Amy Klobuchar Fought to Give Immigrants Deportation-Eligible Sentences

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Race,Leave a comment

Salim didn’t realize, he later said, citing a language barrier, that income from a second side job also needed to be included.

The lapse resulted in a criminal overpayment of benefits of $12,549 — or $782 per month. The dollar amount made the crime a felony, which put Salim, a permanent American resident but not yet a citizen, at risk of deportation. In an agreement with the judge, Salim pleaded guilty, and the judge downgraded the sentence to a gross misdemeanor, handing down a suspended sentence of 364 days (just two days shorter than a felony sentence would have been), probation, and restitution.

…The office of Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, with Klobuchar’s signoff, decided to appeal the guilty verdict, arguing that the stayed sentence should be increased by two days, pushing it back into felony territory, which would be grounds for the legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service to begin deportation proceedings. 

…Laura Lynch, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the decision to appeal the Salim case was “deeply, deeply troubling,” saying that it fit a pattern of “overzealous prosecutors that choose to spend limited resources to turn misdemeanors into felonies that result in unjust deportation, which is a very severe penalty.” 

…The State of Minnesota has neither any standing nor any business being a “gopher” or a “water boy” for the INS. It is just none of their business. The defendant in this case is not “Lucky Luciano,” but rather an immigrant, a resident alien, who failed to report all household income for purposes of continuing to get more welfare and food stamps.  To be sure, it is against the law, but the legally prescribed penalty for this crime is the lowest possible felony sentence that can be given in the State of Minnesota.

… KLOBUCHAR’S OFFICE’S flip attitude toward the immigration consequences of their prosecutions extended to another case around the same time. In July 1999, James Stanford Byron, a legal permanent resident who hailed from Trinidad and Tobago, was charged with felony marijuana sale and possession. The judge in his case stayed imposition of his sentence, handing down three years probation. Thanks to good behavior, he was granted an early discharge from probation in December 2000, and the felony was reduced to a misdemeanor on his record.

Byron thought he was out of the woods and, in February 2003, visited Trinidad and Tobago. On his way back home, he was detained in Miami by immigration authorities, who flagged his felony conviction and put him in the process of deportation.

…Klobuchar’s office stepped in, appealing the ruling to a higher court, and arguing that Byron should suffer the consequences of his felony plea, even if it was later reduced to a misdemeanor.

……In her 2006 Senate campaign, Klobuchar ran as a tough crime fighter. “I’m someone who puts people in jail for a living,” she boasted.

Amy Klobuchar Fought to Give Immigrants Deportation-Eligible Sentences

Reinstating a felony that had been reduced to a misdemeanor to deport someone? Deport someone over foodstamps??? Jeezus, Amy….

Nancy Pelosi has a Bernie Sanders strategy – CNNPolitics

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“It is not unusual for a party platform or the candidates for president to have their own agenda that they would put forth. And it’s not unusual for the House of Representatives to have its agenda, as well. We have to win in certain particular areas. We’re not about a popular vote in the country or in particular states, in terms of your Electoral College. We are in district by district. And that’s how we won last time we demonstrated that we know how to win.”

Read between the lines and you get this: House Democrats will absolutely break with Sanders’ expansive views on government involvement and spending, if doing so makes it more likely for them to keep their House majority.

…But what Pelosi is doing here is simply preserving the possibility that if a) Sanders is the nominee and b) it looks like his push for the elimination of private health insurance or for the Green New Deal is hurting House incumbents in swing seats, then she will have laid the groundwork to break with the nominee and go another way. It’s not a “when” but rather more of an “if.”

Nancy Pelosi has a Bernie Sanders strategy – CNNPolitics

hmmm

Garret Graves’ nutria bill passes the U.S. House; here’s what the bill would do

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Gulf Coast Region,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The bill, co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, would broaden the scope of the Nutria Eradication and Control Act to include all states — not just Louisiana and Maryland, where the invasive, orange-toothed rodent has eaten away coastal marshes for decades.

…Nutria are one of many factors contributing to rapid land loss along Louisiana’s coast. The major causes include oil and gas exploration, sea level rise, soil subsidence and the loss of replenishing sediment since the Mississippi River was brought under control with levees.

…Gnawing away the roots of marsh plants, nutria leave little to hold the fragile landscape in place. More than 40 square miles of Louisiana’s coast have been turned into open water by nutria over the past two decades, according to the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Garret Graves’ nutria bill passes the U.S. House; here’s what the bill would do | Environment | nola.com

hmmm

Tribes secure big voting rights win in North Dakota

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,, The Americas,Leave a comment

Residents of reservations will be able to register and vote this year even if they don’t comply with the state’s restrictive voter identification law, which requires voters to have an ID with a residential address, under an agreement announced late Thursday.

…The address requirement has disenfranchised thousands of people living on reservations, because the state does not assign street numbers to their homes.

…Under the new consent decree, the secretary of state has promised to ensure Native Americans may vote if they do not have a street address or don’t know what it is. (Some buildings on reservations have formal addresses but no signage, and almost all residents rely on post office boxes and have those numbers on their tribal IDs.)

…The state has maintained the rule was designed to deter voting fraud, but Native Americans see it as a straightforward bid to suppress their reliably Democratic vote.

…Native Americans constitute about 5 percent of the state’s population, making them a crucial voting bloc in close contests. Different tribes have been challenging the law in federal court for almost four years.

Tribes secure big voting rights win in  North Dakota – The Fulcrum

Progress.

CA bill requires gender neutral children’s areas at stores

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Assembly Bill 2826, by Assemblyman Evan Low, D-Campbell, would apply to all retail department stores with 500 or more employees.

The bill would do away with so-called “boys aisles” and “girls aisles,” by requiring that children’s products be offered in a single, gender neutral section, according to Low’s office.

…Lawmakers also are considering a bill that would eliminate the “pink tax,” the discrepancy in pricing that sees women paying more for female-marketed products than men pay for male-marketed ones. 

CA bill requires gender neutral children’s areas at stores | The Sacramento Bee

Nice!

Love Is Blind Leads Us Into the Dark

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,Leave a comment

She’s a fascinating character who quite neatly represents the show’s eerie artifice. In most of her big moments, she seems to be performing, putting on a decently acted—but obviously acted—show as she argues with Damian about their sex life or makes grand declarations of love. She’s unnerving, an approximator of the real thing who’s perhaps too savvy about that by half. She, like so many young people (and not-as-young people), is fixated on her Instagram feed, and she seems to recognize that this exercise is really one in branding, in making herself a character who oozes sex and drama.

…What I want to know is if Giannina ever actually let herself believe it—if an influencer can, in some small way, actually influence themselves.

Love Is Blind Leads Us Into the Dark | Vanity Fair’

Human beings – and reality television is so weird!

‘Please let me go:’ Video shows 6-year-old girl crying, pleading during arrest at Orlando school

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Modern Parenting,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

Orlando Police Department officials previously declined a public records request to release the body camera video showing Kaia Rolle’s arrest at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy on Sept. 19, 2019, citing student privacy issues, however, the family’s attorney was given a copy and shared it with local news outlets.

…Kaia’s grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, previously told News 6 her granddaughter was acting out in class, a side effect of a lack of sleep from a medical condition, so she was sent to the office. While Kaia was there, a staff member grabbed her wrists in order to calm her down and that’s when she lashed out and kicked, according to Kirkland.

Turner wrote in Kaia’s arrest report that Beverly Stoute, whom he identified as an assistant principal, was the victim in the case and she wanted to press charges because Kaia kicked her on the legs and punched her arms several times.

‘Please let me go:’ Video shows 6-year-old girl crying, pleading during arrest at Orlando school

The arrest record is the legal record of the incident. You don’t call the police unless you want someone arrested. Period. The school denial of the goal being the child’s arrest is galling. Lying to save their own jobs should preclude them from working in education.

Similarly, the department’s apology is meaningless. It is 100% responsible for their officers’ behavior. There are no mistakes in law enforcement, only justice and injustice.

Finally, Beverly Stoute is the perpetrator in this injustice, not the victim. Any other telling of these events is an outright lie.

As long as we tolerate people like Stoute and Turner working in our country’s schools no child is safe.

Fired Orlando cop who arrested 6-year-olds said school faculty member wanted to press charges against girl, report shows

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Gulf Coast Region,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

In the student’s arrest report, obtained by the Orlando Sentinel late Tuesday, Turner said staff member Beverly Stoute — identified in the report as an assistant principal — “stated she wanted to press charges and would testify in court.”

…The report included only a brief, four-sentence narrative and didn’t indicate how the incident began.

…Though Stoute was identified in the arrest report as an assistant principal, she was listed as a teacher on the charter school’s website, one of five named on the site’s staff page. There were no assistant principals listed, only a principal and a dean of students.

There was no record of a Beverly Stoute in the state’s online teacher certification database. Two other staff members at the school — the dean and a teacher — also did not appear to be in the system. Florida law requires teachers “employed by or under contract to” a charter school to be certified by the state.

…Over the course of Turner’s 23-year tenure at OPD prior to retiring last year, he was disciplined seven times for violations of department policy that ranged from unsafe driving to a child-abuse arrest in which he was accused of injuring his 7-year-old son. He was also accused of sending threatening text messages to his ex-wife in 2009 and racial profiling

…The Nixon academy, which had 116 elementary students enrolled at the end of last school year, earned a D on Florida’s annual school report card issued this summer.

Fired Orlando cop who arrested 6-year-olds said school faculty member wanted to press charges against girl, report shows

The officer should have been in jail for tasing a victim repeatedly after they were on the ground and posed no threat to the officer, not to mention his own domestic violence. The thin blue line protects criminal and thugs and sanctions lawlessness on the part of the people charged with upholding the law.

A school administrator who cannot handle a child’s temper tantrum should not be that job. Wanting to press charges on a six year old child should disqualify them from ever working around children again. This individual poses a clear risk to children. They should be forbidden to be alone with children, let alone employed in a school.

The administrator in question doesn’t have the proper qualifications and certifications to work in the school in the first place, a glaring act of malfeasance by the school system she is employed by.

Finally the school is not functional and needs to be closed.

Video: 6-year-old cries for help as Orlando police arrest her

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Modern Parenting,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

The body camera footage still upsets her, Kirkland said, especially when Turner “callously” talks about arresting children.

“You’re discussing traumatizing a 6- and 7-year-old — and that’s a boasting right for you?” she said. “These are babies.”

Kirkland said her granddaughter had sleep apnea, which could cause her to act out in school — a condition that Kirkland had repeatedly worked with the school to manage, she said.

Kaia was completely processed at the county Juvenile Assessment Center, where the girl’s mugshot and fingerprints were taken, Kirkland said, adding that employees at the center had to use a step stool so Kaia could reach the camera for the mugshot.

Kaia has since re-enrolled in a private school, after refusing to attend a school with an officer on campus, Kirkland said. She said she worries about how the trauma from the arrest will affect her granddaughter in years to come.

Video: 6-year-old cries for help as Orlando police arrest her – Orlando Sentinel

The family needs to sue the school system and the city of Orlando into the ground. Consequences are the only thing that would induce people without souls to change their approach to issues like this.

Doctors Have a Name for Separating Kids from Their Parents at the Border: It’s Torture. – VICE

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Modern Parenting,, Race,, Science and Stuff,1 Comment

A 39-year-old Honduran mother had her 9-year-old child taken from her when she fled to the U.S. to seek asylum. It was three weeks before she was even able to speak to him, and though they were reunited two months later, she experienced depression and post-traumatic stress. She sometimes wondered whether she’d be better off dead.

Physicians for Human Rights has a name for what she endured. They say it’s torture.

…It was common for separated children to show regressive behaviors like bed-wetting or loss of language, according to the report.

…Some said their children disappeared when the parents were in court or at a doctor’s appointment or had their kids ripped from their arms. Others said they weren’t given clear answers when asked where their kids had gone, and that they were mocked by immigration authorities. They reported poor conditions at the detention centers where they were held, without any idea of how their kids were doing.

“What was a gut-punch for me — as I was reading one report, and another, and another — was the depth of the trauma, the depth of the cruelty of the agents; how they talked to some of the clients, how they misled them, how they lied to them and told them they would never see their children again,” said Dr. Ranit Mishori, co-author of the report and senior medical advisor for Physicians for Human Rights.

…All of the parents interviewed by the medical-advocacy group reported that they came to the U.S. from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras shouldering a good deal of trauma already, only to see that agony and guilt compounded by separation from their children. Fifteen of the 17 adults interviewed had received death threats, for example; 14 reported that they were targeted by gang or cartels. Many had already taken other measures to protect their families before coming to the U.S., like going to local authorities or moving internally within their own country.

Doctors Have a Name for Separating Kids from Their Parents at the Border: It’s Torture. – VICE

Aggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

One chart shows the dire state of America’s middle class

On By peanutgallerynhIn Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

In 1985, the typical male worker needed 30 weeks’ pay to cover the $13,227 required for a family of four’s major living costs: housing, healthcare, transportation, and education. As of 2018, those expenditures had risen to $54,441, and the typical male worker has to work 53 weeks to get there (shown in the chart below). “This is a problem, as there are only 52 weeks in a year,” Oren Cass, the report’s lead author, wrote.

…Cass formulated the index on male earnings because men are historically considered the family breadwinners. His findings for a female breadwinner are even more telling: In 1985, she needed to work 45 weeks to afford the four annual expenses, compared with 66 weeks in 2018.

…The increase in so many disparate costs shows that middle-class Americans carry several financial burdens — they’re behind on homeownership, lagging in retirement savings, and have debt to pay off.

One chart shows the dire state of America’s middle class – Business Insider

yup.

Trump’s Doctor Thought He Had a Ticket to Congress. It Hasn’t Been So Easy. – The New York Times

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

During his infamous news conference, Mr. Jackson said his goal was to help Mr. Trump lose 10 to 15 pounds and that he planned to bring an exercise bike or elliptical machine into the White House residence.

Mr. Jackson said those plans never came to pass. (Mr. Trump had gained four pounds by his following physical.) “The exercise stuff never took off as much as I wanted it to,” he said. “But we were working on his diet. We were making the ice cream less accessible, we were putting cauliflower into the mashed potatoes.”

Trump’s Doctor Thought He Had a Ticket to Congress. It Hasn’t Been So Easy. – The New York Times

So admitting that you had to treat a world leader like a young child si a qualification for running for office these days? Oy…

Sanders’s New Hampshire Visit Alarmed 2012 Obama Aides – The Atlantic

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Bernie Sanders has insisted he was not on the verge of a primary run against Barack Obama during the summer of 2011—but that would have been news to activists in New Hampshire at the time, who were watching his schedule in the first primary state and listening to his speeches criticizing the president then running for reelection.

…Sanders said that people could ask Reid or fellow Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, and that they’d deny that Sanders had talked about running. But I did ask Reid and Leahy about this last week in reporting the story, and neither of them denied it.

…Attending these sorts of events is one thing that potential candidates for president do to test the waters, get their names out there, and try out their stump speeches.

…“People in NH sure knew what it looked like, and sometimes what it looks like and what you’re really doing is a distinction without a difference.”

…“It seemed like he had an objective,” Kilchenstein said. “He wasn’t there as a courtesy as much as he showed up with a message.”

…When Sanders arrived at the barbecue on August 21, he ripped into Obama.

…Sanders last Thursday called Obama an “icon” in an interview with CNN, but has not explained what changed over the nine years from that summer of 2011, when he spoke of “deep disappointment” with Obama in an interview on a progressive radio show.

Sanders’s New Hampshire Visit Alarmed 2012 Obama Aides – The Atlantic

Bernie dun’ give a f*ck. He’d burn everything else down, including the Obama administration and the Democratic Party, if he thought it would advance his own agenda.

…And, rather like his about-face on the nomination rules he himself helped to create, he sure as sh*t has no problems revising history to suit his own goals. You don’t come to NH at that point in the cycle and criticize the presumptive nominee unless you are running. His denials don’t change that simple fact.

…And for what it is worth, rumor has it that he was dismissive and stand-offish to the attendees at the county picnic in question.

How Women Are Changing Mardi Gras

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Historically, Mardi Gras krewes were secretive organizations characterized by exclusivity, based on race, gender, and class. Women didn’t actually parade in New Orleans until 1941, over a century after the first float-based parade was recorded. Members of the krewe of Venus recall men throwing rotten tomatoes and eggs at them. And though more female krewes formed in the late 20th century, their parades were dismissed as inferior.

…In a matter of months, Muses acquired more than double the riders needed for an official parade.“There was a lot of skepticism about our ability to succeed,” says Rosenberg. But Muses did more than succeed as a parade; it created countless new opportunities for women to participate in Mardi Gras.

…Krewes like Muses, Nyx, and Femme Fatale have placed an emphasis on sustainable, reusable throws, like scrunchies, scarves, bike bells, tote bags, and tumblers. They have led the way in diminishing waste, prioritizing quality over quantity.

How Women Are Changing Mardi Gras | Vogue

hmmmm

Florida Officer Who Detained a 6-Year-Old for Throwing a Tantrum Caught on BodyCam Bragging About Arrest

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Florida Officer Who Detained a 6-Year-Old for Throwing a Tantrum Caught on BodyCam Bragging About Arrest

So much for the officers had no choice and went along with this unwillingly….

The school official who sanctioned the call to the police (and any policy makers who created protocols to do so) need to be fired and banned from working with children.

The officers involved? Cuff, court, conviction, and then into general population imprisonment they go.

Anything less is lawlessness and child abuse.

Democratic Leaders Not Willing to Break the Rules to Accommodate Bernie Sander’s Whims

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Mr. Sanders argued that he should become the nominee at the convention with a plurality of delegates, to reflect the will of voters, and that denying him the nomination would enrage his supporters and split the party for years to come.

“Bernie wants to redefine the rules and just say he just needs a plurality,” Mr. Jacobs said. “I don’t think we buy that. I don’t think the mainstream of the Democratic Party buys that. If he doesn’t have a majority, it stands to reason that he may not become the nominee.”

…The argument of Mr. Sanders and his allies — that a plurality of delegates should be sufficient to clinch the nomination — is a different standard than the one laid out in party rules that his team helped draft two years ago. It’s also a reversal of their stance in 2016, when Mr. Sanders encouraged superdelegates to support him over Mrs. Clinton, who secured the majority of pledged delegates.

…“Bernie had a big hand in writing these rules,” Ms. Warren said during a CNN forum on Wednesday night. “I don’t see how he thinks he gets to change them now that he thinks there’s an advantage for him.”

…There is no widespread public effort underway to undercut Mr. Sanders  [despite what outlets and rumor mongers like the New York Times are fanning the flames of division with.]

….[Despite the fear-mongering and innuendo spread by outlets like the New York Times the truth is that] historically, superdelegates had always [emphasis: peanut gallery] supported the candidate who won the most pledged delegates, which accrue from primary and caucus wins.

Democratic Leaders Willing to Risk Party Damage to Stop Bernie Sanders – The New York Times

There NYTimes, fix ed your shitty headline for you. (STOP fueling the fires of division with misleading commentary and outright misinformation you irresponsible hacks!!!)