Racism is alive and well, Thanks Trump and his supporters!

[psiberzerker]

Athos, for fuck's sake, learn to take a compliment.  Even from me.

That is the lamest excuse for arguing in bad faith even for you.  

You are not a moderator.

[Lois]

Athos has no sense of humor. 

[_priapism]

Sorry, you can't repeat a karma action without waiting 24 hours.

[Athos_131]

Israel denies entry to Reps. Omar and Tlaib hours after Trump’s push for a ban

President Trump’s explosive feud with two Democratic congresswomen moved to the international stage on Thursday as Israel denied the lawmakers entry into the country just hours after Trump publicly urged Israel to block them.

U.S. officials said the extraordinary intervention by the president was part of his strategy to sow divisions within the Democratic Party by shining a spotlight on its most liberal members.

Trump blasted the two lawmakers, Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), tweeting that “they hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds.”

But the actions by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his close ally, appeared to unite Democratic Party leaders.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the move “deeply disappointing,” and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), who lobbied Israeli officials on Wednesday to allow the lawmakers to make a trip, called it “outrageous.”

A senior White House official said that Trump never directly told Netanyahu to prohibit the visit but that advisers conveyed the president’s views to the Israeli government after it initially said the women would be allowed in.

Netanyahu “was certainly aware of the president’s position,” the official said.

Like others, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.

The president’s advisers have given him mixed views on how to deal with “the Squad” — Omar, Tlaib and Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

Some Trump aides have told the president to particularly focus on Omar and Tlaib because they are the most polarizing — and poll the worst — in the eyes of his campaign advisers.

Other U.S. officials worried that Trump’s opposition to their travel would backfire, one official said. Trump dismissed those arguments, saying that Omar and Tlaib’s criticisms of Israel make them worthy targets.

But even some Republican critics of the congresswomen broke with Trump and Netanyahu, saying the decision was wrong.

“Denying them entry into #Israel is a mistake,” tweeted Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). “Being blocked is what they really hoped for all along in order to bolster their attacks against the Jewish state.”

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization that rarely criticizes the Israeli government, said the congresswomen should be allowed to visit. AIPAC said in a tweet that it disagreed with Omar and Tlaib’s support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, better known as BDS, which calls for boycotting Israeli goods and services to protest Israeli treatment of Palestinians. But the group added, “We also believe every member of Congress should be able to visit and experience our democratic ally Israel firsthand.”

Tlaib and Omar have repeatedly denied harboring any animus toward Jews or Israelis and have said their criticisms of the Israeli government are based on serious policy differences.

In a statement, Omar said the Israeli decision was not a surprise coming from Netanyahu, “who has consistently resisted peace efforts, restricted the freedom of movement of Palestinians, limited public knowledge of the brutal realities of the occupation and aligned himself with Islamophobes like Donald Trump.”

The Democratic Party’s leading liberal presidential primary candidates swiftly condemned the decision, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) calling it a “sign of enormous disrespect to these elected leaders” and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warning that it would be a “shameful, unprecedented move.”

Netanyahu insisted that his government continues to respect the U.S. Congress but said there are limits to whom it will allow entry. “As a vibrant and free democracy, Israel is open to all its critics and criticism, with one exception: Israeli law prohibits the entry of people who call and operate to boycott Israel,” he said in a statement.

Senior Democrats in Congress said they felt particularly misled by Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, who said last month that the two congresswomen would be allowed to visit Israel “out of respect for the U.S. Congress and the great alliance between Israel and America.” On Wednesday, Israeli officials notified Democrats that Netanyahu had changed his mind, sparking a last-minute lobbying campaign by Democrats to reverse the decision.

Several Jewish Democrats who have long been critical of Tlaib and Omar’s positions on Israel pleaded with Dermer on their colleagues’ behalf. Reps. Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.) — all strong supporters of Israel — phoned the envoy to lobby against barring the congresswomen. Hoyer took the lead on negotiating for the Democrats, but a Wednesday phone call with Netanyahu proved unsuccessful.

While some Democrats said privately that the move exposes Netanyahu’s true nature as a pawn of Trump, Jewish House Democrats in particular worry that the move will empower critics of Israel, fueling the BDS movement. In phone calls with lawmakers, Dermer tried to justify the decision, saying Omar and Tlaib had no real intention of visiting Israel. Hoyer rejected that view in his statement, saying the decision is “outrageous, regardless of their itinerary or their views.”

Now Democrats fret privately that the ban will trigger new tensions between their party and Israel that Trump could exploit. According to one top lawmaker involved in the talks, the party plans to try to use public pressure in the coming days to change Israel’s mind about barring the congresswomen.

“I am saddened by the Israeli government’s decision to bar two sitting Members of Congress from entering Israel, especially following Ambassador Dermer’s public announcement that both women would be allowed to enter just a short time ago,” Lowey said in a statement. By blocking them, the Israeli government is “empowering those who seek to create a wedge between our two countries,” she added.

With three weeks to go before a repeat election on Sept. 17, Netanyahu is fighting a bitter battle to stay in office and wants to appear strong to his fractured right-wing base.

Omar and Tlaib’s trip to Jerusalem and the West Bank was planned by Miftah, a nonprofit organization headed by Palestinian lawmaker and longtime peace negotiator Hanan Ashrawi.

On Thursday, the group called Israel’s decision “an affront to the American people and their representatives.”

“MIFTAH worked hard to organize a well-rounded visit . . . in order to facilitate their engagement with Palestinian civil society and to provide them with an opportunity to see the reality of occupation for themselves,” the group said in a statement. “This is their right and duty as members of Congress, who oversee US policies and actions that affect Palestine, Israel, and countries worldwide.”

The question about their entry status arose because of a recently passed Israeli law that denies entry visas to foreign nationals who publicly back or call for any kind of boycott — economic, cultural or academic — against Israel or its West Bank settlements.

Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, publicly confirming the decision to ban the two lawmakers, said Thursday that the move was coordinated among Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan in accordance with the law preventing those who advocate a boycott from entering Israel.

“The State of Israel respects the U.S. Congress, as part of the close alliance, but it is inconceivable that anyone who wishes to harm the State of Israel will be allowed,” Deri said in a statement.

Deri made clear that if Tlaib’s request to visit included a humanitarian reason — such as a private meeting with her family — then he would consider it.

Trump, who maintains a close relationship with Netanyahu, said last month the lawmakers should “go back” to the countries they came from, in remarks widely condemned as racist. Tlaib was born in Michigan, and Omar was born in Somalia. Both have criticized Israel’s human rights record and treatment of Palestinians.

No official meetings were scheduled for the U.S. lawmakers, but they were planning to travel to the West Bank cities of Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah and spend time in Jerusalem.

They were scheduled to meet with Israeli and Palestinian civil society groups, humanitarian workers and young people and see one of the East Jerusalem hospitals affected by recent cuts in U.S. aid to the Palestinians.

#Resist

[Athos_131]

A truck drove into ICE protesters outside a private prison. They say a guard was at the wheel.

The protesters were sitting on the pavement to block staff from parking at a Rhode Island prison that works with Immigration and Customs Enforcement when a black pickup truck swerved toward them. The protesters shouted as the driver laid on the horn, and the truck briefly stopped.

And then, the driver hit the gas.

In a viral video captured by bystanders, the protesters screamed and jumped out of the way. Several were struck, according to organizers of the Wednesday night demonstration at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I. Some were treated at a hospital, though none were severely injured.

“It was terrifying because we didn’t know what exactly his intention was,” Amy Anthony, a spokesperson for Never Again Action, a Jewish activist group that planned the protest, told The Washington Post. “It certainly appeared he was trying to hit us.”

The driver, protesters say, was a correctional officer employed by the privately run facility who was wearing a badge and a uniform — an assertion backed up by video of the incident. Police officers working at the protest did not intervene, Anthony said, and the driver eventually walked into the prison after other guards pepper-sprayed the protesters.

“It’s obvious that there was an assault that took place,” Anthony said. “We’re not sure what we can do now.”

The Rhode Island attorney general’s office and the Rhode Island State Police are investigating the incident, the attorney general’s office said in a statement. Maj. Craig Horton of the Central Falls Police Department told The Post his agency was assisting.

“Once we have a full understanding of the relevant facts, we will determine how to proceed,” the attorney general’s office said in the statement. “Peaceful protest is a fundamental right of all Americans; it is unfortunate last night’s situation unfolded as it did. We urge all to exercise restraint as our investigation proceeds.”

An employee reached by phone at the Wyatt Detention Facility declined to comment early on Thursday. Messages left for the Central Falls Police Department and ICE weren’t immediately returned.

The confrontation took place during a wave of protests around the country by Jewish groups against ICE, including a demonstration that shut down part of Manhattan’s West Side Highway on Saturday, leading police to arrest nearly 100 protesters.

Anthony’s group, which ties its activism to preventing future atrocities like the Holocaust, arrived at the prison around 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The Wyatt Detention Facility, which describes itself as a “quasi-public corporation,” the Providence Journal reported, has contracts with ICE to house immigration detainees. The facility is operated by the Central Falls Detention Facility Corp. and is overseen by a board appointed by the mayor of Central Falls, located about seven miles north of Providence.

About 30 protesters first shut down the main entrance to the prison by linking arms and sitting on the ground, Anthony said. Around 9 p.m., they moved to block the driveways into the staff parking lot. About 45 minutes later, the black pickup showed up.

“The truck kind of swerved to sort of pick up speed,” Anthony said. “It felt unreal to see this happening and to see that someone was actively driving into a group of people who, as I say, were peacefully sitting.”

The group included children and one protester in a wheelchair, Anthony said.

Before the truck could get through to the parking lot, though, protesters gathered on the other side of the gate, shouting “Shame!” Moments later, other guards from the prison rushed across the street to surround the protesters and then fired pepper spray.

After the demonstrators fled the pepper spray, the driver parked in the lot and then walked into the prison, Anthony said.

Although Central Falls police were on the scene, they did not get involved, Anthony said, and officers later refused to take statements from protesters. Organizers are discussing what legal recourse they might have now.

Anthony said the incident hardened her group’s resolve to continue protesting ICE and prisons that work with the federal agency.

“If this is the way this correctional officer is behaving in public when people are recording, it’s not hard to imagine the behavior is much worse behind the walls in the facility where no one can see what is happening,” she said.]The protesters were sitting on the pavement to block staff from parking at a Rhode Island prison that works with Immigration and Customs Enforcement when a black pickup truck swerved toward them. The protesters shouted as the driver laid on the horn, and the truck briefly stopped.

And then, the driver hit the gas.

In a viral video captured by bystanders, the protesters screamed and jumped out of the way. Several were struck, according to organizers of the Wednesday night demonstration at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I. Some were treated at a hospital, though none were severely injured.

“It was terrifying because we didn’t know what exactly his intention was,” Amy Anthony, a spokesperson for Never Again Action, a Jewish activist group that planned the protest, told The Washington Post. “It certainly appeared he was trying to hit us.”

The driver, protesters say, was a correctional officer employed by the privately run facility who was wearing a badge and a uniform — an assertion backed up by video of the incident. Police officers working at the protest did not intervene, Anthony said, and the driver eventually walked into the prison after other guards pepper-sprayed the protesters.

“It’s obvious that there was an assault that took place,” Anthony said. “We’re not sure what we can do now.”

The Rhode Island attorney general’s office and the Rhode Island State Police are investigating the incident, the attorney general’s office said in a statement. Maj. Craig Horton of the Central Falls Police Department told The Post his agency was assisting.

“Once we have a full understanding of the relevant facts, we will determine how to proceed,” the attorney general’s office said in the statement. “Peaceful protest is a fundamental right of all Americans; it is unfortunate last night’s situation unfolded as it did. We urge all to exercise restraint as our investigation proceeds.”

An employee reached by phone at the Wyatt Detention Facility declined to comment early on Thursday. Messages left for the Central Falls Police Department and ICE weren’t immediately returned.

The confrontation took place during a wave of protests around the country by Jewish groups against ICE, including a demonstration that shut down part of Manhattan’s West Side Highway on Saturday, leading police to arrest nearly 100 protesters.

Anthony’s group, which ties its activism to preventing future atrocities like the Holocaust, arrived at the prison around 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The Wyatt Detention Facility, which describes itself as a “quasi-public corporation,” the Providence Journal reported, has contracts with ICE to house immigration detainees. The facility is operated by the Central Falls Detention Facility Corp. and is overseen by a board appointed by the mayor of Central Falls, located about seven miles north of Providence.

About 30 protesters first shut down the main entrance to the prison by linking arms and sitting on the ground, Anthony said. Around 9 p.m., they moved to block the driveways into the staff parking lot. About 45 minutes later, the black pickup showed up.

“The truck kind of swerved to sort of pick up speed,” Anthony said. “It felt unreal to see this happening and to see that someone was actively driving into a group of people who, as I say, were peacefully sitting.”

The group included children and one protester in a wheelchair, Anthony said.

Before the truck could get through to the parking lot, though, protesters gathered on the other side of the gate, shouting “Shame!” Moments later, other guards from the prison rushed across the street to surround the protesters and then fired pepper spray.

After the demonstrators fled the pepper spray, the driver parked in the lot and then walked into the prison, Anthony said.

Although Central Falls police were on the scene, they did not get involved, Anthony said, and officers later refused to take statements from protesters. Organizers are discussing what legal recourse they might have now.

Anthony said the incident hardened her group’s resolve to continue protesting ICE and prisons that work with the federal agency.

“If this is the way this correctional officer is behaving in public when people are recording, it’s not hard to imagine the behavior is much worse behind the walls in the facility where no one can see what is happening,” she said.

Yellow Wall hates anyone except racists who exercise their right to assemble, so naturally that poster will whine about this.

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Appeals court rules Trump administration must provide hygiene products at migrant facilities

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a previous court order mandating the Trump administration provide basic personal hygiene items to children in detention at facilities in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

The ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Fransisco hands a loss to the Trump administration, which had challenged a lower court decision two years ago ordering U.S. officials to provide basic personal hygiene items as well as adequate sleeping conditions, temperatures and food and water to children in detention at facilities in the Rio Grande Valley.

The appeals court's ruling essentially backs the two-decade old Flores agreement, which mandates key aspects of how immigrant children can be held by authorities, including that they be kept under the “least restrictive conditions” possible.

“Assuring that children eat enough edible food, drink clean water, are housed in hygienic facilities with sanitary bathrooms, have soap and toothpaste, and are not sleep-deprived are without doubt essential to the children’s safety,” the appeals court panel ruled.

“The district court properly construed the agreement as requiring such conditions rather than allowing the government to decide whether to provide them,” they added.

The Justice Department declined to comment to The Hill.

Justice Department attorney Sarah Fabian made headlines in June when she argued before the panel that the Flores agreement did not specify that the government was required to provide soap or oral hygiene products.

I'm sure Yellow Wall is seething that soap and toothpaste are deemed essential items.

#Resist

[joan1984]

 Did the court specify that the soap and oral care products be explained to the detainees, maybe in writing, or in mime, if the detainee cannot read any known language, perhaps with pictures of what a toothbrush is used for, and floss of course, just in case such things are ALIEN to the detainee? Hope so.

Maybe 'beto' could make a video, with subtitles, even... He has abandoned his quest by conventional means, so seems to have lots of time on his hands. He
perhaps could write a Pop Up picture book, and sell them to the Government, to be distributed for those who need to learn these new ways.

  So pleased it only took two years for the courts to make it clear.

[psiberzerker]

 Did the court specify that the soap and oral care products be explained to the detainees, maybe in writing, or in mime, if the detainee cannot read any known language, perhaps with pictures of what a toothbrush is used for, and floss of course, just in case such things are ALIEN to the detainee?

Not going to justify detaining children?  Just go ahead, and explicitly state that they're sub-humans who don't know what a toothbrush is, how to use soap, or how to read.

If we didn't "Detain" them for years, then they wouldn't need welfare soap.  Racist.

[joan1984]

  Detain the adults, the children, pets if they have not already eaten them along the 2000 mile walk to get where they are. Follow the laws. Would not want to disturb families, right? Many still awaiting DNA results, Dental 'aging' result, etc.

  The court, taking two years to confirm a toothbrush and soap, has done more than the Democrats in Congress during that period. The same laws still are there that were there before, and seems will be there until there is a willing new Congress, one who will act to get things done, and get these families on their way, unless some may actually qualify for asylum, in which case we should know in about 5 or 6 years, then get most of the families on their way.

[psiberzerker]

You're just not going to acknowledge the racism of assuming they're illiterate, don't know what a toothbrush is, or how to use soap.  Regardless of age, they're not animals, and yet they're being kept in dog kennels.

[joan1984]

  Congress should change the law, provide the necessary funding for overtime, additional beds and infrastructure for excellent shelter for what looks like a long time of need, for what Congress seems to cheer on, with aliens headed here from many countries, far and near.

  Mexico is offering a solution, and the folks now detained could ask to be tossed to the wolves, the gangs and cartels who brought them here in some cases, and could elect to subject themselves to free association in Mexico, while they await the 5 or 6 year adjudication of their claims from US courts.

  How bad could it be, compared to their life from whence they came. Why do they not elect such 'help'? Perhaps the solution is to return home, and plan better for how to get a better life than what they have there. Or not...

You're just not going to acknowledge the racism of assuming they're illiterate, don't know what a toothbrush is, or how to use soap.  Regardless of age, they're not animals, and yet they're being kept in dog kennels.

[psiberzerker]

What do you know about their life?

"Go back to the crime infested shitholes where they came from."

I wonder where you got that prejudice from.

[joan1984]

Not what I said. Stop putting your words in my mouth as 'quotes'.

What do you know about their life?

"Go back to the crime infested shitholes where they came from."

I wonder where you got that prejudice from.

[psiberzerker]

the gangs and cartels who brought them here...  

  How bad could it be, compared to their life from whence they came?  Perhaps the solution is to return home, and plan better for how to get a better life than what they have there.

That's exactly what you said.  I cut it down, to just the Crime, and return home.  (Also nothing about the gangs, and cartels we have here.)

Or in other words, go back to the crime infested places "From whence they came."

Rewording it doesn't change the message.  You still haven't owned the racism of saying they're illiterates that don't understand soap, or toothbrushes.

[Jed_]

Fake racism and white supremacy being a myth are topics for joan right now because they’re hot topics in conservative media right now.  Just ask Tucker Carlson.

It’s what their Russian handlers have told them to push.  Now that I think about it, don’t the word salad bafflegab posts of a certain someone often come across as bad computer generated translations from the Russian?

[_priapism]

Fake racism and white supremacy being a myth are topics for joan right now because they’re hot topics in conservative media right now.  Just ask Tucker Carlson.

It’s what their Russian handlers have told them to push.  Now that I think about it, don’t the word salad bafflegab posts of a certain someone often come across as bad computer generated translations from the Russia?

word salad bafflegab

[Lois]

  Detain the adults, the children, pets if they have not already eaten them along the 2000 mile walk ...

Just because you would eat your pets does not mean other people do.

[Jed_]

  Detain the adults, the children, pets if they have not already eaten them along the 2000 mile walk ...

Just because you would eat your pets does not mean other people do.

Yeah, the bit about eating pets was WAY out there.

[psiberzerker]

Wait, isn't eating cats, and dogs an Asian racial stereotype?  Can't even racism right, damn.

[Athos_131]

White Arkansas woman pulls gun on 4 black fundraising teens

The wife of an Arkansas jail administrator was arrested and charged with assault several days after police say she pulled a gun on four black teenagers who were going door to door to raise money for their high school football team.

Police in the eastern Arkansas city of Wynne, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock, said the incident happened Aug. 7. Police responding to reports of "suspicious persons" found the four children on the ground, with Jerri Kelly, who is white, standing over them holding a gun, Memphis TV station WMC reported.

The officer let the children stand up, and they told him they had been selling discount cards to raise money for a school athletic program. The Wynne School District said two of the four children were wearing football jerseys.

Kelly, 46, was charged Monday with aggravated assault, false imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a minor.

Cross County Sheriff's Department Captain Jeff Nichols said a warrant was put out for Kelly's arrest, and she turned herself in Monday evening. She was released that night on $10,000 bond.

Kelly, who is the wife of Cross County Jail Administrator Joseph Kelly, couldn't immediately be reached for comment Thursday and it wasn't clear whether she had an attorney who could comment.

Nichols said a mugshot of Kelly wasn't taken on Monday because she had a "medical emergency" as she was being booked. He said he could not release more information, citing medical privacy laws. He said she came to the jail to have a mugshot taken after her initial court appearance on Thursday morning, in part because of community backlash.

"She was afforded the same booking process and procedures as anyone that's brought into our facility," Nichols said. "She received no preferential treatment."

Bill Winkler, who said he has lived in the neighborhood where the incident took place for four decades, said children are typically out this time of year selling discount cards for the football team.

"Usually it's right before football season, late summer or early fall," Winkler said.

Wynne School District Superintendent Carl Easley said the district is considering stopping door-to-door fundraisers.

#Resist