#legal haitian migrants

[the-victorian-acrobat]

Red Cards

All people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have certain rights and protections under the U.S. Constitution. The ILRC’s Red Cards help people assert their rights and defend themselves in many situations, such as when ICE agents go to a home.

[tacticalgrandma]

Today in things I’d be searching on JSTOR if I was still at a university: every protest/resistance movement started by migrants held in US detention

[cherryblossomshadow]

For additional context, this debacle is what they cut their mics over, btw

MB: Thank you, Governor. And just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status. Temporary protected status. Norah.

JDV: Well, Margaret, Margaret, I think it's important because…

MB: Thank you, senator. We have so much to get to.

NO: We're going to turn out of the economy. Thank you.

JDV: Margaret. The rules were that you guys weren't going to fact check, and since you're fact checking me, I think it's important to say what's actually going on. So there's an application called the CBP One app where you can go on as an illegal migrant, apply for asylum or apply for parole and be granted legal status at the wave of a Kamala Harris open border wand. That is not a person coming in, applying for a green card and waiting for ten years.

[isawthismeme]

[bobcatmoran]

Ohhhhh, the mods point out that most of the Haitian migrants in Springfield, OH are there legally.

Vance tries to point out that they are not supposed to fact check him. He goes into a ridiculous hair-splitting about how that legal process worked.

The mods try to politely tell him, "Thank you, Senator, for explaining the legal process."

He keeps talking. And then his mic is muted, which is allowed under the rules of the debate.

Amazing.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Blue states should play “constitutional hardball”

NEXT WEDNESDAY (October 23) at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, GEORGIA, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

Nothing's more frustrating that watching the GOP smash norms and decency to advance policies that harm millions of Americas, unless it's that, plus Democratic officials stamping their feet and saying, "C'mon guys, play fair."

The GOP's game is called "constitutional hardball." Think: Mitch McConnell refusing to hold confirmation hearings on Obama's federal judiciary appointments, not never for Merrick Garland's Supreme Court seat – then filling the Federal judiciary with the least-qualified, most FedSoc-addled lunatics in US history, all for lifetime appointments.

As bad as this is at the federal level, it's even worse at in the states, especially the Republican "trifecta" states where the GOP holds the governorship and the state house and senate, where shameless gerrymandering and legislative attacks on hard-won ballot measures are the order of the day. GOP-held state governments engage in rampant interstate aggression, targeting out-of-state abortion providers, publishers, and journalists.

This is a one-sided Cold Civil War, because state Dems, for the most part, are unwilling to play hardball in return (the closest they come is when, say, California sets strict emissions controls and manufacturers adopt them nationwide, rather than making special cars for the giant California market). Republicans engage in constitutional hardball and Dems refuse to fight back, a phenomenon called "asymmetrical constitutional hardball":

https://columbialawreview.org/content/asymmetric-constitutional-hardball/

Writing for The American Prospect, Arkadi Gerney and Sarah Knight make the case for symmetrical constitutional hardball:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-10-18-playing-hardball/

The pair argue first, that the best way to get Republican state houses to play fair is to credibly threaten them with retaliatory action. They cite the recent attempt at a last-minute change the way that Nebraska's Electoral College votes are apportioned, which would have given all of five the state's EC votes to Trump. Maine threatened to effect the same change to its Electoral College system, which would have given all four of its EC votes to Harris. Nebraska surrendered.

But there's also a second advantage to playing Constitutional Hardball: it makes blue states better. For example, Minnesota gives free college tuition to exceptional low/middle-income students. Neighboring North Dakota got tired of losing all its smartest kids Minnesota schools and created its own subsidy. As Gerney and Knight point out, Minnesota (and other blue states) still has a huge advantage when it comes to attracting top talent, because attending university in a state with legal abortion is vastly preferable (and safer) than doing a degree in a forced-birth state.

Red states are bent on making life horrible for some really great people. The hardworking, talented Haitian migrants caught in the Springfield pogroms that Trump incited would be a fine addition to any blue state town – anyone who's got the gumption to haul ass out of a failed state and make their all the way to Springfield is gonna be a fantastic neighbor, citizen and worker, just like my refugee grandparents and father, who endured a million times more hardship than their neighbors ever did, getting to Toronto, finding jobs, and starting their family.

Influxes of young, hardworking immigrants are especially good for rural towns with dwindling populations. No wonder rural towns with above-average net migration swung for Biden in 2020.

All over America, families are despairing of their lives in red states. Whether you're worried that you or someone you love might need to terminate a pregnancy, or you're worried about gender-affirming care for you or a loved one, you can put your worries to rest in a blue state. Same goes for nurses and doctors who are worried they can't do medicine unless it accords with the imaginary dictates of Bronze Age prophets as claimed by pencil-neck Hitler wannabe Bible-thumper with a private jet and a face from Walmart. Fill the blue states with great schools, libraries and hospitals, and invite everyone who wants to do their job in a free country to come and work at 'em. Line every state border with abortion and mifepristone clinics, and set up billboards advertising the quality of life, the jobs, and the freedom in blue state America.

Every blue state public pension fund should ban investments in fossil fuels, and invest like crazy in renewables, especially in Texas, to hasten the bankrupting of the petro-kleptocracy that controls the state. Blue states should tack surcharges on goods imported from "right to work" states where unions are effectively banned, to compensate for the additional product testing needed to ensure that scab products are safe to use (ahem, Boeing).

Create joint occupational licensure rules across blue states: if you're certified as a teacher, nurse, hairdresser or auto-mechanic in New York, you should be able to carry that certification with you to Minnesota, California, or Maine. Create multi-state funding pools to build public housing. Offer med-school scholarships to the smartest red state kids, at universities where they'll learn evidence-based obstetrics rather than the Lysenokist nonsense taught at the Roy Moore College of Pediatrics and Obstetrics.

Dems have to get over their fear of "states' rights" and start playing state-level hardball. This doesn't mean escalating cruelty. Quite the contrary: every cruel measure enacted as red state red meat is a chance for blue states to extend a kindness, and capture even more of the best, brightest and kindest of the nation, creating a race to the top that Republicans can only win by abandoning their performative cruelty and corruption.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/18/states-rights/#cold-civil-war

[wilwheaton]

“This is a media and Kamala Harris fact check that I wanna clarify and clear up right now … She used two programs to wave a wand and to say, ‘We’re not gonna deport those people here.’ If Kamala Harris waves the wand illegally and says these people are now here legally, I’m still gonna call them an illegal alien.” That’s Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), talking about the Haitian migrants in the town of Springfield in his home state — the majority of whom are in the country legally. As Vance points out in his remarks, most of the migrants in question are in the U.S. legally through programs like mass parole due to urgent humanitarian issues and/or temporary protective status, a temporary status given to nationals of specifically designated countries that are confronting an ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or extraordinary and temporary conditions. The key word here is legal. Calling them illegal aliens because you want to attack the candidate that’s running against you is not only racist and xenophobic but also an extremely dangerous line to cross. We’ve seen the results of that very racism and xenophobia play out in real time in Springfield for the past week.

Making America Deportable Again

Jeffrey Dahmer Vance is admitting that he’s a liar. He’s admitting that they have no policies or plans to improve your life. He’s admitting that he’s so inexperienced, that Trump’s record is so unpopular and indefensible, they will just make up lies -- that they know are hurting people -- to avoid facing how weak they are.

Make no mistake: Trump and Vance have no plans to help anyone except themselves and their billionaire owners. If they can execute their coup successfully this time, not only will they never leave office, they will obliterate the middle class and the working poor. They will ensure that the most vulnerable among us suffer even more than they already are.

They know that voters know that. They know that, outside of the cult, they have no support. So they amplify a racist lie in an effort to distract and fool voters.

That worked in 2016, and it almost worked in 2020.

It is not working now. We are not going back.

[cleolinda]

Tuesday’s debate between Trump and his opponent Kamala Harris in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had several eyebrow-raising moments but none moreso than when Trump, echoing his latest online-born conspiracy, baselessly accused thousands of legal migrants in Springfield, Ohio, of stealing, killing, and eating pet dogs off the street.

The conspiracy was fact-checked in real time by ABC’s David Muir, who noted that city officials had looked into the claim and found it to be baseless. But the damage was already done.

Nearly a week later, Vance found himself once again answering for his running mate’s actions after days of shocking fallout in Springfield, where residents have reported fliers dropped by the Ku Klux Klan as well as several threats of bombings or mass shootings — the latest of which, at Wittenberg University, occurred Saturday night just hours before Vance would go on the air.

[…] On CNN, he seemingly admitted that his claims were lies, then continued by saying that he would keep spreading such tales, even knowing them to be untrue, if they resulted in the media talking about issues he claimed were still just as real despite the deception.

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do,” said the senator.

This is DANGEROUS shit aimed at the Haitian immigrant community for political gain

that is going to get people hurt if not outright killed, and this motherfucker just admitted it’s not true. Which is maybe the most important thing you will read about the whole ordeal.

“But I saw pictures!!!”

Spoiler: the geese were roadkill.

The woman behind an early Facebook post spreading a harmful and baseless claim about Haitian immigrants eating local pets that helped thrust a small Ohio city into the national spotlight says she had no firsthand knowledge of any such incident and is now filled with regret and fear as a result of the ensuing fallout.

Backlash was swift, with replies ranging from, “I find it strange that a self-professed ‘hillbilly’ doesn’t know what whole chickens look like,” to, “HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT CHICKENS LOOK LIKE WITH THEIR LEGS ATTACHED YOU F****ING DIPSHIT.” Oliver Alexander, an open-source intelligence analyst, weighed in, sharing images of plucked chickens looking remarkably similar to whatever was being grilled in the video. “Clearly chicken you weirdo. Dude’s never seen chicken that wasn’t dino-nugget shaped,” he wrote.

[mariacallous]

There are few circumstances under which inflation can be comforting. But in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the U.S. presidential election, one of them appears to be when it serves as an alibi for an electorate’s sharp turn toward meanness, selfishness, and a hard-edged type of identity-centered nationalism.

Many Americans have used inflation to explain away the country’s embrace of radical political change. Yet this ignores basic facts about the U.S. economy. Before the election, I wrote a column highlighting some of these remarkable statistics, noting that the country has recently far outpaced its G-7 peers in economic growth and brought unemployment down to nearly historic lows; that inflation, after briefly surpassing 9 percent in 2022, has plunged to 2.6 percent; and that gasoline prices, one of the most important pocketbook issues for Americans, are relatively low.

Even George F. Will, a dean of conservative columnists in Washington, indirectly laid bare the ridiculousness of this explanation. As he wrote this week, Trump “ran promising to increase living costs” due to the large tariffs he has vowed to impose on imports.

But to fully understand why the inflation explanation doesn’t add up, one must examine the broader nature of Trump’s program—specifically, its retrograde racial politics. After all, Trump was explicit about his policy priorities during the campaign, and the president-elect’s staffing moves and statements since Nov. 5 have reaffirmed his intentions.

Trump has quickly announced a prospective team of hard-liners to execute his priorities on the border and immigration. This includes Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff for policy; Tom Homan as his so-called border czar, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. By all indications, Trump will rely on this team to carry out a sweeping expulsion of millions of undocumented migrants.

Pulling off such a feat would disrupt the economy and everyday life on a scale with few comparisons in U.S. history. Trump’s zealous associates have pledged to carry out workplace raids and suggested deporting whole families to meet their goals. Given the small size of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, accomplishing deportations on this scale would probably require using the National Guard—including by dispatching units from Republican-led states to Democratic-governed ones, a move of dubious legality.

Trump has long devoted himself to laying the groundwork for this. Since his first presidential campaign, he has denounced Mexicans as “rapists,” alleged that countries such as Venezuela have emptied their prisons to inundate the United States with “criminals,” and amplified vile and baseless claims that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are preying on the community’s pets.

More overtones of white nationalism and nativism can be found in Trump’s infamous 2018 disparagement of what he called “shithole countries,” which in his definition are home to Black and brown people. Meanwhile, Elon Musk, a top Trump ally and now formal advisor to the president-elect, has called for women to have more babies—calls that conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, another prominent Trump backer, has echoed while also casting the issue in explicitly racial terms.

Hinting at a much broader anti-immigration agenda, Trump and his surrogates have also repeatedly inveighed against birthright citizenship, a provision of the U.S. Constitution. Trump’s efforts to call into question who “real” Americans are date back to 2011, when he started saying that he had “real doubts” about Barack Obama’s citizenship and demanded that the then-president produce his birth certificate. Couple this with Trump’s other comments suggesting a preference for immigrants from Nordic countries, and a sense of racial purpose running through many of his fondest projects begins to emerge.

This racial agenda also lurks in the Trump movement’s designs on remaking the country’s education system. In Florida and other states, Trump allies have launched a wholesale attack on books that are frank about the country’s history of slavery and its aftereffects as well as those that discuss gender and sexuality in anything but heteronormative ways.

Meanwhile, Trump couches his hostility toward diversity and inclusion initiatives in higher education as a way to protect the country’s white population from discrimination. In July, for instance, he said, “I will direct the Department of Justice to pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination. And schools that persist in explicit unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity will not only have their endowments taxed, but through budget reconciliation, I will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment. A portion of the seized funds will then be used as restitution for victims of these illegal and unjust policies—policies that hurt our country so badly.”

Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth as his secretary of defense appears to have been made in a similar spirit. Hegseth, a veteran Fox News host with no policy background, has made a name for himself attacking diversity efforts in the military, saying that Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should be fired for his support of “woke” programs. Trump’s transition team is reportedly considering creating a “warrior board” of retired military officials that, some analysts fear, would be able to purge military officers who are not loyal to Trump. If he is confirmed by the Senate, Hegseth could be essential to carrying out that board’s recommendations.

All of this fits with a pattern of stoking culture wars based largely on white resentment in the interest of sustaining political support. As historian David W. Blight wrote in an astute New York Times column, “Trump exploited our social fissures to make them deeper, uglier, ever more bitter and therefore useful. We were reminded that culture wars are won by fueling them, not by seeking harmony. Unity coalitions and kindness and joy don’t win elections in a bitterly divided society where neighbors and family members are not on the same team.”

As perceptive as Blight’s assessment is, it misses the important global dimensions of Trump’s strategy and appeal. By pledging to abandon international climate agreements at a time of dangerous levels of warming (which even the head of Exxon Mobil says is a mistake), by opposing wind power and vowing to “drill baby, drill,” by threatening to impose unilateral tariffs on other countries as a core economic strategy, by pretending that the United States can prevail through tough guy optics and bluster, Trump is engaging in an elaborate fantasy that is both pedigreed and dangerous.

It is an approach to politics that is based on nostalgia for a time when, as the historian Greg Grandin has written, the world seemed for many Americans to be an open frontier—that period in the 19th and 20th centuries when it was permissible to pretend that “America” essentially meant “white,” and that with sufficient will, Washington could bend the rest of the globe to its whims.

There were elements of this ethos in past administrations—notably, in the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush—but even those leaders knew that going it alone and humiliating allies was not smart, and that appeals to racial identity carried political dangers. Trump, however, fully taps into chagrin over the loss of that unquestioned privilege.

What is more, Trump’s brand of voluntarism—his vision of a United States that can say no to whatever displeases it—arrives at a time of relative decline in Washington’s standing in the world compared with its principal rival, China, and even with a larger set of rising middle powers. The United States is about to learn that in order to succeed, it will need strong cooperation with others and more internal harmony of its own. Four years on the path that Trump is setting could be an expensive learning process for the entire nation.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Greg Sargent at TNR:

There are still nearly two months to go before Donald Trump assumes the presidency again, but Republicans or GOP-adjacent industries have already begun to admit out loud that some of his most important policy promises could prove disastrous in their parts of the country. These folks don’t say this too directly, out of fear of offending the MAGA God King. Instead, they suggest gingerly that a slight rethink might be in order. But unpack what they’re saying, and you’ll see that they’re in effect acknowledging that some of Trump’s biggest campaign promises were basically scams.

In Georgia, for instance, some local Republicans are openly worried about Trump’s threat to roll back President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The IRA is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into incentives for the manufacture and purchase of green energy technologies, from electric vehicles to batteries to solar power. Trump endlessly derided this as the “green new scam” and pledged to repeal all uncommitted funds. But now The New York Times reports that Trump supporters like state Representative Beth Camp fear that repeal could destroy jobs related to new investments in green manufacturing plants in the state. Camp worries that this could leave factories in Georgia “sitting empty.” You heard that right: This Republican is declaring that Trump’s threatened actions could leave factories sitting empty. 

[...]

Something similar is also already happening with Trump’s threat to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. Reuters reports that agriculture interests, which are heavily concentrated in GOP areas, are urging the incoming Trump administration to refrain from removing untold numbers of migrants working throughout the food supply chain, including in farming, dairy, and meatpacking. 

Notably, GOP Representative John Duarte, who just lost his seat in the elections, explicitly tells Reuters that farming interests in his California district depend on undocumented immigrants—and that Trump should exempt many from removal. Duarte and industry representatives want more avenues created for migrants to work here legally—the precise opposite of what Trump promised. Now over to Texas. NPR reports that various industries there fear that mass deportations could cripple them, particularly in construction, where nearly 300,000 undocumented immigrants toiled as of 2022. Those workers enable the state to keep growing despite a native population that isn’t supplying a large enough workforce. Local analysts and executives want Trump to refrain from removing all these people or create new ways for them to work here legally. Even the Republican mayor of McKinney, Texas, is loudly sounding the alarm.

Meanwhile, back in Georgia, Trump’s threat of mass deportations is awakening new awareness that undocumented immigrants drive industries like construction, landscaping, and agriculture, reports The Wall Street Journal. In Dalton, a town that backed Trump, fear is spreading that removals could “upend its economy and workforce.” At this point, someone will argue that all this confirms Trump’s arguments—that these industries and their representatives merely fear losing cheap migrant labor that enables them to avoid paying Americans higher wages. When JD Vance and Trump pushed their lie about Haitians eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, Vance insisted that he opposed the Haitian influx into Midwestern towns because they’re undercutting U.S. workers. But all these disparate examples of Republicans and GOP areas lamenting coming mass deportations suggest an alternate story, one detailed well by the Times’ Lydia DePillis. In the MAGA worldview, a large reserve of untapped native-born Americans in prime working age are languishing in joblessness throughout Trump country—and will stream into all these industries once migrants are removed en masse, boosting wages.  

But DePillis documents that things like poor health and disability are more important drivers of unemployment among this subset of non-college working-age men. Besides, migrants living and working here don’t just perform labor that Americans will not. They also consume and boost demand, creating more jobs. As Paul Krugman puts it, in all these ways, migrant laborers are “complements” to U.S. workers. Importantly, that’s the argument that these Republicans and industries in GOP areas are really making when they lament mass deportations: Migrant labor isn’t displacing U.S. workers; it’s helping drive our post-Covid recovery and growth. This directly challenges Trump’s zero-sum worldview.

[...] Here’s another possibility: In the end, Trump’s deportation forces may selectively spare certain localities and industries from mass removals. Trump’s incoming “border czar,” Tom Homan, suggests this won’t happen. But a hallmark of MAGA is corruptly selective governance in the interests of MAGA nation and expressly against those who are designated MAGA’s enemies, U.S. citizens included. One can see mass deportations becoming a selective tool, in which blue localities are targeted for high-profile raids—even as Trump triumphantly rants that they are cesspools of “migrant crime” that he is pacifying with military-style force—while GOP-connected industries and Trump-allied Republicans tacitly secure some forbearance.

Donald Trump’s threats to green energy initiatives and resistance to his mass deportation proposals are facing headwinds against him, even from local Republicans who fear losses of jobs in their communities.

Even if Trump does get to implement his mass deportation policy, he’ll likely create several exemption carveouts (mainly for industries likely to favor him) and use selective enforcement (light touch for red states, heavy and punitive for blue states).

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich:: GOP strategy in its totality

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 18, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 19, 2024

Today, at a White House reception in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, President Joe Biden said: "We don't demonize immigrants. We don't single them out for attacks. We don't believe they're poisoning the blood of the country. We're a nation of immigrants, and that's why we're so damn strong."

Biden’s celebration of the country’s heritage might have doubled as a celebration of the success of his approach to piloting the economy out of the ravages of the pandemic. Today the Fed cut interest rates a half a point, a dramatic cut indicating that it considers inflation to be under control. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has maintained that it would be possible to slow inflation without causing a recession—a so-called soft landing—and she appears to have been vindicated.

Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell said: “The labor market is in solid condition, and our intention with our policy move today is to keep it there. You can say that about the whole economy: The US economy is in good shape. It’s growing at a solid pace, inflation is coming down. The labor market is at a strong pace. We want to keep it there. That’s what we’re doing.”

Powell, whom Trump first appointed to his position, said, “We do our work to serve all Americans. We’re not serving any politician, any political figure, any cause, any issue, nothing. It’s just maximum employment and price stability on behalf of all Americans.”

Powell was anticipating accusations from Trump that his cutting of rates was an attempt to benefit Harris before the election. Indeed, Jeff Stein of the Washington Post reported that Trump advisor Steven Moore called the move “jaw-dropping. There's no reason they couldn't do 25 now and 25 right after the election. Why not wait till then?” Moore added, "I'm not saying [the] reduction isn't justified—it may well be and they have more data than I do. But i just think, 'why now?’” Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville called the cut “shamelessly political.” 

The New Yorker’s Philip Gourevitch noted that “Trump has been begging officials worldwide not to do the right thing for years to help rig the election for him—no deal in Gaza, no defense of Ukraine, no Kremlin hostages release, no border deal, no continuing resolution, no interest rate cuts etc—just sabotage & subterfuge.”

That impulse to focus on regaining power rather than serving the country was at least part of what was behind Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance’s lie about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. That story has gotten even darker as it turns out Vance and Trump received definitive assurances on September 9 that the rumor was false, but Trump ran with it in the presidential debate of September 10 anyway. Now, although it has been made very clear—including by Republican Ohio governor Mike DeWine—that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield are there legally, Vance told a reporter today that he personally considers the programs under which they came illegal, so he is still “going to call [a Haitian migrant] an illegal alien.”

The lies about those immigrants have so derailed the Springfield community with bomb threats and public safety concerns that when the Trump campaign suggested Trump was planning a visit there, the city’s Republican mayor, Rob Rue, backed by DeWine, threw cold water on the idea. “It would be an extreme strain on our resources. So it’d be fine with me if they decided not to make that visit,” Rue said. Nonetheless, tonight, Trump told a crowd in Long Island, New York, that he will go to Springfield within the next two weeks. 

The false allegation against Haitian immigrants has sparked outrage, but it has accomplished one thing for the campaign, anyway: it has gotten Trump at least to speak about immigration—which was the issue they planned to campaign on—rather than Hannibal Lecter, electric boats, and sharks, although he continues to insist that “everyone is agreeing that I won the Debate with Kamala.” Trump, Vance, and Republican lawmakers are now talking more about policies.

In the presidential debate of September 10, Trump admitted that after nine years of promising he would release a new and better healthcare plan than the Affordable Care Act in just a few weeks, all he really had were “concepts of a plan.” Vance has begun to explain to audiences that he intends to separate people into different insurance pools according to their health conditions and risk levels. That business model meant that insurers could refuse to insure people with pre-existing conditions, and overturning it was a key driver of the ACA.

Senate and House Republicans told Peter Sullivan of Axios that if they regain control of the government, they will work to get rid of the provision in the Inflation Reduction Act that permits the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices. Negotiations on the first ten drugs, completed in August, will lower the cost of those drugs enough to save taxpayers $6 billion a year, while those enrolled in Medicare will save $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket expenses. 

Yesterday Trump promised New Yorkers that he would restore the state and local tax deduction (SALT) that he himself capped at $10,000 in his 2017 tax cuts. In part, the cap was designed to punish Democratic states that had high taxes and higher government services, but now he wants to appeal to voters in those same states. On CNBC, host Joe Kernan pointed out that this would blow up the deficit, but House speaker Mike Johnson said that the party would nonetheless consider such a measure because it would continue to stand behind less regulation and lower taxes.

In a conversation with Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his former press secretary, Trump delivered another stream of consciousness commentary in which he appeared to suggest that he would lower food prices by cutting imports. Economics professor Justin Wolfers noted: “I'm exhausted even saying it, but blocking supply won't reduce prices, and it's not even close.” Sarah Longwell of The Bulwark added, “Tell me more about why you have to vote for Trump because of his ‘policies.’”

Trump has said he supports in vitro fertilization, or IVF, as have a number of Republican lawmakers, but today, 44 Republican senators once again blocked the Senate from passing a measure protecting it. The procedure is in danger from state laws establishing “fetal personhood,” which give a fertilized egg all the rights of a human being as established by the Fourteenth Amendment. That concept is in the 2024 Republican Party platform.

Trump has also demanded that Republicans in Congress shut down the government unless a continuing resolution to fund the government contains the so-called SAVE Act requiring people to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Speaker Johnson continues to suggest that undocumented immigrants vote in elections, but it is illegal for even documented noncitizens to do so, and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the nonprofit American Immigration Council notes that even the right-wing Heritage Foundation has found only 12 cases of such illegal voting in the past 40 years.

Johnson brought the continuing resolution bill with the SAVE Act up for a vote today. It failed by a vote of 202 to 220. If the House and then the Senate don’t pass a funding bill, the government will shut down on October 1.

Republican endorsements of the Harris-Walz ticket continue to pile up. On Monday, six-term representative Bob Inglis (R-SC) told the Charleston City Paper that “Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the republic” and said he would vote for Harris. “If Donald Trump loses, that would be a good thing for the Republican Party,” Inglis said. “Because then we could have a Republican rethink and get a correction.” 

George W. Bush’s attorney general Alberto Gonzales, conservative columnist George Will, more than 230 former officials for presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, and 17 former staff members for Ronald Reagan have all recently added their names to the list of those supporting Harris. Today more than 100 Republican former members of Congress and national security officials who served in Republican administrations endorsed Harris, saying they “firmly oppose the election of Donald Trump.” They cited his chaotic governance, his praising of enemies and undermining allies, his politicizing the military and disparaging veterans, his susceptibility to manipulation by Russian president Vladimir Putin, and his attempt to overthrow democracy. They praised Harris for her consistent championing of “the rule of law, democracy, and our constitutional principles.” 

Yesterday, singer-songwriters Billie Eilish, who has 119 million followers on Instagram, and Finneas, who has 4.2 million, asked people to register and to vote for Harris and Walz. “Vote like your life depends on it,” Eilish said, “because it does.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[taylorwright27]

I fucking hate this

I keep seeing people blaming third party voters, which even if all those votes went to Harris (which there is no guarantee they were going to) She still wouldn't have won, and I just saw someone on tik tok talk about how people on the left who were critical of Harris and the party were taking the excitement out of voting. And that is complete bullshit, it is not the lefts job to make you feel good about the democratic party they should be doing that themselves. The Harris admin ran a dogshit campaign plain and simple.

People wanted Biden out, it took months but the party finally listened and replaced him with Harris, this made people excited. It seemed like maybe the democratic party was actually listening to its voters, then they picked Walz as VP and we got more excited. No more Biden and a VP who believes in free lunches for students, healthcare, abortion and education! It seemed like the party was moving a different direction. They started calling the Republican party weird, pointing out how crazy their ideas were and how actually invasive theri policies were.

Then the fucking DNC happened, they rejected Palestinian voices and gave the most bullshit fluff speeches imaginable. They made it clear that they had no intention of trying to get undecided and independent voters on their side, they just wanted republicans. They decided that the road to victory was to shift to the right. They now supported a border wall and deportations, things that would be unimaginable 8 years ago. They touted around ex-republicans that switched over, like Liz Cheney (whose father drove the country into useless wars and left the VP office with 13% approval). They decided that it was more important to adopt right wing framing on issues, then to actually listen to what their voters wanted. They sent fucking Bill Clinton to yell at Michiganders that Palestinians were going to die either way so vote for the other things on the ballot. They agreed with the narrative that illegal migrants are ruining the country with drugs and crime, when they should have been pointing out that the Haitians were here on legal status (and clearly not eating pets that was disgusting that they even allowed for that to be a talking point) that the Venezuelan "gangs" Trump was complaining about were also here legally (by Trump), not gangs, and not terrorizing the city. They did not point out the vast majority of fentanyl and other drugs are brought into the US by US citizens, that illegal immigrants commit way way less crime that natural borne US citizens, and that they pay into taxes much more than they use.

But no, the democratic party decided that they need the republican vote, and could do that by effectively saying "Trump was right". They did the same thing with fracking in Pennsylvania. Fracking in was not Pennsylvanians number 1 issue, not even close and the few people who would vote on that would not all the sudden see Harris as the "Fracking candidate" that would still be Trump.

They ignored popular issues like healthcare and student loan forgiveness, raising the minimum wage and instead championed a tax break for small business owners and a credit for first time home buyers. These things do not help the average american, so many more people are struggling to live off of minimum wage jobs than are small business owners, and the anyone I know who the house credit would have made it possible for them to buy a house could only do so because their parents were also able to chip in.

They also did nothing to earn the young vote. I think they though abortion was enough to carry the youth, but newsflash men don't fucking care about women. they show it time and time again, Trump went on Adin Ross and Joe Rogan (2 of the biggest pieces of shit to exist) and that won him a lot of votes. There were people at the voting booth who said that they voted for Trump because of the Rogan interview. Men were not left behind by the campaign, but Trump and Vance were able to convince them that they were.

Harris and the democratic party gave nothing for people to vote for, so don't fucking blame Dearborne Michigan for not voting for someone who said she wouldn't change anything done in the last 4 years and instead blame the Democratic party for a shitty campaign, shitty messaging and choosing republicans votes over yours.

[karadin]

while you were sleeping ...

The U.S. Army has told units to prepare for deployment at the U.S.-Mexico border in the next 24 to 48 hours.

Trump declared a 'state of emergency' at the border, despite the fact that we have a fully staffed border patrol and we are not in a wartime footing with Mexico.

National Science Foundation freezes grants in response to Trump executive orders

Native Americans concerned that they may be rounded up in mass deportation efforts due to racial profiling

Trump states that GAZA should be 'swept clean' and over one million refugees to be moved to Egypt and Jordan. (these countries have refused by the way)

Trump also mentions that Gaza has 'great beachfront property' and his son in law Jared Kushner, a friend of Netanyahu since childhood, has made the same statements that Gaza would be great place to build condos (and not for Palestinians)

Despite a 'cease fire' attacks have continued in Gaza, many by settler groups with police esorts, as soon as Trump lifted Biden era sanctions on settler incursions.

some USAID officials were put on leave for not abiding Trump's order to halt all international aid.

Trump has placed all Diversity and Inclusion federal employees across agencies on paid leave for 30 days until their positions are terminated.

The US Air Force took down a video for new recruits showcasing the Tuskegee Airmen, a famous all black fighting force from WW2, as well as the WAVES, women who joined the service during WW2.

The advisory office of DOGE now run solely by Elon Musk, a US government contractor puts him in nominal charge of government programs, a conflict of interest, however he has been booted from an office next to Trump in the White House to another building.

This Department of Government Efficiency now is taking over the US Digital Service in charge of all US gov websites, including the new IRS Free File (where you can do your taxes online for free, a holdover from the Biden Administration.)

Trump is paving the way for the Pentagon to remove transgender service members

The Quaker faith have taken the Trump administration to court over a new policy to enter churches and religious spaces in mass deportation efforts.

Trump puts hold on refugees - hundreds of thousands of people fleeing strife in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Haiti and Venezuela have been stopped from entering the US - the program was bipartisan and many have waited years in a legal process to enter.

Trump has revoked a Biden admin program that allowed 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans and nearly 1 million migrants allowed into the country through an app called CBP One, all of these individuals are now targeted for deportation.

Vice President Vance complained when U.S. Catholic bishops condemned ICE entering places of employment, churches and schools in mass deportation raids (lifting an Obama era restriction)

Vice President Vance states that Big Tech is too powerful in the US, at the same time Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg, along with other 'tech bros' were featured at Trump's inauguration, seated in front of his cabinet picks.

Trump fires DOJ employees who worked on Trump's prosecution for insurrection on Jan 6 as well as his stolen US government 'eyes only' documents. Republicans are investigating the bi-partisan Jan 6th investigations under the Biden administration.

Trump pardoned more than 1,500 individuals for their crimes during the Jan 6th insurrection, this has lead to backlash among a bi-partisan Congress as well as the public. One of the insurrectionists was killed by police at a conflict on his day of release, another was re-arrested for breaking his parole for previous convictions.

[beardedmrbean]

Children have been pushed out of schools, and hospitals have been left overcrowded after a surge of migrants into a remote city in Indiana, residents claim.

The population of Logansport has increased by 30 per cent since 2021 following a wave of migrants, Chris Martin, the city’s mayor,  told the Pharos-Tribune.

That would put the number of migrants arriving at more than 5,000, in a county that had a population of just 18,000 people in 2020, according to census data.

At the same time, the number of Haitian immigrant students in the Logansport schools has increased 15-fold, from 14 in 2021 to 207 this year, according to the New York Post.

It is understood that migrants have been drawn to the central Indiana city for jobs at a local meat-packing plant.

However, their rapid arrival has put the city’s health and education system under strain, with parents claiming they have been forced to pull their children from school to stop them from falling behind.

Nancy Baker, 44, a mother of two, said that her 16-year-old daughter, Cheyanne, dropped out of high school because teachers did not have enough time for the English-speaking pupils.

“There were way too many kids and it seemed to her that since they didn’t speak the language, or didn’t understand what was going on, they were getting more attention,” she told the New York Post.

“And so she and the other kids who grew up here who were having issues or struggling in certain things weren’t able to get the attention that they needed — the help they needed from the school.”

Barrie McClian, a retired teacher, said public schools and healthcare centres had been “impacted terribly” by the surge in arrivals.

“They have to figure out how to educate all these folks, without having anybody who knows how to translate for a lot of the languages. So those are big problems,” he told Mail Online.

Safety concerns

The influx of outsiders to the town has also raised concerns over safety, with Ms Baker claiming her daughter is scared to leave the house after being chased by a group of migrants.

“She was walking by herself and she was walking that way and two of them were going this way, she just kinda smiled at them as they walked by. They started yelling for her after they got past her. She turned around and she looked at them and they were like, ‘Come here! Come here!’” Ms Baker told the Post.

She added that her daughter had to run down the street to a coffee shop and was now “scared to go outside”.

Meanwhile, local health officials have raised concerns that the rapid influx of migrants is placing emergency rooms under strain.

“This surge has created a drastic climb in medical visits,” Serenity Alter, Cass County health department administrator, told The Post.

“It has been necessary for the hospital, health department and express clinics to boost translation services in order to ensure that medical needs are understood.”

The city is the latest flashpoint in the debate around immigration that is proving to be one of the most divisive issues in the lead up to the election.

It comes after Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance drew attention to Springfield, Ohio, where the former president claimed without evidence that illegal Haitian migrants were eating cats and dogs.

The Republican candidate has also highlighted problems with immigration in Aurora, Colorado, where he alleged armed members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua have overrun the town.

Logansport residents voiced their concerns about the city’s response to the impact of legal immigration during a meeting of the city council last Monday, with some calling on the Republican mayor to resign.

Attendees also claimed the city’s services were being impacted, with one stating that “rents are high” and that schools and the police department are overwhelmed, Fox 59 reported.

The mayor admitted there had been “some assimilation issues” from the arrival of people with “different culture beliefs” but called on politicians to “stop playing politics” with the town.

“We would rather you do your job and actually do something instead of talking about this,” Mr Martin told The Post.