Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's Journal100+ groups urge DHS to condemn Abbott's 'brazen, cruel, and deadly' Operation Lone Star
A coalition of more than 100 advocacy groups on Thursday implored the Biden administration to "take decisive action to condemn" and "cease involvement" in Operation Lone Star, the deadly anti-immigrant campaign launched in 2021 by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
In a letter to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and senior Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, the 108 groups implored the administration "to investigate and end any collaboration" between Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies and Operation Lone Star (OLS).
"In the two years since Texas initiated OLS, we have repeatedly called on DHS and CBP to cease all forms of cooperation with the program," the letter states. "Nevertheless, to date your agencies have not forcefully disavowed the program or acknowledged the deep harms of Texas' racist and unlawful enforcement operation."
"Federal inaction has emboldened Texas officials to employ increasingly brazen, cruel, and deadly enforcement tactics that have caused family separation, death, and daily violations of the civil and human rights of Black and Brown migrants," the signers added.
https://www.rawstory.com/100-groups-urge-dhs-to-condemn-abbott-s-brazen-cruel-and-operation-lone-star/
Women's soccer teams ditched white shorts at the World Cup. Here's why that matters
When England take the field at Sunday’s Women’s World Cup final, the team won’t look the same as the one that won the European championship last July. The difference? No white shorts.
They are not alone. While some teams still donned light shorts at this year’s tournament, including Zambia and the Philippines, many joined England in adopting alternative colors. The number of nations whose uniforms feature white shorts decreased from 2019’s tournament, despite the number of participants expanding from 24 to 32. Notably, most of the teams that opted for white last time around switched color for 2023, including Canada, France, Nigeria and South Korea.
The move is part of a growing trend — and one not limited to soccer — aimed at tackling period anxiety among female athletes.
It comes after Ireland’s women’s rugby team swapped its white shorts for navy ones earlier this year and Wimbledon organizers relaxed their rules, allowing female competitors to wear dark-colored shorts under their all-white outfits for the first time. After England unveiled its new kits for the World Cup, forward Lauren Hemp told reporters the decision to switch from white shorts to blue was “a massive step in the right direction.”
“We can now feel comfortable when sometimes we might not have been if it was your time of the month,” she added. “It’s great to move away from the white shorts, not having that worry and focusing on the game.” Hemp plays in the English Women’s Super League for Manchester City, which in 2022 changed its uniform to exclude white shorts, in favor of burgundy ones, following feedback from players. (Manchester City’s men continue to wear the team’s traditional blue and white.)
https://www.cnn.com/style/wwc-2023-womens-soccer-white-shorts-intl-hnk/index.html
Read on--yes, it makes a difference!
Magdalene Laundries: Uncovering the gaslighting and shame
The Magdalene Laundries were back in the spotlight recently following the death of Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, who spent time in one of the former asylums as a teenager. A new BBC drama examines the impact of the abuse which took place at some of these notorious institutions.
Many of the obituaries published following O'Connor's death last month noted the time she spent as a young woman in Dublin's An Grianan Training Centre, a Catholic-run institution which used to be the High Park Magdalene Laundry, where children and teenagers were routinely treated badly.
The laundries had been theoretically set up to house "fallen women" - a blanket term which included unmarried mothers, women deemed to have been badly behaved, promiscuous or sexually abused, or who were considered uncooperative or burdens on their families.
Shoplifting and truancy led to O'Connor being placed in the institution for 18 months in her teens. She later referred to it as a "prison", where she said she was deprived of a normal childhood, and girls "cried every day".
Women lived and worked without wages - O'Connor recalled being assigned jobs such as washing priests' clothes for no pay. She said the women generally studied maths and typing and had limited contact with their families.
The singer's time there did help set her own path to a career in music, after one nun gave her a guitar and connected her with a music teacher. But glints of light and hope such as this were rare.
Coincidentally, the BBC commissioned a six-part TV drama about the Magdalene Laundries last year, prior to O'Connor's death. Created and written by Joe Murtagh and starring Ruth Wilson, the Woman in the Wall launches on BBC One on Sunday at 21:00 BST.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66376157
Ireland's version of the Indian boarding schools, but for women only. Ireland's SHAME
A right-wing sheriffs group that challenges federal law is gaining acceptance around the country
Against the background hum of the convention center, Dar Leaf settled into a club chair to explain the sacred mission of America’s sheriffs, his bright blue eyes and warm smile belying the intensity of the cause.
“The sheriff is supposed to be protecting the public from evil,” the chief law enforcement officer for Barry County, Michigan, said during a break in the National Sheriffs’ Association 2023 conference in June. “When your government is evil or out of line, that’s what the sheriff is there for, protecting them from that.”
Leaf is on the advisory board of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, founded in 2011 by former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack. The group, known as CSPOA, teaches that elected sheriffs must “protect their citizens from the overreach of an out-of-control federal government” by refusing to enforce any law they deem unconstitutional or “unjust.”
“The safest way to actually achieve that is to have local law enforcement understand that they have no obligation to enforce such laws,” Mack said in an interview. “They’re not laws at all anyway. If they’re unjust laws, they are laws of tyranny.”
https://apnews.com/article/constitutional-sheriffs-5568cd0b6b27680a28de8a098ed14210
Complete bullshit
US intelligence assessment shows intentionally caused explosion crashed Wagner chief's plane
A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment has found that the plane crash presumed to have killed Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was intentionally caused by an explosion, according to U.S. and Western officials.
One of the officials, who were not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the explosion falls in line with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”
The officials did not offer any details on what caused the explosion that was believed to have killed Prigozhin and several of his lieutenants to avenge a mutiny that challenged the Russian leader’s authority.
Details of the U.S. assessment surfaced as Putin on Thursday expressed his condolences to the families of those who were reported to be aboard the jet and referred to “serious mistakes” by Prigozhin. The White House declined to comment.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-wagner-prigozhin-jet-crash-382515214f691e47daa2e3635d64e612
One report I saw said it looked like a wing fell off and speculated that it was shot down by a handheld SATM
Liberty University Students Are Challenging Its Anti-Dancing Policy
Liberty University, ironically, does not appear to be into liberty very much at all.
A new online petition created by students at the right-wing Christian college in Virginia claims the school has put an “absolute stop to dancing,” much like the town in Footloose (1984). The Change.org petition, called “Allow Dancing at LU!!,” was started last week and had just under 800 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon. It claims:
This year, the Liberty University Board of Trustees has decided to put an absolute stop to dancing, and instructed Res Life to enforce a strict no dancing policy. This action prevents halls from putting on hall formals, and instructs all RAs to put a stop to dancing when they see it.
The petition calls the alleged policy a “pharisee-like rule” and declares, “To the Board, we may be insignificant, and undesirable, but together, we will be undeniable.” Dancing, the students say, “brings people together,” and “to disallow dancing is to deny the rhythm that God has placed in humanity.” Their petition continues:
To prevent dancing is to deny a part of God’s creation. To deny dancing is to act as the pharisees did. This ruling is undeniably unreasonable, unbiblical, and brings an unwelcoming environment to this campus. Time and again in the Bible, the heroes of the faith are recorded to have danced with joy, Ecclesiastes 3 says that there is a time for everything, and verse 4 expands on this and says “A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance”(KJV).
https://jezebel.com/liberty-university-students-are-challenging-its-anti-da-1850768154
Q. Why do Baptists forbid having sex standing up? A. Because it might lead to dancing.
Rightwing activist Leonard Leo under investigation in Washington DC
The attorney general of Washington DC is investigating Leonard Leo, the rightwing activist who has driven efforts to install judges on federal courts including the US supreme court, which he helped tip 6-3 in conservatives’ favour, Politico reported.
Citing a source with direct knowledge, the site said the scope of the investigation mounted by the Democratic attorney general, Brian Schwalb, was unclear.
Leo is the driving force behind the Federalist Society, which the Harvard law professor Noah Feldman has called “a club for conservative and libertarian lawyers … focused on promoting conservative legal thought and filling the American judiciary with like-minded allies”. All six conservatives on the supreme court (three appointed under Donald Trump, with Leo’s active involvement), are current or former members.
Leo’s name has cropped up in reports alleging serious ethics violations by justices prominently including Clarence Thomas, the senior conservative on the court.
Leo’s ballooning personal wealth and hugely successful fundraising has also been widely reported. Earlier this year, he made headlines with receipt of a $1.6bn giftfrom a single donor, believed to be the largest such gift on record.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/24/leonard-leo-investigation-washington-dc
It's about time someone investigated this bastard! He's got his fingers in more pies than Tom Thumb ever thought of!
A 'shocking' 911 call and other key takeaways from NPR's ICE detention investigation
Members of congress and immigration advocates are expressing outrage and calling for an overhaul of the nation's immigration detention system following an NPR investigation based on a trove of once-secret government inspection reports.
Through a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act, NPR obtained more than 1,600 pages of records from the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Those records described a "barbaric" use of force, "negligent" medical care that contributed to the death of immigrants, racist abuse and "filthy conditions" inside detention facilities overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Separately, NPR also obtained the audio of a 911 call made from an ICE detention facility during a fatal medical emergency, raising questions about training, communication and response times when a life was on the line.
A spokesperson for the Biden Administration said that the reports depict conditions during the "prior administration," and an industry group that represents the private operators of ICE detention facilities said that the reports were "outdated."
Attorneys and advocates for immigrants however, contend that the conditions inside ICE detention have not improved, largely because of problems exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We deserve better. And our immigrants and refugees deserve better," U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat who represents a district that includes an ICE detention facility, told NPR.
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/24/1195264716/a-shocking-911-call-and-other-key-takeaways-from-nprs-ice-detention-investigatio
I would like to see ICE dismantled. If it's necessary at all, it should be completely rebuilt from the ground up.
Wagner Mercs Break Down and Sob at Shrine to Dead Boss
Masked Wagner mercenaries have been paying tribute to their dead bosses at a makeshift shrine set up in the Russian city of Novosibirsk—and breaking down and sobbing uncontrollably.
Video of the memorial set up outside the Wagner Group’s recruitment center in the city shows members laying flowers on the ground in front of portraits of Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, the two top bosses believed to have been killed in a fiery plane crash Wednesday that may or may not have been an act of revenge by the Kremlin exactly two months after the group staged a violent uprising.
In the footage shot by the local outlet NGS News, one fighter in full military garb can be seen losing control at the memorial on Thursday morning, falling to his knees and audibly weeping while he hides his face behind a mask. Other mercenaries from the group have also reportedly broken down as they brought candles and flowers to pay tribute to Prigozhin and Utkin.
Similar memorials have been set up outside the group’s offices in Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg, where both Wagner fighters and members of the public showed up throughout the night to pay tribute, according to the local outlet Fontanka.
The images of teary-eyed mercenaries overcome by emotion mark a surreal twist in the Wagner Group’s rise and fall since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine last year. They went from a shadowy private army many in Russia had never heard of to a household name, affectionately called the “musicians” by supporters, even as they flaunted increasingly brutal tactics—circulating videos of executions by sledgehammer, the beheadings and dismemberment of Ukrainian soldiers, and ultimately killing several Russian service members in a violent mutiny to oust military leadership in June.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/wagner-mercenaries-break-down-and-sob-at-shrine-to-dead-boss-prigozhin
Anyone thinking this is the end of Wagner or mutiny against Putin had better think again.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on How Not to Pick a President
Black Panther is one of my favorite films. Yet, I’ve always been troubled by the idea that Wakanda, the technological and social embodiment of the Age of Enlightenment, decides who its leader will be based on ritual combat. The ability to hurl your opponent off a cliff doesn’t translate into crafting treaties or intricate economic discussions. It’s good theater—bad politics. Just like the debates.
Choosing a president’s qualifications based on a debate is like beauty pageant judges assessing a woman’s intelligence based on her waist-to-hip ratio in a thong bikini. The skills required to bluster on a stage are not the same ones crucial to creating meaningful legislation, negotiating with international allies and enemies, or dealing with domestic challenges. It’s like trying to choose your brain surgeon by watching them bake cookies.
But Americans like competitive sports and so they insist on this sad spectacle. Do they hope for clarification about the candidates’ individual policies, plans, and promises? That may be a part of it but, like hockey fans, they are giddy for the inevitable fights. They want to see the gloves fly off and someone give someone a verbal bloody nose.
I approach the debates as I used to a Muhammad Ali fight. There are three parts: The Hype, The Fight, The Spin. The Hype is the pre-match trash talk. Ali promised his fight against Joe Frazier would be “a chilla, and a killa, and a thrilla, when I fight the Gorilla in Manila.” Against George Foreman he waxed poetic: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't.” If only DeSantis and Pence had the wit to rhyme like that.
But the debates aren’t about helping the undecided rationally choose a candidate. They are about the candidates getting a national stage to promote themselves. Some of them no one even knew they were running—and after the debate, some will disappear back into the Milli Vanilli mist of obscurity.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kareem-abdul-jabbar-on-the-2024-republican-debate?ref=home
Intelligent and well-written
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