessary to preserve social order and maintain the infrastructure of the nation. As well as providing security against the would be usurpers of individual rights. Oh, and something abut the general welfare.

D) I don't know you Infidel and my gut sense is that I wouldn't want to. I'm sure you feel the same. I view you as one of those progressives who are very comfortable in the Lenin/Trotsky ideology spectrum. If I'm wrong my apology. But you see it it you who gives that impression. In other words it's your way or the highway. There is no middle rational ground.

E) I stand against extremism and should the time come when I have take up arms against extremism I will stand with my rational, reasonable, tolerant, thoughtful, conservatives and liberals against the extremism I perceive you represent.

Please. prove me incorrect.

Jerry Critter said...

Howard, perhaps this article will answer your question.

Kevin Robbins said...

Which of those countries does business with Trump?

Amazingly, none.

OK, my question. Is this how the Dark Ages started?

Les Carpenter said...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5SRvIna2GPw/WI4Mg0upQKI/AAAAAAAAL04/vRslOKnHt_UI9W0_H1TFWtVKM_Op8_fCACK4B/s1600/killingladyliberty.jpg

Is this helpful?

Where's the rational discussion?

Emotionalism miss used can be counter productive.

Infidel753 said...

I view you as one of those progressives who are very comfortable in the Lenin/Trotsky ideology spectrum.

Then no, you don't know me at all.

Is this helpful? Where's the rational discussion?

There's no point in attempting rational discussion with thugs and tyrants. One can only fight them. Telling the truth about them, on the other hand, is a moral imperative. And art, even cartoons, has proven an effective way of doing so.

Shaw Kenawe said...



To Tyler Bamberg,

Here's more information on your claims:



The countries in question are those included in the State Department's list of terrorism-sponsoring countries (Iran, Sudan, and Syria), those designated by the Department of Homeland Security as countries of concern (Libya, Somalia, and Yemen), and Iraq, which is specially designated in the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015, the law from which the executive order gets its list of barred countries. (Syria is specially designated too, but it’s already banned due to the terrorism list.)

That law simply limited travel from countries whose residents normally don't need a visa to visit the US (which tend to be rich countries like the UK, France, and Germany) if they had previously traveled to a country of concern, like Iran or Yemen or Iraq. Trump's executive order uses that list and bars all immigration from those countries outright.

As this ban is being implemented, the secretary of homeland security, along with the secretary of state and director of national intelligence, is instructed to evaluate which countries do and don't provide enough information about visa applicants for the US to vet them for terrorism risk. Any countries that don't provide enough information, according to the secretary of homeland security, will be given 60 days to start doing so. After those 60 days, the secretary of homeland security will provide to the president a list of any countries still judged to not be providing enough information. The president will then issue a proclamation prohibiting nationals of those countries from entering the United States. This list will replace the one based on the 2015 law.


SOURCE

Shaw Kenawe said...


The number of hostile acts against Muslims in the country has increased since Trump became president. I don't know what it is now that he's president.

Racist Incidents Are Up Since Donald Trump's Election. These Are Just a Few of Them

History shows us what happens when a government singles out a religion as the cause of its problems.

I don't think posting extreme cartoons as a warning of what can happen here is unreasonable.

We all have the right to disagree.

Shaw Kenawe said...

A question for Tyler B. Did the Iraqis retaliate against the ban you claimed Mr. Obama put in place in 2015?

Because I don't remember reading anything like this:

BREAKING: Americans Banned From Iraq – Retaliation Measures

Following the shock announcement that citizens of seven Arab nations would not be allowed entry into the United States of America as of Friday 27th January 2017 for a period of 90 days, Iraq has decided to respond with equal measures.

Iraq has implemented the exact same measures:

No citizens of the USA can enter Iraq for a period of 90 days.
Citizens with existing Visas will be barred entry.
Iraq has said that once USA lifts the travel ban on citizens of Iraq travelling to the United States of America, it would do the same.

Shaw Kenawe said...

More for Tyler to read:

Nine days into the Trump administration and the nation has been given its first blame Obama excuse from the White House. There is a big policy difference between suggesting nations needing more scrutiny and imposing a ban that is causing chaos across the country. President Trump made the decision to have this executive order drafted. Trump signed the executive order with pride in front of national television cameras.

There is no “blame Obama” here. This is all on Trump.

The Muslim ban has backfired on Trump, and the argument that it isn’t so bad because all the Muslims aren’t banned revealed the weak footing that the administration is on with this issue.

Shaw Kenawe said...

"The number of hostile acts against Muslims in the country has increased since Trump became president. I don't know what it is now that he's president. "

That should have read "...has increased since Trump became president-elect."

Shaw Kenawe said...

President Chaos:

White House insider: Muslim ban reversal has Donald Trump "fuming" and "fully overwhelmed"
“POTUS fully overwhelmed after full week on the job. Things spilling over into out of office lives for everyone,” was the first missive this morning from the rogue White House whistleblowers. “POTUS fuming after judge order last night. Suggested having agents to “do it anyway” & ignore order. Preibus said to be at wits end,” they went on to explain. And furthering the earlier talking point about Chief of Staff Reince Priebus already considering resigning over Trump’s erratic behavior, the latest word is that “COS Priebus said to be using appearance on MTP this morning to guide decision to stay or go. Positive panic by many at prospect of his resg.”

Jerry Critter said...

Shaw - "BREAKING: Americans Banned From Iraq...No citizens of the USA can enter Iraq for a period of 90 days.
Citizens with existing Visas will be barred entry."

I wonder if this ban includes military personnel? If it does and Trump ignores it, will any additional military personnel sent to Iraq be considered an invasion of a sovereign country and hence an act of war?

Are we moving closer to impeachment?

Jerry Critter said...

If Trump wants to save American lives, perhaps he is going after the wrong people.