All posts by nedhamson

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

Trump White House is a Cesspool of Enablers

By Arturo Castañares / Publisher and CEO

Just when we thought the people around Donald Trump couldn’t get any worse at dealing with internal crisis, this week they hit a new low in handling the serious issue of spousal abuse.

Reports surfaced this week that the staff secretary to the President has been accused of physically abusing his two ex-wives, with one of them releasing a picture of her black eye she says was caused by one of the President’s closest staff members.

In today’s world of the movement against sexual harassment, allegations of spousal abuse should be taken very seriously, especially when they involve a man that is working within the highest levels of our government.

You would think, or would like to believe, that the leader of the free world and his most senior staff would move quickly against anyone accused of physically abusing his spouses, but, the exact opposite happened.

It turns out that the White House and the FBI knew about this man’s history of abuse for months, and no one did anything about it until this week when the former wives finally spoke out publicly.

This man’s past was so bad that he could not pass the FBI security clearance check that is required of people working within the West Wing of the White House. The guy even had a protective order against him and he was still, not only hired in the White House, but promoted, too.

For months, the President’s Chief of Staff, former U.S. Marine General John Kelly, knew about the abuse allegations and knew it had kept the man from passing his background check, but General Kelly did nothing about it. The man continued in his role working directly with the President even without a security clearance.

This week, when the story broke about the man’s sorted past, the White House defended his integrity and honor. Both Chief of Staff Kelly and Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the man. One of the people working on the White House’s statements is the Communications Director who is now dating the accused abuser.

But, by Wednesday, the media attention was so intense that the White House reluctantly cut the guy loose.

Their official position changed and, although they continued to defend him, said the allegations against him are shocking and troubling. By Thursday, he was gone.

This story may come to end now that the serial abuser is out of the White House, but a larger problem still remains.

The President, who himself has been accused of sexual harassment by over a dozen women, promised to hire only the best and brightest in his White House, yet he has hired and defended a cast of characters with less than stellar reputations.

Since he took office, the White House has hired and lost several of the highest-ranking staffers close to the President, including Bannon, Priebus, Walsh, Flynn, Papadopoulos, Spicer, and even the Anthony “the Mooch” Scaramucci.

Trump has lost 34 percent of his senior staff in the first year, the highest level of turnover among the last six presidencies.

The knee-jerk reaction of Trump and his staff has been to deny allegations, defend those accused, and retaliate against the accusers and the media for bringing the stories to light.

Every time a story breaks, it seems the White House would rather deflect and blame others than to look honestly at the problem.

The man at the center of this week’s drama was, by all accounts, an all-star at work. He graduated from Harvard, and was a Rhodes Scholar. He had previously served as Chief of Staff to several Senators.

And, it appears, he was an abusive husband at home.

Abusers should not be given any protection or cover. As we have learned in the past few months in the still-growing exposure of sexual harassers in Hollywood, politics, and business, women have been preyed upon by men in various ways for too long.

Harassment and abuse only continues when it goes unreported, not investigated, or tolerated by others. It has no place in the office, on the movie set, or in government.

The story of this week was that the President and those around him chose to continue to protect a known abuser instead of confronting him, getting him treatment, and consoling the victims.

Instead, they did exactly what they have done from the start of Trump’s campaign and since his election; they sided with the aggressor over the victims and defended him until the very last moment.

We need leadership on the important issues of the day; immigration, security, jobs, and, yes, treatment of women.

The President should be leading by example. Even though Trump may never clear himself of allegations against him, he should, at least, deal seriously with new allegations of harassment among his closest advisors.

This week, the White House again showed it is, at best, tone-deaf when dealing with issues of harassment.

At worst, it has again enabled an aggressor to escape – for a few months – his day of reckoning.

In the end, he lost his job, but, the President and those around him kept theirs, at least for now.

Members of Congress Fail to Protect Immigrant Youth, Hold Them Hostage to Racist Demands

For Immediate Release: February 9, 2018

Members of Congress Fail to Protect Immigrant Youth, Hold Them Hostage to Racist Demands

(WASHINGTON)—Kica Matos, spokesperson for the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), issued the statement below after Democrats and Republicans voted to pass a two-year spending deal without any protections for immigrant youth in place:

“Millions of lives are on the line as Republicans in Congress cower to the nativist demands of Donald Trump and the bigots who surround him in the West Wing. Every day that passes without a vote on the DREAM Act, is another day when hundreds of young immigrants lose their ability to better themselves and contribute to their communities and their families. Their political games are making young immigrants vulnerable to detention and deportation.

Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are holding immigrant youth hostage in exchange for an extremely racist agenda that degrades people of color. Their antics are the antithesis of who we claim to be as a country. We value freedom, opportunity and family—none of which are reflected in this deal that sacrifices a generation.

Despite the consistent attacks by an Administration that is determined to make America white again, our movement is fired up and ready to keep fighting. Since Trump ended DACA in September, we have made countless calls and visits to Congress and held hundreds of actions across the country with a clear message: stop the hate; we need the DREAM Act now. Last November our message was heard loud and clear in Virginia. And we will make sure that those Members of Congress who did not stand up for immigrants feel it in the ballot boxes next November.”

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Meet the Man Trying to Force Undocumented Women to Reverse Their Abortions

After months of doing everything in its power to prevent several undocumented women from accessing abortion, news has broken that Trump’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) discussed “reversing” a young woman’s abortion using a procedure unsupported by science. The driving force behind the administration’s torture of traumatized young refugees seeking necessary reproductive care? Scott Lloyd, ORR director.

Lloyd oversees detained unaccompanied minors, yet has no experience in refugee resettlement and has a long history of promoting anti-woman rhetoric. He is clearly in this position because his anti-immigrant and anti-abortion agenda aligns with Trump.

Abortion “reversal” is not supported by science or the medical community. Anti-abortion extremists’ “reversal” procedure involves injecting the hormone progesterone into the pregnant person after they take the first out of two abortifacient pills in order to questionably stop the abortion. Forcing women in the care of ORR to undergo this procedure – as Lloyd seriously considered – reduces them to science experiments, and falls squarely in line with the U.S.’s long history of conducting reproductive health experiments on enslaved black women or low-income Puerto Rican women, to name a few examples.

Named the “anti-abortion crusader” by the New York Times editorial board, Lloyd has dedicated his career to promoting medically-inaccurate information about sexual and reproductive health. He worked as an attorney at religiously-affiliated firms like LegalWorks Apostolate, and then pivoted into politics by working for the George W. Bush administration at Health and Human Services. In this role, he co-authored a “conscience” rule which would have permitted medical providers to refuse to administer contraception, abortion, and other services on moral grounds. The Obama administration rescinded this ruling because the language was incredibly broad and could be interpreted to allow medical professionals to deny patients any form of essential care. Reproductive rights advocates hold firmly that medical professionals have a legal duty to fulfill their patients’ medical needs.

In a post for a right-wing anti-abortion blog, Lloyd attacked Planned Parenthood and promoted myths about contraception causing abortion, claiming that taking contraceptives can result in early abortions. In addition to promoting false information, Lloyd has proposed absurdly restrictive measures on women’s decision to choose if and when to parent.

“I suggest that the American people make a deal with women: So long as you are using the condom, pill or patch I am providing with my money, you are going to promise not to have an abortion if the contraception fails, which it often does,” wrote Lloyd in the National Catholic Register. He goes on to  suggest that all women who are on birth control should be required to sign an anti-abortion pledge promising to never terminate a pregnancy if birth control fails them. His reasoning is punitive – if contraception fails, women should be penalized for their sexual behavior. Contraception is not a prize women get in exchange for carrying unwanted pregnancies: contraception is healthcare.

As an attorney, one might think Lloyd would respect the law, yet his professional background has enabled him to exploit it to harm immigrant women. Recently the American Civil Liberties Union brought Lloyd to court for denying immigrant women their right to access abortion among other violations such as requiring pregnant teens to attend anti-abortion counseling, requiring pregnant teens to have sonograms against their will, and preventing pregnant teens from doctors visits. ACLU and Planned Parenthood are rightfully calling for his removal. It is not up to him to force someone to be pregnant against their will.

Scott Lloyd should be removed from his position immediately. He was selected to lead the Office of Refugee Resettlement not because he has experience working with refugees – he obviously doesn’t – but because he is manipulative and paternalistic enough to impede upon women’s reproductive freedom. His actions against undocumented teens exercising their rights to receive safe healthcare is abhorrent, and part of a trend in our current Administration’s misogynist agenda.

Image Credit: Vice News

Rare Footages of Shanghai During the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45)

When did World War II begin? Americans would say December 7, 1941. For Europeans, it was September 1, 1939. But in China, people know the actual date. It was August 13, 1937. That day, after more than a century of humiliation and six years of repeated “incidents” by the Imperial Japanese Army, China at last “stood up.”This act of defiance took place in Shanghai, the most international city in Asia. It was front-page news around the world. Today, the story is forgotten. As the 80th anniversary of this fateful battle approaches, we recall the four years when China stood alone against Japanese imperialism. It all began in Shanghai: 1937.

Spotted on: Shanghai 1937 video on Vimeo

WHO: 54 patients died while awaiting security approval for referrals out of Gaza

PNN/ Gaza/

World Health Organizations (WHO) has released its monthly report for December 2017, which revealed the following:  

– 2017 the lowest rate for approvals since WHO began active monitoring in 2008: 54% of patient applications to exit Gaza via Erez were successful. There has been a continuous decline in approval rates since 2012, when approximately 93% of patient applications were successful.

– 54 patients died while awaiting security approval for referrals out of Gaza: Approximately 85% of the patients who died while awaiting security permits had been referred for cancer investigations or treatment.

– In December, 48% of patients unsuccessful in obtaining security permits from Israeli authorities: From 2,170 patient applications 52.4% were approved; 2.6% denied; and 45.0% delayed, receiving no definitive response from Israeli authorities by the date of hospital appointment.

– Three in five patient companions unsuccessful in obtaining permits to travel out of Gaza: There were 2,507 permit applications for patient companions submitted to Israeli authorities in December. 40.5%were approved, 3.6% were denied and 55.9% were delayed, still pending by the date of the patient’s hospital appointment.

– Security interrogation of patients: 11 patients (7 males; 4 females) were requested for interrogation by Israeli General Security Services at Erez during December. Five were approved permits to travel for health care.

– Financial coverage for health care: 1,784 requests for financial coverage for Gaza patients were approved by the Services Purchasing Unit of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in December 2017.   

– Limited access to Egypt: Rafah terminal was open for four days in both directions. 183 patients exited Gaza to seek medical care. No medical aid and no medical delegates entered Gaza via Rafah during the month. 

When feminists advance, why do prominent women hold us back? | Afua Hirsch

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is just the latest example: every development that could help us progress comes under friendly fire

Sometimes the quest to distance ourselves from oppression becomes truly creative. “I’m not racist,” says Lucas Joyner – ironically – in his viral track, My Sister’s Boyfriend’s Black. Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, was rightly ridiculed for attempting to prove his antiracism credentials by posting a collage of pictures of himself with black people – an absurd “wokeness by association” even if it were not obviously overridden by the fact that he advocates for an overtly racist president. Then there’s my personal favourite: “I’m not racist – I’m having a Motown-themed wedding.”

Related: The 1910s: ‘We have sanitised our history of the suffragettes’

Continue reading…

‘I think people are really disgusted’ – Quentin Tarantino faces Hollywood backlash

Time is up!

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The film-maker has been accused of negligence by Uma Thurman, fetishisation by Rose McGowan and audio has surfaced of him defending Roman Polanski, leading to questions from the industry

It started with Uma Thurman revealing that Quentin Tarantino bullied her into driving an unsafe car that crashed and now days later it is Tarantino’s reputation and possibly career that is skidding at dangerously high speed.

With accusations flying at the Pulp Fiction director from all over Hollywood, his status as one of America’s most revered auteurs is at risk, prompting speculation about his future.

Continue reading…