🇺🇸⚖️🗽 THE 14TH AMENDMENT IS A GENIUS 🧠 PROVISION THAT IS AT THE  HEART OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY — That’s Why White Nativist Racists Like Trump, DeSantis, & Their GOP Supporters Are Baselessly Attacking It! 🏴‍☠️🤮 — Jamelle Bouie in The NY Times! — “If birthright citizenship is the constitutional provision that makes a multiracial democracy of equals possible, then it is no wonder that it now lies in the cross hairs of men who lead a movement devoted to unraveling that particular vision of the American republic.”

Ron DeSantis Dave Grandlund PoliticalCartoons.com Republished under license Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump are “campaigning” on an agenda of racism, hate, and White Supremacist grievance not seen since the late Gov. George Wallace. Yet, mainstream media has largely “normalized” that which would have been unacceptable and unthinkable only a few years ago!
Ron DeSantis
Dave Grandlund
PoliticalCartoons.com
Republished under license
Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump are “campaigning” on an agenda of racism, hate, and White Supremacist grievance not seen since the late Gov. George Wallace. Yet, mainstream media has largely “normalized” that which would have been unacceptable and unthinkable only a few years ago!
Jamelle Bouie
Jamelle Bouie
Columnist
NY Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/opinion/birthright-citizenship-trump-desantis.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Jamelle concludes:

. . . .

The birthright citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, based on similar language found in the Civil Rights Act of 1866, was a direct response to and a rebuke of [chief Justice] Taney’s reasoning [in Dred Scott]. Having won the argument on the battlefield, the United States would amend its Constitution to establish an inclusive and, in theory, egalitarian national citizenship.

The authors of the 14th Amendment knew exactly what they were doing. In a country that had already seen successive waves of mass immigration, they knew that birthright citizenship would extend beyond Black and white Americans to people of other hues and backgrounds. That was the point.

Asked by an opponent if the clause would “have the effect of naturalizing the children of Chinese and Gypsies born in this country,” Senator Lyman Trumbull, who helped draft the language of birthright citizenship in the Civil Rights Act, replied “Undoubtedly.” Senator John Conness of California said outright that he was “ready to accept the provision proposed in this constitutional amendment, that the children born here of Mongolian parents shall be declared by the Constitution of the United States to be entitled to civil rights and to equal protection before the law with others.”

In 1867, around the time Congress was debating and formulating the 14th Amendment, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech in Boston where he outlined his vision of a “composite nationality,” an America that stood as a beacon for all peoples, built on the foundation of an egalitarian republic. “I want a home here not only for the Negro, the mulatto and the Latin races; but I want the Asiatic to find a home here in the United States, and feel at home here, both for his sake and for ours,” Douglass said. “The outspread wings of the American Eagle are broad enough to shelter all who are likely to come.”

If birthright citizenship is the constitutional provision that makes a multiracial democracy of equals possible, then it is no wonder that it now lies in the cross hairs of men who lead a movement devoted to unraveling that particular vision of the American republic.

Embedded in birthright citizenship, in other words, is the potential for a freer, more equal America. For Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, that appears to be the problem.

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Read the rest of Jamelle’s outstanding article and get the real story about the 14th Amendment. It has nothing to do with the racist lies and distortions spewed forth by Trump, DeSantis, and their fellow GOP white supremacists!

As we know, Congress has failed to address the realities of immigration since the enactment of IRCA in 1986. That has inevitably led to a large, disenfranchised population of undocumented residents — essential members of our society, yet deprived of political power and the ability to reach their full potential by their “status.” Consequently, they are  subject to exploitation.

Nevertheless, this phenomenon would be much more serious without the “genius of the 14th Amendment.” Notwithstanding the failure of the political branches to address immigration in a realistic manner, the overwhelming number of the “next generation” of that underground population are now full U.S. citizens with the ability to participate in our political system and otherwise assert their full rights in our society.

Thus, because of the 14th Amendment we have avoided the highly problematic phenomenon of generations of disenfranchised Americans, essentially “stateless individuals,” forced into an underground existence. It’s not that these individuals born in the U.S., who have known no other country, would be going anywhere else, by force or voluntarily. Nor would it be in our best interests to degrade, dehumanize, and exclude generations of our younger fellow citizens as Trump, DeSantis, and the GOP far right extremist crazies advocate.

Additionally, in contradiction of traditional GOP dogma about limited government, the Trump/DeSantis charade would spawn a huge new and powerful “citizenship determining bureaucracy” that almost certainly would work against the poor, vulnerable, and individuals of color in deciding who “belongs” and who doesn’t and what documentation suffices. How many adult American citizens today who have deceased parents could readily produce definitive documentation of their parents’ citizenship?

So, notwithstanding GOP intransigence, their vile and baseless attacks on the 14th Amendment, and the lack of political will to solve and harness the realities and power of human immigration, the 14th Amendment is at work daily, solving much of the problem for us and making us a better nation, sometimes in spite of our Government’s actions or inactions. And, it performs this essential service in a manner that is relatively transparent and minimally bureaucratic for most. 

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

07-01-23

🇺🇸 MAINE VOICES: A “Woke” America Is A Better America, Says Don Bessey Of Old Orchard Beach — Speak Out Against the Agenda Of Hate, Marginalization, & Dehumanization Being Touted By Right-Wing Politicos & Their Followers! — “These people should not be leading our wonderful country.”

Ron DeSantis Dave Grandlund PoliticalCartoons.com Republished under license Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump are “campaigning” on an agenda of racism, hate, and White Supremacist grievance not seen since the late Gov. George Wallace. Yet, mainstream media has largely “normalized” that which would have been unacceptable and unthinkable only a few years ago!
Ron DeSantis
Dave Grandlund
PoliticalCartoons.com
Republished under license
Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump are “campaigning” on an agenda of racism, hate, and White Supremacist grievance not seen since the late Gov. George Wallace. Yet, mainstream media has largely “normalized” that which would have been unacceptable and unthinkable only a few years ago!

https://www.pressherald.com/2023/06/10/maine-voices-woke-should-not-be-a-four-letter-word/

From the Portland Press Herald:

Maine Voices: ‘Woke’ should not be a four-letter word

Being aware of how we have treated and still treat other people in our society is so important to our society’s evolving that it should be honored, not vilified.

It is frustrating to see the continuous redefining of words and terms by the extremist conservative element in our society and government. One of these terms is “woke.” According to Merriam-Webster, the definition is “aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues.” I will add in the qualification as well: “especially issues of ABOUT THE AUTHOR

For my entire life I have strived to embrace this philosophy, trying to listen to and understand other opinions, beliefs and religions, whether they agreed with mine or not, understanding that one cannot fully comprehend a point of view without appreciating the counterpoint. This certainly requires personal evolution and maturity. Being aware of the true history of our country, of how we have treated and still treat other people in our society, is so important to our society’s evolving that it should be honored, not vilified.

The term “woke” has now been unjustly transformed into a negative term. Let that sink in: Attention to important facts and issues, the truth, is something to avoid and discredit. Somehow, this makes sense to a significant number of our political leaders and fellow Americans. It appears that what is most troubling for those who would see “woke” as a vile four-letter word is the qualification above, that it applies to “issues of racial and social justice.”

One of the tag lines for objecting to this thought is that it may cause someone to feel uncomfortable or criticized by being confronted with these historical facts. Personally, I strongly desire to know the truth. I am delighted – admittedly, shocked sometimes – by learning about the history we were never taught, which was suppressed to a large extent for so many years by those who perpetrated many injustices. The historical truth has never made me feel bad about myself. In fact, it is enlightening. It expands my understanding of how and why we have come to this place in our evolution. It shows me how to be better and more empathetic, and it suggests the path forward.

I believe I do understand why this can be so threatening and discomforting to so many. I believe that the truth is like a mirror to them. They see their own racist views, their distrust of anyone they perceive as being “different” as a significant threat. I feel so sad for them, since in my life, through being open to other races, ethnicities, religions and thoughts, I have learned so much and have been blessed with a much more beautiful world, life and friends.

It is extremely troubling to see elected officials, the leaders of our political parties, and fellow Americans embracing and endorsing this philosophy of derision, division and hateful rhetoric that has its roots in the cesspool of white supremacist thought.  They are leading us into the abyss of an authoritarian kakistocracy, or government by the worst of us. We must all, every rational one of us, stand and reject this thinking. We must only, and always, embrace truth, the actual facts. These people should not be leading our wonderful country.

Don Bessey is an Air Force veteran of the Vietnam War and a resident of Old Orchard Beach.

************************

Well said, Don! Thanks for speaking out so forcefully! 

Don’s views echo several previous postings from Courtside:

Walter Rhein: “When people say they are ‘anti-woke,’ I interrupt them and say ‘You mean ‘anti-black.’ They become enraged and act like they’re the victims (like racists always do).”https://wp.me/p8eeJm-8tJ

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As [Villanova University President] Father [Peter M.] Donohue said at yesterday’s celebration,  “‘Woke’ means social justice!” https://wp.me/p8eeJm-8vF

 

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

06-11-23

😎⚖️🗽 REAL LEADERSHIP SPEAKS: “[T]he promises that nations made after World War II to respect the dignity and rights of those who are fleeing have been eroded and now, on a practical level, forgotten,” says Anna M. Gallagher, Executive Director of Catholic Legal Immigraton Network (“CLINIC”)!

Anna Marie Gallagher, Esquire
Anna Marie Gallagher, Esquire
Executive Director
CLINIC
PHOTO: CLINIC website

pastedGraphic.png

Executive Director Opening Plenary Remarks CLINIC Convening 2023
May 17, 2023

Good afternoon, dear friends. My name is Anna Gallagher and I have the honor of leading CLINIC as executive director. It is such a pleasure to be here with you all as we officially begin our first in-person Convening since 2019.

Looking out at the sea of faces in front of me, I am filled with gratitude to finally be able to come together to engage with one another, to listen, learn and gather strength for the work ahead in support of our immigrant brothers and sisters.

Even just being in your presence I feel a sense of renewed hope and energy. I am so looking forward to the next few days, and I am certain that you will be reignited to take on the important work ahead.

In a moment I will welcome our wonderful panel of Affiliate experts, but right now I want to take a moment to recognize this moment we’re facing and my hopes for this year’s CLINIC Convening.

You all, of all people, know that immigrant communities are facing truly unprecedented challenges – and I do not use that word, unprecedented, lightly.

With the lifting of Title 42, and the camps of men, women and children along the border desperate to find welcome on the other side; the proposed USCIS fee increases which threaten to put immigration benefits out of reach for many; the newly announced delays for foreign-born religious workers and special immigrant juveniles; and, perhaps above all, our warming planet and the outbreaks of violence which force many more people to migrate around the world – these are extremely challenging times for migrants in our country and around the world.

Several months ago, the New York Times featured an op-ed that has stuck with me, entitled, “The Rich World Has a Shockingly High Tolerance for Cruelty.”

It was about how rich nations are more willing than ever to let migrants languish at their borders in sub-human conditions rather than create safe pathways for migration or address the conditions causing people to flee.

It was about how the promises that nations made after World War II to respect the dignity and rights of those who are fleeing have been eroded and now, on a practical level, forgotten.

When I read this article, in my mind I was transported back to the time I spent in North Africa several years ago, working with migrants as a representative of Jesuit Refugee Services.

1

I interviewed migrants who had traveled for 18 months or more to try and find safety in these countries bordering Europe. I got to know some of the migrants, who called me “grandma” – a term of endearment, as my hair was grey.

While I was talking to some of them, they showed me their hands, which were scarred with wounds. When I asked them what happened, they said their hands were repeatedly pierced while climbing barbed wire to get through to safety.

Hearing this, my heart broke – as it has many times over the years.

The idea that we are using barbed wire to keep out our fellow human beings is inconceivable, yet true. Our immigrant brothers and sisters stand at our gates, begging for our aid, and we build barbed wire fences that pierce their hands.

Many wealthy nations are founded on a concept of all human beings being equal in dignity, but we do not act like it.

As we gather in Arizona, I know we are all mindful that these kinds of camps that the op-ed author is speaking of are just several hours away on the border. We also know that immigrant communities’ dignity is denied not only in these camps, but all over the country in the various places we’ve come from.

We must be clear, this is not an “other side of the world problem,” it is our problem. It affects all of us, in our integrity as people of faith and conscience, and as a reflection of our society.

And yet today, as I recall that New York Times op-ed, and the sense of frustration and despair I felt while reading it, I feel a surge of hope.

I want you to look around the room. Look at your neighbor to your left and right. YOU are the hope that fills my heart, and YOU are the hope that reignites me in our work.

As we gather here today, I am in a room full of people who DO act like all human beings are equal. Those who spend their precious time – often too much of their time, working long hours – trying to advance the truth that every person is precious, valuable, and deserving of a safe and dignified life.

That’s why being in your presence gives me such hope. I am reminded that the CLINIC network is full of holy people.

That is why our gathering here together, and throughout this week, is so powerful: we are, to borrow the words of Bishop Seitz of El Paso, working to be a “creative counterexample” to the culture of fear and hostility, to be a network that is slowly creating a new culture of solidarity and hospitality.

At CLINIC, we also are bolstered by our faith that we do not do this hard work alone. The spirit of God is inspiring us and pushing us forward, giving us strength and magnifying our efforts, especially when we are overwhelmed by the need in front of us.

2

Our faith also acts as a mirror for us, forcing us to keep evaluating whether we are truly reflecting the gospel truth of God’s concern for all people.

To maintain this faith, and to maintain the energy to be this creative counterexample, we need one another. Our network is sustained through the support, advice, and solidarity we demonstrate to one another.

Throughout the next few days, we will take the time to step back, to reflect on our work and learn and share new strategies, information, and tips for the very practical day-to-day work of supporting immigrant clients and communities.

We know that this practical work – the forms, the bureaucracy, the nitty-gritty details – changes and saves lives. So how well we can do it matters, which is why we gather to learn and grow.

We also gather to enjoy one another – to laugh, share stories, and reconnect with beloved colleagues and friends.

So I also hope that over the next few days you will have some fun!

Thank you for coming here to CLINIC Convening and for your dedication to this work. I am so honored to be alongside all of you this week, and all days.

Now, I am pleased to introduce our panelists for our opening plenary, Preparing for the Lifting of Title 42: Key Insights from our Network. When we decided on “reunited and reignited” for our theme this year, we knew we wanted to do something different for our opening conversation.

This “Network Fireside Chat” will be an opportunity to highlight the work done by our network throughout the United States. During this conversation, you’ll hear how Affiliates in three distinct geographical regions are rising to meet the needs of our immigrant and refugee brothers and sisters – especially during this increased time of uncertainty.

From the Border region, Joel Enriquez-Cazarez will share about the work of Jewish Family Service of San Diego.

As a transit city, Carolina Rivera will share how Catholic Charities of Dallas assists our immigrant brothers and sisters.

And Yer Vang from Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Dubuque will give an interior city perspective of welcome.

Now please join me in welcoming our keynote panelists to the stage…

3

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Thanks, my friend, for a lifetime of service to due process, fundamental fairness, and social justice, and for speaking out as the “powers that be” and the “powers that wannabe” go into cowardly retreat and hide in fear from the needs and rights of humanity! 

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

05-24-23

 

🏴‍☠️☠️ AMERICAN FASCISTS: DeSANTIS & GOP KILLING KIDS, AS FLORIDA TEACHERS VOTE WITH THEIR FEET! — “What the GOP’s vendetta against the LGBTQ community really is, is a classic authoritarian tactic to vilify already marginalized people,” Says Robert Reich!

Nazi Book Burning
Except, perhaps, in Florida and other GOP-controlled “mini-reichs” where hate, censorship, and persecution of vulnerable populations have become official policy! Is this REALLY the way the next generations of Americans want to live and be remembered by history?
PHOTO: Public Realm

How DeSantis and other GOP lawmakers are killing LGBTQ young people

And why they’re doing it

ROBERT REICH
MAY 23

Friends,

Last Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — who is expected to announce his campaign for the presidency as soon as tomorrow — signed a gaggle of bills targeting LGBTQ youth.

In addition to those he had already signed into law — including a “Don’t Say Gay” measure barring teachers from mentioning sexual orientation or gender identity and another prohibiting gender-affirming care — his latest laws expand the state’s prohibition on classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity, require that students use bathrooms associated with their sex assigned at birth, prohibit adults from taking children to see drag shows, and bar teachers from asking students about their preferred pronouns.

Another of the bills DeSantis just signed into law allows the state of Florida to take transgender minors away from parents who help them obtain gender-affirming care.

In raging against gender-affirming care, DeSantis lied that “they’re literally chopping off the private parts of young kids.” In fact, genital surgery is rarely, if ever, done under the age of 18. It’s not even all that common for adults. DeSantis is lying about it to scare people.

pastedGraphic.png

Meanwhile, the Republican presidential frontrunner has made it clear that trans people have no place in his vision of America:

“I will sign a new executive order instructing every federal agency to cease all programs that promote the concepts of sex and gender transitions at any age. I will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female, and they are assigned at birth.”

***

My friends, these scare tactics are dangerous. Recent analysis found a 70% increase in hate crimes against LGBTQ Americans between 2020 and 2021, as the surge of these anti-LGBTQ bills began. And that’s only counting hate crimes that get reported. The years 2020 and 2021 each set a new record for the number of trans people murdered in America.

**

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The cruelest irony is that these Republican bills pretending to protect children are putting our most vulnerable children at greater risk.

LGBTQ kids are more than four times likelier than non-LGBTQ kids to attempt suicide, especially transgender young people.

Gender-affirming care reduces that risk. That is why it is life-saving.

“Don’t Say Gay” laws also strip away potentially life-saving support. A teacher who positively and respectfully discusses sexual orientation and gender identity won’t turn a straight kid gay. But such a discussion will make an LGBTQ student 23% less likely to attempt suicide

The tragic truth is that “Don’t Say Gay” laws and bans on gender-affirming care are causing more young lives to be needlessly lost.

Laws that threaten to take transgender minors away from their families if they are receiving gender-affirming care will cause these young people even more trauma.

If Republicans really cared about protecting kids, they’d focus on gun violence, now the leading cause of death for American children.

If they were really worried about children undergoing life-altering medical procedures, they wouldn’t pass abortion bans that force teens to give birth or risk back-alley procedures.

What the GOP’s vendetta against the LGBTQ community really is, is a classic authoritarian tactic to vilify already marginalized people.

This is how fascism takes root.

We need to see DeSantis’s bills and similar bills signed by Republican governors across the land for what they are — attempts to use bigotry and hate to elevate their political standing.

And we need to see this Republican attack on LGBTQ Americans for what it is: a threat to all of our human rights.

[My thanks to Allan Piper for work on a version of today’s letter.]

************************

Meanwhile, as Caleb Ecarma reports for Vanity Fair, Florida teachers have had enough:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/05/florida-education-brain-drain-hitting-schools-hard

. . . .

“For the first time, I’ve actually started talking to my investment guy about retirement,” Michael Woods, a teacher who has spent decades working in exceptional-student education for public schools in South Florida, tells me. “I’m a 30-year veteran who showed up every day, hardly calls in sick, but now I don’t want to be a teacher in Florida.” Most troubling to Woods—a gay man who teaches science and biology courses—is the ballooning list of laws that police classroom material, discriminate against LGBTQ+ educators and students, and restrict sex education. “They’re all so vague,” he says of DeSantis’s new laws. “Even things that used to be easy like human reproduction [for ninth graders], I now have to check with my co-teacher and ask, ‘Is this okay? Are we still allowed to teach this?’”

On Wednesday, the governor rubber-stamped a batch of four bills restricting LGBTQ+ rights and expanding the Parental Rights in Education Act—or, as critics have dubbed it, the “Don’t Say Gay” law. The new measures, which will be enforced at public and charter schools, ban educators from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in pre-K through eighth grade, and place new, vague restrictions on sex education, including that such instructions “be age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

This latest salvo was a bridge too far for many teachers, according to Rebecca Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the US. “I just talked to one teacher yesterday who is leaving and she said, ‘I can’t teach like this,’” Pringle tells me. “‘I can’t teach while worrying that they’re coming after my license, or I’m committing a felony.’ They’re leaving in protest.” Pringle says she has tried to convince teachers to stay in Florida, given the dearth of teachers in the state. But that discussion has been difficult to have, she says, with teachers who are facing death threats or harassment.

Case in point: One fifth-grade teacher in West Florida said this month that she was placed under investigation by the Florida Department of Education for showing her class Disney’s Strange World, a children’s movie that features an openly gay character. Jenna Barbee, the teacher at hand, said she played the film to give students a post-exam “brain break.” But when a local school board member learned of the showing, Barbee said, she was reported to state officials. Barbee told CNN that she had already submitted her resignation before the incident, in protest of the “politics and the fear of not being able to be who you are” in Florida public schools.

It appears that no educator has yet been prosecuted or charged under Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law or its legislation restricting books in schools. But as fears mount over their future implementation, parents are already witnessing the effects of shorthanded schools and overcrowded classrooms. “Last year, I saw several teachers leave, and we had substitutes for three, four months of the year,” says Reagan Miller, a parent in West Florida whose two children attend public school. “We had a teacher who taught advanced math at our middle school for years and years—he just left to go be a 911 operator,” she tells me, “which blows my mind, that becoming a 911 operator would be less stressful than being a teacher.”

. . . .

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My experience on the bench was that almost all the transgender individuals coming before me had attempted suicide on one or more occasions or expressed suicidal thoughts. To a person, they just wanted to be accepted, protected, and to live their own lives without harassment, interference, or fear. These are all things that today’s cowardly GOP “Brown Shirt Pols” would deny them. 

The next generation is going to have to decide whether they want to live in a Nazi-inspired police “hate state” where individual freedoms are meaningless and cruelty, bullying, suppression, and betrayal are the norms. If not, then they had better get busy removing every GOP politico from every office — from local school boards and city councils to the Presidency.

How soon we forget the lessons of 1939! Perhaps that’s part of the GOP’s war on truth, education, and history!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

05-23-23

 🏴‍☠️☠️ NAACP ISSUES TRAVEL WARNING: Florida, The Neo-Fascist “Hate State” ⚠️

 

Nina GolgowskiSenior Reporter HuffPost PHOTO: HuffPost
Nina Golgowski
Senior Reporter
HuffPost
PHOTO: HuffPost

Nina Golgowski reports for HuffPost:

The NAACPs Board of Directors has issued a travel warning about Florida that accuses the state, and pointedly Gov. Ron DeSantis, of being openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.”

Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color,” the notice issued Saturday states.

The civil rights organization specifically accuses DeSantis, a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate, of aggressively attempting to erase Black history and restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.”

. . . .

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Read Nina’s complete report at the link.

Colfax Massacre
“Gathering the dead after the Colfax massacre, published in Harper’s Weekly, May 10, 1873” — White Nationalist snowflakes like DeSantis feel diminished and threatened by the truth about American history and the role of race.                                                                  

The “anti-woke agenda” touted by DeSantis is a very thinly disguised euphemism for “overtly racist!” That, decades after folks like Gov. George Wallace and Sen. Strom Thurmond unabashedly made hate, segregation, and racism the “centerpieces” of failed presidential bids, racists like DeSantis are openly campaigning on the same basic platform, and enacting it in their “mini-reichs,” should be deeply disturbing to younger generations of voters who will have to live with the stupidity, ignorance, cynicism, and hate promoted by these immoral GOP pols. It’s a race backwards and to the bottom that can only end in a complete catastrophe for our nation and the world!

Also remember: It all started with the dehumanization and false demonization of migrants. Many, including too many Dems, have been unwilling to stand up against it! That’s how the GOP’s “destroy America” agenda gains traction!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

05-22-23

 

 

🇺🇸⚖️🗽 THE POLITICS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE: PROGRESSIVES WIN KEY RACES IN WISCONSIN & CHICAGO!😎 — Instead Of “Running Away” From The Humanitarian Values That Got Them Elected, Biden, Harris, & So-Called “Centrist Dems” Should Be Embracing The Practical, Universal Values Of Due Process, Fundamental Fairness, Equal Justice Under Law & The Human Dignity Of All!

Equal Justice
Equal Justice
FROM: United Nations, Creative Commons LIcense

From HuffPost:

Liberals Take Control Of Wisconsin Supreme Court

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/janet-protasiewicz-wins-wisconsin-supreme-court-race_n_642c7201e4b0ba5d603c81ed

Brandon Johnson, Progressive Union Organizer, Elected Mayor Of Chicago

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brandon-johnson-elected-chicago-mayor_n_642caf1be4b0ba5d603cc31a

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It’s also remarkable, if not surprising, that 33,000 of us, many representing larger groups, filed written comments OPPOSING Biden’s tone-deaf, anti-due-process, anti-rule-of-law, racially-targeted, designed-to-fail, Stephen-Miller-inspired “death to asylum (and asylum seekers)” proposed regulations!  https://default.salsalabs.org/Ta42828aa-7c89-4fca-a530-ab64d55d9cdf/e9c83407-de3b-4bcf-a318-704cbcd599a2. As someone who spent considerable time analyzing public comments on regulations during my career, that’s an astounding show of unified opposition.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that Biden, Harris, Garland, Mayorkas, or anyone else in the Administration will listen. But, they should! 

Unfortunately, the ridiculously short 30-day comment period and that this major reversal of the positions and values that Biden and Harris campaigned upon, without meaningful input and discussion with experts who actually understand the borders and have been present there, indicates that the the comments are likely to be largely ignored. That’s going to lead to big time litigation — from both progressives and GOP nativist/restrictionists. 

But, discouragingly, the Biden Administration has shown itself to be willing to tie up time and resources insanely (and not necessarily successfully) doing battle with its own would-be supporters rather than fighting the right! Just who they think is going to be the “winner” here — other than, perhaps, Donald Trump and Jim Crow  — is beyond me!

James “Jim” Crow
James “Jim” Crow
Symbol of American Racism. Biden’s ill-advised and tone-deaf nativist asylum policies appear designed to appease this guy rather than to please those who actually voted for him and other Democratic candidates!

Instead of “running away” in the face of the GOP’s scurrilous “Anti-Woke Campaign:” targeting immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Jews, Muslims, women’s reproductive rights, teachers, free speech, libraries, public education, medical science, the environment, social justice, the Federal Government, voting rights, unions, the working poor, and just about all “mainstream American” individual freedoms, the Biden Administration and Dems in general should stand up for what’s actually great about America and against the GOP’s vile, ignorant, hateful “culture warriors” and “Jim Crow racists and misogynists. Defending the legal rights and humanity of asylum seekers and other migrants would be a good place to start a real defense of American values and democracy! That is, if someone in power were really interested in those things!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

04-05-23

🇺🇸 ON THE 55TH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. KING’S ASSASSINATION, IRV WILLIAMS @ PORTLAND (ME) PRESS HERALD REMINDS US WHY THE TRUE HISTORY THAT THE GOP FEARS IS ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTANDING OUR NATION!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929|-1968 PHOTO: Nobel Foundation (1964), Public Realm
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
1929 – 1968
PHOTO: Nobel Foundation (1964), Public Realm

https://www.pressherald.com/2023/04/04/maine-voices-fifty-five-years-after-martin-luther-kings-assassination-we-still-have-much-to-learn-from-himq/

https://www.pressherald.com/2023/04/04/maine-voices-fifty-five-years-after-martin-luther-kings-assassination-we-still-have-much-to-learn-from-him/

On April 4, 1968, I was a senior in high school when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee. That weekend I had been attending a planning meeting in Richmond, Virginia, for mobilizing white teens from suburban churches to serve in inner-city projects in the District of Columbia and Baltimore.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Irv Williams is a native of Baltimore, with family roots in the Northern Neck of Virginia. He moved to Maine in 1973 and is a resident of Peaks Island.

Driving home on Sunday afternoon I arrived at the Baltimore city line, about five miles from my house, to find National Guard troops and tanks blocking off access to the city. I was allowed to pass only on the condition that I drive directly home.

Today I know the real reason I was allowed to pass by those armed soldiers was that my face was white, not Black. Dr. King was only 39 years old when he was murdered.

William Page was only 25 years of age when he was lynched in August 1917 in Lilian, Virginia. My mother would have been a toddler sleeping in her crib at home, just a mile away from the schoolyard in which he was hanged. Newspaper reports state that a mob of about 500 men assembled to commit the murder.

William Page would be the last Black man to be lynched in my mother’s home county of Northumberland, but the lynchings would continue on for another seven years, claiming the lives of nine additional Black men across Virginia.

I am now just a bit older than my mother was when she died. At 72, I look back over a lifetime of witnessing racial injustice through the segregation of schools and other public and private facilities. The false doctrine of “separate but equal” was then in full force throughout Virginia, where both of my parents were born and raised.

I carry childhood memories of seeing “White” and “Colored” water fountains in the county courthouse. Of visiting the family doctor whose small brick office behind his house had separate waiting rooms. Hearing my grandmother talk about “the colored” schools that a neighboring county closed for five full years rather than integrate, meanwhile taking public funds to open white academies. Knowing that nearby was a “colored beach” that was a small sliver of sand allotted to Black children. And knowing that there would never be any Black worshippers or preachers at the church revival meetings where my grandmother played piano.

Looking back at all of those memories, I know full well that the privilege to pass by those National Guard tanks in 1968 had come at the expense of others, sometimes in deadly ways.

In his 1964 book “Why We Can’t Wait,” Dr. King wrote: “Armies of officials are clothed in uniform, invested with authority, armed with the instruments of violence and death and conditioned to believe that they can intimidate, maim or kill Negroes with the same recklessness that once motivated the slaveowner.”

Now, nearly 60 years later, we see that Dr. King is still being proven right with the brutal beating death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. It wasn’t a rope like they used on William Page, or a bullet like the one that felled Dr. King, but the stun gun, pepper spray, fists and boots of police officers who have been charged with murder in an incident that equals the terror of the August night when 500 men watched William Page die.

Must we wait for another hundred years to pass for this senseless killing to stop? The simple answer is, no, we can’t wait.

**********************

The work of achieving due process and equal justice for all persons in America, as required by our Constitution, remains urgent and unfinished!

Indeed, under the “New Jim Crow” GOP and it’s noxious, intellectually dishonest, morally challenged “leaders,” our nation has actually regressed from some of the key achievements that Dr. King championed. 

James “Jim” Crow
James “Jim” Crow
Symbol of American Racism. If YOU don’t share the GOP White Nationalist insurrectionist “vision” of an American wracked with hate, exclusion, dehumanization, inequality, bias, bogus myths, and return to a “whitewashed history that never was,” YOU must stand against the “21st Century Jim Crow Mob” that seeks to seize control over YOUR country.

It’s particularly critical for the next generations to decide whether they want to live in a better, fairer, more tolerant world, or be forever captive in a White Supremacist, misogynist, fearful past, beholden to a “whitewashed” version of history that never was!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

04-03-23

 

🇺🇸⚖️ SLATE’S MARY HARRIS INTERVIEWS REP. HILLARY SCHOLTEN (D-MI) — Exploiters Rejoice 🎉 As Huckabee Sanders Leads GOP Efforts To De-Regulate Child Labor!☠️🤮👎🏼

“I was working at the Justice Department on immigration issues largely related to enforcement, figuring out how to make our laws more just, more fair, more humane. . . . But the Board of Immigration Appeals also has jurisdiction over dealing with regulations. It’s the highest administrative agency dealing with immigration issues—not only one-off cases, but we set national precedent for things like asylum, dealing with children who are detained in the United States. It’s a very powerful agency. Not a lot of people realize how much influence it has. And so that’s significant because when Trump was elected, we saw such a marked change in the direction of the work, where the focus of the policies seemed to be cruelty for the point of cruelty. And I couldn’t continue to work there and uphold my oath to protect and defend the Constitution, let alone maintain my own moral compass. And so I took a stand and I left.”

Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI)
Visit
Creator: Ike Hayman
Credit: Ike Hayman
SOURCE: Wikipedia
Mary Harris
Mary Harris
Host & Managing Editor
What Next
PHOTO: Slate.com

 

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/03/child-migrant-labor-immigration-hillary-scholten.html

 

Listen here: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1438906889

POLITICS

Why Child Labor Is Still Happening in the U.S.

Child Labor
Not just a thing of the past. Unsplash [In fact, it’s Arkansas GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s “vision of the future” now that she has eliminated those pesky “burdensome and obsolete” child labor laws!]
BY MARY HARRISMARCH 09, 20233:40 PMCongresswoman Hillary Scholten remembers exactly where she was when she realized her new job on Capitol Hill was about to get a lot more complicated. “My heart just sank,” she said. “I couldn’t believe what I was reading.”Scholten was reading the New York Times, a big investigation into immigrant child labor. The very first anecdote in this 5,000-word opus is about a 15-year-old girl bagging cereal on the graveyard shift in the Hearthside Food Solutions plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Scholten is a third-generation Michigander. She’s from Grand Rapids. And it wasn’t just that companies in Scholten’s hometown were employing kids. It was that many of these kids seemed to be living without their parents. And a lot of them were falling asleep in school because they had full-time jobs. The machines they were working on? They had been known to slice off workers’ fingers.Congresswoman Hillary Scholten remembers exactly where she was when she realized her new job on Capitol Hill was about to get a lot more complicated. “My heart just sank,” she said. “I couldn’t believe what I was reading.”Scholten was reading the New York Times, a big investigation into immigrant child labor. The very first anecdote in this 5,000-word opus is about a 15-year-old girl bagging cereal on the graveyard shift in the Hearthside Food Solutions plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Scholten is a third-generation Michigander. She’s from Grand Rapids. And it wasn’t just that companies in Scholten’s hometown were employing kids. It was that many of these kids seemed to be living without their parents. And a lot of them were falling asleep in school because they had full-time jobs. The machines they were working on? They had been known to slice off workers’ fingers.

Especially as an attorney who has worked on these issues her entire career, it felt like a personal attack,” Scholten said.

On Wednesday’s episode of the show, I spoke with the former immigration attorney–turned–congresswoman about the broader powers she has now that’s she in D.C. and whether she will be able to use them. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Mary Harris: Rep. Hillary Scholten says the nuances of immigration have always been important to her. Before she was an attorney, she worked as a migrant advocate. But once she got her law degree, she took that experience one step forward, joining the DOJ.

Hillary Scholten: I was working at the Justice Department on immigration issues largely related to enforcement, figuring out how to make our laws more just, more fair, more humane.

You were working on immigration appeals, right?

Yeah, exactly. But the Board of Immigration Appeals also has jurisdiction over dealing with regulations. It’s the highest administrative agency dealing with immigration issues—not only one-off cases, but we set national precedent for things like asylum, dealing with children who are detained in the United States. It’s a very powerful agency. Not a lot of people realize how much influence it has. And so that’s significant because when Trump was elected, we saw such a marked change in the direction of the work, where the focus of the policies seemed to be cruelty for the point of cruelty. And I couldn’t continue to work there and uphold my oath to protect and defend the Constitution, let alone maintain my own moral compass. And so I took a stand and I left.

Scholten soon got a new job at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. But almost as soon as she arrived, her work—and the work of many other immigration attorneys across the country—was thrown into chaos. Things got especially bad as it became clear the Department of Homeland Security was separating migrant children from their parents at the border, leaving lawyers and advocates to figure out what to do next. That’s when Hillary Scholten started seriously considering a run for Congress.

At the height of the family separation crisis, our agency was responsible for helping reunite and represent so many children. Imagine a legal services waiting room that turned into a virtual day care center overnight with kids who didn’t know where their parents were. And there were a lot of reasons I raised my hand to run, but no doubt I can pinpoint the moment when I was like, “Oh, hell no, I got to do more.” It’s the height of the summer. My dear husband came to visit me at work. It was going to be a late night, and he brought me an iced coffee. And we were chatting, and we walked through our waiting room. He’s normally a pretty stoic guy, and he fell silent. And I turned and looked at him, and his eyes had just filled with tears. And I realized that we had walked past a set of three siblings, all dressed in their Sunday best, between the ages of 5 and 7. That’s how old our children were at the time. And he just said, “Hill, you see this stuff on the news. It is an entirely different level to look these children in the eye.”

One of our youngest clients was separated from his parents at 4 months old. You’re not just walking away from a parent. You’re being taken from their arms.

Five years later, this investigation by the New York Times has Scholten thinking about different ways to help migrant children. Just this past weekend, she returned to her district to connect with constituents and think about how she can intervene, now that her community’s child labor problem is no longer a secret. She can already see the way the news has rippled outward.

One of the saddest things about the fallout of all of this is that there has continued to be some real discontent within the immigrant communities here, where shining a light on the exploitation of children has also shined a light on the fact that there have been so many other individuals working without authorization in these factories. And as companies have started to look into who’s actually working here, their labor pool has vanished. Hearthside, after the Times ran the investigation, said they were going to be doing inspections on the manufacturing floor, and 75 percent of their workforce didn’t show up the next day.

. . . .

**************************

Read/listen to the full interview at the above links.

As Hillary says, the BIA is “a really powerful agency.” That’s exactly why the Trump Administration “packed” it with unqualified restrictionist “Appellate Judges” known for their anti-asylum bias and astronomical asylum denial rates!

That’s also why Biden, Harris, and Garland’s near-complete failure to “clean up the BIA” and the rest of the failed EOIR “judiciary” and bring in the “best legal minds in the business” to establish a model progressive expert judiciary is such a scandal and indicator of the repeated failure of Dem Administrations to take advantage of the transformational opportunities given them.

By contrast, whether we like it or not, the far right extremist GOP knows exactly how important the Immigration Courts are and accordingly acts decisively to weaponize, pack, “dumb down,” and co-opt them in their nativist battle to dehumanize and demonize migrants. This was a key “first step” in the GOP’s attack on all of the “others” in America! Transgender youth, African Americans, women, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and others being targeted by the GOP’s nationwide assault on their rights, humanity, and the truth about our history might look to the Biden Administration’s fecklessness in dealing with immigrants’ rights and human rights to understand how they are being “left out on a limb” by a Dem Administration — more interested in its re-election than in serving those who helped put them in office. 

Hillary had the guts and moral courage to take a stand. Yet, Biden, Harris, Garland, Mayorkas and others in this Administration, not so much! Frankly, that’s appalling! 🤮

“It is an entirely different level to look these children in the eye.” This encapsulates the problems of immigration, human rights, child abuse, and racial injustice! Unlike Hillary, very few legislators, Federal Judges, Biden politicos, or GOP nativist Governors and AGs have ever had to get their “hands dirty” by “looking . . . in the eyes” of children and others whom they abuse, dehumanize, and bully on a regular basis!

Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Attribution: ROLLING BACK CHILD LABOR PROTECTIONS by Randall Enos, Easton, CT
Republished under license.

Contrast Hillary’s “hands on” experience and search for bipartisan practical solutions with the predictable stupidity and abuse by GOP Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a living incarnation of the “Peter Principle,” who recently and gleefully signed into law an insane provision reducing child labor protections in Arkansas while incredibly claiming that protecting children was “burdensome and obsolete!” 

The law eliminates requirements for the state to verify the age of children younger than 16 before they can take a job.

Sanders believes the provision was “burdensome and obsolete,” spokeswoman Alexa Henning said in an emailed statement.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiDuP7XrtT9AhWMKFkFHZWmAx4QFnoECAsQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fpolitics%2F2023%2F03%2F08%2Fhuckabee-sanders-arkansas-child-labor%2F&usg=AOvVaw2hQBQWdV4EtGhbPKLyr8kn

Oliver Twist Workhouse
Ark. Gov. Huckabee Sanders’s MAGA “child welfare plan” has its Anglo-Saxon roots firmly planted in the famous British workhouses that many GOP politicos admire!
Public Realm

As part of their “willful blindness” to the deterioration of American democracy, the so-called “mainstream media” often likes to falsely portray GOP Governors as presenting a “saner” alternative to America’s leading liar/insurrectionist “The Donald.” But, as Sanders, DeSantis, Abbott, Youngkin, and others remind us on a regular basis, there are some REALLY BAD GOP Governors out there who are every bit as much a threat to America’s future as Trump!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

03-11-23

☠️🤮 “ANTI-WOKE” IS A COWARDLY SLOGAN FOR JIM CROW, WHITE SUPREMACIST, RACISM — So, Why Is The So-Called “Mainstream Media” Giving 21st Century GOP “Dixiecrats” Like Ron DeSantis & Greg Abbott A “Free Pass?”

Allison Wiltz
Allison Wiltz
Author, Medium
PHOTO: Medium.com

Allison Wiltz writes in Medium:

https://link.medium.com/eUKQHqxW1xb

The anti-woke crusade is rooted in fear and ignorance, a mnemonic placeholder for the bigoted things most people wouldn’t dare say aloud. Black Americans have been using the term “woke” since the 1940s to describe a state of awareness toward racist policies and worldviews that negatively impact the Black community. However, many White people now use the term as a derogative slur, a cowardly way of spilling the beans while denying any beans were spilled.

. . . .

Saying you are anti-woke is a way of admitting you are anti-Black without feeling the backlash many outspoken racists receive. Likewise, anti-woke crusaders are promoting anti-democratic policies by controlling what topics schools and businesses can read and discuss without getting labeled a fascist for circumventing the First Amendment of the Constitution. America was founded by White men interested in securing their rights while denying that same access to Black people, women, and racial and ethnic minority groups. We don’t have to worship the founding fathers blindly, nor should any American. It seems many conservatives are afraid of saying the quiet part out loud, of admitting that their crusade on “woke” is really an attempt to diminish the gains made by the Civil Rights Movement, of framing progress as regressive. Americans should challenge more conservatives to define “woke” on their own terms because the more descriptions they provide, the more we can see through the smoke and mirrors.

*******************

Those with Medium access can read the complete article at the link.

Here’s one of my favorite comments on this article, from Walter Rhein: “When people say they are ‘anti-woke,’ I interrupt them and say ‘You mean ‘anti-black.’ They become enraged and act like they’re the victims (like racists always do).”

Cowardly insurrectionist racist oppressors and chronic liars bogusly claiming they are “victims,” perhaps of “the biggest witch hunt on history?” Sound familiar?

The far right’s war of hate directed against the “other” started with the White Nationalist war on immigrants. It’s called “Dred Scottification” of the other. Yet, the mainstream media downplays the real message and “normalizes” these vile attacks on our democracy. They “whitewash” the dangerous message of hate being promoted by DeSantis, Abbott, and their ilk.

Ron DeSantis Dave Grandlund PoliticalCartoons.com Republished under license Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump are “campaigning” on an agenda of racism, hate, and White Supremacist grievance not seen since the late Gov. George Wallace. Yet, mainstream media has largely “normalized” that which would have been unacceptable and unthinkable only a few years ago!
Ron DeSantis
Dave Grandlund
PoliticalCartoons.com
Republished under license
Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump are “campaigning” on an agenda of racism, hate, and White Supremacist grievance not seen since the late Gov. George Wallace. Yet, mainstream media has largely “normalized” that which would have been unacceptable and unthinkable only a few years ago!

Even the Biden Administration fails to “connect the dots” between the White Nationalist restrictionist war on asylum seekers of color they have adopted from Trump and Miller and the extremist right’s attack on Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, LGBTQ, women, teachers,  Jews, Muslims, health care professionals, journalists, and everyone else “White Supremacist nation” perceives as a threat to their kakistocracy. In that way, this Dem Administration becomes part of problem, not the solution.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

03-09-23

🤮🏴‍☠️ “AMERICA FIRST” HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT PUTTING MANY AMERICANS & AMERICAN VALUES LAST! — It’s An Ugly, Yet Long Standing, Part Of Our History Embodied In The Anti-Democracy MAGA Movement!

Sarah Churchwell
Sarah Churchwell
American Educator & Author
PHOTO: twitter.mobile.com

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/09/09/america-first-american-dream-trumpism/

Sarah Churchwell writes in the WashPost:

. . . .

The phrase “America First” fell rapidly into disrepute during World War II, largely because the America First Committee (whose most prominent spokesman was Charles Lindbergh) had urged non-intervention and appeasement and been accused of anti-semitism and fascist sympathies. It was then consigned to temporary obscurity, but not everyone forgot. The slogan was periodically recalled to articulate resurgent right-wing nationalism, often explicitly white nationalism, from Gerald L.K. Smith, once known as “America’s most notorious antisemite,” who founded the America First Party in the 1940s, to Barry Goldwater, hailed by his supporters as an “America First” politician and described by the conservative National Review in 1963 as standing for “States’ Rights, strict construction, limited government, private enterprise, and America first, last and always.” It was used to describe David Duke and George Wallace, before being resuscitated by Pat Buchanan (“We are not isolationists. We simply believe in America first, last and always,” he declared in 2000) in his presidential campaigns. A certain Donald Trump flirted with making his own run under Buchanan’s Reform Party banner, then brought the phrase triumphantly back a century after Wilson popularized it.

[Competing visions of the American Dream are driving Democrats and Republicans apart]

Now the America First Policy Institute declares that its slogan is “America First, Always” and that its immigration policy will mean no longer putting “America last” — echoing the language of a March 1922 editorial from what was then the nation’s most popular weekly, the Saturday Evening Post, as it harangued its readers about the “immigration problem” caused by “our policy of putting the alien and his interests first, and America last.”

These “America First” initiatives go beyond attempts at excluding the “alien” that were already divisive, and futile, a century ago. One of the most prominent spokesmen for “America First” today is Nicholas Fuentes, a white Christian nationalist who organized the America First Political Action Conference earlier this year. Fuentes was also present at the storming of the Capitol, as were his “Groyper” followers, waving his “AF” flags. Fuentes declared: “It is the American people, and our leader, Donald Trump, against everybody else in this country and this world.” That is certainly what “America First” has meant in the past, as its leaders promise that only they can put America first, by inflaming divisions against nearly every other human being. But it is “America First” that endures, not its erstwhile leaders — and its history offers a pretty good indication of what to expect from Trumpism without Trump.

***********************

I highly recommend that everyone read Sarah’s full article at the link. 

Immigrants are almost always the first target of this “confederacy of cowards” — because they are most vulnerable. U.S. courts have traditionally been unwilling to effectively enforce the constitutional and legal rights of “the other.” But, as pointed out in the article, the hate and resentment continues to pour out against additional groups and individuals until “almost every other human being” becomes a target. 

We see it today in Virginia Governor Glenn “Junkman” Youngkin’s recent cowardly and unconstitutional “targeting and bullying” of transgender school kids under the ridiculously bogus rubric of “parents rights.” Just where does the “right” of neo-fascist parents to bully the children of others come from? 

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in the Grimm case in 2020 already has found that “Junkman’s” scofflaw attempt to force transgender kids to use the wrong bathroom likely will be held unconstitutional. But, the Constitution and laws have never been anything but “convenient props” for America Firsters!” Compare the courage of the Grimm plaintiff with the ugly cowardice of the “Junkman” and his followers. (This following “Junkman’s” outrageous trip to Maine to campaign for notorious racist GOP gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage).

But, the Fourth Circuit might be an aberration. Often, getting reactionary judges who lack the character and guts to stand up against demonization of their fellow humans helps fuel and protect the “America First” movement from accountability. That’s certainly been at the core modern GOP mis-governance, and the Dems have been painfully “slow on the uptake” in countering it. You have only to look at Merrick Garland’s astounding mis-handling of the reactionary, weaponized, and totally dysfunctional Immigration “Courts” under his control to see just how slow!

In the end, it will be up to the upcoming generation to decide what kind of America they want to live in: An America that respects and honors the dignity, worth, and human potential of all of its inhabitants and serves as a model of tolerance and inclusion for the rest of the world? Or, an America where a minority of extreme right wing authoritarians are at war with the rest of us and, indeed, with humanity itself. Your choice!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-18-22

FROM ROE TO DOBBS, A HALF-CENTURY DECLINE IN THE US JUDICIARY! — From Blackmun’s “Profound Lyricism” To Alito’s Snarky Far-Right Pseudo-Religious Dogma Masquerading As “Law!”  — Francine Prose in The Guardian

Francine Prose
Francine Prose
American Writer
PHOTO: Luigi Novi (2009)
Creative Commons License

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/01/roe-v-wade-1973-ruling-supreme-court?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

As one more reminder of what we’ve lost, the text of the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling is unlikely to console us. Even so, I recommend downloading the pdf. In the wake of its overturning, this beautifully written document – which reads like a long form essay – is not only interesting in itself but now seems like another sign of how much has changed over the last half century, in this case for the worse.

Drafted by Justice Harry Blackmun, the ruling includes a clear and persuasive summary of the history of abortion law. “At the time of the adoption of our Constitution, and throughout the major portion of the 19th century, a woman enjoyed a substantially broader right to terminate a pregnancy that she does in most States today.” It tracks the centuries-old debate over when life begins, and dismisses the argument that a fetus is a person guaranteed the protections afforded US citizens. Throughout, it strikes us as the careful explication and clarification of a law, of legal precedent, unlike Justice Alito’s ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, which seems more like an expression of religious conviction masquerading as an unbiased interpretation of the constitution.

The Roe ruling is not about states’ rights. It’s about power and control | Derecka Purnell

What’s most striking about Roe v Wade – and its difference from the ruling that overturned it – is its eloquence. Blackmun’s lucid, frequently graceful language reflects a commitment to decency and compassion. The judges are clear about the dangers of carrying an unwanted child or a high-risk pregnancy to term. They strive to see the issue from the perspective of those confronting a serious life crisis, and to imagine the devastating outcomes that pregnant women and their families may face.

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“Specific and direct harm medically diagnosable even in early pregnancy may be involved. Maternity, or additional offspring, may force upon the woman a distressful life and future. Psychological harm may be imminent. Mental and physical health may be taxed by childcare. There is also the distress, for all concerned, associated with the unwanted child, and there is the problem of bringing a child into a family already unable, psychologically and otherwise, to care for it.”

The passage I admire most is the one in which Blackmun, at once profound and lyrical, describes the atmosphere surrounding the issue of abortion, the way our opinions are formed, and the pressures that the law must acknowledge and keep in balance.

“We forthwith acknowledge our awareness of the sensitive and emotional nature of the abortion controversy, of the vigorous opposing views, even among physicians, and of the deep and seemingly absolute convictions that the subject inspires. One’s philosophy, one’s experiences, one’s exposure to the raw edges of human existence, one’s religious training, one’s attitudes toward life and family and their values, and the moral standards one establishes and seeks to observe, are all likely to influence and to color one’s thinking and conclusions about abortion. In addition, population growth, poverty, and racial overtones tend to complicate and not to simplify the problem.”

And there it is: a superbly rendered catalogue of the factors that come to mind when we consider the factors that will now determine whom Dobbs will hurt most: poverty, race, and life on the raw edges of human existence – an edge, one might say, on which every decision about abortion is made.

. . . .

****************

Read the rest of Francine’s article at the link.

Let’s face it. The concern for human life of out of touch righty ideologues like Alito ends at birth. After that, the “others” are expendable — particularly if they are women or folks of color!

All their claimed concern about “personhood” ends at delivery — when it can no longer be used to threaten vulnerable pregnant women or medical professionals. After that, the GOP program for kids (whether wanted or not) consists of things like:

  • Valuing their lives below the “right” of every Tom, Dick, and Harriett in America to own and use military-style assault weapons (something that certainly wasn’t the “original intent” of the drafters of the 2d Amendment);
  • Cutting education budgets, “dumbing down” public school curriculums, and harassing teachers, school administrators, and school board members;
  • Imposing work requirements on public assistance without regard to the needs and availability of suitable child care;
  • Deporting their parents to far away countries without concern for the welfare of children (US citizen and others);
  • Declaring “war” on vulnerable kids who aren’t heterosexuals;
  • Opposing provisions that would expand the availability of health insurance to kids;
  • Spreading misinformation about life-saving vaccines for children;
  • Falsely denying climate change that threatens the world we will leave to our kids and future generations; 
  • Spreading fear and terror in ethnic communities containing “mixed families” to discourage them from taking advantage of available community services; 
  • Threatening the educational rights of non-citizen children currently guaranteed by Plyler v. Doe (but perhaps not for long, if the Clarence Thomases of the world have their way);
  • Treating kids in Immigration Court as less than “persons” entitled to full due process (for example, forcing toddlers to “represent themselves” in life or death asylum cases);
  • Separating families;
  • Detaining families and children in grossly substandard conditions;
  • Making it more difficult for people of color to vote and thus exercise their legal and political rights;
  • Being more concerned about BLM protests than in the loss of young black lives that generated them.

I could go on an on.

One essential starting place and training ground for a “new generation” of Federal Judges who will be committed to humane values, empathy, accurate historical understanding, due process, and equal justice for all is the “retail level” of our justice system — the U.S. Immigration Courts, currently controlled solely by AG Merrick Garland. That’s why Garland’s disturbing failure to instill progressive values and install scholarly progressive judges — the best, brightest, and most courageous — in his now-dysfunctional EOIR system should be of grave concern to advocates of individual choices and anyone who cares about equal justice for all and the future of our nation!

The GOP-dominated Federal Judiciary has become a tool of authoritarians and religious zealots who seek to wipe out established individual rights, reduce humanity, and insert themselves and their out of touch views into every aspect of human existence — ultimately threatening the very future of humanity! 

The Dems, by contrast, are the party of individual rights and human freedom. Too bad they haven’t done a better job of selling, and sometimes of following and boldly acting upon, their own stated values! 

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

07-15-22 

⚖️9TH CIR. SLAMS IMMIGRATION BUREAUCRACY FOR DEFICIENT FOIA RESPONSE ON DEATH OF TRANSGENDER ASYLUM APPLICANT IN “NEW AMERICAN GULAG” (“NAG”)!

 

From Dan Kowalski over at LexisNexis Immigration Community:

https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2022/05/12/20-17416.pdf

https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca9-on-foia-transgender-law-center-v-ice#

“At the heart of this case is an effort by advocates to learn about the circumstances of an asylum-seeker’s tragic death in federal custody. The Freedom of Information Act exists for just such a purpose—to ensure an informed citizenry, promote official transparency, and provide a check against government impunity. Yet here the advocates’ FOIA requests met first with silence and then with stonewalling; only after the advocates filed suit did the government begin to comply with its statutory obligations. Our task is to discern whether the government’s belated disclosure was “adequate” under FOIA. We conclude that it was not. … REVERSED, VACATED, and REMANDED.”

[Hats off to Irene LaxKimberly A. Evans and R. Andrew Free!]

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As Andrew Free ;pointed out to me, the 9th Circuit suggested some potential “bad faith” at work here in footnote 2 (p. 22):

2 Our conclusion is strengthened by evidence that the Government withheld information under this exemption in an overbroad manner. For instance, ICE redacted a portion of Hernandez’s credible fear interview under Exemption 7(E), but when TLC received an unredacted version from the CoreCivic production, the redacted text read as follows: “I left because my life was threatened by the Maras gang. A group of Maras raped and tried to kill me I was afraid for my life and left Honduras.” This statement from Hernandez could not possibly fall under the category of techniques, procedures, or guidelines. Such a redaction suggests that the agencies may have invoked Exemption 7(E) in an effort to shield prejudicial information. See Pulliam v. EPA, 292 F. Supp. 3d 255, 260 (D.D.C. 2018).

This raises the additional questions of 1) why is this going on in a Dem Administration that promised to restore the rule of law to immigration; and 2) why is Garland’s DOJ defending this nonsense and incredibly shoddy process in Federal Court? 

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

05-13-22

⚖️10TH CIR. SAYS TRANSGENDER WOMEN FACE “PATTERN OR PRACTICE OF PERSECUTION” IN HONDURAS — Gonzalez Aguilar v. Garland — Latest Setback For Garland’s “Asylum Deniers’ Club” (A/K/A “BIA”)!👎🏽 “Refugee Roulette” ☠️⚰️  The “Order Of The Day” @ Garland’s Dysfunctional & Unjust DOJ!

Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca10-2-1-on-honduras-transgender-women-gonzalez-aguilar-v-garland

Immigration Law

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Daniel M. Kowalski

29 Mar 2022

CA10 (2-1) on Honduras, Transgender Women: Gonzalez Aguilar v. Garland

Gonzalez Aguilar v. Garland

“Kelly Gonzalez Aguilar is a transgender woman from Honduras. She came to the United States and applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and deferral of removal. In support, Kelly claimed • past persecution in Honduras from her uncle’s abuse, • fear of future persecution from pervasive discrimination and violence against transgender women in Honduras, and • likely torture upon return to Honduras. The immigration judge denied the applications and ordered removal to Honduras. In denying asylum, the immigration judge found no pattern or practice of persecution. Kelly appealed the denial of each application, and the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed the appeal. The dismissal led Kelly to petition for judicial review. We grant the petition. On the asylum claim, any reasonable adjudicator would be compelled to find a pattern or practice of persecution against transgender women in Honduras.”

[Hats off to Nicole Henning, Tania Linares Garcia and Keren Hart Zwick!  And…nota bene…this PFR was filed in 2018!]

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Imagine what it would be like if we had an AG with the guts and decency to appoint a BIA of real judges — asylum experts who would adhere to due process and fairly, properly, and consistently interpret asylum laws rather than spewing out specious, life-destroying, bogus denials? Backlogs might even start decreasing!

Remarkably, even the Trump-appointed dissenting Circuit Judge Joel M. Carson concedes that EOIR easily could have decided this case in favor for the respondent and perhaps should have. 

No doubt a person could view the record before us differently—the majority does so today—and I might on de novo review.

He then willingly gets lost in a forest of bogus reasons for abusing “standards of review” as an excuse for Article III Judges to avoid responsibility for life-threatening miscarriages of justice.

In stark terms, a reasonable judge could have saved this respondent and probably should have. But, this IJ and the BIA chose not to. So, who cares because it’s only a brown-skinned asylum seeker whose life is so insignificant that we should relegate it to the realm of chance and happenstance. Next case, please!

Asylum law, according to the Supremes in Cardoza-Fonseca is supposed to be interpreted generously in favor of protection. If legal protection from persecution or death is one possible outcome, it should be the the only acceptable outcome! Saying that some humans should potentially die while others be protected basically depending on a Federal Judge’s personal philosophy and mood on a particular day isn’t just legally wrong and a denial of due process and equal protection — it’s immoral!

The point is obvious. Better qualified judges at the BIA would put an end to this treatment of life or death decisions as a “crap shoot” — dependent on which IJ is drawn, the composition of the BIA “panel,” the Federal Circuit in which the case arises, the “luck of the draw” on the Circuit panel, and probably the “day of the week.” This is no way to run a justice system. And, Garland and his complicit lieutenants know that!

A better AG would long ago have installed a better BIA. It’s classic “Refugee Roulette” ☠️⚰️ being promoted by a Dem Administration! Instead of putting an end to this disgraceful “intellectual game of chance with human lives” being played by ivory tower bureaucrats and judges who have “immunized” themselves from the traumatic real life consequences of their bad decisions, Garland has chosen to “play along” 

I’m not the only one to express frustration with Garland’s failure to do his job, to prioritize accountability, and to take justice, human lives, and the rule of law seriously! See, e.g., https://www.huffpost.com/entry/merrick-garland-justice-department-contempt-charges-lag-capitol-riot-investigation_n_62427a3ae4b0e44de9b8451f

When he’s not carrying out Stephen Miller’s anti-asylum policies @ EOIR with Miller’s holdover acolytes  as “judges” and “senior executives,” Garland is busy helping Trump and his fellow GOP insurrectionists “run out the clock” on the House Jan. 6 Panel!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

03-30-22

🏴‍☠️☠️⚰️GARLAND’S FAILURES LOOM LARGE AS EOIR’S ABUSES OF BLACK REFUGEES EMERGE! 🤮 —  Biased, Thinly Qualified “Judges” Fingered In HRF Report On Wrongful Returns To Cameroon Remain On Bench Under Garland — Anti-Asylum BIA & Ineffective Leadership From Trump Era Retained By Garland In EOIR Fiasco!

Kangaroos
What fun, sending Black Cameroonian refugees back to rape, torture, and possible death! We don’t need to know much asylum law or real country conditions here at EOIR. We make it up as we go along. And, Judge Garland just lets us keep on playing “refugee roulette,” our favorite game!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rasputin243/
Creative Commons License

 

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2022/02/deported-cameroonian-asylum-seekers-suffer-serious-harm.html


From HRF:

. . . .

Nearly all of the deported people interviewed had fled Cameroon between 2017 and 2020 for reasons linked to the crisis in the Anglophone regions. Human Rights Watch research indicates that many had credible asylum claims, but due process concerns, fact-finding inaccuracies, and other issues contributed to unfair asylum decisions. Lack of impartiality by US immigration judges – who are part of the executive branchnot the independent judiciary – appeared to play a role. Nearly all of the deported Cameroonians interviewed – 35 of 41 – were assigned to judges with asylum denial rates 10 to 30 percentage points higher than the national average.

. . . .

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The complete report gives a totally damning account of EOIR’s incompetence, ignorance of asylum law, poor decision making, “rigged” assignment of bad judges, and systemic bias directed against asylum seekers, primarily people of color. Although human rights conditions have continued to deteriorate in Cameroon, asylum grant rates have fluctuated dramatically depending on how the political winds at DOJ are blowing.

For example, judges denying asylum because of imaginary “improved conditions” in Cameroon falls within the realm of the absurd. No asylum expert would say that conditions have improved.

Yet, in a catastrophic ethical and legal failure, there is no BIA precedent “calling out” such grotesque errors and serving notice to the judges that it is unacceptable judicial conduct! There are hardly any recent BIA published precedents on granting asylum at all — prima facie evidence of the anti-asylum culture and institutional bias in favor of DHS Enforcement that Sessions and Barr actively cultivated and encouraged!

How bad were things at EOIR? Judges who denied the most asylum cases were actually promoted to the BIA so they could spread their jaundiced views and anti-asylum bias nationwide. See, e.g.https://immigrationcourtside.com/2019/11/01/corrupted-courts-no-stranger-to-improper-politicized-hiring-directed-against-migrants-seeking-justice-the-doj-under-barr-doubles-down-on-biased-ideological-hiring-promot/

Even more outrageously, these same members of the “asylum deniers club” remain in their influential appellate positions under Garland! As inexplicable as it is inexcusable!

The HRF report details the wide range of dishonest devices used by EOIR to cut off valid asylum claims: bogus adverse credibility determinations; unreasonable corroboration requirements; claiming “no nexus” when the causal connection is obvious; failing to put the burden on the DHS in countrywide persecution involving the government or  past persecution; bogus findings that the presence of relatives in the country negates persecution; ridiculous findings that severe harm doesn’t “rise to the level of persecution,” failure to listen to favorable evidence or rebuttal; ignoring the limitations on representation and inherent coercion involved in intentionally substandard and health threatening ICE detention, to name just some. While these corrupt methods of denying protection might be “business as usual” at EOIR “denial factories,” they have been condemned by human rights experts and many appellate courts. Yet Garland continues to act as if nothing were amiss in his “star chambers.”

This bench needs to be cleared of incompetence and anti-asylum bias and replaced with experts committed to due process and fair, impartial, and ethical applications of asylum principles. There was nothing stopping Sessions and Barr from “packing” the BIA and the trial courts with unqualified selections perceived to be willing and able to carry out their White Nationalist agenda! Likewise, there is nothing stopping Garland from “unpacking:” “cleaning house,” restoring competence, scholarly excellence, and “due process first” judging to his shattered system!

Unpacking
“It’s not rocket science, but ‘unpacking’ the Immigration Courts appears beyond Garland’s skill set!”
“Unpacking”
Photo by John Keogh
Creative Commons License

All that’s missing are the will and the guts to get the job done! Perhaps that’s not unusual for yet another Dem Administration bumbling its way through immigration policy with no guiding principles, failing to connect the dots to racial justice, betraying promises to supporters, and leaving a trail of broken human lives and bodies of the innocent in its wake. But, it’s unacceptable! Totally!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-11-22

🇺🇸🗽⚖️NDPA VIRTUAL OPPORTUNITY: Meet Rising Superstar 🌟  & Social Justice Advocate Denea Joseph, Current Ousley Social Justice Resident @ Beloit College — Friday, Sept. 17 @ 7:00 PM CDT — FREE Virtual Link Here!

Of interest? You can join virtually.

———- Forwarded message ———

From: Atiera Lauren Coleman <colemana@beloit.edu>

Date: Wed, Sep 8, 2021 at 3:10 PM

Subject: [EVENT] Ousley Residency: All Black Lives Matter: Black Immigrants and the Immigrants’ Rights Movement

To: <facstaff@lists.beloit.edu>

Ousley Residency Keynote Speaker

Denea Joseph

Friday, September 17, 7:00 PM – In-person & Virtual – (Add to Google Calendar)

BTYB – Student Success, Equity, and Community and the Weissberg Program in Human Rights & Social Justice

The Office of Student Success, Equity & Community Ousley Scholar In Residency honors the legacy of Grace Ousley, the first black woman to graduate from Beloit College. It is a junior scholar/activist/organizer/intellectual committed to the theory and practice of social justice. They should embody the “academic hustler” who fights for “social justice” in all aspects of their work. Support for the residency comes from the Weissberg Program in Human Rights and Social Justice and the Office of Student Success. Equity & Community.

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Event Details

Date: Friday, September 17, 2021

Time: 7:00 PM -8:30 PM

How to attend

In-person – Weissberg Auditorium – Powerhouse

Virtual – Join Zoom Meeting  https://beloit.zoom.us/j/81172664933

 

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This promises to be a great program! And, the Ousley Residence Program is a fantastic contribution to educating and inspiring new generations of Americans about the many challenges still facing us in achieving social justice in our nation.

The abrogation of due process and dehumanization of people of color has, outrageously, become part of the dysfunctional U.S. Immigration Court System. The last Administration specifically encouraged and promoted this ugly, anti-democracy, phenomenon and then used it to spearhead an all-out assault on racial justice, gender equality, LGBTQ rights, religious tolerance, economic progress, voter rights, and humane progressive values throughout American society.

Unfortunately, many progressives have been slow to “connect the dots” and insist that meaningful social justice change start with fixing the racial and gender bias problems in our Immigration Courts, tribunals that are under the complete control of the Biden Administration!

For example, current Attorney General Merrick Garland rather incredibly claims to be standing up for women’s rights in Texas and defending voting rights for minorities while continuing to run misogynistic, regressive “Star Chambers” at EOIR, staffed with many judges hand-selected by Jeff Sessions and Billy Barr, and tossing vulnerable women refugees of color back across our Southern Border into harm’s way without any “process” at all, let alone “Due Process of Law.” Garland also continues to enable human rights abuses in the “New American Gulag” of DHS civil detention! We can see this process of dehumanization of the “other” before the law, called “Dred Scottification” by many of us, spreading throughout our legal system and being endorsed and “normalized” all the way up to the Supremes.

From the summary in the announcement above, it appears that Denea, based on her own inspiring life and achievements as a “Dreamer,” will help us to “connect the dots” between racial justice, immigrant justice, and equal justice for all. Immigrants’ Rights = Human Rights = Everyone’s Rights!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-09-21