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welcome to reality trivia
reality is the state of things as they actually exist
june 18, 2018
real news today
june 18, 2018
*Detroit Graduates Lose Job Offer After Being Told Diploma’s Are Not Legitimate
(Real People)
*These Children Will Have Stories to Tell. And They Will Be Told.
(Talkers)
*'Horror Plant' Discovered in Another US State
(Weird Things)
*THE TIPPING POINT(Suckers)
*Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty Appeal for Gay Man Sentenced to Die Because Jurors Thought He’d Enjoy Prison(Rights)
*Drudge uses photo from Syria to depict kids from Latin America as violent criminals
(Worthless Media)
*Americans grapple with recognizing facts in news stories: Pew survey
(America)
*Texas deputy accused of raping 4-year-old — and threatening to deport her immigrant mom(Gestapo USA)
*How DC’s Public Schools Went from Success Story to Cautionary Tale
(Education)
*Flooding from sea level rise threatens over 300,000 US coastal homes – study
(Environment)
(for previous day's articles see "what's inside" below)
Top Six Dictators who also Divided Children from Parents like Trump/Sessions
Juan Cole - informed comment
06/18/2018
Separating children from their parents, as Trump, Sessions and their myrmidons are doing, is monstrous and has been characteristic of the biggest dictators of the modern era. Here are a few cases in case you don’t believe me:
1. Stalin’s police used to designate some Soviet citizens as “enemies of the people” and then would take their children from those families. Some so designated who had their families confiscated were Jews.
2. Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the 1970s, 1980s:
Every family that lived in the cities was forced by Khmer Rouge soldiers to work in the fields in the countryside. This was the time in which husbands and wives, mothers, fathers and their children, and brothers and sisters were all separated from each other. 3. Under Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, Catholic hospitals were encouraged to steal babies from leftist families at the hospital, telling the parents they were stillborn, and then to give the infants to right wing families to raise.
4. Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, expelled tens of thousands of Iraqis of Iranian heritage as marked by their family names. In some instances, Saddam kept the children but expelled the parents:
“Many Shi’a refugees from southern Iraq testified about the forcible separation of their families during the early years of the Iran-Iraq war, when the Baath regime summarily deported tens of thousands of Shi’a to Iran on the grounds that they were of “Iranian origin.”
5. The Burmese military junta has separated Muslim children from their families, as part of the ongoing attempt by the Buddhists to expel the Muslims.
6 And, yes, Hitler separated children from their families on a large scale. In some instances, he had children with blonde hair and blue eyes born into “Slavic” families kidnapped and given to a German family to raise Aryan.
1. Stalin’s police used to designate some Soviet citizens as “enemies of the people” and then would take their children from those families. Some so designated who had their families confiscated were Jews.
2. Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the 1970s, 1980s:
Every family that lived in the cities was forced by Khmer Rouge soldiers to work in the fields in the countryside. This was the time in which husbands and wives, mothers, fathers and their children, and brothers and sisters were all separated from each other. 3. Under Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, Catholic hospitals were encouraged to steal babies from leftist families at the hospital, telling the parents they were stillborn, and then to give the infants to right wing families to raise.
4. Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, expelled tens of thousands of Iraqis of Iranian heritage as marked by their family names. In some instances, Saddam kept the children but expelled the parents:
“Many Shi’a refugees from southern Iraq testified about the forcible separation of their families during the early years of the Iran-Iraq war, when the Baath regime summarily deported tens of thousands of Shi’a to Iran on the grounds that they were of “Iranian origin.”
5. The Burmese military junta has separated Muslim children from their families, as part of the ongoing attempt by the Buddhists to expel the Muslims.
6 And, yes, Hitler separated children from their families on a large scale. In some instances, he had children with blonde hair and blue eyes born into “Slavic” families kidnapped and given to a German family to raise Aryan.
Trump migrant separation policy: Children 'in cages' in Texas
The authorities released this image of illegal migrants inside a large cage - reporters said they saw unaccompanied children in similar conditions
Reporters and Democratic lawmakers have been allowed inside a detention centre that lies at the heart of a growing storm over a new US policy separating migrant children from their parents.
Authorities did not allow photos or videos to be taken inside the centre, but US Customs and Border Protection later released several images. Former First Lady Laura Bush has compared it to the internment camps used for Japanese-Americans during World War Two. A Democratic congressman who visited the site said it was "nothing short of a prison".
The Texas facility is known as Ursula, though immigrants are reportedly calling it La Perrera - dog kennel in Spanish - in reference to the cages used to hold children and adults who have ended up there after crossing the border from Mexico illegally.
"One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about are bottles of water, bags of chips [crisps] and large foil sheets intended to serve as blankets," the Associated Press reports.
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley led the team of lawmakers to the site in the town of McAllen on Sunday.
He hit the headlines earlier this month when he was turned away from another facility housing some 1,500 boys in a disused Walmart store.
Speaking to CNN after the visit to Ursula, he said: "In wire-mesh, chain linked cages that are about 30x30 [feet], a lot of young folks put into them.
"I must say though, far fewer than I was here two weeks ago. I was told that buses full (of children) were taken away before I arrived.
"That was one of my concerns, that essentially, when you have to give lengthy notice, you end up a little bit of a show rather than seeing what's really going on in these centres."
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen and Vermont Congressman Peter Welch expressed shock and anger over the conditions they saw:
Chris Van Hollen✔
@ChrisVanHollen
Just left Border Patrol Processing Center in McAllen—aka "the dog kennel." Witnessed loads of kids massed together in large pens of chain-linked fence separated from their moms and dads. @realDonaldTrump, change your shameful policy today! #FamiliesBelongTogether
1:24 PM - Jun 17, 2018
Inside Ursula, more than 1,100 illegal immigrants are waiting to be processed. They have been separated into three wings: unaccompanied children, lone adults and parents with their children. Officials said nearly 200 of those being held there were unaccompanied minors and another 500 were parents with their children.
The Los Angeles Times, which also sent a team there, described the 72,000 sq ft facility as "clean and spare, with bare concrete floors".
A patrol agent currently in charge of the site, John Lopez, told the paper the 42 portable toilets on site are cleaned three times a day. There are three paramedics, two medical members of staff and 310 employees - but no mental health staff, or training, the paper notes. The main lights in the building remain on at all times.
Nearly 60 miles away, in the town of Brownsville, some 1,500 boys are being housed inside a building that was once a Walmart superstore. The boys, aged 10 to 17, were all caught illegally crossing the border. It is America's largest facility for such minors, and numbers have increased in the past month by several hundred.
Senator Merkley's Facebook Live on 4 June showing security officials denying him entry to that site - known as Casa Padre - led to questions about conditions there. Last week, news organisations were given a tour.
No cages were mentioned, but the accommodation was likened to dorm rooms inside a giant warehouse. To accommodate for the growing numbers since the new "zero-tolerance" policy went into force, cots have been added to sleeping areas in the Casa Padre.
The New York Times described it as "clean, massive and brightly lit", with the children given classes six hours each week day and outdoor play time for two hours a day. They have 48 medical staff and three on call doctors on hand.
Long-term trauma?
"Those kids inside who have been separated from their parents are already being traumatised," Senator Merkley warned. "It doesn't matter whether the floor is swept and the bed-sheets tucked in tight."
Officials say they are trying to keep siblings together and not separate children under four or younger from their parents.
But Anne Chandler, who's running a non-profit project for migrant children found on the southern US border, told Texas Monthly she had heard stories of "kids that are very young, that are breastfeeding babies and under three in the shelters, separated from their parents".
The head of the Tahirih Justice Centre in Houston said she had seen cases where parents had not been told ahead of time that their child was being taken away, and instead were told by immigration officers that their child required a bath, only to not be returned.
"I was talking to one mother, and she said, "Don't take my child away," and the child started screaming and vomiting and crying hysterically, and she asked the officers, "Can I at least have five minutes to console her?" They said no," Ms Chandler told the magazine.
A rights worker who visited the Ursula facility at the weekend told the Associated Press she had spoken to a 16-year-old girl who was left in charge of an unaccompanied toddler for three days and tasked with changing the child's nappies.
"She had to teach other kids in the cell to change her diaper," Michelle Brane, from the Women's Refugee Commission, said. The girl - who was four years old - was later reunited with her aunt, but the process took time because she did not speak Spanish but a language indigenous to Guatemala, the agency reports.
"She was so traumatised that she wasn't talking," Ms Brane said, describing the girl. "She was just curled up in a little ball."
She is not alone in voicing concerns over the long-term effects of separating adults and their children.
The American Academy of Pediatrics warned last week that "highly stressful experiences, including family separation, can cause irreparable harm to lifelong development by disrupting a child's brain architecture".
Separately, authorities have announced plans to erect tent cities that will hold hundreds more children in the Texas desert where temperatures regularly reach 40C (105F).
Local lawmaker Jose Rodriguez described the plan as "totally inhumane" and "outrageous", adding: "It should be condemned by anyone who has a moral sense of responsibility."
Authorities did not allow photos or videos to be taken inside the centre, but US Customs and Border Protection later released several images. Former First Lady Laura Bush has compared it to the internment camps used for Japanese-Americans during World War Two. A Democratic congressman who visited the site said it was "nothing short of a prison".
The Texas facility is known as Ursula, though immigrants are reportedly calling it La Perrera - dog kennel in Spanish - in reference to the cages used to hold children and adults who have ended up there after crossing the border from Mexico illegally.
"One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about are bottles of water, bags of chips [crisps] and large foil sheets intended to serve as blankets," the Associated Press reports.
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley led the team of lawmakers to the site in the town of McAllen on Sunday.
He hit the headlines earlier this month when he was turned away from another facility housing some 1,500 boys in a disused Walmart store.
Speaking to CNN after the visit to Ursula, he said: "In wire-mesh, chain linked cages that are about 30x30 [feet], a lot of young folks put into them.
"I must say though, far fewer than I was here two weeks ago. I was told that buses full (of children) were taken away before I arrived.
"That was one of my concerns, that essentially, when you have to give lengthy notice, you end up a little bit of a show rather than seeing what's really going on in these centres."
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen and Vermont Congressman Peter Welch expressed shock and anger over the conditions they saw:
Chris Van Hollen✔
@ChrisVanHollen
Just left Border Patrol Processing Center in McAllen—aka "the dog kennel." Witnessed loads of kids massed together in large pens of chain-linked fence separated from their moms and dads. @realDonaldTrump, change your shameful policy today! #FamiliesBelongTogether
1:24 PM - Jun 17, 2018
Inside Ursula, more than 1,100 illegal immigrants are waiting to be processed. They have been separated into three wings: unaccompanied children, lone adults and parents with their children. Officials said nearly 200 of those being held there were unaccompanied minors and another 500 were parents with their children.
The Los Angeles Times, which also sent a team there, described the 72,000 sq ft facility as "clean and spare, with bare concrete floors".
A patrol agent currently in charge of the site, John Lopez, told the paper the 42 portable toilets on site are cleaned three times a day. There are three paramedics, two medical members of staff and 310 employees - but no mental health staff, or training, the paper notes. The main lights in the building remain on at all times.
Nearly 60 miles away, in the town of Brownsville, some 1,500 boys are being housed inside a building that was once a Walmart superstore. The boys, aged 10 to 17, were all caught illegally crossing the border. It is America's largest facility for such minors, and numbers have increased in the past month by several hundred.
Senator Merkley's Facebook Live on 4 June showing security officials denying him entry to that site - known as Casa Padre - led to questions about conditions there. Last week, news organisations were given a tour.
No cages were mentioned, but the accommodation was likened to dorm rooms inside a giant warehouse. To accommodate for the growing numbers since the new "zero-tolerance" policy went into force, cots have been added to sleeping areas in the Casa Padre.
The New York Times described it as "clean, massive and brightly lit", with the children given classes six hours each week day and outdoor play time for two hours a day. They have 48 medical staff and three on call doctors on hand.
Long-term trauma?
"Those kids inside who have been separated from their parents are already being traumatised," Senator Merkley warned. "It doesn't matter whether the floor is swept and the bed-sheets tucked in tight."
Officials say they are trying to keep siblings together and not separate children under four or younger from their parents.
But Anne Chandler, who's running a non-profit project for migrant children found on the southern US border, told Texas Monthly she had heard stories of "kids that are very young, that are breastfeeding babies and under three in the shelters, separated from their parents".
The head of the Tahirih Justice Centre in Houston said she had seen cases where parents had not been told ahead of time that their child was being taken away, and instead were told by immigration officers that their child required a bath, only to not be returned.
"I was talking to one mother, and she said, "Don't take my child away," and the child started screaming and vomiting and crying hysterically, and she asked the officers, "Can I at least have five minutes to console her?" They said no," Ms Chandler told the magazine.
A rights worker who visited the Ursula facility at the weekend told the Associated Press she had spoken to a 16-year-old girl who was left in charge of an unaccompanied toddler for three days and tasked with changing the child's nappies.
"She had to teach other kids in the cell to change her diaper," Michelle Brane, from the Women's Refugee Commission, said. The girl - who was four years old - was later reunited with her aunt, but the process took time because she did not speak Spanish but a language indigenous to Guatemala, the agency reports.
"She was so traumatised that she wasn't talking," Ms Brane said, describing the girl. "She was just curled up in a little ball."
She is not alone in voicing concerns over the long-term effects of separating adults and their children.
The American Academy of Pediatrics warned last week that "highly stressful experiences, including family separation, can cause irreparable harm to lifelong development by disrupting a child's brain architecture".
Separately, authorities have announced plans to erect tent cities that will hold hundreds more children in the Texas desert where temperatures regularly reach 40C (105F).
Local lawmaker Jose Rodriguez described the plan as "totally inhumane" and "outrageous", adding: "It should be condemned by anyone who has a moral sense of responsibility."
|
|
your lying eyes!!!
DHS Secretary Says There’s No Family Separation Policy ‘Period’
Last week, DHS announced that nearly 2,000 kids had been separated from their parents during a six-week period ending last month.
By Nick Visser - huff post
6/18/18
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defended her agency’s role at the U.S. border with Mexico on Sunday, saying there was no family separation policy.
“This misreporting by members, press and advocacy groups must stop,” Nielsen wrote in a series of tweets Sunday evening. “It is irresponsible and unproductive. As I have said many times before, if you are seeking asylum for your family, there is no reason to break the law and illegally cross between ports of entry.”
“We do not have a policy of separating families at the border,” she continued. “Period.”
Nielsen’s comments come amid growing criticism over Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ new “zero-tolerance” policy at the border to prosecute as many people as possible for illegally entering the U.S., even if it means tearing families apart.
Last week, DHS announced that nearly 2,000 kids had been separated from their parents during a six-week period ending last month. Many of those children are being held in juvenile detention centers.
DHS even published guidelines on its website last week clarifying how such separations take place.
Several White House officials have defended the U.S. stance on illegal border crossings. Last week, White House adviser Stephen Miller appeared to characterize the ongoing separations as a “simple decision” by the Trump administration to combat unauthorized border crossings.
“No nation can have the policy that whole classes of people are immune from immigration law or enforcement,” he told The New York Times. “It was a simple decision by the administration to have a zero tolerance policy for illegal entry, period. The message is that no one is exempt from immigration law.”
An unnamed White House official also alluded to The Washington Post that Trump was using the enforcement to force lawmakers to pass new immigration laws.
“The president has told folks that in lieu of the laws being fixed, he wants to use the enforcement mechanisms that we have,” the official told the newspaper. “The thinking in the building is to force people to the table.”
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway also acknowledged the existence of the policy in an interview with NBC on Sunday, although she said “nobody” liked it. And last week, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited the Bible as justification “to enforce the law.”
Federal courts have repeatedly ruled that changing immigration detention policy to deter unauthorized border-crossing is illegal. To date, Nielsen has avoided characterizing the new policy as a deterrent or even as a policy at all.
---
President Donald Trump has blamed Democrats for his own administration’s policy, accusing the party of hosting a “horrible and cruel legislative agenda.” But there is no law that requires families to be separated for crossing the border, and previous administrations often made exceptions in such cases to keep children and their parents together.
Trump also appeared to confirm that there was some “breakup of families” at the border this weekend, even as he shirked the blame:
Donald J. Trump✔
@realDonaldTrump
The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda. Any Immigration Bill MUST HAVE full funding for the Wall, end Catch & Release, Visa Lottery and Chain, and go to Merit Based Immigration. Go for it! WIN!
10:08 AM - Jun 15, 2018
RELATED: Trump whines that Democrats aren't paying ransom after he took immigrant kids hostage
Pr*sident Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at Congressional Democrats, whom he once again falsely blamed for his own administration’s immigration policies. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1008692 ... (RawStory)
RELATED:
Ted Lieu✔
@tedlieu
Dear @SecNielsen: I don't give a shit if you apologize. We just need you to reverse your policy of ripping kids away from parents.
Also, how did you go from saying such a policy doesn't exist to now saying you won't apologize for it? Why all the lies from Homeland Security?
RELATED: Sessions Defends Family Separation Policy, Characterizes It As A Deterrent
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday defended the Trump administration’s recent policy of separating migrant families apprehended at the border. “We do not want to separate children from their parents,” ... (Talking Points Memo)
“This misreporting by members, press and advocacy groups must stop,” Nielsen wrote in a series of tweets Sunday evening. “It is irresponsible and unproductive. As I have said many times before, if you are seeking asylum for your family, there is no reason to break the law and illegally cross between ports of entry.”
“We do not have a policy of separating families at the border,” she continued. “Period.”
Nielsen’s comments come amid growing criticism over Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ new “zero-tolerance” policy at the border to prosecute as many people as possible for illegally entering the U.S., even if it means tearing families apart.
Last week, DHS announced that nearly 2,000 kids had been separated from their parents during a six-week period ending last month. Many of those children are being held in juvenile detention centers.
DHS even published guidelines on its website last week clarifying how such separations take place.
Several White House officials have defended the U.S. stance on illegal border crossings. Last week, White House adviser Stephen Miller appeared to characterize the ongoing separations as a “simple decision” by the Trump administration to combat unauthorized border crossings.
“No nation can have the policy that whole classes of people are immune from immigration law or enforcement,” he told The New York Times. “It was a simple decision by the administration to have a zero tolerance policy for illegal entry, period. The message is that no one is exempt from immigration law.”
An unnamed White House official also alluded to The Washington Post that Trump was using the enforcement to force lawmakers to pass new immigration laws.
“The president has told folks that in lieu of the laws being fixed, he wants to use the enforcement mechanisms that we have,” the official told the newspaper. “The thinking in the building is to force people to the table.”
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway also acknowledged the existence of the policy in an interview with NBC on Sunday, although she said “nobody” liked it. And last week, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited the Bible as justification “to enforce the law.”
Federal courts have repeatedly ruled that changing immigration detention policy to deter unauthorized border-crossing is illegal. To date, Nielsen has avoided characterizing the new policy as a deterrent or even as a policy at all.
---
President Donald Trump has blamed Democrats for his own administration’s policy, accusing the party of hosting a “horrible and cruel legislative agenda.” But there is no law that requires families to be separated for crossing the border, and previous administrations often made exceptions in such cases to keep children and their parents together.
Trump also appeared to confirm that there was some “breakup of families” at the border this weekend, even as he shirked the blame:
Donald J. Trump✔
@realDonaldTrump
The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda. Any Immigration Bill MUST HAVE full funding for the Wall, end Catch & Release, Visa Lottery and Chain, and go to Merit Based Immigration. Go for it! WIN!
10:08 AM - Jun 15, 2018
RELATED: Trump whines that Democrats aren't paying ransom after he took immigrant kids hostage
Pr*sident Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at Congressional Democrats, whom he once again falsely blamed for his own administration’s immigration policies. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1008692 ... (RawStory)
RELATED:
Ted Lieu✔
@tedlieu
Dear @SecNielsen: I don't give a shit if you apologize. We just need you to reverse your policy of ripping kids away from parents.
Also, how did you go from saying such a policy doesn't exist to now saying you won't apologize for it? Why all the lies from Homeland Security?
RELATED: Sessions Defends Family Separation Policy, Characterizes It As A Deterrent
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday defended the Trump administration’s recent policy of separating migrant families apprehended at the border. “We do not want to separate children from their parents,” ... (Talking Points Memo)
BUSTED: Internal DHS documents show family separation policy isn’t even slowing border crossings
Bob Brigham - raw story
18 JUN 2018 AT 12:26 ET
CNN has obtained “exclusive” internal documents from the Department of Homeland Security that undermine one of the administration’s stated goals for separating families and keeping children detained along the southern border.
“The full impact of policy initiatives are not fully realized for 2-3 weeks following public messaging — however, some migrants already underway may temporarily halt to determine the effects of the new policy,” the document states.
However, that has not been the reality.
“Instead, publicly released data showed a roughly 5% uptick in the number of people caught crossing the border illegally when compared to figures from April, including a big jump in unaccompanied children,” CNN explained. “While the documents don’t speak to the conceptualization of the policy or the internal deliberations that preceded it, they call into question the administration’s justification for the policy.”
“The lack of measurable impact on immigration lends weight to questions about the policy’s effectiveness, going beyond moral issues raised by the policy’s critics,” CNN added.
“The full impact of policy initiatives are not fully realized for 2-3 weeks following public messaging — however, some migrants already underway may temporarily halt to determine the effects of the new policy,” the document states.
However, that has not been the reality.
“Instead, publicly released data showed a roughly 5% uptick in the number of people caught crossing the border illegally when compared to figures from April, including a big jump in unaccompanied children,” CNN explained. “While the documents don’t speak to the conceptualization of the policy or the internal deliberations that preceded it, they call into question the administration’s justification for the policy.”
“The lack of measurable impact on immigration lends weight to questions about the policy’s effectiveness, going beyond moral issues raised by the policy’s critics,” CNN added.
another shithole state!!!
South Carolina Governor Requested Exemption to Allow Foster-Care Agency to Discriminate Against Non-Christians
He personally intervened with the Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of Miracle Hill Ministries.
By Sarah Posner / The Nation - alternet
June 18, 2018, 7:05 AM GMT
In an unusual move, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, a long-standing ally of President Donald Trump, has personally intervened with the Department of Health and Human Services to secure a religious exemption from federal nondiscrimination laws for a Christian foster-care-placement agency in his state. Without the exemption, the placement agency, Miracle Hill Ministries, of Greenville, is at risk of losing its license because it refuses to place foster children with non-Christian families. Like other such agencies that participate in state foster-care programs that receive federal funds, Miracle Hill would normally be barred from discriminating on the basis of religion.
McMaster, a Republican who is running for reelection, acted in February after his own state agency, the Department of Social Services (DSS), warned Miracle Hill that its license as a child-placing agency (CPA) was at risk after it had given regulators “reason to believe” that it “intends to refuse to provide its services as a licensed Child Placing Agency to families who are not specifically Christians from a Protestant denomination,” according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union through a public-records request and shared with The Nation and the Investigative Fund. In addition to requesting federal intervention, McMaster issued an executive order exempting faith-based CPAs from state laws that prohibit religious discrimination.
The possibility that the federal government would permit a taxpayer-funded program to allow a participant to use “religious eligibility criteria” in order to make it a “Christian-only program” is “pretty stunning,” said Leslie Cooper, deputy director of the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project. Such an exemption would be akin to the government itself using religious criteria to discriminate against participants in federal programs.
McMaster’s moves come amid escalating conservative efforts at the federal and state level to expand religious exemptions for taxpayer-funded faith-based organizations that provide child-welfare and other social services. While South Carolina has not passed a law permitting such religious discrimination, nine other states—Virginia, South Dakota, North Dakota, Michigan, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Kansas—have laws that specifically allow child-placement agencies to refuse to place children with families on religious grounds. These efforts have accelerated in the Trump era; five of those nine states passed their laws since 2017.
Civil-rights advocates have criticized these laws as opening the door to a variety of religion-based discrimination, including permitting agencies claiming a religious objection to refuse to serve LGBTQ people, single parents, interfaith couples, and others. The Human Rights Campaign has described these laws as “simply one more effort to write anti-LGBTQ discrimination into law.”
By not mentioning sexual orientation or gender identity, these laws “sound more neutral,” said David Barkey, Southeastern-area counsel for the Anti-Defamation League, which has tracked the events in South Carolina. But the consequence, he warned, is that “they’re potentially impacting more people” by permitting discrimination based on religion.
South Carolina DSS spokeswoman Karen Wingo said in an interview that Miracle Hill has not publicly stated a refusal to place children with LGBTQ parents, and she was not aware whether that had become an issue. “I know the focus started based on the requirement that prospective foster and adoptive parents adhere to Christian principles outlined by Miracle Hill,” she said.
(read more)
McMaster, a Republican who is running for reelection, acted in February after his own state agency, the Department of Social Services (DSS), warned Miracle Hill that its license as a child-placing agency (CPA) was at risk after it had given regulators “reason to believe” that it “intends to refuse to provide its services as a licensed Child Placing Agency to families who are not specifically Christians from a Protestant denomination,” according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union through a public-records request and shared with The Nation and the Investigative Fund. In addition to requesting federal intervention, McMaster issued an executive order exempting faith-based CPAs from state laws that prohibit religious discrimination.
The possibility that the federal government would permit a taxpayer-funded program to allow a participant to use “religious eligibility criteria” in order to make it a “Christian-only program” is “pretty stunning,” said Leslie Cooper, deputy director of the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project. Such an exemption would be akin to the government itself using religious criteria to discriminate against participants in federal programs.
McMaster’s moves come amid escalating conservative efforts at the federal and state level to expand religious exemptions for taxpayer-funded faith-based organizations that provide child-welfare and other social services. While South Carolina has not passed a law permitting such religious discrimination, nine other states—Virginia, South Dakota, North Dakota, Michigan, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Kansas—have laws that specifically allow child-placement agencies to refuse to place children with families on religious grounds. These efforts have accelerated in the Trump era; five of those nine states passed their laws since 2017.
Civil-rights advocates have criticized these laws as opening the door to a variety of religion-based discrimination, including permitting agencies claiming a religious objection to refuse to serve LGBTQ people, single parents, interfaith couples, and others. The Human Rights Campaign has described these laws as “simply one more effort to write anti-LGBTQ discrimination into law.”
By not mentioning sexual orientation or gender identity, these laws “sound more neutral,” said David Barkey, Southeastern-area counsel for the Anti-Defamation League, which has tracked the events in South Carolina. But the consequence, he warned, is that “they’re potentially impacting more people” by permitting discrimination based on religion.
South Carolina DSS spokeswoman Karen Wingo said in an interview that Miracle Hill has not publicly stated a refusal to place children with LGBTQ parents, and she was not aware whether that had become an issue. “I know the focus started based on the requirement that prospective foster and adoptive parents adhere to Christian principles outlined by Miracle Hill,” she said.
(read more)
more "best people" bs!!!
Wilbur Ross Never Sold Stakes in Companies Co-Owned by China, Report Says
daily beast
6/18/18
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross failed to keep his promise to divest from his company holdings upon entering government, a Forbes investigation has found. Ross reportedly kept his stakes in companies co-owned by the Chinese government, a firm linked to Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, and a Cyprus bank caught up in the Robert Mueller investigation. Forbes reports that Ross’s family continued to have an interest in these holdings while he dealt with China and Russia in his official role, even while knowing that his family’s fortunes were linked to the countries. Although the arrangements appear to be legal, Forbes says Ross may have broken the law by submitting a sworn statement to officials in November saying he divested of everything he promised he would. His spokesperson insisted: “The secretary did not lie,” adding that Ross has filed amended paperwork that is under review by the Office of Government Ethics. READ IT AT FORBES
Korean firm tied to Trump lawyer got U.S. contract despite corruption probe
By Shawn Boburg and Aaron C. Davis - washington post
June 18 at 9:25 AM
A South Korean aviation firm that hired President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen failed last year to disclose that it was the subject of a corruption investigation as it won work from the U.S. military, records show.
On Oct. 11, nine current and former executives at Korea Aerospace Industries were indicted in Seoul on charges that included bribery, embezzlement and defrauding the South Korean government, records show.
Just two weeks later, KAI cleared a business integrity review by the U.S Air Force and won a contract worth up to $48 million — its largest ever from the Air Force — to maintain fighter jets.
Experts said the criminal case should have subjected the company to additional scrutiny. But KAI did not alter filings it had previously submitted to the U.S. government certifying that none of its executives were under indictment, according to a public database of federal contracting information.
Cohen was a consultant for KAI at the time, part of an arrangement that lasted less than six months and spanned the indictments and the awarding of the Air Force contract. Cohen’s firm was paid $150,000 when the relationship ended in November. There is no indication Cohen was involved in the awarding of the contract. KAI said he was not, and the Air Force said no senior leaders or contracting officers were contacted by Cohen.
Even so, the payment to Cohen’s firm could draw new attention to the aviation company’s ethics disclosures and to a much larger contract it is considered a front-runner to win with Lockheed Martin to provide the U.S. military with more than 300 supersonic training jets — a deal worth an estimated $18 billion.
Companies are required to provide “immediate written notice” if their “certification was erroneous when submitted or has become erroneous by reason of changed circumstances,” according to federal guidelines.
Two former senior attorneys with the Air Force, with a combined 20 years in charge of vetting Air Force contractors, told The Washington Post that the corruption allegations should have triggered a thorough review and potentially other actions intended to protect tax dollars.
“If there was an indictment and the company did not check the box, it’s a serious issue,” said Steve Shaw, who for 16 years was the Air Force’s senior debarring official, in charge of deciding when a company’s conduct disqualified it from getting federal contracts. “This is where the government relies on bidders.”
The Air Force declined to answer questions about how KAI cleared its business integrity review. The Air Force declined to say if it knew of KAI’s corruption scandal or if it had addressed it with the company.
“The Air Force is protecting the integrity of the contracting process as we do with all procurements,” chief Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said.
Stephen Ryan, an attorney for Cohen, did not respond to requests for comment.
KAI acknowledged paying Cohen’s firm and said it was for advice on accounting. But the company did not respond to follow-up questions from The Post regarding the nature of Cohen’s work and KAI’s lack of disclosures to the U.S. government.
A spokeswoman for Lockheed said KAI informed the U.S. aerospace giant of the corruption charges against its executives. But a person familiar with the matter said Lockheed, the prime contractor in the bid, had not been asked by the Air Force to forward the disclosure and therefore had not done so. Lockheed said it could not attest to whether KAI followed disclosure requirements for the contract it won last fall.
“We have no involvement in the contracting certifications KAI may have with the U.S. government as a prime contractor, such as for the F-16 depot maintenance contracts,” Lockheed said in a statement. “It is the responsibility of every prime contractor to make sure it is compliant with applicable government contracting rules.”
American outreach
KAI and the South Korean government have long sought U.S. military contracts as part of an effort to turn the state-backed aircraft manufacturer into a global player in the defense industry.
Looming most heavily for KAI has been what the Pentagon, under President Trump, would do about training jets — KAI’s flagship aircraft, developed with billions in South Korean government money.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in made a direct appeal to Trump on behalf of KAI last June during his first visit to D.C.
Moon assured Trump that South Korea would purchase more American war planes and, in turn, urged him to buy the KAI-Lockheed training jets, according to Korean media reports.
Neither the White House nor Moon’s administration responded to requests for comment.[...]
On Oct. 11, nine current and former executives at Korea Aerospace Industries were indicted in Seoul on charges that included bribery, embezzlement and defrauding the South Korean government, records show.
Just two weeks later, KAI cleared a business integrity review by the U.S Air Force and won a contract worth up to $48 million — its largest ever from the Air Force — to maintain fighter jets.
Experts said the criminal case should have subjected the company to additional scrutiny. But KAI did not alter filings it had previously submitted to the U.S. government certifying that none of its executives were under indictment, according to a public database of federal contracting information.
Cohen was a consultant for KAI at the time, part of an arrangement that lasted less than six months and spanned the indictments and the awarding of the Air Force contract. Cohen’s firm was paid $150,000 when the relationship ended in November. There is no indication Cohen was involved in the awarding of the contract. KAI said he was not, and the Air Force said no senior leaders or contracting officers were contacted by Cohen.
Even so, the payment to Cohen’s firm could draw new attention to the aviation company’s ethics disclosures and to a much larger contract it is considered a front-runner to win with Lockheed Martin to provide the U.S. military with more than 300 supersonic training jets — a deal worth an estimated $18 billion.
Companies are required to provide “immediate written notice” if their “certification was erroneous when submitted or has become erroneous by reason of changed circumstances,” according to federal guidelines.
Two former senior attorneys with the Air Force, with a combined 20 years in charge of vetting Air Force contractors, told The Washington Post that the corruption allegations should have triggered a thorough review and potentially other actions intended to protect tax dollars.
“If there was an indictment and the company did not check the box, it’s a serious issue,” said Steve Shaw, who for 16 years was the Air Force’s senior debarring official, in charge of deciding when a company’s conduct disqualified it from getting federal contracts. “This is where the government relies on bidders.”
The Air Force declined to answer questions about how KAI cleared its business integrity review. The Air Force declined to say if it knew of KAI’s corruption scandal or if it had addressed it with the company.
“The Air Force is protecting the integrity of the contracting process as we do with all procurements,” chief Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said.
Stephen Ryan, an attorney for Cohen, did not respond to requests for comment.
KAI acknowledged paying Cohen’s firm and said it was for advice on accounting. But the company did not respond to follow-up questions from The Post regarding the nature of Cohen’s work and KAI’s lack of disclosures to the U.S. government.
A spokeswoman for Lockheed said KAI informed the U.S. aerospace giant of the corruption charges against its executives. But a person familiar with the matter said Lockheed, the prime contractor in the bid, had not been asked by the Air Force to forward the disclosure and therefore had not done so. Lockheed said it could not attest to whether KAI followed disclosure requirements for the contract it won last fall.
“We have no involvement in the contracting certifications KAI may have with the U.S. government as a prime contractor, such as for the F-16 depot maintenance contracts,” Lockheed said in a statement. “It is the responsibility of every prime contractor to make sure it is compliant with applicable government contracting rules.”
American outreach
KAI and the South Korean government have long sought U.S. military contracts as part of an effort to turn the state-backed aircraft manufacturer into a global player in the defense industry.
Looming most heavily for KAI has been what the Pentagon, under President Trump, would do about training jets — KAI’s flagship aircraft, developed with billions in South Korean government money.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in made a direct appeal to Trump on behalf of KAI last June during his first visit to D.C.
Moon assured Trump that South Korea would purchase more American war planes and, in turn, urged him to buy the KAI-Lockheed training jets, according to Korean media reports.
Neither the White House nor Moon’s administration responded to requests for comment.[...]
Jim Carrey's latest artwork.
Exclusive: Republicans, NRA secretly pressure Citigroup to back off restrictions on gun sellers
Senate Democrats, gun safety groups investigate apparent NRA campaign to undo Citogroup’s gun-sales rules
AMANDA MARCOTTE - salon
JUNE 18, 2018 10:00AM (UTC)
After the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that ended the lives of 17 people, a number of corporations took high-profile measures to reduce their own participation in the underregulated gun market. Dick's Sporting Goods stopped selling assault weapons. Both MetLife and Delta Air Lines ended discount programs for NRA members. Citigroup announced new restrictions on its business banking customers in March. For clients who sell guns, Citigroup requires background checks on all sales, a ban on bump stocks and high-capacity magazines, and a ban on sales to those under 21.
There's nothing unusual about a bank placing these kinds of restrictions on clients, but it now appears Citigroup has been subject to retaliation from Republicans and pro-gun activists. Gun safety advocates are trying to find out exactly how much pressure the National Rifle Association has exerted on Republicans to bully Citigroup out of sticking by its new gun-sale policies.
In early May, Robert Schmidt of Bloomberg Businessweek reported claims that a Republican member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Michael Piwowar, had attempted to intimidate Citigroup officials over their gun control policies during an April meeting about derivatives regulation.
Schmidt describes Piwowar as "glowering and speaking emphatically," and reports that people who attended the meeting heard Piwowar say that "he knew Citigroup wanted the SEC to ease regulations on derivatives and proprietary trading, and suggested they might have trouble finding the votes on the Republican-led commission," which "some of the executives took as a thinly veiled threat."
As Salon exclusively learned, Everytown for Gun Safety plans to file a Freedom of Information Act on Monday to determine whether the NRA influenced Piwowar's behavior towards Citigroup. Everytown's FOIA request asks for any communications between members of the SEC and the NRA, the NRA's lobbying arm or the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
“Citigroup took measures to protect the public from gun violence," Nick Suplina, the managing director of law and policy at Everytown, said in an email. "Americans deserve to know whether the NRA pushed Piwowar to abuse his power and retaliate against Citigroup for supporting sensible gun policy."
Senate Democrats have also gotten involved. During a June 5 hearing of the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government that was focused on SEC funding, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., confronted SEC chairman Jay Clayton, a Donald Trump appointee, about Piwowar's alleged intimidation of Citigroup executives. Clayton, while admitting he was "aware of those reports," said he didn't think a Senate hearing "would be the appropriate forum to get into that." Van Hollen assured him that the issue wasn't going away and that Democrats intended to pursue the matter.
On June 13, Van Hollen did just that, sending a letter signed by five other Senate Democrats, to SEC Inspector General Carl Hoecker, asking his office to open an investigation into these accusations against Piwowar. Van Hollen's letter noted that official ethics guidelines prohibit "federal employees from using their public office in a manner that is intended 'to coerce or induce' another person to provide a benefit of any kind to himself or groups with whom he chooses to affiliate."
“If the reports of the meeting are true, it’s very clear there’s an abuse of power," Van Hollen told Salon.
He added that Citigroup "took decisions that they thought were in the best interests of their customers" and that it's "certainly not appropriate for an SEC commissioner to intervene in those business decisions by threatening to withhold or confer support on a regulatory matter.”
One thing is certain: The NRA has taken an aggressive public stance toward Citigroup's business decision to impose these restrictions on its banking clients.
In April, the website for NRA-ILA, the lobbying arm of the NRA, posted an article headlined "Bailed-out Banks Launch Coordinated Attack on Law-abiding Gun Owners," explicitly tying the gun issue to irrelevant financial policy questions.
"There is growing evidence that some of America’s financial elite want to create a world in which America’s public policy decisions emanate from corporate boardrooms in Manhattan rather than from citizens and their elected officials," the article ominously warns, while also praising Republican politicians who invoked bailout funds in their condemnation of Citigroup's gun policy.
Later that month, the group put out an action alert, calling on members to complain about the action to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying the actions were "particularly galling to gun-owning Americans whose billions of tax dollars helped bail out these financial behemoths."
The group fails to note that gun control supporters, as well as the thousands of families who lose loved ones to gun violence every year, also pay taxes.
The action alert decries Citigroup's choice "as political statements and social engineering, not as business decisions based on any alleged financial unsoundness or criminal activity of the affected customers."
Restrictions on gun sales, however, are far from the only political or social policies used by banks to determine who they work with. For instance, most banks impose restrictions against clients who run perfectly legal "adult" businesses. A porn production company or sex-toy shop may be violating now laws, but could find itself unable to open merchant services or even a checking account, due to a bank's "morality" clause. Even individuals who engage in legal sex work, such as porn actors or strippers, have sometimes had their personal accounts shut down.
Whether one agrees with this choice to discriminate against legal sex-oriented businesses or not, banks clearly have the freedom to do this. In fact, Citigroup's gun policies are far more lenient that the typical banking restrictions on adult businesses, as Citigroup still allows its clients to sell guns and doesn't really restrict the kinds of guns they sell.
This story is still unfolding, but it serves as a reminder of the NRA's continued power and influence within the Republican Party. Republicans like to portray themselves as advocates of "freedom" and enemies of regulation, who oppose the use of federal power to determine how a company chooses to run its business or whom it's willing to serve. But these "small government" principles go out the window when it seems that allowing Citigroup to dictate the terms of its own business contracts might reduce profits, however infinitesimally, for the NRA's benefactors in the gun industry.
There's nothing unusual about a bank placing these kinds of restrictions on clients, but it now appears Citigroup has been subject to retaliation from Republicans and pro-gun activists. Gun safety advocates are trying to find out exactly how much pressure the National Rifle Association has exerted on Republicans to bully Citigroup out of sticking by its new gun-sale policies.
In early May, Robert Schmidt of Bloomberg Businessweek reported claims that a Republican member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Michael Piwowar, had attempted to intimidate Citigroup officials over their gun control policies during an April meeting about derivatives regulation.
Schmidt describes Piwowar as "glowering and speaking emphatically," and reports that people who attended the meeting heard Piwowar say that "he knew Citigroup wanted the SEC to ease regulations on derivatives and proprietary trading, and suggested they might have trouble finding the votes on the Republican-led commission," which "some of the executives took as a thinly veiled threat."
As Salon exclusively learned, Everytown for Gun Safety plans to file a Freedom of Information Act on Monday to determine whether the NRA influenced Piwowar's behavior towards Citigroup. Everytown's FOIA request asks for any communications between members of the SEC and the NRA, the NRA's lobbying arm or the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
“Citigroup took measures to protect the public from gun violence," Nick Suplina, the managing director of law and policy at Everytown, said in an email. "Americans deserve to know whether the NRA pushed Piwowar to abuse his power and retaliate against Citigroup for supporting sensible gun policy."
Senate Democrats have also gotten involved. During a June 5 hearing of the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government that was focused on SEC funding, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., confronted SEC chairman Jay Clayton, a Donald Trump appointee, about Piwowar's alleged intimidation of Citigroup executives. Clayton, while admitting he was "aware of those reports," said he didn't think a Senate hearing "would be the appropriate forum to get into that." Van Hollen assured him that the issue wasn't going away and that Democrats intended to pursue the matter.
On June 13, Van Hollen did just that, sending a letter signed by five other Senate Democrats, to SEC Inspector General Carl Hoecker, asking his office to open an investigation into these accusations against Piwowar. Van Hollen's letter noted that official ethics guidelines prohibit "federal employees from using their public office in a manner that is intended 'to coerce or induce' another person to provide a benefit of any kind to himself or groups with whom he chooses to affiliate."
“If the reports of the meeting are true, it’s very clear there’s an abuse of power," Van Hollen told Salon.
He added that Citigroup "took decisions that they thought were in the best interests of their customers" and that it's "certainly not appropriate for an SEC commissioner to intervene in those business decisions by threatening to withhold or confer support on a regulatory matter.”
One thing is certain: The NRA has taken an aggressive public stance toward Citigroup's business decision to impose these restrictions on its banking clients.
In April, the website for NRA-ILA, the lobbying arm of the NRA, posted an article headlined "Bailed-out Banks Launch Coordinated Attack on Law-abiding Gun Owners," explicitly tying the gun issue to irrelevant financial policy questions.
"There is growing evidence that some of America’s financial elite want to create a world in which America’s public policy decisions emanate from corporate boardrooms in Manhattan rather than from citizens and their elected officials," the article ominously warns, while also praising Republican politicians who invoked bailout funds in their condemnation of Citigroup's gun policy.
Later that month, the group put out an action alert, calling on members to complain about the action to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying the actions were "particularly galling to gun-owning Americans whose billions of tax dollars helped bail out these financial behemoths."
The group fails to note that gun control supporters, as well as the thousands of families who lose loved ones to gun violence every year, also pay taxes.
The action alert decries Citigroup's choice "as political statements and social engineering, not as business decisions based on any alleged financial unsoundness or criminal activity of the affected customers."
Restrictions on gun sales, however, are far from the only political or social policies used by banks to determine who they work with. For instance, most banks impose restrictions against clients who run perfectly legal "adult" businesses. A porn production company or sex-toy shop may be violating now laws, but could find itself unable to open merchant services or even a checking account, due to a bank's "morality" clause. Even individuals who engage in legal sex work, such as porn actors or strippers, have sometimes had their personal accounts shut down.
Whether one agrees with this choice to discriminate against legal sex-oriented businesses or not, banks clearly have the freedom to do this. In fact, Citigroup's gun policies are far more lenient that the typical banking restrictions on adult businesses, as Citigroup still allows its clients to sell guns and doesn't really restrict the kinds of guns they sell.
This story is still unfolding, but it serves as a reminder of the NRA's continued power and influence within the Republican Party. Republicans like to portray themselves as advocates of "freedom" and enemies of regulation, who oppose the use of federal power to determine how a company chooses to run its business or whom it's willing to serve. But these "small government" principles go out the window when it seems that allowing Citigroup to dictate the terms of its own business contracts might reduce profits, however infinitesimally, for the NRA's benefactors in the gun industry.
*bites from real news - 6/18/2018*
*DHS secretary was flown to the White House because Sarah Sanders didn’t want to do the briefing on child separation
Sarah Huckabee Sanders has announced she will leave the White House by the end of the year, but she didn’t want to come to the White House podium on Monday.
*Fox News hosts defend caging children, say they merely 'built walls out of chain-linkfences'
*shithole necessities: Americans own nearly half world's guns in civilian hands: survey
*FBI Official, Dead of 9/11-Related Cancer, Remembered As Number of Cases Grows
Hundreds of FBI officials in dark suits bowed their heads in a Virginia chapel Friday as a pastor offered a prayer to God: "Your son gave his life so that we may live." Before him and in the center of the vaulted space was the coffin of Da ... (CNN)
*THE SELLOUT GIVES IN: Manchin becomes final Democrat to back bill preventing separation of immigrant families
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on Monday that he will back legislation to prevent the separation of immigrant families along the border, solidifying Democratic support for the bill. Manchin's decision means all 49 members of the Democratic caucus, ... (The Hill)
*‘Change the law yourself assh*le’: Internet unloads on Trump for blaming child separation policy on Dems
During his Monday morning Twitter rant, Pr*sident Donald Trump attempted to shirk the blame for his administration’s widely-criticized policy that separates parents and children detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
*‘The trauma lasts a lifetime’: Holocaust survivor says Trump immigration policy ‘is as evil’ as Nazi child separation
Yoka Verdoner, a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, this week condemned President Donald Trump’s policy of separating undocumented immigrant children from their parents.
*Michael Eric Dyson: Donald Trump is “what black people have warned America about” Sociologist and best-selling author says Trump is no “aberration from whiteness” but its ultimate fulfillment(salon)
*Trump Attacks Germany's Refugee Policy, Saying U.S. Must Avoid Europe's Immigration Problems
WASHINGTON — Pr*sident Trump warned on Monday that the United States must avoid the immigration problems facing Europe and attacked the policies of Germany, one of America’s closest allies. In a series of Twitter ... (The New York Times)
*Father’s Day Under Trump: A Grotesque Exercise in the Destruction of Families
by
William Rivers Pitt Truthout
*THE STEPCHILD OF LYNCHING Alabama’s Lynching Memorial and the Legacy of Racial Terror in the South
Majority oppose policy that causes family separation, but Republicans approve
Anchor Muted Background
By Grace Sparks
cnn
Updated 4:39 PM ET, Mon June 18, 2018
(CNN)Two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the Trump administration's practice of taking undocumented immigrant children from their families and putting them in government facilities on US borders, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS. Only 28% approve.
But among Republicans, there is majority support for the policy that has resulted in an uptick of children being separated from their families.
Majority oppose separating families at the border, but Republicans approve
As you may know, the Trump administration has changed its policy toward immigrants who are detained at the U.S. border for coming into the country illegally. More of them are being criminally charged and sent to jail even if their children are with them and, as a result, there has been a significant increase in the number of young children who have been separated from their parents at the border and placed in government facilities. In general, do you approve or disapprove of this?
The separations are the end result of the administration's "zero tolerance" policy of criminally charging people who cross the border illegally.
The new poll numbers follow harsh criticism that President Donald Trump and the Republican Party are receiving after implementing the new policy.[...]
But among Republicans, there is majority support for the policy that has resulted in an uptick of children being separated from their families.
Majority oppose separating families at the border, but Republicans approve
As you may know, the Trump administration has changed its policy toward immigrants who are detained at the U.S. border for coming into the country illegally. More of them are being criminally charged and sent to jail even if their children are with them and, as a result, there has been a significant increase in the number of young children who have been separated from their parents at the border and placed in government facilities. In general, do you approve or disapprove of this?
The separations are the end result of the administration's "zero tolerance" policy of criminally charging people who cross the border illegally.
The new poll numbers follow harsh criticism that President Donald Trump and the Republican Party are receiving after implementing the new policy.[...]
Dem lawmaker: I met an 8-month old immigrant child who’s been separated from his parents for weeks
Brad Reed - raw story
18 JUN 2018 AT 14:25 ET
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) on Monday delivered a heartbreaking report about what he’s seen so far in detention facilities where the Trump administration is keeping immigrant children who have been separated from their parents.
Reporting on child detention centers that he visited in Brownsville, Texas, Castro said that he has encountered shockingly young children who have been kept away from their parents for several weeks now.
“The youngest child (boy) I’ve seen here so far who was separated from his family is 8 months old and has been here over a month, according to administrators,” Castro wrote.[...]
RELATED: Number of migrant kids forced into U.S. custody expected to double to 20,000-plus by August
Reporting on child detention centers that he visited in Brownsville, Texas, Castro said that he has encountered shockingly young children who have been kept away from their parents for several weeks now.
“The youngest child (boy) I’ve seen here so far who was separated from his family is 8 months old and has been here over a month, according to administrators,” Castro wrote.[...]
RELATED: Number of migrant kids forced into U.S. custody expected to double to 20,000-plus by August
Trump Tower Chicago has never tried to comply with these basic environmental laws: report
Noor Al-Sibai - raw story
18 JUN 2018 AT 09:35 ET
January 20th anti-Trump protest near Trump Tower Chicago following Trump's inauguration (Alek S./ Creative Commons)
Despite using 20 million gallons of river water a day for cooling, Trump Tower Chicago has never documented any steps taken to comply with environmental regulations meant to protect fish.
The Chicago Tribune reported Monday that a perusal of state records found the managers of the president’s massive Chicago River waterfront property has not taken the steps necessary to prove compliance with laws that would “limit the number of fish pinned against intake screens or killed by sudden changes in pressure and temperature.”
The massive skyscraper’s river water intake is second only to a water plant that provides cooling water to other buildings in the downtown Chicago region — and it’s the only one that hasn’t documented its compliance with the federal and state fish regulations.
The Tribune also noted that Trump Tower Chicago’s managers have also never conducted a study on the building’s fish kills in the five years since the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency began requiring it for new permits. Nevertheless, the state’s latest permit for the building owned by the president’s company grants it another three years to conduct an ecological study.
The Chicago Tribune reported Monday that a perusal of state records found the managers of the president’s massive Chicago River waterfront property has not taken the steps necessary to prove compliance with laws that would “limit the number of fish pinned against intake screens or killed by sudden changes in pressure and temperature.”
The massive skyscraper’s river water intake is second only to a water plant that provides cooling water to other buildings in the downtown Chicago region — and it’s the only one that hasn’t documented its compliance with the federal and state fish regulations.
The Tribune also noted that Trump Tower Chicago’s managers have also never conducted a study on the building’s fish kills in the five years since the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency began requiring it for new permits. Nevertheless, the state’s latest permit for the building owned by the president’s company grants it another three years to conduct an ecological study.
*What's Inside*
june 15 - june 17
~TRUMP MAY TRY TO DEMONIZE FOOD STAMPS EVEN FURTHER
(TRUMP)
*GOT SEGREGATION? NORTH CAROLINA ALLOWS FOUR TOWNS TO CREATE THEIR OWN MOSTLY WHITE SCHOOLS(EDUCATION)
*THE SLOW RESPONSE TO HURRICANE DAMAGE IN PUERTO RICO AND COMPLETELY NEGLECTED U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS REFLECTS LEGACY OF RACISM AND COLONIALISM(COLONIES)
*FOOD BANK DEMAND INCREASES EVEN AS THE ECONOMY ‘BOOMS’
(REALITY)
*IMMIGRATION JUDGE SAYS WOMAN’S FORCED LABOR WAS “MATERIAL SUPPORT” FOR TERRORISTS(RIGHTS)
*RIGHT-WING EVANGELICALS ARE TO BLAME FOR THE SHARP DECLINE IN CHRISTIANS: SURVEY
(CHRISTIANITY)
*MINNEAPOLIS POLICE REGULARLY USED ‘DATE RAPE DRUG’ ON PEOPLE IN CUSTODY, REPORT FINDS(GESTAPO USA)
~TRUMP BUILDING PROJECT IN INDONESIA BEING FUNDED BY CHINESE GOVERNMENT
(WORLD)
*INCOME INEQUALITY HAS REACHED ITS HIGHEST LEVEL SINCE 1928
(CAPITALISM)
*U.S. CITIES ARE FINANCIALLY SCREWED
RAISING THEIR BORROWING COSTS AND STARTING TRADE WARS WON’T HELP(AMERICA)
*HAWAII’S FIGHT AGAINST TRUMP’S MUSLIM TRAVEL BAN HAS LONG ROOTS OF RESISTANCE
(TRUE HISTORY)
*EPA MOVES TO REPLACE OBAMA-ERA RULE PROTECTING DRINKING WATER FOR 117 MILLION
(ENVIRONMENT)
*TRUMP ILLEGALLY DIVERTED $7 FROM HIS FOUNDATION TO PAY HIS SON'S BOY SCOUTS REGISTRATION FEE(TRUMP)
*BREITBART WEBSITE SUFFERING CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCE COLLAPSE AS TRAFFIC TANKS FOLLOWING BANNON OUSTER: REPORT(WORTHLESS MEDIA)
*THERANOS CEO ELIZABETH HOLMES INDICTED FOR FRAUD
(CORPORATE CRIMINALS)
*HOUSE REPUBLICANS PASS BILL THAT SPELLS CHAOS FOR LOW-INCOME HOUSING
(REALITY)
*US FARMERS STRESSED, ANGRY AT TRADE WARS
(PAYBACK)
*ANECDOTAL - BUT TELLING, NONETHELESS
(SUCKERS)
*TO ANYBODY WHO WANTS TO INVOKE THE GODWIN LAW, LET ME SAY THIS...
(TALKERS)
~COMMON ANTIMICROBIAL IN TOOTHPASTE LINKED TO INFLAMMATION AND CANCER IN THE GUT
(CURRENTS)
*HOUSE REPUBLICANS TAKE A NEW IMMIGRATION HOSTAGE: IMMIGRANT KIDS IN DETENTION CAMPS
(AMERICA)
*MSNBC’S ALI VELSHI PUTS HIS RELIGION DEGREE TO WORK FACT-CHECKING SESSIONS AND SANDERS: ‘WE’RE GOING TO CHURCH’(REAL PEOPLE)
*POLICE WORKED WITH VIOLENT PRO-TRUMP ACTIVIST TO PROSECUTE LEFTWING GROUP
(GESTAPO USA)
*TEXAS OIL BOOM HAS ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATES CHOOSING BETWEEN 2 UNWELCOME SCENARIOS(ENVIRONMENT)
*MEDIA LETS REPUBLICANS OFF THE HOOK FOR THEIR ROLE IN FAMILY SEPARATION
(WORTHLESS MEDIA)
*FOOD AID CURBS SOUGHT BY REPUBLICANS WOULD HIT RURAL POOR
(PAYBACK)
*HARVARD RECORDS SHOW DISCRIMINATION AGAINST ASIAN-AMERICANS: GROUP
(RIGHTS)
*OHIO’S JUNK MAIL TRICK LED THE SUPREME COURT TO APPROVE JIM CROW VOTER PURGE
(ELECTIONS)
*SPARE ME THE CALLS FOR CIVILITY – PRESIDENT TRUMP DESERVES OUR RAGE
(TALKERS)
*TRUMP TELLS FOX NEWS HE WANTS AMERICANS TO OBEY HIM LIKE NORTH KOREANS OBEY KIM JONG-UN(TRUMP)
*THE TRUMP CRIME FAMILY
(ARCHIVES)
*REPUBLICANS WAGE A GUERRILLA WAR ON YOUR HEALTHCARE
(PAYBACK)
*late news of interest*
Democrats Refuse To Negotiate With Terrorist Trump On Kidnapping Of Immigrant Kids
SAT, JUN 16TH, 2018
BY JASON EASLEY - politicus usa
Trump thinks he has political leverage to force Democrats to pay for his wall by terrorizing immigrants with family separation at the border, but Democrats are refusing to negotiate.
Trump’s tweets make it clear what he is up to:
Donald J. Trump✔
@realDonaldTrump
The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda. Any Immigration Bill MUST HAVE full funding for the Wall, end Catch & Release, Visa Lottery and Chain, and go to Merit Based Immigration. Go for it! WIN!
10:08 AM - Jun 15, 2018
Donald J. Trump✔
@realDonaldTrump
Democrats can fix their forced family breakup at the Border by working with Republicans on new legislation, for a change! This is why we need more Republicans elected in November. Democrats are good at only three things, High Taxes, High Crime and Obstruction. Sad!
6:03 AM - Jun 16, 2018
Trump thinks that the American people are stupid
Democrats had nothing to do with Trump’s policy of taking children away from their parents at the border, but since Trump thinks every American is as easily lied to and misled as Fox News viewers, he believes that he can con the American people into blaming Democrats and then public pressure will force the Democrats to fund his border wall that he promised that Mexico would be paying for.
Trump is engaging in a form of terrorism against immigrants and children. He is causing psychological damage to thousands of people all because he lied about Mexico paying for his border wall.
According to The Washington Post, Senate Democrats are going to give Trump nothing:
If Republicans come together, the bill would need to attract Democratic support to pass the Senate. “They’re claiming it addressed separations, but clearly, when you put that in a bill that funds a wall and won’t get Democratic votes, they don’t have a serious plan,” said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.). “They never expected the bill to pass.”
Democrats aren’t going to pay the ransom, which means that terrorist Trump is not going to get his wall.
Trump’s tweets make it clear what he is up to:
Donald J. Trump✔
@realDonaldTrump
The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda. Any Immigration Bill MUST HAVE full funding for the Wall, end Catch & Release, Visa Lottery and Chain, and go to Merit Based Immigration. Go for it! WIN!
10:08 AM - Jun 15, 2018
Donald J. Trump✔
@realDonaldTrump
Democrats can fix their forced family breakup at the Border by working with Republicans on new legislation, for a change! This is why we need more Republicans elected in November. Democrats are good at only three things, High Taxes, High Crime and Obstruction. Sad!
6:03 AM - Jun 16, 2018
Trump thinks that the American people are stupid
Democrats had nothing to do with Trump’s policy of taking children away from their parents at the border, but since Trump thinks every American is as easily lied to and misled as Fox News viewers, he believes that he can con the American people into blaming Democrats and then public pressure will force the Democrats to fund his border wall that he promised that Mexico would be paying for.
Trump is engaging in a form of terrorism against immigrants and children. He is causing psychological damage to thousands of people all because he lied about Mexico paying for his border wall.
According to The Washington Post, Senate Democrats are going to give Trump nothing:
If Republicans come together, the bill would need to attract Democratic support to pass the Senate. “They’re claiming it addressed separations, but clearly, when you put that in a bill that funds a wall and won’t get Democratic votes, they don’t have a serious plan,” said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.). “They never expected the bill to pass.”
Democrats aren’t going to pay the ransom, which means that terrorist Trump is not going to get his wall.
Hawaii becomes the first state to ban the use of pesticide linked to brain damage
Scott Pruitt's EPA has gone to elaborate lengths to protect the manufacturers of chlorpyrifos, which is harmful to children and farm workers.
JASON LINKINS - thinkprogress
JUN 16, 2018, 2:28 PM
More than a year after the Trump administration controversially overturned a decision to ban pesticides containing chlorpyrifos, the state of Hawaii has taken the matter into its own hands.
The Aloha State has passed a law barring the use of such chemicals, which have been linked to adverse side effects in humans, including debiltating neurological and developmental maladies.
On Wednesday, Hawaii Governor David Ige (D) put his signature to Senate Bill 3095, which will ban the use of chlorpyrifos pesticides in the Aloha State at the start of the next calendar year. The law also bars the spraying of any pesticide within 100 feet of schools during normal hours of attendance.
“Protecting the health and safety of our keiki and residents is one of my top priorities. We must protect our communities from potentially harmful chemicals. At the same time, Hawai‘i’s agriculture industry is extremely important to our state and economy. We will work with the Department of Agriculture, local farmers and the University of Hawai‘i as we seek safe, alternative pest management tools that will support and sustain our agriculture industry for generations to come,” said Ige.
Protecting the interests of chlorpyrifos-based pesticide manufacturer has been a persistent interest of the Trump administration and his head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt.
As ThinkProgress reported in April of 2017, Dow Chemical President Andrew Liveris — whose Dow AgroSciences division manufactures chlorpyrifos — was one of many corporate bigwigs to contribute to President Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. Liveris’ $1 million gift did not go unnoticed: two months later, Pruitt let it be known that the EPA “would not follow the recommendation of the agency’s own scientists to ban the use of chlorpyrifos.”
Chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to severe developmental issues in the children exposed to it, as well as cancer and other severe autoimmune disorders in the adults who handle it, is “the most widely used conventional insecticide” used in the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control classifies the chemical as a neurotoxin. In recent years, the states of California, Maryland, and New Jersey have all contemplated banning the use of these pesticides.
The Aloha State has passed a law barring the use of such chemicals, which have been linked to adverse side effects in humans, including debiltating neurological and developmental maladies.
On Wednesday, Hawaii Governor David Ige (D) put his signature to Senate Bill 3095, which will ban the use of chlorpyrifos pesticides in the Aloha State at the start of the next calendar year. The law also bars the spraying of any pesticide within 100 feet of schools during normal hours of attendance.
“Protecting the health and safety of our keiki and residents is one of my top priorities. We must protect our communities from potentially harmful chemicals. At the same time, Hawai‘i’s agriculture industry is extremely important to our state and economy. We will work with the Department of Agriculture, local farmers and the University of Hawai‘i as we seek safe, alternative pest management tools that will support and sustain our agriculture industry for generations to come,” said Ige.
Protecting the interests of chlorpyrifos-based pesticide manufacturer has been a persistent interest of the Trump administration and his head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt.
As ThinkProgress reported in April of 2017, Dow Chemical President Andrew Liveris — whose Dow AgroSciences division manufactures chlorpyrifos — was one of many corporate bigwigs to contribute to President Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. Liveris’ $1 million gift did not go unnoticed: two months later, Pruitt let it be known that the EPA “would not follow the recommendation of the agency’s own scientists to ban the use of chlorpyrifos.”
Chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to severe developmental issues in the children exposed to it, as well as cancer and other severe autoimmune disorders in the adults who handle it, is “the most widely used conventional insecticide” used in the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control classifies the chemical as a neurotoxin. In recent years, the states of California, Maryland, and New Jersey have all contemplated banning the use of these pesticides.
Former CIA Head Compares Trump’s Border Separation Policy to Nazi Germany
by Aidan McLaughlin | media ite
5:32 pm, June 16th, 2018
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden issued a scathing rebuke of President Donald Trump‘s policy of separating migrant children from their families at the southern border on Saturday.
Hayden, a CNN contributor who served as CIA director under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, posted a photo of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp on Twitter along with the caption, “Other governments have separated mothers and children.”
The Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their families was first weighed when John Kelly served as the homeland security secretary in March 2017, and proposed the move in order to deter migrants from attempting to illegally cross the border.
The idea has been floated in previous administrations too, but according to the New York Times, “for George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the idea of crying children torn from their parents’ arms was simply too inhumane — and too politically perilous — to embrace as policy.”
Even Trump backed off of the policy after Kelly’s public comments on the idea faced a backlash.
That changed recently, per the Times:
But advocates inside the administration, most prominently Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s senior policy adviser, never gave up on the idea. Last month, facing a sharp uptick in illegal border crossings, Mr. Trump ordered a new effort to criminally prosecute anyone who crossed the border unlawfully — with few exceptions for parents traveling with their minor children.
And now Mr. Trump faces the consequences. With thousands of children detained in makeshift shelters, his spokesmen this past week had to deny accusations that the administration was acting like Nazis. Even evangelical supporters like Franklin Graham said its policy was “disgraceful.”
Hayden isn’t the first to publicly compare the policy to Nazi Germany. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough did so on Morning Joe Friday, and faced the wrath of the White House press team, which accused him of comparing U.S. law enforcement to Nazis.
Hayden, a CNN contributor who served as CIA director under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, posted a photo of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp on Twitter along with the caption, “Other governments have separated mothers and children.”
The Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their families was first weighed when John Kelly served as the homeland security secretary in March 2017, and proposed the move in order to deter migrants from attempting to illegally cross the border.
The idea has been floated in previous administrations too, but according to the New York Times, “for George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the idea of crying children torn from their parents’ arms was simply too inhumane — and too politically perilous — to embrace as policy.”
Even Trump backed off of the policy after Kelly’s public comments on the idea faced a backlash.
That changed recently, per the Times:
But advocates inside the administration, most prominently Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s senior policy adviser, never gave up on the idea. Last month, facing a sharp uptick in illegal border crossings, Mr. Trump ordered a new effort to criminally prosecute anyone who crossed the border unlawfully — with few exceptions for parents traveling with their minor children.
And now Mr. Trump faces the consequences. With thousands of children detained in makeshift shelters, his spokesmen this past week had to deny accusations that the administration was acting like Nazis. Even evangelical supporters like Franklin Graham said its policy was “disgraceful.”
Hayden isn’t the first to publicly compare the policy to Nazi Germany. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough did so on Morning Joe Friday, and faced the wrath of the White House press team, which accused him of comparing U.S. law enforcement to Nazis.
Trump Was So ‘Bored’ Before North Korea Summit That He Almost Rescheduled It
THU, JUN 14TH, 2018
BY SEAN COLAROSSI - politicus usa
Donald Trump was reportedly so bored when he arrived in Singaporeahead of his summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un that the meeting was almost “upended” altogether.
According to a stunning new report from The Washington Post, “[T]he most intense drama surrounding President Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came not across the negotiating table, but in the days and hours leading up to Tuesday’s historic meeting.”
More from the report:
After arriving in Singapore on Sunday, an antsy and bored Trump urged his aides to demand that the meeting with Kim be pushed up by a day — to Monday — and had to be talked out of altering the long-planned and carefully negotiated summit date on the fly, according to two people familiar with preparations for the event.
“We’re here now,” the president said, according to the people. “Why can’t we just do it?”
Trump’s impatience, coupled with a tense staff-level meeting between the two sides on Sunday, left some aides fearful that the entire summit might be in peril.
According to The Washington Post story, what ultimately convinced Trump to stick to the original schedule was the fact that he would get more media attention.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Trump that he “might sacrifice wall-to-wall television coverage of his summit if he abruptly moved the long-planned date to Monday in Singapore, which would be Sunday night in the United States.”
A responsible U.S. president would have used his (or her) pre-summit downtime to prepare for the high-stakes nuclear summit. But Trump, who has never cared for the work aspect of his job, threw a tantrum and put the whole meeting in jeopardy – all because he had a day to spare.
This is what happens when an unfit, reality TV game show host is put in charge.
According to a stunning new report from The Washington Post, “[T]he most intense drama surrounding President Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came not across the negotiating table, but in the days and hours leading up to Tuesday’s historic meeting.”
More from the report:
After arriving in Singapore on Sunday, an antsy and bored Trump urged his aides to demand that the meeting with Kim be pushed up by a day — to Monday — and had to be talked out of altering the long-planned and carefully negotiated summit date on the fly, according to two people familiar with preparations for the event.
“We’re here now,” the president said, according to the people. “Why can’t we just do it?”
Trump’s impatience, coupled with a tense staff-level meeting between the two sides on Sunday, left some aides fearful that the entire summit might be in peril.
According to The Washington Post story, what ultimately convinced Trump to stick to the original schedule was the fact that he would get more media attention.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Trump that he “might sacrifice wall-to-wall television coverage of his summit if he abruptly moved the long-planned date to Monday in Singapore, which would be Sunday night in the United States.”
A responsible U.S. president would have used his (or her) pre-summit downtime to prepare for the high-stakes nuclear summit. But Trump, who has never cared for the work aspect of his job, threw a tantrum and put the whole meeting in jeopardy – all because he had a day to spare.
This is what happens when an unfit, reality TV game show host is put in charge.
denial conservative style!!
From Crooks & Liars: I've never gone wrong betting on the racism and arrogant ignorance of the Right: I've only erred occasionally on the point spread. And predicting Conservative behavior is dead-easy because traditionally they only have four basic settings:
Pleading Ignorance.
Of course Conservatives are ignorant -- deeply and malignantly ignorant. This comes from letting lying demagogues like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity take a dump in their skulls for the last 20 years. But since the GOP OnStar only emits turns in one direction, traditionally the only way Conservatives have been permitted to be "wrong" about anything was that they were "not Conservative enough!". From Crain's, October, 2015:
- Arrogant triumphalism: The aforementioned "We won! You lost! Bush is a genius! Suck it Libtards!"
- All-out denialism: The aforementioned "Everything I see on non-Fox teevee is fake! Terrible lies by the terrible Murrica-hating Libtard media conspiracy!"
- Bargaining: It doesn't matter whether or not I'm a brain-washed moron...because Both Sides!"
- Running Away: As I pointed out back during the first Great Skedaddle back in 2009, because Conservatives are by nature abject moral cowards, their last "out" is doing like German soldiers did after the fall of Berlin: stop running away from the catastrophe they created only long enough to burn their uniforms. See, "I'm an independent."
Pleading Ignorance.
Of course Conservatives are ignorant -- deeply and malignantly ignorant. This comes from letting lying demagogues like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity take a dump in their skulls for the last 20 years. But since the GOP OnStar only emits turns in one direction, traditionally the only way Conservatives have been permitted to be "wrong" about anything was that they were "not Conservative enough!". From Crain's, October, 2015: