All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[Mister Mets]

https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1000523296599719936

These monsters that make up the federal government released children to human traffickers.

It seems this story is widely misunderstood.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...edly-lost.html

The 1,475 minors who are unaccounted for are for unaccompanied minors. These are not kids separated from their parents by ICE.

But as news outlets have clarified in recent days, the 1,475 children who have slipped off the radar of the Office of Refugee Resettlement were not separated from their parents by the U.S. government—they arrived alone, the latest members of a wave of unaccompanied minors fleeing violence in Central America who crossed the Southwest border beginning in 2014. According to ORR, 49 percent of those minors who arrived alone in FY 2017 were placed with parents in the U.S., 41 percent with close relatives, and 10 percent with “other-than-close relatives or non-relatives.”

Headline: “The Feds Lost—Yes, Lost—1,475 Migrant Kids.” Montini did distinguish between those two groups, but his readers weren’t so careful. The story went viral on Thursday, after a Republic reader in Arizona posted a screenshot of Montini’s print column on Twitter.

Today's paper. AZ Republic. P 3. I was wrong. It's 1475 kids not 1424. Some were released to human traffickers. pic.twitter.com/smXLz8Kis1

— lehimesa (@lehimesa) May 25, 2018
That was quickly misinterpreted in a subsequent flight of conspiratorial fancy by the techie Yonatan Zunger, who wrote: “Here’s the underlying news story. 1,475 of the over 7,000 children which ICE has seized from their parents are missing and unaccounted for—and will probably never be reunited with their parents. I do not have words for how I feel right now.”

Here's the underlying news story. 1,475 of the over 7,000 children which ICE has seized from their parents are missing and unaccounted for - and will probably never be reunited with their parents.

I do not have words for how I feel right now. https://t.co/UXdWjb8TEV

— (((Yonatan Zunger))) (@yonatanzunger) May 25, 2018
The tweet, phrased as a data-based distillation of the news with a dose of contrition, was in turn shared by writers Sarah Kendzior and Philip Gourevitch, the actor John Leguizamo, director Judd Apatow, and tech leader Ellen Pao (combined concerned followers: more than 3 million). By Saturday, it was all over your Facebook: ICE had stripped 1,500 kids from their parents, lost them, and possibly let them fall into the hands of human traffickers.

That was not what happened.

“If someone wants to consider the numbers seriously,” Zunger continued, the “program” could mean “35,000 children taken in the next year.” In reality, more than 40,000 children were apprehended crossing the border by themselves in FY 2017 and referred by the Department of Homeland Security to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which placed them with their families or, in a small minority of cases, foster parents. Extrapolating from the ORR’s (very cursory) phone survey, a fifth of those kids’ whereabouts might now be unknown to the federal government.

The inability to get a hold of the kids is largely the result of people they're with not wanting to respond to government agencies.

But this particular situation might not be such bad news. In a statement on Monday, Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan criticized the way the issue had been reported. “These children are not ‘lost’; their sponsors—who are usually parents or family members and in all cases have been vetted for criminality and ability to provide for them—simply did not respond or could not be reached when this voluntary call was made,” the statement read. This wasn’t a Trump administration talking point. Cecilia Muñoz, who advised Obama on immigration policy, explained to Steve Inskeep on NPR on Tuesday morning that families not picking up the phone makes a lot of sense: 90 percent of those (undocumented) kids are released to family, who are likely to also be undocumented. They would have good reason not to keep the feds updated on their addresses. “In many cases parents and kids have been reunited and gone off the grid, they don’t want to be contacted by a government agency,” Muñoz said.

There's also an explanation of the prison bus photo referenced earlier in this discussion.

The cycle wasn’t over yet. To complicate matters, the viral video factory Now This used 4-year-old, Obama-era photos and descriptions of undocumented child migrants in the Nogales Placement Center to criticize President Trump’s separation policy. A widely shared photo of a “prison bus for babies” turned out to be, well, a prison bus for children aged 4 to 17—but one purchased more than two years ago to provide field trips and medical appointments to kids in detention centers run by President Obama’s DHS. “This is Trump’s America,” the musician Moby offered (1.35 million followers), sharing a photo of the bus. (Fact-check: It was Obama’s America first.) “A land of belligerence and cruelty and unspeakable heartlessness.” (Fact-check: true.)

[Tendrin]

There's also an explanation of the prison bus photo referenced earlier in this discussion.

Don't think we're letting Obama's role in all of this go unnoticed. We're not. He built the infrastructure that is now being used to such monstrous effect.

But the prison bus (and the story accompanying it).. c'mon, dude. We're not so naïve and gullible.

[PaulBullion]

screw her and anyone who took a paycheck to work with her

double bird to ABC for shelving an episode of Blackish that wanted to address the anthem protests

f**k John Goodman, Sarah Gilbert, and the lot of them

The people who lost their job after deciding to work for one of the most hateful lunatics in entertainment can now explore a universal humanity that everyone goes through during hard times and difficult circumstances.

[PaulBullion]

In spite of all the bad things she has done, I do hope Melania is ok. The tweet from her twitter account saying that she was ok, which was clearly not written by her, has me worried.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Driver Shouts ‘Go Back To Your Country B***h’ At Asian-American Family

This is the second time in two weeks a racist incident against Asian Americans in the Bay Area has gone viral. More of Trump's toxic xenophobia at work.

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Roseanne Wanted TV Show To Be Canceled, Ex-Husband Says

Tom Arnold says his ex-wife’s tweets were escalating in the days before she posted a racist comment. Well now, THAT'S an interesting theory.

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New Hampshire Dug Deep Into Allegations Of Widespread Voter Fraud. It Found Very Little.

“What the president said isn’t true,” said the chair of the state’s Ballot Law Commission. Trump lied about something? Talk about shocking!

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Samantha Bee Slams ‘Feckless C**t’ Ivanka Trump For Not Doing Something About Immigration

The late night host urged the president’s daughter to help change the administration’s immigration policies. Don't waste your breath, Sam, Ms. Complicit doesn't give a fuck, she's only there to exploit the Trump brand to make money, humanity be damned.

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NY Post Ripped Over ‘Sexist And Pathetic’ Cover On Trump’s Kim K Meeting

Tabloid called out as “rude,” “mean-spirited” and “disgraceful.” Rude? Mean-spirited? Disgraceful? To whom? An unapologetic media whore like Kartrashian who's only doing that for free publicity and a chance to glad hand with Dolt45? PUH-LEEEZE!

[Carabas]

Tabloid called out as “rude,” “mean-spirited” and “disgraceful.” Rude? Mean-spirited? Disgraceful?

Yes, I would say that it definitely is all of that.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The absurdity meter goes off the scale again:

Trump, fast-food lover and exercise avoider, tells nation about importance of fitness

It is Sports and Fitness Day at the White House.

That meant President Trump — a man who has spoken out on the dangers of exercising and devours McDonald’s, KFC chicken, chocolate cake and double scoops of vanilla ice cream — spent his afternoon lecturing the nation on the importance of staying fit.

The fitness event Wednesday afternoon on the White House lawn focused on how much children benefit from team sports and featured activities including flag football, baseball, golf, volleyball, soccer and track and field. For the most part, Trump avoided all of the above at the event, looking on in his suit and tie while others took part. But at one point, he appeared to step into a baseball batting cage and take a swing.

The fleeting moment caught on camera was one of the rare occasions during Trump's presidency — outside of his leisurely golf outings — where there was photographic evidence of him engaging in exercise.

Trump is perhaps the most sedentary, least healthy president in recent history.

His dietary and exercise habits have alarmed some health experts and spurred unflattering comparisons with past occupiers of the Oval Office.

Barack Obama played basketball. George W. Bush went mountain biking and cleared brush on his ranch. Even Bill Clinton would try to make up for his fondness for fast food with the occasional jog to McDonald's.

Trump, by comparison, does not simply avoid exercise — he has espoused theories about how it can be hazardous to one’s health.

“All my friends who work out all the time, they're going for knee replacements, hip replacements — they're a disaster,” he told New York Times in 2015, saying he gets his fill of exercise standing in front of crowds at campaign events.

In high school, Trump played football, baseball and soccer. In a January interview with the Wall Street Journal, he boasted: “I was always the best athlete. People don’t know that.”

But he gave up his athletic pursuits after college. In The Washington Post’s biography of Trump, “Trump Revealed,” reporters traced his turn away from sports and exercise to an odd theory he developed about how a person’s body could be depleted of energy, like a battery, by exercise. When Trump, for example, learned one of his top casino executives, John O'Donnell, was training for an Ironman triathlon, he warned him, “You are going to die young because of this.”

[Kevinroc]

It seems this story is widely misunderstood.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...edly-lost.html

The 1,475 minors who are unaccounted for are for unaccompanied minors. These are not kids separated from their parents by ICE.



The inability to get a hold of the kids is largely the result of people they're with not wanting to respond to government agencies.



There's also an explanation of the prison bus photo referenced earlier in this discussion.

Samantha Bee covered the missing migrant children crisis.



(Warning for Strong language.)

[PaulBullion]

Trump announced he will pardon disgusting scumbag and right wing propagandist Dinesh D’Souza.

[Tami]

PAC backing DA candidate Jones-Wright cancels all TV advertising

Jones-Wright to voters in the county and crucially raise her name recognition as she competes against the current officeholder, District Attorney Summer Stephan.

Jones-Wright, a deputy public defender who is running on a platform calling for reforms in the criminal justice system, was one of four DA races that the PAC had thrown its support behind in California. On May 3, Soros contributed $1.5 million to the PAC, which is backing candidates in Sacramento, Alameda and Contra Costa counties as well.

The PAC immediately spent more than $400,000 on advertising and mailers supporting Jones-Wright, and more has been deployed for her campaign in the succeeding weeks. The most recent campaign disclosure report filed with the secretary of state showed the PAC had spent $848,853.50 in support of her campaign through May 19 — the largest sum of any of the four candidates the PAC was backing.

It’s unclear what caused the PAC to cancel its ad buys. A spokesman for the group — which under campaign finance laws has to act independently and can’t coordinate with the campaign it is supporting — declined repeated requests to comment Wednesday.

But political insiders say the move could show the PAC concluded the massive campaign has failed to boost Jones-Wright enough, and has decided to deploy its money elsewhere.

[Tami]

Trump announced he will pardon disgusting scumbag and right wing propagandist Dinesh D’Souza.

Trump to pardon conservative author Dinesh D'Souza

D'Souza, a bestselling author and filmmaker who has been sharply critical of former President Barack Obama and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, made news most recently when he ridiculed the survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting following the Florida House's decision not to consider a ban on so-called assault weapons.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Dinesh is the worst.

[ZombieHavoc]

I really think the country would be better off if none of these rich donors, right or left, were throwing so much money at candidates and into campaigns.

It makes it really tough to buy that the American people have any say in the policies that help or hurt us. And I would definitely be okay with liberal donors like Soros not contributing if it meant that the right wing donors who call all the shots right now were not calling all the shots right now.

I get that this country was basically founded for the benefit of rich white people, but you see how well that bullshit has worked out.

Also, while all the crazy Soros conspiracies are just that, it's not hard to see where this kinda thing comes from (even if most of the people who are afraid of the Soros-owned world don't realize it is co-owned, and right now owned more so, by his right wing equivalents, monetarily speaking).

The American Ruse.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump to pardon conservative author Dinesh D'Souza

Why am I not surprised? D'Scumbag is just the sort of turd Trump loves to pieces. Maybe Dolt45 is angling to have Dimbulb do a documentary on how great and awesome his administration has been.

[Tami]

I really think the country would be better off if none of these rich donors, right or left, were throwing so much money at candidates and into campaigns.

It makes it really tough to buy that the American people have any say in the policies that help or hurt us. And I would definitely be okay with liberal donors like Soros not contributing if it meant that the right wing donors who call all the shots right now were not calling all the shots right now.

I get that this country was basically founded for the benefit of rich white people, but you see how well that bullshit has worked out.

Also, while all the crazy Soros conspiracies are just that, it's not hard to see where this kinda thing comes from (even if most of the people who are afraid of the Soros-owned world don't realize it is co-owned, and right now owned more so, by his right wing equivalents, monetarily speaking).

The American Ruse.

I am all in favor of stricter rules and regulations. However, there really aren't many ways to regulate the creation of support or attack ads by outside groups/PACS, as long as the money is U.S. and not foreign.