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Dear Betsy DeVos, I Will *Never* Report My Students to Immigration and Customs Enforcement

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By Steven Singer / Common Dreams

Teachers fill a lot of roles in our public schools.

We’re mentors to kids in need. We’re aides to students struggling with new concepts and skills. We’re homework-givers, pencil-providers, idea-encouragers, lunch-buyers, scrape-bandagers, hand-holders, hug-givers, good listeners, counselors, caregivers and – yes – sometimes even butt-kickers.

It’s no wonder that we occasionally get mistaken for mothers and fathers.

But one thing we will never be is a snitch.   [Read more…]

“Don’t Treat Us Like Animals:” Outrage Builds After Border Agent Kills Indigenous Guatemalan Woman | Video Worth Watching

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From the Democracy Now! YouTube website:

In Guatemala, family members are demanding justice for Claudia Gómez González, the 19-year-old indigenous woman whom a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot in the head and killed last week in Texas near the U.S. border. Border Patrol initially claimed that the shooting occurred after an agent “came under attack by multiple subjects using blunt objects.” The original statement described González as “one of the assailants.” But later the agency changed its story, saying the agent opened fire after “the group ignored his verbal commands and instead rushed him.” However, a resident who lives near where the shooting occurred said she never heard the agent yell anything. The Guatemalan Consulate in Del Rio, Texas, is calling for an investigation into González’s death, criticizing the “violence and excessive use of force by the Border Patrol.” At the time of her death, González was headed to Virginia to reunite with her boyfriend. For more, we go to Houston, where we speak with Astrid Dominguez, director of the ACLU’s Border Rights Center. We also speak with Sarah Macaraeg, an award-winning investigative journalist, in St. Louis, Missouri.

  [Read more…]

A National March on the NRA Headquarters? Approach With Caution

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If you are an activist receiving emails from an outfit calling itself “National March on the NRA,” be forewarned. It’s not being organized by the young people from Parkland or any of the other groups you might have heard of leading the fight for Second Amendment sanity

The “Voter Reg Street Party” on July 20 and the “March” in Fairfax (where the NRA is headquartered) the following day both have “TBA” locations. This thing is a production of “The Presidential House,” which is, in turn, a creation of Lawrence Deshawn Silva Nathaniel.

Remember him? He’s the guy who organized the Rally at the Border,’scheduled for Saturday, March 25, 2017, in San Ysidro. It never happened.   [Read more…]

The Wall

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By Anita Endrezze

The Wall

Build a wall of saguaros,
butterflies, and bones
of those who perished
in the desert. A wall of worn shoes,
dry water bottles, poinsettias.
Construct it of gilded or crazy house
mirrors so some can see their true faces.
Build a wall of revolving doors
or revolutionary abuelas.
Make it as high as the sun, strong as tequila.
Boulders of sugar skulls. Adobe or ghosts.
A Lego wall or bubble wrap. A wall of hands
holding hands, hair braided from one woman
to another, one country to another.
A wall made of Berlin. A wall made for tunneling.
A beautiful wall of taco trucks.   [Read more…]

Walking, Talking, and Voting for the June 5 Primary | Progressive Activist Calendar June 1 -10, 2018

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Also-Facebook Thinks We’re Russian Trolls!-See Inside

Let’s talk about failing to make the effort to cast your ballot by June 5. Not voting means you approve of the status quo, even more so than people who actually vote for entrenched reactionary incumbents. Not voting means you’re dumb enough to think not participating is some kind of protest. It’s true many of the choices offered on the ballot are less than ideal. It’s true both political parties are run by people more concerned about money than principles.

It’s also true if everybody voted this country’s policies would be a lot closer to the values of (most of) its people. That’s why those with the most privilege are the least concerned about voter turnout. Some of our nation’s 1 percenters spend money to make it more difficult to actually vote. Others spend money to create the impression it’s a waste of time. Others have fouled the discourse so much that independent outlets are prevented from promoting their views.

If you marched in protest of Trump’s bs and don’t vote, you’ve more than canceled out any good karma you may have received.   [Read more…]

National City Leads Way on Rent Control in San Diego

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Part of a Statewide and National movement

National City Families for Fair Housing, a coalition of community groups, is currently gathering signatures to put a rent control measure on the November ballot.

If they successfully gather the required 2,225 signatures, the ballot measure will cap annual rent hikes at 5%, enact rules for just cause evictions and establish an independent board to administer and enforce the measure.

National City has become San Diego county’s ground zero for addressing the failures of a market-driven approach to housing and the complicity of elected representatives in that failure. Renters in National City saw a median rent increase of 15% between 2015 and 2016; the City has filed an unusual lawsuit to kill the rent control effort before it reaches the November ballot.   [Read more…]

Why Is National City Mayor Morrison Against Rent Control? | A Cartoon Story by Antho

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By Antho

National City is trying to block efforts spearheaded by National City Families for Fair Housing to put rent control on the November ballot. “Mayor Ron Morrison defended the lawsuit, saying it is intended to address “legality issues” and was not a political move.”   [Read more…]

Missing Migrant Children – Full Frontal | Video Worth Watching

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Updated 11:30am 5/31/18

Full Frontal’s Samantha Bee takes on the current administration’s new policy, as it is being implemented by the Department of Justice under Jeff Sessions, of separating children from their parents when taken into custody by Immigration officials. YubaNet reported that testimony by Richard Hudson, Deputy Chief of the Operations Program for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), at a May 23rd Judiciary Committee meeting revealed that during the 13 day period from May 6th through May 19th, 638 parents traveling with 658 minor children were prosecuted under the “zero tolerance” policy. That’s roughly 50 children a day being separated from their parents. [NSFW: language]   [Read more…]

From Police Reform To Playgrounds, San Diego Coalition Seeks A City Budget For The People

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By Susan Duerksen / Center on Policy Initiatives

San Diego’s Community Budget Alliance (CBA) has won approval of environmental, labor, police reform, and pedestrian safety projects this year, and will continue to push for more equitable spending throughout the final month of brewing the 2018-19 City budget.

The City Council has several chances in June to modify the proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The CBA coalition advocates for budget equity to benefit low-wage working people and underserved communities…

The CBA’s successes in recent years demonstrate the power of direct community advocacy to make changes that improve daily life in San Diego.   [Read more…]

ACLU Documents Show Widespread Abuse of Child Immigrants in U.S. Custody

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New Report Is Based on Thousands of Government Documents Obtained Through the Freedom of Information Act That Detail Horrific Stories

By ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties

Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union featured in a new report released today show the pervasive abuse and neglect of unaccompanied immigrant children detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The report was produced in conjunction with the International Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School.

“These documents provide a glimpse into a federal immigration enforcement system marked by brutality and lawlessness,” said Mitra Ebadolahi, ACLU Border Litigation Project staff attorney. “All human beings deserve to be treated with dignity and respect regardless of their immigration status — and children, in particular, deserve special protection. The misconduct demonstrated in these records is breathtaking, as is the government’s complete failure to hold officials who abuse their power accountable. The abuse that takes place by government officials is reprehensible and un-American.”   [Read more…]

Abolish ICE | Video Worth Watching

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Full Frontal’s Samantha Bee lays out why it’s time to abolish ICE.   [Read more…]

As Monsanto Glyphosate Case Moves to Trial, Man Dying of Cancer Gets Day in Court

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By Jessica Corbett / Common Dreams

A California man dying of cancer will soon become the first person ever to take agrochemical giant Monsanto to trial over allegations that the company has concealed findings that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the company’s popular weedkiller Roundup, causes cancer.

Before DeWayne Johnson, a 46-year-old father of three, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma at the age of 42, he worked for a school district in California, “where his responsibilities included direct application of Roundup and RangerPro, another Monsanto glyphosate product, to school properties,” according to his “landmark” lawsuit (pdf).

“Monsanto does not want the truth about Roundup and cancer to become public,” Johnson’s attorney, Michael Miller, told the Guardian. “We look forward to exposing how Monsanto hid the risk of cancer and polluted the science.”   [Read more…]

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