All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Schumer Readies Plan B to Push Immigration Changes Unilaterally – The New York Times

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, is quietly considering trying to use a fast-track budget maneuver to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants should bipartisan talks on providing a pathway to citizenship fall apart.

Mr. Schumer has privately told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in recent weeks that he is “actively exploring” whether it would be possible to attach a broad revision of immigration laws to President Biden’s infrastructure plan and pass it through a process known as budget reconciliation, according to two people briefed on his comments.

The move would allow the measures to pass the evenly divided Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes, shielding them from a filibuster and the 60-vote threshold for moving past one, which would otherwise require at least 10 Republican votes.

South Carolina Fire Chief Who Made Racist Facebook Post Has Resigned

As awful as Facebook is, it has single-handedly put more racists out of work than any other social media site. Last week, a volunteer fire chief in South Carolina landed in hot water after making a blatantly racist Facebook post that he swore wasn’t racist. Evidently, the backlash was too much as the man has resigned from his position.

According to WFAE, Francis “Butch” Ghent resigned from his role as chief of the McDonald Green Volunteer Fire Department last Friday. He was already suspended on April 22 after posting on Facebook that cops should stop responding to Black neighborhoods as “they will eventually kill each other and the fake news won’t have a story.” Ghent was adamant that the post wasn’t racist as it was intended to target the news media.

Source: South Carolina Fire Chief Who Made Racist Facebook Post Has Resigned

The Week’s Best Cartoons 5/1

Filosofa's Word

For our viewing pleasure this afternoon, our friend TokyoSand has waded through the internet in search of the best, most relevant editorial cartoons from last week.  Topics include President Biden’s speech last Wednesday night, Rudy Giuliani’s legal woes, Republican lies, the vaccine, and more.  Thank you, TS!

See All The ‘Toons!

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Analysis: Russia′s secret services betray their weakness | World| Breaking news and perspectives from around the globe | DW | 03.05.2021

Russia’s secret services have shown they are willing and able to operate anywhere in Europe. John Sawers, a former director of Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service, estimates that only about 10% of covert Russian operations are detected. However, we should not allow ourselves to be blinded by this show of strength because, at the same time, it is also a clear sign of weakness.

This is not only because of the services’ many failures and negligence. The fact that, for example, the same officers are deployed again and again is also evidence that resources are limited. Attempts to gain information about US and NATO plans via third countries, at considerable expense and great risk to personnel, show the same. Moreover, the resulting enormous political loss of prestige and sanctions are hardly a sign of a successful outcome.

Source: Analysis: Russia′s secret services betray their weakness | World| Breaking news and perspectives from around the globe | DW | 03.05.2021

Top New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park goes vegan | New York | The Guardian

Daniel Humm, right, works to fill to-go boxes of food to donate in the kitchen of Eleven Madison Park in May 2020. “We have always operated with sensitivity to the impact we have on our surroundings, but it was becoming ever clearer that the current food system is simply not sustainable, in so many ways … It was clear that after everything we all experienced this past year, we couldn’t open the same restaurant,” Humm said in a statement posted on the eatery’s website.

“We’ve made the decision to serve a plant-based menu in which we do not use any animal products – every dish is made from vegetables, both from the earth and the sea, as well as fruits, legumes, fungi, grains, and so much more,” he added.

Source: Top New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park goes vegan | New York | The Guardian

Polls put German Green party in lead five months before election | Germany | The Guardian

Annalena Baerbock

Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s Green party co-leader and top candidate for the upcoming national election in September. Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP 

Six out of 10 polls published over the last two weeks instead show an advantage for the Greens, who scraped into sixth place when Germany last went to the polls in 2017. A survey published by pollster Kantar and Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday gave the Greens in a three-point lead, on 27%.

It suggests the ecological party’s candidate, Annalena Baerbock, could even find herself in the comfortable position of being able to pick and choose from a variety of potential coalition partners, with possible power-sharing deals with the CDU, the Social Democratic party (SPD) and the Free Democrats, or the SPD and leftwing Die Linke.

Stefan Merz, the director of pollster Infratest Dimap, said the currently expressed voting intentions would need to remain in place for two to three weeks to prove reliable indicators.

“But after years of very little movement in the hierarchy of Germany’s political parties, there is now a sense that the deck is being reshuffled and we could be on the threshold of a historic moment,” Merz told the Guardian.

Source: Polls put German Green party in lead five months before election | Germany | The Guardian

Biden Administration Begins Process of Reunifying Separated Families – Mother Jones

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that the Biden administration is beginning to reunite those families in the United States.

Mayorkas told reporters that the Biden administration is starting by allowing four parents to return to the country early this week. The first families reuniting this week are mothers. They are sons. They are daughters,” Mayorkas said. “They are children who were three years old at the time of separation. They are teenagers who have had to live without their parent during their most formative years. They are mothers who’ve fled extremely dangerous situations in their home countries.”

When other separated families can expect to be reunited remains unclear. In response to a question about the timeline for future reunifications, a DHS spokesperson told me that the family reunification task force established by President Joe Biden in February is working as “swiftly as possible.” The New York Times, citing two unnamed administration sources, reported that another 30 parents are expected to come to the United States within the next 30 to 60 days. That would leave the vast majority of parents who are eligible for reunification still separated more than six months into Biden’s presidency.

Source: Biden Administration Begins Process of Reunifying Separated Families – Mother Jones

More border workers could lose jobs for not getting vaccinated | RNZ News

Since Saturday, it has been mandatory for anyone working at the border to have had at least their first jab, under the Covid-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order.

It has already been revealed that nine Customs workers have lost their jobs as a result of their decision to not receive the vaccine.

New figures provided to RNZ from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) showed 97.4 percent of the nearly 5000 people who work within MIQ have received the vaccine.

MBIE said of the 127 workers who had not yet been vaccinated, 23 were booked in to receive their first dose.

That leaves more than 104 workers. Fifteen of these were unable to be vaccinated for a health reason. Thirteen were undergoing a “process that may lead to termination”.

Source: More border workers could lose jobs for not getting vaccinated | RNZ News

Mother, 64, Beaten and Seized by Myanmar Junta Forces

Junta forces detained the mother of two activists after the security forces did not find the brothers at their home in Yangon’s North Okkalapa Township.

The security forces came for Ko Tin Htut Paing and his brother on Sunday and instead detained their 64-year-old mother, Daw Mi Nge, said Ko Tin Htut Paing’s sister.

“There were large numbers of troops. They asked my mother to give them her phone. She refused. After they found it they beat her,” said Daw Mi Nge’s daughter.

“They stopped the beating only when a neighbor, who helps with household chores, said they were beating a woman who might be the same age as their mothers. They also took away belongings in two sacks,” said the daughter, quoting the neighbor, who witnessed the beating.

The military regime has been providing food through ward administrators in some parts of Yangon, including Hlaing Tharyar and North Okkalapa, where it has killed dozens of peaceful anti-regime protesters.

Daw Mi Nge reportedly refused an offer of free food from the military-appointed ward administrator.

She lives with her 85-year-old mother and 65-year-old sister. The two are left in panic after Daw Mi Nge was detained.

Source: Mother, 64, Beaten and Seized by Myanmar Junta Forces