Saturday, July 19, 2025

LGBTQ+ grab bag


That's Lawrence O'Donnell talking about Donald Chump's long relationship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. 

This is Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Another Message of Hope and Love from Virginia Foxx"


gds

When Foxx dies, she can take her racist hate with her.  That and the knowledge that she won't be missed.

Doing an LGBTQ+ post.  This is just a grab bag of various news.  Starting out, Mark Wingfield (BAPSTIST GLOBAL NEWS)


Three hundred pastors and faith leaders have signed a second letter to Baylor University decrying revocation of a $634,000 grant to study loneliness and rejection of women and the LGBTQ community in churches.

This letter comes one week after a group of 60 Texas Baptist pastors sent a letter to Baylor President Linda Livingstone praising revocation of the grant from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation.

Among Baylor alumni, faculty and students — as well as observers of American religion — opinions are sharply divided on Baylor’s acceptance and then rejection of the grant to the Diana Garland School of Social Work, which already was engaged in the work.

In last week’s letter, anti-inclusion pastors said Livingstone demonstrated “moral courage” by rejecting the grant, which they said was ideological and advanced a pro-LGBTQ agenda.

This week’s letter, which has five times the number of signatories, was organized by Aurelia Dávila Pratt (Peace of Christ Church, Round Rock, Texas), Carol McEntyre (First Baptist Church, Greenville, S.C.) and Mary Alice Birdwhistell (Faith Baptist Church, Georgetown, Ky.). Authors and organizers of the previous letter favoring rejection were not named.

The new letter is titled, “A Pastoral Call for Baylor to Lead with Courage and Compassion.” It is addressed to President Livingstone and the Baylor board of regents.

“We speak today not out of animosity, but out of love and deep concern for what is at stake for Baylor, the church, and the world,” the letter begins. “We are compelled to speak with humility as well as conviction against Baylor’s decision to return the renewal of an existing grant … that would have funded research on trauma-informed practices for people marginalized by the church, including LGBTQ individuals and women.”

Rejecting this grant “exhibits indifference and disregard for the well-being of LGBTQ individuals and women in our congregations. In addition, one of the most significant questions facing the church today is how we engage LGBTQ people, a question that is tearing apart congregations and denominations worldwide. Research like this is urgently needed now more than ever before.”


So that is some good news.  Some bad news?  Fortesa Latifi (TEEN VOGUE) reports:


As of July 17, the LGBTQ-specific branch of 988, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, has been shut down as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to cut spending and demolish programs devoted to diversity and inclusion. Previously, callers to the crisis line could press “3” to connect to 988 Suicide & Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services, which would connect them with a counselor who was knowledgeable about issues LGBTQ youth specifically might be facing. While 988 is still available for anyone to call, this targeted service will no longer exist.

Advocates are ringing alarm bells about the elimination of the specialized service, warning that LGBTQ youth will suffer tragedy.

“For the last three years, nearly 1.5 million LGBTQ+ young people have been able to dial 988, an easily known number, to get help in a mental health crisis… that option is going away. That is simply a tragedy,” says Casey Pick, the Director of Law and Policy at The Trevor Project. With the closure of the 988 Lifeline, Pick and her colleagues at The Trevor Project worry about the availability of inclusive mental health support for LGBTQ+ young people. “If a young person has to explain their identity… that is not good crisis intervention,” Pick says.

988 was launched in 2022 as an easier-to-remember continuation of the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Upon calling, people are prompted to press 1 if they’re a veteran, 2 for Spanish, and 3 if they are LGBTQ youth. According to WBUR, the original legislation that started 988 specified that people at higher risk of suicide — including LGBTQ youth — need specialized services. According to the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization the partnered with 988 to field LGBTQ youth calls, nearly 40% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide in 2024.


If you're not the super wealthy, Chump doesn't care about you and you might as well die. His war on gay people, though, always surprised me because any photo of Barron Trump shrieks "GAY!"  Rhitu Chatterjee (NPR) adds:


"This is a tragic moment," says Mark Henson, vice president of government affairs and advocacy at The Trevor Project, one of several organizations that had contracts with the federal government to provide counseling services for this vulnerable population. The Trevor Project fields about half the LGBTQ+ contacts.

Data from the Youth Behavior Risk Survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, show that LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to experience persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness compared to their peers, and more likely to attempt suicide.

When these young people contact 988, they have had the option to press 3 to be connected to a counselor specifically trained to support their unique mental health needs, which are associated with discrimination and violence they often face. This service is similar to what 988 offers to veterans, who are also at a higher risk of suicide, and can access support tailored for them by pressing 1 when they contact 988. That service will be retained as 988 enters its fourth year.

"Many LGBTQ+ youth who use these services didn't know they existed until they called 988 and found out there is someone on the other end of the line that knows what they've gone through and cares deeply for them," says Henson.

Government data show that demand for this service grew steadily since it launched, from about 2,000 contacts per month in September 2022 to nearly 70,000 in recent months.


Now for some good news.  Matt Tracy (GAY CITY NEWS) reports:


More than $6 million in federal funding for nine non-profit organizations serving LGBTQ people and individuals living with HIV — including New York’s LGBT Community center — has been reinstated for now after Lambda Legal spearheaded a lawsuit targeting three of the president’s executive orders.

The case of San Francisco AIDS Foundation v. Trump originated in February when the nine organizations, represented by Lambda Legal, filed the federal lawsuit challenging three executive orders signed early in President Donald Trump’s term: “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” and “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.”

In early June, the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction against several provisions of the three executive orders.

Following the executive orders, federal agencies told non-profits that funding would be cut at organizations serving transgender individuals or carrying out “equity-related” work, Lambda Legal said when the lawsuit was first filed.

Lambda Legal announced on July 15 that the $6.2 million in funding had been restored. Now, the organizations involved in the suit — including New York’s LGBT Center — will be able to continue operating with the federal funds. Other organizations involved in the suit include the Bradbury-Sullivan Community Center in Pennsylvania, Baltimore Safe Haven in Maryland, FORGE in Wisconsin, and Prisma Community Care in Arizona.

The victory is only temporary as the case continues to proceed. But Lambda Legal is, at least for now, welcoming the restoration of funds. 


And this is from a report by Abby Monteil (THEM):


When it comes to men’s social lives, former President Barack Obama agrees: If you don’t have queer and nonbinary friends, you’re missing out.

Obama recently appeared on the July 16 episode of his wife and brother-in-law’s podcast, IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson. Much of the episode centered around a listener's question about raising “emotionally intelligent, competent men” in today’s world. Obama argued that, as a society, we should offer boys a wide range of male role models. He reminisced about one of his favorite college professors, who was an openly gay man “at a time when openly gay folks still weren’t out in life.”

“[He] became one of my favorite professors and was a great guy, and would call me out when I started saying stuff that was ignorant,” he said. “You need that! To show empathy and kindness.”

Obama pointed out that this rule of thumb doesn’t just apply to role models but to young men’s friendships as well.

“By the way, you need that person in your friend group so that if you then have a boy who is gay or nonbinary, or what have you, they have somebody that they can go, ‘Okay, I’m not alone in this,’” he added. “That, I think, is creating community. I know it’s corny, but it’s what they need.”


And here's the video of Barack speaking to Michelle and Craig.





"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Friday, July 18, 2025.  Chump's war on immigrants, his war on NPR and PBS, everything is tied to the reality that Donald Chump is a slave serving the super wealthy -- a detail that some in MAGA are finally waking up to. 


We're starting with public media which is under attack from Donald Chump.



David Folkenflik (NPR) notes one of the week's big developments:

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have passed legislation on a narrow, party-line basis to eliminate all federal funding for public broadcasting for the next two years. That's $1.1 billion previously approved by the Republican-led Congress and President Trump. The reversal is notionally due to the need to cut funds to help pay for new Republican priorities, including an expansion of immigration enforcement and extension of Trump's prior tax cuts.

Yet Trump had campaigned on retribution and made the news media a core element of his grievance. Public broadcasting has offered a ready target, given the government funding, and he has repeatedly claimed NPR and PBS demonstrate ideological bias.


NPR and PBS -- and other public media -- do have a bias -- they are anti-stupidity.

An administration that's purged climate change from all federal government pages, can't handle science.  An administration that puts a fool in charge of public health -- a fool who thinks vaccines cause autism -- can't handle science.  

If NPR and PBS were like FOX "NEWS" and just told lies, Chump wouldn't claim they had a bias.  The threat to Chump is that NPR and PBS and other public media are science-based and fact-based.

Earlier this month, Ruth wrote about how important NPR and PBS are in "Chump attacks NPR and PBS:"


We need NPR and we need PBS.  The cloven hoofed Jonathan Turley would beg to differ but he is a turncoat and a liar.  In fact, he is a work write-up waiting to happen.  Tick-tick-tick-tick.  

NPR gives us news and it gives us explorations.  I am not a Terry Gross fan but she can have a guest that makes me tune in.  And I really do not like her.  When she has a great guest though, she is worth listening to even for me because you have a real exploration of a topic and not just silly soundbytes. PBS?  We get THE NEWSHOUR which remains America's strongest news hour or news half hour.  No one does the evening news better.  In addition, we get documentaries and we get NOVA and AMERICAN MASTERS and children's programming and cooking shows and gardening shows and some great dramas and, if we are lucky, Britcoms.  I do not have Britcoms currently.  I do have a movie on Saturday nights (AIRPLANE! is this weekend).  AMANPOUR & COMPANY and LIDIA'S KITCHEN.  Sometimes I will watch AUSTIN CITY LIMITS based on the musical guest.  My PBS station (CPTV) offers BBC NEWS as well.  I love POV.  I could honestly live with just PBS.  

I have YOUTUBE TV.  I dropped cable years ago.  I went with YOUTUBE TV because of Stan's praise for it.  Which includes, I can watch a program and pull up the schedule to see what else is on.  Or I can watch a program and pull up the things I have recorded to see if there is something else I want to watch.  Try to do that on HULU LIVE TV and the program you are watching stops.  I also like YOUTUBE TV because many of the streaming TV services do not offer PBS.  

But if I had only over air TV, I could survive on just PBS because it offers so much.  And I am someone who will fold laundry in front of the TV, chop vegetables in front of the TV.  If I am home and not reading, I have the radio on -- or radio via the internet -- or a record on the stereo or PBS on as I go through the house doing chores.  And I dust and vacuum daily, by the way.  My family makes fun of me (kindly) about that.  That is how I did it raising the kids and it is how I do it now. But, no, I do not expect that from other people and their homes and I am fully aware that most people did not have eight hours a day to straighten and clean their homes to begin with.

So when they attack PBS and NPR, they are really attacking us.  

I encounter people sometimes who hate PBS and do not watch it or hate NPR and do not listen to it.  And I will speak with them and find out their interests and usually be able to recommend one show that they should catch.  The reality usually is that people who do not watch it or listen to it do not really know what it offers.  Once they do, they tend to find something of value because it is "public" TV and "public" radio -- meaning that it serves us. 


"Public media."  We say that because, as Ruth noted earlier this week "Chump continues his attack on NPR, PBS and Native Americans" -- Native American media is being attacked by Chump and by GOP members of Congress:


As bad as the attack on PBS and NPR is, it goes beyond that.  Margery A. Beck (AP) reports, "Dozens of Native American radio stations across the country vital to tribal communities will be at risk of going off the air if Congress cuts more than $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to industry leaders."  There are 59 tribal stations in the US. Native Public Media notes, "Native stations play a vitally important role in the communities they serve. Native stations serve as an essential source of news, deliver critically important health information, provide a forum for discussion and debate around the issues that affect their communities, broadcast life-saving information in times of emergencies, air extensive cultural content, promote language preservation, and provide jobs as part of the local economy."  NPM president Loris Taylor writes:

Tribal radio stations operate on tight budgets. Most cannot apply for competitive federal energy grants while also maintaining daily broadcast services. Asking them to pivot to climate funding, without a clear and dedicated pathway, sets them up to fail.


We call on Congress to reject any measure that would eliminate or reduce CPB funding for Tribal media. Instead, we urge lawmakers to follow Senator Rounds’ lead in recognizing the importance of Tribal stations and take it further. Rather than replace CPB, strengthen it. Protect this cornerstone of Tribal sovereignty, cultural preservation, civic engagement, and emergency response.


The future of Tribal media and the communities it serves depends on it.



Francene Blythe-Lewis, Eastern Band of Cherokee, Navajo and Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, is the president and chief executive officer of Vision Maker Media. Her father, Frank Blythe, founded the nonprofit organization in 1976 with seed money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and wanted to bring contemporary Native storytelling to public television.

“At the time, public leaders and programmers and station managers, they were all wanting the iconic Indian history, Indian Wars, Indian chief stories and biographies,” she said. “And so he really fought hard to set a precedent of bringing the lives and experience of Native Americans in the times that we are in to public television.”

The impending proposal to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would “almost virtually eliminate” Vision Maker Media and be “extremely tragic.”

Without organizations like Vision Maker Media, Blythe-Lewis said new generations would lose awareness of Native people, cultures and communities.

“That is the tragic part, because we’re very much a part of civil society. We’re very much part of political influence. We’re very much a part of, you know, this whole fabric of American culture and so too, because we’re the original peoples to the land, our history is critical to remain sort of the foundation of finding and founding of America.”


This was money well spent to inform and educate.  But as Mammy Yokum Linda McMahon makes clear daily, the administration doesn't do public education.  Instead they are at war with it. 

 

The above re: public media?  It's the same as THE WALL STREET JOURNAL report, the same as everything going on with this crooked administration.  

 

On THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE, Stephanie and her guests discussed THE WALL STREET JOURNAL's report last night about Chump's birthday greeting (obscene birthday greeting) to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.



Leigh Ann Caldwell's excellent analysis above noted the betrayal MAGA was feeling due to the lies from Chump and the administration regarding  Jeffrey Epstein.  It goes to the heart of the lies he's told since 2015 repeatedly.  He was going to be the savior who ended pedophile rings.  When he first started saying that, Epstein was alive and Chump's good friend.  While Chump was president, Epstein was arrested and imprisoned and died in jail.  After Chump loses the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Chump begins portraying himself as a truth teller who will release documents -- he tells FOX "NEWS" as a candidate in 2024 that he'll release the JFK assassination files and the Epstein files and blah blah blah.

And then last week, Americans are greeted with a lie that there are no documents to release.  

David Jolly:  But there's also the theme of a ruling class in America -- the super wealthy.  People who can escape accountability.  The law applies to them differently than the law applies to someone who maybe gets picked up off the streets for maybe, for instance right now, during an ICE raid.  And so we have the disparity, we have the victims who are also being lied to.  Look, this is a moment where the American people -- regardless of party -- the numbers are wild, Stephanie -- they're demanding transparency and accountability.  Some surveys show that 90 percent of the American people want transparency and accountability.   


He is the Deep State.  Chump is now the deep state denying the files.  

Alicia Menendez did a great job on THE BRIEFING last night but I can't find the two segments I wanted to highlight on YOUTUBE (there's less than two minutes of one segment that is posted on BLUESKY -- BLUESKY took away the embed option months ago which is why we no longer rush to note BLUESKY).

 Lawrence O'Donnell did a great job last night as well.




But it's really the combination of Leigh Ann Caldwell's analysis and David Jolly's comments that captures it.  Donald Chump rages against the Deep State and presents as the hero of the people.  But he's not.  He's the servant of the super wealthy.

That's what's going on with Epstein his admirers fear.

It's certainly what went down with his 'big' 'beautiful' bill that steals billions from the American people and hands them over to . . . the super wealthy.

Native Americans are going to suffer due to his attack on public media but they don't matter.  Only the super wealthy matter to Chump.

He is their servant.

And that's why the Epstein matter is so important to MAGA and outraging them.  His attempts to bury evidence regarding Epstein's crimes make clear that he is not about We The People, he is not about working people, he is just about serving the super wealthy.

Stephanie noted at the top of her segment that there were all these things going on but it was Epstein that was outraging Chump's supporters.  

Because that's what they can't deny to themselves.  They can pretend that the tax bill isn't as bad as it really is because it's not gone into effect yet.  They can pretend regarding the econoy and a lot of other things.  But on Epstein?

He promised them he would release the files.  Now he won't.

And he's tried everything including his usual attempt to blame Joe Biden.

There's no one to blame for this but Chump.  And it goes to the heart of the matter that he was not a change agent, he was not going to shake things up, he's just a tool of -- a slave to -- the super wealthy.

Let's turn to immigration.  At AMNY, Jumaane D. Williams observes:
 

A toddler in a red and white dress told me she was four years old. Her family told me she was here for her court date.

A series of young men were granted a court date by a judge, a moment of relief, only to be ambushed by a gang of ICE agents before they’d even cleared the doorway. One was violently manhandled. Another collapsed into the corner, head in his hands.

These men were pulled down an unmarked hallway and into anonymity, possibly to be trafficked toward a deadly prison in El Salvador or South Sudan or Florida for the crime of coming to America for a better life, and expecting better of us. 

And lining every hallway, a masked force of anonymous goons looming over the proceedings and ready to pounce, under the guise of “just doing my job” and the cover of a total lack of accountability. Who care more about keeping order than keeping a conscience.

It’s not clear whether the people being seized always know what’s being said to them in these moments of arrest, and very clear they don’t know why. They are being thrust unaware into the most traumatic experience of their lives – alone.

A frantic woman was asking anyone she could for any sign of her partner who had come for his lawful hearing. Forty-five minutes later, her six year old daughter heard the truth – her father had been kidnapped by the government, without cause or a chance to say goodbye. Still she asked us, “Where is my daddy?” up to the moment of an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital.

Words can’t convey the panic of a New Yorker suddenly pinned to the wall, the dread that hangs over the waiting room, the desperation of a mother and daughter begging for information about their family. 

I can’t get these sickening sights and sounds out of my head – and maybe that’s a good thing.

I witnessed these scenes in Manhattan over a matter of hours – but what I saw is happening on a constant loop in buildings just out of sight of the Statue of Liberty.

And I don’t blame people for not knowing that. 

Intentionally or not, our minds and media are often vague about the Trump administration’s crimes against our neighbors and rights. People hear about an “immigration crackdown,” maybe one that’s gone far beyond the so-called “criminals,” but it is in the details that the grotesque reality is revealed.

These aren’t vague issues –they’re specific cruelties. It’s not just an abstract overreach or a constitutional question. It’s an extra-legal abduction racket, the kind we’d hope the government would root out – but the government are the perpetrators. 


Here the goons are in NYC.  Little bitch boys and cowards in masks.  



Secret Service doesn't need masks.  Constables don't need masks.  CIA agents don't even need masks.  But bitch boys and cowards need masks.  But even with masks, they can't hide from themselves and their own actions will haunt them forever -- and should.  They're destroying lives.  




Public approval of President Donald Trump’s approach to immigration has dropped to its lowest level since his return to the White House, as Americans express a growing unease with his aggressive enforcement tactics.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on Wednesday shows an outright majority of Americans—51 percent—now openly disapprove of the president’s hardline approach to immigration enforcement, marking a dramatic shift from earlier this year when it was seen as his strongest issue.


Two things here.  The more Americans see what's taking place, the more they reject Chump's war on immigrants.  Second, that's another reason Mark Cuban's ridiculous notion (see Wednesday's snapshot) needs to be rejected.  It's not our job to save Chump or his policies.  Democrats came up with immigration plans and Republicans shot them down.  Chump pushed this policy through -- illegal and inhumane -- and now that the public has decisively turned against it, we do not need to kiss Chump's boo boo and make it better.  What he has done is outrageous and horrifying.  Democrats should not now try to normalize it just because Cuban thinks that's a 'quick fix.'  We can't normalize this and the American people don't want it normalized.


The cruelty of Chump's inhumane practices are something he and the GOP need to own.  We shouldn't sully ourselves to help him look better and shame on Cuban for pretending we should.  They're the ones being cruel and they like being cruel.  Michael Luciano (MEDIAITE) notes:

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) advised U.S. citizens to avoid associating with undocumented immigrants, lest they be arrested during an immigration raid by federal agents.

The Trump administration is carrying out scores of raids across the country at factories, farms, restaurants, schools, and other locations to enact the president’s mass deportation policy. President Donald Trump’s handling of immigration, which was once seen as his strongest or second-strongest issue, is polling at its lowest level of the term so far, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey released on Wednesday. Just 41% of Americans approve, and only 28% agreed with the statement that “immigration arrests at places of work are good for the country.”


I believe the phrase we're all thinking right now is: "What the literal f**k!"  


He's stoking fear, othering and justifying -- so very Mark Cuban of him -- what's being done to immigrants.  


The administration's actions are not excusable but that's what an idiot elderly man named "Tommy" thinks.  Chicken Hawk Tommy never served.  We grasp that, right?  He didn't sign up to go to Vietnam nor did he protest it.  Little Chicken Hawk Tommy might need to meet George Retes.  We noted George in yesterday's snapshot. He's a veteran of the US military.  He's 25.  Glass House Farms was raided by ICE gestapo agents.  At least one person is dead.  George is a security guard at Glass House Farms and when ICE Nazis came crawling, he identified himself from inside his car as that and as a US citizen.  It made no different as they busted his window, pepper sprayed him and hit him with tear gas because, well, they can and then they dragged him from his car.  This passes for how they carry out arrests these days.   Olga R. Rodriguez (AP) notes 


"It took two officers to nail my back and then one on my neck to arrest me even though my hands were already behind my back," Retes said.
[. . .]
Retes was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where he said he was put in a special cell on suicide watch and checked on each day after he became emotionally distraught over his ordeal and missing his 3-year-old daughter's birthday party Saturday.

He said federal agents never told him why he was arrested or allowed him to contact a lawyer or his family during his three-day detention. Authorities never let him shower or change clothes despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, Retes said, adding that his hands burned throughout the first night he spent in custody.

On Sunday, an officer had him sign a paper and walked him out of the detention center. He said he was told he faced no charges.

"They gave me nothing I could wrap my head around," Retes said, explaining that he was met with silence on his way out when he asked about being "locked up for three days with no reason and no charges."





This is America right now.  Under the Chump Reich, this is America.

And if you're feeling sorry for cowardly Tommy who couldn't enlist, please note that when he offered his 'brilliant' advice that we noted earlier, he was informed veterans were being arrested by ICE.  Back to Michael Luciano's report:

So Senator, do you care if U.S. citizens accidentally get detained in ICE raids?” Manríquez asked.

“If U.S. citizens?” Tuberville said, seeming surprised.

“Yeah, it’s been happening a lot,” the reporter replied. “It’s been having a lot with veterans in particular.

“Well, first of all, don’t put yourself in a situation where that happens,” Tuberville responded. “And I’m sure with all the illegals we have in this country, you’re gonna probably have some mistakes happen. That’s gonna happen. But again, as long as we take care of it the right way, understand they are our system, let them go. But again, if you’re gonna be hanging around people that are not citizens of this country, some things like that are gonna probably happen.”


That's 70 year old Tommy Girl for you.  Yellow streak down his back and vengeance in his eyes, headed to hell for eternity. 


Tommy's got a pal he can scissor in hell with, one Ralph Norman.  Ailia Zehra reports:


Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) are facing backlash over their responses to a reporter asking whether they “care if U.S. citizens accidentally get detained in [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] ICE raids.”

"No, I'm not concerned about that," Norman said in response to the question asked by a reporter on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
"I am concerned about law and order," he said. When the reporter pressed him about U.S. citizens getting detained and said "it's happening a lot," Norman said: "I don't believe that."


Just for the idiot Norman, let's note Aretha's version of "What A Fool Believes."






Fortunately, not everyone is as butt-ass-stupid as Tommy and Ralph.  In fact, even some Republicans have caught on to the damage Chump is doing -- including damage to this country's economy.  Michael Luciano reports:


Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan, stating that if the administration tries to deport every undocumented immigrant, the economy will crash.

[. . .]

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal relayed remarks from a pair of House Republicans who expressed concern at the ongoing raids on businesses in the food industry.

The Journal said Stutzman took out his phone to reveal a message from a poultry farmer in his district. Stutzman stated that he has received several such messages.

“I have people they call me. They’re like, ‘I’m not sure if my crew is going to show up for work Monday morning, because if there’s a raid, or something like that, right?” the lawmaker said. “If you try to deport all of them, you’re gonna crash the economy.”



This is not the United States, this is not democracy.  These are gestapo tactics and they have no place in this country.  Lives are being destroyed.  Ailia Zehra reports:


Delegates at the United Church of Christ’s (UCC) 35th General Synod overwhelmingly passed an emergency resolution this week, condemning the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids as “domestic terrorism” and accusing President Donald Trump's administration of “weaponizing the Constitution.”

Religious News Service reported Tuesday that the resolution targets immigration enforcement operations “carried out by ICE agents working without uniforms, wearing masks or refusing to identify themselves,” condemning these tactics as threatening and abusive.

Titled “Responding to the federal government’s attack on immigrants, migrants, and refugees,” the resolution urges the church to divest from for-profit private detention firms, specifically naming CoreCivic, GEO Group, and Management and Training Corp.— while allowing congregations to go further if they choose, according to the report.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Mark Kelly's office:

Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Alex Padilla (D-CA) led a group of 21 Senate Democrats in pressing the Trump administration on its recent initiatives to weaponize immigration court hearings as an inhumane trap to arrest immigrants—who are just trying to follow the law—by terminating their immigration court cases and deporting them without adequate due process. 

In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons, the senators condemned these actions as an affront to due process. 

“We are extremely concerned by reports of a recent initiative to arrest and detain noncitizens at their immigration court hearings, and in many cases, dismiss their immigration cases without advance notice and while hiding the government’s intent to arrest them,” wrote the senators. “These actions prevent noncitizens from having their fair day in court and raise serious legal and due process concerns. They also make clear that this Administration is not targeting the worst criminals and threats to public safety, instead redirecting staff and resources away from drug trafficking and human trafficking and towards these operations targeting noncriminal immigrants who are following the law and showing up for their day in court.” 

The senators then admonished the misuse of expedited removal (ER) as part of the Trump Administration’s efforts: “ER historically has applied only to a noncitizen who ‘is arriving in the United States’ and certain other noncitizens apprehended close to the border less than 14 days after arrival in the United States […]. ICE is now expanding the application of ER to noncitizens in the interior of the United States who have developed significant ties to the United States, including by lawfully working and attending school. Arresting law-abiding individuals and placing them in ER deprives them of the opportunity to have their fair day in court with the due process protections in immigration court proceedings.” 

The senators then raised serious due process concerns: “Due process requires notice that is reasonably calculated, under all the circumstances, to apprise interested parties and that affords[s] a reasonable time to make an appearance. Here, it appears that the ICE attorneys are being told to dismiss immigration cases and place noncitizens in expedited removal. At the same time, immigration judges are being told that they may dismiss such cases without any briefing or opportunity to respond. In addition, often noncitizens have not been notified of the purpose of their dismissal, in order to respond or contest the dismissal of their immigration cases, or the placement of their case into expedited removal. Taken together, these actions raise serious due process concerns.” 

The senators concluded by articulating the horrible situation this puts immigrants in with no benefit to our country: “These actions also place noncitizens in an impossible position. If noncitizens who fear arrest do not attend their immigration court hearing, they may receive an in absentia removal order that will newly subject them to swift detention and removal. If they do attend, they risk arrest, detention, and a swift deportation, possibly to South Sudan, Libya, or El Salvador—countries they may have no connection to. This manipulation of existing laws to enact this Administration’s mass deportation agenda is creating chaos in our immigration system while doing nothing to make our communities safer.” 

In addition to Kelly, Durbin, and Padilla, the letter is signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). 

Read the full letter here. 



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