#Politics

theonion
theonion

image

Panting excitedly as he trotted from room to room displaying his prized possession, a giddy President Donald Trump was reportedly seen Friday strutting all around the White House with a Nobel Peace Prize in his mouth. “Aw, you can tell the president really loves that thing—he even hides it under his bed at night with his ball and his favorite rabbit toy,” said Secret Service agent Douglas Colman, adding that the Peace Prize’s 24-karat gold plating was holding up remarkably well against all of Trump’s slobber. 

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the oniondonald trumpPoliticsUs politics
scarletsaphire
eisbruch

We will forever hear about the murder of that UnitedHealthcare CEO, but this too is violence, a violence that takes lives pretty much every day but is silent, easy to ignore, easy to accept. Health insurance companies are evil.

weary4u

Btw if you experienced or know of a story like this, or otherwise have insider information on disturbing practices in health insurance, propublica is a great place to submit tips

healthcarehealth insurancepoliticsUS politics
seananmcguire
edwordsmyth

"Friends outside of Minnesota please read. I'm sharing a post written by a personal friend and medical doctor:
Friends outside MN, you need to know what is happening here. Everyone knows that ICE shot and killed a woman here on Wednesday. But that’s not the only thing that’s going on:

  • ICE agents are cruising areas with immigrant-owned businesses, and kidnapping patrons and employees alike. Yesterday they abducted two US citizen employees at a suburban Target, one who was begging them to allow him to go get his passport to show them.
  • ICE is going door to door in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods, asking residents where their immigrant neighbors live. Read that again. If it sounds like something out of your high school history textbook, that’s because it is.
  • ICE is targeting schools and school buses. They pepper sprayed teenagers and abducted two school staff members at the high school up the street from me on Wednesday. Police are literally escorting school buses to ensure children can get to school and home safely. The Minneapolis Public Schools have moved to virtual learning for the next 4 weeks because it’s unsafe for children or teachers to physically come to school.
  • They are targeting hospitals and clinics. Patients are scared and are cancelling their appointments or just not showing up. Kids are missing their checkups and vaccines, folks aren’t getting their cancer care, etc.
  • They are smashing windows in cars and homes.
  • ICE is increasingly picking up Native Americans—again, targeting folks based on skin color alone.
  • They are arresting and beating legal observers. A friend of a friend had her arm broken yesterday. Folks are showing up at local hospitals, brought in in ICE custody, with severe injuries that are absolutely inconsistent with mechanism of injury reported by ICE. (Think: patient appears to have been beaten unconscious, while ICE agent says he slipped and fell.)
    I can’t emphasize enough that these ICE agents do not have warrants. There are 2,000+ agents here and they are simply hunting for anyone that’s not white. It doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen or a green card holder, they will kidnap you first and ask questions later.

    But the community is fighting back.
  • Protests are happening every day.
  • Community groups have been leading know-your-rights sessions for months, often to packed venues.
  • Whistles are being distributed by the thousands, carried on keychains and worn on coat zippers, always at the ready to be blown in warning if ICE is spotted.
  • Drivers are following ICE vehicles, blaring their horns in warning.
  • Businesses are locking their doors even while open to keep employees and customers safe. As I type this, I’m standing guard at the locked door of our neighborhood burrito joint while I wait for my takeout order, so the employees can focus on their jobs. The place is packed with neighbors supporting this small business.
  • Anti-ICE signs are posted everywhere. The community is making it crystal clear that ICE is not welcome here.
  • Parents and neighbors are standing guard outside schools, organizing carpools, and escorting kids to and from school on foot.
  • Parents of kids in Spanish-immersion daycare (there are a LOT of these daycares here!) are keeping their kids home so the teachers don’t have to take the risk of coming to work.
  • Churches and community groups are holding fundraisers to buy and deliver groceries to families who don’t feel safe leaving home.
  • Mutual aid money is going out to folks who can’t make rent because they can’t work or because a breadwinner was abducted, or who need a warm place to stay after their home’s windows were smashed.

    THAT is what is happening here. This fight is ongoing and it’s horrifying to watch. But we are not backing down. To my friends in other cities and states, don’t think for a minute that this won’t happen in your town. It will. Be ready. Learn from us, as we have learned from Portland and Chicago and New York. Fight back. Don’t let us get to the last line of Martin Niemoller’s poem.”

    -Grant Boulanger
bloodmoonlich

Here's an AP news brief with a little more info. It's limited in the way major news outlets are right now but provides context that supports the personal account shared.

politicsUS politicsice
shinobicyrus
shinobicyrus

Article from "The Nation" dated February 28, 2014  The Headline reads: "US Border Agents Intentionally Stepped in Front of Moving Vehicles to Justify Shooting at Them"  Smaller text at the bottom continues: "An internal review of the US Border Patrol raises serious questions about the agency’s use-of-force policy."ALT
A page from "Democracy Now!" dated March 04, 2014 titled: "Report: U.S. Border Agents Stepped in Front of Cars to Justify Shootings"  Text below continues: "U.S. border agents are facing new scrutiny for killing migrants, with 21 civilian deaths reported since 2010. The Los Angeles Times obtained a report by law enforcement experts that criticized the Border Patrol’s “lack of diligence” in investigations and found agents deliberately stepped into the paths of cars, apparently to justify shooting the drivers. U.S. Customs and Border Protection tried to suppress the report, omitting key findings when it was released to members of Congress. In its response to the report, the government rejected its two central recommendations: stopping agents from shooting at cars unless someone inside is trying to kill them, and blocking them from firing at people who are throwing things that cannot cause serious injury. Last week, McClatchy reported that in January a border agent shot and killed a migrant in Arizona who appeared to be on his knees. The agent claimed the victim lunged for his gun."ALT
Screenshot of a Los Angeles Times article with the headline: "Border Patrol’s use of deadly force criticized in report"ALT
"WASHINGTON — Border Patrol agents have deliberately stepped in the path of cars apparently to justify shooting at the drivers and have fired in frustration at people throwing rocks from the Mexican side of the border, according to an independent review of 67 cases that resulted in 19 deaths.  "The report by law enforcement experts criticized the Border Patrol for “lack of diligence” in investigating U.S. agents who had fired their weapons. It also said it was unclear whether the agency “consistently and thoroughly reviews” use-of-deadly-force incidents.  "U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which had commissioned the review, has tried to prevent the scathing 21-page report from coming to light.  "House and Senate oversight committees requested copies last fall but received only a summary that omitted the most controversial findings — that some border agents stood in front of moving vehicles as a pretext to open fire and that agents could have moved away from rock throwers instead of shooting at them."ALT

(Sources: The Nation, Democracy Now!, The Los Angeles Times)

What happened last week was not an aberration. What's been happening since Trump came to power the second time is not unique to his regime.

The US Border Patrol and ICE agents have been using the same playbook to commit murder and brutalize people for years, with documented cases going as far back as the liberal Obama Administration.

The only reason people are paying attention now is that the violence of these fascist institutions have broadened from immigrants to US citizens, in broad daylight and in full view of the entire country.

Support and resources for immigration enforcement in its current form have been a non-partizan issue since its creation in 2002. As resistance to the Trump's regime grows, don't let liberals and centrist commentators get away with saying that ICE under Obama or Biden were doing deportations "the right way" and we just need to clean out Trump-era "bad actors." It's been rotten from the very start, and now this bloodthirsty monster we've been feeding for years has come home with a bigger appetite.

ICEUs politicspolitics
scarletsaphire
the-local-bohg-witch

Do not forget the other victims of ICE

as much as we must mourn and stand in solidarity with Renee Nicole Good, please do not forget the other victims of ice raids, who are not white.

Silverio Villegas González, a cook from mexico who was dropping his son off at daycare and was murdered

Jaime Alanis, a farmer from mexico who fell off a green house at the farm where he worked to send money to his wife and daughter

Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, a father and grandfather from Guatemala who was hit by a car

Josué Castro Rivera, a garden from Honduras who was struck by a car

And so many others who were killed or are dying in detention centres, prisons ect

racial bias is always something we must be aware of, Renee will be focused on because she was a white woman and a US citizen, but do not forget all the other victims of ICE, may they all rest in power

iceimmigrationpoliticsUS politics
peachdoxie
going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi

if sex work was legal the workers could unionize

going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi

I am fully serious about this btw. not "pro sex work" as in "there are no issues whatsoever within the industry", but "pro sex work" as in "these are jobs and the workers should be a) allowed to work and b) protected from their customers by the law"

going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi

people responding to this with stuff like "but that would just put sex workers in the same exploited position as uber drivers, cleaners, migrant workers, etc" and yes! good point! reform all of it! keep going!

Sex workUnionsPolitics