#migrant children face

[the-peruvian-whovian]

There's no coming back from this. There is no justification. This will always be their legacy. The world will never forget this and I won't let it.

[bloghrexach]

Full article on the brave bishop!!! .... #BishopBudde

"tRump was left in disbelief as he was forced to listen to a woke bishop deliver a stunning sermon calling for him to show 'mercy' to migrants and transgender children.

On the first full day of Trump's presidency Episcopal bishop Marianne Budde unleashed a wild sermon claiming trans kids were 'fearing for their lives' due to him being in the Oval Office."

Trump in disbelief as smug bishop scorns him in stunning lecture

[lastofthemadones]

I’ve seen the memes and I get it. It’s a bunch of rich dudes destroyed by their own arrogance and hubris. It’s really understandable to be cynical. But there was a teenager on that thing. He’d just finished his first year at university. He’d barely glimpsed adulthood and was probably excited to go on an adventure with his dad. I’m so so sad for him.

[reality-detective]

75,000 Missing Migrant Children Found During President Trump's Southern Border Crackdown - Will Biden's Mayorkas Finally Face Justice? 🤔

[hoosbandewan]

No matter who someone votes for does not make them a bad person. If someone votes differently than you and you find that as a reason to not support them then you are part of the problem. I'm thankfully open-minded and glad I can have Democrat and Republican friends and we can all still be friends even with different beliefs and opinions. I don't understand how anyone can have that mindset.... You want Peace and love but are the first ones to throw someone under the bus if they think differently than you do.

And using Ewan to push your thoughts is shameful

Having friends on both sides of the aisle is fine. Having a difference in opinions is fine. I think it can be incredibly damaging for people to get caught in an echo chamber and be surrounded only by people who share their same viewpoint. And the fact that we can all have our own thoughts and opinions is what makes a free country like the U.S. so wonderful.

I even know a good number of Republicans and conservative-leaning people who didn't and wouldn't vote for Trump. And, you see, that's the difference.

Voting for Trump.

You cannot, in good conscience, look me in the eye and tell me that casting a vote for Donald Trump makes you a good person. I could have forgiven a Trump vote in 2016, but not in 2020 and certainly not in 2024.

Trump attempted to overturn a democratic election and was indicted for it. And on that day, he voiced support for the Capitol rioters who wanted to hang his vice president for failing to reject the electoral votes that proved Biden's win.

Trump nominated Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade, a move that has already killed women and will continue killing people. In Texas alone, the maternal death rate rose by 56% between 2019 and 2022, the year that Roe was overturned. Since the reversal, the infant mortality rate has risen by 7% nationally - and by 13% in Texas alone.

Trump is unapologetically and unabashedly racist, displaying repeated and disturbing rhetoric aimed at immigrants, Mexicans, black Americans, Haitians, Muslims, and more. In his first term, he instituted new procedural barriers to prevent immigrants from seeking asylum in America. He put migrant children in cages. He has unjustly called for the death penalty for numerous people of color - remember the Central Park 5?

Trump has threatened to deploy the military and law enforcement to target his political opponents and left-leaning Americans.

Trump rolled back almost 100 policies focused on clean air, water, wildlife, and toxic chemicals in an era when mitigating climate change is more important than ever. And he plans on gutting even more.

Trump is a convicted felon with 34 felony counts under his belt.

Trump has shown time and time again that his views and policies align with fascist ideals. He wants very, very badly to turn the U.S. democracy into an authoritarian regime.

And if this isn't enough, Trump has been endorsed by the KKK since his 2016 campaign. He's the golden child of white supremacists and white nationalists everywhere.

So, yeah. If this is your guy, I don't want fucking anything to do with you.

I am so sick and tired of Trump supporters crying about peace and love and civility and "oh, but where are the tolerant left?" when they turn right around and vote for Donald Trump.

You don’t get to hold abhorrent views and beliefs and then be friends with us. You don’t get to be friendly to our faces all while supporting a man who wants us dead or oppressed. You can't profess to love your fellow Americans if you are condemning them.

I don't want to hang out with racists and fascists. Because if you choose to support and vote for a racist, fascist, misogynistic, dangerous person, then that makes you one, too.

[someone-will-remember-us]

Is Lily Phillips, the young woman who slept with 101 men in 24 hours and now plans to do the same with 1,000, a vulnerable victim of exploitation? Or is she a free agent, making her own choices about her body and what to do with it?

I don’t think the answer to this is remotely complicated. Sure, it is possible to claim that unless Phillips describes herself as a victim, she cannot be one. It’s possible to claim that if feminists fought for a woman’s right to make her own choices, they cannot criticise this one. It’s possible to claim that anyone expressing pity for Phillips is judgemental, “whorephobic”, a dried-up old prude. It’s possible to claim all of these things, but none of that changes what we can all see right in front of us.  

As Julie Bindel has written, “no woman has a fantasy to end up with the type of injuries that will occur from such extreme activities”. One does not have to have any particular expertise in trauma, sexual abuse or disassociation to recognise self-harming behaviour. While false consciousness can be a tricky area for feminists — how close is the protective “you don’t want this really” to the patriarchal “you don’t know your own mind and have no desires of your own”? — there are times when the damage is much too obvious to leave any room for doubt. I cannot look at clips of Phillips in the immediate aftermath of what she “consented” to and think “yes, that woman is fine”. To be able to do so would take some effort. Indeed, I think you’d have to train yourself. 

What worries me in the case of Phillips — and far more broadly, in some branches of feminism and leftist politics as a whole — is that this training has begun to be seen as a virtue. Closing off feelings of compassion has become a way of managing the disconnect between #BeKind, right-side-of-history sloganeering and the abject cruelties of “progressive” industries: the sex trade, commercial surrogacy, “gender-affirming” care. Can’t cope with the cognitive dissonance that comes from witnessing pain caused by your side’s definition of freedom? Then learn not to see it. Learn not to feel. Teach yourself to regard this very feeling as a mark of moral immaturity. 

As I’ve been exploring in my book (Un)kind, there’s an area of “progressive” thought which prides itself on not feeling pity or compassion for any victim of sexual, medical or reproductive exploitation about whom it can be said “but it was a choice”. Even though this flies in the face of what feminists (and others) have long argued about the nature of power and coercion, there are certain choices — frequently ones relating to the bodies of women or children — which get placed in some magical, depoliticised zone. Thereafter anyone who might have a natural, human reaction to another person hurting themselves — at least for “liberatory” reasons — can be dismissed as the possessor of an unsophisticated, lower-order moral sensibility. To their “progressive” betters, feeling sad for the likes of Lily Phillips is all a bit knee-jerk, a bit vulgar, a bit “won’t somebody please think of the children” conservative. 

If you want to demonstrate your superior moral instincts, you must develop the capacity to switch your empathy on and off — off when it comes to the boring, obvious stuff (say, women who are selling their babies or demanding to have their breasts cut off), and on for the more “exciting”, challenging subjects (say, terrorists or sexual abusers threatened by the “carceral state”). Why clutch your pearls over migrant women in mega-brothels when you can be out there demanding restorative justice for rapists?

There is something deeply inhumane about this. It matters to tune into that instant awareness that another person is in pain, even if that person is denying it. It matters to know that some actions are wrong, coercive, abusive, even if the individual who is at the heart of them makes no complaint. I am not saying that “responding” is the be all and end all. The excuses other people make to ignore another person’s suffering can often be the same ones the sufferer herself makes in order to cope with her pain. When no other exit seems possible, “I chose this — I wanted it” can seem like the only way of maintaining dignity. That doesn’t mean everyone else has to buy it, though it does make challenging it fraught.

Thinking about Lily Phillips has also set me thinking about the actor Elliot Page. You may notice that I don’t use Page’s “old” name – the “dead name” — as that would be deemed unkind and dehumanising, not least by those currently cheering on Page’s supposed transition to living his best life as a man. I don’t think I’m alone in looking at Page and seeing someone in tremendous pain, with a history of abuse, taking it out on a body that was never, ever to blame. I hesitate to write more because, well, it’s done now. The same can be said when I see images of teenage females who have had “top surgery” or women who claim to be perfectly happy to indulge the abuse fantasies of male partners or actresses who’ve starved themselves to next to nothing. What’s there to say? It’s done now. They’re even smiling. Why take from these women the stories that they need in order to believe this was what they wanted, and that there was never any other way? Likewise, why say anything about Lily Phillips? Why not let her get on with the 1,000 man challenge and if it appals you, don’t think about it? 

Because this is how we learn to approve atrocities. Even if we cannot save individuals, it’s essential that we remain sensitive to unspoken pain. It’s a pre-requisite to creating the world in which “choices” which are no choices at all never have to be made. Silence isn’t virtuous, even if it has been repackaged as respecting the autonomy of others. We know what’s before our own eyes. We mustn’t ever learn not to see it.

(archive)

[possiblyunhinged]

The men who just discovered the word "whataboutery" are going to be real upset about this one...

Hi, just wanted to swing by and drop some actual facts into the conversation about child sexual exploitation (CSE). Let’s talk about the 2020 Home Office report, commissioned by the Tories themselves.

And guess what it found?

Most offenders were WHITE, BRITISH MEN.

Yes, I’m looking at the disingenuous nonsense spreading across the internet from people who claim to “care about violence against women and children” but can’t be bothered to understand the actual stats.

1 in 4 women in the UK will experience sexual assault. 1 in 10 children in the UK will experience sexual violence.

No political party has done enough to tackle the scale of abuse in this country. And as a society, we fail every single day to give a shit about what children experience in the UK—whether that’s abuse or poverty. It’s not just the government’s ineptitude showing indifference to their suffering. It’s us as a society.

I want a full, national report on the issue. But I also want the government to actually do something to protect children—all children. Children at risk of abuse. Children in poverty. Children whose futures are bleak because both the government and society have abandoned them.

Labour’s plans to make it a criminal offence to fail to report child sexual abuse? Important. Classifying grooming as an aggravating factor in sentencing? Also important. But how are these actions preventing children from getting hurt in the first place? Our infrastructure fails to protect them, miserably and cruelly.

And while we’re here, let me ask the men shouting about “Labour cover-ups” and claiming this is a “migrant issue”: where is your concern for sexual violence as a whole? If protecting women and children is so virtuous, surely you’re also fighting for radical reform of the UK’s rape laws? Surely, you’re outraged by the shockingly low conviction rates? Surely, you care that the MET said violence against women should be treated with the same severity as terrorism? Surely, you listen to women and children—even when you don’t like them or the man they’re accusing?

No? Didn’t think so. The complete lack of knowledge about the scope of the issue, combined with regurgitating whatever Musk and Co spat into your mouth without a second thought, is just embarrassing.

My anger isn’t at people who are upset about child abuse. Although I’m sure some genius will frame this as a “leftie attempt” to excuse Labour. Whatever Musk tells you, baby. Don’t let facts get in the way of your fragile sense of belonging.

My anger is at the disingenuous, racist nonsense that turns this into a “migrant problem” when it’s not. And that rhetoric won’t solve anything. The issue of child abuse in the UK is so much bigger than that, with so many more systemic failures that I don’t even know how a country reckons with its indifference to the suffering of children.

Was race a factor in the failures to act in some cases? Yes. The Jay Report showed that officials feared being called racist, and that fear caused harm. But let’s not forget that his is a home-grown crisis, fuelled by decades of cultural and political neglect.

So, let me remind you... 1 in 10 children. 1 in 10 children. 1 in 10 children.

This isn’t a new problem. This isn’t rare. And the amount of disingenuous BOLLOCKS in the media and online about this is maddening.

Britain doesn’t care about its children. Whether they’re being abused, living in poverty, or going hungry, this country turns a blind eye. And the fact that so many people care more about framing this as a migrant issue, than about actually facing some harsh realities, tells you everything you need to know.

[songofwizardry]

ok I'm not an expert but I'm not seeing much specific info going around here, and there's a lotta Palestine solidarity protests in the UK this weekend, so here is some (including UK-specific) protest info and resources (mostly pulled whole-cloth from Twitter)

policing is heavy at Palestine protests generally

Hamas is a proscribed org under UK law. that means "inviting support" for them or "wearing clothing or displaying articles" that implies you are a supporter is a criminal offence (if you're interested, here's the full list of criminal offences from gov.uk). Palestinian flags etc are ok*, but do not have something that could be mistaken for Hamas imagery. don't go out there looking for convictions pls.

*in spite of what Suella Braverman has implied, the London Muslim Community Forum has just confirmed that the Palestinian flag is not a proscribed flag and is not banned (apologies for quoting the "we advise the met police" group but I thought it was important to have that info explicitly)

don't talk to cops. that includes the police liasion officers in blue bibs.

particularly if you're concerned about your face ending up on social media etc, but also just good practice in general (both in terms of COVID and protest safety)—mask up. cover up tattoos etc.

have bustcards or contact details for protest legal support on you. Green and Black Cross can be contacted on 07946 541 511. write the number on your arm etc.

if you witness an arrest: check if there's a legal observer nearby and if so call them over; if not: if the arrestee doesn't have a bustcard, give them one, find out where they're being taken, and contact eg GBC or a protest support line

if you have the time and can help out, there will likely be arrestee support required after—GBC tend to post callouts on Twitter for this

other links

for particularly children and young people and their families being referred to PREVENT for pro-Palestine statements, contact PREVENTWatch and maybe also Palestine in School (newer initiative I think, I don't have an excessive amount of detail on them just FYI)

Liberty, Migrants Organise and Black Protest Legal Support have bustcards in different languages, including Arabic and Somali (also Liberty's website has lotsa useful info, including advice for disabled protesters, protesting and immigration status, and what to do if you're kettled)

GBC's thread on what to do if you see an arrest is useful, as are all their resources generally

if I've missed anything or made a mistake, lmk—as I said, I am very much not an expert. if you know people who are protesting, pass them the legal support line numbers; if you're attending, stay safe and be vigilant; and ofc carry water.

[lovely-p-issues]

I have this fanfiction idea for times when my English will become acceptable: (it was in my drafts for months and tbh if I didn't post it today like this, with mistakes and stupid parts, I wouldn't have posted it at all, so, sorry ig)

Book 1: The war

How it all started

Let's make Azulon not madly-evil, but just regular-size-evil: he didn't plan to kill Zuko, because it's a stupid idea to get rid of your possible heir, he just wanted to take a son from Ozai - so he decided to make Zuko Iroh's heir, de facto making him Iroh's son (let's not focus on formality, just assume that you can switch your fathers if you are highborn enough)

(Zuko's life isn't in danger, so Ursa doesn't kill Azulon and he'll be ruling at least to the end of that book)

It may seem a great idea (especially in comparison with killing Zuko) but we can't forget that Iroh just lost a son and is still in grief, absolutely not ready to take care of another kid. He still needs to learn how to find a new path and calm his spirit and now he needs to do it with Zuko around him.

Iroh decides to take Zuko with him for his journey - Azulon approves this, seeing his son (and heir) needs to learn how to live after losing Lu Ten and thinking that Iroh may finally teach Zuko some actual fire bending

"I do not want to want to leave, Azula. I'm sorry, little sister."

"Whatever, Zuzu. At least you won't be distracting me from my lessons. Finally, something good comes from this whole fuss around you."

(In fact, she's not happy. Not at all)

______

At this point, Iroh is not yet the nice old man you know from ATLA. He's a broken man, trying to find a purpose in his life, triggered by Zuko's alikeness to Lu Ten and tired of being imposed on things like taking care of a teenager.

He's not Ozai, he's not cruel or even just bad, he just can't force himself to care.

They don't really talk, only sometimes to establish a plan for their further journey. The worst moments are when Iroh calls Zuko Lu Ten's name and then suddenly stops, looking at him in shock. After that kind of incidents, they stay silent for days.

Zuko starts to blame himself for being, well, alive, when his much better cousin is dead. He convinces himself it would be better if he died and Lu Ten lived.

Zuko spends most of his time alone. He hates making Iroh sad and upset so he chooses to stay away. He doesn't know what this all thing with White Lotus, he just likes the idea of his uncle/formal-dad having friends.

Yet, they travel all around the world and for the first time in his life Zuko sees what sharing progress and civilization by Fire Nation looks like. And he doesn't like that.

He's still loyal to his family, so he doesn't believe that his grandfather knows what is happening.

He decides that he needs to make a proper report (soul of writer, ya know).

He makes notes and talks with people, even if he hates how awkward it is. He believes that it's necessary to help them.

I think it's a wonderful idea to see Zuko interviewing - I mean, investigating-

Zuko's raport list - random traders complaining about the difficulty of staying afloat, - migrants who are fleeing war or have lost their homes to fighting, prisoners of war (this doesn't go down too well, thank goodness Zuko is still a kid and his passion seems adorable so no one kills him), - strange ladies in nice outfits who are paid by horrible men for no one knows what, - malnourished scarred soldiers of the Fire Nation, - children of the Earth Kingdom who teach him their stupid game (once he understood the rules, it wasn't THAT stupid, but still), - crazy old ladies, who won't stop pinching his cheeks, - a young girl with a scar on her face who didn't want to tell him much, but Zuko knew what accidental burns looked like and this wasn't one of them, - a group of artists whose theatre burned down after they refused to perform plays approved by the Fire Nation authorities, - a mother who asks him if he knows what happened to her son who was an earth bender and one day. .. just didn't come home

But we all know that Zuko always prefered to act than think. Pretty often Sometimes he disappears for a night. With him disappears an old, theatre mask.

Son came home and left with his mom. Someone left some gold for the soldiers to buy food. Someone bought the most useless things from traders. Someone left burn ointment made by someone who must have grown up surrounded by fire, on the doorstep of the poor girl. And many other, strange things happened.

Of course no one suspects anything or anyone. Trust me. Not a single soul.

______

Zuko is still training but can't even be angry enough to make a big fire. He's just frustrated and that makes him choke with smoke more than anything.

But with every other day, he feels worse. He gets letters from Azula who started to receive more attention from their mother since Zuko was away. When Ozai's influence is limited, she becomes a little more normal. She's still sharp as a knife and dangerous, but feeling loved by both her parents (even if Oazi is more focused on trying to control her and transform her into a weapon) decreases her psychopathic behaviour.

"Mom asked me to take care of your stupid turtle ducks, dum dum"

She thinks he will be happy hearing that she spends time with their mom, and Zuko, honestly, is happy. It's just-

"Am I even still her son since I'm Uncle Iroh's heir?"

-where is his place now?

For the first time in days, he feels an actual rage. And just like this, his fire bending becomes hundreds of times better, even unhinged and dangerous.

Iroh sees this while coming back from meditation (or whatever) and in a second feels that something is wrong.

He reaches out to Zuko, offering him some advice and lessons, but Zuko, a 13-year-old, harmfully lonely and practically neglected at this point prince, can't hold back anymore:

"YOU WANT TO TEACH ME AFTER MONTHS OF IGNORING ME? YOU'RE JUST LIKE FATHER, HE LOOKS AT US ONLY WHEN WE ARE ABOVE EVERYONE ELSE! WHY DIDN'T YOU HELP ME WHEN I COULD NOT HOLD A LITTLE FLAME IN MY HANDS? I DON'T NEED YOUR STUPID ADVICE NOW! YOU WEREN'T THAT WISE WHEN YOU LOST BA SING SE AND GOT LU TEN KILLED"

Iroh sters at him calmly for a few seconds.

"You are right. I wasn't. I'm trying to do better. If you change your mind about training, you know where to find me."

Zuko comes to his Uncle by night.

They don't really train. They drink tea instead.

And it becomes a habit.

After a few days, they start to actually train.

They need to breathe a lot. It's too much for Zuko, but Iroh is rather stubborn about this one.

After a few weeks, for the first time in his life, Zuko feels that fire bending is soothing and just pleasant. It feels like home.

It can't last forever. Of course.

______

They stayed for a long time in the Earth Kingdom. One day Zuko sees Ba Sing Se and vast fields of previous battles, trampled, dry land and piles of burnt bodies.

It's not the work of some mad general or bunch of scared soldiers fighting for their lives. It's his chubby nice tea-loving uncle's work. This is not an accident, an accidental casualty of war. They are the pride of the Fire Nation. This is their honour. This is their civilisation and progress.

That's what his family is doing to the world. Purposely.

Something is breaking inside him. Thoughts of mourning for Lu Ten. No one has ever mentioned all those bodies, the people who died here too. His uncle, his good uncle, his father, the pride of his Nation, only cried over his son. He never even hesitated to burn to a crisp anyone who defended his home. Against them.

Zuko isn't very smart, as we know. He screams a lot at Iroh. And then he leaves.

He thinks to himself, that Lu Ten, who actually fought in those battles would understand that it was wrong. But Lu Ten would also know what to do about it.

He wanders for days, trying to avoid people, untill

He crushes into something.

"Why are you running, flame-boy? Your pants are on fire?" *wild laugh*

And this is how Prince Zuko met Lady Toph Beifong.

[djuvlipen]

Of course media representation is important, especially for children who grow up and always see their people depicted as thieves, criminals, spirits with a special bond with the devil itself, be it on TV, in movies, in cartoons, in books, etc etc. Of course it is important to give acting opportunities to aspiring Romani actors.

But media representation isn't the main purveyor of anti-Romani violence in the world. 80% of Romani people in Europe live below the poverty rate. Romani women are disproportionately impacted by the sex trade. In many places in Europe (both Eastern and Western), Romani people are still segregated in neighbourhoods and at school, our access to healthcare is poorer and our life expectancy is 15 years shorter than the European average. Every month or so, we have to hear about anti-Romani protests held by Neo-Nazis in Europe, about a Romani person killed by the police, or about pogroms carried against Romani people.

So while it is good to talk about media representation, it becomes a problem - a big problem - when it receives much more attention and engagement than actual acts of brutality against Romani people. I have seen hundreds of posts on here and on Twitter, I have seen leftist influencers talk about it on Tiktok, but where was this energy last week when a romani man was murdered in france? when romani children were stripped away from their parents in leeds? when is that energy every other day of the year when Romani people (and women in particular) have to face poverty, homelessness and segregation, are at risk of human trafficking, get discriminated against in the workplace?

While it is good to advocate for better Romani representation now and then, media representation won't fix any of these issues. You can't place that much hope into TV shows and movies. Media and culture aren't powerful enough to get rid of social/economic oppression. Quite the contrary; it is the economical and social marginalization of Romani people that leads to racism in media and culture. And at the end of the day, it feels very callous and disheartening to see so many people care more about fictional Romani people than they do actual, breathing Romani people. If you actually want to support Romani people's rights, then you should redirect all of that energy into supporting causes that actually address the root of Romani people's oppression:

reparation and acknowledgement of the Holocaust and Romani slavery,

boosting conversations about segregation,

holding the police accountable when they kill a Romani person,

abolishing the sex trade,

supporting Romani women's reproductive rights (compensation for forced sterilization + better access to abortion facilities)

supporting homeless people's and migrant people's human rights

[mariacallous]

People often say to me that I wouldn’t personally be affected by a second Donald Trump presidency. After all, I live in a blue city in a blue state, and I’m a married, heterosexual woman who isn’t looking to have any more children. I won’t need medication like mifepristone for a miscarriage (though I do have girls in my family who I assume will someday want to have children), and I don’t personally rely on the federal government for education, because my kids don’t go to public school.

So, again, how would any of this affect me? The most likely answer is that, as a public-facing person, I will continue to be subjected to threats, as many in the mainstream media already are. But attacks on the media could escalate if Trump returns to power, given that he doesn’t hesitate to demonize journalists and call them out before his millions of followers. And given what Trump says on television, he may target American citizens for unfavorable speech.

“I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within,” he told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News on Sunday. “Sick people, radical-left lunatics. And it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by the National Guard, or, if really necessary, by the military.” The “lunatics” in question could be anyone from protesters to opinion columnists—or even mainstream reporters—he doesn’t agree with. Trump has referred to CBS as a “A FAKE NEWS SCAM” whose operations are “totally illegal,” and has similarly suggested that ABC should lose its broadcast license. 

What would it mean to have a president who, in this fashion, targets what little is left of the free press? It’s hard to fathom, but there’s a world where Trump imitates his strongman friends like Vladimir Putin or Viktor Orbán or Kim Jong Un—all of whom participate in jailing or killing journalists in countries with state-regulated media. He’s already taking a page from Joe McCarthy this election cycle in targeting the “enemies within,” something my family is all too familiar with.

Few aspects of Trump’s second-terms plans are more openly authoritarian than his immigration platform. On Friday, Trump traveled to Aurora, a suburb of Denver, Colorado, where he is shopping “Operation Aurora,” a policy he said would target “every illegal migrant criminal network operating on American soil” by use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. According to the Brennan Center, the law is “a wartime authority that allows the president to detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy nation. The law permits the president to target these immigrants without a hearing and based only on their country of birth or citizenship.” The last time the United States used the Alien Enemies Act, it was to put Japanese and Japanese Americans into internment camps during WWII.

What would internment camps actually entail in the modern day? Well, Trump has talked about deporting up to 20 million undocumented immigrants—an operation of staggering scale that he freely admits will be “bloody.” (The Department of Homeland Security, in 2018, estimated there were 11.4 million undocumented immigrants; Pew put the number at roughly 11 million in 2022.) It’s impossible to imagine what deporting that many people would really look like; maybe blue-state governors would be strong enough to prevent deportation camps from being built in states like California and New York. Maybe the camps would only be in red states, or maybe they’d be erected on federal land, like national parks. Then there’s the question of who would run these camps. Trump, for his part, has mused about using the National Guard. Who would stop any of this, you might ask? Would a Republican Congress stop it? Who would be the grown-ups in the room.

At least during the first Trump administration, the courts prevented Trump from doing some of the things he wanted to do, like ending DACA. But this time, Trump would be starting out with a 6-3 conservative-majority Supreme Court, featuring three justices he appointed. Last year, we saw the Trump-friendly high court issue two rulings that will pretty much serve as a blank check to an emboldened Trump: The first ended the Chevron deference, which will curb the power of federal agencies and expedite the death of regulatory expertise. The other decision, which is perhaps more worrying, Trump would have a blank check to do whatever he wants if he says it’s in the service of the presidency, essentially granting him blanket immunity against any crimes he commits in office. As Ninth Circuit judge and Ronald Reagan appointee Stephen S. Trott wrote, it means that Richard Nixon could have “legally ordered his plumbers to burgle the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist.”

Trump is telling us all about his potential plans: internment camps, going after his enemies foreign and domestic, including, presumably, journalists. Will I be one of them? Will he clamp down on the free press? Will he take away the licenses from networks he deems insufficiently supportive of his presidency?

On the campaign trail, Trump has recently posed a question of his own when it comes to voting for him, asking the crowd, “What the hell do you have to lose?” Actually, a lot. While we don’t know precisely what a second Trump term will look like, it’ll surely be chaotic and bleak, and could mark the end of something we certainly don’t want to lose: democracy as we know it.

[contemplatingoutlander]

By Morgan McKenzie | mmckenzie@greeleytribune.com PUBLISHED: December 8, 2024 at 6:00 AM MST

Nearly 18 years ago, immigration agents stormed Greeley’s Swift & Co. meatpacking plant to detain and deport undocumented workers.

Some parents never returned home, leaving behind children, while others fled into hiding to avoid the same fate.

As the anniversary of the raids approaches, some leaders in the community worry history will repeat itself with President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to carry out mass deportations of migrants living in the United States without documentation.

Mitzi Moran, CEO of Evans-based Sunrise Community Health, is one of several community leaders voicing concern over Trump’s plan to deport an estimated 11 million undocumented people.

Throughout his campaign, Trump said it’s time to crack down on undocumented Hispanic and Latino immigrants, once referring to them as “poisoning the blood” of the U.S. and repeatedly calling them “criminals.” He’s said he plans to declare a national emergency to launch “the largest deportation program in American history,” enlisting the help of the military.

Trump’s message that an immigration crackdown could improve safety, restore American jobs and reduce government spending resonated with about 50% of voters across the U.S. and more than 59% of Weld County voters.

Households with undocumented immigrants and many who work with immigrants, however, fear deportations will lead to forced separations of families, negative impacts on the economy and food production and the loss of diversity. And they say places like Greeley, with its larger populations of Latino and Hispanic immigrants, would suffer.

In Weld County, Hispanics or Latinos make up 31.3% of the population as of a July 2023 estimate from the U.S. Census. In Greeley, that number rises to about 39.9%. In Greeley-Evans School District 6, nearly 70% of students identify as Hispanic or Latino.

Echoes of 2006

On Dec. 12, 2006, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted raids at six Swift-owned meat processing plants, arresting nearly 1,300 workers who lacked documentation. At the Greeley plant, which is now owned by JBS, ICE detained 273 undocumented workers out of 2,200 employees.

Concerns about Swift employees engaging in identity theft sparked an investigation that led to the raids, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.  [...] Across the nation, undocumented workers stopped reporting to work out of fear of future raids. Swift, with an estimated 23% of undocumented immigrants serving as production workers at the time, had to replenish its depleted workforce, the Center detailed. [...]

The day of the raids, more than 200 children in the Greeley area were left behind at school as they lost one or both of their parents. The separation of families shook the community, and organizations like United Way had to step up to figure out what to do for children who had nowhere to go.

“Everyone was involved,” Juan Gomez said. “Not just the parent was affected, but the family was affected … the community was affected.”

[Below the cut are more excerpts from this excellent example of local reporting by Morgan McKenzie for the Greeley Tribune, Greeley, Colorado.]

Gomez serves as the vice chairman of the Sunrise Community Health board and works with Sunrise’s migrant farmers program.

Repercussions of the raids lasted for years. Undocumented residents and people with undocumented family members were too afraid to seek services or report crimes against them, Moran said. [...] At an election watch party, Deb Suniga, who runs public relations for the Latino Coalition of Weld County, felt the room full of women, members of the LGBTQ+ community and those who identify as Hispanic or Latino “go numb” when the first round of results came in with Trump in the lead. [...] They anticipate Trump will move forward on mass deportation plans with full force based on recent moves like naming Tom Homan, former acting ICE director, as the incoming “border czar.” Trump also promised to utilize the National Guard to assist with deportations, despite federal law typically prohibiting the military’s role in engaging with domestic law enforcement, which includes immigration arrests and deportations. [...] Other community leaders who work with immigrant populations question what mass deportations would mean for families and the workforce.

The Sunigas worry entire families, no matter an individual’s citizenship status, will be forced to leave. [...] Economists expect mass deportations to drive up inflation and undercut economic growth, according to an article from Foreign Policy.

Long-term deportation costs are estimated to be $88 billion annually if 1 million people get deported per year, according to the American Immigration Council. This surpasses the Department of Homeland Security’s $62 billion budget in fiscal year 2025. [...] Supporters of deportation say it will give jobs back to Americans, but opponents like Gomez argue citizens won’t fill the roles, citing low pay and harsh conditions. If migrant workers get deported, Gomez anticipates a huge void in the agriculture industry, which is important to Weld County. [...]

Challenging negative stereotypes

Gomez wants Trump and his team to focus on the positive contributions immigrants bring to America just as much as the negative.

Those in support of mass deportation based on the concept that immigrants take advantage of America’s resources are misinformed, Gomez said. Some benefits are available to undocumented immigrants, like emergency Medicaid or free school lunches, but for the most part, they are ineligible for federally funded support. This includes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, regular Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income and more.

Undocumented workers get taxes taken out of their paychecks without getting a tax return, Gomez added.

“That’s what a lot of people don’t understand, they’re still contributing to society, but for the most part, they’re not able to get anything in return,” he said.

A 2024 study funded by the National Institute of Justice examined Texas criminal records from 2012 to 2018. The study found that “undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes and a quarter the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes.”

Research shows no correlation between undocumented immigrants and a rise in violent or property crime from 2007 to 2016 in metro areas around the nation, according to investigations by The New York Times and The Marshall Project. 

The American Immigration Council also looked at data from 1980 to 2022, finding crime rates declined as immigrant populations grew. In 2022, immigrants had doubled to 13.9% of the U.S. population, compared to 6.2% in 1980. However, the total crime rate was 5,900 crimes per 100,000 people in 1980, dropping by 60.4%, to 2,335 crimes per 100,000 people, in 2022. [...] As the nation sits “in a dark cloud” waiting for January, Deb foresees key people from all different groups that represent Latino, LGBTQ+, Black and other populations will come up with “game plans” together.

But first, these communities need to heal and prepare for the changes in a time of anticipation.

“We are stronger together,” Moran said. “We’re stronger united. We’re stronger when we welcome our neighbor.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Gideon Taaffe at MMFA:

During the inaugural prayer service, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde urged President Donald Trump to “have mercy” on undocumented migrants and LGBTQ kids, and right-wing media responded by calling her a “fake bishop” with “deranged political beliefs,” saying her sermon was “heretical” and “satanic,” and claiming she was “forcing left-wing platitudes down everyone’s throat.” 

Budde’s comments about mercy provoked Trump

The bishop leading the inaugural prayer service at Washington National Cathedral made a plea to Trump to “have mercy” on behalf of LGBTQ kids and migrants. “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” said Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C. “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families. Some who fear for their lives.” She added, “They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues.” [NBC News, 1/21/25]

Trump attacked Budde the next day and demanded an apology. He wrote on Truth Social: “The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. … She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA.” [Rolling Stone, 1/22/25]

Appearing on The View, Budde clarified that her responsibility “was to reflect, to pray with the nation for unity” and that her remarks were an attempt to “say we need to treat everyone with dignity, and we need to be merciful.” She stated, “I also realized that unity requires a certain degree of mercy, mercy and compassion and understanding and so knowing that a lot of people, as I said, in our country right now, are really scared, I wanted to take the opportunity in the context of that of service for unity, to say we need to treat everyone with dignity, and we need to be merciful.” She also said she would be open to a one-on-one with Trump, saying, “I could assure him and everyone listening that I would be as respectful as I would with any person, and certainly of his office, for which I have great deal of respect.” [Deadline, 1/22/25]

Faux outrage alert: Right-wing media commentators big angry over Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde asking Trump “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared” to his face.

[probablyasocialecologist]

In Hungary, couples are offered a one-off loan upon the birth of their first child, totaling £25,000. Its repayment is delayed if they bear a second child within six years and written off if they bear a third. In Russia, a “maternity capital” grant is made per child — around £6,000. In Poland, an ongoing benefit known as the Family 500+ allocates around £100 per child per month, after the second child. The results of these schemes have been — in demographic terms — unimpressive. Nonetheless, the Right across Europe and the world have praised them. In Italy, the government has mimicked these Eastern European initiatives in the form of the Family Act, a monthly allowance paid per child; in Greece the government has introduced a £1,000 baby bonus paid after birth.An individualized incentive to procreate has become the mainstay of right-wing pronatalist governments across Europe. In Italy and in Greece, the Right and center right have presented pronatalist policies as a response to the rapidly aging population. References to babies as the wage earners and taxpayers of the future is the acceptable face of pronatalism. It has provided a language with which Britain’s right, constrained by the generally liberal outlook of its fellow citizens, has felt comfortable associating itself. Referencing the falling tax revenue of the childless future, Cates said, “if you think things are underfunded now, just wait for what’s coming down the road.” But in Europe, pronatalism has frequently meant white supremacism. This connection has been made the most explicit in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. At a demography conference in 2020, the far-right conspiracy theory of the “great replacement” was openly referenced by the prime minister and his associates. “There are,” Orbán claimed, “political forces in Europe who want a replacement of population for ideological or other reasons.” To ensure its survival, Europe must, his families’ minister argued, cease to be “the continent of the empty crib.” Cates also, more subtly, talks about the British population falling “below replacement levels,” one of several racist dog whistles in her National Conservatism primetime speech. Pronatalist polices — whether enacted or envisaged — tend to have a quiet twin: anti-immigration lawmaking. In all of Europe’s right-wing states, populist anti-immigration policies have led to militarized borders, ever-decreasing provision for asylum seekers, and the demonization of economic migrants. Poland’s prime minister put it explicitly: “In Germany, billions of euros are spent on support for immigrants, but here these billions of złotys are spent on Polish families.” Cates does so more indirectly: it is immigrants, she claims, who are to blame for the housing crisis leaving “British families” behind. Binding electoral concerns that have tended to speak to women and younger votes — children and homes — to the xenophobic populism of the swaggering masculinity of the Brexit campaign, pronatalism may be a vote winner for the Conservatives.

16 April 2024

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Steve Brodner

* * * * *

A scar on the face of democracy

January 21, 2025

Robert B. Hubbell

Before turning to the ugly events of the official inauguration, I include links to our alternative Substack livestream event featuring Jessica Craven, Jess Piper, Managing Editor Jill Bickett, and me. The documents referenced in the livestream can be accessed here.

Inauguration Day 2025 was a scar on the face of democracy

Inauguration 2025 will be remembered as the Black Mass of democracy, a ceremony that mocked the Constitution and rule of law, exalted obscene wealth, imperiled the future of our children, celebrated insurrectionists, and was capped by the richest man in the world, giving a salute used by the Nazis to demonstrate loyalty to Hitler. The second inaugural of Donald Trump will forever be a scar on the face of democracy.

There is much to cover, so I will focus on ensuring that everyone is up to date on what happened. Because the Trump administration took hundreds of actions today, it will be impossible to cover everything. I will focus on what is important.

Trump's inaugural speech

Trump's speech was pathetic, even by his pathetic standards. His speechwriters tried to restrain his worst instincts, which resulted in a low-energy pablum of Trump's greatest lies, peppered with announcements of illegal and depraved executive orders.

The full text of the speech is here: WhiteHouse.gov, The Inaugural Address. For those who could not bear to watch the ceremony (and that includes me), the written words reveal the lack of substance and pervasive lies. Perhaps it sounded better in the original German. For a flavor of the speech, see Lucian K. Truscott IV (Substack), Listless, uninspired and robotic: Trump’s vision of a “golden age of America” rings hollow | Also arrogant, uninformed, just plain stupid, and as usual, too much makeup.

Trump's speech was filled with lies. For a recitation and fact check of those lies, see AP News, Fact Focus: A look at false and misleading claims Trump made at inaugural events.

However, Trump's speech was bad not merely because it was poorly delivered and filled with lies. No, it was depraved because of its promise to plunge America into chaos.

Below are a few of the major announcements Trump made during his speech:

Declaration of a national emergency at the Southern Border

Send US military troops to the southern border to assist with immigration enforcement (likely illegal)

Designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (a possible prelude to the US military attacking drug cartels in Mexico and South America)

Invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to eliminate foreign gangs (on US soil?)

All cabinet members must work to reduce inflation (Good luck with that!)

Produce the most oil and gas of any nation in the world

End the Green New Deal

Revoke electric vehicle mandate (which does not exist)

Impose tariffs and taxes on foreign nations (not clear how anyone can “tax” a foreign nation)

Establish the “External Revenue Service” to collect taxes from foreign nations.

Establish the Department of Government Efficiency (an illegal committee that violates federal law)

Stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America

Establish a federal policy recognizing only “male” and “female” genders

Change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America

“Take back” the Panama Canal

Shortly after concluding the speech, Trump began issuing executive orders that must be considered as supplements to his speech. Those orders include the following:

Declare an end to birthright citizenship (a violation of the US Constitution)

Close the border to asylum-seeking migrants (a violation of federal law)

Withdraw from the Paris Climate accords

Withdraw from the World Health Organization

Pardoning and commuting the sentences of all 1,500 January 6 insurrectionists

Define sexual identity for federal workers and programs

Remove protections for transgender people in federal prisons

Remove protections for transgender migrants in US custody

Signed precursor orders to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada

Eliminate restrictions on domestic energy production

Loosen standards for vehicle tailpipe emissions and fuel efficiency

Loosen standards for efficiency for major appliances

Eliminate environmental justice programs

Delaying the ban of TikTok in the US (a violation of federal law)

I discuss the implications of the executive orders in Concluding Thoughts.

Musk gives salute used by Nazis in a speech at a post-inaugural event featuring Trump

Trump ran on a wink-and-a-nod to white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Although he could not make his sympathies explicit, he allowed his surrogates to do so.

Trump's number-one billionaire supporter, Elon Musk, has been more explicit in his sympathies for white nationalism, including his support for the German right-wing party with ties to neo-Nazi groups (AfD). On Monday, Musk appeared to drop whatever pretense of deniability he maintained about his affinity for Nazi symbolism and ideology.

During a speech at an arena in Washington D.C. Musk twice saluted the audience with the same hand gesture used by the Nazis to honor Hitler. See The Guardian, Elon Musk appears to make back-to-back fascist salutes at inauguration rally.

Per The Guardian (which includes an embedded video of the salute),

Social media users expressed shock at Musk’s gesture. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University, said: “Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too.” Musk did not immediately comment, though he did repost footage of his remarks that included the second salute and endorsed memes seeking to turn footage of his salutes into jokes. One X user wrote: “Can we please retire the calling people a Nazi thing?” Musk wrote “Yeah exactly” and added a “yawning” emoji.

To reiterate, Twitter users are mocking people who are upset about the apparent Nazi salute, and Musk is endorsing those comments with a sign of his boredom.

Some people are defending Musk, saying that the gesture was “awkward” and not intended to mimic the Nazi salute. The one person who has not raised that defense is Elon Musk. Having raised an implication of support for the Nazi ideology, Musk has chosen to remain silent on the subject.

We must condemn the emerging tolerance for white supremacy and antisemitism. The growing normalization of neo-Nazism understandably threatens millions of Americans. Speak out. Do not leave room for ambiguity. Do not allow silence to fill the room. Whether intentional or not, what Elon Musk did deserves to be condemned and rejected—including by Musk himself.

And the American press has largely been missing in action on this issue. Oh, sure, they have reported the events surrounding the salute and its alleged ambiguous meaning. But none have condemned Musk for allowing the menacing meaning of the salute to hang in the air. Come on, legacy media! If you are going down, you should go down swinging. End with a bang, not a whimper.

CREW and other organizations sue the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for violating federal law

Part of Trump's blitzkrieg of executive orders is designed to make us feel helpless. But advocacy organizations are already fighting back. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed a lawsuit along with several other organizations to force the so-called DOGE committee to comply federal law regarding advisory boards. See DOGE sued to follow the law or cease operations - CREW.

Per the CREW press release,

The so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is operating in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, according to a lawsuit . . . . The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the establishment of DOGE is unlawful, and for the court to force DOGE to comply with the transparency, ethics, records retention and equal representation required under FACA. Currently, DOGE is operating unchecked, without authorization or funding from Congress and is led by unelected billionaires who are not representative of ordinary Americans. DOGE representatives have reportedly already been speaking with agency officials throughout the federal government, and communication is allegedly taking place on Signal, a messaging app known for its auto-delete features. The Federal Advisory Committee Act requires that advisory committees follow a specific authorization process, include a balanced membership, have a clear charter including the scope of the committee’s activities, have meetings open to the public and disclose records to the public.

The plaintiffs in the suit are being represented by CREW and Democracy Forward. Check out their websites and sign up for their newsletters. Both organizations are at the forefront of protecting us from government over-reach and unethical behavior.

The first step to supporting the two organizations seeking to limit Trump's lawlessness is to educate ourselves about their work—and I pledge to do that in the near future! If someone from CREW or Democracy Forward is reading this, I would love to interview a representative of your organization to spread the news about your good work to the readers of this newsletter. Thank you and keep up the good work!

Concluding Thoughts

It is difficult to communicate the extent to which Trump assaulted the Constitution on January 20, 2025. For most presidents, a single instance of a clash with the outer limits of the Constitution or federal law is a defining moment in their presidency. On Monday, Trump

Purported to remove birthright citizenship from the Constitution, which provides that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Purported to create a “pause” in enforcement of a federal law banning TikTok when no such “pause” is authorized by the statute.

Purported to tax foreign countries in violation of existing treaties and international law.

Purported to define gender in a way that will discriminate against more than 1 million transgender people.

Threatened to invade Panama to reclaim the canal in violation of a US treaty with Panama.

But his worst action was to pardon the January 6 insurrectionists. They betrayed their nation and should have been held accountable to prevent future attacks. By pardoning them, Trump has sent the unmistakable message that violence intended to promote his political interests is acceptable and will be pardoned.

On Tuesday, the legacy media in the US should be howling in protest against “Dictator Trump” for assaulting the Constitution as no other president has or ever will. Tuesday will be a litmus test for the future of the legacy media. Sadly, the odds are that they will fail—spectacularly.

So, my friends, it is up to us. No one is coming to save us. We must save ourselves. The first step in that process is to proclaim the imminent threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump. We must not relent, and we must ignore the voices telling us to “calm down” and “chill out.” The twin evils of accommodation and normalization are responsible for our current peril. We cannot repeat those mistakes.

It was a tough day. If you want some perspective and affirmation, check out the discussion in livestream video linked above.

Stay strong, everyone! We are in the thick of the fight already, and we must remain steadfast.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]