#PM on migrants

[our-trans-punk-experience]

FAR RIGHT RIOTS

REBLOG THIS PLEASE!!

shit is bad in the UK but obviously it is immensly confusing and I know some people wouldn't want to search up the news given how volatile it is, so here is a timeline of events. warnings for talk of violence, child death, racism, police ect

Monday 29/07: mass stabbing occured in Southport at a kids dance class, three girls died on scene, several others were hospitalised. An at time unnamed 17 y old boy was arrested on suspicion, and a knife was seized. later

Tuesday 30/07: having read false news suggesting that the attacker was a muslim immigrant who had arrived on a small boat, far-right groups with links to the EDL their leader Tommy Robinson took to the internet to imply the attacker was Muslim attacked a mosque in Southport, and after being declared a public disturbance, the police showed up and started trying to disperse them. This very quickly spiralled into a riot in which 39 police were hospitalised. Also on this day, Nigel fucking Farage, leader of far-right party Reform UK tweeted a video in which asked if the police were lying that the attack was not "terror related", furthering belief that the attacker was Muslim

Wednesday 31/07: violent anti immigrant protest continued, and there were mass riots in London. The PM spoke out denouncing the far right rioters as "violent thugs who would feel the full force of the law"

Thursday 01/08 : to try and curb the spread of misinformation, the police released the identity of their suspect - Axel Rudakubana, born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents in hope that the confirmation that he is not a Muslim immigrant would stop the rioting. It has not. PM Starmer released a statement saying that these were "coordinated attacks by the far right. " and that "this is not a protest that got out of hand these are individuals bent on violence"

Friday Night 02/08: Riots started in Sunderland late at night with reports of "serious violence". Starmer announced he had a plan to tackle far right violence.

Saturday 03/08: New far right mob action started in Manchester, Bristol, Hull, Belfast, Stoke, and Nottingham. Nottingham saw the first counterprotest, and as I write this, clashes between antifacist protestors and the far right is on going. The racists are setting fire to migrant housing buildings and attacking both police and counterprotestors countrywide. Dispersal orders have been issued for every city centre and major town centre across the UK.

Sunday 04/08: a "nick em quick" approach is to be used against the rioters in a hope to remove the far right mob from the street as soon as possible. There have been over 100 arrests. There are no plans to bring in the army, say ministers. There is a current attack on a migrant housing building in Rotherham.

I will keep posting updates as this unfolds so watch this space. This is obviously terrifying, so I want you to focus on actionable points.

stop the spread of misinformation. i can cite all my sources on a different post if you would like, but know that i visited ten different news sites, and also watched all the live news coverage to make this post. if you see any new information, fact check it. if you see someone spreading misinformation anywhere, DO SOMETHING. call them out and correct them and if they don't fix it, report them.

take care of any of your friends who aren't white, or if you aren't white, consider not going anywhere alone. racists don't discriminate in their discrimination. they are violent, deranged, and several are armed.

unless you are attending a counterprotest, stay the fuck out of town and city centres!!!!

STAY SAFE OUT THERE!! always in solidarity

[anarchopuppy]

FESTIVALS OF RESISTANCE: ORGANIZE TO OPPOSE TRUMP

January 11

Chicago, Illinois: A training about fighting deportations, as part of the week-long “Regroup and Strategize” series.

Sacramento, California: “Call to Action” conference and gathering, featuring a “day of skillshares and trainings” along with workshops, panels, and a keynote presentation from anarchist author Dean Spade. You can find more information and a full schedule here.

January 18

Atlanta, Georgia: A mass mobilization and day of resistance on the two-year anniversary of the murder of Tortuguita.

Brooklyn, New York: A community gathering including workshops.

Carbondale, Ilinois: A community event, currently in the planning stages.

Cleveland, Ohio: 3 pm Coventry Peace Park, 5 pm Rhizome House

Dayton, Ohio: 5 pm, Union Hall, 313 South Jefferson; a community discussion followed by music

Durham, North Carolina: The Triangle Festival of Resistance, a weekend-long festival focused on community defense, resilience, and liberation. For updates and information about how to contribute, consult Triangle Radical Events.

Gary, Indiana: A demonstration against mass deportations.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 6 pm at Nice Hair, with workshops on trans defense, migrant defense, self-defense, and movement defense

Minneapolis, Minnesota: A screening of Fell in Love with Fire with letter writing to prisoners and a discussion about the next phase of struggle at the Seward Cafê at 6:30 pm.

Portland, Oregon: A gathering in a COVID-safer, sober space. Families with and without children are welcome to attend. Food will be provided. You can also find updates about event organizing in Portland here.

Providence, Rhode Island: 3 pm - 9+ pm, AS220

Oakland, California: A march to a community assembly, departing from Wilma Chan park next to the Lake Merritt BART at 1 pm.

Olympia, Washington: The People’s March, 12 pm, departing from Heritage Park; followed by the Festival of Resistance.

Phoenix, Arizona: 3-8 pm, Margaret T. Hance Park, featuring a Really Really Free Market, food, literature tables, and a number of educational workshops

Richmond, Virginia: A community assembly involving panel discussions, workshops, and food, followed by a benefit concert.

Events are also being organized in Salt Lake City, Utah and elsewhere.

January 19

Chapel Hill, NC: The second day of the Triangle Festival of Resistance.

January 20

Indianapolis, Indiana: A Mutual Aid Convergence at Ujamaa Community Bookstore.

January 21

Arcata, California: A march departing from Arcata Plaza at noon—against Donald Trump, in solidarity with Palestine, and in memory of Tortuguita.

January 25

Tampa Bay, Florida: A community gathering and organizing fair for “politics beyond the ballot box.” “Organize with your community to fight for transformative change! Connect with a local project from anti-capitalist orgs, labor and tenant unions, mutual aid orgs, and more!”

Click here for the call to action and most up-to-date list

[saywhat-politics]

By The Associated Press

Published: Dec. 27, 2024 at 1:13 PM MST|Updated: 6 hours ago

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is developing a cellphone app that will allow migrants to warn relatives and local consulates if they think they are about to be detained by the U.S. immigration department, a senior official said Friday.

The move is in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to carry out mass deportations after he takes office on Jan. 20.

The app has been rolled out for small-scale testing and “appears to be working very well,” said Juan Ramón de la Fuente, Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs.

He said the app would allow users to press a tab that would send an alert notification to previously chosen relatives and the nearest Mexican consulate. De la Fuente described it as a sort of panic button.

“In case you find yourself in a situation where detention is imminent, you push the alert button, and that sends a signal to the nearest consulate,” he said.

U.S. authorities are obliged to give notice to home-country consulates when a foreign citizen is detained. Mexico says it has beefed up consular staff and legal aid to help migrants in the legal process related to deportation.

De la Fuente expects the app to be rolled out in January. He didn’t say whether the app has a de-activation tab that would allow someone to rescind an alert if they weren’t really detained.

The government says it has also set up a call center staffed 24 hours a day to answer migrants’ questions.

The Mexican government estimates there are 11.5 million migrants with some form of legal residency in the United States, and 4.8 million without legal residency or proper documents.

[allthegeopolitics]

Prosecutors have asked judges to jail Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini over his 2019 decision to stop a ship carrying more than 100 migrants from landing in the country. Prosecutors in the city of Palermo have requested a six-year sentence for alleged kidnapping over the incident, which happened when Mr Salvini was interior minister. The vessel, operated by the charity Open Arms, was stranded in the Mediterranean Sea for 19 days due to his refusal, with some passengers throwing themselves into the sea in desperation amid an "extreme humanitarian emergency" on board. The remaining 89 people on the vessel were eventually allowed to disembark in Lampedusa following a court battle.

Continue Reading

[mightyflamethrower]

Riots have broken out in multiple cities and towns across Great Britain, particularly over the past week. There were already protests taking place, but some of them have now turned violent. The topic driving all of this unrest is the immigration situation, particularly the illegal migrants that have been crossing the English Channel on rubber rafts and boats. Much as we've seen a backlash in the United States to violent crimes committed by illegal migrants, many Brits are clearly fed up as well. Everything seemed to come to a head last week when a series of stabbing attacks took the lives of three young children and left eight other children and two adults seriously injured. This took place in Southport, a seaside town north of Liverpool. Rumors quickly spread that the attacker was an illegal migrant, and that's when the protests turned violent. Hundreds have been arrested as a result. (AP)

Britain has been convulsed by violence for the past week as crowds spouting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic slogans clashed with police. The disturbances have been fueled by right-wing activists using social media to spread misinformation about a knife attack that killed three girls during a Taylor Swift-themed dance event. The violence, some of Britain’s worst in years, has led to hundreds of arrests as the government pledges that the rioters will feel “the full force of the law” after hurling bricks and other projectiles at police, looting shops and attacking hotels used to house asylum-seekers. As Britain’s new government struggles to quell the unrest and announces a “standing army” of specialist police to deal with rioting, here’s a look at what’s happening and why.

The liberal media has a marked tendency to try to blame nearly everything on online misinformation or disinformation, but in this case, they do seem to have a point. The attacker was described in several outlets as someone "believed to be an asylum-seeker or a Muslim immigrant." That report spread across the media quickly, inflaming tensions. But it turns out that the killer's name is Axel Muganwa Rudakubana and he was actually born in Wales in 2006, moving to Southport in 2013. His parents are reportedly legal immigrants from Rwanda. He also reportedly suffers from autism, so the stabbing attack may have been more of a mental health issue than any sort of hate crime.

Even if the deadly attack in Southport turns out to have been mischaracterized, that doesn't mean that the UK doesn't still have a serious problem with its illegal immigration situation and resultant unrest. This situation has been simmering for more than a decade and it now appears to be reaching the boiling point. There is a group over there named the English Defence League that has been operating for more than a decade, running a campaign against massive Muslim migration into the country, and they've been attracting more followers recently.

As far as the response to this situation goes, what we're seeing is a jarring juxtaposition between two different British leaders. The UK recently elected its new Labor Party Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, to replace the outgoing Conservative Party PM, Rishi Sunak. Sunak had previously vowed to stop the flow of illegals into the country by turning back the boats in the channel and deporting illegals already in the country to Rwanda. Immediately upon taking office, Starmer canceled the plan and instead vowed to take care of the problem by "working with other European nations and speeding up the removal of failed asylum-seekers."

Starmer has also vastly increased the rate of arrests... not of the migrants, of course, but of the protesters. Some of the protesters have engaged in vandalism and caused damage, with some even attacking the police, so they will need to be held accountable, but many of them are simply carrying signs and decrying both the current administration and the flood of migrants. They don't have the type of First Amendment protections we enjoy in the United States, so many of them have been sent to jail. Starmer has promised that the protesters will "feel the full force of the law" and established a "standing army" of specialist police to deal with the rioting. The entire situation is a mess, to be sure, but it's yet one more sign that massive migration and lax immigration enforcement are causing unrest far beyond America's borders. And the problem is spreading.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Judd Legum at Popular Information:

On Sunday at 1:46 PM Eastern Time, President Joe Biden announced he would end his campaign for reelection. Seconds later, the attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris began.  Harris is not yet the nominee. But she has declared her intention to seek the nomination and received an endorsement from Biden. Prominent Democrats including former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, and many others quickly threw their support behind Harris. She is the strong favorite to secure the nomination.

Some of the attacks on Harris were predictable. For example, shortly after Biden's announcement, the Trump campaign blamed Harris for a "migrant crime wave" over the last three years. This was also the centerpiece of Trump's campaign against Biden, but the "migrant crime wave" does not exist. Violent crime has decreased every year since Biden took office — and is down sharply again in 2024. (The last time violent crime increased was 2020, when Trump was president.) Further, a study of the 14 Texas counties along the border with Mexico by crime analyst Jeff Asher found "no evidence of increasing violent crime along the US border with Mexico." In fact, border counties "have seen a relatively steady violent crime rate below that of the rest of their state and the nation as a whole."

Other attacks include those that seem to pop up any time a woman seeks a position of power. The RNC Research X account, which attacks Trump's opponents on behalf of his campaign and the Republican National Committee, posted a video attacking Harris for being "annoying." The post features a video of Harris saying a short phrase — "what can be, unburdened by what has been" — in various settings for four minutes. This is only a slight variation of the common complaint that ambitious women are "shrill."  Other criticisms, however, were more specific to Harris. They will be featured in millions of dollars of campaign advertisements, incorporated into Trump's stump speech, and discussed frequently on Fox News. Here is a brief guide to some of the attacks that will be used to define Harris in the weeks ahead. 

The truth about Jaleel Stallings Trump War Room, the "Official War Room account of the 2024 Trump campaign," posted on X that Harris "helped raise money for a far-left organization that bailed a rioter who shot at police out of jail."  [...] Where's the beef? In the hours after Biden's withdrawal, an RNC Research post suggested that Harris supported banning red meat.  [...] 2009 is not 2024 On X, the GOP account posted an attack ad against Harris that claimed that "as a prosecutor in San Francisco, Harris allowed illegal immigrant drug dealers to enter job training and have their criminal records wiped clean." The Willie Horton-style attack claims that "one of the illegal immigrants Harris released went on to steal an SUV and ran down a young woman, seriously injuring her." 

Judd Legum breaks down the coming onslaught of right-wing attacks against Kamala Harris that are distorted or false.

See Also:

MMFA: Flailing right-wing media are not ready for Kamala Harris

[uispeccoll]

#MiniatureMonday

Happy Māori Language Week from Special Collections & Archives!

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, Maori Language Week, is celebrated annually the week of September 14th to commemorate Te Wā Tuku Reo Māori, the Maori Language Moment, which stamps the presentation of the Maori Language Petition in New Zealand at 12 pm on September 14, 1972.

Te Reo Māori is the language of New Zealand's Indigenous Maori people. It is a part of the Austronesian language family and shares its roots with other island languages including Tahitian and Hawaiian. The celebration of Te Wiki is rooted deeply in efforts to revitalize the Māori language after years of the speaking and use of te reo was banned in schools. Today, te reo Māori is the official language of New Zealand, or Aotearoa as it is called by the Indigenous people. It has become increasingly used in New Zealand society, culture, and professional institutions. The Māori language has also become something of global interest, with the popularization of the language through its presence in music, film, television, and sports commentary.

In the United States, Polynesians as a whole make up less than half of a percent of the American population, with Māori people as one of the smallest migrant populations. Still, for those living abroad or interested in learning the language from afar, the language revitalization movement has certainly spread to the United States, along with its learning materials and resources.

There is a Māori proverb that reads ahakoa he iti he pounamu, "although it is small, it is greenstone." This refers to the importance of things small but precious, such as these miniatures!

The Reeds' Lilliput Māori dictionary and Reeds' Lilliput Māori proverbs live in Special Collections as part of the Smith Miniature Book Collection. These 5cm tall miniature books were published by A.W. Reed in the early 1960s, the dictionary in 1960 as part of a collection of miniature dictionaries made popular by other global publishers. The book of whakatauki, Māori proverbs, joined the mini-dictionary in 1964. Other language dictionaries include Spanish, French, and Romanian. Due to their size, it is likely that these books were made to entertain more so than educate. Still, they are certainly one of the many taonga, treasures, of Special Collections.

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2023 begins Monday, September 11, and concludes Sunday, September 17. Celebrate through songs, stories, conversations, or by learning some library-related Māori vocabulary! You can also visit the University of Iowa LibGuide on learning beginner's te reo Māori.

NGĀ KUPU WHARE PUKAPUKA LIBRARY VOCABULARY

pukapuka book

pūranga archive

whakaputunga collection

kaitiaki pukapuka librarian

wāhi tuku pukapuka reference desk

pānui to read

ako to learn

--From M Clark, Instruction GA

Reeds' proverbs (SMITH PL6465.Z77 .R44 1964) and Reeds' dictionary (SMITH PL6465.Z5 .R44 1960)

[ladymazzy]

This country (UK) is *consistently* so alarmingly, deliberately, obtuse and in denial when it comes to talking about race and racism. That a tory donor (who also has a number of NHS contracts because, of course), can talk about having a murderous hatred of Diane Abbott that is sufficiently strong enough to make him hate all Black women, and people are genuinely going 'it was rude, but was it racist?'... give me strength

MPs, commentators and donors will come out with the most vile, explicitly racist venom, and journalists will seriously entertain them saying 'I haven't got a racist bone in my body' or some such nonsense, all because people here have kidded themselves into believing that racism is strictly limited to a handful of Very Bad People™️, apartheid South Africa and the entire US Deep South.

And if they do manage to acknowledge that the most obvious explicitly racist rant is, indeed racist, they most certainly will not have the powers to reflect on their own behaviours to see if there's a pattern. Politicians and journalists playing fast and loose with 'culture wars' bs day and night, as if there'll be no casualties. And then falsely invoking concern over MPs' safety in order to sabotage a concensus vote against the genocide of Palestinians. Diane Abbott has been in the receiving end of the majority of the abuse faced by all MPs, and not only has she *never* received support from the likes of Dear Leader Keith, but the fucker actually gave her the boot for her troubles

And to think that Gove is currently presiding on a new definition of extremism to harass us with. Bitch, the call is coming from inside the house!

It's always been a problem that racism is so often framed as an individual making poor choices or being ignorant and 'doing a racism', rather than understanding it as being a fundamental factor in the socio political organisation of the world for some 500 odd years. Racism is seen as 'bad', but only in an abstract sense that absolves society at large of culpability and reduces it to a bothersome (but only if you - the individual- choose to let it bother you🙃), individual flaw

We've spoken up, written books, protested, 'debated', reminded the world that Black people did not invent or benefit from this racial hierarchy which now permeates everything and perhaps therefore cannot reasonablybe expected to be the ones to fux it, and yet here we are...

Meanwhile, an awful lot of people still seem convinced that because we have an Asian PM and the party in power is more ethnically diverse than snyone would have believed possible 20 years ago, we've got it sussed. Those people cannot begin to grasp that the entire tory party could be comprised of Black, Asian, muslim & women candidates, and it would still be upholding the white supremacist heteropatriarchy. When Sunak has to defend his dodgy premiership by invoking some 'protect our wimmin from dangerous migrants' like some retro NF dickhead, that should tell you everything you need to know if you have the range to understand

[stele3]

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/deadliest-israeli-strike-yet-central-beirut-leaves-gruesome-scenes-2024-11-25/

[mariacallous]

Donald Tusk has criticised Berlin’s decision to introduce controls on all its borders, arguing that it is “unacceptable” to “de facto suspend Schengen on such a large scale”.

Tusk, who was speaking during a meeting of diplomats on Tuesday in Warsaw, said he would discuss the matter on an EU level with all other countries affected.

Under the Schengen Borders Code, member states and the European Commission are entitled to table a proposal to the Council of the EU to introduce temporary restrictions, including entry, across the passport-free Schengen Area.

Earlier this week, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced that her country would introduce spot controls on all of its borders following a fatal knife attack by a Syrian asylum seeker, who was about to be deported, in the Western town of Solingen. The knife attack, in which three were killed and others were wounded, was later claimed by Islamic State.

Such border controls were already in place with four of Germany’s neighbours – Austria, Poland, Czechia and Switzerland – in a bid to stem the flow of migrants. Entirely new controls will now be introduced on Germany’s borders with France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.

The temporary controls already in place on the border with Austria are due to expire in November, while those with Poland, Czechia and Switzerland were just extended until the end of 2024.

Faeser’s announcement comes amidst intense debates on the matter in Germany, with the government facing pressure to deport illegal immigrants and asylum seekers as soon as possible. In the first half of this year, Germany sent back to Poland over 4,600 migrants who had entered the EU via Poland and then moved onwards to Germany; according to the EU Dublin system, migrants should be processed in the first EU country they enter.

“Such actions are unacceptable from the Polish point of view, because I have no doubt that it is the internal political situation in Germany that is causing these more stringent steps, and not our policy towards illegal migration on our borders,” Tusk said, criticising the border controls and referring to the anti-immigration party AfD winning its first state elections in eastern Germany earlier this month.

“Poland does not need anyone to lecture us on this issue,” Tusk said, meaning illegal immigration. “We have been the most consistent country when it comes to warning against ill-advised decisions concerning Ukraine, Russia and migration policy.”

Poland has built a border wall on its border with Belarus, which is also the eastern border of the EU, and this year it has “prevented” over 24,000 “attempted entries” while accepting only 1,900 asylum applications, according to data provided by the Polish Border Guard to BIRN. In contrast, Germany has accepted 110,000 asylum applications this year alone.

Other countries affected by Germany’s measure also expressed dissatisfaction. Gerhard Karner, Austria’s interior minister, said his country would not take in any asylum seekers rejected by Germany. “There’s no room for manoeuvre there,” Karner told Austrian media.

The nationalist-populist government of Hungary, on the other hand, which takes a much harder line on immigration than other member states, welcomed the announcement from Germany.

“Scholz, Welcome to the club!” Prime Minister Viktor Orban tweeted to the German chancellor on Tuesday.

The same day, the European Commission vowed to use all its powers to prevent Hungary from carrying through with its threat to bus illegal migrants at its borders to Brussels, in a stunt similar to what the US’s border states like Texas have done to highlight the issue of migration. According to the New York Times, in two years Texas has bused more than 119,000 people to Democrat-led cities.

On Friday, Hungary reiterated its threat to flood the EU with illegal migrants unless Brussels withdraws the 200-million-euro fine for failing to comply with EU asylum rules. “If the EU forces us to let in migrants, we will offer them free transport to the EU,” Hungary’s state secretary of the Interior Ministry said.

“In terms of the announcements made by the Hungarian authorities that they would transport irregular migrants from the Hungarian Serbian borders to Brussels, in one word, basically, it is unacceptable,” an EU Commission spokesperson was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

[robbiemd]

I totally crashed into a food coma after getting back from a quick bank errand and a side-quest, which involved grabbing a late lunch alone at 5pm. It was my first meal of the day since it was so busy and I didn't have time to eat earlier.

Kurosaki: In-English ako ng waitress, po*a.

Hoshino: Haha! Mukha ka kasing Arabo. Bagay ka sa Dubai.

K: I'll blend well. Gulat s'ya nung nag-Tagalog ako e.

I tried Ashoka once when a friend brought us some Biryani on duty, but I never got to eat at their restaurant because of the parking hassle. The prices were a bit steep, but I get it – quality spices can be pricey.

I had a sweetened Lassi, a Punjabi yoghurt-based smoothie (Php 199) and for lunch, I went with my favourite Indian dish, Rogan Josh (Php 509) – a Kashmiri meat dish cooked in curry with Kashmiri chillies accompanied by a heaping serving of Basmati Rice (Php 199). It was all perfect. The food was so great that I had to commend the owner (a legit Indian migrant, by the way) before leaving. It was just that good and authentic!

22 July 2024 10:08 PM El Nido, Philippines

[tomorrowusa]

One word I didn't expect to hear describing Joe Biden's State of the Union speech was "energetic" – but there it was bigtime. 😎

Dark Brandon was in the House and wasn't taking any prisoners. His fervent advocacy for progressive and pro-democracy policies left no one in doubt that he is The Anti-MAGA.

President Biden sounded like an older version of Harry Truman though without swear words. And much of the speech was aimed directly at the Republicans and at the GOP Supreme Court – calling them out right to their faces.

Biden wasn't just energetic, he absolutely taunted Republicans on an issue they've shot themselves in both feet on – immigration reform.

Biden’s Border Taunts Clearly Hit a Republican Nerve

Finally, he arrived at the topic that he knew Republicans couldn’t resist, because it represents that party’s most embarrassing recent failure. He reminded the country that at Donald Trump’s direction, Republicans had killed the strongest immigration bill in years, one that would reduce the flood of asylum seekers and bolster security at the southern border. And immediately the boos poured in from the red side of the chamber. “What are you against?” he asked, finally laughing at the opportunity to expose a bit of rampant hypocrisy. “Oh, you don’t like that bill?” It would save lives and bring order to the chaos at the border, he said, reducing fentanyl smuggling and giving every president the ability to shut down crossings when the surge of migrants became too great. [ ... ] Biden’s provocation on this issue may have been the most successful moment of the evening, one that will be replayed many times in the months to come on the campaign trail. And the power of it could be seen in the downcast face behind him of Speaker Mike Johnson, who wouldn’t bring the border bill to the House floor. All he could do was shake his head and hope Biden changed the subject.

Democrats have reason to feel good about this speech and it showed. His departure from the chamber was delayed by enthusiastic Democratic House members who were asking for selfies and getting autographs from Biden while chatting with him. If they had thought the speech was a dud they would have fled immediately.

On a somewhat funny note, the extended post-speech coverage of Biden's socializing on the House floor delayed the start of the GOP reply by the rather wooden Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama. Many viewers may have tuned out before her speech finally started a little before 11 PM Eastern Time.

[allthegeopolitics]

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said he will not continue with the previous Conservative government’s policy to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, in a move welcomed by rights advocates as long overdue. “The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started. It’s never been a deterrent,” Starmer told his first news conference on Saturday, after his Labour Party won a landslide in the general election. “I’m not prepared to continue with gimmicks that don’t act as a deterrent,” he told reporters after a cabinet meeting, describing the plan as a “problem that we are inheriting”.

Continue Reading.

[thedreadvampy]

fuck me so the migration bill passed in Commons yesterday.

still gotta go through Lords so it MIGHT get slightly defanged but let's look at how well that worked for the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill last year which passed into law despite native public outrcy with most of its anti-protest and all of its anti-Traveller clauses intact. and there's not been nearly the same degree of concerted protest against this one yet.

in a bid to """""""stop the small boats"""""", the bill will:

Override the rights enshrined in international law to seek asylum, instead prioritising the Home Office's new legal duty to deport any undocumented migrant to concentration camps in Rwanda. yes I said concentration camps they are mass internment camps for a specific group of people to be incarcerated indefinitely without trial. that is what a concentration camp is. here's home secretary Suella Braverman laughing in front of the "estate" built in Rwanda to house deported asylum seekers

allow for indefinite detention of children suspected of being undocumented until they can be removed to the Rwanda camps. Tory rebels said 'could we not have to review that after 3 days to justify their detention?' and the Tory government said 'no but if we pass the bill we pinky promise that we'll think about maybe adding in an indefinite review period at some point' so it passed.

remove temporary protections allowing people claiming they've been trafficked as slaves to stay in the UK while their case is reviewed, and to recieve some support and leniency if it's found that they are Literally Here As Slaves. that's off the table in this bill, if you get trafficked to Britain as a slave who give a shit it's off to Rwanda with you buddy. even former PM Theresa "We Have To Create A Really Hostile Environment For Immigrants" May was like hey steady on there lads. that is incredibly specifically going to make preventing modern slavery way harder because who the fuck is going to come forward and say "help I'm being enslaved and trapped against my will in bad conditions in an unfamiliar country" when the thing that the government will do with that information is trap you against your will in bad conditions in a different unfamiliar country? NOBODY IS GOING TO DO THAT meaning that victims will be penalised in law for being victimised and traffickers will face even fewer consequences. which to be fair is the Tory playbook.

it's fucked. it's fucked and I feel so sick about it and so afraid of how overtly fascistic and genocidal this government continues to get.

meanwhile their new voter ID laws are in place and they've already been caught lying to voters in high-opposition areas by sending out flyers from party HQ claiming you don't need ID to vote. which you now do.

it's very bad lads. it's very very very very bad.

in the past 24 months we've seen a constant flow of legislation targeting Gypsy/Roma/Traveler communities, migrants, LGBTQ+ people (particularly trans people), disabled and chronically ill people, and protesters and dissidents. meanwhile we're in our biggest cost of living crisis in 45+ years, protections for the poor are being stripped and national services are being privatised.

the best case interpretation as far as I can see is that they expect to be ousted in the next General Election (but that isn't until 2025) and are getting everything they want to do in terms of attacking human rights and wellbeing as far as possible so that the next government will struggle to roll them all the way back

the thing is though that Labour are just nodding along with all these policies and are in the process of aggressively removing the remainder of open leftists from the party's core power structure, having already removed the ordinary membership's ability to guide party leadership or policy, and the SNP, which has often lately been the only meaningful opposition party in Westminster, is in freefall and on fire over an embezzlement and corruption scandal. that plus the voter suppression laws and control over media that the government are wielding FEELS A LOT LIKE even if we make it to the 2025 election we might still get another Tory term.

Winter of Discontent...2!!!! has been something of a damp squib - there have been widespread strikes but little obvious impact. this winter felt like the time things were gonna snap but I'm just not sure we're ever gonna snap hard enough.

Idk I feel sick as a fucking dog. I don't know what to do. If anyone knows of any ways to help (in Edinburgh, I can't travel easily out of the city) with the Migration Bill situation or with stuff more broadly, hmu. I'm pretty well tuned in on trans rights and abortion rights protests but I don't have connects for most other stuff.