Donald Trump cites 9/11 terror attack during executive order banning refugees and Muslims from seven Middle Eastern countries from entering the United States, except for countries where he has business ties.
Trump has banned entry from seven countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. He’s cited the 9/11 terror attacks as justification, for this ban, despite the fact that the hijackers were not from any of the countries listed in the ban.
For those who want information on the 9/11 hijackers, this includes a table with their nationalities. It shouldn’t matter anyways, banning entry from any country is ethically wrong, and even if all countries were banned, correlation does not equal causation. A ban on entry will not make America “safer”.
so this is literally part of what’s happening in the US right now
If you are originally from one of the countries in Trump’s ban and moved to the US, got greencards, and decided to go on a vacation recently, you won’t be allowed back in the US. Permanent residents are being effectively kicked out.
Lemme just say that again. You could have lived in the US for years, possibly moved here as a child and grown up here, and been vacationing in fucking Canada, and you won’t be allowed back. All because you were born in a country trump deemed dangerous.
You guys. If you came to the US from one of the listed countries as an INFANT, grew up here, and decided to study abroad this semester in another country, YOU CURRENTLY CANT COME BACK HOME.
If you are MARRIED to a US citizen and only have a green card and haven’t gotten citizenship yet, you can’t come back if you’re outside the US. You could have kids waiting for you, but you can’t come back.
People who served our country for over a decade, people whose lives are at risk if they head back to the middle east, people fleeing violence and death, a mother coming back to her family from a business trip, and some kid coming back from visiting their grandparents could all be currently sitting in detaining rooms in US airports because our xenophobic piece of shit president is scared of Muslims.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, this twitter account is posting the names and photos (when available) of refugees turned away from America who became victims of Naziism. #NoBanNoWall #RefugeesWelcome
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, let’s remember the indifference, hate, and fear the American public and State Department had for Jews trying to escape Europe.
Remember that in the 1920s, the American government began working to keep immigrant Jews out.
Remember Anne Frank would have lived if the State Department had approved Otto Frank’s desperate application for his family to join relatives in Massachusetts.
Remember the passengers of the St. Louis, who sailed across the Atlantic only to be turned away from every American harbor.
Remember the American public opinion polls that said even Jewish children posed a danger.
Remember that Jewish fundraising and awareness campaigns to rescue European Jews received no major public or governmental support.
Americans were not the heroes of the Holocaust. They were participants.
“The Nazis didn’t just kill the Jews; they made use of every inch of them. Women’s hair was shaved off and weaved into blankets for Nazi soldiers. Fat from Jews’ bodies was used to make soap. Gold teeth were pulled out to make gold bars for the Reichsbank. 384,000 pairs of men’s shoes were sent to Germany from Auschwitz. 646,000 men’s suits. 184,000 pairs of eyeglasses. The most frightening thing is not the gas chambers or the crematoria. It’s the rooms piled to the ceiling with children’s shoes. That gives you have an idea what the Holocaust was. Shoes. Once worn by real people.” – via jewishhistory.org
In the Holocaust Museum in DC, they have a room just for the shoes and hair of the victims. It’s really startling to see it so up close since it makes you realize the sheer scale of this. The pile of hair in the museum weighs several tons, and bear in mind that this several ton pile of hair is only but a small fraction of all of the horrible things found in the camps.
Somewhere in those shoes were the shoes of my great aunts and their children.
Same with eyeglasses.
It’s something I can never, ever forget.
The above are photos I took at Auschwitz. The shoes and suitcases were each encased in a hallway – kept behind glass on both sides. And again comprise only a fraction of what the Nazis took.
Now the significance of these collections can not be understated or undermined, the horrors of the Holocaust, the Shoah, are embodied in these piles of stolen clothing and cases.
We look at them and recoil, promising that we’ll never forget and yet the systematic slaughter of human beings continues around the world.
In different places, for different reasons. Who didn’t learn the lesson? Who still needs to be reached? Who needs to be protected?
Do not forget. Remember and react. Radical evil is not a memory of the past, it is a present and continuous force.
It’s International Holocaust – Shoah Remembrance day again, but this year the remembrance feels weighted with the fear of repetition. With more and more stories springing up of violence against Jews in Europe and the potential of candidacy for the US president by a proto-Hitleresque Trump who is targeting Muslims and immigrants in the place of Jews.
This history is still so fresh and clearly not relegated to the backs of history books. There is still bonedust intermingled with the dirt at Auschwitz. We cannot forget, we must not repeat.
Annual reblog of remembrance. But this year I also have a plea, forgive me if it is a little Christian-centric, but I feel it is U.S. Christians who most need a note of reminder or this day considering our current political situation.
Today we remember the price paid by the victims of racism, anti-semitism, ableism, homophobia, anti-intellectualism, nationalism, apathy, and hate. 6 million+ Jews, 250,000+ disabled people, 200,000+ Roma, millions of prisoners of war plus thousands more of Jehovah’s witnesses, Catholics, homosexuals, intellectuals, etc.
It has been said: “ Never Again” – what good is that if we do not back it up with actions?
Love more than we hate, open our arms to refugees fleeing in terror, longing for peace and welcoming. Open our minds to the truth of science which is the uncovering of the fingerprints of God on our universe. The truth takes nothing away from faith. Loving those who pray differently than you or not at all, or who love differently than you, or who experence the world differently than you takes nothing from you except your fear.
Leave your fear behind and seek the path of radical love which requires actions over words. Be hot, be forceful, do not wait for heaven on earth, make heaven on earth where there is neither male nor female, gentile or Jew, slave or free. The world is steeped in blood, and bone, and ash, the only recompense for our hate. Imagine how much greater the recompense of our love will be.
27 January: International Holocaust Remembrance Day
On this day we honour and remember the approximately 22 million innocent souls who fell victims to hate racism and prejudice crimes, nearly 7.5 million of which were slaughtered for being who they were.
6 million Jews (1.5 million of which were children)
1.5 million Romani
270 000 People with disabilities (be it physical or mental)
55 000 gay people (approximately)
14 million civilians, caught in the crossfire, famine and ugliness of war from all over Europe.
This day is an important reminder of what once was and what should never be again.
May their rest be more peaceful than their life and may their memory be a blessing.
Shia LaBeouf has returned to his live streamed anti-Trump protest after he was bailed on an assault charge.
Shia was arrested in the early hours of Thursday (26Jan17) morning after a scuffle which took place opposite New York City’s Museum of the Moving Image, where he and Jaden Smith are staging a four year art project titled HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US.
He was charged with misdemeanour assault and harassment before being released on bail.
The project features a camera which streams live footage of members of the public chanting the phrase “He will not divide us”, in protest at the election of Donald Trump as America’s President.
Just hours after he had been led away in handcuffs by New York Police Department (NYPD) officers, the Transformers actor had returned to his protest, determinedly chanting the phrase to camera with the support of other activists.
The 30-year-old’s fellow protesters offered him support after his arrest, saying the actor’s actions were in response to Nazi sympathisers’ attempts to hijack the anti-Trump performance art piece.
One told TMZ.com, “Shia took a hit for us. There were all these Nazis here, he came out and tried to protect us.”
His artistic collaborator Jaden also tweeted, “#FreeShia” in reference to his friend’s arrest.
Footage captured by the camera has shown scuffles between the star and people who have shouted white nationalist slogans to camera.
On Sunday (22Jan17) the star reacted angrily to a man shouting the words, “We must ensure the existence of the white people as a race,” while in another incident a man was shown saying “Hitler did nothing wrong”.
It is not known if Shia’s arrest was related to the confrontations with those shouting racist slogans.
The actor will appear in court at a later date to address the charges of misdemeanour assault and harassment.
NYPD officers have been stationed at the protest since Monday (23Jan17).
He was charged with HARASSMENT when a guy came to HIS ART INSTALLATION to yell hate speech? ARE YOU JOKING?
I didn’t realize Jaden Smith was also staging this art piece!
That is so great! I think it’s kind of telling that two young celebrities that people just would not stop mocking for being “weird” or bad actors or whateverare the ones that are now sticking out their necks in order to protest so publicly and pointedly. I think there’s a lesson to be taken here – don’t write off the weird ones too quickly. They’ll be the ones that have your backs.
I hope they meet with further success going forward.
There’s been a lot of discussion surrounding Donald Trump and the so-called “alt-right” (which is basically a term for white nationalism) in the weeks that have passed since the 2016 election. Many members of the white nationalist group have been outspoken Trump supporters, including the founder of the movement itself, Richard Spencer. Trump has also appointed Steve Bannon as his chief strategist — a man who has been heavily associated with the “alt-right.”
The “alt-right” is known for its extremist and racist views, as well as being severely anti-Semitic. It seems like the association between the Trump campaign and neo-Nazis won’t be broken any time soon, as his chosen national security advisor, General Mike Flynn, recently met with Heinz-Christian Strache — the head of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, which was established by former Nazis after World War II.
The Freedom Party was originally created to be a safe haven for Nazis and Nazi sympathizers after World War II and the Holocaust. In the ‘80s, Jörg Haider became its leader, and the party took a turn toward right-wing populism with a strong anti-immigration stance. As the New York Times explains, today, the party is “anti-foreigner, anti-Islam and anti-globalization” making it an appealing party for Europe’s far-right — much like the white nationalist “alt-right” in the U.S.
It should be obvious that this meeting between Trump’s National Security Advisor and the leader of a neo-Nazi movement is extremely alarming. This meeting calls back to the words of representatives from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, who spoke out after the “alt-right” held a chilling conference in Washington D.C. praising Trump. They reminded us, through their statement, that the Holocaust didn’t begin with killing – it began with words.
A Middleground 