The civil war and destruction of Syria has been going on since 2011. As of April 2018, nearly 6 million Syrians have fled the country. The destruction is so widespread and society in such ruins that there's no reliable count of lives lost but estimates in 2016 were that 400,000 lives were lost, let alone how many thousands more during the past two years.
The Trump administration is considering restrictions on students and researchers from China over concerns that they could be sharing American technology and trade secrets with the Chinese. They would bar Chinese citizens from engaging in research at American universities and research institutions.
In mid-March Mike Pompeo, the current CIA director, was named by Trump as the replacement Secretary of State for the fired Rex Tillerson. Besides hearing his name a few times, most people don't know anything about Pompeo. That needs to change.
Trump’s new State Department pick is known for his hawkish foreign policy — and for defending Trump at every turn.
Last week, Trump fired three star General H.R. McMaster and appointed John Bolton and his new National Security Adviser, the third man to hold the role in the past 14 months. The national security adviser job doesn’t require confirmation.
Why are those in-the-know so alarmed by this? Let's briefly talk about Bolton.
John Bolton, the incoming national security adviser, will have the ear of Trump at a perilously fraught moment in world affairs.
Trump only hires the best, right? Not a chance. Andrew Veprek is an example of the worst possible person being selected to lead a division charged with making humanitarian decisions and saving lives.
Veprek, who has been working in the White House closely with waste-of-life Stephen Miller, holds very strong anti-immigration views and has now been selected for a top State Department post overseeing refugee admissions.
Paul Ryan and the Trump White House are getting rid of the current chairman of the Election Assistance Commission, a John Boehner-picked official who has spent the past year helping states bulletproof election systems from Russian hackers. Matthew Masterson has worked tirelessly to help states protect election systems from possible cyber attacks by Russia or others.
Diplomacy has existed since the beginning of the human race. The act of conducting negotiations between two persons or two nations is essential to the upkeep of international affairs. Among the many functions of diplomacy include preventing war and violence, and fortifying relations between two nations.
BE SMART ABOUT is an important series highlighting examples of those in power (or in danger of acquiring power) who you need to stay informed about so you can share this knowledge and together we can Be Smart and Actively Dissent.
Today we discuss Ken Isaacs, head of international relief for Samaritan's Purse, who is the Trump administration’s nominee to lead the UN International Organization for Migration.
Trump and Republicans have taken direct action to deport as many undocuments U.S. residents as possible, prevent Muslims from entering the country, and ran an entire campaign based on building a wall on our border. Add this to the list of despicable actions -- lowering the amount of refugees admitted to the United States, harming those already here, and preventing families from reunification. America Last.
In our August 15th post included below, we provided a primer that explained what DACA is and why it exists after President Obama's 2010 DREAM legislation was filibustered by Republicans in Senate to prevent a vote. We said that by September 5th, DACA was at grave risk of being shut down and nearly a million individuals brought here as children would be deported to countries of birth that have no memory of or connection to.