ICE us using rapid DNA gathered to confirm biological ties between parents and children for more nefarious purposes.
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Despite claims of support for Venezuela, the US is blocking asylum claims from them like pretty much everywhere else.
‘Flee as Fast as You Can.’ A Young Couple Joins Venezuela’s Exodus.
Jonathan Morales and Daliana Loyo planned for years to follow family members out of their country; they found how hard it is to leave
Trump administration denies special help to Venezuelans seeking asylum
Despite clarion calls for Venezuelan ‘freedom’ the US has resisted offering Temporary Protected Status to those fearing persecution
The Walkers: Venezuelan migrants travel hundreds of kilometers by foot to cross Colombia-Venezuela border every day.
For many, it’s only the beginning of a grueling journey.
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No one…from WH will or can open their mouths on any Sunday shows…feels like a sinking ship. 
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Wow! I’d call that the “canary in the coal mine.” In the years that Trump has been in office, his minions have unabashedly defended him no matter how outrageous or egregious his behavior. Finally, they have been shamed into silence. 
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Bipartisan Report Says Trump’s Abuse Has Pushed Federal Science to a ‘Crisis’
All presidents over the past two decades have nudged science to support their policies, but a report out of N.Y.U. said the Trump administration has driven federal science to a “crisis point.”
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Excellent (and scary) report. We won WWII because of the courage and sacrifices of our soldiers, but we also won it because we had the best brains on earth on our side. We should never forget that.
As reported by the L.A. Times, a Trump appointee has recently gutted the division of Homeland Security that protects us from terrorists (and then resigned):
As of mid-2019, more than 100 scientists and policy experts specializing in radiological and nuclear threats had been reassigned or left to take jobs unrelated to their expertise…
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Horrendous amounts of harassment towards news journalists by CBP as experienced by this News Editor Ben Watson, at Dulles airport in DC.
CBP officer: “You’re a journalist?”
Watson: “Yes.”
CBP officer: “You write propaganda, right?”
Watson waited five seconds. Then: “For the purposes of expediting this conversation, yes.”
CBP officer, a fourth time: “You write propaganda, right?”
Watson, again: “For the purposes of expediting this conversation, yes.”
…
At that point, the CBP officer handed back the passport.
The CBP official’s behavior appeared to violate the spirit, and possibly the letter, of DHS’s internal Directive 0480.1, “Ethics/Standards of Conduct”; DHS Code of Conduct § 102-74.445; and possibly U.S. Customs and Border Protection Directive 51735-013A, “Standards of Conduct.”
Watson has filed a civil rights complaint with DHS.
Update: In an email, a CBP spokesperson said that the agency is aware of and is investigating the “allegation about an officer’s alleged inappropriate conduct at Washington Dulles International airport,” adding that the agency holds its employees accountable and does not tolerate inappropriate comments or behavior. The spokesperson declined to be identified.
In a separate email, a DHS spokesperson said that the agency’s Civil Rights and Civil Liberties office has “received the information and is reviewing it.” The spokesperson declined to be identified.
Over the past year, several journalists have reported being harassed and even detained by U.S. customs agents. In February, CBP officials apologized to a BuzzFeed reporter who was aggressively questioned upon entering New York’s JFK Airport. In June, freelance reporter Seth Harp described his hours-long detention by CBP officers in the Austin, Texas, airport. In August, British journalist James Dyer said he was harassed as “fake news” by a CBP agent at Los Angeles International Airport. “He wanted to know if I’d ever worked for CNN or MSNBC or other outlets that are ‘spreading lies to the American people,’ ” he tweeted, per a Washington Post story that links to other instances of CBP harassment of journalists.
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Exactly; we became what we are because we took the best brains from all over. And now we’re rejecting them.
I had to read this again, because it reads EXACTLY like the last time I heard about such an incident:
And I know I have one around somewhere from a guy who covers entertainment news and got harassed.
Here it is:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/23/james-dyer-empire-cbp-agent-lax-fake-news/
U.S. declines again in press-freedom index, falls to ‘problematic’ status
Reporters Without Borders - 2019 World Press Freedom Index
Looking for the U.S.? We’re all the way down at 48 right now.
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::sighs:: This feels right on brand for Trump.
ACT for America, considered to be the largest anti-Muslim group in the U.S., according to the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, plans to host its annual gala at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald J. Trump’s private club, in November.
An older article that bears re-visiting.
Amid Trump Tariffs, Farm Bankruptcies And Suicides Rise
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The Supreme Court has taken up several cases that asks if it’s legal to fire someone because they are gay. This will be a big story when the Supreme Court delivers their ruling. 
The cases Tuesday are the court’s first on LGBT rights since Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement and replacement by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. A decision is expected by early summer 2020, amid the presidential election campaign.
The issue is whether a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that bars discrimination in employment because of sex covers LGBT people.
A ruling for employees who were fired because of their sexual orientation or gender identity would have a big impact for the estimated 8.1 million LGBT workers across the country because most states don’t protect them from workplace discrimination. An estimated 11.3 million LGBT people live in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA law school.
Kennedy was a voice for gay rights and the author of the landmark ruling in 2015 that made same-sex marriage legal throughout the United States. Kavanaugh generally is regarded as more conservative.
The Trump administration has changed course from the Obama administration and now supports the employers in arguing that the civil rights law’s Title 7 does not prohibit discrimination because of sexual orientation or transgender status.
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Must read!
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US wants to block tribes from protecting historical and cultural areas on public lands
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Trump accused of 26 new cases of ‘unwanted sexual contact’
Donald Trump Allegedly Hid Behind a Tapestry to Grope a Woman at Mar-a-Lago in the Early 2000s
At the New Year’s Eve party, [Karen] Johnson, wearing a black Versace dress, danced with her friends. Shortly after glittering balloons fell from the ceiling at the stroke of midnight, her husband said he wasn’t feeling well and the relative was ready to go. Johnson decided to make a quick trip to the restroom before they headed home. “I hadn’t seen [Trump] that whole entire night,” said Johnson, who was in her late thirties at the time. “I was just walking to the bathroom. I was grabbed and pulled behind a tapestry, and it was him. And I’m a tall girl and I had six-inch heels on, and I still remember looking up at him. And he’s strong, and he just kissed me,” she recounted to us. “I was so scared because of who he was… I don’t even know where it came from. I didn’t have a say in the matter.”
Johnson said Trump then grabbed her hand and said, “You have to help me greet these guests out,” explaining that Melania was upstairs. “So I stood next to him while he greeted some guests out the door,” Johnson said. She didn’t let on that anything was amiss because she didn’t want to create an awkward situation. “I was afraid to say what had happened,” she said. “I didn’t even know how it happened.”
Documentation and photographs corroborate Johnson’s general description of the evening. A friend also said Johnson told him about the encounter years before Trump ran for office.
In the days after the incident, Trump began pursuing Johnson. “He started calling me. I answered my phone and he said, ‘Do you know who this is?’ And I knew his voice. And I was wondering how he got my phone number,” she said. He called her regularly for the next week or two, she told us, offering to fly her up to New York to visit him. Johnson told Trump she couldn’t because she was taking care of her dying husband. “Don’t worry about it, he’ll never know you were gone,” she said Trump told her. “He said he’d have me back by six o’clock. This was like crazy. He was going to fly me to New York for the day to see him. I said, ‘No, no, no.’” But Trump persisted. When he was in Florida, he called and said he would send a car to bring her to Mar-a-Lago. “I kept saying, ‘No, no, no,’” she said. “I was scared. I didn’t know what to do.”
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I just… can’t find words for this. I can’t find words for how evil this is. All for money and power.
Also posted here:
A running tally of tweets and other sources showing the damage and bloodshed the Turkish invasion is causing, which is also prompting ISIS to seize its opportunity and attack on other fronts.
Two children among first deaths of Turkey’s offensive into Syria
Eight civilians have been killed in the first wave of Turkey’s military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria, according to a monitoring group.
Actually, President Trump, some Kurds did fight in World War II
This tweet has video. It is graphic. It is gruesome. It will not be the last such video to come out of Syria.
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Highly visible and walking her talk…
After pledging to hold weekly demonstrations over climate change, Jane Fonda was arrested on Friday as she was among those protesting in Washington, D.C. on the Capitol. Video of the actress being placed in handcuffs and escorted to a police vehicle was posted to social media.
“Today, the United States Capitol Police arrested 16 individuals for unlawfully demonstrating on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol,” Eva Malecki, spokeswoman for the Capitol police told The Hollywood Reporter . All were charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding, she said.
The actress was protesting with the group Oil Change International over the climate crisis. “I will be on the Capitol every Friday, rain or shine, inspired and emboldened by the incredible movement our youth have created,” Fonda wrote on her own website on Thursday.
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Tonight’s rally in Lake Charles. LA It reminds me of where the Wizard of Oz was hiding…behind the curtain. For T, hiding behind the flag despite his duplicity of being a lying crook.
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Bill Barr is positively messianic…adding more to the chaos
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12 Hours. 4 Syrian Hospitals Bombed. One Culprit: Russia.
The Russians saved Bashar al-Assad’s government. A trove of Russian Air Force recordings obtained by The Times shows how bombing Syrian hospitals helped them do it.
ISIS Rears Its Head, Adding to Chaos as Turkey Battles Kurds
A prison break and a bombing claimed by the Islamic State punctuated fears that the Turkish invasion, now in its third day, was sowing mayhem.
At least 750 Isis affiliates escape Syria camp after Turkish shelling
Trump went on a four-tweet spree about Turkey this morning, denying culpability, insisting that we had been smart to avoid getting involved, ignoring that he just sent soldiers to Saudi Arabia and that there would not be any fighting if he hadn’t directly allowed it. He also has ignored the return of ISIS and had the gall to talk about “sanctions” as if that would anything and he wasn’t directly responsible for all of this.
Letters to the Editor: No one would ‘help us with Normandy’ after Trump abandoned the Kurds
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Walter Michael Shaub Jr. is an American attorney specializing in government ethics who, from January 9, 2013 to July 19, 2017, was the director of the United States Office of Government Ethics (wiki)
He left government service because he saw that this administration could not care less about erhics.
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