Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Ban Muslim Immigration


Nation-building has become a very controversial term. And with good reason. Our conviction that we can reconstruct any society into another America is unrealistic. It ignores our own exceptionalism and overlooks the cultural causes of many conflicts. It assumes that a change of government and open elections can transform a tribal Islamic society into America. They can’t and won’t. But it’s also important to recognize that what we have been doing isn’t nation-building, but Islam-building.

Nation-building in Germany and Japan meant identifying a totalitarian ideology, isolating its proponents from political power and recreating a formerly totalitarian state as an open society. That is the opposite of what we did in Afghanistan and Iraq, never mind Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen and all the rest.

We did temporarily pursue de-Baathification in Iraq. But the Baathists were just Saddam’s cult of personality. Saddam was a problem in Iraq. But he wasn’t the problem in Iraq. His rule was a symptom of the real problem which was the divide between Sunnis and Shiites. The real problem was Islam. Because we failed to recognize that, de-Baathification failed.

The Baathists just folded themselves into ISIS. The Sunni-Shiite war went on even without Saddam. Today Sunnis and Shiites are still killing each other in Iraq much as they had for a long time. We have boiled this war down to ISIS, but ISIS, like Saddam is just another symptom of the political violence and divisiveness inherent in Islam.

Instead of secularizing Iraq, our efforts at democracy only heightened divisions along religious lines. The “Lebanon” model for Iraq with power sharing arrangements between Sunnis and Shiites was doomed.

Iraq’s first election was dominated by the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. If that name rings a bell, it should. It came out of Iran. You know, the original Islamic Revolution. The “free” election had given a boost to an Islamic terror group whose goal was the creation of an Islamic State in Iraq.

The bloodiest days of the Iraq War actually came when two sets of Islamic terror groups fighting to create an Islamic State began killing each other… and us. We know one of those groups today as ISIS. The other group is the Iraqi government. And a decade later, they’re still killing each other.

Instead of nation-building in Iraq, we practiced Islam-building. Iraq’s constitution made Islam the official religion and the fundamental source of legislation. Its first real law was that, “No law that contradicts the established provisions of Islam may be established.” The new Iraq we had built was an Islamic State.

We did no better in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan whose constitution declared much the same thing. Its first parliamentary elections saw victories for the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan and the Islamic Society. As in Iraq and Syria, the distinctions between the bad Islamists and the good Islamists were often fuzzy at best. We had replaced the bad Islamist warlords who raped and murdered their enemies with the good Islamist warlords who raped and murdered their enemies.

Our nation-building had created an Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and an Islamic State in Iraq. It was no wonder that the fighting never stopped.

Matters grew much worse with the Arab Spring when Obama and Hillary’s Islam-building project flipped countries that had been democratic and secular in the loosest sense into the tar pit of political Islam.

Coptic Christians were massacred and churches were burned in Egypt. The Christian communities in Iraq and Syria were threatened with annihilation. The Jewish community in Yemen may be close to disappearing entirely. The Yazidis were raped and murdered on a genocidal scale by the Islamic State.

But in many cases they were just collateral damage from fighting between Sunni and Shiite Islamists, and among Sunni Islamists battling each other for dominance.

The ugliest part of Islam-building was that the resulting conflicts between Islamists and secularists in Egypt and Tunisia highlighted starkly just how wrong our policy was. Instead of backing secular and democratic forces, Obama had thrown in with Islamists. And even after the Muslim Brotherhood was overthrown in Egypt, his administration continued advocating on behalf of its Islamic reign of terror.

If we had practiced actual nation-building, then we would have identified Islamic tribalism as the central corrosive force in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Islamic political movements as the totalitarian threat in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. Our efforts would have been directed at isolating them and keeping them out of power while working to democratize and secularize these countries on the old Turkish model. It might not have worked, but at least it would have been nation-building, not Islam-building.

Nation-building might very well have failed. America doesn’t have infinite resources and the lives of our soldiers are precious. Assuming that we can upend radically different societies is excessively optimistic.

But we didn’t even try. What we have been doing in this century isn’t nation building. Instead we’ve been empowering our enemies. We’ve been sticking our hands into Islamist snake pits and playing, “Find the Muslim moderate” and refusing to learn any better no matter how many times we get bitten.

We have been perfectly happy to help the Islamic terrorists that our soldiers were shooting at last week so long as their leader signed some sort of accord paying lip service to equality yesterday. We didn’t just get into bed with the Muslim Brotherhood, but with former affiliates of Al Qaeda and current proxies of Iran. We allied with the Sunni and Shiite Islamist murderers of American soldiers in Iraq. And all we got for it was more violence, chaos and death.

Even without Islam, ethnic and tribal divisions would have made nation-building into a difficult challenge. But Islam-building didn’t just leave wrecked societies, but terror threats. Tensions between Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds wouldn’t have led to massacres in Paris and Nice. Only Islam could do that.

Islam takes local conflicts and makes them global. That’s why disputes over the authority of the House of Saud led to the mass murder of thousands of people in New York or why Arab attacks on Israel became a burning international issue. Or why Sunni and Shiite feuds in Iraq and Syria led to a massacre of attendees at a rock concert in Paris. That is also why the combination of Islam and politics in any form is an existential threat to us.

Not only should we not be subsidizing it in any way, shape or form, but we should be doing our best to stamp it out. If we must have any form of nation-building, it should be the building of secular nations in which Islam is isolated and detached from any political involvement.

We have two options for preventing the spread of Islamic political violence into our countries. The first is a ban on Muslim immigration. The second is a ban on Muslim politics.

The former has been dubbed isolationism and the latter nation-building. Neither term is truly accurate, but they capture the essence of the choice.

We however have chosen a choice that is far worse than either. We have opened our doors to Muslim migration while opening Muslim countries to further Islamic political involvement. We have Islamized terror states and ourselves. Is it any wonder that we suffer from a severe Islamic terror threat?

Open borders for Islamic terror and Islam-building have led to our current state of national insecurity.

We have made the world more dangerous by backing Islamic politics and we have made our countries more dangerous by welcoming in Muslim migrants to be indoctrinated into terror by Islamist organizations. The more we build up Islam, the more we destroy ourselves.



Comments

I agree completely.  After decades of terror attacks by Muslims, the 9/11/01 Twin Towers attack should have resulted in banning all Muslim immigration and visas to the US.  This would have included college students, relatives, tourists, business people and diplomats. The UN should have been moved out of the US.  We should have also prevented Obama from being elected to anything.  If we had done these two things, our National Debt would still be $5 Trillion and a lot easier to pay off.


Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

California wants to block Coal Exports

California Goes to War with Coal-Producing States by Alice Greene 8/29/16

In an effort to save the environment, the state of California has in effect gone to war with America’s coal-producing states. This Friday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a controversial bill that will cut off state transportation funding for future coal export terminals.

SB1279 is a victory for environmentalists seeking to block coal shipments from California to energy-hungry Asia, and because the state of California controls most ports that export commodities to Asia, SB1279 will affect the entire nation. 

But California controls access to a large part of America's export capability to Asia and Latin America. If this were a move between two countries, against a commodity so important to certain states, it would be considered an act of war. 

SB1279 was originally introduced by California State Senator Loni Hancock (D-Oakland) as a response to developer Phil Tagami’s failed proposal to build a new coal terminal in Oakland. The project would have been funded in part by the state of Utah, which was hoping to use the opportunity to create jobs in economically depressed areas. Utah’s coal is currently shipped through ports in Stockton, Richmond, and Long Beach. 

On top of the global warming effects, environmentalists believe that continuing to export coal would discourage China and other nations from investing in clean energy. “Coal is an antiquated industry and we need to accept that as a reality and not think otherwise,” argues Oakland City councilmember Dan Kalb. 

Governor Brown hopes to someday eliminate all coal shipments in the state of California. “I believe action on multiple fronts will be necessary to transition away from coal,” he said. 

SB1279 will prohibit state transportation funds, a vital source of money for port construction, from being used to expand current coal facilities or construct new ones. The legislation applies to any project proposed after January 1st, 2017. 

Critics argue that coal should not be treated differently than other commodities and point out that the bill may actually violate federal law. 

The coal debate has been growing across the West Coast as environmentalists clash with hard-working men and women who make a living through the acquisition, sale, and transport of coal. As the demand for coal in the United States declines, companies in Wyoming, Montana, and Utah look to Asia for answers - and this new legislation may have cut off their only source of profit. 

“Today, people can breathe easier knowing that beginning in January no coal-related projects will receive state funding,” says Hancock. What the environmentalists don’t seem to realize is that this sort of legislation restricts growth and eliminates jobs for a working class that is in dire need of more opportunities. Hancock and her environmentalists may be able to “breathe easier” with such legislation, but they are only doing so by choking off a vast number of blue-collar workers already desperate for jobs. 


http://punchingbagpost.com/california-goes-to-war-with-coal-producing-states

The Welfare Cliff

When Work Is Punished Again: "If You Accept This Raise, You Fall Off The Welfare Cliff"by Tyler Durden, 8/30/16

Four years ago we first exposed the dismal fact that in the U.S., for the lowest income American Dreamers, work is punished. Sadly, the situation has grown worse as buying votes amid a burgeoning welfare state has left millions in the so-called 'low-wage-trap' leaving Americans teetering on the welfare cliff.

The situation can be summed up perfectly, as Foundation for Economic Education's Howard Baetjer explains, "If you accept this raise... you fall off the welfare cliff"...

Pretend you are a poor, single parent of two in Chicago, earning $12 an hour, working full time, and determined to do what is best for your family. And suppose your employer, impressed with your work, offers you training for and promotion to a new job paying $15. Should you take the offer? It sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s not.

At your present $12 an hour you are eligible for refundable tax credits, food assistance, housing assistance, child care assistance, and medical assistance worth $41,465 combined. Together with your earned income after taxes of $22,121, you are now bringing home to your kids about $63,586 a year.

If you take your employer’s offer, you’ll earn $5,451 more after taxes, $27,572. You will also become eligible for an Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credit. But at that level of earned income all your other benefits would decrease by $8,336, more than your increase in net pay. That means the income you would bring home would decrease from $63,586 to $60,701.

Now, would you take your employer’s offer? What would be best for you and your family, a move up the job ladder with a loss of $2885 in income? Or staying in your same job and keeping the larger income?

The Low-Wage Trap

This example, which is taken from a fascinating, and appalling study by the Illinois Policy Institute entitled “Modeling Potential Income and Welfare Assistance Benefits in Illinois,” illustrates with clear charts and tables what is known as “welfare cliffs” or the “low wage trap,” which can trap families in poverty. When earning more means taking home less, the disincentive to work is obvious.

The report provides striking visual representations of the “welfare cliffs” that poor people’s total incomes can fall off as they increase their earned incomes. Here is the chart on which the hypothetical above is based (the particular numbers in our example come from tables in the report, which clarify the visual data in the charts.)

Notice that welfare cliff we considered above, which occurs between $12 an hour and $15 an hour, is relatively small. A bigger one (and the reason I call the report “appalling”) occurs between $15 an hour and $18 an hour. An Unaffordable Raise?

To pick up our thought experiment, let’s suppose that you want to get free of welfare eventually, and you know that moving up the job ladder is key to doing so, so you take your employer’s offer of a raise to $15 an hour and the corresponding loss of $2,885 in annual income. You cut back on spending where you can and look to the future. Now suppose further that you do well in your new job, you boost your knowledge and skills, and your employer offers you another promotion, with still more training and a raise to $18 an hour. Should you take it? Can you afford to take it?

At $18 an hour full time you would earn gross income of $37,440, and net income (after taxes) of $33,023. But earned income that high would reduce your refundable tax credit and ACA premium assistance, and eliminate your cash assistance, food assistance, housing assistance, and child care assistance, for a total reduction in government benefits of $26,820. So if you take the promotion and raise, your income would decrease from $60,701 to $39,332! A case could be made that it is irresponsible for you to reduce your family’s income that way.

Just think what that kind of welfare cliff does to the incentive to work (“on the books,” at least) and thereby to get off welfare. And the problem is not restricted to Chicago; the same kind of problem exists all across the country.

One of the tragedies of America today is that so many adults of sound mind and body do not support themselves and their families. It’s a tragedy not because they suffer material want; indeed, relatively few suffer so, because government assistance satisfies many of their material needs. It’s tragic because one of the keys to human happiness is earned self-respect, which requires, as Charles Murray has written, making one’s own way in the world. The vast majority of poor people don’t want welfare; they don’t want handouts; they want a good job with which they can support themselves and their families comfortably.

The tragedy of the American welfare system is that it traps so many people in dependency on government, by hindering them from getting on and climbing up the job ladder, and thereby earning self-respect and happiness.

Welfare cliffs are of course not the only reason so many capable Americans languish in partial dependency on government assistance. Dreadful government schools in poor areas and systematic obstacles to getting a job, such as minimum wage laws and occupational licensing laws, are also to blame. But the perverse incentives of America’s welfare system really hurt.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-30/when-work-punished-again-if-you-accept-raise-you-fall-welfare-cliff

Hoarding Cash

We are monitoring confidence in the banking system as reflected by cash withdrawals. The sale of home safes has exploded in many countries. I previously reported that one in ten currency notes in Switzerland being printed is now the 1000 franc note. In fact, there is some 41.6 billion in Swiss francs now in circulation in 1000 CHF notes exclusively.

The ECB is truly brain-dead for they thought by moving with negative interest rates, people would spend their money and that would rekindle inflation. They are correct that people would not want to pay negative interest rates. However, they totally never guessed that they would withdraw their money and hoard it rather than spend it. The trend toward hoarding cash really became in 2011. It started to make the news in 2012. Now the German savers are buying home safes as well and pulling out cash. Of course, they attribute this primarily to negative rates. However, the concerns that Deutsche Bank may be in serious trouble is also helping matters.

We are witnessing this trend around the world throughout Asia as well. Japan has been printing 10,000 yen notes like crazy. The Japanese are also withdrawing cash and keeping it at home. Even Americans began hoarding cash also back in 2011, which began to make news by 2014. In fact, 43% of Americans keep their savings in cash these days for interest pays nothing. Yet, an amazing 53% of those cash-hoarders “plan to hide bills in a secret location at home.”

Everything is going as our model has projected. The peak in trusting banks and government is in place. From here on out, all we have is the collapse in public confidence and the 2016 elections bring that home.

All we are waiting for now is simply the Crash & Burn. This will be a serious topic for this year’s WEC in Orlando.


Comments

Cash hoarding is caused by depositors’ fear that Banks will limit withdrawals whenever their cash-on-hand is threatened.  They have chosen to ignore their own cash requirements and have too much tied up in derivatives. The European Central Bank started this by going to negative interest rates, but this may cause withdrawals that end in a bank panic. They need to move interest rates back up to zero.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader


Soros commits Treason

George Soros letter reveals globalist plan to destroy the First World by eliminating national borders with global migrant blitzkreig invasions, by J. D. Heyes, 11/6/15

(NaturalNews) As the Left continues to lose the battle for America's soul, its greatest champions are going full-out in an attempt to turn the tide any way they can – even if it means destroying the country.

One of the vilest among them is billionaire George Soros, a Hungarian-born U.S. citizen who now seeks to demolish the country that gave him his riches along with its allies.

As reported by Breitbart London, Soros recently publicly confirmed that, yes, he seeks to essentially wipe out all European borders following an accusation made last week by the prime mister of his birth country, Viktor Orban (who, unlike Soros, actually has to deal with the tens of thousands of second- and third-world migrants streaming into his country and other European nations – while Soros lives free of such inconveniences
in his $10 million mansion/castle outside of New York City).

In recent days, Orban has accused Soros of deliberately encouraging the migrant crisis now engulfing the continent.

"This invasion is driven, on the one hand, by people smugglers, and on the other by those (human rights) activists who support everything that weakens the nation-state," Orban said. "This Western mindset and this activist network is perhaps best represented by George Soros."

'Let's take down all borders' - Following Orban's statement, Soros sent an email to Bloomberg Business, in which he claimed that his foundations actually help "uphold European values," while Orban's actions in bolstering the Hungarian border and thus impeding a huge influx of migrants "undermine those values."

"His plan treats the protection of
national borders as the objective and the refugees as an obstacle," Soros added. "Our plan treats the protection of refugees as the objective and national borders as the obstacle."

In October, Orban accused pro-immigration non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of "drawing a living from the immigration crisis." He singled out those funded by Soros, who is a strong supporter of transnational bodies like the European Union and the United Nations. Also, his Open Society Foundation (OSF) provides assistance for pro-immigration activists, and he is well-known in the U.S. and internationally for supporting "progressive" (read far-Left) causes like the Bill and Hillary Clinton Foundation and the Center for American Progress.

In fact, the OSF website notes: "We believe that migration and asylum policy should be grounded in economic and demographic realities, not driven by temporary political considerations or popular misconceptions.

"In Europe, many of our civil society partners are raising their voices demanding a common European approach in line with international human rights commitments."

In a
recent interview, Orban said that immigration and multiculturalism were working in tandem to change the face and traditions of Europe, it's "Christian roots" in particular, all while creating "parallel societies" (just like mass immigration in the U.S. – and isn't it peculiar that President Obama and Lefty Soros have the same view on mass immigration?).
'No one has voted on this'

As reported by Breitbart London, Orban said that Europeans should "stick to our Christian values" and "Europe can be saved," but only if citizens "take seriously the traditions, the Christian roots and all the values that are the basis of the civilisation of Europe."

"What sort of Europe do we want to have? Parallel societies? Muslim communities living together with the Christian community?" he asked, adding that there is also an anti-democratic aspect to what's taking place.

"Nobody has voted for what is going on, so the quality of European democracy is in question."

"Millions of migrants are coming to the European Union," he said, noting that European countries are neglecting various treaties that respect national boundaries.

In recent days, RT.com has reported that the migration policies of Germany were so upsetting the country's population that some analysts are predicting widespread anarchy or even civil war.

Hansjoerg Mueller of the Alternative for Germany party also said the country may be on its way to becoming a "banana republic without any government."

Sources:
Breitbart.com Bloomberg.com RT.com

http://www.naturalnews.com/051869_George_Soros_national_borders_migrant_invasion.html

Comments UN Agenda 21 requires the destruction of all nation-states, the removal of all borders and the dissolution of all national governments to make way for a one-world government fronted by the UN.  Soros is part of the oligarchy that would control the UN.


Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Refugee Update from VT

News from Rutland, VT: A guest column by a Rutland firster! by Ann Corcoran 8/30/16

Editor: As regular readers know, Rutland, VT citizens are not taking kindly to a plan to resettle 100 Syrians in their town—a plan the mayor made in secrecy with a federal resettlement contractor.  For background, please click here for our Rutland archive. And, for future reference, this post is filed in our ‘Comments worth noting/Guest posts category.

With grateful appreciation to Ann Corcoran and Refugee Resettlement Watch, it is with pride and pleasure that I attempt, here, to provide you all with the saga of RUTLAND VERMONT, a struggling, proud community facing the importation of even more needy refugees when our welfare overload is choking us even now.

STRAIGHT TALK—–with Don Chioffi  VERMONT’S AREA 51—THE SECRET RESETTLEMENT PROJECT

The proud, struggling city of Rutland, Vermont has been fighting against seemingly insurmountable odds to even get public information about the secret Refugee Resettlement Program since late April.  Here it is now in late August and we have no more information than in April, despite numerous FOIA requests.  The arrogance, impudence, and outright defiance by the USCRI, the secular agency responsible for this Refugee resettlement Program, with the compliant secret help of Mayor Chris Louras and his crony President of the Board of Aldermen, William Notte, would be more appropriately associated with some third world country, in fact it is headed by a woman that is, in fact, from one of those countries.  Amila Merdzandovic, one of Lavinia Limon’s dutiful henchman, has stonewalled, lied outright, and threatened even those in our own state government for releasing even the most pitiful of information to the citizens of our state and of Rutland, and our mayor vowed to reject a lawful petition submitted by his own citizens requesting a moratorium on this program until facts were forthcoming.

Our three state senators from Rutland county, Peg Flory, Kevin Mullin, and Brian Collamore (all Republicans) have even tried to gain information from the State Health and Human Services  department and were met with the response that even HHS was not provided with the complete Application and Abstract, a document that is supposed to have the coordination and cooperation of state and local government bodies and the public prior to even being sent to the US State Department.  Our state senators were not even informed that this program was being instituted at the state level by our ultra liberal governor, Peter (lame duck) Shumlin.  They were also rebuffed by US Sen. Patrick Leahy, who, to date, has also refused to produce the documents.  It sure looks like all the Democrats at every level are closing ranks to protect the secrecy of these documents.

The Application has all the back-up information concerning Rutland’s ability to sustain the number of refugees intended for resettlement during 2016 and forward.  Information on housing availability, law enforcement, medical capacity, social service capacity, the burgeoning drug problem in our community, the availability or lack of jobs in our community, and the severe drop in population over the last 15 years are all supposed to be in that document—-yet no one, I repeat, no one, has been able to see what has been put into that document as justification for hundreds and hundreds of refugees from a war torn country infested with terrorists being planted like seeds in our community.

Rutland City Treasurer, Wedy Wilton, shocks Rutland with a 35% tax increase prediction in 5 years if USCRI gets its way. Indeed, USCRI (US Committee for Refugees and immigrants) AND VRRP (Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program) have treated the refugees like a commodity, at around $4,000 each, that will sustain their own taxpayer funded VOLAG (90% government funding), while adamantly refusing to release Rutland’s own application data, which we the people cannot even therefore verify as being accurate and appropriate as justification for the settlement of hundreds of needy individuals into an already impoverished region with a staggering welfare load and severe unemployment or under employment problem.

We, the people, constituted as RUTLAND FIRST, have been struggling on our own to do the research necessary to answer questions and develop information relative to this invasion of our community in the guise of “welcoming humanitarianism”.  We have been battling for four months now against the “welcome wagon” which has literally shut its eyes to the costs, the security challenges, and the lack of quality jobs in our region, while at the same time labeling us as racists, islamophobes, or any other vile descriptive adjective in their lexicon of “Global Worldspeak” that they can conjure up, including un-American.  This, in spite of the fact that our group boasts several retired and active service personnel who have fought for their country, professional leaders in the community, and active government personnel in both elective and appointed office in our community.

So, yesterday, August 29th, RUTLAND FIRST conducted a forum to attempt to inform our local legislators, state senators, candidates for higher office, and also the general public. Attended by well over a hundred people, the dynamic presentation was riveting in its focus on facts.  That alone put it in great contrast to the so called forums presented by the Mayor and the settlement agencies, which characteristically were devoid of anything but emotional statements of support. Today the Rutland Herald had not one word on the dramatic presentation—but managed yet another full column welcoming editorial.

Rutland City Treasurer, Wendy Wilton presented some pretty startling financial impact data, including the most shocking prediction based on present and future costs associated with these programs.  When she told the crowd there that based on her calculations, within five years City property taxpayers would be facing an increase of 35%, there were visible signs of multiple jaw dropping in the audience.  With a steadily declining population base in the City, the remaining property taxpayers have been facing the high tax burden with no signs of a break and an ever increasing unmet Pension Benefit obligation.  Recent comparative studies done by the city have shown that based on its population the number of city employees far exceeds other cities in Vermont.  The very dramatic decrease in population has not, however, been met with anywhere near such a proportional drop in personnel.

Gary Shattuck, a local lawyer and a former prosecutor and investigator who worked for the US  Department of Justice in Kosovo and Iraq as a legal advisor, presented a pretty bleak picture of any prospect that Syrian Refugees could be properly vetted, citing many qualified opinions by high level US officials specifically stating that there is no empirical data base left in Syria with which to compare any biometric, historical, or verifiable sociometric information.  In other words, no matter what name they give the fact checkers, there is no data left in Syria to even check that name, let alone relatives, friends, operatives, or terrorists who may or may not have been associated with the applicant.  Shattuck spent substantial time and expertise setting up a system for vetting Iraq’s 850 judges and prosecutors following the breakdown of order in that country to determine if they were, in fact, friend or foe.

David O’Brien, former VT Public Service Commissioner former director of the Rutland Economic Development Corporation (REDC) and presently a consultant in the Energy industry, presented some economic data relevant to the job prospects for refugees, and it was not a pretty picture.  Dave cited the dramatic loss of manufacturing jobs in the entire Rutland Region and the tremendous shift from quality long term employment to a model featuring under-employment and service oriented jobs exclusively.

There were letters at the event to be signed by citizens and presented to the State Department, and a local attorney, Judy Barone, Esq. and Don Chioffi, as Rutland First committee members, presented a stinging letter*** to the local and state legislators demanding that they get answers to all the questions posed at the forum.  Those present left with plenty of finally answered questions and the clear impression, if not a mandate, that this program should be stopped right now, in its tracks, until and as when the cloak of secrecy is removed and Rutland’s ability to assimilate hundreds of refugees is fully justified.

RUTLAND FIRST—-is—-RUTLAND STRONG!

For those of you in ‘pockets of resistance,’ Rutland citizens’ work should serve as a model for you to use to craft strategies where you live.  If you have questions, you can reach Mr. Chioffi at this e-mail address:  donsreelsports@comcast.net

Here is the letter sent today to local and state lawmakers demanding they get answers and express their opposition to a plan created in secrecy! Your local and state elected officials may be telling you they can’t stop the federal government and its NGO contractor, but they sure can add their voices in demanding their constituents be given all the facts and that the federal government follows the law!
Judy Barone PLLC A T T O R N E Y   A T   L A W 976 Meadow Lake Drive, Rutland, Vermont 05701Telephone (802) 775-9886 judy@judybaronelaw.com August 29, 2016
Senator Brian Collamore 124 Patricia Ln., Rutland, VT 0570, bcollamore@leg.state.vt.us
Senator Peg Flory
3011 U.S. Route 7, Pittsford, VT 05763, pflory@leg.state.vt.us
Senator Kevin Mullin 118 Oxyoke Dr., Rutland, VT 05701, kjmbjm@aol.com

Dear Senators:
Mr. Don Chioffi of Rutland Town has worked with me to compose this letter and address you as our State Legislators, understanding your responsibility for representing the people of Rutland City and surrounding communities on matters affecting State Government.
We herein seek your attention and ask for your help to ensure that the Application for Resettlement of Refugees in Rutland is opposed by the State of Vermont for the reason that the Application is flawed.

Mayor Louras’ ‘letter of support’ submitted with the Application was without legal authority from the Rutland Board of Alderman, the governing entity. The Mayor misrepresented himself as having authority to act for the City as the City’s governing entity when nothing was further from the truth. The planning, information about Rutland and ‘letter of support’ signed by the Mayor alone, was done behind the backs of the City’s governing entity (the Board of Aldermen), secretively. The Mayor was not authorized to provide his ‘letter of support’ misrepresenting that the ‘City’ had a cooperative relationship with the Resettlement applicants, which relationship did not exist.

It is important that each of you act quickly on your oath to uphold the law and insure the Mayor’s unauthorized misrepresentations are not relied upon by the State due to lack of your complaint.

A collaborative effort between federal, state and local authorities is required for successful refugee resettlement and the governing entity’s cooperation is required to insure ongoing support. It is the responsibility of the Vermont Agency of Human Services (AHS) (Ms. Lamoureux), to ensure coordination of public and private resources in refugee resettlement in the State of Vermont.  (See; U.S. Code, Title 8 and State Plan for Vermont Refugee Resettlement, AHS Refugee Office, AHS Refugee Office, AUGUST 12, 2017). You may not be aware, but access to Ms. Lamoureax has not been possible on this issue and it needs to be made clear that the State of Vermont will not support the flawed application, and the secretive process under which it was orchestrated, planned and submitted.

We ask that each of you make clear to the Governor and Ms. Lamoureax and the State’s Agency of Human Services (AHS) AND our U.S. Senators that no resettlement can or should be approved for Rutland on the pending flawed Application being there is no support or cooperation of the Rutland City’s governing entity. The Board of Aldermen has been denied information it has sought including   a copy of the FULL Application to examine and vet the facts represented about Rutland (apparently provided by some people in Dorset Vermont) upon which the Application will be judged.

Failing your intervention under the power of your offices, the Application, as flawed as it is, could be funded anytime in September even where it fundamentally fails to meet the requirements of Federal law and the Vermont Plan for Refugee Resettlement. Your surveillance and intervention is urgent and important to assure nothing is funded and the State is not called upon if the Application has not met the required standards in the law.

Failure on your part to intervene could well be interpreted as your support for the flawed Application and the secretive process that has left Rutland City and the City’s government in disorder and confusion. There is division, fear and mistrust in the City’s government and in our community concerning how government has acted.

Should you have information different than we herein represent, we ask that each of you please contact me or Don Chioffi and explain. On behalf of the people we write soliciting each of you to help us protect our government under the rule of law and afford the cities in our state the  process instrumental to good governance .

Kindly copy me with any correspondence you have with AHS and the Governor, U.S. Senators, and others on this request made of you.

Thank you for your anticipated quick attention to this matter as it is urgent before the Application is decided on facts not vetted for accuracy about Rutland.  If you can obtain the full Application, we ask that you send that to us, too. We anxiously await your work, your questions and your replies. Very truly yours, Judy Barone /jb cc:  Mr. Don Chioffi

Representative William Canfield 12 Pine St., Fair Haven, VT 05743, wcanfield@leg.state.vt.us
Representative Stephen Carr P.O. Box 206, Brandon, VT 05733, scarr@leg.state.vt.us
Representative Thomas Burdett 1118 Clarendon Ave., West Rutland, VT 05777, tburditt@leg.state.vt.us
Representative Lawrence Cupoli 57 Piedmont Pond Road, Rutland, VT 05701, lcupoli@leg.state.vt.us
Representative Peter J. Fagan 17 Clinton Ave., Rutland, VT 05701, pfagan@leg.state.vt.us
Representative Douglas Gage 41 Hazel St., Rutland, VT 05701, dgage@leg.state.vt.us
Representative Robert Helm 647 Route 4A East, Fair Haven, VT 05743, rhelm@leg.state.vt.us
Representative Patricia McCoy 1392 High Rd., Poultney, VT 05764, pmccoy@leg.state.vt.us
Representative David Potter 462 East Tinmouth Rd., West Rutland, VT 05777, dpotter@leg.state.vt.us
Representative Herbert Russell 188 State St., Rutland, VT 05701, hrussell@leg.state.vt.us
Representative Butch Shaw 910 Markowski Rd., Florence, VT 05744, bshaw@leg.state.vt.us
Representative Job Tate, 111 Birchwood Dr. #6, Mendon, VT 05701, jtate@leg.state.vt.us
Representative Tom Terenzini 34B Chasanna Dr., Rutland, VT 05701, tterenzini@leg.state.vt.us


https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2016/08/30/news-from-rutland-vt-a-guest-column-by-a-rutland-firster/

Muslim Food Stamp Fraud Md

HUGE! Food stamp fraud bust in Baltimore, check out the names, see a pattern? by Ann Corcoran on August 30, 2016

I haven’t written about food stamp fraud in awhile, but darn it I wish someone would!

If you don’t know how trafficking in EBT benefits works, I’m going to send you to dozens and dozens of posts I’ve written on the subject over the years, click here. Thanks to my friend Diana for bringing this gigantic one to my attention.

Mayor Rawlings-Blake with her pals at Islamic Relief USA. She has been a leading proponent of bringing more Muslim refugees to Baltimore.

From CBS Baltimore: 14 arrests and $16 MILLION fraudulently obtained by trafficking in food stamps.  Are these stores part of Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s highly touted immigrant entrepreneur project?

Here are the names of those arrested (see a pattern?):
Walayat Khan, 36, of Reisterstown
Barbara Ann Duke, 50, of Owings Mills
Shaheen Tasewar Hussain, 60, of Ellicott City
Kelym Novas Perez, 34, of Baltimore
Jose Remedio Gonzalez Reyes, 50, of Baltimore
Mulazam Hussain, 54, of Windsor Mill
Mahmood Hussain Shah, 57, of Catonsville
Muhammad Rafiq, 58, of Reisterstown
Mohammad Shafiq, 50, of Gwynn Oak, Maryland; and his daughter,
Alia Shaheen, 24, of Baltimore
Mohammad Irfan, 59, of Nottingham
Muhammad Sarmad, 40, of Nottingham
Rizwan Pervez, 38, of Essex
Kassem Mohammad Hafeed, a/k/a Kassam Mohammad Hafeed, 51, of Baltimore

I swear this is connected to the Investor visa program and it makes me wonder if they have training programs abroad in how to buy convenience stores in the US and rip off the dumb (infidel) Americans!

How much do you want to bet some of your $16 million left the country!


https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2016/08/30/huge-food-stamp-fraud-bust-in-baltimore-check-out-the-names-see-a-pattern/