Their Bosses: Chief of the Border Patrol, Carla Provost, her boss: DHS Secty. Kirstjen Nielsen who recently replaced John F. Kelly; the reports from 2010 on are from the Obama era, of course, under Chief Jeh Johnson.
(Thedisappearereport.org, pdf, 23 pages)
@NoMoreDeaths Jan 17 left 31,558 gallons of water in a 3 year period, 86% of those were used, 3586 were destroyed
The Guardian, (and I’m glad they picked up the story. It just may help, who can say?)
“Caitlin Deighan, a spokeswoman for No More Deaths, said the policy of militarising the border and funnelling migrants into remote, perilous desert, where thousands died, dated from President Bill Clinton’s era. “It’s been ongoing throughout every administration since.”
“The report also cited anecdotal evidence from volunteers and an unnamed former border patrol agent interviewed last year who was quoted saying: “I remember people smashing and stepping on water bottles, I remember that being imparted on to us in one way or another.”
The report also quoted a 37-year-old Mexican border crosser named Miguel: “They break the bottles so you can’t even use them to fill up in the tanks. I needed water, some of the other people in the group needed water, but we found them destroyed. [I felt] helplessness, rage. They [the US border patrol] must hate us.”
The report came amid renewed rancour in Washington over Donald Trump’s desire to build a border wall and his alleged racism towards non-white immigrants. Congress is scrambling to reach a deal on immigration and border security before federal funding expires on Friday, raising the spectre of a government shutdown.
In addition to building a wall Trump wishes to hire another 5,000 border patrol agents.”
Via Popular Resistance: ‘The Consequences Of Chase & Scatter In The Wilderness’ By Staff, , January 19, 2018, some snippets:
“Since the mid-1990s, the US Border Patrol’s policy of Prevention Through Deterrence has intentionally pushed migration into increasingly remote corridors in the Southwest borderlands. This policy has turned the natural landscape into a lethal weapon that injures, kills, and disappears border crossers. Our report shines a light on the deadly practices that characterize enforcement in these hostile wilderness areas. The result: thousands of known deaths of undocumented border crossers, and an even greater number of disappearances—a crisis that has received far less attention. These individuals do not simply go missing, they are disappeared as part of a violent and deadly border-enforcement strategy carried out by the US government.
The missing-persons cases collected by the Missing Migrant Crisis Line in 2015 include 84 in which an incident of chase and scatter in the wilderness was explicitly named as the event that caused the person to go missing. Of these cases, 36% ended in death or disappearance.
The use of helicopters is particularly dangerous, causing increased injury during chase and increased incidence of scatter. In our survey, 36% of the chases involved pursuit by helicopter. When a helicopter was present in a chase, it was significantly more likely that someone would end up lost afterward.
Based on our research and continuous on-the-ground observation of border-enforcement activities, we assert that there is no policing method for interdicting border crossers in wilderness terrain that does not carry a high risk of injury, death, and disappearance. Consequently, we consider the first of this report’s five recommendations to be the most urgent: we call for the immediate end of Prevention Through Deterrence as an enforcement doctrine, as well as the removal of all walls, fencing, barriers, and other border infrastructure that serves to push migration into the deadly backcountry. We will only see the end of the crisis of disappearance with the complete demilitarization of the US–Mexico border. Federal immigration policy must be rewritten to protect human life and human rights, and to address the US-sponsored violence and economic disruption causing so many to seek refuge within these borders.”
Well the government did shut down Friday night, bleeping Senators are griping about having to work today, a Saturday no less, although no votes are planned, so the shutdown will last until next week sometime. This is part of Eric Londen’s report on the charade:
“Politico reported that Democrats made a counterproposal Friday that included an additional $50 million in military funding in exchange for protection for DACA recipients as well as already agreed-upon increases for border militarization. Republicans called this right-wing proposal a “nonstarter.”
The Democrats have already made clear that they are willing to support construction of a border wall and massive expenditures for militarizing the border as part of a deal that includes extensions for DACA recipients. Last week, Bernie Sanders declared, “I don’t think there’s anybody who disagrees that we need strong border security. If the president wants to work with us to make sure we have strong border security, let’s do that.”
The assurances by Sanders and the Democrats of support for added security comes as videos published this week by the pro-immigrant No More Deaths organization showed border guards pouring out over 3,500 gallons of water left by rights groups in the harsh borderlands desert. In the last 20 years, up to 27,000 immigrants have died of dehydration, starvation, heat stroke and hypothermia while attempting to escape the violence and poverty in Mexico and Central America.”
As he says, the planes with US bombing sorties will still fly over ME nations, weapons will still be sold to ‘our enemies’, the NSA will still be unconstitutionally spying on all of us, but 850,000 federal employees will be furloughed without pay, including 60% of the employees of the CDC.
O, yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill,
To pangs of nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood;
That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void
~ Tennyson
(cross-posted at caucus99percent.com)
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
may you soon rot in hell, you racist, criminal, ex-sheriff! you may remember that herr drumpf had pardoned him.
After 10 years Democrats have not learned that there are no honest-bargaining Republicans even when they are getting exactly what they want. Bargaining for Republicans is just enlisting Democrats as foils in a play of Democratic weakness.
Something to remember. The drop-dead point does not come in the shutdown until the Treasury admits it has run out of money. Everything before that is political show and accounting gimmicks. The Trump administration can in principal use emergency administrative measures in agencies to rearrange the budget outside of Congressional restriction while making kabuki negotiation attempts. The accounting can cause the gap between the money needed and hitting the debt limit to expand as the draconian cuts in “non-essential” (i.e. Democratic) programs deliver funds and the essential part of the IRS (processing) delivers this year’s tax revenues. Savings possibly could go beyond this year’s projected deficit and create a surplus that cuts into the national debt. Sufficient numbers will allow Republicans to crow “promise met” around September 30 at the end of the fiscal year. That allows them to run on end to war in Syria; pressuring Iran; pressuring North Korea; restarting civil defense; whatever the economy (controlled by the bipartisan elite) is delivering; big win for the ICE deportations and commitment to continue against all criticism; and the tax cut scam.
And if the Democrats (or anyone else) does take Congress, the tax cut loss of revenues and identities of beneficiaries saps the revenues and the political momentum to roll it back. The public is going to have to be begging for federal tax increase before rolling it back can happen.
If Republicans control Congress again, they can use the crater from the tax cut to create another debt crisis and shutdown that they can use to strip Social Security from their own base as if is just an economic law of nature. After all, winning in 2018 after the first four years of controversy and whatever mouse Mueller produces will prove that elections don’t matter anymore. And the door slams shut by the people who believe that becoming a working majority. And the 2nd Amendment crowd keeping the lid on (that includes 2nd Amendment Democrats like Joe Manchin, who loves him some warrantless wiretapping.)
And that’s my currently optimistic scenario that picks a Tammy Duckworth/Elizabeth Warren ticket for 2020. Less optimistic view run down various other mixes of women Dem candidates that have less experience in national security operational realities and institutions and major legislation against heavily-lobbying industries.
Exposing the scam of US employers recruiting immigrant workers (still) is a strategy that has not brought pressure to bear on immigration law scofflaws who exploit immigrants but also keep them over through threats of disclosure, working under illegal conditions, often through immigrant contractors who are illegally practicing peonage.
Rev. William Barber II’s Poor People’s Campaign is beginning work on the deportation issue. One aspect of it is calling to repentance clergy who are acting as mouthpieces of bigotry and oppression for donations. The first target is Franklin Graham, who has become a Trump mouthpiece.
And yes on Arpaio (and Dave Clark too).
wooot! a comment; thank you! i’d seen a comment from chuck the schmuck schumer saying that negotiating w/ his good buddy herr orange julius is like negotiating w/ jello, but from what i read (and we’ll never really know the truth of what goes on inside closed-door meetings, is that dems act as willing accomplices because: TINA.
now your long paragraph about the drop-dead point is the treasury having to admit that it’s out of money rings true, but i admit i can’t grasp it all. but it sho’ is going to get worse w/ his nib’s tax and job plan. when walmart closed 60 sam’s clubs the other day w/o notice, the CEO was crowing about the new 21% allowing them to give some of remaining work bonuses. that must have warmed the cockles of wall street’s heart!
but will there need to be a next shut down to enable further shredding of the social safety net, including CHIP, medicaid, etc.? well, i suppose so, but what wonders how much ‘the party of the people’ really cared about that tax travesty, given they never called for mass protests against it, yes? did duckworth or warren, for instance? now liz may be running already, and altered a few stances, but even running for senate she was definitely big on US military misadventures; has she…evolved? cuz in the end that issue is where the rubber meets the road: antiwar and anti-imperialism, and the domestic stuff is just window dressing given the trillion dollars plus in the military budget.
i decided to look, and i see duckworth voted yea on National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (HR 2810), Yea on: Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (HR 3364). same for warren except she ballot pedia says she voted Yea on: Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act of 2017 (S 722); An Act to Provide Congressional Review and to Counter Iranian and Russian Governments’ Aggression. maybe i missed that on duckworth. but pfffft.
i did see a blurb that a number of congressional dems are term-limited in 2018, and there will be bernie-style candidates running. well, if they win, there may be more baby steps, yes? but for any peace to reign on the planet, there needs to be a major push to say no to war period. it could and should be the single issue to unite the working class, i think. but Ds don’t seem to mind war at all, do they? i might vote for a kucinich-D whose platform contained the idea to create a cabinet level peace dept., though. ;-)
the two womens marches i just checked each had ONE antiwar sign…
yes to your paragraph about busting emplyoers who entice immigrants to work for them for slave wages, then issue threats, etc. good on rev barber for taking on the issue, and yes, franklin graham the odious chrisitanist…
but can you believe that the ICE agents are so gleeful about what they’re told to do, while their bosses say: we have no solid evidence of that? god’s blood, seeing this whole travesty in a four-part report made the smoke come out of my ears.
With an attachment to potential puns, I’m particularly fond of “as foils in a play of Democratic weakness”. At the risk of my seeming only to comment when I’m reiterating a quotation of my own: Democrats are not weak-willed wimps who fail to stick up for their claimed constituencies with every compromise. But they play them on TV.
touché! ohio barbarian used to say at firedoglake that obama isn’t a black man; he just plays one on teevee.
Bingo, davidly, when you say,
I’ll swing back sometime later, and post a blurb about one of their most recent phony populist campaigns (‘antics’ would probably be more apt). I’ll stick it in the most recent OT, since it has nothing to do with this thread/topic.
Their cynicism never ceases to amaze me. Whew!
Blue
TINAgain? The Capt., Cook $AY$, “Turnagain” ! Expect nothing from DEM, esp. Duckworth, who figuratively, literally and almost certainly deservedly, has no moral legs on which to stand ! The US’ dupes’ Uniform Code of Military Justice proffers the solution to Trump’s, their and 0ur M0RA$$ in MENA and throughout the world : simply refuse illegal orders to Illegally execute US’ ILLEGAL International wars of aggression. No single mourning mother vigils ((Sheehan, Beatty, et al); N0R, multi-million pussyhat parades, as desiderata, deteriorata, or whatevs !
Rule 1: If you have political control of all three branches of government, you don’t shut that government down. The shutdown is a strategy by the Freedom Caucus, a faction of the GOP caucus that has the smallest numbers and the most aggressive goals. They are also the caucus most aligned with Trump’s racism and anti-immigrant positions. They have aligned Ryan with their House folks and McConnell with Cruz in the Senate. The House writes the bill (when it can) and slaps it over to the Senate under emergency conditions (this time extending the debt limit).
The failure of the GOP to vote for the bills they are forcing through and put their fingerprints on their actions set up false claims on Democratic policies on issues.
Pelosi and Schumer get played by being backed into the TINA position of standing by and looking helpless as Vichy Democrats (Manchin, Heitkamp, etc.) cross over to try (unsuccessfully) to appeal to their voters by surrendering. The national party is not going to do anything. Local people (not necessarily long-time Democrats are moving to the Democratic Party to organize local parties in a more “progressive” direction. For the South, whatever else it means, it means a strong position on ending racist institutions and symbols in the South. It also appears to mean strong women’s rights planks on accountability for sexual assault, abortion rights, and equal benefits for equal work (really should be a labor issue). Also in the South the William Barber wing of the black church is backing LGBTQ rights under the notion that having classes of people who are deprived legal and economic rights for essentially cultural (culture war) reasons weakens the rights of everyone or makes them arbitrary. (Just look at how All Lives Matter seeks to weaken accountability of police forces from accountability by Black Lives Matter).
ICE-and its dragnet FUSION operation- are proto-Gestapo operations; what professionals are left are trapped and more so when they grasp the full lack of control over what is going on. Let the field officers do what they’ve complained should be done for decades, ignoring constitutional rights, laws, and the reason that people are breaking border restrictions. Where I see this going is a universal labor policy over the Americas that reduces what the US thought it was doing to what some of the worst Latin American countries have done in the past or are currently doing. Canada can only avoid it by tying itself tightly to Europe-minus-Britain. If the US has the same opportunities, traffic to the US dwindles.
The JAN 20 Womens marches this year and last are the Resistance (TM) variety. Other marches of various, kinds, including intersectional marches will occur throughout the year. It is up to the peace movement to place their presences within these marches and get themselves noticed by media. It is also up to them to shed the idea that the Democrats ever were for peace (ending the endless war) that hard fight is yet to come.
The Ben Cardin campaign is beginning to fight back against Chelsea Manning already and it is clear that the Manning campaign is aimed at Cardin for reasons that are the result of Cardin’s Foreign Relations committee stances and not just Cardin’s affinity for bankers. The Twitter tracking posters who have be trying to suss out the Rooskies hopped on the strange optics of Manning partying at Michael Cernovich’s with a bunch of Breitbarties and other alt-right. This either is antifa-alt-right sparring or an effort to begin protecting Cardin’s seat, or an alt-right move to sabotage Manning with left and progressive voters by making her political position ambiguous. The first result is to shed some African-Americans on guilt-by-association with the Wikileaks election period release that sapped Clinton’s electoral vote.
There is a political realignment going on among younger Americans; it seems to be as weird as the one that mixed hippied and the Young Americans for Freedom during the 1960s. In a decade neither party will look like or have the same power it has today; possibily some new parties will emerge and some genius will find a way to small the duopoly power structure in electoral government by dealing with a way to deal with the forced binary system of first-past-the-post voting and hardwired majority and minority party structures and not majority and minority coalitions with a rainbow of parties each with representation in strength to population. (Although Europe’s version of this is looking as shaky as the US duopoly.
What sort of movemental organization is required and how does it interact with the formal structures of government? If not elections, what?
rule #1 might be: ‘If you have political control of all three branches of government, you don’t shut that government down’…then blame it on the other team, which i apparently #theTrumpManuever.
your analysis that this is authored by the freedom caucus is prolly correct, although i don’t even know those players. but as to this: “The failure of the GOP to vote for the bills they are forcing through and put their fingerprints on their actions set up false claims on Democratic policies on issues.” i’m not getting.
but back to the womens marches, first J20, then again J20 2018: these are Dems marching against trump, now on sat. registering voters (for dems) and the many rights and rights to stay, protect…are aimed at big D democrats, sadly not small ‘d’ alleged principles. another cul-de-sac akin to the #metoo ‘movement’. and for most big Ds, there’s always room for war, which is brought to them by expanded military wars to protect, preemptive wars, wars of choice for resources, and proxy wars in then O’s, now T’s policies. but Mattis’s new defense posture will set the record straight on that.
i hope to bring it soon, proving again that pepe escobar had part of the reasoning right. new coalitions w/ millennial, rainbows, etc. seem like the oppressed classes and working classes could unite under anti-war and anti-imperialist socialism, not the DSA sort.
how does the peace movement do that, exactly? and are the young uns’ realignment/s about the polls showing that they’re in favor of ‘socialism’? or the bern’s sort of socialism?
ah, i thought i’d remembered your having mentioned ‘vicchy D heitkamp: she’s one of the 9 co-sponsors of crapo’s bill to neuter a lot of the craptastic dodd-frank.
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/360145-senate-banking-chairman-announces-bipartisan-deal-to-curb-dodd-frank-rules
but srsly, you’d still be rec’ing warren and duckworth knowing they’d vote aye on those FP votes? if so, no comprende.
i gotta take a pass on manning, i haven’t played her ads, but someone said she’s advocate a guaranteed annual income; there be devils there, imo.
Hi, WD!
Just wanted to drop by and tell you how happy I am that your posts are giving some extra balance to some of our other (very excellent) essayists, a few of whom mostly toe the Dem Party line. Of course, we’re a non-partisan blog, so all views are welcome.
Anyhoo, I think it’s obvious from your reception, that there are quite a few of us who are lefties–not Dems. I expect that your following will grow by leaps and bounds.
;-)
Blue
hey, blue; i appreciate your welcome. and i agree that more folks have been radicalized a bit further than earlier, or so it seems. but when are you gonna go back to blue onyx there and ditch ‘unabashed liberal’, lol? ain’t liberals the ‘hard center’ now as pluto posited today? but srsly, the labels/brands get pretty squidgy and polymorphous given so many variations of ‘con acts with amerika’, don’t they? most especially with more and more cooptation, especially by the D team.
sorry to be so fuzzy-headed, i’ve been reading the new DOd ‘defense’ strategy, and kinda wanna get a shower, barf, burn my clothes, and ‘kill a __ for peace’./s
Actually, WD, even though I figure you’re ribbing me, I’ve considered reverting back to that old handle. Partly, in consideration of what will be going down this entire year–especially, now that Mister B’s (the dog) health is rapidly declining, particularly in the ‘mobility department’ due to spondylosis, which means more demands on my time, therefore, less time for blogging–I figure that it would sorta be a way of ‘coming full circle,’ as they say.
;-)
Certainly, I would agree with you and Pluto, that the word ‘liberal’ has become a totally meaningless, and even negative, descriptor. That’s one reason I’ve never used it in any of my sig lines. Of course, I wouldn’t expect Admin to change my account ‘officially,’ since it would probably mess up my comment library, etc. Just changing my handle from ‘Mollie’ to ‘Blue’ in my sig lines, will suffice.
Postscript: Glad you changed the ability to comment, ‘without registration.’ It was that way for quite a while, then, a while back, was going to drop in, but kept getting kicked over to a formal registration form/page.
Blue
i admit that i was partially ribbing you, blue. i’d been musing about the screen name ‘abashed liberal’, as well. but honest, registration was never required to comment here, although once in a while a person might have to add a number or some such from fdl wordpress to have an avatar come along with them. so i’m buffaloed by your experience, srsly. but please, you’re welcome any time.
but your blue onyx referred to you dog who has spondylo? ah, i’m so sorry if it’s so. dogs are our chirren, and when our best dog lincoln the spaniel (inherited from my parents) was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer, we became acting zombies until and for months after his death. he was the sort of dog that he actually got mail from our/his friends. srsly. we dedicated a whole park on our hill to him, landscaped it, included wooden sculptures, and so on. mr. wd and i both still dream of him now and again.
Well, that is odd–about being kicked over to a registration page. I don’t have any explanation for it, either. As you know, I’ve posted off and on for past couple years, or so, and did so with just my email address. So, when I saw you mention (at C99) that you didn’t require registration, I came back over, and tried again. Voilá! It worked.
Actually, I just picked Blue Onyx as a handle, because I liked the gem. I think I have a fondness for the handle, partly, because it’s emblematic of a time when I was considerably more optimistic about effecting change by blogging. ;-) These days, I’m more pessimistic and discouraged.
Believe I recall you mentioning a favorite Spaniel. What a beautiful way to remember your furbaby. (My best to Mr WD, BTW.) We’ve also lost a couple of dogs to cancer–it’s very hard. We did plant a tree in remembrance of them–a Bradford Pear for the white Terrier Mix, and a Pink Dogwood for our English Cocker Spaniel. They died 7 weeks apart. Back then, there wasn’t a place (where we lived) to have them cremated; so, they’re buried at the base of one of the trees, since they were inseparable. Our Alaskan Parakeet (Bubba) was buried beside them, not long afterward.
Whoah! Didn’t mean to strike such a maudlin tone. Need to remember that we have to take it–‘one day at a time.’
Now that I’ve bent your ear for an hour, WD–have a good evening!
;-D
Blue
light bulb: i wonder if you’d tried to sign in w/ a different email address than your usual one. some time back ché pasa had said he wanted to comment on a diary here concerning herr drumpf’s voluntarily hand over FP to his generals, and the same thing happened. i showed him that one of his emails allowed him in w/o getting that registration page, but alas, he never commented that way.
but as to your mr. b doggie and spondylosis, you might want to bingle acupressure (shiatsu) or related bodywork for canines and that condition. the lincoln log dog’s hips got baddish, and i’d reach beneath him and work along his lower spine muscles (they have a lot to do w/ positioning of alignment (or mis-) of hip bone angles and rotations) while he was on his back, then on his illio-psoas muscles very slowly, tenderly…as he whimpered, but allowed me to. he must have sensed that it was a good sort of pain, IOW, and it did help him. side note: equine massage therapy is a huge field now, and boy do the comfortably well-off spend big bucks on their horses.
that’s a hella of chirren/siblings to have lost in such a short time, isn’t it? not really maudlin, i reckon, just…feelings and painful remembrances. best to you and yours, blue.
Eureka!
That’s a possibility, WD. You can probably decipher it, better than I. I definitely have more than one hotmail account. And, IIRC, I’ve used the root account to email you, but, I think I’ve used a secondary one to log in.
Appreciate the sympathetic/empathetic ear. I suppose it sometimes helps to give voice to one’s painful remembrances, as you so aptly put it.
;-)
Thanks for the suggestion about canine shiatsu. Honestly, it didn’t cross my mind, but what a great idea! In no time, I just found a couple of what appear to be promising websites about the techniques, etc. After I read up, I’ll probably message the vet to clear it with her. I’ll let you know if we get to do anything with it, or if it improves ‘the B’s’ condition. At this point in time, since he’s already taking the max maintenance dose of Prednisone, and a truckload of other medications and supplements, there’s nothing to lose.
Have a nice evening!
Blue
when comments come in, i can see the email addresses, but of course i have to clear out my inbox regularly, so…all i can do is surmise that may have been it.
can’t think there’d be many vets who’d know anything about animal bodywork, but…maybe she’s one. glad ya found some links. i’d forgotten to say that i’d sit against the sofa and lide lincoln’s legs and hips (pelvis and lower spine) into my open vee-ed space to make working on him more comfortable and accessible. nor did i mention that if you feel work bilaterally along his lower spinal muscles, and you feel a hard spot on one side, just stay there for a bit until you feel t release a bit. it may indicated a spinal subluxation (misaligned vertebra) that’s impeding proper neural functions, as well as vascular, lymphatic, etc.in the end. some large flake nutritional yeast (all the B vitamins, iirc) and a bit of oil in his food might help, as well. there are even pet versions of celadrin. best of luck, in any event.
https://www.vetinfo.com/celadrin-for-dogs.html
Thanks for the further instruction on positioning him for massage. I’m having a bit of a problem with my connection, and I couldn’t get the link to open.
(It’s definitely my ISP connection, not the link. Had the same problem at another site–it keeps timing out on me.) So, I’ll check it out tomorrow. ‘The B’s’ been taking Brewer’s Yeast for several years (for his coat); he’s also taking Fish Oil since his Spondylosis was diagnosed. So, agree that your suggestions are spot on.
Hey, I’d be curious to know what you think about the recent proposals for MFA. Will try to re-find the Townhall video, and post it here this weekend. I’ll put it in the Open Menu/Thread.
Later.
Blue
ha; couldn’t even decipher with MFA might be. but a link sent me to common dreams, now i know. the bern and liz warren, medicare for all. sure better than anything else, but the devil, as always, is in the details. cost, coverage, penalties, etc. if it’s a video, i need cliff’s notes on accounta my mind wanders while listening, so about ten minutes max for me. can’t see any version likely for now, but zeese and flowers and others keep saying that ‘the time is ripe’.
The shutdown is not over. Dems and Reps agreed to debate on immigration bill—in 141 days. Both sides are waiting for the actual shutdown to start before they gauge the politics. Meanwhile, they’ll try to stick each other with the blame. Now you don’t have to check for 3 1/2 months–that’s approaching May, isn’t it. How convenient–6 months before midterms?
Damn I wish the US had one honest media of record who could to play-by-play on Congress and a website who could provide the line-up with numbers and sponsors.
lol. thanks for doin’ the arithmetic for me on 141 days. what a charade! ‘an honest media of record’: ain’t that what they all an oxymoron?
but i really need to add to the women’s marches, according to wsws reporters on the ground in many locations: ‘Women’s March promotes Democratic Party, sabotages opposition to Trump’ wsws, 22 January 2018
now there were a few by quote exceptions to the D cooptation…but he’s featured las vegas, chicago and deecee.The marches were essentially campaign rallies for the right-wing Democratic Party. CBS News reported that the Washington march “took on the feel of a political rally when US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and US Rep. Nancy Pelosi, both Democrats, urged women to run for office and vote to oppose Mr. Trump and the Republicans’ agenda.” CBS quoted Pelosi as telling the crowd, “We march, we run, we vote, we win.”
Pelosi was joined by “more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers on the stage” in DC, according to the Washington Post. Representative Don Beyer used the occasion to make the ludicrous comment that “if Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and the president were women, we would not be in the middle of a government shutdown right now.”
The speakers at the Women’s March in different cities indicate the general emphasis on putting Democrats in office and on elevating gender issues above all others. Actresses Eva Longoria, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Viola Davis and Olivia Munn spoke in Los Angeles, centering their remarks on the #MeToo campaign.
Two multibillionaire Democratic figures spoke in Chicago: hedge fund manager and fundraiser Tom Steyer and Illinois gubernatorial candidate Jay Pritzker. The speakers at the Chicago event also included Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who has supported hundreds of millions of dollars of cuts to jobs and pensions, as well as Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
“Compared to last year’s march, which to some extent reflected broader anti-Trump sentiment and opposition to his right-wing agenda of war and xenophobia, this year’s marches were focused almost exclusively on electoral politics and the #MeToo campaign, which is using allegations of sexual misconduct to attack democratic rights. “Me Too” and the related “Time’s Up” slogan dominated signs and speeches.
All the major issues confronting the working class—attacks on immigrant rights, the threat of nuclear war, layoffs and stagnating wages, police violence—were either downplayed or ignored entirely.” and he of course mentions DACA as one of the ostensible reasons for the shutdown.”
well you gt the gist; but how intersectional protests don’t get funneled into the D party is beyond me. but yes, the (i agree) mccarthyite #meToo movement is apparently key to the Ds in 2018. how many pink pussyhats were displayed? loads, i reckon.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/01/22/wome-j22.html
Get ready for the rampage of the oxymorons in May.
rotflmao! and the rampage of morons by proxy?
I can’t keep tabs on all the Nazi stuff going on what w/confusing the actual Nazis of yesteryear & their often not so openly racist bastard children today but I recollect reading somewhere that giving Jews water was a serious crime, capital even in Poland.
it’s so ghastly & gruesome, gov’t murder thru dehydration. Certainly we should not be under the tiniest delusion that the latest revelation of endless & multiplying atrocities being committed by the USG will have any effect on the *actions* of anyone who owns property or is invested in shaking their money maker pole dancing for capital. Now the Bernistas & their kin will express disappointment at his glee at the opportunity to collude with Trump, sigh and say, “I wish he would/had not.” just like they did with Obama.
cuz deep down inside they all know that ICE or the like ain’t comin’ for them cuz they’ve bribed them not to. and no boss in this country, not one, is keen on their employees taking too much interest in border jumpers dying in the agony they brought on themselves thru being illegal. and they can generally count on the wage slaves getting the message.
a capital crime, love in the time of cholera and corn syrup? got a few headlines at wsws for ya, no links: ‘The estimated 1,000 people living in tents along the Santa Ana riverbed will be cleared out by Orange County sheriffs. The vast majority have no place to go and authorities have no plans to house them.’
‘Twelve arrested outside San Diego for feeding the homeless, Wave of immigrant arrests, deportations in Michigan ‘
‘The attacks are part of a broader escalation of Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown on immigrants and undocumented workers across the country.’
‘Massive raids threatened against immigrants in California’
now it may indeed be getting worse under orange julius’s rule, but even DACA was a bit of a sleight-of-hand compromise, wasn’t it (albeit welcome enough for many)? but hey those pink pussyhats and #meToo formulaic distractions! oprah for prez!! a bottle of corn syrup in every pot!
The Democrats totally own the human misery going on in Los Angeles and, particularly, the Silicon Valley/Bay Area (as those State and Federal Legislators are 99.99999% Democrats, 100% for Silicon Valley), right along with the Republic ideology they’ve always supported. Guv Brown’s Dada was Republican first, as: Jerry [Edmund Jr.]; certainly his wife, Anne Gust – Brown, Counsel™, registered as such right before she married him, when he became Mayor of Oakland, CA, a predominantly black community which is now becoming utterly unaffordable to live in; Sister Kathleen Methane Leak; and First Dog corgi (has it’s own Royal twitter account) are.
It’s not called – Still Flagged As – the Republic [Meritocracy] of California (in quite closed circles it’s called The Empire of California) on a whim. And it’s not the 5th or 6th largest predatory economy of the world, on a whim.
(Been meaning to respond to your response to my last post, a while back, but too much going on.)
oops, for link lovers, the current California FLAG:
The Formal, STATE House, version:
aaaaaand ‘the sixth largest economy in the most beautiful woild…in the woild’. (sorry, i’ve been at NATO and in davos the past 36 or more hours, as in: Not Funny’, given the abject hypocrisy quotient).
and billionaires senator and hubbie DiFi, him selling off all the WPA P.O.s chock full of incredible murals. and gov. moonbeam having vetoed a vote (citizen initiative?) for a trial of public banking: no can’t have that!
ah, the meritocratic republic! boulder, co back in the day, perhaps…wayback, was called ‘the people’s republic of boulder, co’.
On the disembarking of Ursula le Guin, reprinted following the link is her blog entry found at the top of that page whose accompanying poem might be germane:
http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Blog2017.html
oh, my, i hadn’t even heard that she’d crossed over, davidly. i sure admire what she’d written about tuning out trump the golem, bless her heart, and may she rest in peace and power.
but as to anita’s poem: i kiss the hem of her garment. it’s one that entices one to read again and again in that different images come alive in successive readings. on my fifth reading now, this prose-picture resonates in me as her revolutionary fervor of evolutionary hope, and reminds me of some quotes attributed to crazy horse:
“the wind will interrogate us,
the rivers will judge us, for they know how to separate
and divide to become whole.”
i can
t thank you enough for bringing it to us. just fancy that miz.endrezze lives with double-MS. my stars…. perhaps, though, it’s part of what takes her…to the stars. just stunning. i’ll try to remember to go look at her artwork, too. the women’s braids woven together: another awesome image. and the power of abuelas, oh my.
a very likely worthy addition, and i haven’t had time to watch it yet. but: for posterity (clipped of the first 26 seconds of mind-jangling insanity):
‘The Empire Files: The Empire’s Border Part I – A Policy of Death’ abby martin
that poem by itself & the video…47,000 kids. too much to take.
ah, jeez, i haven’t taken the time to watch. but the poem! (dio los muertos sugar skulls, panels of pressed cheetos (orange julius cheeto?), and the rose-strewn doorway in nogales…honoring her abuela. my stars, heart- and soul-piercing.
Hi Wendy,
I’m not sure how the comment above got generated; I responded something like this to a tweetstorm on Twitter, but I guess it was the meth that made me post those links here?
Sorry about that.
No; I don’t know that Grandin’s posted at the Intercept.
shall i delete it, meth man?
Delete away!