caulfield12

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 1, 2017 -> 02:27 PM) My hometown holds a pretty cool historical distinction. Because of a massive middle eastern migration we had a huge population push come to us primarily for work in the Haskel Barker and then Pullman Standard train car factory starting in the 1880s, but really up until the Great Depression. We had a big push especially from Syria. At one point we had the largest middle eastern population of anywhere in the WORLD outside of the actual middle east. Our first mosque was built in 1924 primarily from donations from Syrian and Lebanese workers. It was literally one of the very first Shia mosques built anywhere in the US. The first Islamic society in my hometown was established in 1914. I quite literally have 100+ years of history of Islam in my home town. Assimilation? Uh yeah. Absolutely. All of the multi-generational families I grew up with you barely knew they were Muslims. Because of this we still draw new immigrants to the area because they know there is a support system already in place, so they know they have some institutions that will help them adapt to the culture. In that time frame, you know how many terror attacks I have seen? Guess. I worked in Indonesia in 2013 as a consultant helping to place top students from there into the US and they really had a strong network of homestay families in Pittsburgh, fwiw. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, suffered the Bali nightclub attack about a decade ago...not a peep about them in these conversations. Of course, Trump has an international hotel there, as well.

QUOTE (brett05 @ Feb 1, 2017 -> 09:50 AM) can't decide if this is serious So the last 18 months for both parties from now on? 21 months?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act How about 61 years of denying Chinese immigration? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exc...cph.3b48680.jpg

That categorical stance is new in the nation’s history, the professors, Robin Bradley Kar and Jason Mazzone, wrote in a study published online by The New York University Law Review. The Senate has never before transferred a president’s appointment power in comparable circumstances to an unknown successor, they said — an argument that many Democratic lawmakers have also made. In every one of the 103 earlier Supreme Court vacancies, the professors wrote, the president was able to both nominate and appoint a replacement with the Senate’s advice and consent. This did not always happen on the first try, they wrote, but it always happened. “There really is something unique about the position Republican senators are taking with respect to the Scalia vacancy,” said Professor Mazzone, who teaches at the University of Illinois. “You really cannot find any single comparable case,” he said. “We really did not find any precedent for the idea, notwithstanding the Senate’s very broad powers in this area, that a sitting president could be denied outright the authority to offer up a nominee who would receive evaluation through normal Senate processes.” https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/14/us/polit...rland.html?_r=0

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/31/politics/ste...tion/index.html Stephen Miller might be even scarier... Defending the policy Monday, Miller told CBS the move would "make sure that people entering our country truly love and support the United States of America." If only they wore American Flag lapel pins that played a medley of Lee Greenwwood favorites.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Feb 1, 2017 -> 08:25 AM) I know, it's just weird to hear. I also don't think he considers himself a Leninist. I saw the other day someone call him a Leninist Communist. No. He just liked how Lenin used a Vanguard party to tear an old system down. I'm sure outside of that he thinks Lenin was the devil. Why let 'em in? Bannon explained his worldview well before it became official US policy https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ban...m=.2ea890a6deba

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix...m=.e18905b3484e The Democrats are in real danger of overplaying their hand right now

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Jan 31, 2017 -> 11:48 PM) And...? Are you really just programmed to react to anything that even slightly challenges your worldview with "beep boop white male beep bopp"? And if you dont like white males why in god's name are you in Seattle, WA? It really does not get any white male-ier than Seattle. What changes would you suggest? http://www.christianpost.com/news/refugee-...3905/print.html Note the source. Donald Trump and Steve Bannon's coup in the making http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/01/opinions/ban...hiat/index.html

Battling Gorsuch is probably a no-go. https://mobile.twitter.com/mcuban/status/826600139158609921 Mark Cuban wants the Dems to negotiate with Trump for quick confirmation where he would then give up the immigration ban, get rid of a Cabinet choice or border wall, etc. Molly Knight the idea of a trade is interesting. Tho how do you measure the impact of short term racist AG vs. long-term anti-woman SCOTUS nom?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/trumps-immig...-212742523.html US international student market is $35 billion and climbing. That's enough to build three walls that's now being jeopardized, not to mention the loss of all that intellectual talent that will now likely end up supporting the future progress of countries/regions competing or even potentially targeting the U.S. It will also mean the bankruptcy of a number of schools, which will inevitably lead back to more for-profit/online universities that prey upon the poor and ex-veterans. Among the countries listed on the temporary ban, Iranian students, in particular, make up a bulk of foreign students studying in the US. Students from Iran increased by 8.2% between 2015 and 2016 — hitting 12,269 students, the highest US enrollment by Iranians in 29 years, according to IIE. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ban...m=.406d0cacafe2 In interviews with reporters since Trump’s election, Bannon has eschewed the traditional it’s-all-about-the-boss humility of presidential staffers. “Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power,” he told the Hollywood Reporter in November, embracing the comparisons of him to those figures. In the same interview, Bannon compared himself to a powerful aide to England’s Henry VIII — an aide who helped engineer a world-shaking move of his era, the split of the Church of England from the Catholic Church. "I am Thomas Cromwell in the court of the Tudors,” Bannon told the Hollywood Reporter.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-jewish-ir...=1hNZpbT0pYUDA1 Joshua Brown CEO at Ritholtz Wealth Management United StatesFinancial Services To my Jewish, Irish, Asian and Italian friends, let’s remember: Your ancestors were lower than dirt when they arrived here. Italians were referred to – openly – as a subhuman race of rats and criminals. Irishmen were apes and monkeys. Laws were passed to keep Chinese women out of the country, so that the Chinese males who were brought over for menial labor couldn’t produce offspring. Jews were spat upon in the streets and routinely excluded from polite society. Unhire-able. Undesirable. Laws were passed to allow for the mass discrimination and segregation of your great grandparents, not much more than a century ago...

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 31, 2017 -> 04:33 PM) Feds detain Katy High School student from Jordan following President Trump's immigration ban On first read, thought they meant the prophet Muhammad wasn't from Saudia Arabia. Crazy stuff, yet somehow not surprising coming out of Texas.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 31, 2017 -> 03:55 PM) There is likely even more horrible s*** coming down the pipe (sewage) line from Trump/Bannon on immigration. A leaked Trump order suggests he’s planning to deport more legal immigrants for using social services Well, THAT'S not going to create another huge government bureaucracy. Another version of the "death panel" that the GOP has warned about for 20+ years with health care management. Yet it will be politically popular with all those Trumpicans who only see immigrants and/or minorities as having babies/free hospital services (increasing costs for "good" people), predominantly substance abusers, all applying for welfare/wic/tanf and largely unmotivated to work, yet driving around in 2017 Cadillacs/BMW's with the latest iphone and abusing food stamps to buy alcohol or liquor (well, trading purchases for those items), etc. Of course we will never address those addicted to oxy or meth in Appalachia or the Rust Belt with many of the same social services needs because we pretend they don't exist or because they're largely white.

MERKEL MEETS WITH GERMAN CEOS TO ADDRESS 99.97% UNEMPLOYMENT AMONG "HIGHLY UNQUALIFIED" MIGRANTS Thu, 09/15/2016 - 11:30 EDT - Zero Hedge fail Germany Middle East ratings RDF10 REUTERS unemployment It's been a bad couple of months for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose approval ratings have fallen sharply over her continued support of open-border immigration policies that have allowed over 1 million refugees to flow into the country since 2015. Increasingly more Germans have blamed Merkel for the surge in refugee terrorist attacks over the past couple of months and have shifted their support to more nationalist-leaning political parties. In fact, just a few weeks ago Merkel suffered a massive, embarrassing defeat in her home state to her nemesis, the anti-immigation AfD party (see "Merkel Stunned By Defeat To Anti-Immigrant Party In Her Home State"). Alas, despite calls from voters for a shift in Germany's immigration policies, Merkel continues to double down. One of the original selling points for accepting migrants from the Middle East was the apparent economic "benefits" associated with adding 100,000s of new, young consumers/laborers to the German economy. In fact, the wave of new immigrants was sold as the perfect solution for Germany's demographic dilemma which is expected to see its working-age population shrink by 6 million people by 2030. While it sounded like a great plan, it doesn't really work that well if new migrants fail to find jobs and become economically productive members of society which, according to Reuters, is exactly what is happening. Apparently, German companies have only been able to find jobs for about 100 of the 1 million migrants that have recently found their way into the country. According to the latest figures from the German Labor Office, about 346,000 people with asylum status were seeking jobs in Germany in August. With 100 migrants actually employed, that's an unemployment rate of about 99.97%. http://www.bullfax.com/?q=node-merkel-meet...employment-amon

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 31, 2017 -> 10:01 AM) I agree. At the end of the day a lot of reasonable moderates and Republicans are getting lumped with the Trump Train. These are people who will play a large role in how our country moves forward. 2 years from now they are going to be the people that could make a change. Trump made promises about jobs, about the economy etc, and some voters saw the "good" in those ideas and didnt necessarily believe all of the potential "bad" about Trump. Its only been approximately 2 weeks, but as of now, Trump has been focusing on the ideas that, I believe, most moderates consider "bad", while a the same time completely ignoring other issues that seemed "good". And I truly believe this is where his inexperience and lack of understanding the system come into play. The election was a battle, he came out on top, but he should have started with some sort of conciliatory position to blunt the opposition. Then over time you slowly drop the sledgehammer. 1993-94 Gays in the military and Health Care reform brings about Republican Revolution/Gingrich/Contract With America 2009-10 Getting bogged down in Health Care reform and not focusing as much on the economy dooms Dems again...also struggled with infrastructure bill and its price tag Lesson...take on the easier steps going after things that have close to universal consensus, like lowering drug prices, helping small businesses, cutting out regulations/reforming the tax code, figuring out ways to lower corporate taxes while simultaneously bringing more multinational company profits back into the US for taxation so at worst remaining revenue neutral, maintaining most popular elements of ACA and not repealing without a replacement, not threatening to restart Roe v. Wade argument all over again or culture wars about gay rights/marriage/bathroom access, etc. Don't even dream of building a wall...the threat was enough to get taken seriously now.

Fwiw, as an aside, I'd highly recommend reading either "What is the What?" (about The Lost Boys of Sudan) as well as "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers to get a better feel for issues confronting new immigrants/refugees in the US. Cinematically, The Good Lie (Reese Witherspoon) and a much more poignant recent movie, Lion (Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara), also deal with assimilation issues and essentially force you to think about the problem from the perspective of the families involved, which takes it quickly from a numbers/analytical policy argument to a personalized moral and ethical one.

The Trump administration just fired the first shot in the US-European currency, and thus trade, wars when Trump's top trade advisor Peter Navarro accused Germany of using a “grossly undervalued” euro to "exploit the US and its EU partners", the FT reported noting the comments are"likely to trigger alarm in Europe’s largest economy." News of the statement sent the EURUSD surging and the dollar tumbling to fresh 2 month lows. Navarro, the head of Mr Trump’s new National Trade Council, told the Financial Times the euro was like an “implicit Deutsche Mark” whose low valuation gave Germany an advantage over its main partners. While not necessarily novel - Germany has often been accused of being the biggest winner from a weak euro at the expense of peripherla Europe - his views suggest the new administration is focusing on currency as part of its hard-charging approach on trade ties, according to the FT. Furthermore, virtually assuring a deterioration in US-German relations, and in a departure from past US policy, Navarro also called Germany one of the main hurdles to a US trade deal with the EU and declared talks with the bloc over a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership dead.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 31, 2017 -> 07:18 AM) This is where people have zero idea of history. Your mention of the "refusal to assimilate" couldn't be more normal in terms of history. Heck go all of the way back to colonial times. Religious groups struck out on their own. Ever heard of the Pligrims? How about the Quakers? The Amish? The Mormons too. Ethnic groups were no different. Indians, Africans, Irish, Chinese, Japanese, Jews, Germans, over time were some of the more prominent targets. Typically these groups came here in search of something new, and met with resistance because they didn't speak English and their customs offended the people who were already assimilated. The first generations usually didn't try to blend. They stayed in their ethnic neighborhoods, spoke the old language, kept the old customs, and never really became "American's" Many even turned to crime to make their way as traditional ways were closed to these groups. Whether it was the "Irish Need Not Apply" or the redlining of entire cities to keep the undesirables in their own places such as Chinatown and Little Italy, it has been done over our whole history. But every, single, time an amazing thing happened. The second generation started to leave that behind. They spoke English outside of the house, and spoke the native tongue in it. They picked up American customs, and turned to education as their way out of the neighborhoods. By the third generations it might only be a last name that would sell out an ethnic background. By the 4th and 5th generations, the ethnic identities faded to the point they were really of the old world anymore, they were Americans first, and something else later. The incredible part of that is that it was all voluntary. It wasn't like Soviet Russia where assimilation was forced, or Nazi Germany where the undesirables were just disposed of. People became Americans because they wanted to be Americans. The greatness of America has always been that people, no matter where they came from, always turned into Americans in a matter of a couple of generations. Pretty much unless we put the boot of discrimination on their necks, the transition has been seamless. With the banning of Muslims of certain countries coming to the United States, nothing has really changed. These elements have always held power in the United States, and they have always hid under the veil of trying to save us from the latest group we should be scared of. At times, they got enough power to make lives miserable for their targets. We banned the Chinese from immigrating at times. We rounded up the Japanese and put them into interment camps. We tried to send the Africans back to Africa. Despite all of this, these groups have still turned into Americans over time. I am here today to tell you that using history as my guide, Muslims won't be any different. Give America a couple of generations with these immigrants, and while you might have a few bad apples, they will be fat and lazy Americans in two generations. To me that is the ultimate victory. Our culture and society is so incredible that it wins out, and it wins out voluntarily. If we ever get to the point where this history stops, THAT is when we quit being great. You want proof? My hometown is FULL of Syrian refugees and immigrants that haven't blown up any buildings. They haven't used a single suicide vest. Guess what, they have been coming here for over a century just for the opportunity to work. So while some want to live in fear of the latest boogeyman group, history tells me that fear is wasted. Quit being scared of immigrants. Don't live your life in fear. The ultimate in living scared is trying to hide from other cultures. You want to make American great? Learn from your history instead of being scared and wrong. Very well said. One of the few failures has been the Native American cultures, but the highest poverty rates have always shadowed those who remained on the reservations and away from the cities/mainstream "melting pot" culture (eg., Boone County, SD, Oglala Sioux). Too complicated to get into here, largely because it's not analogous to what's going on today. http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trum...ss-order-234392 Republican House staffers worked on immigration plan in total secrecy Trump's trade adviser is now accusing Germany of manipulating their currency lower (devaluing) to gain an unfair trade advantage. Seems Trump's goal is to wipe out Merkel, who was the only world leader to really confront him strongly about the immigration ban and lecture him about violating the Geneva Convention agreement regarding treatment of refugees.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/opinion/...region&_r=0 Make China Great Again Copy of State Department Dissent Channel Draft (5 pages) https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/...issent-Memo.pdf

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 30, 2017 -> 12:41 PM) Philippine police suspend drug war to tackle corruption Head of national police force says anti-drugs units will be disbanded until 'rogue' officers have been 'cleansed'. A South Korean businessman was murdered by one of Dutert's death squads. In all fairness, Angeles City is one of the seediest places on earth...but that doesn't make him a drug dealer. No love lost between the Koean and Pinoy community, who feel Koreans exploit their women, disrespect their culture and mostly drive up condo prices. Fwiw, Duterte claims only 40% of his police are corrupt in the Phils and the anti-drug crusade will last until 2020 or 2022 depending on his whims. South Korean Jee Ick-Joo, a businessman, along with his house helper, was reportedly kidnapped by two unidentified men from Jee's residence in Angeles, Pampanga on October 18, 2016. After their arrest, the kidnappers—who turned out to be members of the PNP—accused Jee of being involved in the illegal drug trade.[2] On October 21, 2016, after being released by the kidnappers, the housemaid, accompanied by Jee's wife, approached Raffy Tulfo's program Wanted sa Radyo and reported that her boss was indeed involved in illegal drugs, carrying with her a copy of a search warrant from a Quezon City court; Tulfo later sent the two to Camp Crame, where Tulfo passed the maid to the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group to be given protection.[citation needed] Jee's wife, Choi Kyung-jin, made the statement that the kidnappers demanded a ransom of ₱8 million, and later another ₱5 million on October 30, 2016. She said she did not give the kidnappers the ₱5 million when they failed to present proof that Jee was still alive.[2] The house helper was released the day after she and Jee were kidnapped.[3] Philippine authorities held an investigation into Jee's death, the result of which was relayed to South Korean authorities. The result of the investigation stated that Jee died due to strangulation, on the same day he was kidnapped, within the grounds of Camp Crame of the Philippine National Police.[4] On January 17, 2017, the National Bureau of Investigation went to a funeral parlor in Caloocan where the body of Jee Ick-Joo was believed to have been brought.[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_..._of_Jee_Ick-Joo Jee Ick-Joo's wife said that eight armed men, including SPO3 Ricky Santa Isabel, who is linked to the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group, were involved in the kidnapping. She alleged that the group took their personal property, including jewelry and passports. Jee's househelper was also named as a suspect by the Angeles city police after she was found to have used a false name and been working at Jee's household for only two days.[5] The house helper is the main witness in the case.[3]

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Jan 30, 2017 -> 09:25 PM) Here's where you're kind of wrong/kind of right. Somali refugees in Minneapolis/St Paul have had some serious difficulties assimilating and there was an attack by a Somali on a mall that was "claimed" by ISIS. About thirty Somalis from Minnesota, permanent residents the lot, left the country to join ISIS or similar organizations back in Somalia, and that's just who the intelligence community knows about or is willing admit. Then there have been the serious gang problems and sexual assaults, very similar to the issues the European countries are having assimilating their immigrants. How much of this has to do with willful refusal to assimilate by the Somalis or ghettoizing by native Minnesotans is impossible to pin down exactly, but its probably a little bit of both at least. To paint all refugees as angels is a delusional. To paint them all as terrorists is ignorant. But to deny that there is something about Islam that seems to prevent it from fully assimilating its people in western countries is just a blatant refusal to acknowledge facts. All of Western Europe is a case study in this regard, and its one I want our leaders to learn and understand before they act on the refugee issue. We have enough social unrest as it is, inviting more in isn't good for the people already here. Libya is on the list already. And you can trace "lots of terrorism and its principal funding" to Lebanon? Uhhh...that'd be news to me. Hezbollah isnt a terror group, really. I mean Israel says they are and our government has a tradition of agreeing with them on those types of things, but that's a quasi-government representing Shia Muslims in that region. Lebanon is an extremely complicated country. You'd think the hubris would've been gone after Brexit and the November elections...guess not. Kind of a general response to everything I missed... http://www.inc.com/jeremy-quittner/silicon...ion-reform.html http://www.economist.com/news/business/215...ca-jobs-machine http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/defa...0413_WBC422.png American entrepreneurialism in California/Silicon Valley would be seriously hurting without one million workers from China and India alone, not to mention MA/PHD programs in the STEM subjects. Ali Abdi I am an Iranian PhD student at Yale Uni. Now overseas to do research. Trump's EO might prevent me from returning to the US! #MuslimBan You stay in Iran and help the cave people over there. We will be OK without you. Ali Abdi, a 30-year-old student from Iran, has been studying for his PhD in anthropology at Yale University, and had left the U.S. last week for the United Arab Emirates on his way to a research trip in Afghanistan. Now Abdi, who has been living in the U.S. for the last four years, is unsure what to do. He cannot return to Iran, where he faces potential imprisonment for his political activism. His visa for the UAE won’t allow him to stay there for long, nor does he have permission for an extended stay in Afghanistan. Most seriously, under Trump’s new order, he can no longer return to the U.S. to finish his studies. Abdi is trying to be philosophical. “I’m not worried about anything... From an anthropological perspective I can write a lot,” he said in a telephone interview. “What has happened is very illuminating. The main problem is the lives of thousands of others who are torn apart by what happened.”

As predicted... President Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates Monday night for "refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States," the White House said. "(Yates) has betrayed the Department of Justice," the White House statement said.

Now Trump will fire Obama's Attorney General and the battle over the Jeff Sessions appointment really intensifies...but still unlikely the GOP senators would block him. No way to filibuster it. Between that and SC nomination fight starting tmrw...uncharted waters in terms of the Constitution (if Sessions somehow wasn't approved or it continues to be delayed past the end of this week) and legal battles to sort this out somehow.

At least three top national security officials — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Rex Tillerson, who is awaiting confirmation to lead the State Department — have told associates they were not aware of details of directive until around the time Trump signed it. Leading intelligence officials were also left largely in the dark, according to U.S. officials. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker (and interviewed for Secretary of State), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, said that despite White House assurances that congressional leaders were consulted, he learned about the order in the media. The fallout was immediate: friction between Trump and his top advisers and a rush by the Pentagon to seek exemptions to the policy. The White House approach also sparked an unusually public clash between a president and the civil servants tasked with carrying out his policy. A large group of American diplomats circulated a memo voicing their opposition to the order, which temporarily halted the entire U.S. refugee program and banned all entries from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days. In a startlingly combative response, White House spokesman Sean Spicer challenged those opposed to the measure to resign. "They should either get with the program or they can go," Spicer said. The blowback underscored Trump's tenuous relationship with his own national security advisers, many of whom he met for the first time during the transition, as well as with the government bureaucracy he now leads. While Trump outlined his plan for temporarily halting entry to the U.S. from countries with terror ties during the campaign, the confusing way in which it finally was crafted stunned some who have joined his team. Mattie, who stood next to Trump during Friday's signing ceremony, is said to be particularly incensed. A senior U.S. official said Mattis, along with Joint Chiefs Chairman Joseph Dunford, was aware of the general concept of Trump's order but not the details. Tillerson has told the president's political advisers that he was baffled over not being consulted on the substance of the order.

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Jan 30, 2017 -> 06:09 PM) This was basically, though obviously not exactly, what was being said in October. Reminds me of that now infamous quote from Chuck Schumer (? may have been someone else) who said that for every one vote lost in rural Pennsylvania the Democrats would pick up two in the Philadelphia suburbs. It didn't happen, Trump gained on both fronts. He beat Romney's total in Pennsylvania by almost 300,000. Every dumb comment or outlandish policy position that was supposed to doom him with the Republican base fell flat, and now that he is fulfilling campaign promises at a rate I have never seen from any president you think he's losing their support? No way. He was elected to do this. The wall, the expansion of Obama's policies regarding refugees in MENA*...this is his mandate. The courts are going to walk back some of it (mainly the religious part) but the core idea that refugees will not be coming the USA is going to stick. For at least four, and I think unless Democrats buck up and get their s*** together eight, years this is just the reality of the situation. Honestly, that is not some colossal human rights violation or Hitleresque movement. Europe is in demographic crisis right now, I can fully understand both sides of the refugee argument. *this is a difficult point to refute. The Trump Admin got the list of seven countries directly from the Obama Admin's concern list. The ban itself is clearly modeled after the 2011 Iraqi ban. I said Trump resurrected Obama's policy earlier, that was a bit much, expanding is probably the right word to describe what is happening. He is expanding not only in scope but also in intensity. Except there has never been an act of domestic terrorism in the US committed by refugees from any of those countries. Zero. Ever. Nada. Why not Saudia Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, UAE, Libya? We can trace lots of terrorism and its principal funding to those places. Not to mention Qatar and Bahrain. If you're actually correct, then 50% of America is afraid of itself, as we are all immigrants. Or simply afraid of non-white, non-Christian immigrants. Our ancestors once were first-generation at Ellis Island at some point...are we not??? At any rate, I believe the number of those living in fear (mostly white males with lower levels of education) to be closer to 25%, so we'll just have to agree to disagree as there's no quantitative proof available to settle it. The fact of the matter is that you can't go through any Silicon Valley tech start-up since 1994 and find a list of founders that's not 1/4th to 1/3rd immigrants. Where do you think America will get its future job/economic growth if not through properly-vetted immigration and the high tech industry? Right now, only Peter Thiel is on Trump's side. He's going to need more cooperation than that if he wants to make any progress. As far as the European crisis goes, Trump might be forcing them to unite and rally together...if Merkel loses in Germany and le Pen's party wins in France, sure, but that's still far from the likeliest outcome barring another major terrorist attack in the heart of Europe.