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Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#272651: Feb 23rd 2019 at 3:10:37 PM

Something related to plane safety I imagine

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#272652: Feb 23rd 2019 at 4:00:17 PM

Remember how Trump personally claimed responsibility for there being no fatal air crashes in 2017?

"Yup. That tasted purple."
HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#272653: Feb 23rd 2019 at 4:04:35 PM

Trump would claim responsability for the existence of oxygen if it meant boosting his own ego.

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#272654: Feb 23rd 2019 at 4:37:25 PM

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2019/02/report-missing-migrant-children-being-funneled-through-christian-adoption-agency/

Fun fact: We've found some of Trump's missing children stolen from refugee parents. Well found where they disappeared to more than actually found. It seems that our government has been funneling a lot of them towards a company called "Bethany Christian Services", an adoption agency that only gives children to the Right sort of Christian parents. This, of course, pays no respect to the religion the children might have been raised with until now. Naturally, Trump thinks it would emotionally scar the children to be ripped away from their new parents to be given back to their actual parents.

Funny that wasn't a concern originally. Oh, guess who makes money out of this arrangement. Starts with De, ends with Vos. Taxpayer money goes right into her pocket for every child thus "protected"... from their parents.

In a sane world, this stealing children story would have been enough to impeach Trump, right? I haven't lost all sense of priority or anything, yes? Please?

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#272655: Feb 23rd 2019 at 4:38:28 PM

Didn't we already know that was a thing? I'm pretty sure that's come up before.

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#272656: Feb 23rd 2019 at 4:41:23 PM

My apologies.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Oruka Since: Dec, 2018
#272657: Feb 23rd 2019 at 4:47:32 PM

"Oruka prepares a salvo."

I don't.

I've got nothing to say. Well, I have a lot I want to say, but advocating for drastic unlawful action is a crime. Even in the face of a system that can't seem to impeach given what we know.

Edited by Oruka on Feb 23rd 2019 at 4:49:21 AM

AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#272658: Feb 23rd 2019 at 5:31:25 PM

I think knowing the specific agency being used for this (or at least one of them) is new, though. Since we know which agency, that means the people putting pressure on can put that pressure on a specific place now. Which I hope they do, because as upsetting as it is to break up new adopted families (And I do have sympathy for the adopted parents, as this is not their fault), it's criminal to continue keeping apart children who were outright stolen from their birth families when we know right where they all are.

In any case, no, I don't think this is impeachable as an offense. As infuriating as it all is.

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#272659: Feb 23rd 2019 at 6:52:39 PM

I don’t have much, if any sympathy for the adoptive parents, and it likely is their fault.

If you’re gonna adopt, you do your research. Adoption is a complicated and expensive legal process. Getting kids from this type of adoption agency, let alone traumatized Latinx kids, should raise a MILLION red flags.

The only ones adopting from that type of agency are either unforgivably ignorant and didn’t do their research, or are blatantly racist fundamentalists who believe that erasing brown children’s families and culture is the “Christian” thing to do.

I’m gonna have to adopt someday myself, and I know it’s going to be a serious responsibility to do the research and make sure adopt ethically, not steal someone’s child.

Edited by wisewillow on Feb 23rd 2019 at 9:53:22 AM

DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#272660: Feb 23rd 2019 at 7:08:17 PM

To the best of my knowledge, none of these children have been adopted, they have all been placed in foster care, a different, temporary, arrangement.

The policy decision to separate children from their parents, and then deport the parents without their children, was an inhumane and catastrophic mistake, but I'm not sure to what extent the foster care placement agency is at fault. The De Vos family has donated money to Bethany Christian Services, and members of the De Vos family have served on their board of executives, but I am aware of no evidence that the De Vos receives any profits from the non-profit agency (which, if true, would be a violation of tax laws). So far as I know they are just a sub-contractor who receives children from the government and places them in foster families.

This particular service organization has been controversial in the past. Their mission is based around a set of explicit Christian beliefs, and they have refused in the past to place children with LGBT families. I dont know in what way, if at all, any of that has had an impact on the refugee children. I also dont know if any of the children placed in foster care are in touch with their parents, or if any of them have been returned.

Source

Lets put blame squarely where the blame goes: With the Trump administration:

"The Trump administration argued in court earlier this week that reuniting migrant children separated from their parents at the border would require too much effort and “would present grave child welfare concerns”, as the children would be traumatized by leaving their current sponsors’ homes." Source

There are no words to describe the depth of the hypocrisy.

Edited by DeMarquis on Feb 23rd 2019 at 10:13:03 AM

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#272661: Feb 23rd 2019 at 7:11:57 PM

You realize couples pay to adopt, right? Bethany makes money from adopting kids out. It’s basically human trafficking with good PR.

DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#272662: Feb 23rd 2019 at 7:14:44 PM

They arent being adopted. And yes, the service organization are receiving grants to place these children in foster care, no one would do that for free. The agencies are not the ones separating the families, and given that the Trump administration makes the decision to separate them, unless you want the children to stay in jail, they have to be put somewhere.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#272663: Feb 23rd 2019 at 7:58:00 PM

Please read the article link. It goes into a lot of detail about how and why adoption agencies like Bethany are exploitative.

Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
#272664: Feb 23rd 2019 at 8:09:13 PM

[up][up][up]What isn't happening (sadly) is actual money going to DeVos. I say sadly because if we could prove that kind of kickback happening, then that'd be a hell of an episode of Mueller Time.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#272665: Feb 23rd 2019 at 8:45:37 PM

Man, De Vos is actually giving her scum sucking mercenary war criminal of a brother a run for his money...

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#272666: Feb 23rd 2019 at 10:36:42 PM

@Wisewillow: I did read the article. It is careful to point out that so far no refugee children separated from their parents by the Trump administration have been adopted by American parents. They are merely concerned that this might happen (which I agree would be terribly wrong).

The problems they describe regarding the history of international adoption and evangelical organizations are a different issue. The horror stories they recount in underdeveloped places like Guatemala and Haiti are accurate, which is why when I adopted my own children I was careful to avoid them (my own children are adopted from Russia). For obvious reasons, I am concerned that not all international adoptions be tainted by the most egregious cases.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#272667: Feb 24th 2019 at 5:13:42 AM

So what is up with this: Trump’s Secret to Victory in 2020: Hispanic Voters. While I can believe that 1/3 approval rating I think it's cherry picking polls and making trend projections, and these seldom work in politics. Besides, historically it's white voters that make up a tipping point.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#272668: Feb 24th 2019 at 6:33:58 AM

It’s point about Trump making gains with Hispanics is pure cherry picking, the wider point that Hispanics are voting almost the same as non-Hispanic whites however is backed by data.

Basically Trump won’t win or loose in 2020 because of Hispanics, it will be because of his general trend of popularity.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#272669: Feb 24th 2019 at 6:46:11 AM

For those who are still unsure or skeptical of the Green New Deal, I found an article that rather strongly and (in my view) effectively argues for it, Green New Deal is feasible and affordable

To preface it, the writer is not some random far-left idealogue but rather a respected economist with an extensive resume.

They methodically go through the main objectives of the Green New Deal and how they are affordable and efficacious, with ample evidence to boot! It also goes over how the Green New Deal should be advanced through currying favor with state governments.

The article isn't super long but it has quite effectively eliminated any doubts that I've had, I'd recommend anyone who's interested (or the aforementioned groups) to read it smile

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
TheWanderer Student of Story from Somewhere in New England (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
Student of Story
#272670: Feb 24th 2019 at 7:36:21 AM

Hate crimes are becoming the new climate change in America; whether you believe it's happening depends on your political affiliation. The Right's response is to shout "fake news".

On Tuesday, Tucker Carlson of Fox News began a segment on “hate crime hoaxes.” He called the case of Jussie Smollett “exceptional, but only to the extent that it has received much more publicity than most hate hoaxes — and there are many of them."

Then on Thursday, radio host Rush Limbaugh said the “left is nothing but phony hate crimes, phony alleged hate crimes, phony charges, made-up stories.”

Hate crime is increasingly becoming a political weapon, with some conservatives seizing on the recent arrest of Smollett, who is accused of concocting a racist and homophobic attack, to spread the belief that hoaxes are fueling the rise in hate crimes in America. Conservative news outlets are now routinely publishing pieces that list chronologies of “hate hoaxes.” Websites, bearing names like “fakehatecrimes.org,” are categorizing every perceived incident. A Republican lawmaker in Minnesota said this week he planned to introduce legislation to crack down on false reports of hate crimes, lamenting on Twitter “the recent rise in fake victimization.” And a conservative publishing house will publish a book next week based on the notion that “we’re not experiencing an epidemic of hate crimes … but we might be experiencing an unprecedented epidemic of hate crime hoaxes.”

The nascent culture war over hate crime obfuscates what researchers call the empirical truth of hate crimes: They are rising in America. And exceptionally few are hoaxes.

“What’s been disturbing in the sciences is that we’ve gone from fair-minded professional critiques to downright conspiracy theories,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino. “The American public has a right to know [hate crime facts] but there is an orchestrated campaign by political pundits not to only point out limitations in the data — which is appropriate — but to obscure the real information that is out there.”

The number of hate-crime incidents rose 17 percent in 2017, according to the FBI, which doesn’t track the rate of false allegations. Hate crimes have grown in major American cities in each of the last five years, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. The trend has been particularly pronounced in places like Washington, D.C., where the number of hate crimes has nearly doubled since 2016. Since then, according to the center’s preliminary figures, there have been fewer than 50 false reports of a hate crime across America, out of an estimated 21,000 reported hate crimes over that time period — a rate of 0.3 percent.

“I’ve been doing this since the 1980s, and we don’t have any indication where lying about this is a widespread phenomenon,” said Jack Mc Devitt, director of the Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University in Boston.

The tendency to dispute claims of hate crimes — that victims are making it up for attention — has historical roots. There were allegations during the mid-1990s that some burnings of black churches — carried out by young white male racists — were made up, said James Nolan, a hate crime expert with West Virginia University. White supremacist groups have for years called hate crimes faked or described whites as their true victims. But such allegations have accelerated in a media environment where news stations and websites have clear political leanings, social media amplifies every political difference, and accusations of “fake news” and “media hoaxes” are regular and pervasive.

...

The divisiveness has made political targets out of some researchers charting the rise of hate crime in the country. Brian Levin says he has been accused of being funded by George Soros, the billionaire investor and liberal donor, or Nicolás Maduro, the embattled socialist Venezuelan president. He said he often gets phone calls from people angry about what his work has shown — the product, he said, of an “orchestrated attack against truth.” He played one of them for a Washington Post reporter.

“You liberal lib,” the voice mail said. “There are not as many white supremacists or whatever as there are this piece of trash on the left who has been paid to create more hate. … It’s horrible how you left has created so much hate in America.”

~60% of immigrants being held by ICE in their detention facilities have no criminal record. And on a related note, The rate at which the Trump admin is detaining and arresting immigrants is only accelerating the longer Trump is in office.

Before President Trump declared a national emergency on the U.S. southern border on Feb. 15, he cited concerns that the United States was being flooded with murderers, kidnappers and other violent offenders from foreign countries.

According to new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement figures obtained by The Washington Post, the nation’s immigration jails were not filled with such criminals. As of Feb. 9, days before the president’s declaration, nearly 63 percent of the detainees in ICE jails had not been convicted of any crime.

Of the 48,793 immigrants jailed on Feb. 9, the ICE data shows, 18,124 had criminal records. An additional 5,715 people had pending criminal charges, officials said, but they did not provide details. ICE also did not break down the severity of the crimes committed by or attributed to detainees.

An average of 59 percent of detainees in custody during this fiscal year had no criminal history, according to ICE.

“It proves this is a fake emergency,” said Kevin Appleby, policy director at the Center for Migration Studies, a New York-based nonpartisan immigration think tank. “It really shows that what the president’s doing is abusing his power based on false information.”

The number of undocumented immigrants arrested under the Trump administration continued to rise in 2018, hitting the highest number since 2014 and marking an 11% increase from the year before, according to a report released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Friday.

Overall, ICE arrested 158,581 undocumented immigrants in fiscal year 2018, an increase from previous years driven by greater detention numbers of immigrants who have criminal charges but have not yet been prosecuted, and individuals with other immigration violations.

Also, also, Trump sending ICE out to try to round up every undocumented immigrant has stolen money and resources from his favorite thing to bang on about: human trafficking/border smuggling.

In his quest to build a border wall, President Donald Trump has warned of jobs stolen from American workers, suburbs terrorized by criminal aliens, and desperate migrant caravans headed north. Lately, though, he has found a favorite new target in the “ruthless coyotes” and “vicious cartels” that smuggle migrants into the United States. “Tolerance for illegal immigration is not compassionate — it is actually very cruel,” Trump said in his State of the Union speech. “Smugglers use migrant children as human pawns to exploit our laws and gain access to our country.”

Yet Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies have made America’s historically weak anti-smuggling efforts even weaker. Over the past two years, as smuggling networks have thrived, the Department of Homeland Security has shifted money and manpower away from more complex investigations to support the administration’s all-out push to arrest, detain and deport illegal immigrants. Hundreds of agents have been temporarily reassigned to low-level enforcement tasks like checking businesses for undocumented workers or locating foreigners who overstayed their visas. Some investigators’ travel has been curtailed, officials said; others have lost funds to pay informants.

In the first full fiscal year of Trump’s presidency, the number of new human smuggling cases launched by Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, the investigative arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, dropped from 3,920 to 1,671, a decline of almost 60 percent. Even more than in the past, the agency has focused its anti-smuggling efforts on low-level “coyotes” caught in the act of sneaking migrants into the country or transporting them inside the United States, current and former officials said. The Human Smuggling Cell, a special intelligence unit set up within ICE to support more ambitious migrant-smuggling efforts, has dwindled to less than half the staff it had in 2016.

Some more far-reaching investigations continue, with intermittent help from intelligence agencies and coordination with foreign governments. But those cases are heavily concentrated on a tiny fraction of illegal immigration from Middle Eastern and South Asian nations where Islamist terrorist groups have a presence. Absent a link to terrorism, the CIA and other intelligence agencies have shown little interest in combating smuggling networks, despite their growing sophistication and links to drug trafficking organizations.

“The emphasis on low-level enforcement is detracting from the mission of going after the smuggling rings,” a former senior HSI official, John Connolly, said in an interview. “It’s like focusing on drug users and small-time dealers instead of the cartels and the drug lords.”

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#272671: Feb 24th 2019 at 8:17:15 AM

On the subject of ICE detaining immigrants, a political podcast I listen to, Abe Lincolns Top Hat, brought up an older story (Dated Jan 30, 2019) one host, Ben Kissel, was surprised wasn't making bigger news. I can't recall offhand if it ever came up here:

Feds set up fake university in Michigan to nab undocumented immigrants

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/01/30/farmington-university-immigrant-arrests/2727080002/

The Department of Homeland Security set up a fake university in Farmington, MI with the stated intent of during in immigrants who were committing or helping others commit Visa fraud.

Though Kissel interpreted it as trying to simply snare non-whites who legitimately wanted an education, as the way the fake school was set up even if you did due diligence to check it out it was faked very well.

As another article by the Guardian explains, "The University of Farmington website described a college that would prepare students to succeed in an 'ever-globalizing economy'. Students would show up at campus wearing backpacks and asking questions about classes. The US government listed Farmington as eligible to enroll foreign students. The school president, whose Linked In page is still online, sent emails to students describing his institution as 'a nationally accredited institution authorized to enroll international students'. But it was all a sham to snare immigrants." with ICE claiming the students knew going in that the school was fake.

Edited by sgamer82 on Feb 24th 2019 at 9:17:40 AM

Robrecht Your friendly neighbourhood Regent from The Netherlands Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
Your friendly neighbourhood Regent
#272672: Feb 24th 2019 at 8:30:51 AM

“It’s like focusing on drug users and small-time dealers instead of the cartels and the drug lords.”

Yes, person interviewed in the article. It's exactly like that.

Because it's also the (ab)use of law enforcement to do horrible shit to brown people while completely ignoring the root causes of problem that the programme is supposed to fix.

Angry gets shit done.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#272673: Feb 24th 2019 at 8:33:36 AM

IMO the reason why that is happening is because the "smuggling/trafficking" angle is just a cover for "kicking immigrants out"; it's not the main point of the policy and thus it doesn't get emphasis.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Oruka Since: Dec, 2018
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#272675: Feb 24th 2019 at 9:04:34 AM

If the last several years have taught me anything, it's this: Conservatives, as a whole, have no bottom.


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