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Photos Show 'Dangerous Overcrowding' at Border Patrol Stations in Texas |
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Thursday, 04 July 2019 12:31 |
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Dickinson writes: "The Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security is calling for 'immediate' action to address 'dangerous overcrowding and prolonged detention of children and adults' at Border Patrol facilities in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas."
Migrants are seen outside the U.S. Border Patrol McAllen Station in a makeshift encampment in McAllen, Texas, May 15, 2019. (photo: Loren Elliott/Reuters)
Photos Show 'Dangerous Overcrowding' at Border Patrol Stations in Texas
By Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone
04 July 19
A government report includes horrifying images of migrant detainees deprived of healthy food and basic hygiene, creating a “ticking time bomb” at CBP facilities
 he Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security is calling for “immediate” action to address “dangerous overcrowding and prolonged detention of children and adults” at Border Patrol facilities in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. The report includes disturbing photographs of conditions one senior manager at a detention facility called “a ticking time bomb.”
The July 2nd report to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan from Acting DHS Inspector General Jennifer Costello provides hard numbers to quantify the overcrowding at the border. At five facilities, Border Patrol was warehousing 8,000 detainees, including 3,400 who had been jailed longer than three days. These facilities are supposed to be used for temporary processing and transfer; detainees are not supposed to be kept for longer than 72 hours. According to the report, 1,500 detainees had been there for at least 10 days. There are thousands of children among these detainees — 2,669 to be exact, with nearly a third of them (826) held longer than the 72 hour maximum. “Additionally, there were more than 50 UACs [unaccompanied alien children] younger than 7 years old,” the report reads, “and some of them had been in custody over two weeks while awaiting transfer.”
The IG report offers photo documentation of the conditions inside the facilities that have been blasted as “concentration camps” by critics in congress. The images, though of low resolution, capture the desperation of the migrants confined in inhumane conditions.
The description of the facilities, particularly those housing children, are appalling. “Children at three of the five Border Patrol facilities we visited had no access to showers. … Children had limited access to a change of clothes,” the report says. “We observed that two facilities had not provided children access to hot meals,” it adds. “Instead the children were fed sandwiches and snacks for their meals.”
The conditions are even worse for adults. Overcrowding is a hazard. “At one facility, some single adults were held in standing room only conditions for a week and at another, some single adults were held for more than a month in overcrowded cells.” The report documents one case of 88 men held in a cell with a capacity of 41 at the Border Patrol’s station in Fort Bowen (documented in the first photo above).
Detainees are being kept in filthy conditions, despite Customs and Border Protection guidelines that they should be allowed to bathe. “Most single adults had not had a shower in CBP custody despite several being held for as long as a month. At some facilities, Border Patrol was giving detainees wet-wipes to maintain personal hygiene,” the report says. “Most single adult detainees were wearing the clothes they arrived in days, weeks or even a month prior.”
When it comes to food, the report states, religious and dietary restrictions are not being honored, with adult detainees being fed “only bologna sandwiches.”
The migrants themselves have begun protesting the horrid conditions of their confinement, including by “clogging toilets with Mylar blankets and socks in order to be released from their cells during maintenance.”
When one group refused to return to a cell after it had been cleaned, Border Patrol “brought in its special operations team to demonstrate it was prepared to use force if necessary.”
The conditions are creating “an immediate risk to the health and safety of DHS agents and officers” in addition to those detained, according to the report. “We ended our site visit at one Border Patrol facility early because our presence was agitating an already difficult situation.”
The report includes a response from a Homeland Security official, Jim Crumpacker, who claims “DHS is devoted to the care and processing of the individuals in our custody with the utmost dignity and respect.” He describes the influx of migrants at the border as “an acute and worsening crisis” that is “overwhelming the ability of the Federal Government to respond.” Blaming congressional inaction on closing “legal and judicial loopholes” that have “emboldened” migrants, Crumpacker writes that “CBP expects this influx not only to continue, but also to escalate.”
President Trump has responded to this crisis by tweeting unabashed praise for the Border Patrol and insisting many migrants in federal custody “are living far better now than where they came from, and in better conditions”:
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The Queens District Attorney Race Is a Mess |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=49007"><span class="small">Sophie Weiner, Splinter</span></a>
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Thursday, 04 July 2019 12:30 |
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Weiner writes: "The nail-biter of a race for Queens District Attorney has dragged out for over a week since last month's New York primary."
Tiffany Cabán is now behind by a handful of votes after officials threw out thousands of votes in a move progressives are worried is an effort to steal the election. (photo: Scott Heins/Getty)
The Queens District Attorney Race Is a Mess
By Sophie Weiner, Splinter
04 July 19
he nail-biter of a race for Queens District Attorney has dragged out for over a week since last month’s New York primary. The big news coming out of the race was what looked like a win for Tiffany Cabán, a young, extremely progressive Latinx attorney who was endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic Socialists of America, and presidential candidates Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
Cabán declared victory on the night of the election, when it seemed she was up by over one thousand votes. But her opponent, Melinda Katz—who was backed by Democratic establishment figures including former Rep. Joe Crowley, who Ocasio-Cortez unexpectedly unseated last year—refused to concede, demanding that absentee votes be counted. Now, Cabán’s historic win is in question, according to NY1.
Today, Board of Elections officials in Queens hand-counted paper ballots that included absentee and affidavit votes. Katz and Cabán’s lawyers fought for hours over which individual ballots were valid and should be included. At the end of the day, Katz was apparently up by just 20 votes, spurring a full manual recount.
Katz has issued a statement claiming victory, according to NY1.
“We said from the beginning that every vote needed to be counted and that every voter needs to be heard,” she said. “I am proud to have been chosen as the Democratic nominee for Queens district attorney.”
“We know that these numbers can and will be subject to recount, and there may be legal challenges, but what matters most is the will of Queens voters,” she added. “I want to thank the people of Queens for delivering this important victory; I look forward to having tonight’s results affirmed in the coming days; and I am honored to be ready to serve as Queens’ next District attorney.”
Cabán’s camp also released a statement.
The manual recount is scheduled to begin next week and should be completed by July 16th. The recount will also likely lead to a legal battle. Cabán’s lawyer already filed a lawsuit this Tuesday as a precaution.
“We do that as a prophylactic,” Cabán’s lawyer Jerry Goldfeder told NY1. “Just to make sure that in case there are disputes, there’s a judge ready to resolve them.”
If Cabán does end up winning, it will be a major victory for the insurgent left-wing of the Democratic party that has elected politicians like Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib and beat local Democratic machines.
It would also show the strength of a national movement pushing for radical criminal justice reform. Cabán was endorsed by reform-minded DAs around the country, including Larry Krasner in Philadelphia. Her proposed policies include declining to charge low level crimes like sex work and recreational drug use, ending cash bail, ending civil asset forfeiture, shorter sentences for felonies, prosecuting ICE, and ending broken windows policing.
In their surprise endorsement, the New York Times said Cabán was “unencumbered by ties to the borough power structure and free to pursue her commitment to serve the community by doing more than just winning convictions.”
But for now, Queens’ future is up in the air. Even if she doesn’t win, Cabán’s strength should shake the establishment. But Katz’s reaction to the close race shows that the Democratic machine will not give up so easily.
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Can I Just Work on the Paris Agreement Myself? |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=29596"><span class="small">Eve Andrews, Grist</span></a>
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Thursday, 04 July 2019 12:30 |
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Andrews writes: "It's true that, on a federal level, the U.S. isn't working on the climate crisis in a meaningful way."
Illustration of a water bottle. (image: Grist)
Can I Just Work on the Paris Agreement Myself?
By Eve Andrews, Grist
04 July 19
 . Dear Umbra,
How can I achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement with my personal carbon footprint?
— Proudly American Though Really Irritated Over This
A. Dear PATRIOT,
I think this is a fantastic aspiration — it’s also so fundamentally American, in the most idealistic sense of the word. “No one else is taking care of this, so I’ll just do it myself.” Pull the ol’ national carbon footprint up — or down, rather — by the proverbial bootstraps.
It’s true that, on a federal level, the U.S. isn’t working on the climate crisis in a meaningful way. The president and Congress vacillate between actively increasing national carbon emissions and doing nothing about them, which leaves the rest of the country in the unfortunate predicament that you clearly relate to: “Well, I guess it’s up to me.”
Let’s start with the most reassuring way I know to solve a problem, which is math.
The U.S. carbon footprint for 2017 was about 6.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA calculates this number through a fairly complex method of estimating and adding up the carbon impacts of all human activities in the United States, but it’s basically a highly educated guess.
Let’s assume you live in a typical U.S. household. One estimate of the average U.S. household carbon footprint is 52.5 metric tons of CO2 per year — which is kind of bonkers — and that adds up to a total national carbon footprint of 6.7 billion metric tons of CO2, which is pretty close to the EPA estimate. That suggests that on average, each household in the U.S. is responsible for its tiny portion of the national carbon footprint.
OK! Now let’s address the Paris Agreement. The whole point of the thing was to keep global temperature increase below 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F). But the emissions-reduction commitments that the U.S. made in 2015 have been criticized both for being too weak to achieve that goal, and for failing to take into account our disproportionately large contribution to the climate crisis.
The Climate Action Tracker tool calculates that to actually achieve 1.5 degrees C of warming in a globally equitable way, the total volume of U.S. carbon emissions would have to drop from 6.5 billion to a maximum of 1.76 billion metric tons by 2030. That’s a little bit more than a quarter of the current amount, so that’s quite a drop. And we’ll have even more people, so using Census 2030 population estimates, that means the average American would have to cut their household carbon footprint from 52.5 to … 12.4 metric tons.
That would require some pretty severe changes. You can put solar panels on your house and insulate the shit out of it; cut meat, corn, soy, and dairy from your diet; never fly again; and bike or bus everywhere. That all would probably make a pretty huge difference in the impact of your personal household.
But it obviously wouldn’t do the trick, you see, because you’d need everyone else in the country to do the same.
And even if everyone in the United States wanted to make those changes, most could not. Why? Solar panels and insulation are expensive and an estimated 80 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck; corn and soy are actually a component of a baffling number of foods; the train system in the U.S. is such slow, overpriced, inconvenient garbage that it’s often an unfeasible way to travel; and a huge proportion of Americans live in parts of cities, suburbs, or towns that are not easily accessible by bike or public transit.
This is a theme in the upcoming book Inconspicuous Consumption, out in stores in August, by environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg. Basically, Schlossberg writes, there’s a bunch of embedded carbon in just living a typical American life.
“Everything we use is connected to the use of energy and resources somehow,” Schlossberg told me over the phone. “And the systems are so enormous that it’s really hard to make a difference as one person. What’s needed is more government regulation and better corporate policy.”
For example: The bulk of the national carbon footprint is in transportation and energy. “OK,” you, the ever-enterprising environmentalist, might say, “I’ll give up my car and I’ll buy alternative energy for my home.” But that’s not the end of the calculation; pretty much everything you use has its own transportation and energy footprint. Even the things you can’t see: The internet, with all its cloud storage and server farms, uses a massive amount of energy. It’s not actually a cloud!
Better government policy, to stick with the internet example, would be a law dictating that all utilities had to source their power from renewable sources, like wind and solar; better corporate policy would be companies actively seeking out those renewable sources for their fields of servers hosting 603,782 cat photos. Better personal policy would mean accepting that maybe you can delete some pics of Mittens.
The message “well, actually in the grand scheme of things your efforts to meet the carbon limits imposed by the Paris Agreement are useless, as if you were a bug or a pebble,” is a real downer. And today is the Fourth of July — no one should be down!
So let me be clear: My message is not that you are a bug or a pebble or a similarly powerless being. In fact, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions recently released a report that found that the (marginally) most efficient route to a low-emissions economy by 2050 is one led by consumer choice, with the idea that government regulation and corporate policy would follow suit to catch up.
This still kind of stomps all over your sense of independence, doesn’t it? I apologize. But especially in the case of carbon emissions, independence is a bit of a myth. You can do whatever you like with your own carbon footprint — and should! — but to actually stave off the worst of climate change requires that everyone do the same. And that’s usually achieved through government policy and corporate shifts.
So back to the Fourth of July, my favorite holiday. It’s actually celebrating a falsehood! The U.S. won independence from England and that’s great — we don’t have to incorporate sausage and beans into every meal and we don’t have to pretend to care about the Queen, hurrah! But how much of an accomplishment is independence on a national level if it’s not enjoyed by individuals? That whole “let freedom ring” thing was irrelevant for millions of people who lived on U.S. land in 1776, notably including Native Americans and African slaves.
So, my favorite holiday is actually not very uplifting. But so-called solutions to climate change aren’t that uplifting, either! No one wants to hear “actually, you can’t do it by yourself.” Schlossberg, a student of history — specifically, American history — says that’s just something you have to accept if you’re going to approach climate change in a realistic way.
“Looking at history, there are not a lot of satisfying answers — we take one step forward and two steps back,” she said. “Being able to live with that complexity and nuance is challenging, but it’s necessary to lead us to learning the patterns to understand where we are now.”
So: You can do it! But everyone else has to, too. No one’s living alone on this Earth, baby.
Dependently,
Umbra
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FOCUS: Trump Nationalism Has Nothing to Do With Patriotism |
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Thursday, 04 July 2019 11:23 |
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Reich writes: "Let us reject Trump's notion of how to celebrate America - not with tanks and missiles that glorify war, not with a rally fit for a dictator, not with children held at the border in cages, not with disdain for the Supreme Court and charges of 'treason' hurled at the free press."
Robert Reich. (photo: Getty)
FOCUS: Trump Nationalism Has Nothing to Do With Patriotism
By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
04 July 19
 et us reject Trump’s notion of how to celebrate America — not with tanks and missiles that glorify war, not with a rally fit for a dictator, not with children held at the border in cages, not with disdain for the Supreme Court and charges of “treason” hurled at the free press.
Instead, let us celebrate America with renewed dedication to democracy, compassion, peace, and the rule of law.
Wishing you a happy, safe, and truly patriotic July 4th.
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ver since the word “socialism” made its way into the US political mainstream two years ago in the guise of a wispy-haired gentleman from Vermont, progressives have been learning to expand their vision of what’s possible, from the swift adoption of “Medicare for All” to the even swifter mainstreaming of “Abolish ICE.” But for those wanting to really swing for the fences, it’s time to consider another issue 
