Wednesday, July 31, 2019
asmPolitics-234 [Obama Family Separation]
President Donald Trump's openly xenophobic hardline anti-immigration agenda has brought the United States to a "moment of reckoning" on immigration policies that have been in place for decades, a New Jersey-based advocacy group said Wednesday as it led families whose loved ones were deported in a protest at Joe Biden's campaign headquarters.
The former vice president, the Cosecha Movement said, must apologize for his part in the Obama administration's separation of thousands of families as it deported more people than ever before in U.S. history. Biden must also commit to ending the detention and deportation of immigrants, the group added.
In a press release, the group noted that the Trump administration's separation of thousands of families, violent ICE raids, and reports of abuse and neglect in the detention centers where thousands of immigrants are in custody, have called attention to the U.S. government's treatment of migrants and asylum seekers—but stressed that the Obama administration also separated and detained thousands of families and was complicit in the country's broken immigration system.
"While Republicans scapegoated immigrants and fanned the flames of white supremacy," the group wrote, "the Obama administration failed to deliver on the promise of legalization, and instead chose to deport three million immigrants."
This "false strategy of appeasement to anti-immigrant forces," the group continued, "resulted in the meteoric expansion of detention and more deportations than ever before in our nation's history."
At least six people were arrested for occupying Biden's headquarters in Philadelphia as the Cosecha Movement held the first public action of its newly-unveiled Dignity 2020 campaign.
The campaign is calling on all Democratic presidential candidates to commit, should they win the presidency in 2020, to ending all detentions and deportations; reunifying all families separated by the Trump, Obama, and other administrations, either through unjust deportations, family separations under Trump's so-called "zero tolerance" law, or the lies of immigration officials who told parents that they would see their children if they agreed to return to their home country; and granting legal status to 11 million undocumented immigrants.
The group began the campaign by addressing Biden, who last month defended the Obama administration's record three million deportations bysaying President Barack Obama had done "a heck of a job" in implementing immigration policy.
"We cannot sit back and allow Biden to defend the three million deportations and the unprecedented expansion of detention that happened under his watch," said Cata Santiago, a leader of the Cosecha Movement. "We need more from the party that claims to support us. It is time [for] Biden to recognize the impact that these policies had on our families and commit to the vision put forth by the immigrant community for what dignity looks like."
The national grassroots organization CREDO Mobile expressed support for the Cosecha Movement's public action, tweeting that the Democratic Party owes immigrant families "a moral reckoning."
Trump threatened in June to deport "millions" of immigrants in pre-dawn ICE raids across the country, but backed down after criticism. Despite the president's threats, the administration has not yet surpassed Obama in the number of deportations in a single year: in 2012, Obama deported more than 419,000 people.
Trump's treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers has opened many Americans' eyes to the broken system, the Cosecha Movement wrote, and Democrats must use the current moment to demand a humane immigration system.
"Our country has reached a moment of reckoning on the issue of immigration," wrote the group. "During this primary election, it is time for the public to push the Democratic party to recognize dignity for all, and finally commit to solving the daily crisis our immigrant families have been facing for more than two decades."
asmPolitics-234 [Gayle King on SOTU Speech]
The co-hosts of “CBS This Morning” appeared on “The Late Show” to react to President Donald Trump’s second State of the Union address.
Gayle King began by calling the speech “pretty tame” and that the president tried to “extend an olive branch” to the Democrats, pointing to his congratulatory message to the newly-elected Democratic congresswomen. Norah O’Donnell accused the president of “trying to take credit” for there being more women in the workforce as well as in Congress, something former “Face The Nation” moderator John Dickerson thought Trump “has every right to take credit” since many of the congresswomen ran against him.
O’Donnell pointed out a “key line” from President Trump’s address, calling it a “threat to Congress.”
“He said ‘If there’s going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation.’ That was a threat,” O’Donnell told “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert.
King later pivoted to Trump’s remarks on immigration.
“I always find it disturbing though, Stephen, when he talks about the wall. You would think that there were marauding immigrants and migrant workers who are coming into this country who are going to murder us while we’re sleeping in our beds,” King said. “I was at Texas at the border. When you see these people and you talk to these people, just think what it’s like- you have to leave your own country to come to a country where you’re not welcomed but you still think that it’s better to be here than there. They’re fleeing for their lives, they’re trying to support their families, they’re really trying to save their lives.
“You’re separating these children from their parents. These people are coming because they want a better life, they’re just trying to live,” King continued. “Sure, there are some outliers, but that is not the majority of the people.”
asmPolitics-233 [John King criticizes President Donald J Trump]
CNN national correspondent John King ripped President Donald Trump for not mentioning climate change in his second State of the Union address.
King began by praising defeated Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, declaring she had the “best response” he can recall either Republican or Democrat giving and how she pointed out the “differences” between the two parties.
“She talked about voting rights, she talked about climate change, and she talked about guns. You did not hear any of those subjects from the president of the United States,” King told the panel. “Democrats believe that animates their coalition, they believe it helps them, they believe, especially on the issue of climate change, especially on the issue of voting rights, it helps them to talk about things that the president won’t talk about.”
After getting some pushback from former GOP senator and CNN commentator Rick Santorumabout how Republicans don’t support the positions Abrams listed, King lectured the retired politician by telling him what they should want from the president.
“Well, all Americans should want our President, whatever the disagreements are, just look at his own national security review. Every leader, whatever his party should be talking about climate change. You can have a debate about what to do about it. But that the President of the United States, at this moment in the world, did not mention climate change in even a sentence is, just frankly, a disgrace- any president, Democrat or Republican.”
Climate change has been a hot topic in the mainstream media. NBC News’ Chuck Todd recently dedicated a full one-hour special on climate change that banned any climate change skeptics.
asmPolitics-232 [Harrison Ford criticizes Climate Change Deniars]
The "Blade Runner" star delivered an impassioned speech about the effects of climate change on the planet on Monday, the final day of the World Government Summit in Dubai.
Ford, 76, reportedly never mentioned Trump by name, but clearly targeted him in his opening remarks.
"Around the world, elements of leadership – including in my own country – to preserve their state and the status quo, deny or denigrate science," Ford said. "They are on the wrong side of history."
There was no immediate reaction overnight from the White House, though Trump has criticized the idea of climate change in the past.
On Monday, Trump tweeted that Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., announced her presidential run "talking proudly of fighting global warming while standing in a virtual blizzard of snow, ice and freezing temperatures."
"Bad timing," the president posted.
Trump often conflates cold spells and other incidents of weather with climate, which is long term.
Harrison Ford is a longtime proponent of conservation and environmental causes. Before coming out on stage, his Emirati hosts played a video of him narrating a piece for Conservation International on the importance of protecting the ocean called "Nature is Speaking."
"One way or another, everything living thing here needs me," Ford says in the video. "I'm the source. I'm what they crawled out of."
In his address, Ford called on governments and officials to rely on "sound science" to shape their policy.
"We are faced [with], what I believe, is the greatest moral crisis of our time," the "Star Wars" icon said. "That those least responsible for nature's destruction will suffer the greatest consequences."
He added, "We need nature now more than ever because nature doesn't need people, people need nature."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
asmPolitics-231 [Google Camp]
Google Camp is hosting the likes of former President Barack Obama, Prince Harry, Leonardo DiCaprio and Katy Perry in Sicily, Italy, to discuss climate change, but it may come at a steep cost to Mother Earth.
“Everything is about global warming, that is the major topic this year,” a source told the New York Post.
Sources told the outlet that the three-day event will cost the tech giant $20 million.
Many of the guests, including Obama and DiCaprio – who has his own climate change foundation – have described global warming as the biggest threat to future generations.
Italian press reports allege that the Google Campers would show up in 114 private jets, and 40 had arrived by Sunday.
If the guests took 114 flights from Los Angeles to Palermo, the private jets would reportedly release 100,000 kilograms of CO2.
“Google Camp is meant to be a place where influential people get together to discuss how to make the world better,” a source told the Post. “There will likely be discussions about online privacy, politics, human rights, and of course, the environment, which makes it highly ironic that this event requires 114 private jets to happen.”
Attendees, who according to a source were personally invited by Google founder Sergey Brin and Larry Page, reportedly will foot the bill for their travel costs to Sicily's Verdura Resort, but Google will pay the rest of their expenses. Rooms reportedly start at $903 a night in the luxurious vacation spot.
Other stars in attendance will be Perry's fiancee Orlando Bloom, singer Harry Styles, Bradley Cooper, Nick Jonas, Priyanka Chopra, Gayle King, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, designer Diane von Furstenberg and Barry Diller. Furstenberg and Diller reportedly arrived via their $200 million yacht Eos; Dreamworks founder David Geffen is said to have given Perry and Bloom a lift to the event on his $400 million yacht, Rising Sun.
Perry, who's starred in UNICEF videos about combating climate change, was reportedly spotted in a Maserati SUV that gets only an estimated 15 miles per gallon.
asmPolitics-230 [FEMA, Puerto Rico, Undistributed Water]
Tens of thousands of water bottles meant for the people of Puerto Rico after a pair of hurricanes hit the island in 2017 are sitting unopened on farmland near the city of San Juan nearly two years after the disasters.
Photographs of the water bottles emerged this week after international news agency AFP captured aerial images of the bottles on what appeared to be a private estate 25 miles west of San Juan. Some of the images showed broken pallets with the bottles.
A spokesman from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confirmed to AFP that the water bottles had been provided as part of relief for Hurricane Maria, which hit the island in September 2017.
The water was expired and it was assumed that the bottles are being disposed of, AFP reported. It said the spokesman declined to say exactly how many water bottles there were, how long they were on the farm and why they were permitted to expire.
The matters were "under review by the legal department," the spokesman said.
A FEMA spokesperson told The Hill in a statement on Tuesday that the agency had a surplus of water that is near or past its expiration following its response to the storms.
"FEMA followed federal acquisition processes in order to dispose of the expiring water that included offers to federal and territorial governments and public auction," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that FEMA has contracted to have the expired water removed and disposed of, a process that is expected to be completed in September.
According to the agency, FEMA is required to surplus water when it is within 120 days of its expiration date.
If it is not able to sell or donate the water, it is responsible for disposing of it. In this case, the agency has contracted with PR Drilling & Supply's Inc. to do so.
CBS news correspondent David Begnaud had tweeted a similar response from FEMA Monday in addition to photos of the bottles.
FEMA said last year that millions of other water bottles intended for hurricane relief had been undistributed at a Puerto Rican airport for more than a year.
Hurricanes Maria and Irma struck Puerto Rico in September 2017, killing thousands.
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