Hasta La Gadget!

The day after 9News broke the story about U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) exiting early out the back door of a library filled with people wanting to ask him about Obamacare, Blair Miller, a reporter for Denver7 News, tweeted, “Gotta give the competition credit for a good story: Congressman Coffman leaves frustrated crowd.”

It was a well deserved tip-of-the-hat to Nelson Garcia, who broke the story for the NBC affiliate.

Who could possibly argue about the news value of catching a Congressman on video slipping out the back door early with a room of people still waiting to see him? It doesn’t matter who tipped Garcia off, where Coffman was going, why the people were mad. Coffman’s exit, spotlighted with police tape, was undeniably news.

Yet,  ColoradoPeakPolitics bloggers and others are claiming the story was “fake news,” an accusation Denver writer Corey Hutchins shredded in the Columbia Journalism Review last week. Hutchins stated the obvious, calling Garcia’s story a “credible news report.”

But in case anyone sides with conservatives on this, the best proof of the news value of 9News’ story is U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman’s own respoonse to it!

Coffman said in a subsequent interview that the library was “the wrong venue for the event,” which the Congressman described as a “protest.”

“So what I’m trying to do right now is get a very large venue and just really get the word out for people to come. Probably at least it would handle 300 people, not in a library.”

Coffman admits the venue was too small and more people want to see him. That’s about the best acknowledgement of the importance and validity of Garcia’s story you could imagine–and that’s without adding the public’s interest in knowing that Coffman slipped out the back door early.

So, when will Coffman hold his big meeting?

Are conservatives going to try to say that journalists aren’t justified in asking that question either?

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Ahead of the Jan. 21 Women’s March ― the D.C.-based protest that attracted around half a million demonstrators and sparked sister marches across the globe ― the Amplifier Foundation called upon artists to step up.

In partnership with the Women’s March organizers, the visual media organization posted a solicitation for poster art from women-identifying and non-binary people across the country. Hoping to make powerful and creative artwork available to any and all interested marchers, Amplifier received 5,000 submissions in response.

As we previously reported, Amplifier selected eight designs as its official Women’s March artwork, awarding $500 grants to the artist behind each winning work. Five of those poster designs were made available, free of charge, to demonstrators to download and print themselves. On top of that, Amplifier also made sure that over 40,000 posters were present at the D.C. march for participants who wished to pick them up on the day of the event. 

Today, those in opposition to President Donald Trump’s exclusionary policies continue to take to the streets (and airports) to demand change. The handmade signage created by protesters has been impressive, but in case dissenters are in need of some more professional protest art, Amplifier released a new batch of downloadable work on its website Wednesday.

The organization did so to celebrate an upcoming exhibition of 50 never-before-released images from the 5,000 open call submissions it received, held at Seattle’s Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) from Feb. 2 to Feb. 25. As Amplifier wrote in a press release, the artwork on view is “inspired by the mission and values detailed by the [Women’s March] manifesto, ‘We stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families — recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country.’”

In an email to The Huffington Post, Amplifier program director Cleo Barnett added that the exhibition organizers will be giving away artwork ― from both Shepard Fairey’s now-famous “We the People” series and the Women’s March poster project ― to the first 100 people to arrive at the Seattle gallery.

In anticipation of the opening night, we’re previewing 15 new posters (along with the five original winning designs) from Amplifier’s call out below. If you’re inspired by the bold messages, head to Amplifier’s website learn more.

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order banning people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Libya, from entering the US has triggered legal challenges, protests and travel chaos across the world.

One of the many who experienced the chaos first hand is Najwa Elyazgi, a student from Tripoli studying International Relations at George Mason University in Virginia. She holds an F-1 visa and left the country on a transit ticket to Istanbul Friday evening. Security in Ataturk International Airport said she was clear to travel but when she arrived at the gate they said a new update on her case was made and the U.S. Department of Immigration banned her from coming back to America.
She is now in Turkey trying to apply for a National Interest Waiver in the hopes of finishing up her last semester at school.

“In the last four years, I have re-entered the U.S. seven times without any concerns,” says Elyazgi expressing her frustration with the current ban.

According to The United Nations, there are 10,000 Libyan students in America. Some of them with families and children that are stuck. Others fear going back to Libya to visit family knowing they may not be able to return to the United States.

Youssef Tarhouni is getting his Masters in Business and Administration at The University of Washington. He is on an F-1 visa and was planning to visit Libya in the summer. He had plans to secure an internship after his masters but is worried that is no longer an option. Tarhouni said he received an email from Optional Program Training informing him that internship may no longer be an option for students from countries affected by the ban.

“The whole idea of interning with companies is for both parties to see if they are a match, but if the company knows that you cannot work full time after finishing the program then they’ll avoid hiring you, said Tarhouni. “I am meeting up with a lawyer next week to see what my options are. I believe the ban will definitely be extended (past 90 days) in which case I won’t risk traveling outside the U.S.”

Another Libyan student who attends college in Chicago and wishes to remain anonymous says he feels the order is discriminatory towards Muslims.

“I think the order is under the guise of protecting the U.S. and its citizens against terrorism is misguidedly targeting Muslim countries. The order feels heavy-handed and punitive to people of the Muslim faith,” he says. “I’ve followed the laws of this country and followed a lawful process to be here.”

Hani Shennib, founder and chairman of the board on The National Council on U.S.- Libya Relations says his organization was looking forward to a more engaged new administration. They organized a conference titled “Libya-U.S. Relations 2017 New Vision, Hope, And Opportunities” scheduled to take place on Feb 16, where Libyan officials from outside of the U.S. were booked to attend.

“Over 200 people from business, law firms, investment, security, and politics were looking forward to this meeting here in Washington,” he said. “But now with no visas issued to our speakers and participants we are extremely disappointed.”

The seven Muslim-majority countries targeted by U.S. President Donald Trump in his executive order on immigration were initially identified as “countries of concern” under the Obama administration.

President Trump’s order bars citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the U.S. for the next 90 days.

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If you have not been living under a rock this past week, you’d be painfully aware that the buzz phrase these days is ‘alternative facts’. Thanks to the current administration, blatant lies or falsehoods can no longer be treated as such, but instead should be gracefully embraced as mere allowances to how much truth can be stretched even to its unrecognizable version.

Just to be clear, I had a really difficult time finishing that last sentence above because any sane person knows how impossible the task is when you are forced to make sense of the nonsensical. A normal person can really only take so much bullsh*t. Unfortunately, the current U.S. president and his minions don’t have much trouble with said task.

As a parent, I’m having serious trouble with the concept of ‘alternative facts’ and pray to the heavens that it never ever becomes acceptable. Let’s be clear…

THERE. IS. NO. SUCH. THING.

Facts are facts. Objective reality exists to be acknowledged and to be used as a standard. My training as a Sociologist makes me a stickler for observable or measurable data. You don’t get to twist numbers or proven conclusions and still claim to be correct and equally true.

If my reverence for facts and objective reality makes me a tiger parent, then so be it. The whole point of socializing our children is so that they realize there is a whole world outside of themselves and their families, and standards exist against which they will be measured. These standards don’t revolve around them, nor do these standards bow down to their every whim.

When children go to school, they spend time with their peers and all of them are measured according to certain requirements. If my son is not the best student based on the grades he receives or other assessment, then he needs to know and respect that. I will not tell him those standards don’t mean anything. I am not the kind of parent who will not tell her child the need to do better when he’s clearly not measuring up.

I will not tell him that everyone is a winner when there is a game. No! Scores are there to show who played better and who did not. Not everyone can claim victory. That’s why it’s called a game, for crying out loud. There are rules, standards and skill sets required. It’s a competition and it’s either you win or you lose.

When my son tries to practice a song for a school program, I tell him when he’s out of tune. I don’t tell him, “Oh sweetie, you’re the best! Keep it up!”, even when his tone makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Yes, I’ve been known to be quite harsh at times, hurting my son’s feelings by uttering the words, ‘you suck’, even when I say it with as much tenderness as I can afford.

But honestly, I would rather be this kind of parent than one who only praises all the time, or one who tells her child he is ‘the best’ in everything even when it’s objectively not true. I want him to not grow up oblivious to others. I want him to grow up knowing that he needs to work hard to excel and being the best you can be is a lifelong process. I want him to know that though he is special or unique and will always be loved by his parents, he still has to respect how he will be measured by social institutions he is or will be a part of by virtue of his citizenship in this social world. I need him to know that you can only define your reality to a certain extent and imposing such on others when that reality clearly does not align with objective reality, facts, or widely accepted and proven truths, is INSANITY.

I don’t want to raise a mad man and I don’t believe it’s too early to say that I haven’t. My son, even at 9 years of age, knows that ‘alternative facts’ carries the same meaning as ‘lies’ or ‘delusions’. It really isn’t that hard to understand… IF you are sane.

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President Trump and his senior advisors have sought to downplay the significance of the sweeping restrictions on refugees and immigrants from selected Muslim-majority countries. They have claimed that it only directly affected 109 people traveling to the United States, and have insisted that it is “not a Muslim ban” in one statement, while claiming that it was the enactment of a campaign promise to impose a Muslim ban, in another.

What is beyond doubt is that the executive order represents the United States turning its back on the worst global refugee crisis since the Second World War.

The Trump Administration’s unilateral actions suspending the U.S. government’s refugee resettlement program and slashing the annual rate of refugee admissions, even when refugees do not and have never constituted a security threat, can only undermine multilateral efforts to respond to the migration crisis. Ultimately, it will be self-defeating and harmful to the United States.

Take for example the ongoing migration crisis in Europe. After the massive influx of migrants from Turkey to Greece in 2015 and early 2016, the European Union announced a plan to resettle up to 160,000 refugees from Greece and Italy. This plan has resulted in the resettlement of only a few thousand refugees to date and left tens of thousands stranded in Greece living in harsh conditions. E.U. negotiations with Turkey stemmed the flow of migrants into Greece from Turkey, but the Turkish government may revoke that agreement.

The failure of the European Union to implement a plan to address the migration crisis in an orderly manner, in accordance with international law, and responsive to the humanitarian needs of refugees is an indication of institutional failure. This failure carries many adverse consequences:

Refugees are held in inhumane conditions without access to adequate educational opportunities for children or employment opportunities for adults.
Stranded, without prospects, the migrant populations are ripe targets for radicalization by violent extremist groups, including ISIS.
The inhumane treatment of mainly Muslim migrants in Europe fuels Islamist extremist narratives that conflict between Muslims and the West is inevitable and necessary.
In the absence of safe, legal paths to permanent resettlement in other E.U. countries, smugglers and traffickers continue to prey on migrants and refugees.
The uncertain fate of tens of thousands of refugees and hundreds of thousands more in Turkey fuels popular fears in Europe that the E.U. and national governments have lost control over their borders. The need to “take back control” is a potent rallying call for far-right, nationalist xenophobic movements in many parts of the European Union.
Why should the United States care? A stable and prosperous Europe enhances U.S. national security, provides the United States with a major affluent trading partner, and facilitates multilateral cooperation on a broad range of transnational challenges, from controlling epidemic diseases to combating terrorism. Heightened tensions between minority Muslim populations and the broader societies in which they live will likely fuel extremism and thereby contribute to more political violence and terrorism, including the “extremist Islamic terrorism” the Trump Administration has pledged to eradicate.

Russia is taking advantage of the migration crisis in Europe to destabilize E.U. governments that have opposed Russian aggression in Ukraine, and to undermine the European Union, which provides an attractive alternative for many to life within Russia’s sphere of influence.

The Trump Administration’s actions are making the refugee crisis in Europe worse. By erecting barriers to resettlement of Syrian refugees, and refugees from other Muslim majority countries, the United States makes it easier for European governments to shirk their obligations to resettle refugees, compounding the problems faced by frontline European states, like Greece and Italy, and by U.S. allies in the Middle East, including Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon, where most Syrian refugees are currently located.

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