Invasion of the Viking Women
By Capt. Fogg
A couple of readers* urged me to blog about this story yesterday, but it's one of those things that is so depressing, so horrifying and so disgusting to someone who once loved the United States that it's really hard to do anything but let you read about it yourself and weep. It seems like we're not only to suspect anyone sounding vaguely Islamic of harboring dreams of invading and conquering or subverting the US, but our new Immigration and Customs Enforcement people are worried about an invasion of Viking Women.
I've talked to Europeans who used to maintain vacation homes in the US and have sold them because of the outrageous harassment they get every time they enter the country, including fingerprinting and examination of financial records. I read recently the story of two English entrepreneurs who wanted to bring some capital and open a business here and essentially were thrown out by ICE with no reason given and I've read about people who because of visa irregularities have been held incommunicado and without charges for years without knowing why.
No, I'm not talking about "enemy combatants" I'm talking about tourists like Eva Ósk Arnardóttir, an Icelandic woman who overstayed her visa in 1995 and went home three weeks late. She's been back without any problems, but this time she's discovered the new America, the America of secret prisons, of jack-booted officers and dungeons where ordinary and harmless people are chained and shackled and interrogated and terrorized and poked and probed and intimidated and held without charges or benefit of legal help.
*My thanks to Crankyboy and Swampcracker
(Cross-posted from The Impolitic.)
A couple of readers* urged me to blog about this story yesterday, but it's one of those things that is so depressing, so horrifying and so disgusting to someone who once loved the United States that it's really hard to do anything but let you read about it yourself and weep. It seems like we're not only to suspect anyone sounding vaguely Islamic of harboring dreams of invading and conquering or subverting the US, but our new Immigration and Customs Enforcement people are worried about an invasion of Viking Women.
I've talked to Europeans who used to maintain vacation homes in the US and have sold them because of the outrageous harassment they get every time they enter the country, including fingerprinting and examination of financial records. I read recently the story of two English entrepreneurs who wanted to bring some capital and open a business here and essentially were thrown out by ICE with no reason given and I've read about people who because of visa irregularities have been held incommunicado and without charges for years without knowing why.
No, I'm not talking about "enemy combatants" I'm talking about tourists like Eva Ósk Arnardóttir, an Icelandic woman who overstayed her visa in 1995 and went home three weeks late. She's been back without any problems, but this time she's discovered the new America, the America of secret prisons, of jack-booted officers and dungeons where ordinary and harmless people are chained and shackled and interrogated and terrorized and poked and probed and intimidated and held without charges or benefit of legal help.
*My thanks to Crankyboy and Swampcracker
(Cross-posted from The Impolitic.)
Labels: fascism, immigration
posted by Capt. Fogg at
12:10 PM
4 Comments:
I was made to undergo a medical examnination … I was asked absurd questions such as: When did you have your last period?
In other words, the victim was subjected to extreme dehumanization by a gang of sadistic thugs under the authority of government.
Here is the latest on this story
By
Swampcracker, at 3:57 PM
I think the Icelandic officials are far more optimistic about things improving in the US. I think of it more as a taste of worse to come and this is hardly an isolate case. It's happening all the time.
This kind of attitude, this brutality, this paranoia, xenophobia and fear and secrecy are all earmarks of totalitarian states like Burma and North Korea and I'm absolutely ashamed of my country - once again.
By
Capt. Fogg, at 10:09 PM
And yet, just this week there was a big story here in NYC about how Europeans are snapping up pied a terres (that's apartments to you and me) in East Coast cities because there's roughly a 30% discount right off the bat in currency exchanges...
By
Carl, at 8:35 AM
Sure, they're not arresting all of them, just enough to make us look like fascists.
By
Capt. Fogg, at 10:05 AM
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