#deportation threats

[thoughtlessarse]

A recent report from Amnesty International reveals that undocumented women in France face significant barriers when reporting sexual violence, often encountering hostility from the institutions meant to help them. French NGOs say law enforcement has increasingly threatened migrants with deportation, even going so far as putting them in detention centres when they try to press charges. Amnesty International on Wednesday published a report highlighting the dire situation faced by migrant women who are victims of sexual violence in France. The report, based on data from more than 20 civil organisations, sheds light on the “secondary victimisation” of these women, the institutional violence they suffer at the hands of police and judicial systems. According to the National Observatory on Violence Against Women, a woman is raped every two minutes in France. Only 6% of rape or attempted rape victims filed reports in 2021, and a mere 0.6% of these cases led to convictions in 2020. For migrant women, the situation is even more dire. In 2023, The Lancet published a survey revealing that the risk of being raped was 18 times higher for migrants compared to other women in France. According to the study, one out of every two migrant women did not seek help after being assaulted, and only one in 10 reached out to police or medical services.

continue reading

[maslows-pyramid-scheme]

I've spent years working with very vulnerable women, but I still forget just how easy it is for a man to destroy a woman's life: chip awag at her self-esteem until she doesn't trust herself; convince her to move (so he can get a better job and isolate her, so she can work part-time and be a housewife); inflict an unwanted pregnancy (he can support her, she can leave school/work); burden her with care responsibilities (he's working, but she's not working as much, she can care for the parents and the children, just like her mum, aunts, and older female friends)...

And, when she realises what he's done, what can she do about it? If he destroyed her self-esteem, she thinks she deserved it for being stupid, because that's what society says about women like her; if he convinced her to move, she'd need to organise somewhere to live when she moves back, and rent is expensive, and all her stuff came with her (even harder if she moved countries, has a work gap, and/or her parents live overseas and depend on his income); if she's pregnant, she needs to jump through 'oh, are you sure you want this?' hoops and pay for it (apparently, it costs around AUD$500 for the abortion pills) or maintain it (and know that it'll cost more to have a child, and chain her to him); if she has those care responsibilities, she can't just walk out on those she cares for (she'll be punishing them, and she'll potentially be punished in the courts)...

[mihai-florescu]

People who talk about "dream cars" and what status they will project are so far removed from my life i struggle imagining we're even the same species

[darlinimamess]

ive finally reached the most stressful part of this fic and its got me shaking with anxiety

[historyhermann]

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story Season 2 Spoiler-Filled Review [Part 1]

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story is an original (wild) golf anime directed by Takayuki Inagaki, with Yōsuke Kuroda as the series writer. The series is produced by Bandai Namco Pictures, a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Filmworks. The first cour/season of Birdie Wing aired from April to June 2022, and the second season/cour aired from April 2023 to June 2023.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the thirty-eighth article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on July 2, 2023.

The first season of this off-the-wall anime centered on Eve (voiced by Kito Akari), a spunky teenage girl from the slums of Nafrece who illegally golfs for money, and a rich Japanese girl named Aoi Amawashi (voiced by Asami Seto), who matches her determination and skill. That season showed that this anime is more than a sports story, which are common these days, with wild underground golf games against organized crime bosses obsessed with solving issues through golf.

Diversity is central to Birdie Wing. Heavy issues like undocumented immigration, corrupt urban renewal, political corruption, and racial injustice are brought to the forefront. Unsurprisingly, yuri subtext is abound in this anime, primarily between Eve and Aoi, especially during their golf games against one another, or together.

The second season picks up where the first one left off, with magical girl-esque golf drives by Eve and Aoi, and continued ridiculousness. This series is more mature than many Western animations. It is even more intense and relatable than the previous season, with Eve remaining at a prestigious Japanese golf academy in the first part of the season. It does this while flaunting rules of the sports genre, mixed with well-placed comedic moments.

Surely, there are terrible women in Birdie Wing, but others are more relatable. In many ways, this series makes the elitist sport of golf interesting to watch. The series goes above and beyond other sports anime focused on girls. The plot and characters remain compelling. The talented crew and cast allow the series to excel. This season went a different direction than I had anticipated in my season one review: that Aoi would lose her privileges, that Eve would become a subservient golf supersoldier doing the bidding of the golf-obsessed Mafia, and that Eve would remain in Japan.

In fact, Aoi never lost her life of privilege while Eve did not remain in Japan. It is heavily implied that she has romantic feelings toward Aoi and vice versa. The first few episodes of the second season show Aoi making mistakes. But Eve did not kiss her since promised to only do so if Aoi did well. On the other hand, Eve's repressed memories began to come back when she did one of her golf power moves, revealing her true identity.

Unlike season one of Birdie Wing, the physical toll of playing golf, at this intense level, is a major theme. At the beginning of the season, Aoi gets a headache and her playing suffers, with Eve filling in for her. Aoi collapses because of the stress she is under. Predictably, Eve declares she will "kill" her opponents in golf. Otherwise, there is a connection between the condition of Aoi's father, and her condition, with the latter a result of overwork.

I liked how the series seemed to imply that Eve and Aoi were half-sisters, then demolished this idea with an absurdly complex web of relationships between the show's characters. It turns out that Leo Millafoden (voiced by Shūichi Ikeda) taught Eve golf at request of Eve's real father, Kazuhika Hodoka (voiced by Kousuke Toriumi). The latter was in a relationship with Eleanor Burton (voiced by Yuko Minaguchi). He later married Aoi's mother, Seira Amawashi (voiced by Yūko Kaida), after she was pregnant with a baby from another man: Reiya Amuro (voiced by Tōru Furuya). Reiya later became a coach of the golf academy which Aoi and Eve attended.

In an intriguing twist, it is revealed that Eve doesn't remember her past because of amnesia. A cruise liner crashed, killing her mother and father, and countless others. When she woke up from the accident, she didn't remember anything, not even her name. So, there wasn't any human experimentation, as I had thought before. Instead, she grew up in the slums. Klein Clare (voiced by Sayaka Kinoshita), Lily Lipman (voiced by Akira Sekine), and others in Nafrece take her in and raise her.

The arc in the first few episodes of Birdie Wing's season 2, with Aoi and Eve playing together, ends abruptly. Seira incorrectly believes that Eve is "bad news". She plans to expel Eve from the country, in an effort to "protect" Aoi, in a decision based on faulty information "proving" Eve is tied to the Mafia. The "deportation" of Eve, as some fans termed it online, results. She is pressured to quit school, kidnapped, and brought to an airport, then told to leave Japan "or else".

The definition of deportation in U.S. law is simple. It refers to the removal of a foreigner from a country. In legal terms, such foreigners have a presence which is "deemed inconsistent with the public welfare and without any punishment...imposed or contemplated". In contrast, expulsion is removal of a person or people, by a governmental act/dictate/declaration, from a territory against their will. A successful expulsion is a deportation.

Eve wasn't pushed out of Japan by a government official or agency. As such, it is either forced migration, forced displacement, or forced relocation. Even those terms don't fit, since the latter applies to people persecuted for one reason or another. On the other hand, what happened to Eve is likely is a form of displacement, which can be caused by conflicts, disasters, development, criminal organizations, political entities, and conflicts.

Moreover, it is accurate to say Eve was displaced, but not deported, as no government official forced her on a plane. Eve left the country of her own free will, although the driver threatened her with violence. This analysis is further confirmed by looking at definitions of "deportation," "expulsion," "immigration," "immigrant," "emigrant," "emigration," "alien," and "illegal alien" in the Third Pocket Edition of Black's Law Dictionary which I have on hand.

By these definitions, Eve would be an "alien", and technically an "illegal alien". She has a passport, but a fraudulent one. It is, ultimately, questionable whether she was deported or expelled, as there isn't enough evidence to say definitively that she was compelled to leave.

Eve's return to Nafrece results in a big reunion. She meets Vipere (voiced by Kaori Nazuka), who she calls the "snake lady", along with her partner-of-sorts, and visits her parents' grave. In a possible commentary on reality of the golf world, she gets sponsored by the Burton family, thanks to former pro golfer Alan Harvey (voiced by Shigeru Ushiyama), allowing her to achieve her goals. She uses her golf skills to destroy her opponents and re-firm support of the Burtons, which may have Mafia connections, in her.

The self-made and ever-changing golf course of Mafia boss Catherine (voiced by Umeka Shouji) reappears with gusto, in a callback to the first season of Birdie Wing. In order to win against Catherine's golfer, Remelda (voiced by Marina Inoue), and possible lover, the caddy of Eve, Ichina Saotome (voiced by Saki Fujita) joins her. In a leap of faith, she even quits school, at the request of Eve, so that she can offer the best advice possible. The savvy well-versed and knowledgeable caddy of Aoi, Amane Shinjō (voiced by Ami Koshimizu) does the same, in a parallel to Ichina's actions.

In many ways, Ichina brings realism to the situation. She realizes the danger in going against Catherine, through her golfer, Remelda, on a golf course that uses an absurd amount of power and energy. Even a hydroelectric dam overflows so the course can move with incredible speed. Ichina is rightly terrified after Catherine threatens Eve with a gun. She puts her hands up in fear. Eve is used to her life being in danger and easily shrugs off the threat. At first, Ichina seems like one of the only people in this series who is above the absurdity. As such, she doesn't recognize what Eve sees: that the course is a place filled with "money and greed". Nor can she could she ever do golf shots which have a ball skip across the water to get to its target!

Eve's victories are paralleled by what Aoi was doing, although there are entire episodes of Birdie Wing's season 2 where Aoi barely appeared! I liked that Aoi had her skill on the decline when Eve isn't there, but builds herself back up. The connection between Eve and Aoi remains, even if they aren't directly talking to one another.

Time and again, Eve doesn't waste any time deeming women as "bellissime", including Remelda, who she plays during the second season, and likely others as well. She even didn't mind when Ichina seemed to have a crush on her, with Ichina declaring that she'd be Eve's caddy "for life". She may have even have some feelings for Aisha Khambatta, who faces Eve later in the second season. Assisted by Leo, Aisha is a person that Eve describes as "incredibly dangerous".

The focus on found and chosen family is a big part of Birdie Wing's story, especially for Eve. Once back in Nafrece, she happily greets Klein, Lilly, and their adopted daughters. Thanks to the actions by Vipere, in season one, they all have legal status in Nafrece! As for Aoi, she has a chosen family as well, represented by assistance from her father, and her loyal caddy, Amane.

Although Seira later supports Aoi, she outs herself as a terrible parent when Aoi travels to a contest where plays Eve, and perhaps golf, for the "last" time. She forced/strong armed Amane to becoming the caddy of Aoi in the first place! Later, Amane decides to stay with Aoi, as her caddy. She does so even though she is no longer forced to do so, as an act of her own free will, indicating her power as a character. She may even have a crush, to some extent, on Aoi.

Birdie Wing is even more compelling when Aoi does her own golf power moves. She calls them Shining Shots, like Eve with her "rainbow bullet", "blue bullet", and so on. The absurdity of Aoi winning because of rain, over her opponent, Shikishima, in a game the announcer declares will go down in Japanese women's golf history, says more about the series than anything else.

The final episodes of the second season push Aoi and Eve to the brink, but especially Eve. She begins to suffer from the physical demands of golf, more than ever before, especially after she does her rainbow burst, combining the styles of Leo and her father. This is the "terrible price" she plays for this form of golf. This makes clear that neither Eve nor Aoi are invincible. They are as fallible as the rest of us, even if they don't want to show "weakness" on camera.

This reminded me of similar themes in Carmen Sandiego. Although Carmen appears to have strength and energy to do everything, this is only based on her own training. She has a terrible wipe out in the episode "The Stockholm Syndrome Caper". It causes her almost life-threatening injuries that she has to recover from. Kim Possible in the series of the same name is similar. She is a cheerleader and uses her skills to fight villains and "save" the world. She is not invincible either.

More than any other character in Birdie Wing, apart from Aoi, Eve is a lesbian icon. She only has eyes for other girls and never for any men, whatsoever. Not even Sumire Heanna in Love Live! Superstar!!, Mari Ohara in Love Live! Sunshine!!, or Nijika Ijichi in Bocchi the Rock! compare to Eve, in the slightest.

Eve might only be rivaled by badass huntress Yang Xiao Long in RWBY. Yang can go super saiyan if she wants and is deeply in love with catgirl Blake Belladonna. Hime Shiraki in Yuri Is My Job! or Anisphia "Anis" Wynn Palettia in The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady are other "rivals".

The final episodes of Birdie Wing's second season are some of the strongest. Eve's body can't sustain the pressure from her intense golf. She even gets acupuncture from Allen Harvey so she can use her Rainbow Burst without grievously hurting herself. Aoi perfects her golf and apologizes for letting everyone down.

The various health issues Aoi experiences don't stop her. She suffers from an awful genetic disease (Tuberous Sclerosis Complex). There are nice montages of both engaged in physical training to make their bodies stronger. They prepare for their match at the Bandai Namaco British Women's Open the following year.

It is powerful for the final episodes of Birdie Wing to center a Black woman, Juha Hamilail (voiced by Yuu Asakawa). She previously had been hinted in the show's opening sequence. In the next-to-last episode, she comes into her own. She plans to take the British Open for herself, putting her face-to-face with Eve and Aoi. Eve expresses the annoyance of yuri fans who may see Juha as a hindrance and believe Juha should get out of the way.

On the one hand, it seems strange, and possibly racially tinged, that the obstacle which impedes the protagonists is represented by a Black woman. Even so, she is not an evil character. Rather, she is out for herself. She believes that the unexpected always happens in golf, making it fun. She expressed this directly in the 24th episode, to her caddy, Karen Lapana (voiced by Shizuka Itou). Juha is a strong and gorgeous final boss, of sorts, making the series that much more dramatic.

The latter is similar to how Aoi feels. She enjoys playing golf with Eve, even though she can barely hold it together. This fallibility is clear when she collapses in the same episode, causing Even to shake her and cry. Not long after, she falls once again. She asks a higher power to give her one more chance to fulfill her promise to Eve.

The role of the two other caddies, Amane and Ichina, come to a fore in the next-to-last episode. For instance, Ichina gives Eve advice on how to get birdies and keep pace with Aoi. Amane helps prop up Aoi, who is faltering. Eve and Aoi express their feelings, in their own way, to another, seeing the golf skills each of them can do. This is something that Juha recognizes, remaining jealous that each of them has a rival which drives them to improve.

Birdie Wing, is, as well-known yuri reviewer Erica Friedman put it, "the shounest anime about women's sports ever made". As such, Eve, Aoi, nor none of the other characters goes the route of golf shown in The Phantom of the Open, or in various other golf manga and anime over the years. There are so many of the latter that "Golf in anime and manga" is a Wikipedia category!

The final episode shows Friedman to be right. Even after Aoi collapses and is taken off the field, Juha keeps swinging her golf clubs. Eve, for her part, openly defends Aoi. Eve visits Aoi in the hospital. To make this even more absurd, she declares their game is still on even though Aoi isn't actively playing her! One of the best parts of the episode is the surprise twist: Aoi cuts her hair and serves as Eve's caddy. Even though they don't win, thanks to sneaky and corrupt shenanigans by Karen, they still go out with a bang. Eve even uses Aoi's golf clubs. She has a new golf move, which combines her skills with Aoi's golf strike. It is named the Shining Rainbow Burst. Of course, her human body can't take all the strain and Juha ends up winning.

In more ways than one, Karen acts like a Karen: she slyly leaks to the media. She received the damning information, from Remelda, "proving" that Eve has Mafia connections. Although this rumor is false (as Eve no longer has such connections), it leads to an investigation. Her professional license is suspended for three years by the golf association! Juha shows a bit of a backbone, for the first time. She doesn't approve of these slimy tactics against Eve. Strangely, she doesn't fire Karen. She lets Karen be her caddy for the rest of the game. After all, she didn't even a bat an eye, and kept playing at full speed after Aoi collapsed. Unsurprisingly, neither Karen nor Remelda face any consequences for their actions.

The final episode of Birdie Wing ends strongly. In the first time skip, set three years later, Eve begins training with her caddy, Ichina, at a golf course in Japan. This happens after Ichina says she won't be a caddy for anyone else because she is Eve's personal caddy. Then, there is yet another time skip, with Eve and Aoi finally facing one another during a golf tournament. It appears that the affliction Aoi suffered from is cured and their scores are close. There is even a great scene showing all of Eve's sisters, from her adopted family, all grown up, and are now teens. The series closes positively, with Eve doing her Rainbow Bullet golf strike and viewers can see the bullet going through the sky, as the credits continue to roll.

[continued in part 2. Tumblr wouldn't let me post the whole review on here as one post, for some reason]

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"UKRAINIAN AGITATOR WILL BE DEPORTED," Toronto Globe. August 3, 1933. Page 9. ---- Refused to Accept Work at Government Construction Camps --- (Special Despatch to The Globe.) Oshawa, Aug. 2. - As a result of his activities as an agitator several months ago, when, together with other single unemployed men, at that time living at the hostel, he refused to accept work at Government construction camps at the rate of 20 cents per day, Nick Sawchuk, 30-year-old Ukrainian resident of Oshawa, was picked up by immigration officials from Ottawa today, was taken to Montreal, where he will be deported to Poland. The deportation of Sawchuk has been bitterly opposed by foreign unemployed organizations in the city, who claim Sawchuk will face a firing squad when he lands in Poland. Sawchuk has been in this country less than five years.

[kadkadduwa]

guys ill just say this outright suicide and self-harm are apparently illegal here (this is what i was told by my social worker and the team handling me at the ward). (if you're unaware i've attempted suicide and cut pentagrams into my arms, soooofunny right) i just have to get it out like they kept on telling me they're glad the police didn't know they kept on telling me i could've been imprisoned for 6 months or had my family deported i'm not fucking kidding i swear i'm not fucking kidding i can't escape i feel trapped with myself and my sickness i feel like no matter how good i think i'm getting i'm going to die i'm going to crash i'm going to scream and let my blood run in public do you even understand

[beemovieerotica]

struggling with how to word this, but putting it out there anyway:

i can fully understand the posts on here from a lot of americans being tired of "vote blue no matter who" posts when the #1 thing that people are constantly (and sometimes only?) addressing is how the republican party is going treat trans/queer people if elected.

it's part of an unfortunate pattern of prioritizing the effects on a demographic that includes white + upper class people, when people of color and those in the global south are actively and currently being killed or relegated to circumstances in which their survival is very unlikely

it is genuinely exhausting to witness this, and i was also on the fence about even participating in voting because i a) felt like it didn't matter and b) every time i voiced being frustrated with the current state of the country, white queer people would immediately step in with "but what about trans people!" -> (i am mixed race trans man)

and i say this with unending patience toward people who do this, because i know that it's not something they actively think about. but everyone already knows how the republican party is going to treat queer people. you are probably talking to another queer person when you bring up project 2025. the issue is that, for those of us who aren't white, or for those of us who are but who are conscious of ongoing struggles for people of color worldwide, the safety of people around the world feels more urgent than our own. that is the calculation that's being made.

you're not going to win votes for the democratic party by dismissing or minimizing these realities and by continually centering (white) queer people.

very few people on here and twitter are actually talking about issues beyond queer rights that concern people of color, or how the two administrations differ on these issues instead of constantly circling back to single-issue politics. this isn't an exhaustive list. but these are the issues that have actually altered my perspective and motivated me to the point of committing to casting a vote

the biden administration has been engaged in a years-long fight to allow new applicants to DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program that allows undocumented individuals who arrived as children to remain in the country) after the Trump administration attempted to terminate it. the program is in limbo currently because of the actions of Trump-backed judges, with those who applied before the ruling being allowed to stay, but no new applications are being processed. Trump has repeatedly toyed with the idea of just deporting the 1.8 million people, but he continues to change his mind depending on whatever the fuck goes on in his head. he cannot be relied on to be sympathetic toward people of hispanic descent or to guarantee that DREAMers will be allowed stay in the country. biden + a democratic controlled congress will allow legal challenges to the DACA moratorium to gain ground.

the biden administration is open to returning and protecting portions of culturally important indigenous land in a way that the trump administration absolutely does not give a fuck. as of may 2024, they have established seven national monuments with plans to expand the San Gabriel Monument where the Gabrielino, Kizh / Tongva, the Chumash, Kitanemuk, Serrano, and Tataviam reside. the Berryessa Snow Mountain is also on the list, as a sacred region to the Patwin.

i'm recognizing that the US's plans for clean energy have often come into conflict with tribal sovereignty, and the biden administration could absolutely do better in navigating this. but the unfortunate dichotomy is that there would be zero commitment or investment in clean energy under a trump-led government, which poses an astounding existential threat and destabilizing force to the global south beyond any human-to-human conflict. climate change has caused and will continue to cause resource shortages, greater natural disasters, and near-lethal living conditions for those in the tropics - and the actions of the highest energy consumers (US) are to blame. biden has funneled billions of dollars into climate change mitigation and clean energy generation - trump does not believe that any of it matters.

i may circle back to this and add more as it comes up, but i'm hoping that those who are skeptical / discouraged / tired of the white queer-centric discourse on tumblr and twitter can at least process some of this. please feel free to add more articles + points but i'm asking for the sake of this post to please focus on issues that affect people of color.

[thedevilsfamiliar]

“Slavery doesn’t exist anymore”

-slowly glances towards Texas-

[schoolhater]

Help Bilal's Family Survive!

After Bilal @bilal-salah0 reached his goal on August 1st, he contacted me to let me know that, because the Rafah crossing is still bombed and closed, he can't actually use the funds to evacuate his family right away. The funds have since been redirected toward the skyrocketing cost of living in Gaza.

His family now has to raise another €30,000 as soon as possible to sustain themselves before the Rafah crossing opens, which could be as soon as next week for all we know.

My post celebrating Bilal getting close to his original GFM goal has over 7,000 notes, yet Bilal is only bringing in €20 every hour or so, which is a sharp decline from his previous momentum.

Bilal is still struggling with his own housing insecurity in Germany and the looming threat of deportation. Despite this horror, he's put the work in to vet a handful of fundraisers, promote fundraisers, and call out scams for us. He is simply too busy to campaign for his family on his own.

I encourage everyone to donate to Bilal's family and share his campaign with people you know on other social media platforms. You can repost any of the art people have made for him and share the pictures on his gofundme.

Bilal is a valuable member of our community! Please don't let him fall through the cracks!

verification source (no. 132 on el-shab-hussein/nabulsi's sheet)

current progress: €70,827 / €100,000

tagging for reach, DM me if you'd like to be removed from this list:

@timetravellingkitty @meaganfoster @briarhips @mazzikah @mahoushojoe 

@rhubarbspring @schoolhater @pcktknife@transmutationisms@sawasawako 

@feluka @terroristiraqis @irhabiya @commissions4aid-international @wellwaterhysteria 

@deepspaceboytoy @post-brahminism @junglejim4322 @kibumkim @neechees 

@mangocheesecakes @kyra45-helping-others @marnota @7bitter @tortiefrancis 

@toiletpotato @fromjannah @omegaversereloaded @vague-humanoid @criptochecca 

@aristotels @komsomolka @neptunerings @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @heritageposts 

@ot3 @amygdalae @ankle-beez@communistchilchuck @dykesbat 

@watermotif @stuckinapril @violentrevolution @mavigator @lacecap 

@socalgal @chilewithcarnage @ghelgheli @sayruq @northgazaupdates2

@decolonize-the-left @bisexualpositivity @arty-cakes @closet-keys @assad-zaman

@claudeleine @killy @heritageposts @beanlightbibblekeepflickbeanboss @ixzotica

@realitycanbewhateveridesire @avifromaplaceofcaring @abyssbirds @maruxee @merricat-3

@tedious-insanity @budgies-in-blue @bandedbulbussnarfblat @emeraldinerosefaedragon @mothalaalee

@mere-glim @patantasma @dreamcaster-jelly @fuzzy-little-wormi-guy @salty-mush-soup

@leviticus101st @yamino @a-wild-louser-appears @kn1ghtraine @vhstape

@whatthe4355 @ehksidian @lyunarium @sunpdf @mytinystay @lopiditty

@illiterate-words @aphicius @shrimpkidd @megabullz @unknown-lifeform

@mindfulruminate @nibbelraz @beasaintgermain @fluffykitty149 @tododeku-or-bust

@littlestpersimmon @wayneradiotv @windwake-me-up-inside @flamagenitus @little-big-batbag

@chamiryokuroi @alliumduorpf @sunlitmcgee @fanficphoenixed @ourflagmeansdeath

[thoughtlessarse]

Thousands of migrant care workers have been threatened with deportation, despite doing nothing wrong, after the Home Office took enforcement action against their employers. In one case, a brother and sister from India who paid a recruitment agency £18,000 to secure care jobs in the UK, only to find they had been scammed, were told they must find another company to sponsor them in 60 days or leave the country. Zainab Contractor, 22, and her brother Ismail, 25, had borrowed money from relatives to cover the costs of moving to the UK. But when they arrived, they say the accommodation they had been promised did not materialise and they were not given any shifts. In April, they found out that the company that had sponsored their visas had been stripped of its licence to recruit workers from abroad by the Home office. But the enforcement action would also punish them: the siblings were sent a letter saying that because their sponsorship was linked to the sanctioned company, it was no longer valid. They have since applied to more than 300 employers between them in the hope of finding another company to sponsor them. But, as is common, they have been unable to find any willing to take them. Zainab, who moved from Maharashtra in India to build a better life for her two-year-old son, said they now faced returning home with debts they had no prospect of being able to repay – unless they can find another sponsor by June. “We don’t know how we will survive,” she said.

continue reading

“We're short of care workers. Let's deport some.”

[probablyasocialecologist]

Often in the same breath as the far-right in power makes threats of expelling Palestinian citizens from Israel, they slip in the parallel threat of stripping Israeli leftists of citizenship. A poll in August 2022 found that 64% of Israeli voters supported Ben-Gvir’s proposal to deport any citizen, Jewish or Palestinian, who opposes the army or the state. Over the past decade, the word “leftist” has become an epithet, synonymous with “traitor” and “Palestinian lover.” Even if one is a Jewish citizen of the Jewish state, Israel is a terrifying place to be a left-wing radical, where beatings by fascist thugs may soon escalate to killings and where one’s civil liberties hang by a thread. This too has accelerated since Israel unleashed a tidal wave of violence against the people of the Gaza Strip; dissent among Israeli citizens against the bombing campaign has been criminalized. Pro-ceasefire protesters have been attacked by police everywhere they assemble, fired from their jobs, doxxed and assaulted by fascists, and arrested for posts on social media. Any journalists covering demonstrations are themselves arrested; Israeli police are attempting to uphold a media blackout on dissent to the war. Detainees from peaceful demonstrations are being charged with “support for terrorism.” Some leftist Jewish Israelis have declared that “Israeli is now a full-scale dictatorship.”

Mason Herson-Hord, A Second Nakba: Paving the Way to Genocide

[drbtinglecannon]

The way in Knives Out that the entire Thrombey family constantly subjected Marta to racism for years ranging from micro aggressions to outright threats of deportation, that she knew all their fucked up dirty laundry and how they all were constantly exploiting Harlan's wealth, that they excluded her from Harlan's funeral and each blamed everyone else for it, and that they immediately dropped all pretenses of condescending civility when the will was read, yet she spent almost the entire movie sympathetic of them and wanting to gift them the fortune Harlan left her before finally standing up for herself in the last hour

Vs

The way in Glass Onion that Helen outright hated the entire "disrupters" group for at least ~10yrs before the movie even took place and made her opinion explicitly known, that her acting as her twin sister being jilted was so easy to maintain because she hated the entire group so much, that she didn't at all humor their extremely conditional "comradery" with her cause against Miles, and that in the end when everything was said and done she didn't stick around to watch them all turn on each other because it didn't matter anymore if they did or didn't

Marta's kindness got her the house.

Helen's justified fury burned Miles' down.

[mariacallous]

The first thing to say about the hate and scorn currently directed at the mainstream US media is that they worked hard to earn it. They’ve done so by failing, repeatedly, determinedly, spectacularly to do their job, which is to maintain their independence, inform the electorate, and speak truth to power. While the left has long had reasons to dismiss centrist media, and the right has loathed it most when it did do its job well, the moderates who are furious at it now seem to be something new – and a host of former editors, media experts and independent journalists have been going after them hard this summer.

Longtime journalist James Fallows declares that three institutions – the Republican party, the supreme court, and the mainstream political press – “have catastrophically failed to ‘meet the moment’ under pressure of [the] Trump era”. Centrist political reformer and columnist Norm Ornstein states that these news institutions “have had no reflection, no willingness to think through how irresponsible and reckless so much of our mainstream press and so many of our journalists have been and continue to be”.

Most voters, he says, “have no clue what a second Trump term would actually be like. Instead, we get the same insipid focus on the horse race and the polls, while normalizing abnormal behavior and treating this like a typical presidential election, not one that is an existential threat to democracy.”

Lamenting the state of the media recently on X, Jeff Jarvis, another former editor and newspaper columnist, said: “What ‘press’? The broken and vindictive Times? The newly Murdochian Post? Hedge-fund newspaper husks? Rudderless CNN or NPR? Murdoch’s fascist media?”

These critics are responding to how the behemoths of the industry seem intent on bending the facts to fit their frameworks and agendas. In pursuit of clickbait content centered on conflicts and personalities, they follow each other into informational stampedes and confirmation bubbles.

They pursue the appearance of fairness and balance by treating the true and the false, the normal and the outrageous, as equally valid and by normalizing Republicans, especially Donald Trump, whose gibberish gets translated into English and whose past crimes and present-day lies and threats get glossed over. They neglect, again and again, important stories with real consequences. This is not entirely new – in a scathing analysis of 2016 election coverage, the Columbia Journalism Review noted that “in just six days, The New York Times ran as many cover stories about Hillary Clinton’s emails as they did about all policy issues combined in the 69 days leading up to the election” – but it’s gotten worse, and a lot of insiders have gotten sick of it.

In July, ordinary people on social media decided to share information about the rightwing Project 2025 and did a superb job of raising public awareness about it, while the press obsessed about Joe Biden’s age and health. NBC did report on this grassroots education effort, but did so using the “both sides are equally valid” framework often deployed by mainstream media, saying the agenda is “championed by some creators as a guide to less government oversight and slammed by others as a road map to an authoritarian takeover of America”. There is no valid case it brings less government oversight.

In an even more outrageous case, the New York Times ran a story comparing the Democratic and Republican plans to increase the housing supply – which treated Trump’s plans for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants as just another housing-supply strategy that might work or might not. (That it would create massive human rights violations and likely lead to huge civil disturbances was one overlooked factor, though the fact that some of these immigrants are key to the building trades was mentioned.)

Other stories of pressing concern are either picked up and dropped or just neglected overall, as with Trump’s threats to dismantle a huge portion of the climate legislation that is both the Biden administration’s signal achievement and crucial for the fate of the planet. The Washington Post editorial board did offer this risibly feeble critique on 17 August: “It would no doubt be better for the climate if the US president acknowledged the reality of global warming – rather than calling it a scam, as Mr Trump has.”

While the press blamed Biden for failing to communicate his achievements, which is part of his job, it’s their whole job to do so. The Climate Jobs National Resource Center reports that the Inflation Reduction Act has created “a combined potential of over $2tn in investment, 1,091,966 megawatts of clean power, and approximately 3,947,670 jobs”, but few Americans have any sense of what the bill has achieved or even that the economy is by many measures strong.

Last winter, the New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who has a Nobel prize in economics, told Greg Sargent on the latter’s Daily Blast podcast that when he writes positive pieces about the Biden economy, his editor asks “don’t you want to qualify” it; “aren’t people upset by X, Y and Z and shouldn’t you be acknowledging that?”

Meanwhile in an accusatory piece about Kamala Harris headlined When your opponent calls you ‘communist,’ maybe don’t propose price controls?, a Washington Post columnist declares in another case of bothsiderism: “Voters want to blame someone for high grocery bills, and the presidential candidates have apparently decided the choices are either the Biden administration or corporate greed. Harris has chosen the latter.” The evidence that corporations have jacked up prices and are reaping huge profits is easy to find, but facts don’t matter much in this kind of opining.

It’s hard to gloat over the decline of these dinosaurs of American media, when a free press and a well-informed electorate are both crucial to democracy. The alternatives to the major news outlets simply don’t reach enough readers and listeners, though the non-profit investigative outfit ProPublica and progressive magazines such as the New Republic and Mother Jones, are doing a lot of the best reporting and commentary.

Earlier this year, when Alabama senator Katie Britt gave her loopy rebuttal to Biden’s State of the Union address, it was an independent journalist, Jonathan Katz, who broke the story on TikTok that her claims about a victim of sex trafficking contained significant falsehoods. The big news outlets picked up the scoop from him, making me wonder what their staffs of hundreds were doing that night.

A host of brilliant journalists young and old, have started independent newsletters, covering tech, the state of the media, politics, climate, reproductive rights and virtually everything else, but their reach is too modest to make them a replacement for the big newspapers and networks. The great exception might be historian Heather Cox Richardson, whose newsletter and Facebook followers give her a readership not much smaller than that of the Washington Post. The tremendous success of her sober, historically grounded (and footnoted!) news summaries and reflections bespeaks a hunger for real news.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Mother Jones:

When a man with painful cystic acne came to dermatologist Eva Rawlings Parker for help in a Nashville clinic, she couldn’t prescribe him doxycycline or minocycline, two medications she’d typically use to treat this condition. This is because the man was a roofer, says Parker, and these medications would have impacted his ability to tolerate heat. 

Parker’s patient was far from alone. Other common medications for physical health, like beta blockers, can impact people’s ability to handle heat. Many medications for mental health do, too.

Conventional wisdom tells people with conditions that make them unusually vulnerable to the sun, like the autoimmune disorder lupus, or are on medications that lead to heat sensitivity, to avoid staying outside when the sun is at its strongest.

But for the one-third of US workers who must spend regular time outdoors, that advice bursts into flames. For some, such as farmworkers, hours and hours of heat exposure, with minimal or no reprieve, are just part of the job. Increasing heat waves and more frequent wildfires point to the need to find real solutions for outdoor workers—and highlight how labor and climate change are intertwined. 

Edward Flores, faculty director of the Community and Labor Center at the University of California, Merced, specializes in the conditions of low-wage and immigrant workers in California. He says the need for heat safety policy reform is acute. “We know that workers have been dying,” Flores says, “because of chronic conditions that accumulate through heat stress over many years and decades that lead to shorter life spans.”

Parker, the dermatologist, is acutely aware of how heat can trigger or worsen skin problems. She is co-chair of the American Academy of Dermatology’s group on climate change and environmental issues, and was an author of a 2023 review on the ways climate change can contribute to dermatological issues, including triggering flares of conditions like hidradenitis suppurativa—which causes painful lumps deep in a person’s skin—and skin cancer.

Workers do have some legal rights to breaks and water, depending on the locale. California, Oregon, and Washington are the only states that mandate those breaks. And roughly half of crop farmworkers have no legal work authorization. That lack of legal status, and the threat of deportation, gives many workers reason to fear complaining about working conditions.

In July, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed a new set of rules which would help protect more than 36 million workers from heat-related illness or death. The proposed OSHA rules would require employers to monitor their workers for heat exhaustion symptoms, provide adequate water and shade, designate break areas, and provide mandatory rest breaks, among other things. 

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Un cautionnement de $10,000 pour Hum Gun alias Hum Taio alias Chum Poy Tam, un Chinois," La Presse. May 31, 1933. Page 3. ---- Hum Gun alias Hum Taio allas Chum Poy Tam, 35 ans, 1030 rue S.- Antoine, a comparu ce matin devant le juge Maurice Tétreau, sous l'accusation d'avoir eu en sa possession illégalement des narcotiques. Il a nie sa culpabilité et le procès a été fixé au 7 juin. La cause est conduite par le sergent Styran, de la R.C.M.P.

Me H. Tanner, avocat de l'accusé, a demandé un cautionnement. Le juge Tétreau a déclaré qu'il avait été informé du fait que la police fédérale recherchait cet individu depuis 1926, pour le déporter. Il venait alors de purger une sentence pour possession illégale de narcotiques et ordre fut donné de le déporter.

Me Tanner expliqua qu'il avait alors demandé un "habeas corpus" et que la Cour supérieure le lui avait accordé. Son client se serait alors cru en droit de rester au Canada. Mais le gouvernement en appela de ce jugement et la Cour d'appel renvers le jugement qui avait été rendu en Cour supérieure. Mais Me Tanner prétend que son client n'en savait rien et que c'est pourquoi il est encore ici.

Néanmoins, pour assurer la présence de l'accusé lors du procès, le juge Tétreau a fixé le cautionnement à $10,000.