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Stories like this show that it’s not just elected officials, but their impact on judicial appts that makes 2020 so crucial.

Federal judge blocks Trump administration from detaining migrant children for indefinite periods

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/federal-judge-blocks-trump-administration-from-detaining-migrant-children-for-indefinite-periods/2019/09/27/49a39790-e15f-11e9-b199-f638bf2c340f_story.html

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In addition to his trade war, Trump is harming farmers in two new ways:

1) Biofuel waivers are reducing demand for corn and soybeans.

2) The trade deal with Japan is no better than what farmers had under Obama and in the meantime they’ve suffered under useless tariffs.

The trade war with China has been particularly painful for American farmers, but a separate issue is currently straining their support for the administration: biofuel.

The leaders of 23 corn grower organizations sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Friday, arguing that his administration’s biofuel waivers have reduced demand for their crops.

"Frustration in the countryside is growing," the letter reads.

In August, the Environmental Protection Agency granted 31 waivers to small refineries, temporarily exempting them from biofuel laws. The waivers free refineries from having to blend biofuels like ethanol into their gasoline.

Corn growers immediately voiced their concerns and Trump later tweeted that a “giant” ethanol package was in the works.

“The Farmers are going to be so happy when they see what we are doing for Ethanol,” Trump tweeted.

But, a month later, they appear tired of waiting for the details to be finalized. In the letter, growers said that a rising number of ethanol plants are closing or reducing production, costing more than 2,700 jobs. If refineries are using fewer soybeans and corn, it drags down the price farmers can get for their crops.

Earlier in the week, farm groups applauded the Trump administration for signing a new trade deal with Japan. It will open up markets for US beef, pork, wheat and other agricultural produce.

“This is a huge victory for America’s farmers, ranchers, and growers, and that’s very important to me,” Trump said at a press conference Wednesday.

But while American pork producers say they’re happy about the deal, it only gives them about the same level of access to the Japanese market as they would have gotten under the Obama-era Trans-Pacific Partnership in the first place. Trump pulled out of the 11-country deal as one of his first acts as President, opting for a bilateral agreement instead.

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Up to 4 feet of snow have buried Montana in an utterly unprecedented early winter storm.

If he wasn’t so busy, Trump would be guffawing about “global warming”, but unpredictable weather extremes like ARE indeed the product of dangerous climate change.

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Just whose side is this guy on? It doesn’t feel like it’s Trump’s.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to Farmers: Get a Bigger Farm or Do Something Else

“In America, the big get bigger and the small go out. I don’t think in America we, for any small business, we have a guaranteed income or guaranteed profitability.”

‘Unacceptable’: Family Farms, Ag Advocates Hit Back After Sec Perdue Says Small Dairy Farms Destined to Die

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers says Trump’s ag secretary ‘put a pox’ on state’s signature industry

U.S. Agriculture Secretary: Family farms might not survive

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Fox’s Shep Smith is calling out what T’s most blatant and illegal acts have been.

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‘We’re the discombobulators,’

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I follow a few reporters and a WH photographer who took these shots in the past couple days. Interesting behind-the-scenes imagery that describe all the craziness.

SmartSelect_20191004-113630_Instagram|447x500

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Another in a long line of racist, cruel Jim Crow-like tests to punish immigrants!

Trump Will Deny Immigrant Visas to Those Who Can’t Pay for Health Care

Visa applicants will have to prove they have insurance or the financial resources for medical costs.

Immigrants who enter this country should not further saddle our health care system, and subsequently American taxpayers, with higher costs,” Trump wrote on Friday.

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Oh, it’s on…

Thx. @rusticgorilla

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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. :rowing_man:

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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. :cricket::cricket::cricket:

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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. :boom:

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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