The Migrant Crisis (aka, those "caravans" tRump is going on about)

Day two of the bloviating tangerine fat-bag ranting about the refugees openly fleeing to our southern border for asylum. Day two of him trashing DACA and Dreamer kids because of the fearmongering on Fox and other conservative news stations. Wasn't going to make this an OP, but sunshine makes the best disinfectant and truth the mightiest sword.

To make a long story short, the Honduran election was stolen. The dictator in power is cracking down on political dissidents pointing out that it was a stolen election.

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Honduras-Protests-Continue-Against-Hernandez-Re-Election-Detention-of-Political-Prisoners-20180329-0011.html

This is on top of the already widespread gang violence and the 66% of the population that lives in poverty. One in 5 Hondurans live on less than $1.90 US a day. There were 67 homicides for every 100k people in 2014. Most families do not have access to clean water.

https://www.proyectomirador.org/poverty-and-crime/one-poorest-most-vulnerable-countries-world

"As proof of state repression, the organizations cited the following numbers: 192 demonstrations repressed, 1,257 people detained, 38 deaths, 76 victims of torture, 393 wounded in protests, 105 displaced due to violence, 15 journalists attacked, and 73 people victims of threats."

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Honduras-Human-Rights-Groups-Condemn-Power-Grab-State-Violence-Amid-US-Envoy-Visit-20180227-0011.html

This is only a country of a little over 9 million people. New f*cking Jersey is a little over 9 million people. When 1k+ people are being detained, there is something seriously wrong.

The people Fox/Trump are currently trying to demonize and scare Americans over are traveling in a large group towards the border for safety purposes and to draw attention to the migrant plight. They don't want to be robbed, raped or killed (as so many small groups are), so they are traveling in packs of 10-15 and collapsing into a main body for safety purposes. The vast majority (80%) of the group are Honduran. The vast majority of the people are seeking asylum. They know they are walking into the hands of ICE officials who will imprison them while their application is handled.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/04/trump-and-trolls-target-caravan-of-migrant-families/
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-caravan-daca-tweets-1936315f6fc7/

How scared for your life do you have to be to cross Mexico on foot and walk into the open arms of incarceration? I would love to hear some of these asshole bigots screaming about immigrants answer that question for themselves.

I should note that tRump is debating sending even more Hondurans back to their native country who have been here for decades after a hurricane ravaged their homes. They will be sent home to die.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/hondurans-limbo-salavadorans-wait-trump-tps-decision-article-1.3741539

I should also note that Trump has threatened to cut off humanitarian aid to the beleaguered country over "drugs", which will only make their desperate situation far worse.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/02/politics/donald-trump-foreign-aid-drugs/index.html

Self Defense in the age of Herr Pussygrabber

Someone suggested I make this it's own OP, so here it goes.

I won't mince words- predators and abusers are emboldened with 45 in the White House. No matter your size, strength or ability, there are ways to escape the grip of an assailant. Basic self defense classes saved me from a rapist in college. These are some of the same moves I was taught.

Trump-Era Deportations Begin With a Married Mom of Two Who's Lived in the U.S. for Decades

(putting this here as I'm not sure if it went up in breaking news yet. linking to both the Jezebel article for the protest photos and the orig Times article. Text is from Jez)

At least seven protesters were arrested in Phoenix, Arizona on Wednesday night after Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, a 35-year-old mother of two American teenagers, was arrested and set for deportation in accordance with Donald Trump’s executive order expanding the definition of “criminal alien.”

The New York Times reports that Rayos, who was convicted in 2008 of using a false social security number to obtain employment—common for otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants—was allowed to stay in the U.S. after a judge issued a deportation order against her in 2013 because the Obama administration prioritized deportations of people with gang ties, who were deemed a threat to public safety, or who’d committed serious felony offenses or a series of misdemeanor crimes. Under Trump’s recent executive order, however, all undocumented immigrants convicted of or believed to have committed a criminal offense—like crossing the border illegally—are up for deportation, and the ICE has stopped granting requests for prosecutorial discretion.

Rayos has not lived in Mexico since she was 14 years old, and attended scheduled meetings with the ICE every 6 months. “We all knew something could be different this time with the new administration,” Carlos Garcia, director of the immigrant advocacy group Puente Arizona, told the Los Angeles Times. “She went in with the lawyer and didn’t come out. That was pretty much all there was.”

Leaked copy: Trump religious freedom executive order is worse than you feared

The administration will use the order to gut civil rights laws, allowing people and organizations to cite religious objections to same-sex marriage, gender identity, premarital sex, and abortion. The order will cover “any organization, including closely held for-profit corporations” “when providing social services, education, or healthcare; earning a living, seeking a job, or employing others; receiving government grants or contracts; or otherwise participating in the marketplace, the public square, or interfacing with Federal, State or local governments.”

The order would also restrict women’s right to contraception and abortion under the Affordable Care Act. Churches and charitable organizations would be allowed to be directly political without losing their tax exempt status if the group “believes, speaks, or acts (or declines to act) in accordance with the belief that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage, male and female and their equivalents refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy, physiology, or genetics at or before birth, and that human life begins at conception and merits protection at all stages of life.”

The order is expected to be revealed tomorrow morning at the National Prayer Breakfast. Hopefully, it won’t be as truly horrifying – and unconstitutional – as this leaked draft version.

California Passes First-Ever Bill To Give Poor Families Money For Diapers

Source: ThinkProgress

California lawmakers passed a bill this week that would give families on welfare with children under the age of two a monthly $50 voucher for diapers. It now waits for Gov. Jerry Brown’s (D) signature or veto. When the bill was first introduced in 2014, it was estimated that 120,000 children would get the assistance.

Diapers are a huge expense. One infant can require up to 240 of them each month, which can cost $18 a week or nearly $1,000 a year. That’s an enormous share of a family’s budget for those below the poverty line — people in the lowest quintile spend nearly 14 percent of their income on diapers. Cloth diapers are not a viable alternative for many families, as laundromats won’t let people wash them and daycare centers usually require disposable ones.

That leaves families in a difficult bind. Nearly 30 percent of all women have experienced a time when they couldn’t afford diapers for their children. That leads a sizable share to stretch diapers when supply is running low, risking urinary infections and diaper dermatitis. Others have had to turn to family, friends, and charities to afford them.

One California city has already done something to help needy families. At the end of last year, San Francisco began distributing diapers directly to about 1,300 families on welfare.



Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/california-diaper-need-d9abd8c7a3f7?source=latest

Gaming While Black in America

No one should have to experience this kind of fear, let alone over a frakin' video game. :/

https://medium.com/mobile-lifestyle/warning-pokemon-go-is-a-death-sentence-if-you-are-a-black-man-acacb4bdae7f#.2h42utrm8

I spent less than 20 minutes outside. Five of those minutes were spent enjoying the game. One of those minutes I spent trying to look as pleasant and nonthreatening as possible as I walked past a somewhat visibly disturbed white woman on her way to the bus stop. I spent the other 14 minutes being distracted from the game by thoughts of the countless Black Men who have had the police called on them because they looked “suspicious” or wondering what a second amendment exercising individual might do if I walked past their window a 3rd or 4th time in search of a Jigglypuff.

When my brain started combining the complexity of being Black in America with the real world proposal of wandering and exploration that is designed into the gamplay of Pokemon GO, there was only one conclusion. I might die if I keep playing.

The breakdown is simple:

There is a statistically disproportionate chance that someone could call the police to investigate me for walking around in circles in the complex.
There is a statistically disproportionate chance that I would be approached by law enforcement with fear or aggression, even when no laws have been broken.
There is a statistically disproportionate chance that I will be shot while reaching for my identification that I always keep in my back right pocket.
There is a statistically disproportionate chance that more shots will be fired and I will be dead before any medical assistance is available.

The premise of Pokemon GO asks me to put my life in danger if I chose to play it as it is intended and with enthusiasm. Let’s just go ahead and add Pokemon GO to the extremely long list of things white people can do without fear of being killed, while Black people have to realistically be wary.

Honestly, I wish this was a joke post or a satire of some sort. It isn’t.

Something needs to change…like yesterday.

Howdy

I've been using DU as an news site for years now, but never really felt comfortable posting. Still don't (social anxiety, wheee!), but I've grown tired of people and politicians talking about individuals like me and superimposing their prejudices on my reality. I'm even more tired of seeing it done to others. I guess that means I have to open my mouth at some point, so.. here I am.

I am a feminist and a humanist. I am LGTB. I am permanently disabled and were it not for medical care I was flat out lucky to get, I wouldn't be alive today. I'm a gamer/sci-fi nerd. I am a foul-mouthed creature of logic with a low tolerance for bullsh*t. I probably spend more time than I should looking at pictures of adorable animals online. My higher education focused on anthropology, sociology, race, gender and bullying.

That's the nutshell.

Hi. XD