We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, January 30, 2017

Obama’s administration made the “Muslim ban” possible and the media won’t tell you

Click here to access article by Seth Frantzman from his blog Terra Incognita.

It appears from this well documented article that Trump's executive order merely copied a previous order from the Obama administration.
The Department of Homeland Security targeted these seven countries over the last years as countries of concern. In February 2016 “The Department of Homeland Security today announced that it is continuing its implementation of the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015 with the addition of Libya, Somalia, and Yemen as three countries of concern, limiting Visa Waiver Program travel for certain individuals who have traveled to these countries.” It noted “the three additional countries designated today join Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Syria as countries subject to restrictions for Visa Waiver Program travel for certain individuals.”
This leaves me with some questions: why is this exposé coming from an American-Israeli living in Israel and not from someone concerned with immigration issues here in the US? And, why did Trump do this? (To prove to ordinary American that he is protecting them?), and why is there supposed chaos at the airports? Corporate media are taking full advantage of his executive order to mobilize liberal Americans against him.

For a satirical take on this issue, Jimmy Dore provides this hysterical commentary based on Frantzman's article.