Showing posts with label Australia-US relations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia-US relations. Show all posts

Sunday 29 January 2017

Where Australians stand when it comes to Trump's travel/immigration bans of 27 January 2017


At 30 June 2015, 28.2% of Australia's estimated resident population (ERP) (6.7 million people) was born overseas [Australian Bureau of Statistics, Estimated Resident Population by Country of Birth, 30 June 1992 to 2015]

Of these a total of 166,310 individuals born in the listed countries are potentially affected by the U.S. travel/immigration ban by presidential order on 27 January 2017 [PROTECTING THE NATION FROM FOREIGN TERRORIST ENTRY INTO THE UNITED STATES]:

Iran 53,510
Iraq 68,180
Libya 2,510
Sudan 23,380
South Sudan 4,410
Syria 13,660
Yemen 660

When one adds to this an unknown number of Australians who have travelled to these countries since 1 July 2011 and face the possibility of being denied a U.S. tourist or work visa on that basis, the number of Australia citizens and permanent residents potentially affected grows.

Smartraveller.gov.au:

Changes to entry requirements from 27 January 2017


The US State Department has advised visa issuance to nationals of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen has been temporarily suspended following the signing of the Executive Order on Protecting the Nation from Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals on 27 January 2017.

Australians who are dual citizens of Iran, Iraq, Sudan, or Syria are no longer eligible to apply for an ESTA to enter the United States under the VWP. Any of these Australians who have previously been issued an ESTA are likely to have the ESTA revoked.

Australians who have travelled to Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen since 1 March 2011 will also no longer be eligible to apply for an ESTA to enter the United States under the VWP.
If you are affected by these changes and wish to travel to the United States, you will need to apply for a non-immigrant visa at a US Embassy or Consulate. Exceptions from these travel restrictions will be made for Australians who have travelled on official Australian Defence Force or Australian Government business. No exceptions will be made for government officials or ADF members who are dual citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan.

The Secretary of Homeland Security may waive these travel restrictions on a case by case basis for travellers from the following categories: Australians who have travelled on behalf on international organisations, regional organisations or State and Territory governments on official duty; Australians who have travelled on behalf of a humanitarian NGO; Australian journalists who have travelled for reporting purposes; Australians who have travelled to Iran for legitimate business-related purposes following the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on 14 July 2015; or Australians who have travelled to Iraq for legitimate business-related purposes. Those travellers who are potentially eligible for waivers do not need to apply separately for this – an application will be automatically generated by the ESTA questionnaire.

For further information regarding the changes, visit the Embassy of the United States of America in Australia, the United States Department of State Visa Information or the United States Customs and Border Protection website. You should also speak to your nearest US Embassy or Consulate for further assistance on visa applications.

If you need to apply for a non-immigrant visa, the United States Visa Information Service for Australia encourages applicants to apply at least three months in advance of the intended date of travel.

Sunday 18 December 2016

Just the sheer size and reach of the Trump Organisation's business interests has implications for U.S. foreign policy


For the last eighteen months in particular there has been media comment on the extensive business interests of U.S. president-elect Donald John Trump.

Since the November 2016 presidential election focus has intensified.

However, the U.S. Constitution drawn up in a simpler century teflon coats presidents - never having envisioned the likes of  Donald Trump.

The reach of Trump’s business interests are said to reach as far as Australia.

Given the man doesn’t seem to understand that the only ethical course would be to divest himself entirely of his business interests by placing them in a genuine blind trust not run by family members, close friends or business partners, so that both America and the world can have a measure of confidence in the his decision making as president, one can only look aghast at the potential for these business interests to fatally infect his presidency and U.S. foreign policy.

In July 2015 Donald Trump disclosed 515 U.S. and foreign corporations or partnerships in which he was either president, partner, chair, director, secretary, member and/or shareholder.

Forbes, 17 August 2015:

Under “Our Hotels” on the Trump Hotel Collection website, it lists six domestic hotels and six international hotels…..
The other hotels abroad are in Toronto, Doonbeg, Ireland, Vancouver, and Baku, Azerbaijan. (Toronto and Vancouver also have a Trump Tower.)
On the website for the Trump Real Estate Collection, nine international properties are listed, including two Trump Towers in India and one in Istanbul, another in Uruguay and another in the Philippines, as well as a Trump World in South Korea, among others.

Donald Trump has an interest in more than 30 U.S. properties, roughly half of which have debt on them according to The New York Times on 20 August 2016:

Debt on properties Mr. Trump owns or leases
PROPERTY
LOCATION
DEBT OUTSTANDING
40 Wall Street
Manhattan
157,400,000
Trump International Hotel*
Washington
127,000,000
Trump National Doral golf resort
Miami
125,000,000
Trump Tower
Manhattan
100,000,000
Trump International Hotel
Chicago
45,000,000
167 East 61st Street
Manhattan
14,500,000
Trump Park Avenue
Manhattan
12,495,000
Trump National Golf Club
Colts Neck, N.J.
11,700,000
4-8 East 57th Street "Niketown"
Manhattan
10,600,000
Seven Springs estate
Mount Kisco, N.Y.
8,000,000
Trump National Golf Club Washington
Potomac Falls, Va.
7,600,000
Trump International Hotel and Tower
Manhattan
7,000,000
Trump International Hotel**
Las Vegas
3,200,000
1094 South Ocean Boulevard
Palm Beach, Fla.
250,000
124 Woodbridge Road
Palm Beach, Fla.
250,000
*This construction loan was for $170 million. The Trump Organization and Times sources confirm roughly $127 million has been drawn down on.
**This loan was worth $110 million in 2010. The Trump Organization says a Trump entity is responsible for $3.2 million of the debt outstanding. The Times could not confirm this.
Debt associated with Mr. Trump's limited partnerships/investments
PROPERTY
LOCATION
  PRC  OWNED
DEBT OUTSTANDING
1290 Avenue of the Americas
Manhattan
30
950,000,000
555 California Street
San Francisco
30
589,000,000
Starrett City / Spring Creek Towers
Brooklyn
4
410,000,000
Other:
An internal Trump Organization corporate loan, which Mr. Trump says is worth more than $50 million.
Sources: RedVision Systems, Securities and Exchange Commission, New York Times, Bloomberg data, Trump Organization.
The New York Times compiled these debt estimates using bank documents, public filings and through interviews with the Trump Organization and people familiar with the debt who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on the record about it.

The bulk of these liabilities appear to consist of mortgages maturing between 2016 and 2029.

The Washington Post, 16 September 2016:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection records, compiled by ImportGenius.com since 2007, give us a look at what has been imported by many of the businesses that are owned by Trump or use his name via licensing deals.

Trump has imported from the countries coloured red and many of the products bearing Donald Trump’s name appear to come from low-wage countries in East Asia.

Vodka
Trump licensed his name to the Israeli vodka after a 2011 legal battle. Unlike the original Trump vodka made in Holland, the new version was popular as one of the few liquors that’s kosher for Passover.
Barware
Made by a crystal company in a small town in Slovenia, its first entry into the U.S. market.
Ties
Made in countries such as China and sold on Amazon.com in nearly 200 patterns and sizes.
Mirrors
Made in China.
Accessories
Including cuff links, belts and eyeglasses made in China and other countries.
Fragrance
Trump’s cologne has been manufactured in and out of the United States.
Clothing
Trump makes his clothing line abroad. The manufacturers are generally scattered throughout East Asia and Central America.
Chandeliers and lamps
Some of these products retail for more than $4,000. Made in China.
Furniture
Trump Home sells furniture to consumers made in Germany and Turkey, but his own hotels often get furniture from massive distributors such as the multinational IHS Global Alliance.

Monday 21 November 2016

So you thought Donald Trump would have no immediate effect on Australian politics?


So you thought US president-elect Donald J. Trump and his transition team would have no immediate effect on Australian politics?

Well here is the privately educated, multi-millionaire son of a wealthy father, Prime Minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull echoing and aligning himself with the privately educated, billionaire son of a wealthy father Donald John Trump and the GOP presidential election machine, by referring disparagingly to “elite media” in this ABC News article of 14 November 2016:

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has criticised the "elite media" for not focusing on the public's real concerns, citing President-elect Donald Trump's campaign focus on the economy.
The Prime Minister made the comments when pressed by 7.30 host Leigh Sales on recent polling.
Mr Turnbull, who cited poor polling when he ousted his predecessor Tony Abbott, said the focus should be on issues instead of opinion.

"I would have thought after this last election in the United States that people might focus less on the polls and less on the opinions of commentators on the ABC and other elite media outlets, and focus instead on what people are actually saying," he said.
                                                                         
"Everyone's got slightly different concerns, but a big common factor is concern about economic security.
"One of [Donald Trump's] compelling arguments to many Americans was that he was going to make America great again.
"He was going to do that by driving economic growth."….

Mr Turnbull also criticised the ABC for ongoing debate over the Racial Discrimination Act during the 7.30 interview.
The Government has set up a parliamentary inquiry into the laws to examine whether they impose any limits on free speech and to recommend any amendments.
When asked whether this was a concern for everyday Australians, Mr Turnbull said it was the media who were focused on the law.
"18C is talked about constantly on the ABC, constantly in what's often called the elite media," he said.
"I've focused overwhelmingly on the economy."
Eighteen Coalition MPs spoke on the issue during last week's partyroom meeting, ahead of the Prime Minister announcing the inquiry's establishment.

Monday 14 November 2016

Trump's America: and so it begins.....


This is what that brutish, openly racist, divisive braggart, the U.S. president-elect Donald J. Trump, has unleashed........

Raw Story, 12 November 2016:

A Los Angeles area substitute teacher has been fired after a student recorded him taunting Latino sixth graders about the election of Donald Trump, telling them their parents were going to be deported, reports NBC4.

According to Jennifer Reynaga, she expected Latino students to be harassed after the election of Trump who made bashing immigrants,and Mexicans in particular, a cornerstone of his campaign.

“I would think the kids would do it, but I never thought a teacher would do it,” said Reynaga said in an interview.

The Reynaga family turned over the recording, captured with another student’s cellphone, to the school district where the unidentified substitute physical education teacher can be heard speaking to students at Bret Harte Middle School in South Los Angeles.

“If you were born here, then your parents got to go. Then they will leave you behind, and you will be in foster care,” the teacher can be heard telling Reynaga’s 11-year-old daughter.

When the sixth grader asked how Trump would find them, the teacher replied, “I have your phone numbers, your address, your mama’s address, your daddy’s address. It’s all in the system, sweetie.”

After being confronted with the audio tape, school officials fired the teacher, with LAUSD officials saying they had no further comment due to pending personnel matters.


Shaun King is Senior Justice Writer @NYDailyNews
Shaun King Verified account @ShaunKing
White Students in DeWitt, Michigan formed a physical wall of students to block Latino kids from entering the school This is from a parent.
         RETWEETS 3,781
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Shaun King Verified account@ShaunKing
Parents at Shasta High School in Redding California just wrote me and said white kids brought "deportation letters" for Latino students.
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;
3:40 AM - 11 Nov 2016

@ShaunKing #Charlotte "@dakotainthecity I found this under my windshield wiper at my own house. I'm in disbelief"

More
11 November 2016
The texts in the green come from a school admin in Bucks County, Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia.
11 November 2016

YAHOO! News, 11 November 2016:

A 'victory' parade announced by the Loyal White Knights, a KKK chapter, will take place in North Carolina during December. "Trump's race united my people," read the announcement, according to the News Observer.

David Duke, a former Imperial Wizard of the KKK, hailed Trump's election "one of the most exciting nights of my life" and rejoiced in the fact that "our people" helped him keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House.

The KKK's official newspaper lent their backing to Trump during the election campaign, and the president elect was forced to distance himself from the hate group's support. Last week, the Trump campaign sent out a statement that the property billionaire "denounces hate in any form".

In 1927, Donald Trump's father was arrested after a KKK riot in Queens when over 1,000 white-robed Klansmen marched through the Jamaica neighbourhood.

A Daily Star article stated that Trump Senior was detained "on a charge of refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered to do so."….

Nyle DiMarco Verified account @NyleDiMarco
"This is white America now. Take your retarded self and go somewhere else now," towards American Sign Language (ASL) user #TheTrumpEffect
          RETWEETS 4,392
;         LIKES 3,876

10 November 2016

@ShaunKing This from my friend Nichole...























Anti-Trump rally - with comment from Trump supporter who believes that before becoming president-elect Donald Trump "travels the world feeding the kids"

I'm so effin furious. This happened in Delaware. Mind you, this is Day 1 of Trump being elected. Media & police need to be on this.
Shaun King Verified account@ShaunKing
Placed on their car in NC. "Can't wait until your 'marriage' is overturned by a real president. Gay families = burn in hell. Trump 2016"
         RETWEETS 11,438
         LIKES 7,572
1:38 PM - 10 Nov 2016

Royal Oak Middle School, Royal Oak Michigan, 9 November 2016
STATEMENT, November 10, 2016

ROMS Incident

We are committed to providing a safe, secure, and supportive learning environment for all students.
R.O. Supt. Update Nov. 10 2016
Yesterday, November 9, 2016, there was an incident during one of the lunches at Royal Oak Middle School that was captured on video and posted to social media. In the incident a small group of students engaged in a brief “build the wall” chant. School personnel in the cafeteria responded when this occurred.

We are committed to providing a safe, secure, and supportive learning environment for all students. We addressed this incident when it occurred. We are addressing it today. We are working with our students to help them understand the impact of their words and actions on others in their school community. Our school district and each building in it works every day to be a welcoming community for all, inclusive and caring, where all students know they are valued, safe and supported.

Because of the strong emotions and intensity of rhetoric that the posting of this incident to social media has elicited, we have had families express concern regarding student safety. Know that we work with our partners in law enforcement on responding to any and all threats that have been or will be made involving our students or schools.

In responding to this incident – indeed in responding to this election – we need to hear each other’s stories, not slogans, we need to work towards understanding, not scoring points, and we need to find a way to move forward that respects and values each and every member of our community. We will be working on this in school today. Please work on this with us.

Sincerely,
Shawn Lewis-Lakin, Superintendent of Schools
Royal Oak Schools: A Community of Excellence

My first set of photos from tonight's Anti-Trump Protest in Chicago. Hate will never win.

10 November 2016

Anti-Trump rally San Francisco

Via neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, 9 November 2016:
David Duke@DrDavidDuke
This is one of the most exciting nights of my life -> make no mistake about it, our people have played a HUGE role in electing Trump! #MAGA
         RETWEETS 3,883
         LIKES 2,048
6:14 PM - 9 Nov 2016

Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump
Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!
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        LIKES 98,806

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has recorded over 200 incidents of intimidation and harassment since election day:


United States Senator for Nevada Harry Reid (DEM), press release, 11 November 2016:


Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following statement about the election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States: 

“I have personally been on the ballot in Nevada for 26 elections and I have never seen anything like the reaction to the election completed last Tuesday. The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.

“White nationalists, Vladimir Putin and ISIS are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory, while innocent, law-abiding Americans are wracked with fear – especially African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, LGBT Americans and Asian Americans. Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.

“I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics.
Hispanic Americans who fear their families will be torn apart, African Americans being heckled on the street, Muslim Americans afraid to wear a headscarf, gay and lesbian couples having slurs hurled at them and feeling afraid to walk down the street holding hands. American children waking up in the middle of the night crying, terrified that Trump will take their parents away. Young girls unable to understand why a man who brags about sexually assaulting women has been elected president.

“I have a large family. I have one daughter and twelve granddaughters. The texts, emails and phone calls I have received from them have been filled with fear – fear for themselves, fear for their Hispanic and African American friends, for their Muslim and Jewish friends, for their LBGT friends, for their Asian friends. I’ve felt their tears and I’ve felt their fear.

“We as a nation must find a way to move forward without consigning those who Trump has threatened to the shadows. Their fear is entirely rational, because Donald Trump has talked openly about doing terrible things to them. Every news piece that breathlessly obsesses over inauguration preparations compounds their fear by normalizing a man who has threatened to tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African Americans. Their fear is legitimate and we must refuse to let it fall through the cracks between the fluff pieces.

“If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate. Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans. Donald Trump may not possess the capacity to assuage those fears, but he owes it to this nation to try.

“If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.”

Trump's frequently racist comments during the presidential election campaign would have come as no surprise to those who knew his background.

Here is a piece of Trump family history which Trump refuses to admit - his father appears to be one of seven robed men arrested in a 1,000 strong contingent of Klu Klux Klan members who attempted to enter a 1927 Memorial Day March.

Donald Trump’s childhood home at 175-24 Devonshire Road, Jamaica, New York where he lived with his parents Fred and Mary Trump according to media reports:







Vice, 10 March 2016:

But the particulars of the David Duke incident call to mind yet another news story, one that suggests that Trump's father, the late New York real estate titan Fred Trump, once wore the robe and hood of a Klansman……

In the decades following the 1927 rally, after Fred Trump had gone on to become a wealthy real estate developer and landlord to thousands of New Yorkers, he faced accusations of racism, some of which were relatively quiet and informal. In the 1950s, one of his tenants, folk icon Woody Guthrie, wrote in the lyrics of an unpublished song that Fred Trump had drawn a "color line" in his Brooklyn neighborhood. "I suppose / Old Man Trump knows / Just how much / Racial Hate / He stirred up," the lyrics go. According to Trump biographer Gwenda Blair, Fred Trump, who had close ties to the Federal Housing Administration in the 1950s, likely profited from racist practices that the government tacitly endorsed at the time.

Formal accusations of racial bias in Fred Trump's residential real estate business eventually materialized in 1973, around the time that his son Donald was taking over management of the company. In a lawsuit filed that year, the US Department of Justice alleged that Trump Management Corporation had violated the Fair Housing Act of 1968 by systematically denying people rentals "because of race and color." Fred Trump, testifying as company president, said he was "unfamiliar" with the Fair Housing Act, and that he hadn't changed his business practices after the federal law went into effect.

In 1975, the Trumps made a deal with the government to resolve the suit without an admission of guilt. According to a New York Times story from June 11, 1975, the Trump Management Corporation "promised not to discriminate against blacks, Puerto Ricans, and other minorities." But in 1978, the Justice Department filed another discrimination suit against the company, alleging that the Trumps weren't complying with the original terms of the 1975 settlement.

A 1979 story in the Village Voice chronicled the rise of Trump's real estate empire, including allegations of racial discrimination at properties managed by Trump. According to the Voice, when there were vacancies in a Trump housing block, rental applications were secretly marked with the applicant's race, and doormen were coached to discourage black people from renting. At times, Trump rental agents were allegedly told simply not to rent to black people. In 1983, the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal looked at two "Trump Village" residential properties, and found that they were 95 percent white.

In subsequent years, as Donald Trump morphed into a grandstanding tabloid celebrity, he developed a reputation for agitating the public about racially-charged issues. In 1989, he faced national criticism over full-page ads he took out in New York newspapers, warning of "roving bands of wild criminals" and calling for the return of the death penalty in a veiled reference to the Central Park Five. More recently, in the lead-up to the last presidential race, he reignited right-wing conspiracies over Barack Obama's birthplace, sending a team of investigators to Hawaii to uncover the president's true origins.

So the fact that race has become a central part of Trump's 2016 campaign should come as no surprise. Despite Trump's own insistence that he's the "least racist person that you have ever met," devoted racists like Duke are thrilled that The Donald has "sparked an insurgency." Trump may reject their endorsements, but that doesn't mean they've rejected him in return.

Some facts about Donald John Trump (born June 1946) – the self-proclaimed outsider and everyman - you may not know.
* Donald is not a self-made man. He was a ‘trust fund kid’.  His father was a wealthy builder and property developer who created million dollar trust funds while he was alive for each of his five children and a much larger one for his wife. Donald received regular dividends from his trust.
* On the death of his mother he also shared in the est. US$30 million trust that has been created for her.
* Donald did not establish the original Trump company, he took over the family real estate business E. Trump & Son in the early 1970s when his father retired, renaming it the Trump Organisation.
* Donald also borrowed a total of around US$26.5 million directly from his father whenever he found himself in financial difficulties and also relied on his father to guarantee business loans he organized with banks or act as silent partner in new projects.
* He also accessed trust money ‘loans’ on a number of occasions totalling at least US$9 million by the time he turned 50 years of age.
* After his father’s death in June 1999 a 53 year old Trump borrowed an est. US$30 million from the estate (est. to be worth around $200-300 million before taxes) to pay business debts and personal expenses.
* Trump’s three oldest children also inherited money from their grandfather’s estate.
* Donald declared businesses he owned bankrupt on six separate occasions – four times in the 1990s, once in 2004 and once in 2009.
* By the 1980s Forbes Magazine reportedly put Donald Trump’s personal wealth at est. US$200 million.
* Around 2000 Donald Trump and his surviving brother and sister cancelled a nephew’s medical insurance when the nephew challenged the terms of Fred Trump’s will – leaving a chronically ill infant without medical cover.
* In 2015 Donald was stating that his net worth was US$10 billion, although by 2016 Forbes was only placing his personal wealth at US$3.7 billion.
* Trump has an opulent lifestyle, with private residences in New York, Palm Beach, Bedford, Charlottesville and Beverly Hills. This posed photograph is of Donald, Melania and Barron in the penthouse at Trump Towers, Fifth Avenue, New York:
House Beautiful 9 May 2016: “The family at home”


These are some Australian's whose support of  Donald Trump may yet come back to haunt them.....

Janet Albrechtsen (foreground) Mark Latham (behind her left shoulder)
Malcolm Farr (seated fourth from left)
Pauline Hanson One Nation Party

Liberal Senator for South Australia Cory Bernardi
Liberal Prime Minster Malcolm Bligh Turnbull

“I have had, earlier this morning, a very warm and constructive and practical discussion with President-elect Trump.
 We canvassed a number of issues. Most importantly, we absolutely agreed on the vital importance of our strong alliance. I suppose as both being businessmen who found our way into politics, somewhat later in life, we come to the problems of our own nations and indeed world problems with a pragmatic approach. Mr Trump is a deal maker. He is a businessman, a deal maker and he will, I have no doubt, view the world in a very practical and pragmatic way.” [news.com.au, 11 November 2016]