Seems Like Trump Administration Doesn't Want Anybody Who's Not White Into The Country

Manpreet Kooner with her fiance. She recently wanted to take
a one-day trip from Canada to a Vermont spa, but was turned
away at the border, possibly because of her race.

I keep hearing all these disturbing reports of border patrol agents not letting people in this country based just on the color of their skin.  

And that's no matter how safe or unsafe or legal they might be.

Some of this is happening close to home, as I live near the Canadian border in Vermont.

One of the more disturbing incidents occured at the Highgate Springs, Vermont border crossing, which is just a 10 minute drive up the road from my house.

Recently, a Canadian woman from the Montreal area with a Canadian passport tried to get across the border into the United States via Highgate Springs because she was taking a day trip to go to a Vermont spa.

Manpreet Kooner, 30, was born in Canada to Indian parents who had become Canadian citizens. Kooner has always lived in Canada. She has a good job in a science lab at a local college and has no criminal history.

So what's the harm in letting Kooner into Vermont to get her nails done or whatever.?

Kooner, with her Indian heritage, has darker skin than the two white friends she was with when she tried to cross the border into Vermont Sunday, says the Canadian broadcaster CBC.

U.S. Border Patrol was going to let her white friends through, but they held Kooner for six hours. She got no explanation why, and the border patrol isn't talking. Border agents said they don't about individual cases.

A statement from the Border Patrol adopted a policy in 2014 that "prohibits the consideration of race or ethnicity in law enforcement, investigation, and screening activities, in all but the most exceptional circumstances."

Looks like that policy is out the window. CBC said Kooner told them one of the border agents told her, 'I know you may feel like you've been Trumped,' in reference to the current occupant of the Oval Office.

Kooner said the problems started in December when she tried to enter to the United States, and was subject to a random check, which happens to all of us sometimes.

This time the border agents noted Kooner was stopped in December, though there were no red flags in her file, CBC said. 

On Sunday, in addition to being detained for six hours, Kooner was photographed, fingerprinted and told to sign a document withdrawing her application to go into the United States.

She was also given confusing advice to go to the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa to get a visa to enter the United States in the future, but she was told by them to go to U.S Customs and Border Patrol.'

In other words, Kooner has dark skin. Stay the hell out of the United States.

At least it seems that way.

So, if Kooner, a Canadian citizen, born in Canada, with no criminal record, with a good job, no red flags, wants to enter the United States briefly as a tourist and is barred, what about other people?

What if, unlike Kooner, somebody is a Muslim with no criminal record who wants to enter the United States from Canada? There area already plenty of reports of that kind of thing going on.

Draw it to its logical conclusion, do the Trumpsters want only white English speaking people to enter the United States, even as tourists? That seems pretty limiting doesn't it?

I guess there's a crowd of Trumpsters out there who really want to turn us into a whites-only Fortress America.

Three White Terrorists Planned Car Bombing At Kansas Mosque, Apartment Complex, Say Authorities

These three guys were arrested in Kansas for plotting
 a terrorist attack on an apartment complex where
many Somali immigrants live.

I get why people are worried about ISIS - inspired terrorist attacks in the United States.

They do happen, as we saw last year in San Bernardino and this year in Orlando, Florida.

Now, if we haven't done so already, apparently we need to start worrying about white terrorists attacking Muslims in this nation.

Yeah, it keeps getting worse.

The New York Daily News reports that the FBI has arrested three white guys for conspiring to blow up an apartment complex where many Somali immigrants live. The guys involved in the plot apparently call themselves "The Crusaders."

The apartment complex the three targeted has a mosque where many of the Somalis frequently gather for prayers.

According to the Daily News:

"Curtis Allen, 49, Gavin Wright, 49, and Patrick Stein, 47, were charged Friday with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, according to the Department of Justice's national security division. The Crusaders call Muslims "cockroaches" and they had discussed brutal attacks on Muslims for months, federal prosecutors said.

FBI agents working on tips from an undercover informant said the three men planned to blow up four car bombs at the Garden City apartments. Allen, Wright and Stein hoped the attack on the 120-resident complex would 'wake people up,' the feds said."

I guess ironically,  "The Crusaders" MO was much the same as ISIS. Do a splashy terrorist attack to demoralize their enemies and more importantly, inspire like-minded idiots to do more of the same.

I obviously can't hold Donald Trump directly responsible for what these idiots planned, but I do blame him for doing a large part in creating a hostile culture that might have helped inspire these three idiots. 

Frighteningly, the "Crusaders" came pretty close to being able to carry out their plan. A paid informant helped squash the plot, though.

More from The New York Daily News:

"Allen, Wright, Stein and the informant met multiple times at Wright's business, the G&G Mobile Home Center in Liberal (Kansas). At one meeting in July, he used Google Maps to drop pins labeled 'cockroaches' on locations of potential victims, according to the complaint.

They talked about attacking targets such as city or county meetings, landlords who rent to Muslim refugees, organizations that assist Muslim refugees, a mall frequented by Muslims and Garden City's African Community Center, investigators said. They decided on the W. Mary St. apartment complex in August, according to the complaint."

Police also found a metric ton (!!) of explosives and detonators with these guys.

Glad that they got these guys. but here's the fear:

The climate is so toxic now, that if Trump loses the Presidential election, which seems quite likely now, his most ignorant, racist, hostile, misogynistic fans will erupt in extreme anger.

They already are, fueled by some pretty violent rhetoric, especially around the meme that the election is supposedly "rigged" if Hillary Clinton wins.

Even people in supposedly authority are using this rhetoric. Sheriff David Clarke, a Trump surrogate, tweeted it's "pitchforks and torches time" if Hillary is elected because she would "rig" the election.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, who should know better, is also accusing people of "rigging" the election.

Trump's true believers in the crowd are even worse.

Dan Bowman, a 50-year-old contractor told the Boston Globe at a Trump rally this week: "If she's (Clinton) in office, I hope we can start a coup. She should be in prison or shot. That's how I feel about it.....We're going to have a revolution and take them out of office if that's what it takes. There's going to be a lot of bloodshed. But that's what it's going to take... I would do whatever I can for my country."

That is, if "doing whatever he can for his country" is committing treason, I guess.

There's quite a few people like Bowman, who, fired up by Trump's incredibly irresponsible and wrong speech, won't accept an election, won't accept democracy.

Some people will act violently, I fear.

Ah yes, just what we need, domestic terrorists by people who are in a snit because the majority of us rejected a spoiled rich kid jerk/moron for president.

Don't you love people like Donald Trump who insist on making things worse for all of us?

This Week's Idiot Wants Everyone To Bring Loaded Guns To Quran-Destroying Ceremony

This moron wants people to bring loaded
guns to his stupid anti-Muslim rally
in Georgia next week. 

Every week or so, the nation gets a new National Village Idiot who somehow manages to top the previous week's National Village Idiot.

Meet Jim Stachowiak. 

His bright idea is to hold a rally in Atlanta next Monday during which he will shred a Quran and a picture of the Prophet Muhammad, which of course is among the most offensive things you can do against the Muslim religion.

Oh, and Stachowiak is encouraging everybody who comes to his hate rally to bring a loaded gun.

What could possibly go wrong?

Stachowiak who is - Surprise! - a Donald Trump supporter, says he has to do this because Muslims are an invading army taking over the nation. I missed that tidbit in the news, but what do I know.

This fun-filled rally will also feature desecrations of copies of photographs of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Who as we all know are secret Muslims plotting to destroy our country. Or something.

My theory is Stachowiak is a double agent for ISIS. What better way to recruit potential new terrorists by holding an event like this? Is Stachowiak a secret Muslim terrorist himself?

Doubt it. Just askin'. Looking for explanations for his stupidity, I guess.

Stachowiak's Idiot's Fair is going to be held in front of the Georgia State Capitol. Public safety officials in Georgia seem less than thrilled by Stachowiak's plans.

"The Georgia Department of Public Safety and the Georgia Building Authority anticipate a non-permitted, anti-Islamic protest on the sidewalks of the Georgia State Capitol....You are hereby notified that protest organizers have encourage their participants to carry loaded long guns," said Georgia Capitol Police Director Lewis G. Young, who clearly doesn't want anybody to show up at Stachowiak's little gathering.

Who can blame Young?

As lovely as Georgia is, it's probably best to stay as far away as possible from their State Capitol next week.

Of course everyone, including Stachowiak has every right to free speech in the United States. Even exceptionally stupid free speech.  So let him have his little rally.

But he clearly wants to cause trouble. Let's not play into this guy's hands.

The Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is urging local Muslims to ignore the rally so as not to give Stachowiak and his minions free publicity regarding their message of hate.

Which makes sense. And I'm kinda giving him free publicity here. Georgia Muslims are right to avoid this guy, but it also behooves us to expose idiots like Stachowiak to public scrutiny and ridicule.

One of the best ways to knock back a bully and a jerk is through mocking and jeers, so have at it

Military's Got Muslim Girl's Back, Even If Donald Trump Doesn't

Melissa Chanc Yassini said her daughter, 8. was frightened
by Donald Trump's rhetoric on Muslims and was afraid
the Army would take her away. Members of the U.S.
military responded to this fear in the best possible way

A week ago or so, a woman named Melissa Chance Yassini, a Muslim, put a note on Facebook about her daughter Sophia, 8.

Here's what the message said:

"Sad day in America when I have to comfort my 8 year old child who heard that someone with yellow hair named Trump wanted to kick all Muslims out of America. She had began collecting all her favorite things in a bag in case the army came to remove us from our homes. She checked the locks on the door 3-4 times. This is terrorism. No child in America deserves to feel that way."

Now, technically it's true that Donald Trump is not advocating kicking "all Muslims out of America" but I get the kids point. Trump and his ilk are stirring up all this anti-Islam business and making life pretty scary for law abiding American Muslims.

According to the Huffington Post, Yassini's post went viral, and thousands of people clicked on it or otherwise responded. One of those was Kerri Peek, of Colorado, who is both a mother and a Army veteran.

Peek sent a photo of herself to Yassini, and wrote, "Please show this picture of me to your daughter. Tell her I am a mama too and as a soldier I will protect her from the bad guys."

In the message, Peek also issued a call to "friends in the armed forces" asking them to show solidarity with the Yassinis. "Post a picture of you in uniform with the hashtag #IWillProtectYou to let these children know that we will not hurt them. That they are safe here in America."

As is always the case, members of the U.S. military stepped right up to the plate. A bunch of them responded with just that hashtag on social media like Facebook and Twitter.

"Real soldiers fight for ALL Americans. Because it's ALL Americans who REALLY make America great," wrote JP Thompson on Twitter, to give you a typical example.

Another, veteran David Bruce responded on Facebook, according to Upworthy: "I am not Muslim....But when anyone says the Army that I served with will go on to remove Muslims from my country, they'll have to take me, too."

Yassini was greatful for the support, says Unworthy. "Christians, atheists, Jews, every walk of life, every stage, have reached out to Sofia and I with overwhelming support and love...I read each and every message to (Sofia). And now she understands that we're all part of a fabric which is America."

I know I'm getting all Kumbaya on you now. I know the reality is there are jerks in this nation who are insulting Muslims in the streets, torching Mosques, even physically attacking them. 

I'm hoping the Islamaphobes in this country are the small minority. I'm hoping most of us understand that while a small minority of people who call themselves Muslims are terrorists and generally awful people who ought to be locked up, most Muslims are as peaceful as most Christians, or as peaceful as most Americans.

Not everyone in the military is as nice as those who responded to the #IWillProtectYou social media movement.  But it does give me  even more confidence than I had that the U.S. military really is the good guys and gals.

Muslim "Clock Kid" Gets Encouragement From Everybody Except His School

Ahmed Mohamed, 14, being arrested at his school
for bringing a homemade clock into the building.
Because anything a Muslim builds is a bomb,
if you want to believe the morons running the school.  

UPDATE:

Well, the school doesn't like him, and his town's police department isn't thrilled with him, either, but Ahmed Mohamed seems to be rocking the rest of the world.

Police dropped the idea of charging Mohamed with bringing a "hoax bomb" to school, when it was onl a clock he made that he wanted to show off.

I guess Irving, Texas police and the community's school district are not afraid of bullying a 14 year old kid because he's Muslim and likes to tinker, but are deathly afraid of bad pubicity, which they got big time.

President Obama doesn't seem too afraid of Mohamed and his clock, inviting him to the White House to show it off. Hilary Clinton Tweeted her support.

Huffington Post reported that Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn carried a clock around Capitol Hill Wednesday in support of Mohamed. Ellison is the first Muslim member of Congress.

And, while Mohamed was being interviewed by MSNBC's Hayes, another guest appeared on the show. It was MIT astrophysicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, who told Mohamed that he was exactly the "kind of student we want at places like MIT and Harvard."

By the way, the more news that comes out about how the school and police treated this kid, the worse it gets. The Daily Beast said Mohamed was denied access to his parents while being questioned, which violates Texas law.

School officials, including the principal, tried to coerce Mohamed into signing a statement that would easily have led to terrorism charges had he complied. He ended up writing. "I built a clock. The police think it's a bomb." Smart kid for writing his statement exactly that way.

So, the Irving School District really isn't into encouraging kids to succeed, especially if they're not white, most of the rest of the world is ahead of the game and does encourage bright young kids like Mohamed, who we are sure to need desperately in the future.

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A 14 year old kid in Irving, Texas likes to tinker and build things, and was proud of one little invention. It was a digital clock he made by himself.

For his ambition and effort, the kid was arrested. The leading theory as to why he was arrested is his name: Ahmed Mohamed.

Because as you know, anytime a kid with an Arabic name brings anything to school, especially if it's unusual, it' a bomb.  Because all Arabs and Muslims want to launch terrorist attacks on this great nation, don't you know.

Mohamed said he showed a couple teachers his clock, and later in the day was brought into the principal's office.

There, he said, police officers interrogated him, and said he could not call his father until they finished questioning him.

Says the Dallas Morning News:

"So the 14-year-old missed the student council meeting and took a trip in handcuffs to juvenile detention. His clock now sits in an evidence room. Police say they may yet charge him with making a hoax bomb - though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it's a clock."

That's the incredible part right there: He told everyone his device is a clock. Anyone who looks at it can see it's a clock. But they still might charge him with making a "hoax bomb"

And he's been suspended from school for three days. All because he was proud of learning something. What a way to encourage a kid, huh?

Sorry, but if this were a white kid, this would have completely gone away by now.

Yes, I get it. Schools, and everyone else need to be careful. It wouldnt' have been a problem at all if somebody at the school asked to see Mohamed's clock to make sure it wasn't anything weird. Even get a cop to look at it.

The clock isn't elaborate to begin with. Mohamed threw it together in 20 minutes. It's a circuit board wired to a digital display, all inside a case with a tiger hologram in the front, Dallas Morning News reports. 

But the fact this is dragging on, and it seems the school and police aren't acknowledging they made a mistake, means something more is going than just caution.

The Dallas Morning News says there's more than a whiff of anti-Islamic sentiment in Irving, Texas anyway. Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne fueled rumors in speeches that Muslims are plotting to usurp American laws,

This whole thing has become a cause celebre now.

Mohamed has got a fast rising number of suppoers. The hashtag #StandWithAhmed was a top trending topic on Twitter this morning.

Rallies are planned at the school.

Still, this is yet another example of an American school system that, instead of encouraging a smart kid to do great things, makes sure instead that he is reluctant to achieve.

And you wonder why America is falling behind in achievement and scientific advancement?