A continuation of events surrounding the drug war and related social issues of Baja California and Mexico. Keeping an eye on Seig Heil Trump. We are still trying to restore all blogs from 2006 which were hacked by Linton Robinson and his team, famous for supporting the Baja Trump Towers on one of his real estate sites. Highlights of Paris-Simone's favorite music !!
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Monday, April 19, 2021
Gun Violence In The USA Is Out Of Control - Biden Flips On Migrante Quota
I was trying to keep tract of all of the shootings in the United States since last month and I simply lost count. And, it seems the Republicans are not going to budge an inch on gun control, which is shameful.
Here are the most recent reports which will probably be updated in the next few hours to include the Austin shooting and the Minnesota National Guard being fired on which appears as a video on the link.
That
core duty of any political system is being undermined by polarized
cultural and ideological divides that have so far made it impossible to
adequately address gun violence, police misconduct and racial inequality.
While
there have been a flurry of efforts at local levels, the usual outcome
at moments like this is political paralysis as Washington -- where
national polarization is institutionalized -- fails to produce even
marginal reforms to law enforcement or gun safety.
The
question now is whether a nation that has lost more than 560,000 people
in a pandemic, which disproportionately affected minorities, is willing
to accept a return to its old normal. Events of recent days suggest
that there is no end in sight to a grim cellphone video showreel of
Americans of color dying at police hands and regular mass killings.
Jurors
in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minnesota cop who left his knee on
Floyd's neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds while he died last May,
will hear closing arguments on Monday before retiring for their
deliberations.
The
need for a functioning and fair court system requires them to base
their verdicts on two murder charges and one manslaughter count solely
on the evidence raised during an often harrowing trial.
But
that has not stopped the trial from being seen in the United States and
around the world as a watershed moment that will highlight unfairness
in how the American law enforcement system treats Black and minority
Americans.
Given
the deeply disturbing footage repeatedly aired at the trial of Floyd's
agonizing last moments, the need for unanimity among the jury, and the
high profile of the trial, there is concern about what could follow not
guilty verdicts.
"I
don't think anyone in Minneapolis, frankly, anyone in the United States
or over a good part of the world would understand any other verdict
other than guilty," California Rep. Karen Bass told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union."
Verdict is only the first step
If
Chauvin is convicted, the sentencing phase of the trial will also be
crucial, Bass said. "The verdict is step one, but what we've seen in too
many of these cases, in the rare time there is a guilty verdict, we
have seen people get off with minimal sentences," added Bass, the
sponsor of the Democratic police reform bill named for Floyd.
Her
comments were an example of the extraordinary political pressure
surrounding the trial in Minneapolis, from which the jury will be
insulated by being sequestered for as long as it takes to complete their
deliberations.
The
idea that the case, which stirred massive nationwide and global
activism after Floyd died last year, would prove in itself to be a
change agent has been belied by a stream of recent police killings and
harassment of Americans of color.
The shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright by a police officer in
a Minneapolis suburb a week ago, for instance, highlighted how routine
law enforcement stops can still quickly escalate with tragic
consequences. Tensions are high in Chicago after the release of body
camera footage after a police officer shot dead 13-year-old Adam Toledo in March. The heartbreak of these incidents lies not just in the young lives lost, but in the fact that they feel so routine.
Still, despite the continuing violence, some activists see the Chauvin trial as a highly consequential moment.
"The
outcome that we pray for in (the) Derek Chauvin trial is for him to be
held criminally liable for killing George Floyd because we believe that
could be a precedence of finally making America live up to its promise
of liberty and justice for all," civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump
said Sunday.
"We
have to finally have this racial reckoning, America, because if we
don't, then people are going to continue to have these emotional
protests," Crump, who acts for Floyd's family, said on ABC's "This
Week."'
Whatever
the outcome of the trial, it will be up to America's political leaders
to determine what level of action is required to tackle a culture of
impunity that reinforces discriminatory and even lawless behavior in
police dealings with minorities.
The realities of a deadlocked Senate
The Democratic-led House has already passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,
which takes a series of steps including setting up a national registry
of police misconduct and overhauling qualified immunity, a legal
doctrine that critics say shields law enforcement officers from
accountability.
But
like most other issues before the Senate, the package faces an
uncertain future in a 50-50 chamber amidst a tense political atmosphere
that is prone to demagoguery from radicals on both sides of the
political aisle.
Republicans,
for instance, have seized on demands by a minority of left-wing
Democrats to defund and dismantle police departments, to portray the
entire bill as a passport to eliminating policing entirely. That's a
position that even Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has said he disagrees
with.
But
those attacks, portraying the bill as part of an extreme liberal
crusade, put moderate Democrats, like West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin -- a
crucial vote in the caucus -- in an uncomfortable position. Other
Republicans, meanwhile, are likely to object to the bill by arguing that
it imposes unworkable and undesirable federal solutions on local
jurisdictions.
It
is also unclear how much political capital President Joe Biden will
invest in the effort, given his personal political priorities including
infrastructure, a desire not to alienate moderate Republican voters he
has courted and given his historic kinship with police unions. Still,
Biden is under intense pressure on the issue given that his victory in
the Democratic primary was largely based on the support of African
American voters -- who were also critical constituencies in big cities
in the swing states like Georgia and Pennsylvania that handed him the
White House.
Bass,
however, said on "State of the Union" that she was hopeful common
ground could be forged in the Senate, especially under the leadership of
South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott.
"I
believe that the Republicans that I am working with are operating in
good faith," Bass said. "Again, it's one thing to pass legislation in
the House. It's a super hurdle to get it passed in the Senate."
The mass shootings just go on and on
The weekend brought no respite from the firearms deaths.
Three people are dead after someone opened fire inside a tavern in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Another three people were killed in a shooting that police said
appeared to be related to a domestic incident in Texas. Authorities said
a potential mass shooting was averted at San Antonio airport when a parks officer stopped a man with a box full of ammunition and a .45 caliber handgun.
Such events underscore the easy availability of deadly weapons. The 19-year-old who killed eight people
in a massacre at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis late on Thursday
bought his two assault rifles legally, police said over the weekend.
According to a CNN analysis, the United States has suffered at least 50
mass shootings since March 16, when eight people were killed at three Atlanta-area spas. Six of the victims were women of Asian descent.
Dr.
Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious disease expert, who is most
identified with the fight against Covid-19, bemoaned the incessant loss
of life from gun crimes during an appearance on "State of the Union."
"I
mean, in this last month it's just been horrifying what's happened,"
Fauci told Bash when asked whether gun violence was a public health
emergency. "How can you say that's not a public health issue?"
Democratic
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said last week that he planned to
bring legislation to the Senate floor to address the "epidemic" of gun
violence. Given that there is little sign that the political dynamics of
gun control have shifted, Schumer's efforts seem most likely to amount
to symbolism.
Republicans
have little political incentive to cooperate with Democrats given the
antipathy to any form of firearms restrictions among grassroots
conservatives persuaded by GOP arguments that any restrictions are
unconstitutional. But there is often less attention on the freedoms to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness denied the multiple victims
of mass shootings.
For
example, when Biden recently used executive power to enforce some
modest measures, including limiting self-assembled or handmade firearms
made from directions and materials available online, he was falsely
accused by former President Donald Trump -- still the most powerful
voice in the GOP -- of seeking to overturn the Second Amendment.
Democratic
Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut have been
seeking Republican votes for a set of limited reforms to background
checks and restricting gun sales to the mentally ill.
But
Republicans argue that Democrats use mass shootings as an excuse to
take away guns from law-abiding Americans who need weapons to defend
themselves in such situations.
So
the chance of any serious gun control measures reaching the threshold
of 60 votes in the Senate to overcome Republican blocking tactics
remains slim. Hopes for police reform could dissolve for the same
reason, rooted in the entrenched politics of an internally estranged
country."
~~~~~
If this rash of insanity continues at the current levels, it is going to make Mexico look like a cake walk. So be careful out there.
This minuscule number was too much for the white supremacist Trump
administration, which drastically cut back refugee admissions from an
average of 70,000 to 80,000 per year earlier in this century to only
30,000 in 2019 and to only 18,000 in 2020. (The pretext for the latter
was the pandemic, but I think we know the real reason).
President Biden came under pressure
from his own party activists to reverse Trump’s heartless policy,
especially since Biden had campaigned on doing so. He now aims to
recognize 62,500 asylum-seekers as refugees by October.
Mind you, Pew reports that Trump did not actually cut down on
immigration in general very much. It was only desperate asylum-seekers
that he barred. In 2019, 710,000 people received lawful permanent
residence status in the US through family sponsorship. In all, about a
million people were let in, which is par for the course in the US.
That is, Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric had little practical effect
in most sectors of immigration. He was fine with well off people coming
in, in droves.
He denied the most miserable and needy applicants, that is, the
asylum-seekers. You might call it the sadism immigration policy.
The US, despite priding itself as a refuge for the huddled masses,
does very little for asylum-seekers compared to many of its
industrialized peers, and does less even than some developing countries.
The UN High Commission for Refugees
estimates that there were 80 million forcibly displaced people around
the world as of last summer, a little over half of them internally
displaced, and the rest of them forced abroad. Some 30-34 million are
children.
An average of one person is displaced every 2 seconds. Despite what you think, it could at any moment be you.
About 26.3 million have been granted refugee status, and another 4.2
million are still only pressing such a claim, and so are considered
“asylum-seekers.”
ConcernUSA.org explains, “Refugee is the classification for someone
who is forced to flee their country of origin due to conflict, violence,
or persecution. They are unwilling or unable to return based on a
demonstrable threat due to their race, religion, political stance, or
social status.” In international law, because of the danger to the
refugee of being returned to the country of origin, this process or
“refoulement” is forbidden. The Trump administration thumbed its nose
at this principle of international law, however.
ConcernUSA.org defines the next category this way: “Asylum-seeker is
the classification for someone who is seeking international protection
from danger in their country of origin, but whose claim for refugee
status hasn’t been finally decided. Every refugee begins as an
asylum-seeker, but not every asylum-seeker will be granted refugee
status.”
Most of these externally displaced people, some 67%, come from just
five countries. Some 6.6 million are from the Syrian Arab Republic, 3.7
million from Venezuela, 2.7 million from Afghanistan, 2.3 million from
South Sudan and 1 million from Myanmar.
Some 39% of those displaced abroad are hosted by just five countries,
mostly neighbors of the country from which people have been violently
expelled. Turkey has 3.6 million Syrian displaced people (DPs).
Columbia has taken in 1.8 million, largely Venezuelan DPs. Pakistan
still has 1.4 million Afghans. Uganda hosts 1.4 million DPs. Germany
has taken in 1.1 million DPs.
Despite the hype by white supremacists in the US and Europe about
invading hordes of black and brown displaced people, 86% of DPs are
hosted by developing or by the least developed countries. That’s right,
of the tens of millions of Externally Displaced People (EDPs), only 14
percent are taken in by the rich countries.
Some wealthy states are exemplary. Sweden takes in more refugees
than most of its wealthy peers, and 2.7 percent of its population is
refugees. In Germany, 1.5 percent of the population are refugees.
The US can and should do more, and better. The refugees America has
taken in have been among its most productive and outstanding citizens.
Moreover, our gargantuan carbon emissions and our military conflicts
have themselves created many DPs. We owe them. We owe humanity."
—–
~~~~~
Another slight emergency here; Totsie had to go in to have a foxtail removed from her eye. So now I have two little sick ones, Mike is better.
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