🏴‍☠️ADMINISTRATIONS COME & GO — BUT, INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM DIRECTED AGAINST BLACK HAITIAN MIGRANTS REMAINS A BIPARTISAN STAPLE OF U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY!

Haitians
Torch
By Bill Day
Republished by license

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:

Nicole Phillips, Legal Director, Haitiian Bridge Alliance, nmp.law@gmail.com, +1 (510) 715-2855

Tom Ricker, Policy Director, The Quixote Center, tomr.quixote@gmail.com, (301) 922-8909

Biden’s Invisible Wall: New Report Describes the Hardships that Title 42 Expulsions Create for Haitian Migrant Families and Calls on Biden to Stop Expelling Migrants to Haiti

San Diego, California, March 25, 2021 — Today, one year after the “Title 42” policy was enacted, the Haitian Bridge Alliance, Quixote Center and UndocuBlack release the report, The Invisible Wall: Title 42 and its Impacts on Haitian Migrants, and call on the Biden-Harris Administration to immediately revoke Title 42 and end expulsions to Haiti. According to Guerline Jozef, Executive Director of Haitan Bridge Alliance, “Most if not all of the expulsions to Haiti are per the Title 42 policy, which was adopted  under a false pretext of the coronavirus pandemic. Title 42 is Trump’s invisible wall that effectively closed the U.S.-Mexico border to migrants.” “Our Report,” says Ms. Jozef, “presents the voices and hardships of Haitian migrant families who have been abused in immigration custody and then expelled under the Title 42 policy without the opportunity to seek legal counsel or request asylum or other protection.”

On February 1, 2021, the first day of Black History Month, the U.S. government drastically expanded removals and expulsions to Haiti. Rather than dismantle the Trump Administration’s invisible wall, the Biden-Harris Administration doubled down. More Haitians have been removed per the Title 42 policy in the weeks since President Joe Biden took office than during all of Fiscal Year 2020. The Report provides the narratives of Haitian families who were apprehended at the U.S. Mexico border within the last year under the Title 42 policy and were subject to expulsion to Haiti or Mexico.

The Report explains how Haitian migrants are expelled under the Title 42 policy without being informed whether or when they will be expelled, and without the opportunity to seek asylum or other forms of protection.  “Abigale” (name changed), a Haitian woman interviewed for the Report, describes the cruelty of immigration officials during her family’s expulsion, “None of the officers ever confirmed that we were being deported. No one would even say the word deportation. None of them, through this whole process. All the families were crying on the bus, for over an hour. My husband and others kept asking what was going on, if they were deporting us. They would not tell us anything despite our desperation. It was all extremely emotional.”

“The Biden-Harris Administration has continued cruelty against immigrants,” said Patrice Lawrence, Co-director of the UndocuBLack Network. “We hope that this will not be their legacy. It is cruel to use Title 42 as a loophole for deporting immigrants in general and Black migrants in particular. It is a euphemism for removals and deportation of immigrants which the Trump Administration deemed expendable in the wider context of its eugenic agenda of creating a Whiter America and atmosphere of nativism. The invisible wall named Title 42 keeps at bay brown and Black people fleeting war, violence, poverty and disasters under the pretext of protecting Border Protection officers from COVID-19 and to minimize the number of persons in congregate settings, such as immigration detention centers. The Biden-Harris Administration continues to ignore the cry and plight of immigrants that are being forced to board a plane and are taken to the very places they escaped from. The xenophobic language of the previous Administration might be gone, but the practices still remain.”

“There is no sound public health rationale for the Title 42 ban on migrants,” says Tom Ricker, Policy Director with the Quixote Center.  “The idea for the policy came not from public health officials, but from the Trump White House. The entire justification for the Title 42 policy is the claim that the United States lacks the capacity to safely detain people. Yet, the United States is holding people for weeks only to then put them on crowded planes. How do you deny someone asylum who has been placed in detention – with no legal representation at all – based on the argument that there is no capacity to detain them?”

The Report also describes the high security risks that Haitian migrants face when they are expelled to Haiti or Mexico. As one woman who was recently expelled to Haiti under Title 42 describes, “Now the country is in more turmoil so I’m even more afraid to leave [my home]. If these people find us, they would just kill us this time around.”

“Haitian migrants flee violence, instability and persecution in Haiti, then travel a long and treacherous journey to the U.S.-Mexico border seeking safety and security in the United States,” says Nicole Phillips, Legal Director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. “Instead of security, they are abused by immigration officers and – under the Title 42 policy – summarily expelled back to the country they fled without any chance to seek protection. As this Report explains, these expulsions are not only tragic, they are illegal.”

The authors offer nine recommendations. “First,” says Ms. Phillips, “the Title 42 policy must be revoked immediately. It is also critical that asylum processing resumes, while migrants are released to shelter in place with their loved ones in the United States rather than being detained. Incarceration must stop.”

The Full report can be read here.

***********

Same old song! Where’s Vice President Kamala Harris on this one? 

🇺🇸🗽⚖️Due Process Forever! Treat Haitians as persons with constitutional and human rights. End the racist travesties embodied in U.S. immigration policy that fuel racial injustice throughout America!☠️

PWS

3-28-21

🇺🇸🏈👍🏼 FORMER PACKER SUPERBOWL-WINNING 🏆 HEAD COACH MIKE HOLMGREN WITH SOME GREAT ADVICE: GET TRUMP OFF THE FIELD BEFORE HE CAN DO ANY MORE DAMAGE!

Mike Holmgren
Coach Mike Holmgren
Lambeau Field 1998
Photo: David Wilson – Flickr: 19981213 24 Mike Holmgren, Lambeau Field,
Creative Commons License

https://madison.com/wsj/opinion/column/mike-holmgren-vote-to-take-president-trump-off-the-field/article_5857f1a8-6d58-56d2-acd5-19b8c1b1cac2.html

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

In more than three decades of coaching, I’ve come to learn one thing: You cannot be afraid to take a player off the field if it will help the team.

Donald Trump said he alone could fix the challenges facing our country. But as we’ve seen during these past four years, he’s in over his head — and we’re all paying the price for that. It’s time to take President Trump off the field.

Months into this pandemic, coronavirus cases are continuing to skyrocket in Wisconsin. More than 1,500 Wisconsinites have lost their lives to the pandemic. Green Bay, a city I love dearly, is seeing some of the highest infection rates in the country. Hospitals are overflowing, people are hurting, and families are needlessly suffering. More than 4,000 fewer people in Green Bay are employed now, compared to when President Trump took office. Far too many small businesses have had to close their doors for good. And the heart and soul of Green Bay — our game days with thousands of fans at Lambeau Field — are no more.

President Trump’s failure to mount a forceful response to the coronavirus pandemic will go down as one of the most consequential failures of government in American history. In Green Bay alone, the indefinite hold on fans at Lambeau Field — yet another consequence of President Trump’s failed leadership — is proving devastating to Green Bay’s small businesses. Each Packers home game provides $15 million in economic impacts to the city of Green Bay — but not this year.

. . . .

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

Read the rest of Mike’s op-ed at the link.

Trump is the biggest loser in US presidential history! Even now, he has no coherent plan for anything — just inane and largely fabricated personal grievances, insults, and childish, moronic chants and slogans! What kind of nation puts someone like this “on the field” with survival in the balance?

By contrast, Biden and Harris care about America and have intelligent plans for solving problems like health care, getting America back to work, addressing the pandemic in a scientifically credible way, protecting our environment, treating all persons equally before the law, ending racism and misogyny, and re-establishing our world leadership.

Vote like your life and the world’s future depend on it! Because they do! Get the maliciously incompetent loser off the field and put proven winners and decent human beings in charge!

PWS

10-18-20

🇺🇸ELECTION: NDPA “CALL TO ACTION” 🗽– HERE ARE “REAL LIFE” THINGS YOU CAN DO TO SAVE OUR NATION THIS FALL!

ELECTION: HERE ARE “REAL LIFE” THINGS YOU CAN DO TO SAVE OUR NATION THIS FALL!

 

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2QV4cC9&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ca37ac6a9da0b4b37201108d850a3f8e4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637348012462505702&sdata=4hJ1XxSAXZDEItHRRI%2FYb%2BV5YRb0smSbysrHOaeIiRk%3D&reserved=0

Gary Sampliner
Gary Sampliner
Retired Federal Attorney

From Gary Sampliner

 

Gary is a retired federal attorney who is heading up election efforts for a small DC area social action organization called JAMAAT (Jews and Muslims and Allies Acting Together).

 

 

 

 

Election 2020:  Some Ways to Get Involved

 

  • Mass texting. This is a means of voter outreach that it is a lot of fun and effective in getting the message out and having conversations with many voters in a short period of time — and great for those with strong aversions to talking to strangers on the phone.  Although some training is needed for this, mass texting can be learned within an hour, and anyone can pick up how it is done within a short time of starting to do the actual texts.  Organizations use programs that allow volunteers to send a pre-written text message out to voters through their computers in batches of 200-1000, which can be done in no more than 2-4 minutes.  On average, 10-20% will answer, some immediately and others trickling in over the next few hours.  Volunteers can then engage with many of these voters, usually through a wide variety of scripted answers which mostly cover the waterfront of responses they receive, and sometimes result in more creative and substantive conversations.  You can complete all of your conversations for a batch in 60-90 minutes, with occasional check-ins for a few responses that trickle in over the next 48 hours.  The voters only get your first name and don’t have your phone number or further information about you. You can get going in doing mass texts that reach 1000 voters at a time and result in many substantive discussions through the People’s Action Network, which is now sending over a million texts a week to voters in key swing states, by clicking here:

 

  • Phone banking. While phone banking has its rewards and occasional frustrations, it has been found to be the most effective means of engaging voters other than door-to-door canvassing.  Most campaigns now use electronic dialers, to dial quickly and allow callers to speak only to people who answer, and they also usually provide a script to use and adapt to their own words.  While there can be many wrong numbers and occasional confrontations, many of the phone banks target likely friendly groups of people (e.g. Dem voters who we encourage to come out and get or submit ballots).  In this year of COVID, phone bankers are finding that the proportion of lonely people who will pick up the phone and talk is increasing.

 

  • Writing post cards.  A great outreach technique for the worst technophobes!    A nationally known non-partisan campaign called Reclaim Our Vote has sent over 5 million post cards, primarily to deregistered (purged from the rolls) voters of color in swing states, urging recipients to register and to vote, and provide needed contact info, and is looking to send out many more as soon as possible, before shifting its efforts to phone banking and texting.  (https://actionnetwork.org/forms/reclaim-our-vote-signup).  Reclaim Our Vote is also one of the few campaign-related organizations that houses of worship and other 501(c)(3) organizations can participate in, and to which people can make tax-deductible contributions, because it is non-partisan (it does not search out voters by party registration).  Its parent organization, Center for Common Ground, is itself a 501(c)(3) organization.  Another group called Postcards to Voters (https://postcardstovoters.org/) writes post cards to Democratic leaning voters in swing states around the country.  The group has a few openings in a local chapter in the DC area where one of our JAMAAT members is active, and they get together in periodic friendly Zoom meetings to write post cards and get to know each other.  Please contact us at JAMAAT if you are interested.

 

  • Writing Letters. Another great outlet for the tech-challenged.   An organization called Vote Forward, https://votefwd.org, is working with groups such as Swing Left to have volunteers write 10 million letters to infrequent Democratic voters in swing states, to send shortly before the election to remind them to vote.  They have had past success with their strategy, because recipients are likely to open the handwritten, personally addressed letters that remind people to vote shortly before the election.  This year, they have decided to send their letters out on October 17.

 

  • Organizing friends and family. We all know that individuals have far more influence on people they know than on strangers.  The Biden campaign has come up with a training program and app called Vote Joe, available on the App Store, to help organize friends and family, which seems particularly useful for young people with infrequently voting friends or people with friends and family who need to be acquainted with basic facts on the issues.  The app allows users to help figure out whom to target, by providing access to publicly available voting data to show how frequently any person has voted and (depending on the state) the party for which they registered, and provides easily accessible information on the major issues of concern to voters.   For the next of the training programs that shows how to use the app and more, see  https://www.mobilize.us/2020victory/?address=20850&lat=39.0839994&lon=-77.1527813.

 

In addition, MoveOn has put together a Mobilize to Win program that provides a framework for how to reach friends and family effectively in the 17 key battleground states for the Presidential and Senate elections and getting them and people in their networks to vote: https://front.moveon.org/mobilize-to-win/.

 

  • Poll watching and voter assistance hotlinesWith all the news about Republican efforts at voter suppression and massive disqualification of votes, Democratic groups have sprung up to resist such efforts through voter education and poll observation.  You can get involved with the Biden campaign as a poll observer by clicking here, be trained on how to answer questions on the Biden campaign’s National Voter Assistance hotline by clicking here, and become involved as a nonpartisan Election Protection volunteer, supported by many of our country’s best-known non-partisan election protection organizations, by clicking here.
  • Giving money. You are all deluged with requests for donations that seem to come from every organization on Earth, each of which professes to be the one in greatest need of your money.  This document will not endorse giving to any of the worthy organizations listed here over any others.  But if you have money to donate to one or more political campaigns, and you care about particular issues, you can increase the impact of your contribution by donating through a PAC of an interest group whose positions on your issue of concern are supported by that group.  One organization to consider, for anyone interested in promoting an equitable two-state solution in Israel and Palestine, is the J Street PAC, https://jstreet.org/about-us/about-jstreetpac/#.X0gfNMhKg2w.   In its 12 years that it has been in existence, this group has hired some of the savviest people on the Hill, which has helped propel J Street into becoming one of the most successful Jewish organizations in Washington.  One service they offer, if you wish to donate to Senate or House campaigns but could use some guidance on which campaigns are most in need of money that can make a difference, is to consult with their resident expert on this subject, Capital/South Assistant Regional Director Mike Fox, mike@jstreet.org. You will need to become a member of J Street through its web site in order to donate through the PAC, at no financial obligation.  All monies donated through the PAC will go directly to the designated candidate.

 

  • Organizations doing various types of voter outreach

 

  • 2020 Victory (mobilize.us/2020victory/) is the website for the DNC, for both the Biden/Harris campaign and downballot campaigns in battleground states. Here you can get text training (required before doing any texting on their campaigns), phone banking, and different types of organizing, and then sign up for particular phone banking, texting, and get out the vote events to all manner of targeted audiences.

 

  • Moms Demand Action on Gun Sense has a very active Maryland chapter coordinating postcarding for Spanberger and Luria (the two likely close congressional races in our area) and for Reclaim Our Vote, as well as texting (currently with 2020 Victory) and phone banking.  They do frequent small group Zoom parties in connection with their events, led by their experienced team heads, to give tips, conversation, and offer incentives like campaign swag for frequent participants. You can contact them through the Moms Demand Action – MD Facebook page or you can e-mail mocomomselections@gmail.com.

 

  • Seed the Votehttps://www.everydaypeoplepac.org/seedthevote/, a Bay Area-organized campaign of progressive organizations, is teaming with groups from AZ, PA, and FL to do phone-banking and texting to those critical states each day of the week. Their partner organizations feature a “deep canvassing” technique to try to understand the concerns of infrequent and swing voters, to get back to them with answers to questions they cannot handle from initial questions, and to refer people in need of resources to helping institutions.

 

  • Powered by People is a PAC started and led by Beto O’Rourke, which makes calls to Texas Democrats and people of color: see https://map.betoorourke.com/  Its phone banks feature 1 or 2 weekly 2-hour sessions that start with a Zoom conference with inspirational remarks led by Beto himself, and feature both an automatic dialer I’ve found works very well and a good supportive staff who can help with issues while calls are ongoing.

 

  • Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, the progressive Jewish organization that focuses on domestic issues such as racial justice, immigration, and the environment, is running a Vote Out Fear campaign (https://www.bendthearc.us/vote_out_fear_pb), doing phone banking and text banking aimed at swing Jewish voters (initially in Florida and Georgia, now expanded to include six other key states).

 

  • Turnout 2020, https://turnout2020.org/, a program of a coalition of left-leaning groups called the Progressive Turnout Project, primarily makes calls to infrequent Democratic swing state voters to urge them to take action, normally on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are currently calling Arizona and Pennsylvania voters to encourage that they request a vote-by-mail ballot, with talking points to help voters understand options.

 

  • JAMAAT (Jews and Muslims and Allies Acting Together) is a small grass roots organization in the DC area that focuses on fighting Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, as well as on issues like immigration, preventing gun violence, and the environment. Its members have been working with all of the groups listed here.  Interested people can participate in our next virtual organizing meeting on Sunday, October 4 at 7:00 pm EDT, for which they should register at http://bit.ly/jamaat2020.  Any questions should be referred to gsampliner@gmail.com.

 

  • Reclaim our Vote, https://actionnetwork.org/forms/reclaim-our-vote-signup, which will be pivoting later in September from post card writing to phone and text banking, and they have useful training courses coming up to help hesitant phone bankers, some on Mondays and some at other times.

 

  • Grassroots Democrats (https://grassrootsdems.org/) is a California-based organization that has gone national and participates in phone banking and texting campaigns in most of the battleground states. They have a well-organized website to hook interested people into phone banking and texting opportunities, as well as training, in battleground state races of their choice, and good links to other key websites to get brief summaries of the candidates; background and positions.

 

 

 

o   Changing the Conversation (ctctogether.org) is a group that is doing both telephone and (under a strict protocol) door-to-door canvassing, focusing on Pennsylvania.  They train people extensively in “deep canvassing,” which has worked to persuade reluctant voters to vote and change the minds of least the less ardent Trump supporters, not by using facts and arguments but by story-telling, building empathy, and getting voters to tell their own stories that can cause them to convince themselves to come out to vote and vote our way.

 

o   Environmental Voter Project (https://www.environmentalvoter.org/) is a non-partisan organization that uses big-data analytics to identify inactive environmentalists in battleground states and then through its phone banks and text banks, applies cutting-edge behavioral science to turn them into more consistent voters.

 

 

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

This November, vote like your life and our nation depend open it. Becauise they do!

PWS

10-03-20

 

 

WE ALWAYS KNEW THE GOP SENATE 🤮 WAS A HAVEN FOR SLEAZE-BALLS — So Why Be Surprised When They Act The Part? — The Solution Is Simple — Vote ‘Em Out!  — Start Rebuilding Our Democratic Republic Before It’s Too Late!

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg 1933-2020
Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States, Photographer: Steve Petteway
Public Realm
Karen Tumulty
Karen Tumulty
Political Columnist
Photo: Rick Reinhard via Inter-American Dialogue
Creative Commons License

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/20/senate-republicans-are-showing-us-why-they-should-lose-their-majority/

Karen Tumulty in WashPost:

. . . .

In fact, McConnell’s actions are totally in keeping with the opportunism with which he has led the Senate. Given a chance, he will always abuse his power. Branding McConnell a hypocrite misses the point. Hypocrisy — coupled with an utter lack of shame — is not a character fault in his eyes. It is a management style, a means to an end.

[Obituary: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court justice and legal pioneer for gender equality, dies at 87]

And would we have expected anything different from Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), the shape-shifting chairman of the Judiciary Committee?

Back in the days when he pretended to care about something more than sucking up to power, Graham used to say Republicans would have to live with what they had done to Obama’s 2016 nominee, Merrick Garland. In October 2018, shortly before taking the gavel of the committee that will consider Trump’s nomination, Graham promised: “If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and the primary process has started, we’ll wait till the next election.”

Now — surprise! — Graham has promised, via Twitter: “I will support President @realDonaldTrump in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg.” His rationale, if you can dignify it by calling it that, is that Democrats did things that offended him. So it’s payback time.

Oh, and let’s consider the sanctimonious and pseudointellectual Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), whom Trump has said he would consider for future openings on the court. When running for president in early 2016, he loftily declared to NBC’s Chuck Todd: “It has been 80 years since a Supreme Court vacancy was nominated and confirmed in an election year. There is a long tradition that you don’t do this in an election year. And what this means, Chuck, is we ought to make the 2016 election a referendum on the Supreme Court.”

What Cruz said wasn’t true, as is so often the case. There had indeed been instances of presidential nominees being confirmed during election years. In February 1988, a Democratic-led Senate voted 97-0 to put Ronald Reagan’s pick, Anthony M. Kennedy, on the court.

But this was only the beginning for Cruz. When it still appeared that Hillary Clinton would win in 2016, he also suggested that the court could get along just fine with only eight members indefinitely. Now — surprise! — Cruz is warning that having an even number of justices constitutes a “grave danger.”

. . . .

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

Read Karen’s complete op-ed at the link at the link.

As political sage Willie Nelson would say: “Vote ‘Em Out, Vote ‘Em Out!”

The best, perhaps only, way to honor RGB’s legacy and life work is to remove from office the party of inhumanity, inequality, and unbridled corruption who would spit and stomp on her legacy, NOW! Think about the “cultists” running around in “Fill Her Seat” shirts! Do you want these “princes and princesses of darkness, ignorance, bias, racism, and institutionalized inequality” to be running YOUR nation and determining the future of YOUR children and grandchildren? Pull out all the stops, open your wallets, and tell all your family, friends, and neighbors to register and vote for Joe and Kamala. It’s clearly “the last stand” for American democracy and human decency as we envision it (but also a great opportunity to make America better by voting for Biden/Harris)!

PWS

09-22-20

🇺🇸GEORGE PACKER @ THE ATLANTIC ON WHY JOE BIDEN SHOULD GO TO KENOSHA TO LISTEN & DELIVER A NEEDED MESSAGE OF PEACE, HOPE, & UNITY!

https://apple.news/AY0ybevmoTUe6tKe-0t8z3Q

Packer writes:

. . . .

Nothing will harm a campaign like the wishful thinking, fearful hesitation, or sheer complacency that fails to address what voters can plainly see. Kenosha gives Biden a chance to help himself and the country. Ordinarily it’s the incumbent president’s job to show up at the scene of a national tragedy and give a unifying speech. But Trump is temperamentally incapable of doing so and, in fact, has a political interest in America’s open wounds and burning cities.

Biden, then, should go immediately to Wisconsin, the crucial state that Hillary Clinton infamously ignored. He should meet the Blake family and give them his support and comfort. He should also meet Kenoshans like the small-business owners quoted in the Times piece, who doubt that Democrats care about the wreckage of their dreams. Then, on the burned-out streets, without a script, from the heart, Biden should speak to the city and the country. He should speak for justice and for safety, for reform and against riots, for the crying need to bring the country together. If he says these things half as well as Julia Jackson did, we might not have to live with four more years of Trump.

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

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

Seems like a sound plan. Joe probably should take Kamala with him to Kenosha. Get the input of the residents and public officials living with this horrible situation every day and see what common ground they might suggest for both repairing the damage that has been done (to the extent it can be repaired — obviously, there is no restoring Mr. Blake to his pre-shooting condition) and moving forward as a united community and as a country. Assuming, as I do, that the vast majority of Americans favor both justice for all and peaceful, prosperous communities, what are some specifics about how we might get there by working together and across racial and party lines.

Threats and more force won’t solve the problem. We know that. But just that knowledge isn’t enough to solve the problem.

I think it also would be a good idea for Joe and Kamala to seek the views of individuals like LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Steph & Ayesha Curry, George Hill, Kenny Smith, Colin Kaepernick (who was born in Milwaukee and spent the first four yers of his life in Fond du Lac, WI)and others in the African-American community. How would they solve the problem of racial injustice while building community harmony. How could they use their influence to help. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Sen. Doug Jones (to name just a few) might also have some good ideas to contribute.

Donald Trump is not, and never will be, a thoughtful, unifying problem solver. It’s just not in his makeup or “skill set.” He has no coherent plan for anything.

By contrast, Joe Biden has shown himself to be thoughtful, willing to admit and move by past mistakes, and able to build on his experience and past views to address the present. Now, he needs to put it all together in “real time” and show America what a competent, caring, and listening Government could do for the common good. Without necessarily “becoming Elizabeth Warren,” he and Kamala “need a plan for that.” And listening to the “real people of Kenosha” seems like the place to start.

PWS

08-28-20

 

🤯🤯🤯👽💩🤖👾THE TWILIGHT ZONE “PRESIDENCY” — “There are times I get online, see the latest news, and wonder how we are living in a world where Kafka writes for the Twilight Zone starring the Marx Brothers!” — Dan Rather

Click here for the “Trump Regime/GOP Theme Song:”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b5aW08ivHU

Amen!

This is what American “Government” is these days. An absurdist parody where the architect of death, disorder, hate, inequality, international ridicule, unemployment, and White Supremacist violence blames a former Vice President for the absolute mess the incumbent has made of our nation! And, guess what — a crowd of sycophants actually has the audacity to cheer and (apparently) believe this evil, absurdist fantasy and to claim that their selfish, tone-deaf, dishonest minority views represent the “real America!”

In other words, Trump is essentially “running against his own record” while taking no responsibility for the mess he has made. In a pure Kafka/Twilight Zone moment, his GOP toadies let him get away with it. Worse yet, they contemptuously and arrogantly think the rest of us are stupid or clueless enough to believe this fantastic nonsense!

But, maybe there is some historical reason for this contempt. Trump’s mess is also to some extent the fault of the majority of us who “failed to make the sale” and get out the vote in 2016. We won a clear majority of the votes, but were’t smart, motivated, or diligent enough to turn our majority into political power. Some would call that the height of ineptitude and failure of resolve! That, in turn, has unleashed great, unnecessary, pain, suffering, death, and despair on America and the world.

Even allowing for the unreliability of polls, Trump apparently has never had the support of the majority of Americans, let alone voters. Yet, he “governs” as if the minority he represents are the only Americans! And, the rest of us have let him get away with it!

Do we really want to be remembered as the generation that ended “The American Experiment” and replaced it with “The American Kakistocracy?” We have a chance this Fall to get it right and to put America back on track to fairness, decency, humanity, equality, and a better life for all Americans — to take America to another level and to resume a positive position of world leadership. To address racial and economic inequality and to improve and value the lives of all Americans (including, of course, Trump supporters). The chance might not come again. 

So, don’t blow it! Put Joe Biden in office, a decent, experienced, highly competent, thoughtful, caring, forward looking human being with a positive vision for all Americans and a commitment to a better world. Give Joe and his able and inspirational partner Kamala Harris a Democratic-led Senate that will help them govern for the common welfare, rather than for the benefit of one family and a few of their cronies at their top!

This November, vote like your life and the world’s future depend on it! Because they do!

Due Process Forever! Kafka, The Twilight Zone, and the Marx Brothers, Never!

PWS

08-28-20

TAL @ CNN REPORTS ON THE LATEST ACT IN ADMINISTRATION’S ONGOING “IMMIGRATION THEATER OF THE ABSURD” – DHS’s Matthew Albence Uses Congressional Hearing To Double Down On Ridiculous Claim That The “New American Gulag” Is Like A ”Summer Camp” — One Where Neither He Nor Anyone Else In their Right Minds Would Send Their Kids!

ICE official stands by comparing detention centers to ‘summer camp,’ won’t say if he’d send his kids to one

By Tal Kopan, CNN

A senior Trump administration official on Tuesday stood by his controversial comments comparing the detention centers for immigrant families to “summer camp,” but declined to answer whether he’d send his own children there.

The remarks came at a congressional hearing where immigration and border security officials struggled to answer foundational questions from senators about the administration’s push to expand the detention of immigrant families and children.

Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s chief of arrests and deportations, Matthew Albence, if he stood by his comments earlier this summer that family detention centers are like “summer camp.”

“Absolutely I do,” he said.

But he demurred when asked whether he’d send his own children, or those of people he is close to, to the centers.

“Would you send your children to one of these detention centers?” she asked.

“That question’s not applicable,” he said.

Albence did say the standards for family centers are “very safe” and “humane,” and that at one he had visited, families had access to TVs, food and video games and other activities.

“The point is, the parent made the illegal entry,” Albence said when pressed further. “The parent put themselves in this position.”

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing topic was ostensibly a court settlement that governs how immigrant children can be treated by the US, including limiting the length of time a family can be involuntarily detained to 20 days. The administration is seeking to nullify that settlement and allow itself to detain far more immigrant families for far longer.

Harris’ line of questioning was one of a series from Democrats, who pressed the officials on why they’d want to expand family detention and child detention despite widely held beliefs among medical professionals that even short periods of detention can inflict permanent and devastating trauma on children. Though the hearing did not include the Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the government’s program for immigrant children who are in the US on their own, senators also asked about the ongoing fallout over family separations and unaccompanied child detention.

Members of both parties pressed as to why the agencies were not pursuing other measures with bipartisan support that could streamline the immigration court system over an expensive effort to vastly expand family detention.

More from the hearing: http://www.cnn.com/2018/09/18/politics/ice-albence-family-detention-summer-camp/index.html

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Ever doubt that we currently have idiots in charge of our Government’s immigration policies? Matthew puts those to rest.

PWS

09-19-18

 

WHEN AL FRANKEN RESIGNS . . .

Please remember that immigrationcourtside.com was one of the first, if not the first, to call for him to go!

https://wp.me/p8eeJm-1Ij

(“Tuning in” to my prior blog on Franken at this link will also give you a great opportunity to review some of the endless intellectual dishonesty of Attorney General Jeff ”Gonzo Apocalypto” Sessions!)

Franken could and should have saved himself, his victims, his party, his Congress, and the public from unnecessary, distracting melodrama and trauma by doing “the right thing” right off the bat.

When will Democrats finally stop shooting themselves in the foot by acting like Republicans when caught red-handed in inappropriate and indefensible situations? Yeah, we live in the age of Trump and the spineless, captive, immoral GOP.

But, if Dems want to offer a “better alternative,” they need to start acting like it. Neither the Franken nor the Conyers debacles are encouraging signs. But, give Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), and other Democratic women Senators lots of credit for getting the ball rolling in the right direction, after the so-called “men” in their party failed.

PWS

12-06-17