Sanctuary Cities: An Explanation

Click here for an article by Gabe Ortiz at Daily Kos entitled "What is a 'sanctuary city' exactly? An immigrant rights group explains."

Once an immigrant is arrested, their information gets put into a federal database that is shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE can then issue a hold, also called a detainer, asking the police to hold that person in custody until ICE can come pick that person up for immigration detention and eventual deportation.

The article goes on:

Here’s where we get to important legal point #1: being undocumented is not a crime. It’s a civil violation. And according to due process, the police cannot detain anyone who hasn’t at least been suspected of a crime. If a police officer encounters someone walking down the street who turns out to be undocumented, they cannot arrest that person because that person has not committed a crime (ICE, however, can). Similarly, if the police arrest someone undocumented – for example, someone suspected of committing a crime, who is then cleared, they must let that person go. Important legal point #2: holding an immigrant past the point when they should be released, just so that ICE can pick them up, is unconstitutional. Multiple courts have said so, and immigrants can sue the police for unlawful holding.

Here we get back to the point of sanctuary cities: in a sanctuary city, the police will release an arrested immigrant after he’s been cleared of charges, posted bail, or completed jail time for whatever he was arrested for. A non-sanctuary city will hold that person until ICE can come pick them up – even though that extra holding is not constitutional.

Keep in mind that all of the above only applies if the undocumented person has not committed any serious crimes. If they have, the police can keep them in jail by filing charges. Or ICE can present the police with a warrant or other order from a judge, which will result in a hold until ICE can come by.

The article provides a good deal more depth -- well worth the read. It also provides a link to a fuller explanation.

Obama Zingers At Past White House Correspondents Dinners

Here are a few of Obama's best lines delivered at White House Correspondents Dinners:


2012  "Congress and I have certainly had our differences---yet I’ve tried to be civil, to not take any cheap shots.  And that’s why I want to especially thank all the members who took a break from their exhausting schedule of not passing any laws to be here tonight."

2013  "I know CNN has taken some knocks lately. But the fact is, I admire their commitment to cover all sides of a story just in case one of them happens to be accurate."

2014  "I'm feeling sorry, believe it or not, for the Speaker of the House. These days, the House Republicans actually give John Boehner a harder time than they give me, which means orange really is the new black."
  
2015  “Just this week, Michele Bachmann predicted I would bring about the biblical end of days. Now that’s a legacy. That’s big. I mean, Lincoln, Washington, they didn’t do that.”

  
2016  “And then there’s Ted Cruz. Ted had a tough week. He went to Indiana---Hoosier country. Stood on a basketball court and called the hoop a ‘basketball ring.’ What else is in his lexicon? Baseball sticks? Football hats? But sure, I’m the foreign one.”
I don’t give two coconuts if they're doing a

Coal Company Bailout?

Click here for an article at Daily Kos by Mark Sumner entitled "Republicns want to turn effort to save coal miners into gift for coal mining companies."

I've read that in the U.S., more people work at Arby's than in the coal industry. (There are fewer than 60,000 miners; U.S. employment in the wind power industry recently topped 100,000; wind turbine technician is the fastest-growing job category in the country.)

But the coal companies are being squeezed, and several of the biggest (including Peabody and Arch) are on the verge of bankruptcy; Peabody is $2 billion in the hole. If these companies go bankrupt, tens of thousands of miners will lose their pension plans.

The Democrats, led by West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, have been trying to get the government to take over liability to fund these pension plans, but Republicans have been opposed. Now, though, Republican Tim Murphy, senator from Pennsylvania, has proposed a deal that Republicans support: Bail out the coal companies so they can stay in business.

That would mean the government would assume liability for the threatened pension plans. But it would also mean tens of millions in bonuses for the coal company executives and other expenses. And of course, bailing out the pension plans of the shaky companies would put the remaining healthy companies at an economic disadvantage, so the government would assume liability for their pension plans too.

Over the course of his career, Murphy has received over $350,000 in campaign contributions from the coal companies.

NRA Hysteria

Some words of wisdom from Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president and CEO, earlier this year at the CPAC conference:

The left’s message is absolutely clear. They want revenge. You have to be punished. They say you are what is wrong with America. And now, you have to be purged. … Make no mistake, if the violent left brings their terror to our communities, our neighborhoods or into our home they will be met with the resolve, and the strength, and the full force of American freedom in the hands of the American people and we will win because we are the majority in this country. … We are still here and we’ve got President Trump’s back — for the next eight years.

Yeah, that's a huge fear for virtuous American conservatives: the violent left bringing their terror into their homes.

A Must-Save Article On Voter Suppression

http://digbysblog.blogspot.ca/2017/04/voting-rights-jeopardy-by-bloggersrus.html

Bob Rankin - How To Secure Your Laptop

Click here for an article I wanted to save, entitled "How To Secure Your Laptop."

Uses Of The 12 Function Keys

Click here for an article at shareably.net by Patricia Lynn explaining the primary uses of the F1-F12 keys.

Pat Buchanan - A Man Before His Time?

Click here for an article at Politico by Andre Chung entitled "The Ideas Made It, But I Didn’t."

It's a long article, but well worth the read.

Click here for an article at Daily Kos, by DarkSyde, entitled "Trumpism and the danger of willful ignorance." The lead graphic says it all. What was Democratic and Republican support for U.S. missile strikes in Syria in 2013, when they were proposed by Obama, and in 2017, when they were carried out by Trump? In 2013, 38% of Democrats favored missile strikes; in 2017, 37% supported Trump's missile strikes. That suggests constant, clear-headed, nonpartisan opinion. In 2013, 22% of Republicans favored missile strikes; in 2017, 86% supported Trump's missile strikes. Why the enormous difference? Simple: One of them was that black Kenyan Muslim socialist Democrat guy; the other was the white Republican.

Trump/Putin Alliance: Deconstruct The European Union

Click here for an article by Joe Conason, at Crooks & Liars, entitled "On Eve Of French Election, Trump (And Putin) Still Pushing 'Nationalism.'" Trump is backing the right-wing extremist candidate Marine LePen in tomorrow's election in France. LePen will exit the European Union (Frexit) and NATO. So much for the system of treaties and alliances that has prevented World War III for 75 years.

Click here for "The Daily 202" of April 14. It's a daily blog from The Washington Post.

Part of it is entitled "Trump doesn't know much about history. It's making his on-the-job training harder." It details a bunch of occasions on which Trump displays his ignorance and total unfitness for the office. I found this paragraph striking:

Another wrinkle: It’s not just Trump who is learning all of this as he goes. “His White House chief of staff, chief strategist, senior adviser, counselor and national economics adviser have no prior government experience of consequence,” the Times story concludes. “Nor do his secretaries of state, Treasury, commerce, housing or education.”

Dear Trump Supporter:

Funny video, 4.5 minutes -- H/T Frances Langum @ Crooks & Liars:

Betsy DeVos v. Education

Click here for an article at Crooks & Liars by The Liberal Yell, entitled "Erasing Obama: DeVos Dismantles Protections On Student Loans."

In 2016, the Obama administration implemented rules to help protect borrowers and in turn assist lenders in recouping their money, including a Student Aid Bill of Rights:

1. requiring the Federal Student Aid office to continually evaluate lenders that contract with the Department of Education to make sure they are meeting borrowers' needs
2. providing economic incentives for those lenders with high performance evaluations
3. creating a system so that borrowers could find and understand all lender information on one website
4. maintaining a quality assurance program so that borrowers could trust that lenders contracting with the Department of Education meet requirements
5. requiring "timely and accurate responses" from lenders providing a feedback system for borrowers to report complaints, positive interactions and suspicious activity by lenders
6. providing a feedback system for borrowers to report complaints, positive interactions and suspicious activity by lenders

The article says:

Her reasoning for this abrupt turn was simply that the new rules were not working. No evidence of why or how was given.

Mitch McConnell Won The 2016 Election For The Republicans

McConnell refused to allow Merrick Garland's Supreme Court nomination to come to a vote. How many Republicans held their nose and voted for Trump because he had promised to nominate a conservative judge to take Scalia's place on the Supreme Court? I don't know the answer to that -- but it was a lot. Enough to swing a tight election? I think so.

A Note About The Supreme Court "Nuclear Option"

Mitch McConnell changed the rules (the "nuclear option") to end the ability of the Senate to filibuster and thereby block Supreme Court appointments, allowing the appointment of Gorsuch.

The Republicans say Harry Reid is to blame because at the beginning of Obama's second term, he ended the filibuster for federal judges below Supreme Court level; it's just a natural extension of that, Republicans say, to do away with the filibuster for judges at the Supreme Court level as well (which they just did).

Between 1949 and 2009, 68 federal judges (below Supreme Court level) had their nominations filibustered and blocked in the Senate. When McConnell's Republicans took over the Senate in the 2010 elections, they filibustered 79 of Obama's lower-court nominees during his first term (until 2012).

Government Shutdown By April 28?

Click here for an article at Daily Kos by Kerry Eleveld, entitled "Republicans bypass Trump's budget requests to avert a government shutdown."

Congress has to pass a bill by April 28 to keep funding the government. Through Obama's eight years, when the Republicans controlled Congress -- and especially the House -- it was wingnut far-right tea partiers, then the Freedom Caucus, who kept threatening to shut down the government if they didn't get their way -- and under the leadership of Boehner, then Ryan, it was a serious problem because they refused to work with Democrats to secure enough votes to pass a bill. This time around, things are different.

The Freedom Caucus  is just as obstreperous as ever, but this time -- particularly because of the way the F.C. scuttled Ryan's repeal-and-replace efforts on health care -- Republicans are quietly working with Pelosi and Schumer to ensure there enough votes to secure funding to keep the government running. The problem this time: Trump.

It may go smoothly; the fear now is that Trump may threaten to refuse to sign any budget agreement that doesn't include funding for his pet projects -- such as The Wall. (I say "threaten" because he will likely back down in the end, but it could be messy.)

Trump Erasing Obama Legacy

Click here for an article at Daily Kos by Mark Sumner, entitled "Trump and Congress are tearing up Obama's legacy week by week using the Congressional Review Act."

And click here for an article on the same subject, entitled "Trump's Secret Weapon Against Obama's Legacy" by Michael Grunwald at Politico.

Trump is using the Congressional Review Act to reverse actions taken by President Obama. This Act, which enables a president to quickly roll back regulations imposed late in his predecessor's term, was only ever used once before, by W., to roll back an ergonomics rule at the Department of Labor.

Under the CRA, Republicans have until early May to eliminate Obama rules finalized after last June—and they need only simple majorities in both houses of Congress, since CRA bills can’t be filibustered.

Trump has used the CRA 11 times so far, with more planned. Here are the 11 things Trump's use of the CRA has "accomplished":

1.) They’ve crushed a rule that forced energy companies to reveal when they were bribing foreign governments. Trump’s very first CRA bill was an anti-anti-corruption measure, blocking an Obama effort to force oil companies to disclose payments to foreign governments; Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had personally lobbied against the rule as CEO of ExxonMobil, telling lawmakers that undisclosed payments were vital to Exxon’s business in Russia.
2.) They made it easier for coal companies to dump waste into streams and rivers and conduct mountaintop removal mining.
3.) They removed a rule that said anyone who had been declared mentally incapable of managing their own assets should not be able to buy a gun.
4.) They removed requirements that defense contractors obey labor laws.
5.) They limited the ability of the government to restrict the use of federal lands.
6.) The killed accountability on state education targets for elementary and secondary schools.
7.) While they were at it, they killed rules on teacher training.
8.) They made it easier for states to drug test people before they could get unemployment pay.
9.) They made it legal to shoot wolves and hibernating bears in National Wildlife Refuges (yeah, they really did).
10.) They weakened rules that employers have to keep track of employee injuries and illness.
11.) They made it legal for communications companies to sell your Internet history without your permission.

According to the Politico story, Trump signed three bills into law on February 28. Two of them were feel-good pieces of fluff about empowering women, and he signed those with photo ops and a good deal of fanfare. The third bill, though, was signed quietly and without publicity. That's because it was very popular with the NRA, but not so much with the general public. It rolled back an Obama regulation making it difficult for people who are severely mentally ill to purchase firearms (No. 3 above).

But there's more to come.

Those are just the things that they’ve already signed. CRA bills currently in the works include a fresh attempt to hurt Planned Parenthood, relaxing rules around oil and gas production, and making it harder for employees to seek representation for labor issues.

There's a good chance the CRA bills rolling back Obama's regulations will be Trump's only legislative "achievements" in his first 100 days. According to the Politico article:

His most notable non-CRA legislative achievement last week was naming a clinic in Pago Pago, American Samoa, after Faleomavaega Eni Fa’aua’a Hunkin.

The clock runs out on Trump's use of the CRA around May 9.

Michael Hayden Is Incredible - By Which I Mean He's Not Credible

Click here for an article in the Columbia Journalism Review by Trevor Timm, entitled "Stop treating former CIA chief Michael Hayden as an arbiter of truth."

Hayden has a long history of lying repeatedly. Take everything he says with a large dollop of salt.

Donald Trump's Race War

Click here for an article at New York Magazine by Jonathan Chait entitled "Donald Trump's Race War." A long article, but well worth reading -- I felt I needed to save it for closer rereading later on.

Bill O'Reilly, Sexual Predator

Click here for the story in The New York Times, by Emily Steel and Michael S. Schmidt, entitled "Bill O'Reilly Thrives at Fox News, Even as Harassment Settlements Add Up."

The story tells of $13 million paid by Fox over the years to settle harassment lawsuits by five women against O'Reilly. Two of them were previously known, but The Times uncovered three more. This after Roger Ailes left the network in disgrace last summer over running Fox as his own private bordello.

Tom Price - Insider Trading; Coal And Arby's

Click here for Paul Waldman's Happy Hour Roundup at The Plum Line, a Washington Post blog:

On the same day the stockbroker for then-Georgia Congressman Tom Price bought him up to $90,000 of stock in six pharmaceutical companies last year, Price arranged to call a top U.S. health official, seeking to scuttle a controversial rule that could have hurt the firms’ profits and driven down their share prices, records obtained by ProPublica show.

* Christopher Ingraham provides some perspective on the coal industry Trump promises to revive; there are fewer Americans who work in coal than there are Americans who work at Arby’s.