Saturday, September 14th, 2019
Stef W. Kight and Juliet Bartz, - AXIOS
Credit: Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty
Several federal efforts to combat human trafficking in the U.S. have slowed under the Trump administration, according to government data and human trafficking advocates.
Why it matters: There are thousands of trafficking victims in the U.S. — including children trafficked into prostitution as well as agricultural and domestic workers who are paid little or nothing. But the Trump administration has cut back on prosecutions of these crimes and assistance to victims.
By the numbers: Last year, the National Human Trafficking Hotline identified almost 15,000 people who were most likely trafficked. That’s more than any year since at least 2012.
- But prosecutions are down: The number of defendants charged with human trafficking by federal attorneys fell to 386 last year, from 553 in 2017, according to the State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.
- So far this year, federal attorneys have prosecuted 39% of the cases referred to them with child sex trafficking as the lead charge, according to data collected by Syracuse […]
Leave a CommentSaturday, September 14th, 2019
Darwin BondGraham, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: You want to know the difference between Republican governance and Democratic governance? Read this story.
Immigrant detainees eat lunch at the Adelanto detention facility in 2013 in Adelanto, California. Credit: John Moore/Getty
SAN FRANCISCO — The private prison industry is set to be upended after California lawmakers passed a bill on Wednesday banning the facilities from operating in the state. The move will probably also close down four large immigration detention facilities that can hold up to 4,500 people at a time.
The legislation is being hailed as a major victory for criminal justice reform because it removes the profit motive from incarceration. It also marks a dramatic departure from California’s past, when private prisons were relied on to reduce crowding in state-run facilities.
Private prison companies used to view California as one of their fastest-growing markets. As recently as 2016, private prisons locked up approximately 7,000 Californians, about 5% of the state’s total prison population, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. But in recent years, thousands of inmates have been transferred from private prisons back into state-run facilities. As of June, private prisons held 2,222 of California’s […]
Saturday, September 14th, 2019
Bob Brigham, - Raw Story
Stephan: This should be unbelievable, but it is true. This is the president of the United States, not that crazy guy who lives down the block and rants at the dogs. Really.
President Donald Trump suggested vanity may be the reason why his administration pulled the plug on energy-efficient light bulbs last week.The decision will result in increased costs for consumers.
“We will defeat the Democrat effort to drive up the cost of houses, cars, healthcare and education by liberating Americans from their endless push for job-killing, soul-crushing Washington regulations,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
“We will try to get that done and then they were forcing you to buy light bulbs that cost a fortune. So I signed something a couple of days ago that gives you the right to continue to use the incandescent light bulbs,” he said.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not a vain person. I know I have no vane people — especially these incredible ladies in the front — but I look better under an incandescent light than these lights beaming down on us,” Trump argued, as the camera panned to show the empty rear of the room.Friday, September 13th, 2019
, - Raw Story
Stephan: Moscow Mitch and Grifter Trump aided and abetted by the Republican zombies in the Senate, particularly Lindsey Graham, are slowly transforming the American federal judiciary into a christofascist cabal while the Democrats in the House fail to defend the nation and impeach Trump. The courts that will exist by the time of the election in 2020 will be radically different than the courts of 2016. And the mainstream media, well they run around like our new kitten, Shadow, after one of his little toy mice, oblivious to what is actually going on in the country.
Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell
The Republican-controlled Senate quietly confirmed four more of President Donald Trump’s lifetime federal judicial nominees on Wednesday, bringing the total number of conservative judges successfully appointed by the administration to over 150.
It is a milestone that, according to rights groups, marks the extent to which Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have flooded the nation’s courts with disproportionately young and unqualified right-wing judges who could reshape the judiciary for decades to come.
“Trump’s dangerous takeover of our courts will last a generation. All who care about our civil rights being protected must speak out and demand better.”—Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
“Every network should be covering this,” tweeted the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “Trump’s dangerous takeover of our courts will last a generation. All who care about our civil rights being protected must speak out and demand better.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reacted gleefully on […]
Friday, September 13th, 2019
Jennifer Bendery, - HuffPo
Stephan: When I say that the federal bench will be radically transformed by the 2020 election, I am not kidding. Here are the kind of people Grifter Trump and Moscow Mitch are putting into lifetime appointments. Does this make you feel comfortable and confident in American democracy? No? Me neither.
Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath in his Senate confirmation hearing and blamed politics — not the credible sexual assault allegations against him — for his rocky confirmation process. Is this really someone fit to be a Supreme Court justice?
Credit: Washington Post/GettyWASHINGTON ― Senate Republicans are confirming so many of President Donald Trump’s nominees to lifetime federal court seats, it’s hard to keep up. Who are these people? What difference will they make in my life, anyway?
You’re in luck: We’re going to break it down here!
Two and a half years in, what stands out about Trump’s confirmed judges isn’t just the quantity, which is remarkable ― two Supreme Court justices, a record-breaking 43 appeals court judges and 99 district court judges.
It’s that a chunk of his judges shouldn’t be on the bench at all because they aren’t qualified or they’re so ideologically extreme that it’s next to impossible to imagine […]
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