Jonathan Blitzer, Staff Writer - The New Yorkerg
Stephan: Remember Flint, Michigan, people are still drinking bottled water. Remember Puerto Rico, people are still without electricity. Remember Houston. Whole neighborhoods are still destroyed. So what do you think is going to happen with those thousands of children ripped from their parents' arms? Is there a plan to reunite them? As this article lays out there is not.
The country that through the Marshall Plan helped to reconstruct Europe, has lost the skill, and the commitment. Instead we are damaging the lives of children who are being held hostage to compel the congress to pay $50 billion for the orange monster's wall. I never thought I would see any thing like this in the United States.
In the past two months, under the Trump Administration’s zero-tolerance policy, the government has taken some two thousand immigrant children away from their parents.
Credit:John Moore / Getty
A few days ago, Emily Kephart, a program coördinator at an immigrant-rights group called Kids in Need of Defense, set out to try to find a six-year-old Guatemalan girl who had been separated from her father after arriving in the United States, in May. The pair had been split up as a consequence of the Trump Administration’s zero-tolerance policy at the border, which calls for the criminal prosecution of all migrants, including asylum seekers, who cross the border without turning themselves in to officials at so-called ports of entry. Now the father was in an immigration-detention facility in Arizona, awaiting deportation. He had no idea where his child was. Kephart was put on the case after the father called his family, back in a small town outside of Huehuetenango City, in Guatemala’s western highlands, and his family, in turn, contacted a local nonprofit that works […]
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Heather Timmons, - Quartz
Stephan: This, in my opinion, is nothing but an American crime against humanity. I don't know how you feel about this, but I think this deserves jail time for the President on down. This is not America. At least not the America I grew up in, served in the Army for, or worked in the Department of the Navy to transform the military. This is Nazism and thuggery.
The new Trump administration policy that automatically separates families at the US’s southern border has likely resulted in thousands of children, some as young as a year old, being taken from the parents.
Over 40,000 people were apprehended at the US’s southwest border in May, including more than 9,400 families, and Customs and Border Protection has been ordered to separate all parents crossing between legal ports of entry from their kids. The US government is running out of room to house them all, and the government may build a “tent city” that shelters from 1,000 to 5,000 kids near El Paso, Texas.
Breastfeeding babies are reportedly being taken from their mothers; others are reportedly being taken under false pretenses, as authorities tell parents they are just going to give them a bath). Nearly 1,500 immigrant boys are locked indoors in a former Walmart in Texas, for 22 hours a day.
The situation is sparking a horrified backlash across the US, including from many religious groups. One huge unanswered question remains: How will all […]
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Gideon Resnick, - The Daily Beast
Stephan: It is my view that in America we now have an organized, well-funded, White Supremacist, christofascist fifth column actively working to destroy the American democracy. These people continue to support Trump, perfectly comfortable with his sociopathic behavior, corruption, compulsive lying, and self-enrichment. How strong is their commitment to the orange monster? Here's the latest poll and, as you read this consider this:
Although the Nazi Party had become very powerful, they lost by close to two million votes in the November 1932 Reichstag elections, which meant that they only had 33 percent of the vote, and not the majority they needed. Papen, who wanted the position of vice chancellor and thought he could control Hitler, convinced Hindenburg to form a coalition with the Nazis and appoint Hitler as chancellor. Hindenburg finally gave in and appointed Hitler as chancellor. Hitler’s final grab for power was when he negotiated with the Reichstag members to give him temporary “emergency” powers for four years, enabling him to act without the consent of parliament or the German constitution. While negotiations were taking place, his large military force was surrounding parliament with the threat of war, should they refuse. They didn’t have much of a choice but grant him what he wanted and Hitler became absolute ruler of Germany.
It's time to wake up America, before America has disappeared.
Trump supporter gives the finger to media.
Credit: Reuters/Bryan Woolston TEMPLATE OUT
Nearly every day, voters have been confronted with heart wrenching stories about immigrant children being separated from their parents upon crossing the border into the United States.
The president incorrectly blames his administration’s policy on Democrats, but regardless of his attempt to pass the responsibility, self-identified Republicans have his back, according to a new Ipsos poll done exclusively for The Daily Beast.
The poll of roughly 1,000 adults aged 18 and over, and conducted June 14-15, asked respondents if they agreed with the following statement: “It is appropriate to separate undocumented immigrant parents from their children when they cross the border in order to discourage others from crossing the border illegally.”
Of those surveyed, 27 percent of the overall respondents agreed with it, while 56% disagreed with the statement. Yet, Republicans leaned slightly more in favor, with 46% agreeing with the statement and 32 percent disagreeing. Meanwhile, 14 percent of Democrats surveyed supported it and only 29% of […]
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Jan Hoffman, - The New York Times
Stephan: Yet another alarm bell ringing to warn us the American culture is sick and getting sicker. In response the Democrats are inept, the Republicans are pusillanimous and corrupt, and a large segment of the population is defined by its racism and its allegiance to a perverse and nasty form of Christian cultism. The result, which should surprise no one, is a society coming apart at the seams.
Condom use is declining among sexually active teens, a federal survey found.
CreditFrederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse
One in seven high school students reported misusing prescription opioids, one of several disturbing results in a nationwide survey of teenagers that revealed a growing sense of fear and despair among youth in the United States.
The numbers of teenagers reporting “feelings of sadness or hopelessness,” suicidal thoughts, and days absent from school out of fear of violence or bullying have all risen since 2007. The increases were particularly pointed among lesbian, gay and bisexual high school students.
Nationally, 1 in 5 students reported being bullied at school; 1 in 10 female students and 1 in 28 male students reported having been physically forced to have sex.
“An adolescent’s world can be bleak,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which conducted the survey and analyzed the data. “But having a high proportion of students report […]
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Terry Schwadron, DC Report New York Editor - DC Report
Stephan: I think it is very interesting that the Republicans really don't get that universal healthcare is much cheaper, and produces a healthier and more productive society. It is a glaring example of willful ignorance, which is made possible, only because a large percentage of Americans agree -- even though they are the ones being harmed.
Credit: The New York Times
While Trump preens in the afterglow of his questionable achievements at the negotiating table with North Korea, let’s take a look elsewhere—at the Trump administration decision to abandon Obamacare requirements that health insurance cover pre-existing conditions.
Late last week, the government said in filings in a federal court case that the requirement to cover those who need healthcare the most will become “unconstitutional” next year as well as protections forbidding insurers to deny coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions.
Indeed, the Justice Department declined to defend the federal law in a suit brought by states against the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Just how that fits with an administration that seems fixated on “law and order” is a little hard to explain, but if it comes down to defending a law with which the administration disagrees, I guess that is within bounds.
The Health and Human Services secretary, Alex Azar, told a congressional hearing on Tuesday that he wants to preserve access to affordable insurance for those […]
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