Fight and Defeat Racism, Enough of 'Healing' Talk in Baraboo, Wisconsin

Baraboo, Wisconsin - We're white and proud of it.

Baraboo white boys deserve a medal

Madison, Wisconsin — The worst place to be black in the nation is Wisconsin.

That's because of, in part, the work of provincial, small-town bureaucrats exemplified in Baraboo, Wisconsin — home of the Nazi salute and white-power iconography.

Nothing to see here, just a bunch of crazy kids, is the current line of crap emitted by Baraboo Mayor Mike Palm and Baraboo School District Administrator Lori Mueller and other damage-control, say-nothing know-nothings, (Susan Endres, WISC-TV).

Baraboo is Wisconsin.
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I lived here all my life.

My first 19 years, I lived in Fond du Lac — where nigger jokes and Jew jokes were frequent, and black people, at least in 1970s-early 1980s, did not reside.

I never met or saw one black person in Fondy, and I was a runner at the time and from a news family. I knew or at least encountered the entire City north-to-south, east-to-west many-times over.
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Reporting from Baraboo on the first of three community meetings, Susan Endres, (WISC-TV), reveals some hope for an open acknowledgement of reality, as opposed to the bureaucratic blather of Baraboo School District Administrator Lori Mueller:

Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman said she doesn’t wish to condemn the boys, many of whom probably didn’t understand the meaning of the salute or intend to cause harm, but noted that the image must be viewed in the context of growing anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia.

'While seeing the image of a Nazi salute has a particular effect on Jews, this isn’t just about Jews. This about white supremacy,' she said, eliciting applause from the audience. 'There cannot be healing until we acknowledge and confront the political climate in which we live.' 

That's right.

For shining a light, however harsh, on the ongoing obscenity of Wisconsin, the kids deserve a medal.

Trump Preached Hate, Now Forces of Hate are Loosed

Donald Trump smirks at the hate he has used and
inflamed, as decent Republicans such as
Richard Painter condemn the resulting "fascism."

"Let us face the facts. This is a harvest. It is the crop of things sown."

— Ralph McGill, Atlanta Constitution, Oct. 13, 1958. A Church, A School

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Donald Trump and his Make-America-Great-Again movement got one thing right about the Charlottesville terror-fest they have wrought, responsible for three deaths and dozens sent to the hospital, (New York Times): White Supremacist terror has been going on for a long time in our country.

Trump should know about terror. The Alt Right is a critical part of the Trump adminstration, so any direct condemnation of the white supremacists would be ironic.

Trump has used white supremacist hate for years, inflamed hate, and then congratulated himself on his targeted political-marketing perspicuity.

The White House Charlottesville statement's appeasing equivocation and minimization should signal where America is headed: A bombing of a Mosque in Minnesota, hate murder in Portland, too much hate to list and quantify.

"It is not possible to preach lawlessness and restrict it," warned the southern civil rights writer, Ralph McGill, in 1958.

But that was a different era, and in the words of our friend, Mikey Weinstein, "it's far worse" today (Mal Contends). Weinstein's words were in 2008.

Today, the unite-the-right rally with White House flacking should send the message that the forces of hate are loosed.

Wisconsin Republicans Still Pushing Anti-Muslim Bill

UW-Madison Law School prof,
Asifa Quraishi-Landes,speaks out
against religious defamation by
Wisconsin Republicans,
(Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Continuing Republican effort to vilify Muslims

Wisconsin Republicans, and only Republicans, are still advocating for an anti-Muslim bill that Republicans claim is needed to protect "fundamental" rights against foreign and religious entities seen as set to take over the American judiciary.

The bill, (Assembly Bill 401), is authored by a white supremacist Republican legislator, State Rep. Thomas Weatherston, (R-Village of Caledonia, Wisconsin), and was introduced in June in the 2017-18 legislative session, (Wisconsin Independent, Uppity Wisconsin, Wisconsin State Legislature).

Reports Annysa Johnson in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Critics, including the American Bar Association and many non-Muslims, argue that the laws are unnecessary because such protections already exist in American jurisprudence. And they're seen by many as part of a larger agenda to vilify Muslims.

'If you look at the promotional materials, the lobbying, it's the same people who are pushing against Sharia around the country — holding rallies, talking about 'Sharia creep' and Muslims taking over,' said Asifa Quraishi-Landes, who teaches constitutional and Islamic law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison [Law School] and serves as president of the National Association of Muslim Lawyers. 'They see any acknowledgment of Sharia in American Muslim life as a first step to the Trojan Horse.' Last week, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on Legislative leaders to reject the bill, saying it's unconstitutional and 'contrary to our nation’s crucial principle of not elevating or marginalizing one faith community.' [some links added]

The white supremacist Republican legislator, State Rep. Thomas Weatherston and supporters, have not been disavowed by other Wisconsin Republicans. Weatherston's bill has drawn a total of 14 co-sponsors.

For more information:

The hate bill, Wisconsin 2017 Assembly Bill 401, was introduced June 19, 2017 by Republican Representatives Weatherston, Brandtjen, E. Brooks, Horlacher, Kremer, Murphy, Quinn, Ripp, Sanfelippo, Skowronski, Thiesfeldt and Tusler, and cosponsored by Republican Senators Nass and Moulton.

Wisconsin 2017 Assembly Bill 401 was referred to the Assembly Committee on Constitution and Ethics.

White Terrorist Murders Two; Yells Rightwing Slurs Against Muslims

Jeremy Christian, killer of
two, "promoted the idea of
creating a whites-only area
in the Pacific Northwest,
a location long-touted
by white nationalists
as a possible location
for a 'homeland.'"
(SPLC)

White Extremist Strikes in Portland

Updated - A white extremist shouting racist and Islamophobic tropes killed two men in Portland and stabbed another while ridding a bus, (Southern Poverty Law Center), (The Oregonian), (Informed Comment).

Welcome to the age of Trump, and Happy Memorial Day weekend.

Muslim women on the bus who were being harassed by the Trumpian, Jeremy Christian, escaped with no physical injury.

Two men who came to the aid are the latest victims of white extremists displaying an emboldened sense of proprietorship of the United States following the campaign and election of Donald Trump.

Christian slashed the throats of the two men he killed, and stabbed another. Christian is a political supporter of Trump's political rants and the administration's hate-charged, political bromides on taxes, immigrants, Latinos, Muslims, and sanctuary cities, (Mother Jones).

Christian, "according to one witness, was heard saying 'get off the bus, and get out of the country because you don’t pay taxes here,'" (Informed Comment).

Sen. Jeff Merkley, (D-Oregon), tweeted Friday night about the attack, saying about the victims: "Champions of justice risked and lost their lives. Hate is evil," (Cabrera, ThinkProgress).

Hate is also the foundation of Donald Trump and the Republicans' rise to power.

Reports Informed Comment:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization promoting American Muslim civil liberties based in Washington, D.C., released a statement asking U.S. President Donald Trump to 'speak out personally against rising bigotry and acts of racial violence in America targeting Muslims and other minority groups.'

According to CAIR, the past three years have seen a nearly 600% rise in hate crimes targeting Muslims, and those who are perceived to be Muslim.

Little by little, hate and violence are creeping across America as the country becomes great again.

Use the F-word, Morons

George Grosz, Rosenwald Collection; 1951.10.299;
National Gallery of Art

Updated - The collection of American ding-bats who voted the fascistic, anti-Semitic, white-nationalist, anti-immigrant Donald Trump into the presidency won't have a problem with Trump's backing the fascistic, anti-Semitic, white-nationalist, anti-immigrant Marine Le Pen of France.

Juan Cole notes this is the first time in American history a U.S. president backs a fascist France.

Last week, Trump said, "Le Pen is 'strongest on borders, and she’s the strongest on what’s been going on in France,'" (The Politico).

Have not to this point heard anyone in the don't-offend Democratic Party note Donald Trump is a fascist.

Or that Le Pen is a fascist. Or even the most-mild offering of a political valuation that fascism is anti-human.

From this morning's New York Times on the fascist National Front and Marine Le Pen:

The rapid-fire endorsements of Mr. Macron [against Le Pen], coming from across the political spectrum, represented a dynamic that has always prevailed in France when the National Front approaches executive power — the cross-party, anti-far right alliance the French call the 'Republican Front.' The question now is whether that front can hold this time, as well.

Ms. Le Pen has oriented her appeal around what analysts and politicians call the 'un-demonization' of her party — the shedding of its racist, anti-Semitic, Nazi-nostalgic roots. That strategy has scored big results. Until the last week of the campaign, when she turned even more sharply anti-immigrant, her speeches were shaped around what she depicted as regaining France’s 'sovereignty,' breaking with the European Union and “restoring” France’s frontiers.

The two largest parties in American political culture do not comprise a 'Republican Front' guarding democracy. Fascism as a word is a political imprecation in the United States, now.

Trump Cultivates Strongman Image to Handle Complicated Decision-making by Surprise

They Thought They Were Free,
by Milton Mayer
 “What happened here was the gradual
habituation of the people, little by
little, to being governed by surprise;
to receiving decisions deliberated in
secret; to believing that the situation
was so complicated that the
government had to act on information which
the people could not understand, or so
dangerous that, even if the people
could not understand it, it could not
be released because of national security.
And their sense of identification
with Hitler, their trust in him,
made it easier to widen this gap
and reassured those
who would otherwise have
worried about it.”
--from Chapter 13,
“But Then It Was Too Late”

Making America Scream Again, Genocide-capable and Eyeing Islam in Defense of Liberty

When Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Sec. Hillary Clinton debated in Milwaukee last February, Sanders was explicit in rejecting the Henry Kissinger school of societal destruction, in opposition to Clinton's stated admiration for, and friendship with Kissinger (Mal Contends), (Washington Post).

Said Sanders, "Henry Kissinger was one the most destructive secretaries of state in the modern history of this county. I am proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend. I will not take advice from Henry Kissinger. ... So count me in as somebody who will not be listening to Henry Kissinger."

Kissinger and Nixon worked to "make the [Chilean] economy scream," engineering the 1970s coup establishing a fascist Pinochet as dictator, who presided over the torture and murder of 10,000s (Democracy Now), among other work resulting in several near-genocides of the 1970s.

Near genocides, that is torturing and killing 100,000s of human beings and destroying societies, and "atrocities management," which is always necessary.

The point is the Bannon-Trump ambitions to sow chaos in the political culture is typical of American presidential administrations though the large-scale targets have been foreign countries, and with exceptions not the American public, the prime target of the Trump adminstration.

Trump himself has for years made explicit he is working for chaos and destruction in the political culture (Schwartzman, Johnson, Washington Post), methodically working.

It's not logically necessary that a political campaign/psych warfare operation imposing chaos will implement policy and pursue action imposing chaos, but the malignant psychopaths who inflict are not often healed by assuming public office.

Write Paul Schwartzman and Jenna Johnson in the Washington Post in Dec. 2015:

He referred to Mexicans as 'rapists,' questioned Sen. John McCain’s status as a war hero, ridiculed the physical appearance of his opponents, falsely claimed that “thousands” in New Jersey cheered as the World Trade Center fell and, this week, called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.

Despite predictions that such searing, divisive rhetoric and the resulting outcry would cripple his campaign, Donald Trump’s insults and controversial proposals have propelled him to the forefront of the 2016 presidential race—and kept him there.

And while it may seem like a lurching, chaotic campaign, Trump is, for the most part, a disciplined and methodical candidate, according to a Washington Post review of the businessman’s speeches, interviews and thousands of tweets and retweets over the past six months.

When Donald Trump talks and acts these first two weeks of his administration, he's not explaining his position about a public issue.

Trump is sowing chaos, attacking the norms of our Constitutional republic such as freedom of religion, freedom of the press, due process and equality under the law.

If Trump actually were to read, the New York Times explains this morning the "escalating crisis," induced by Trump's Muslim ban and firing the acting attorney general, Sally Q. Yates, last night (Michael D. Shear, Mark Landler, Matt Apuzzo and Eric Lichtblau, New York Times).

Reports of escalating crises are music to Trump.

We first must realize the scope of the crisis Trump knows.

Most Republicans want an authoritarian state and love the idea of imprisoning, torturing and killing human beings, including Americans, after dislocating the Constitutional niceties and human rights concerns of the snowflake. So Trump will not be opposed in meaningful ways by Republicans.

The stakes are high and rising.

White supremacists, (which are the same as white nationalists), have found in a friend in Trump's administration, the Republican Party and the normally functioning institutions of modern American foreign policy. Just a little engineering and adept project management are necessary to achieve the desired outcomes of the lunatics.

From Josh Harkinson in Mother Jones:

The Trump administration has insisted since Sunday that the president's executive order banning travel to the United States from seven predominately Islamic countries 'is not a Muslim ban.' But as Mother Jones first reported in a series of investigations starting last summer, the two top Trump advisers who reportedly crafted the immigration crackdown—Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller—have a long history of promoting Islamophobia, courting anti-Muslim extremists, and boosting white nationalists.

For nearly a year before stepping down as the CEO of Breitbart News to lead the Trump campaign, Bannon hosted a SiriusXM radio show, Breitbart News Daily, where he conducted dozens of interviews with leading anti-Muslim extremists. Steeped in unfounded claims and conspiracy theories, the interviews paint a dark and paranoid picture of America's 3.3 million Muslims and the world's second-largest faith. Bannon often bookended the exchanges with full-throated praise for his guests, describing them as 'top experts' and urging his listeners to click on their websites and support them.

One of Bannon's guests on the show, Trump surrogate Roger Stone, warned of a future America 'where hordes of Islamic madmen are raping, killing, pillaging, defecating in public fountains, harassing private citizens, elderly people—that's what's coming.' ...

It is an open question whether Trump's pivoting to genocide would invoke majority support among the American population, but Bannon and Miller cannot wait to find out.

The Intercept: Stop Exploiting LGBT Issues to Demonize Islam and Justify Anti-Muslim Policies

Critical coverage of the Orlando mass killing is being published in The Intercept and Informed Comment.

The aftermath filtered through the corporate media is ahistorical and aligns perfectly with the American foreign policy establishment and its purposes ranging from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump.

Notes Zaid Jilani as the corporate media, Clinton and Trump all flee from facts and reason:

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump reacted to the Orlando shooting with evidence that they can agree on at least one thing: bombing people. Both candidates called for an escalation of the U.S.-led bombing campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

... Clinton suggested during her post-Orlando speech Monday afternoon that 'We should keep the pressure on ramping up the air campaign'

That ISIS/ISIL has nothing to do with the killer in Orlando is of no relevancy to Clinton and Trump who want to bomb someone, somewhere.

Elsewhere, Juan Cole has another dose of sanity at his site, entitled, Top 7 ways to tell if Someone is lying about being a ‘Salafi Jihadi’.

Flaming Islamophobia is chronicled by Glenn Greenwald:

... When it comes to Jews and Christians, people instinctively understand how bigoted and deceitful it is to cherry-pick particularly offensive excerpts from their holy books and use them to demonize all contemporary Christians and Jews.

Indeed, a standard tactic of neo-Nazis and other various anti-Semites is to cite ugly excerpts from the Talmud — including ones purportedly endorsing Jews holding non-Jews as slaves or lying to and stealing from non-Jews — as evidence of the dishonesty and untrustworthiness of Jews generally. We all understand that this tactic is so vile, unscholarly, and anti-intellectual precisely because modern adherents to those religions interpret and apply (or ignore) those provisions in all sorts of ways.

Exactly the same is true of Muslims, yet an entire cottage industry of pseudo-intellectual charlatans — including ones who admit to never having even read the Quran — uses exactly this tawdry tactic to demonize Islam (watch this social experiment where people are read heinous Bible passages and falsely told they are from the Quran). There are literally millions upon millions of Muslims who hold positive views about, and engage in positive interactions with, gay people with regularity (which is why it’s almost always true that those most devoted to demonizing Islam are the ones who know the fewest number of Muslims (just as is true of LGBTs, ironically)).

Madness over madness as the lunatic Trump and the Queen of Chaos fight over details.

Drumbeat for War and Anti-Muslim Scapegoating

Atonal war drums, demagoguery and American hysteria

Amy Goodman has a piece at Democracy Now on the idiot wind blowing across the Potomac, and hot air emitting from Republican Party presidential candidates.

Notes Goodman:

In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, media coverage has seen familiar patterns: uncritically repeat government claims, defend expansive state power, and blame the Muslim community for the acts of a few. We discuss media fearmongering, anti-Muslim scapegoating, ISIL’s roots, and war profiteering with Glenn Greenwald, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-founder of The Intercept. 'Every time there’s a terrorist attack, Western leaders exploit that attack to do more wars,' Greenwald says. 'Which in turn means they transfer huge amounts of taxpayer money to these corporations that sell arms. And so investors are fully aware that the main people who are going to benefit from this escalation as a result of Paris are not the American people or the people of the West — and certainly not the people of Syria — it is essentially the military-industrial complex.'

House Speaker Paul Ryan leads the Republicans and xenophobes as he guided H.R. 4038, the American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act of 2015, garnering a veto-proof majority, (Fahrenthold and DelReal, Washington Post) (Roll call vote, H.R. 4038 (Govtrack.us)) (DeBonis, Post).

Fourth-seven House Democrats, including Wisconsin's Ron Kind (D-La Crosse), voted for the SAFE Act, (The Progressive Midwesterner).

SAFE faces a likely defeat in the Senate.

SAFE is nonsense that law enforcement and "intelligence professionals, immigration officials and humanitarian groups" dismiss as politicians' appeals to xenophobia, (NYT).

To believe Ryan and other sponsors of SAFE, terrorists pretending to flee Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) are coming to our homeland disguised as children and displaced families.

Since the Senate will not address the legislation until after Thanksgiving we must all live in fear over the Holiday weekend extending to next year when they begin coming here.

President Obama said he would veto this act if necessary,

On the corporate media front CNN suspended a reporter, Elise Labott, for a tweet expressing sympathy for Syrian refugees, (Girad, U.S. Uncut).

And Hillary the hawk dropped rational pretensions on the 'Region,' notes Sarah Lazare:

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Clinton called for a 'new phase' in the fight against the Islamic State (referred to as ISIS or IS), including a major intensification in a bombing campaign; 'ground forces actually taking back more territory;' an 'intelligence surge;' and no-fly zones over Syria. 'Our goal is not to deter or contain ISIS, but to defeat and destroy ISIS,' she said, in an implicit criticism of President Barack Obama as being too tepid on military intervention—and a signal that she intends to tack far to his right, (TruthDig, CommonDreams, Council on Foreign Relations).

The leading candidate for the Republican nomination for the presidency, Donald Trump, continued his rants leading him to the top of the Republican political culture yesterday, calling for increased surveillance of American Muslims and warrantless searches:

We’re going to have to do things that we never did before. And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule,' Trump said. 'And certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy. And so we’re going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago.'

Yahoo News asked Trump whether this level of tracking might require registering Muslims in a database or giving them a form of special identification that noted their religion. He wouldn’t rule it out.

'We’re going to have to — we’re going to have to look at a lot of things very closely,' Trump said when presented with the idea. 'We’re going to have to look at the mosques. We’re going to have to look very, very carefully.' (Walker, Yahoo News)

Trump is openly calling for suspension of the First and Fourth Amendments, and the targeting of a minority religion.

To borrow a quote from Noam Chomsky in 2002 during which Chomsky correctly predicted massive civilian causalities in Afghanistan and radicalization and destabilization of the region following full-spectrum U.S. interventions:

"(L)iberal intellectuals have lined up in support of the war machine in the familiar style — discussed, for example, by Randolph Bourne in classic essays–and since they know they do not have the intellectual competence to deal with those who refuse to go along, resort to what comes natural to the educated classes: hysterical tantrums, lies, and abuse. ... There are more important things to do–such as continue to falsify their increasingly desperate claim that everyone is following them in their depraved subordination to power," (Leon, CounterPunch).

To paraphrase Grace Abbott, of Hull House in 1917 contacting Sen. Robert M. La Follette urging his help to stay out of World War I:

Irresponsible and war-crazed press, scurrilous libels, malicious falsehoods fill the public press of the country at a time when every consideration for our country require that a spirit of fairness should be observed in the discussions of the momentous questions under consideration.

Sen. Robert M. La Follette voted against a Declaration of War in 1917, and
read one of many telegrams from across the country opposing WW I
George Mason University

Paul Ryan Begins Congressional Malpractice as Speaker

Scott Walker gazes and tears up as Paul Ryan speaks at
Republican convention in 2102 in Tampa, Florida.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) is playing hard-right politics—posturing and lying—with real lives and deadly consequences as he begins his tenure as House Speaker.

The Ayn Rand fanatic is taken seriously by establishment Washington, and is routinely accurately described as a liar and fool by Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman and the majority of Janesville, Wisconsin voters.

It's no surprise 'Lying' Ryan is playing the demagogue on the refugee crisis and ginning up fears of the others as one of his first acts of duplicity as Speaker.

Notes a New York Times lede editorial:

The House is expected to vote Thursday on H.R. 4038, the American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act of 2015, which Republican sponsors say 'would put in place the most robust national-security vetting process in history' for refugees, one that would 'do everything possible to prevent terrorists from reaching our shores.'

Conceived partly in response to the Paris attacks, the bill seeks to 'pause' admission of Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Though there are real fears of terrorism, this measure represents election-year pandering to the xenophobia that rears up when threats from abroad arise. People who know these issues — law enforcement and intelligence professionals, immigration officials and humanitarian groups — say that this wrongheaded proposal simply would not protect Americans from 'foreign enemies.'

Ryan's sop to Republican-voting bigots is SOP.

Less known is Ryan's 2014 floating an onerous but at least a version of a comprehensive immigration bill that had support of the vast majority of the American public, the majority of the House and Senate but plays horribly with the neo-fascist GOP base.

Ryan had stoked speculation he was considering a run for the presidency earlier this year, a consideration aborted perhaps after Ryan learned he might to have work weekends, and his noise about immigration reform bill breaking up families would come back to haunt him, (Kim, The Politico) (Frontline, WGBH Educational Foundation).

Republicans bring shame

A House Speaker Ryan has to appear and behave bigoted and xenophobic about refugees fleeing, about the only mission accomplished by Republican-led Congressional sessions beyond sabotaging a robust economic recovery.

Obama Action for Refugees and Immigrants

President Obama's two executive orders regarding executive prosecutorial discretion (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA)) on undocumented humans were as expected halted by the rightist Judge Andrew S. Hanen on Feb. 16, who ordered a preliminary injunction on the orders.

Hanen has a history of targeting immigrant communities, (Hennessy-Fiske, LA Times).

Hanen's injunction and other litigation were affirmed by decisions written by Federalist Society U.S. District Judge, Jerry Edwin Smith, of the rightest Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in State of Texas et al v. United States of America et al (No. 15-40238) (November 2015) writing for a split three-judge panel earlier this month.

In dissent (pp. 71-124), Judge Carolyn Dineen King eviscerates the tortured logic and contrived justification used in State of Texas et al v. United States of America et al to be considered by the federal judiciary, noting the inescapable conclusion that the case's non-justiciability, (its wrongful hearing by the Court), is admitted by plaintiffs. See also Judge Stephen A. Higginson's powerful dissent (pp 43-68) in the Fifth Circuit panel's denial of the "motion to stay the preliminary injunction or narrow its scope pending appeal," (New York Times document, May, 2015).

Writes Judge King, "Plaintiffs concede that if the DAPA Memorandum is only an exercise in enforcement  discretion—without  granting  any  'additional  benefits'—it  is unreviewable under  5  U.S.C.  §  701(a), (p. 84)."

Obama is expected to appeal the case to the United States Supreme Court but he faces a tight deadline, (Worth Tow, Frontline).

The solution is simple: Comprehensive and total amnesty for 11.3 million undocumented humans in the face of the paralysis and corruption of Congress and its abdication of America at its best, protected by a corrupt judiciary.

Those white, low-information bigots who cannot stand a rainbow-colored America can leave if they like and establish a white homeland somewhere and worship Odin.

Scott Walker, GOP Demonize as Pres Obama's Finest Hour Arises

'Go back to where you came from.' Passengers aboard the St. Louis
in 1939. These refugees from Nazi Germany were forced to return
to Europe after both Cuba and the US denied them refuge.
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Dr. Liane Reif-Lehrer

Scott Walker and Republican governors' demagogic appeals to the xenophobic swaths of America are predictable, stupid and reprehensible.

Legally, Republican governors have no standing to determine who resides in respective states, the ludicrous Republican position propagated after President Obama "announced a plan to resettle at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States next year," (White House), per the law, with orderly safety and security procedures and out a sense of simple decency.

Factually, the refugees fleeing Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) are victims of the same aggregations of apocalyptic, mystical crazies created by U.S. military intervention, destabilization and murder of millions of Muslims, (Cole, Informed Comment) (Welton, CounterPunch) cheered on by Republicans calling for more war now while demonizing refugees.

Historically, the Republican governors' bleating 'we will not accept refugees," is reminiscent of the infamous American rejection of Jews fleeing NAZI Germany and being refused permission to emigrate to the Untied States in 1939.

Consider the voyage of German transatlantic liner St. Louis in 1939 loaded with over 900 Jewish passengers fleeing the Third Reich, seeking Cuba and the United States as destinations.

Many Cubans resented the relatively large number of refugees (including 2,500 Jews), whom the government had already admitted into the country, because they appeared to be competitors for scarce jobs.

Hostility toward immigrants fueled both antisemitism and xenophobia. Both agents of Nazi Germany and indigenous right-wing movements hyped the immigrant issue in their publications and demonstrations, claiming that incoming Jews were Communists. Two of the papers—Diario de la Marina, owned by the influential Rivero family, and Avance, owned by the Zayas family, had supported the Spanish fascist leader General Francisco Franco, who, after a three-year civil war, had just overthrown the Spanish Republic in the spring of 1939 with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. ...

Following the US government's refusal to permit the passengers to disembark, the St. Louis sailed back to Europe on June 6, 1939. The passengers did not return to Germany, however. Jewish organizations (particularly the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee) negotiated with four European governments to secure entry visas for the passengers: Great Britain took 288 passengers; the Netherlands admitted 181 passengers, Belgium took in 214 passengers; and 224 passengers found at least temporary refuge in France. Of the 288 passengers admitted by Great Britain, all survived World War II save one, who was killed during an air raid in 1940. Of the 620 passengers who returned to continent, 87 (14%) managed to emigrate before the German invasion of Western Europe in May 1940. 532 St. Louis passengers were trapped when Germany conquered Western Europe. Just over half, 278 survived the Holocaust. 254 died: 84 who had been in Belgium; 84 who had found refuge in Holland, and 86 who had been admitted to France. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Is Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) the NAZIs? No, but not for lack of trying.

Republicans conflate anyone convenient with Daesh, playing on ignorance and hate and hoping nobody notices what they're doing.

The Republican Party's demagoguery towards perceived dangerous and inferior classes of people ought to alarm and appall any decent American as Islamophobia is thriving, U.S. Mosques are threatened, and a Mosque in Canada is set ablaze by nativists, (Goodman, Democracy Now).

America under rightwing pressure turned the St. Louis back less than one year before Americans in streets across the country celebrated the fall of Paris to the NAZIs in 1940.

As Republicans preach hate today, their end game won't be political failure, it is a moral failure with tragic consequences to follow.

"To slam the door in their faces -- to decide not to help when we know that we can help -- would be a betrayal of our values. It would be un-American," said President Obama in a statement explaining the defense of Syrian refugees fleeing Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), (Pope, White House; November 17, 2015).

As the great journalist Ralph Mcgill wrote in 1958 following the dynamiting of a Jewish Temple in Atlanta:

Let us face the facts. This is a harvest. It is the crop of things sown. ...

It is not possible to preach lawlessness and restrict it.

To be sure, none said go bomb a Jewish temple or a school. But let it be understood that when leadership in high places in any degree fails to support constituted authority, it opens the gates to all those who wish to take law into their hands.

Thank you, President Obama for sticking up for decency in America.

"This embrace of humanity's deepest values is itself a rejection of the tortured ISIS worldview," notes Richard Fontaine in the Wall Street Journal.

We need this embrace not just because it's decent but also because the rightwing Republicans are playing with fire and dynamite.

Muslim Iraq War Vet Attacked by Bigoted Scum in D.C.—Ed Dahlberg

Mohamed A. Salim, attacked by Ed Dahlberg
because Salim is a Muslim

Update: Incredibly, Jonathan Turley points out, Ed Dahlberg has not at this point been charged with a hate crime, or even a felony. Notes Turley: "I fail to see why such a serious assault would need the hate crime element to be elevated to a felony. However, here is the [hate crime] provision":

18.2-57. Assault and battery.
...
B. However, if a person intentionally selects the person against whom an assault and battery resulting in bodily injury is committed because of his race, religious conviction, color or national origin, the person shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony, and the penalty upon conviction shall include a term of confinement of at least six months, 30 days of which shall be a mandatory minimum term of confinement.
---
Ed Dahlberg, an American bigot, attacked a Muslim Iraq War veteran, (from behind of course) after learning that the veteran was a Muslim, as the veteran drove a cab and Dahlberg sat in the back seat after being picked up at a northern Virgina country club.

Wonder what kind of country club accepts slime like Dahlberg.

Dahlberg was dropped off, and then attacked the veteran again.

Joe Stephens and Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post have the story, with video. Report Stephens and Jouvenal:

An Army reservist and Iraq veteran who works as a cabdriver says a passenger he picked up early Friday at a Northern Virginia country club accused him of being a terrorist because he is Muslim, then fractured his jaw in an attack being described by Islamic activists as a hate crime.

Mohamed A. Salim says the passenger compared him to the men accused of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing 11 days earlier and threatened to kill him.

'Because I’m a Muslim, he treated me like a piece of trash,' Salim said. 'I love this country. I didn’t deserve this.' ...

Muslim rights workers said Salim’s account is supported by medical records and an 11-minute, obscenity-filled video of Dahlberg’s remarks leading up to the alleged assault. Salim, a 39-year-old from Great Falls, provided The Washington Post with a copy, which his attorney described as evidence of the prejudice that others sometimes face but rarely document.

Prosecutors should make an example of self-appointed avengers like Dahlberg.

When bigots like Dahlberg attack innocent Americans, a veteran no less, one hopes for some special type of treatment for this dangerous hate crime.

Note to Mr. Salim: After the criminal justice system eats up this punk, Dahlberg, commence a civil action and sue Dahlberg for everything he has.

Dahlberg owns Manassas, Virginia-based Emerald Aviation. Its website reads: "Maintenance Mode  Emerald Aviation is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance. Please try back in 3 days, 5 hours, and 13 minutes (on May 5, 2013 at 3:35 pm). Sorry for the inconvenience." Right.

"Ed Dahlberg, President. Ed Dahlberg, President of Emerald Aviation Inc., has more than 20 years experience in the field of business and commercial aviation," reads a Google description.

Anybody doing business with Dahlberg and Emerald Aviation should be ashamed.

"I sacrificed for this country," Salim told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday. "And I myself was fighting the terrorists and I’m against acts of violence. I’m not a terrorist. I’m not a jihadist. I’m American like you." (Raw Story)

Had the pleasure of speaking with Muslim U.S. military veterans before. It's the same story. Their service, their risking their lives mean nothing to bigots like Dahlberg.

President Obama: "We've Seen the Character of Our Country Once More"

From the White House

Rightwing Idiot Wind Blows Strong

Some must-reads:

• Amy Davidson in The New Yorker
• Glenn Greenwald in The Guardian
• Igor Volsky in ThinkProgress
• Jeff Simpson in Cognitive Dissidence
• Steven Rosenfeld in AlterNet

Rightwing repulsives are blowing strong after Boston, as many writers are pointing out.

And this is in a post-terror atmosphere of relative forbearance by the American right.

We won't see any Bush-Cheney imbecilities by President Obama, trying to gin up a new war; though I would love to the see the war on whistleblowers end today.

Still, we see the likes of U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), desperate to say something stupid on the floor of the Senate: "On 9/11, we were forever disabused of the notion that attacks like the one that rocked Boston yesterday only happen on the field of battle, or in distant countries. With the passage of time, however, and the vigilant efforts of our military, intelligence and law enforcement professionals, I think it’s safe to say that, for many, the complacency that prevailed prior to September 11th has returned. And so we are newly reminded that serious threats to our way of life remain."

The only thing complacent about the American people RE terror is the hesitancy to condemn the American rightwing, as always seeing tragedy as an opportunity for power grabs, political expediency and fear mongering for the repulsive agenda of the Republican Party.

Boston Marathon Comment: I Am Ashamed of West Point (Islamophobia v. Cadet)

Mikey Weinstein is still fighting the good fight to keep America sane.

President Obama is no Vice-President Cheney

When I read on May 1, 2011 that Bin Laden was killed, I wondered at first why the New York Times reported the roles of the CIA and SEALs, noting when President Obama "gave the final order for members of the Navy Seals and C.I.A. operatives to strike."

Is this too much information, "too many details of [special operations' missions being] leaked to the press," as John Miller [who worked with the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence], said on "CBS This Morning" (February 8, 2012).

The loudest criticism [seen in the video below] is coming from a Christian Dominionist, Maj Gen James Vaught who also said a few years back: "Only Christian [is a] soldier is a good soldier. We know we (Christians) are not the enemy so you figure out who is."

It seems improbable that elite units such as Task Force 20 [whatever incarnation it operates as today]—a shadowy multi-service Special Forces unit reportedly composed of Marine Force Recon, Navy Seals, Army Delta Force and Rangers, and Air Force Special Operations personnel—would have their superiors speaking publicly on the composition and tactics of this combined services missions that take down high-value U.S. military targets like Osama Bin Laden, and rescue Hostages in Somalia, as in January.

Which is why I think reports of the composition and details of risky, spectacular successes are misinformation, and critics like Maj Gen James Vaught are likely off-target in a CBS News report in this video, as a new Poll finds broad support for Obama’s counterterrorism policies.



(CBS News)

Saddam caught by Task Force 20

Adm. Bill McRaven, the nation's top military officer for special operations forces like the Army Rangers and Navy SEALs, came under some not-so-friendly fire Tuesday, facing criticism that too many details of his troops' missions are leaked to the press.

Informed personnel say American media reports and even books on Task Force 20 and other special forces operations generally are rife with cover stories and misinformation.

In other words, when it comes to reports on special operations missions, don't believe too much beyond what appears obvious.

Like Maj Gen. James Vaught, as a good American, I don't want to know details of special forces operations anymore than I want public the exact route of President Obama to a public event. But I don't believe I do from press reports, even after a mission is completed.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members
of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against
Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011.
Seated, from left, are: Brigadier General Marshall B. “Brad” Webb,
Assistant Commanding General, Joint Special Operations Command;
Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough;
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
Standing, from left, are: Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff;
National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Bill Daley;
Tony Binken, National Security Advisor to the Vice President; Audrey Tomason
Director for Counterterrorism; John Brennan,
Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; and
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Please note: a classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Speculating, Gen. James Vaught's loud complaints sound a lot like part of a political black flag operation (a covert false flag operation) carried out by shills to deceive the public for an unspecified objective. In this case, this objective is to take the shine off the successes of President Obama in his role as commander-in-chief.

Does Gen. Vaught really believe President Obama is giving away secrets?

Vaught speaks his mind often: "Only Christian soldier is a good soldier. We know we (Christians) are not the enemy so you figure out who is." “Now is not the time to be politically correct.” (Nov. 3, 2003)

I worked for President Obama's campaign; I criticized President Obama; I voted for President Obama and will again, and believe me President Obama is no Vice-President Cheney.

I should note that I did wonder why a couple of days before bin laden was killed, my traffic on a high-traffic story on Task Force 20 and Islamophobia suddenly jettisoned into the number one piece for highest traffic of the week on my blog, in which the publicly viewed "Popular Posts" section indicated the movement.

Whatever happened in the April-May 2011 days prior to killing Osama Bin Laden, a lot people may have suddenly become interested in Islamophobia or some people were monitoring the Internet closely to see what showed up when entering "Task Force 20."

I did wonder: What's up?

CBS concludes in their report this morning:

What generates the kind of pressure that McRaven faced Tuesday is when classified information is leaked by congressional or White House staffers who can't tell which details are of tactical value, Miller said. Of course, with special operations forces carrying out missions at a rate of four or five a day for the past two years, the details of which don't come to light, McRaven's missions largely stay true to his troops' nickname of "the quiet professionals."

That seems true, and I think another political strike at President Obama just went up in smoke.

Romney fails to garner 50% in Mormon-heavy Nevada

Intended Temple of Doom

As demographics change in multi-cultural America, Willard Mitt Romney is finding it difficult to round up a majority of Americans to get on his bandwagon, even a majority of Republicans.

By Michael Leon

Romney assures the minority of low-information American voters in the GOP primary: I love the religious right, parroting the ludicrous statement that Obama has declared "war on religion."

Romney acclaims he wants to bomb Iran, and America needs to follow the fascist-outlaw state of Israel.

One can go on. Any GOP nostrum—the more hateful the better—is there for the taking and Romney has taken them all. But Romney remains an under-performing frontman, unlikely to sufficiently expand the white working class vote from the South and Appalachia [and its political parallels in the 50 states] in the presidential general election.

Romney is a more intelligent version of former New York Congressman, Rick Lazio; he really doesn't believe in GOP imbecilities.

"There seemed to be nothing that he was finally and fundamentally and unalterably for, beyond the idea of Rick Lazio [in 2010 a stripped gear in the anti-Muslim rhetoric machine] becoming a senator [in 2000]," wrote Michael Tomasky in Hillary's Turn, (p. 186) [quoted in Sidney Blumenthal. The Clinton Wars, p. 693.]

Romney as analogue is obvious.

To win Romney needs to become a convincing hater and brilliant actor as acolyte-kinsman of the ignorant.

But no matter how many fellow Mormons have parked their careers in CIA black operations; how much voter obstruction future GOP allies accomplish [make that needs to be limited to the low millions of disenfranchised Americans]; no matter how much pandering Romney thinks he is capable of performing; how much money he has in Super PACs; he will under-perform with dumb white voters—a needed constituency for the GOP nominee that not even Joseph Smith, Jr. can enlighten to the glory of Willard Mitt Romney.

Not for any policy, ideological or even religious reason, Romney just does not come across as both a likable fellow and an American Ahab able to act as the carrier of white resentment.

Nevada Caucus Results

Willard Mitt Romney - 47.6%
Newt Gingrich - 22.7
Ron Paul - 18.6
Rick Santorum - 11.1

Muslim, Muslim, Muslim! The Muslims Are Coming!

The bigoted 'Astute Bloggers'

No apologies yet from the perpetrators who defamed an entire religion, Islam, as being responsible for the terrorist act in Norway. Nothing, not one word of regret.

Maybe Rep. Peter King will hold hearings on radical Christianity

By TBogg at Firedoglake [via Crooks and Liars]

Among all of the right-bloggers who had a major musgasm Friday morning upon hearing the initial reports out of Oslo, Astute Bloggers takes the trophy of infamy.

• Norway – The Warning Signs Were There



The biogted 'Astute Bloggers'

• Sometimes news moves too fast for our own good

None deserve more special consideration then the amusingly named Astute Bloggers for their three-part demonstration of how the Self-Correcting Citizen Journalist plies his craft.

A challenge is demanded as well [as Batocchio at Crooks and Liars points out] from the Washington Post which owes the world an apology for this item. As James Fallows of The Atlantic notes:

Read it and weep. On the Post's site Jennifer Rubin first quotes the Weekly Standard, in a rushed item about the Norway horror:

We don't know if al Qaeda was directly responsible for today's events, but in all likelihood the attack was launched by part of the jihadist hydra. Prominent jihadists have already claimed online that the attack is payback for Norway's involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

Then she goes on to argue on her own:

Moreover, there is a specific jihadist connection here: 'Just nine days ago, Norwegian authorities filed charges against Mullah Krekar, an infamous al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist who, with help from Osama bin Laden, founded Ansar al Islam - a branch of al Qaeda in northern Iraq - in late 2001.'

Did Task Force 20 Kill Osama Bin Laden

Saddam caught by Task Force 20

Update: Army Vet and Muslim Sgt. Key to Saddam Capture Speaks Out on Islamophobia

Last Thursday, the highest traffic here as usual was centered around Wisconsin recall politics and Righthaven's campaign against veterans and bloggers.

Rather suddenly on Friday, an exclusive piece from last September on Task Force 20 and a Special Forces Army Sgt speaking out against Islamophobia jettisoned into the number two and then number one piece for highest traffic of the week.

Task Force 20 is an elite and shadowy multi-service Special Forces unit reportedly composed of Marine Force Recon, Navy Seals, Army Delta Force and Rangers, and Air Force Special Operations personnel.

High-value U.S. military targets like Osama Bin Laden are often the mission of a combined services task force like the top secret Task Force 20 or whatever incarnation it is today.

So whatever happened yesterday with Osama Bin Laden, a lot people may have suddenly become interested in Islamophobia late last week or some people were monitoring the Internet closely to see what showed up when entering "Task Force 20."

Google Analytics is not really helpful as it reveals top referring sites as Google France and Google.

Army Vet and Muslim Sgt. Key to Saddam Capture Speaks Out on Islamophobia

Update: See also Did Task Force 20 Kill Osama Bin Laden
- U.S. Army Sergeant Ayman A. Ibrahim's intelligence directly led to the capture of Saddam Hussein. Ibrahim speaks out now as a Muslim for America, and against the rampant Islamophobia in America -

Exclusive to Michael Leon and Veterans Today


U.S. Army Sergeant Ayman A. Ibrahim (1985–2005 (ret.)) is a highly decorated military hero who despises this description.

Mr. Ibrahim's preference aside, the former paratrooper with the U.S. Army’s 82^nd Airborne (1985–1988) who received the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star (awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct) among other citations, was a key figure as the senior interpreter (and interrogator) attached to the Saddam-hunting, American Special Forces Task Force 121.

Task Force 20

Task Force 20 located and captured Saddam on December 13, 2003 on a farm near Tikrit in central Iraq.

Task Force 20 is an elite and shadowy multiservice Special Forces unit reportedly composed of Marine Force Recon, Navy Seals, Army Delta Force and Rangers, and Air Force Special Operations personnel.

Ibrahim's intelligence—derived by non-coercive interrogations and rapport-building—directly led to the capture of Saddam.

Informed personnel say American media reports and even books on Task Force 20 operations generally are rife with cover stories and misinformation, hence the often-used adjective “shadowy” by writers.

Currently working as a contractor supporting the U.S. mission, Ibrahim, now living in the Middle East, contacted Veterans Today to speak out against the Islamophobia gripping the United States as war clouds gather over Iran.

Ibrahim is an American Muslim who speaks fluent Arabic. After 9/11, working in California training mobilized National Guard troops and reserve units, Ibrahim saw his country under attack and badly wanted to work with a forward combat unit.

His sense of duty includes a heart-felt betrayal by those few calling themselves Muslim who attacked America.

“Ayman is a fiercely loyal guy who's not only a roll-up your sleeves workhorse type, but has extremely sharp intellect under pressure. I have known him since our teenage days back in the early 80s when we rolled the California mean streets. He's the kind of guy you want on your team; a man of integrity, principle-centered leadership, and mental toughness under extreme pressure that you absolutely need when you live in the trenches of warfare,” said John Allen, General Manager of the Veterans Today Network and long time friend, in an e-mail.

I spoke with Ibrahim, reached in Amman, Jordan, by phone on 9/11 last Saturday—the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States—for about an hour.

War and Task Force 20

Ibrahim, as I can perceive in a phone conversation, has an unusual intensity in his voice. He talks easily, tolerates frequent interruptions, but there appears fierce conviction behind his narratives and seemingly behind each spoken word, lending his vocalization a Carl Sagan-like quality.

“War is usually a failure. When we have war, diplomacy has failed. Something has failed. Someone has not done their jobs well. Say, the neocons and Richard Pearle, for example, they are either failing in preventing war or they are trying to start one,” said Ibrahim.

“The guys I worked with [Task Force 20] in Iraq, everyone has the idea of a Rambo, elite super soldiers [like those portrayed television series], but these guys are professionals. They don’t do things for kicks. They do their jobs, and treat human beings like human beings. If they have to go in hard, it’s because they are risking their lives. So some people who do not know what they are talking about give these guys a bad rap. But Task Force Special Operations Task Force 121 is composed of professional, dedicated and smart people, and yes, they are very tough, and yes they are the best on the world. They have character.”

Islamophobia

“These Islamophobes, Koran-burning, no Mosques or community centers. They betray America. I feel I have to speak out because this is not the America I know and love. They are not the Americans I believe in. I went through some events where after 9/11, security concerns were raised about me while I was a soldier because I am a Muslim. But my team, the people who I served with knocked that down right away,” said Ibrahim, referring to the post-9/11 days that sent him at his request to forward combat units, ultimately with Task Force 20.

“You get these people who say America is only this way. Only this belief. And if you don’t like it, ‘leave.’ That’s not America. You find your way in America, you pursue what you believe: That’s America and if you don’t like that, you can leave.”

This Mosque controversy in New York is so ridiculous. I'm willing to move the Islamic center to another location, but what is next; we need to identify what is the end game for these guys who are yelling hate. To equate all Muslims with terrorists is beyond foolish. Is Christianity a terrorist religion because of the KKK and the like? No. But I do not fear anti-Islamic bigotry. It’s nothing to me in the sense it is so foolish and so gutless that it presents no threat to me at all. But I speak against it now because I stand up against it as a proud American who has been challenged in other ways as a solider and a man.”

Ibrahim is a military man and his comments on the capture of Saddam Hussein are punctuated with references that are heavy on his belonging to a team.

But even now, seven years after the capture of Saddam, Ibrahim begs off precise details on Task Force 20 operations.

Ibrahim does say that one Iraqi walking away with a $25-million reward for the capture of the man who became known as the “Ace of Spades” are incorrect.

Warrior for Peace

“There is one instant in under fire where you can freeze or you can draw adrenalin from what is happening and in some ways love it, and crave it. I love it, and these Islamophobes are dangerous, but they are very weak and fearful people as individuals,” said Ibrahim with seeming contempt.

The vast majority of Muslims speak proudly of the tolerance of Islam that regards as prophets— Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

Listening to Ibrahim, I thought about the contradictions of being simultaneously religious and being an elite warrior for a state. But coming from Ibrahim, his words seem very convincing.

Ibrahim is a universalist. His commitments are social, concerned with the rights of his fellow human beings, raising in a listener the words of John Donne:

Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind ...

Ibrahim blows off specific questions about his present work in Amman, Jordan. Though he is undoubtedly intently focused on whatever he is doing, his words come back to the topic of America, Islamophobia and the growing scent of outright fascism.

So I ask Ibrahim speficially about Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Christian Zionists, and near-constant fear-mongering of the specter of a world Islamic mission of a presumably Sunni-Shia alliance imposing their will onto America.

Said Ibrahim, “I ask these haters who think they speak in the name of our beloved Prophet Jesus, please do as he preached and do not be a Bin Laden and interpret as you like to promote your own agenda of hate.”

America and Americans are better and deserve better than being labeled as haters and racist people. They should not follow those few preaching hate as their moment will go away. But world perception will last, we need to protect our country from all those hateful people inside and out.”