#michigan immigration attorney

[mariacallous]

A Republican state lawmaker in Michigan said gay marriage should be “illegal again,” an inflammatory remark that prompted swift rebuke from Democrats.

State Rep. Josh Schriver (R) made the controversial statement on X on Monday, just weeks after the GOP’s strong showing in Michigan during the November election, where they wrested back control of the statehouse.

“Make gay marriage illegal again. This is not remotely controversial, nor extreme,” Schriver wrote. “America only ‘accepted’ gay marriage after it was thrusted into her by a perverted Supreme Court ruling.”

He pointed to old remarks from then-Sen. Barack Obama, saying the former president was once “more conservative on marriage than many Republicans today.” Obama first endorsed marriage equality in 2012 — the first U.S. president to do so — and later said he believed the Constitution guaranteed the right to marriage for all same-sex couples.

The Supreme Court agreed in a 5-4 ruling in 2015, a historic victory for queer Americans.

Republicans have embraced culture wars targeting queer Americans in recent years, particularly trans people. The party has pushed through laws blocking young trans kids from gender-affirming health care, barring them from school sports teams and cheered efforts to limit access to public bathrooms.

Michigan Democrats quickly excoriated Schriver.

“Please explain how dissolving my marriage, or that of the hundreds of thousands of other same-sex couples living in America, provides a benefit to your constituents or anyone else,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D), who is married to a woman, wrote on X. “You’re not interested in helping Michiganders. You want only to hurt those you hate. Shame on you.”

Fellow state Rep. Jason Morgan (D), who is gay, said his colleague’s remarks were both “controversial and extreme, along with anti-family.”

Schriver has courted controversy in the past. In February, he was stripped of his office staff and committee assignments in the Michigan statehouse after sharing conspiracy theories linked to the “great replacement.” The false notion relies on racist tropes and claims white Christians are being intentionally replaced by immigrants.

At the time he said he was opposed to racism, but defended his social media posts and said he found it “strange” that there was an “agenda to demoralize and reduce the white portion of our population,” according to The Detroit News.

[us-cj]

DONALD TRUMP'S BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ORDER IS CONSTITUTIONAL AND SAVES DEMOCRACY -- SORRY LIBS

Few issues ignite national debate as intensely as immigration, particularly during the Trump era.

When then-candidate Donald Trump criticized birthright citizenship on the campaign trail in 2015, it sparked widespread controversy. Voices on both the Left and the Right issued swift condemnations.

Fast forward to Tuesday, when news broke that President Trump was considering ending birthright citizenship via executive order. Once again, many critics condemned the idea, asserting that birthright citizenship is constitutionally guaranteed.

But if birthright citizenship is indeed rooted in the Constitution, why wasn’t the 14th Amendment applied to illegal or temporary immigrants before the 1960s?

The doctrine of birthright citizenship—the notion that citizenship is automatically granted to anyone born within U.S. borders—is absent from the Constitution’s text.

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, collectively known as the Civil War Amendments, were enacted to ensure newly freed slaves were recognized as citizens with equal rights under the law. These amendments were designed to address the specific circumstances of the Reconstruction era, not to provide an open pathway to citizenship for children of non-citizens.

It’s no coincidence that the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment is part of the exact text as the Equal Protection Clause. Before the Civil War, state citizenship often conferred national citizenship. After the war, Congress sought to nationalize citizenship, ensuring that freed slaves could not be denied their rights by states resistant to Reconstruction.

The 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause reads:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

Critics of birthright citizenship argue that proponents often ignore the key phrase: “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” This phrase fundamentally limits the scope of who qualifies for automatic citizenship.

Michigan Senator Jacob Howard, the amendment’s author, clarified this intent during debates in Congress. He stated that “jurisdiction thereof” excluded individuals such as “foreigners, aliens, and children of ambassadors or foreign ministers,” emphasizing that the term referred to “full and complete jurisdiction.” This understanding was widely disseminated and accepted at the time.

The distinction between territorial jurisdiction and political jurisdiction is critical. While anyone on U.S. soil must follow American laws, this does not confer full political jurisdiction. For example, an illegal immigrant is not granted the right to vote, serve on juries, or claim other rights reserved for citizens. Full political jurisdiction is only granted through naturalization when an individual takes the Oath of Allegiance to the United States.

Legal scholars of the late 19th century supported this interpretation. Judge Thomas Cooley wrote in The General Principles of Constitutional Law in America:

“A citizen by birth must not only be born within the United States, but he must also be subject to the jurisdiction thereof; and by this is meant full and complete jurisdiction to which citizens generally are subject, and not any qualified or partial jurisdiction, such as may consist with allegiance to another government.”

Howard echoed this view in 1866 when he introduced the citizenship clause, referring to the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which stated:

“All persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.”

Attorney General George Williams further reinforced this understanding in an 1873 legal opinion, explaining that “jurisdiction” meant “absolute and complete jurisdiction,” excluding even children of aliens born on U.S. soil. At the time, Native Americans were also excluded because their allegiance lay with their tribes.

Senator Lyman Trumbull, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, clarified that “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” meant “not owing allegiance to anybody else and being subject to the complete jurisdiction of the United States.”

This principle was upheld in Elk v. Wilkins (1884), where the Supreme Court affirmed that children born to individuals owing allegiance to foreign governments were not automatically granted U.S. citizenship. Only with the consent of the sovereign people can jurisdiction—and thus citizenship—be conferred.

It wasn’t until United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) that the Court ruled children born in the U.S. to legal immigrant parents with permanent residence qualified for citizenship under the 14th Amendment. This decision did not extend to children of illegal immigrants, and no precedent has since established such an interpretation.

Moreover, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4 of the Constitution grants Congress plenary power over naturalization. Section 5 of the 14th Amendment also grants Congress authority to enforce its provisions. In 1924, Congress, not the executive or judiciary, extended citizenship to Native Americans.

As of now, no law passed by Congress explicitly grants jurisdiction—or citizenship—to children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents. No SCOTUS decision forces the president to enforce what the executive bureaucracy itself created. Therefore, Trump can unilaterally rescind what the executive created.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Prem Thakker at Zeteo News:

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D) is being accused of antisemitism by elected officials and mainstream journalists for saying something she never said. 

Here’s how it happened:

Sept. 12: Earlier this month, the Michigan lawmaker called out her state’s Democratic attorney general, Dana Nessel, for announcing charges against 11 pro-Palestine protesters at the University of Michigan. “Instead of getting justice, not one criminal charge in the Flint Water Crisis, you're going to spend time in trying to use the power of your office to silence people's First Amendment right,” Tlaib said during a Black-Palestine solidarity panel, moderated by Zeteo’s Mehdi Hasan.

Sept. 13: “This is a move that’s going to set a precedent, and it’s unfortunate that a Democrat made that move,” Tlaib elaborated in an interview with the Detroit Metro Times. “You would expect that from a Republican, but not a Democrat, and it’s really unfortunate.” ”We’ve had the right to dissent, the right to protest,” she added. “We’ve done it for climate, the immigrant rights movement, for Black lives, and even around issues of injustice among water shutoffs. But it seems that the attorney general decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs.”  Nessel’s prosecutions were also criticized by groups including Michigan’s ACLU chapter. Sept. 20: Days later, Tlaib was the target of a racist editorial cartoon that implied she was part of Hezbollah. The cartoon depicted the only Palestinian member of Congress saying “Odd. My pager just exploded,” in reference to the Israeli military terrorist attacks on Lebanon.

[...]

Sometime Tuesday, Jewish Insider edited the original story, without adding a correction or clarification. “Tlaib has also claimed that Nessel is only charging the protesters because she’s Jewish” became “Tlaib has also suggested that Nessel is only charging the protesters because she’s Jewish.” 

Of course, this manufactured lie about Tlaib has wholly obscured that Tlaib was victim to a racist cartoon donning the pages of publications like the National Review; that she had actually begun garnering support and sympathy from her colleagues; and that Tlaib’s “original sin” was speaking out in defense of students protesting their tuition supporting a US-funded genocidal campaign in Palestine. Tlaib’s original remarks criticizing Nessel focused on the prosecution of pro-Palestine protestors, critiques shared by advocacy groups, including the Michigan chapter of the ACLU. Most of the charges are against students, including Jewish students, who refused to vacate a campus encampment after police ordered them to leave as they demanded the school divest from “weapons manufacturers and war profiteers complicit in the genocide in Palestine.” The arrests came as police allegedly used batons, and “Deep Freeze,” self-described as the “most intense, incapacitating agent available today,” to arrest the students.

Prem Thakker writes in Zeteo News debunking the ridiculous accusation that Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is “antisemitic” because she criticized AG Dana Nessel (D) for prosecuting pro-Palestinian protesters.

[we-are-not-a-number]

22 States are challenging Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship, this order would apply to children born after its in effect, but there is a concern it would be used to target immigrants other than babies.

"Trump's order directed federal agencies -- starting next month -- to stop issuing citizenship documents to U.S.-born children of undocumented mothers or mothers in the country on temporary visas, if the father is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident."

"'They will all be deportable, and many will be stateless,' the lawsuit stated."

"'The President has no authority to rewrite or nullify a constitutional amendment or duly enacted statute. Nor is he empowered by any other source of law to limit who receives United States citizenship at birth,' the lawsuit said."

"'That one of Donald Trump's first day in office as president should be so diametrically opposed to our values as Americans is incredibly disappointing, though not surprising. The children born in the U.S. to immigrants are entitled to the rights and privileges that go along with U.S. citizenship,' Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said. 'We need to discuss bipartisan commonsense immigration reforms, but denying birthright citizenship, which dates back centuries and has been upheld twice by the U.S. Supreme Court, is not the solution. As Attorney General, and as the proud son of Haitian immigrants, I will continue to stand with my fellow attorneys general to defend the constitutional rights of all children born in this country.'"

"The states warned the executive order would also cause them to lose federal funding for programs that render services to children regardless of their immigration status."

...for the order to happen, the Constitution itself would have to change.

"'The Constitution requires two thirds of both houses of Congress and three quarters of the state legislatures to amend it,' Redish said. 'If you're going to ignore section one of the 14th Amendment, all bets are off. Presumably, he could take our citizenship away, yours, mine, the person next-door.'"

States filing lawsuits as follows; Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Arizona, Oregon, Washington Illinois, New jersey, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.

The executive order is set to go into effect on Feb. 19.

The executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship will apply to any children born after the order takes effect. But it has many in the Chicago area concerned that if this is possible, the Trump administration could take it beyond newborns.

An article

The Lawsuits of 22 States

(Jan21/2025)

[whitesinhistory]

On August 3, 1919, several days of racial violence targeting Black communities in Chicago, Illinois, came to an end after intervention by the National Guard. After five days of gunfire, beatings, and burnings, 23 African Americans and 15 white people had been killed, 537 people injured, and 1,000 African American families left homeless.

During the Great Migration, Chicago was a popular destination for many Black people leaving the South in search of economic opportunity and a refuge from racial terror lynching. From 1910 to 1920, the city’s Black population swelled from 44,000 to 109,000 people. The new arrivals joined thousands of white immigrants also relocating to Chicago in search of work. Many Black newcomers settled on Chicago's South Side, in neighborhoods adjacent to communities of European immigrants, close to plentiful industrial jobs. 

Although African American people had fled the Southern brand of racial violence, once in Chicago they still faced racial animosity and discrimination that created challenging living conditions like overcrowded housing, inequality at work, police brutality, and segregation by custom rather than law.

In the second decade of the 20th century, segregation in Chicago was not as legally regulated as in Southern cities, but unwritten rules restricted Black people from many neighborhoods, workplaces, and "public" areas—including beaches. On July 27, 1919, a Black youth named Eugene Williams drowned at a Chicago beach after a white man struck him with a rock for drifting to the “white” side of Lake Michigan. When police refused to arrest the man who had thrown the rock, Black witnesses protested; white mobs responded with widespread violence that lasted five days.

Over that terrifying period, white mobs attacked Black people on sight, set fire to more than 30 properties on Chicago’s South Side, and even attempted to attack Provident Hospital—which served mostly Black patients. Six thousand National Guard troops were called in to quell the unrest, and many Black people left Chicago after the terrifying experience.

Though state officials announced a plan to investigate and punish all parties responsible for violence and destruction of property during the unrest, many more Black people were arrested than white. The subsequent grand jury proceedings resulted in the indictment of primarily Black defendants. Later testifying before a commission investigating the roots of the Chicago violence, the Cook County district attorney admitted this was due to bias in his department of white officers.

"There is no doubt that a great many police officers were grossly unfair in making arrests," he said in 1922. "They shut their eyes to offenses committed by white men while they were very vigorous in getting all the colored men they could get."

[elysianflds]

" ambitious ⸻ strong desire and determination to succeed "

i .

full name ⸻ gabriel de armas nickname(s) ⸻ gabe ( only by those he is close with ) gender ⸻ male pronouns ⸻ he / him sexuality ⸻ heterosexual age ⸻ fifty date of birth ⸻ 7th november zodiac sign ⸻ scorpio traits ⸻ adroit, brazen, meticulous, decadent, debonair, haughty current location ⸻ woodside, michigan neighborhood ⸻ woodside heights occupation ⸻ high profile attorney

ii .

face claim ⸻ danny pino height ⸻ 6'0 piercings ⸻ none tattoos ⸻ none other distinguishing features ⸻ tbd style ⸻ tailored suits most of the time; fitted slacks and pressed shirts on other occasions

iii .

alignment ⸻ tbd mbti ⸻ tbd temperament ⸻ tbd enneagram ⸻ tbd type of intelligence ⸻ tbd archetype ⸻ tbd label ⸻ tbd trope⸻ tbd

iv .

you were born the first son of parents that had immigrated to the states from cuba. with nothing but the clothes on their backs, they had wanted to provide a better life for you. for the siblings that would come after you. and they had. despite all the claims that they would see only failure. that they would return to their homeland, to the homes still opened to them by your grandparents. but they had always been determined, especially your mother. who had stayed up every night with you .

in those early years, life had been a struggle. your parents had known they were pregnant before they had made the change. the sacrifice, to pull themselves away from all that they had known. simply to ensure that you were given the life that you deserved. the start to something wonderful. and in the years that followed, your mother ensured that you were seen as the american you had been born as. while english had not been your first language, you had thrived all the same. you had learned it alongside your native tongue, for your parents ensured that you would never lose that side of you. that you would be the first cuban american in your lineage. and throughout the years that would follow, you would wear that claim as a badge .

the determination that coursed through your mother’s blood had been passed on to you. and it was that determination that found you excelling within your studies. from primary to secondary, and ultimately to the law school that you had been awarded a scholarship to. for law had always been an interest to you. an idea that had sparked from such a young age, and had firmly stuck within your brain. it had been a simple dream at first. something sparked by the mind of a young boy with big hopes. but eventually, your teachers had begun to encourage it. they had advised you to stick with it, to hang on to such an ideal and to run with it as far as you could. sometimes, you wondered if they knew how they had shaped your life. how they had propelled you into the seat that you would one day claim for yourself .

for texas had never been your final destination. not once you had gone off to one of the most prestigious law schools in the country. which had eventually led you to new york city. where you had begun to make a name for yourself. where you had begun to build the life that you had always wanted. always dreamed about. and in that, your parents had been awarded something even better. for while they had taken care of you in your youth, you had begun to take care of them in their old age. as was tradition .

yet life had taken an unexpected turn, some years ago. when your best friend had called you in the middle of the night. when her tears had all but slipped through the receiver of your phone. and you had not wasted time, as the flight was booked. a one way, for you had not known what was needed. you had not known that you would find yourself spending more time in woodside than in your home. the one that had begun to seemingly grow cobwebs and dust bunnies, despite how it was well looked after. but this had always been your cross, the tether that had found itself intricately knit between you and her .

as the years had slipped by, you had found yourself making a home in woodside. offering a shoulder to the woman that you had never quite seemed to put distance between. even when you had been in new york. even when you had dated. your thoughts had always strayed, always returned to the home that you perhaps had always known. had always been awarded .

[beardedmrbean]

Republican Florida Rep. Brian Mast appeared to catch the State Department’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer off guard with a line of questioning about his race during a hearing Tuesday.

Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the first Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer in the history of the State Department, repeatedly answered “I do not know” when Mast asked her what race he is. Mast used his time during a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee for Oversight and Accountability to question why the State Department examines race and ethnicity in hiring processes.

“Can you tell me, am I white?” Mast asked Abercrombie-Winstanley. The ambassador took a long pause before telling Mast she would have to ask Mast to tell her how he characterizes himself.

“That’s exactly right, I would have to tell you not just how I characterize myself but what I am,” Mast said. “But I’m asking, do you know if I’m white?”

“I do not know,” Abercrombie-Winstanley answered. She gave the same answer when Mast proceeded to ask whether he’s half-black, Latino, Asian or Pacific Islander or brown.

Mast, originally from Michigan, represents a district in south Florida just north of the Miami area. He’s half-Latino, with his maternal grandparents having immigrated to the United States from Mexico.

“It shouldn’t matter that I’m half-Mexican, it shouldn’t matter whether I’m able-bodied, or ambulatory or not ambulatory, that doesn’t have anything to do with what my background is,” Mast continued. Being an effective Foreign Service Officer “has nothing to do with how somebody looks,” he said.

Abercrombie-Winstanley, the daughter of a secretary and attorney with an undergraduate degree from George Washington University and a masters degree from Johns Hopkins, is a career diplomat. She previously served at State Department posts in Iraq, Indonesia, Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia before serving as Ambassador to Malta during the Obama administration. She will be departing her current post later this month.

[news365timesindia]

[ad_1] Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris are gearing up for a closely contested race in the upcoming U.S. presidential election on November 5, with both candidates making final appeals in critical battleground states. Several third-party candidates are also participating in the election. Here’s a summary of the candidates: Democratic Party Kamala Harris Harris, 60, secured the Democratic nomination after President Biden withdrew from the race, aiming to present a fresh vision for America that contrasts with Trump’s agenda. With a background as a U.S. senator and California attorney general, she made history as the first woman and person of color to serve as vice president. If elected, she would be the first female president in the country’s history. Polls indicate that Harris holds a slight edge over Trump, leading nationally by 44% to 43% in a Reuters/Ipsos survey published on October 29. Other polls show tight competition in essential battleground states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan, and Nevada. In the closing weeks of her campaign, Harris has intensified efforts to portray Trump as a danger to democracy, citing his inflammatory remarks. She is advocating for reproductive rights and supports a national law to ensure access to safe abortion. Harris’s economic proposals include tax cuts for most Americans, measures against price gouging, affordable housing initiatives, and a child tax credit. She has suggested raising the corporate tax rate to 28% and eliminating taxes on tips. Regarding immigration, she aims for stricter border controls and efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking. Her stance on climate and energy aligns with Biden’s focus on addressing climate change. Harris has worked to maintain a positive relationship with the tech industry while addressing concerns related to competition and privacy. On foreign policy, Harris is expected to largely follow Biden’s approach on key issues such as support for Ukraine and Taiwan and seeking peace in Gaza while condemning Hamas. She has garnered endorsements from various labor organizations and leaders across different sectors. Republican Party Donald Trump At 78, Trump is running for president for the third time, having won the Republican nomination in July. He continues to claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, campaigning amid significant legal challenges, including recent indictments related to his efforts to contest the election results. During his presidency from 2017 to 2021, Trump became the first president to be impeached twice and has characterized his legal troubles as politically motivated, promising “retribution” against adversaries. He has chosen Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate. Trump’s campaign includes promises of mass deportations, ending birthright citizenship, and imposing new tariffs on imports. He aims to prioritize American workers, proposing cuts to taxes on tips and overtime, lowering corporate taxes, and expanding access to federal lands for energy companies. In terms of foreign policy, Trump has pledged to fundamentally change the U.S. relationship with NATO and to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, potentially through negotiations that might require territorial concessions from Kyiv. He has received backing from police organizations and former officials, though some Republicans have criticized his personal attacks on Harris. Third Parties & Independents Libertarian Party: Chase Oliver The Libertarian Party nominated Chase Oliver, 39, who previously ran for a Georgia Senate seat in 2022. Green Party: Jill Stein Jill Stein, a physician aged 74, returns as the Green Party nominee, focusing on climate action and economic reform. Independent: Cornel West Cornel West, a philosopher and activist, initially ran as a Green Party candidate but has since declared himself an independent, advocating for poverty reduction and guaranteed housing for all.

[news365times]

[ad_1] Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris are gearing up for a closely contested race in the upcoming U.S. presidential election on November 5, with both candidates making final appeals in critical battleground states. Several third-party candidates are also participating in the election. Here’s a summary of the candidates: Democratic Party Kamala Harris Harris, 60, secured the Democratic nomination after President Biden withdrew from the race, aiming to present a fresh vision for America that contrasts with Trump’s agenda. With a background as a U.S. senator and California attorney general, she made history as the first woman and person of color to serve as vice president. If elected, she would be the first female president in the country’s history. Polls indicate that Harris holds a slight edge over Trump, leading nationally by 44% to 43% in a Reuters/Ipsos survey published on October 29. Other polls show tight competition in essential battleground states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan, and Nevada. In the closing weeks of her campaign, Harris has intensified efforts to portray Trump as a danger to democracy, citing his inflammatory remarks. She is advocating for reproductive rights and supports a national law to ensure access to safe abortion. Harris’s economic proposals include tax cuts for most Americans, measures against price gouging, affordable housing initiatives, and a child tax credit. She has suggested raising the corporate tax rate to 28% and eliminating taxes on tips. Regarding immigration, she aims for stricter border controls and efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking. Her stance on climate and energy aligns with Biden’s focus on addressing climate change. Harris has worked to maintain a positive relationship with the tech industry while addressing concerns related to competition and privacy. On foreign policy, Harris is expected to largely follow Biden’s approach on key issues such as support for Ukraine and Taiwan and seeking peace in Gaza while condemning Hamas. She has garnered endorsements from various labor organizations and leaders across different sectors. Republican Party Donald Trump At 78, Trump is running for president for the third time, having won the Republican nomination in July. He continues to claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, campaigning amid significant legal challenges, including recent indictments related to his efforts to contest the election results. During his presidency from 2017 to 2021, Trump became the first president to be impeached twice and has characterized his legal troubles as politically motivated, promising “retribution” against adversaries. He has chosen Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate. Trump’s campaign includes promises of mass deportations, ending birthright citizenship, and imposing new tariffs on imports. He aims to prioritize American workers, proposing cuts to taxes on tips and overtime, lowering corporate taxes, and expanding access to federal lands for energy companies. In terms of foreign policy, Trump has pledged to fundamentally change the U.S. relationship with NATO and to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, potentially through negotiations that might require territorial concessions from Kyiv. He has received backing from police organizations and former officials, though some Republicans have criticized his personal attacks on Harris. Third Parties & Independents Libertarian Party: Chase Oliver The Libertarian Party nominated Chase Oliver, 39, who previously ran for a Georgia Senate seat in 2022. Green Party: Jill Stein Jill Stein, a physician aged 74, returns as the Green Party nominee, focusing on climate action and economic reform. Independent: Cornel West Cornel West, a philosopher and activist, initially ran as a Green Party candidate but has since declared himself an independent, advocating for poverty reduction and guaranteed housing for all.

[plethoraworldatlas]

Calls grew on Monday for CNN and two of its top on-air personalities to apologize for claiming that U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib made an antisemitic remark during a recent interview after the journalist who interviewed the Michigan Democrat confirmed that the reporters were lying.

During the September 13 interview with Detroit Metro Times reporter Steve Neavling, Tlaib—the only Palestinian American member of Congress—condemned Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for setting a "dangerous precedent" by prosecuting University of Michigan students who peacefully protested against Israel's war on Gaza, for which the key U.S. ally is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice. Charges against the Michigan protesters include trespassing on their own campus and obstructing police.

"We've had the right to dissent, the right to protest," Tlaib said during the interview. "We've done it for climate, the immigrant rights movement, for Black lives, and even around issues of injustice among water shutoffs. But it seems that the attorney general decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs."

Nessel, who is Jewish, accused Tlaib of antisemitism in a Friday social media post comparing the congresswoman's comments to a cartoon drawn by Detroit News automotive reporter Henry Payne and published in the right-wing National Review implying Tlaib is a member of Hezbollah, the Lebanese political and paramilitary group.

Enter Jake Tapper, CNN's lead Washington anchor, who critics have long accused of pro-Israel bias. On Monday, Tapper interviewed Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, asking the Democrat to respond to Tlaib's purported assertion that Nessel is only prosecuting Palestine protesters "because she's Jewish."

...

During a live broadcast on Monday, CNN anchor Dana Bash lamented what she called the "sad reality" that "antisemitism is everywhere and it comes from both ends of the political spectrum."

"But politicians sometimes sidestep calling it out when it comes from a member of their own party," she added, referring to "a Democratic congresswoman's accusation that the state's Jewish attorney general was letting her religion influence her job."

There was no such "accusation."

...

Neavling accused Whitmer of "adding to the lie."

"I'm the reporter who interviewed Rashida Tlaib," he said in response to a social media post by Tapper. "She never said Nessel did this because she's Jewish. Never. You're spreading lies."

On Monday, Detroit Metro Times also published a fact-check by Neavling underscoring that Tlaib never said what Nessel, Tapper, and Bash claim.

[naturecoaster]

Brijbag Law Announces the Appointment of Jesus M. Rosas, Esq., as Associate

Brijbag Law and Brian Brijbag announce the appointment of Jesus M. Rosas, Esq., as an associate. His main area of practice is personal injury with emphasis on litigation. JR will manage the litigation division of Brijbag Law. Brijbag Law Announces the Appointment of Jesus M. Rosas, Esq., as Associate JR obtained a BA degree in law from the University of Arizona in 2015. He was one of the first graduates with this degree. After graduation, he moved to Florida where he obtained his juris doctorate from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 2023. During law school, JR concentrated on his degree in litigation practice. He was fortunate to learn litigation skills from judges and practicing attorneys with extensive experience in the legal arena. Prior to attending law school, JR had extensive experience as a skilled Spanish interpreter. He was employed by CyraCom International in both Tucson, AZ, and Tampa, FL. In Tucson, he served as a Spanish Interpreter and in Tampa he was the Interpreter Supervisor. Needless to say, he is fluent in both English and Spanish. While in Tucson, JR also served as an Immigration Assistant Intern, in the fall of 2014 for the International Rescue Committee, where he interviewed refugees and asylees and prepared their immigration forms. He is practice ready certified by Lexis-Nexis in March of 2021. His focus is assisting clients get justice for their injuries. “I’m thrilled to join the team and start serving the community; let’s humanize personal injury,” said Attorney Rosas During his free time, JR enjoys boxing and spending time by the water. Just like a boxer, JR is disciplined, strategic, and focused on achieving positive results. About Brian Brijbag and Brijbag Law Attorney Brian Brijbag has over 20 years of experience in personal injury after having worked in the medical field in multiple roles. Brian is a longtime resident of the Nature Coast of Florida and now enjoys raising his family in the community. A graduate of Springstead High School, Brian has long been a supporter of the Nature Coast serving as a past chairperson of the Hernando County Fine Arts Council, a Florida motivational speaker, sponsor of the Brijbag Invitational High School Wrestling Tournament, and is founding member of the Brooksville Band Shell Bash. Brian is the author of 7 Deadly Sins of Your Florida Personal Injury Case: A Victim’s Guide to Florida Personal Injury Claims, as well as the author of Southern Chivalry: Environmental Hazard Risk Communication & Perception In a Small, Southern Neighborhood. Brijbag law practices in the Florida state courts and the middle district of Florida Federal Courts. Brian holds a juris doctor degree from Western Michigan University T.M. Cooley Law School. He holds the following degrees from the University of Southern Florida:  Master of Public Health, Master of Applied Anthropology, Bachelor of Arts in Applied Anthropology, and Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies. Brijbag Law is located at 5329 Commercial Way, Spring Hill, Florida 34606. Call 352-358-5880 to schedule an appointment or email contact@BrijbagLaw.com. For more information about Brijbag Law go to www.BrijbagLaw.com. Read the full article

[worldofwardcraft]

On the road to nowhere.

March 13, 2023

If you're a Republican in Michigan, we at WoW are here to offer our sincerest condolences. Sadly, your party is traveling the same route taken by California's GOP when it self-destructed nearly 20 years ago. For decades, California was a reliably red state, electing a string of Republican governors and senators. It even provided the nation with two of our most lawless GOP presidents: Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon and Ronnie "I don't recall" Reagan.

Today, however, California Republicans are confined to small enclaves around the state, and none are currently to be found holding statewide office. There are only 18 Republican representatives in the State Assembly (out of 80) and just eight senators (out of 40). As of October 2020, a mere 24% of the state's voters are registered Republicans.

The collapse of the Golden State's once-powerful GOP began with a far-right 1994 ballot initiative (Proposition 187) pushed by Republican governor Pete Wilson, which denied public services — including vaccines and public education — to undocumented immigrants. Unsurprisingly, California's growing Latino population rejected both the initiative and the Party responsible for it.

Now, in Michigan, Republicans are once again determined to place themselves on the wrong side. This time over Trump and election denialism. Frankly, Michigan's GOP was already in trouble. Last November, all its statewide candidates lost, including for governor (Tudor Dixon by 10 points), attorney general (Matt DePerno by 8) and secretary of state (Kristina Karamo by 14). The Party is also dead broke and in debt to the tune of $2.3 million, mainly because its MAGA-mad leaders and candidates (like the ones mentioned) are scaring away donors.

Last month, when Michigan GOPers held their annual convention in Lansing, the cash-strapped party not only had to charge delegates a $50 registration fee, it also couldn't afford to pay Arizona election conspiracist Kari Lake to be its headline speaker.

Moreover, even choosing a party chair turned into a virtual demolition derby. After going through 11 hours and 10 candidates, the convention ended up repudiating the Trump-endorsed DePerno and chose instead Kristina Karamo — a bigger loser and much crazier election denier. Which led to half the delegates walking out of the hall angry and believing they’d been robbed — typical feelings among Republicans nowadays. In her acceptance speech, Karamo declared what was obvious to all: "Our party is dying."

As one observer noted, by electing Karamo to lead Michigan's Republicans, "they’ve solidified Democratic control of this state for years to come." Evidently, those who ban books about history are condemned to repeat it.

[hermanlegaldetroit-blog]

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[justinspoliticalcorner]

Chris McGreal at The Guardian:

Donald Trump has pledged to shield police officers from legal accountability if he is re-elected as president after falsely claiming the US is in the grip of a wave of violent crime that he blamed on the Black Lives Matter movement and people crossing the Mexican border.

Speaking to police officers in Michigan on Tuesday, the former president sought to pin responsibility for the imagined crisis on his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, whom he characterised as among “Marxist district attorneys” with a record of being anti-police and pro-criminal during her term as the district attorney in San Francisco in the 2000s.

At the same time, Trump lamented his own legal difficulties, including his criminal convictions for fraud in New York and other looming prosecutions. “They go after guys like me, but they don’t go after guys that kill people,” he said. Flanked by local sheriffs in Howell, a small city in greater Detroit where a group of white supremacists marched last month chanting “We love Hitler, we love Trump” and carrying signs reading “White Lives Matter”, Trump painted a picture of Americans living in fear of leaving their homes because of crime. “It’s just insane, but you can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread. You get shot, you get mugged, you get raped, you get … whatever it may be,” he said.

The former president claimed that this alleged crime wave materialised when Joe Biden and Harris took office. “Since Comrade Kamala Harris took office, her administration’s crime statistics show she’s presided over a 43% increase in violent crime. These are all government numbers,” he claimed. In fact, official statistics show that violent crime is at an almost 50-year low in the US. Nonetheless, Trump pledged to “crack down on local Marxist DAs who refuse to enforce the law” while, he said, ruining the lives of police officers for doing their jobs. “Over the past four years, the Marxist left has waged a vicious war on law enforcement in our country. They’ve taken away the dignity and the spirit and the life of some of these police officers, and that’s why you see it – the crime is so out of control in our country,” he claimed.

Trump said that the police “have a lot of difficulty with the laws of our land”. “We’re going to get rid of that difficulty, because they shouldn’t have difficulty, our police,” he said. Trump added: “We’re going to be guaranteeing immunities.” The former president accused Harris of a “pro-crime, anti-police record”. “She repeatedly endorsed defunding the police,” he said. “If she ever had a chance, she would do whatever she could to defund the police because that’s where her spirit is, that’s where her heart is, and we can’t have a president like that.”

In 2020, then senator Harris gave support to the “defund the police” movement in the wake of a white police officer’s murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Harris said at the time that it was right that BLM questioned the amount of money spent on “militarising” police departments at the expense of social services, housing and education.

[...] Trump blamed much of the imagined increase in crime on people crossing the Mexican border, for which he also blamed Harris as the supposed “border tsar”, even though immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than US citizens. He also claimed that some Latin American countries are exporting their criminals to the US.

See Also:

Daily Kos: Trump sinks deeper into hatred while Democrats unite in joy

[thegreatimpersonator]

i know all eyes are on the presidential candidates for this election, and rightfully so, but some very wonderful and important things are happening statewide that should be celebrated and highlighted, so here’s a few:

Florida passed Amendment 2, which will raise minimum wage to $15/hour by 2026

South Dakota, Montana, Arizona and New Jersey all passed an amendment that legalized marijuana 

Utah will now be removing gendered language in the Utah Constitution and will replace it with gender-neutral language

California passed Prop 17, which restores voting rights to previously imprisoned citizens

Delaware elected Sarah McBride, the first ever openly trans state senator

Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones are the first ever openly gay black members of congress

Cori Bush is the first ever woman of color to win a seat in Congress in Missouri

Mauree Turner became the first non-binary state lawmaker in America and the first Muslim member of the Oklahoma state house

Oregon has become the first state to decriminalize all drugs (small amounts of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs will have lesser punishments, similar to traffic tickets, and no jail time.)

Kim Jackson is the first out LGBTQ+ state senator in Georgia

UPDATED WITH MORE GOOD NEWS:

Shevrin D. Jones is Florida’s first opnely LGBTQ+ state senator

Jabari Brisport became New York’s first gay Black member of the house

Arizona flipped blue for the first time in 24 years

Michele Rayner-Goolsby became the first Black LGBTQ woman in the Florida Legislature

Voters in Colorado overwhelmingly rejected Prop 115, a state ballot measure that would have banned abortions after a fetus reaches 22 weeks gestational age. In rejecting the initiative, Colorado remains one of the most progressive states in the country on reproductive rights

Arizona will now send two Democrats to the Senate for the first time since 1951, thanks to the win of ex-astronaut Captain Mark Kelly.

Democrats have flipped the senate seat in Colorado, with the win of former Gov. John Hickenlooper

Mississippi is removing the confederate flag from their symbology

Marie Newman, who has been titled ‘a leader of the pro-choice movement’, will now represent Illinois' 3rd Congressional District in Congress

Nevada became the first state to protect same-sex marriage in it's constitution

Immigrant rights activist and former public defender José Garza won the race for District Attorney of Travis County, Texas

Michigan passed Proposal 20-2, which requires police to have a search warrant to access a person's electronic data and electronic communications.

EVEN MORE UPDATES:

Washington approved Referendum 90, which requires all school districts to provide age appropriate, comprehensive sex ed at all grade levels

Colorado passed the first paid family/ medical leave program

Mississippi passed an ammendment that legalized medical marijuana

Denver overwhelmingly voted to pass Ballot Measure 2J. which lifts the city's more than 30-year-old ban on pit bulls

New Mexico elected all women of color to it’s House delegation

Vermont elected the state’s first openly transgender legislator, Taylor Small

Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, all won re-election in the House

Nebraska passed a constitutional amendment to the state constitution that closes the loophole of the U.S. Constitution’s 13th Amendment that allowed slavery as a punishment for crimes

Rhode Island passed a measure to rename the state, officially naming it Rhode Island and not The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, due to connections to slavery

Oregon passed measure 109, the first state to legalize psilocybin (mushrooms) for mental heath treatments

Hawai’i elected native Hawaiian Kaiali’i “Kai” Kahele, a Democrat, to the House of Representatives. He is one of 6 Native members of the House who will be sworn in in January

Utah passed legislation that removes language from the state constitution that allows the use of slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments (no more prison labor!)

Multnomah county, where most of Portland sits, just voted for tuition-free preschool for everybody ages 4-5 

[offender42085]

Post 0217

Muhamnmad Altantawi, Oakland County (Michigan) inmate 434182, Michigan inmate 724497, born 2001, incarceration (with DOC) intake at age 21, scheduled for earliest possible release 08/19/2052, with full discharge of sentence on 08/19/2077

Homicide

Initially charged with the murder of his mother, arrested as an under 18, and later transferred to adult jail.  Transferred to adult Jail in July 2020, still incarcerated as of February 2022. Matter went to the State Supreme Court, where the court ruled that Police were improper with their questioning. 

At trial, he was convicted in March 2022.

Sentenced to 35-60 years in prison. The roughly five years he's already spent in jail will count toward his sentence.

Nada Huranieh, Al-Tantawi's mother, was 35 when she died in August 2017. Al-Tantawi was 16 at the time. 

A jury found him guilty of premeditated murder in March of 2022. Al-Tantawi pleaded not guilty during trail and has continued to claim he did not kill his mother.

"To say that this was a horrible situation is an understatement," the Judge said. "When the death of one’s mother, as the jury found, is perpetrated by her son, it’s even more heinous."

The jury took just two hours to deliberate, accepting the prosecution's argument that Al-Tantawi smothered his mother with a toxin-soaked cloth and then pushing her already-dead body from a second story window of their home in Farmington Hills.

Having waived his right to an attorney at a hearing in August, Al-Tantawi represented himself Sept. 21. The sentencing took roughly four hours, with most of the event featuring Al-Tantawi's lengthy list of challenges and disagreements with the prosecution's case.

Al-Tantawi, who appealed his sentence minutes after it was read, objected to  the relevance of information gathered at the time of the murder when he was still a teen. He also claimed he's been discriminated against because he's Muslim and the son of Syrian immigrants.

Previously, Al-Tantawi's lawyer at the time appealed that information-gathering process to the Michigan Supreme Court, but the information police gathered during the initial investigation was deemed admissible in court.

Having spent five years in jail, Al-Tantawi argued his more recent past, spending 5 years in jail, should play a bigger role in the judge's decision.

"There is no way this is more relevant than the last five years I’ve had," he said.

The judge denied most of Al-Tantawi's challenges, which included him asking to remove information from police reports and his own descriptions of what happened in 2017. The judge said she'd never sat through a four hour sentencing before this one.

"I sat through a trial," Anderson said. "I’ve sat through five years of this case. I am more intimately familiar with the facts of this case than anyone other than the prosecution and yourself."

Aya Al-Tantawi, one of the convicted's two younger sisters, read a victim impact statement from her mother's family back in Syria, where Huranieh and her husband, who she had been in the process of divorcing at the time of her death, are from.

"Nada was an amazing human who was kind and generous to those in her life," the statement from Huranieh's parents, brothers and sisters reads. "Her life ended in a treacherous and despicable way ... All we wish for is the court provides justice and hold him accountable for his actions."

Aya Al-Tantawi also read her own statement, noting the challenges growing into young adulthood without her mother has brought. She also expressed forgiveness to her brother.  "I have to live with waking up every morning wondering when things are going to be OK," she said.

Al-Tantawi's father, Bassel Al-Tantawi, also read part of a statement before the Judge stopped him. The Judge said the statement wasn't an actual victim impact statement, but a defense of his son.

Huranieh and Bassel Al-Tantawi had been living apart for over a year at the time of her death. Bassel Al-Tantawi had pleaded no contest to a domestic violence charge regarding his wife and was wearing a GPS tether when she died.

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