We have no choice but to live with Nature #EarthDay
While we mourn and fall sick and live in anxiety, Mother Earth is sighing a breath of relief. And fresh air. This virus may be horrible for us but everywhere else the earth is healing.
Our actions now will define our future as we navigate this unprecedented crisis. We are being forced to look at not just climate change but our very relationship to Nature as we witness in stark focus our sick and our dead.
WATER
Water is directly tied to our health, safety, and economy. Since the coronavirus, rivers are purifying after decades of pollution.
#EarthDay reminder: land is important for #cleanwater! Preserving intact forest and healthy farmland in the Delaware River Basin can filter pollution and reduce soil erosion, leading to cleaner water and healthier animals, birds, and people. #TheWorldIsWaterpic.twitter.com/BhlCeQcfEf
— William Penn Foundation (@WilliamPennFdn) April 22, 2020
These environmental concerns tied to public safety are also highlighting economic inequality and how the privileged in society have access to basic needs, like water. Hand washing is essential for any virus and especially during this COVID-19 epidemic. Yet, we cannot do this if we don’t have clean water and clean water starts with access to clean water sources, keeping lands intact around water sources.
“In the United States, about two million people lack access to running water, indoor plumbing, or wastewater treatment. In many rural and urban areas, communities of color and historically marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted, with limited access to clean, safe and affordable water.” (American Rivers)
Black and indigenous communities in the United States, the lower castes and tribals in India, the tribals and indigenous of Brazil, the Kurds and non-majority Muslims in Iraq, whoever is in power has access to the most basic of needs. On the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, as we face an epidemic as a world community, as we face it as a nation, let’s remember that we must shift priorities and outlooks towards each other and our environment.
AIR QUALITY
Worldwide air quality has significantlyimproved in recent weeks and drastically so in nine major cities across the globe according to a new report produced by Swiss company IQAir that pulled together government data from Delhi, London, Los Angeles, Milan, Mumbai, New York City, São Paulo, Seoul, Wuhan, and Rome.
Delhi saw up to a 44% reduction in PM10 air pollution levels on the first day of its restrictions, India’s Central Pollution Control Board found. People in northern India saw the Himalayas for the first time from their homes. 85 cities across India saw less air pollution in the first week of the nationwide lockdown.
But, many other reports are true for obvious reasons. Due to overpopulation that leads to development in the natural habitat of animals, these animals are reclaiming their land as people are forced to stay inside. Coyotes walk through San Francisco, wild monkeys brawl over resources in Thailand; goats window shop in Wales; deer roam Japan; turtles that were almost extinct and other species are reproducing like never before.
Great Orme Kashmiri goats on the streets of Llandudno, Wales.Credit…Andrew Stuart
ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS & POLICIES
Instead, Trump has done the opposite and used the coronavirus as an excuse to continue the deregulation of environment he began since taking office.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a sweeping suspension of its enforcement of environmental laws Thursday, telling companies they would not need to meet environmental standards during the coronavirus outbreak. This is a so-called temporary policy, with no end date.
Recently, right before the epidemic hit the United States, Trump challenged EPA water rules, created a loophole to allow pipelines to avoid environmental review, and axed Obama’s signature climate change policy, the Clean Power Plan.
Overall, a New York Times analysis has found that the Trump administration has rolled back nearly 100 environmental rules and regulations. Its actions have made it easier to drill in wildlife refuges, slashed regulations meant to combat overfishing, and narrowed safety assessment requirements for potentially toxic chemicals.
In the 24 hours since the EPA freeze:
a private company is set to take over inspection duties at a Tyson Foods beef slaughterhouse
Obama-era rules have been rolled back raising fuel-economy standards on new vehicles aimed directly at California
review has begun of a proposed 211-mile road that would cut through a portion of Alaska’s Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and open up an area rich in copper, zinc and other minerals
These environmental deregulation has nothing to do with the coronavirus or concern for public safety. It has to do with Trump and his administration’s rulebook of benefitting corporations and rolling back any Obama-era policies or laws. As of December 2019, Trump had set back and deregulated over 95 environmental laws and policies.
GOING FORWARD
Here’s the reality. We have been brought to our knees by the coronavirus, and the worst has yet to hit, economically and in terms of lives lost. Mother Nature could care less if we made it through this. We as a species are responsible for our own survival. We must learn. And the moral of the story is that we must live alongside the environment and not treat it as a commodity.
The current administration does not see this message as plain as it is. If we do not shift directions now, what is already a tragedy of epic proportions will signal the decline of our way of life as those nations who will figure out how to live more with the environment are healthier, more resource-laden, and prosper economically and as a society as a result.
Congresswoman Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), vice chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, outlined three major laws she’s authored in an op-ed today:
the 30 by 30 Resolution to Save Nature – it sets a national goal of conserving at least 30 percent of the land and 30 percent of the ocean within the United States by 2030
the 100% Clean Economy Act, which sets a national goal of a 100 percent clean economy no later than 2050
As American Rivers states, “we must invest in clean water and healthy rivers to improve public health and our economy.” How can we wash our hands for up to 20 seconds if millions of Americans don’t even access to running, clean water?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting major to moderate flooding in 23 states this spring. If a flood threatens a community during a coronavirus “stay at home” order, where will people turn for safety and shelter? With scarce resources and supplies, how will communities, states and the federal government respond to both flooding and the epidemic?
American Rivers recommends:
Congress must act to prioritize healthy rivers and clean, safe, affordable water for all. This should include, for the duration of the pandemic emergency, a ban on water shut-offs nationwide and restoration of water services for anyone without access.
Congress must also increase water infrastructure funding to ensure clean water and sanitation for communities most in need, and increase funding for innovative, cost-effective solutions that strengthen communities in the face of flooding and other impacts of climate change.
INTERSECTIONALITY
These inequities have been fatally reflected in the loss of black and brown lives as the coronavirus rages on. The New York Times predictions have come true: “the vulnerabilities of resource-strapped minorities…[has had] devastating consequences.”
Sandra Blackshear received oxygen treatment to help with her coughing and wheezing. She had only just started hearing about coronavirus.Credit…Alexandra Hootnick for The New York Times
Recent reports show black people comprise 32% of Louisiana’s population—but a startling 70% of the coronavirus deaths. In its first release of racial data, New York City reported that Hispanics died from COVID-19 at a rate of 22 per 100,000 and black people died at a rate of 20 per 100,000—double the rate of white people.
Worst hit has been Chicago where black Chicago’s African Americans are dying at a rate nearly six times greater than white residents. About 68% of the city’s deaths have involved African Americans, who make up only about 30% of Chicago’s total population, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.
And that’s not even the full picture. Until last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and most local health departments weren’t releasing data on race. Many still are not.
Senator Elizabeth Warren ran the first intersectionality focused campaign and specifically mentioned the toll environmental issues have on black communities. As Teen Vogue reported:
Elizabeth Warren is paying attention, and it shows in the environmental justice plan she released this week. Her plan is informed by the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice, an equity-based framework written by activists of color in 1991 that no presidential administration has acted on to date.
Nelini Stamp, Working Families Party director of strategy and partnerships (Teen Vogue)
Senator Warren has been one of the Democrat’s primary architects of the stimulus package and roadmap out of this pandemic crisis — and she continues to highlight intersectionality factoring in this inequality.
In her recent New York TimesApril 8, 2020 op-ed outlining her plan forward to tackle this crisis, she pointed out that intersectionality is key to this plan: “Early data shows people of color are infected and dying at disproportionately high rates.”
We are not the owners of Nature but part of it. We cannot even thrive or survive if we do not acknowledge how we are interconnected. This is not a clarion call to return to some pure state or start hugging trees. It is a matter of survival. Even from a purely selfish standpoint, if a significant portion of the population gets a disease due to lack of access, they will spread the disease to everyone else.
In other words, Mama has had just about enough. She tried to warn us. Fires, volcanoes, you name it, we lived through it as climate change red flags were ignored. Finally, she’d had enough of the New Age, gentler approach and went fire-and-brimstone, plagues-and-scorpions because she did not have any more time for our tomfoolery. It’s time we listen.
Actions and info on the next for coronavirus economic relief legislation
There is immense economic fallout from the coronavirus. A $2.2 trillion stimulus package was signed by the President. Despite being touted as bipartisan, The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was singularly GOP-led legislation. Bill S.3548 was geared more towards corporations than individuals. (You can go here to get FAQs in regards to the $1,200 check, such as if you qualify; what to do if you haven’t received it; if it’s taxable; etc.).
The White House and congressional leaders are nearing a deal to pump an additional $300 billion into a new program to keep small businesses from going out of business. Though weeks away, a potentially $1 trillion new relief package is in discussions that could give monthly checks to families
Much of these provisions will not make it into the relief package. However, given CARE prioritized corporate profits over workers’ protections and wages, we are in dire need of sustained economic support for families and workers that are suffering.
America’s response to COVID-19 has cracked wide open many of the fissures already present in many of its institutions, most noticeably the healthcare industry. The US isn’t alone. The global economy is about to see a historic recession. The World Trade Organization, for its part, forecast that nearly all regions of the world would suffer double-digit declines in trade this year, with North American and Asian exporters hit hardest.
“We anticipate the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression,” said Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Compared to other countries’ responses.
But most other countries have aggressive safety nets in place where protective gear for medical personnel and those on the frontline are a given. In addition, there is ongoing guaranteed protection for residents (such as masks), and safety nets that guarantee healthcare and some basic income to meet living requirements for food and shelter.
The United States has no safety nets, not even PPE’s for its frontline workers, not even healthcare for those who need it, much less food and shelter guarantees. This creates environments ripe for exploitation such as long food bank lines, landlords soliciting sex for rent, cyberattacks in various forms of phishing scams, a pandemic of domestic abuse (here are resources for domestic abuse help).
San Antonio Food Bank in San Antonio, Texas, April 17. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
To ensure even more suffering and exploitation does not take place, Indivisible has a list of actions to ensure that Congress #PutPeopleFirst. instead of band-aid after band-aid.
Call your representative and tell them the same. Millions of people could be left behind while corporations rake in trillions of tax-payer dollars. The House needs to make this right. Call your representatives now and demand that they support the above provisions be included in the next coronavirus package.
In order to get a stimulus package that ensures people the basics of testing and healthcare, shelter, and food, we need a system that ensures the same. Since we lack that, any stimulus package will not be enough. But, given the levels of exploitation and unemployment daily rising along with infection rates, we must do better in this next relief package.
Healing and unity sound “soft” but when you talk FDR or Dr. King or Dolores Huerta or Dorothy Height or Margaret Sanger, that is EXACTLY why they were so beloved to get people through wars and depressions and tough times. It’s always toughest before great change. They didn’t whip people up into an angry, unchanneled frenzy. They didn’t go it alone. They built alliances. They knew how to work with power structures and systems even as they fought to change them. They were painstakingly detailed in their strategy. They knew the power of words and crafted them as much as their plans.
One of the most admirable qualities of Elizabeth Warren is that she LISTENS to others…she LEARNS from others. Warren has rolled into her platform the ideas of Kamala Harris (reproductive rights), Kristen Gillibrand (paid family leave), and Julian Castro (pre K and early childcare) with the permission from and credit to each of them. Her plans are developed through coalitions and teamwork, talking to the actual communities affected as well as the experts.
She knows any human institution, like the Democrat National Committee, is subject to flaws but she believes what’s more flawed is the electoral process (unsafe, based on money, and the outdated electoral college) which she plans on fixing.
She also has hope for the now-defunct GOP which are almost all Trump lackeys. As Sheila Blair wrote, former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. with senior appointments in four Republican and Democratic administrations: Elizabeth Warren simply wants the market to work for us all. Right now it’s only working for the top-shelf wealthy and stacked against the working and middle class. In that, Warren is the great unifier.
As fun and deliciously rewarding it was to watch, Sen. Warren’s performance in the debates that I care about. She’s been fierce all along if you recall. She just also possesses the highly underrated quality of discretion as to when and how to bring it out.
I believe in the necessity for humility in leadership.She didn’t “decimate” Bloomberg in the debates to be all badass: she brought up facts that had to be paid attention to then she spoke to him afterward in a real conversation. It speaks volumes that the next day, he didn’t retaliate but grew in his respect for her. This clip about how she engaged with Bloomberg even after pointing out his unworthy candidacy is what leadership looks like. After a crass bully at our helm, our country needs this kind of leadership now more than ever.
I’ve seen her talk to Nobel Prize-winning economists who focus on alleviation of poverty as well as children she got down on her knee to talk to — as well as nonprofit boards, governors, CEOs, homeless families, and celebrities all alike. WHY is that important?
Great leaders like Sen. Warren know when to show their righteous indignation. For those of us who are “tired of being overlooked, dismissed, ignored, and left out,” who are survivors having PTSD every time a family separator, racist predator elected to our highest office shows his face, who watch teenagers get more time in jail as our treasury is emptied through unchecked, public corruption — Warren is here for our anger.
She is also here to show us how to channel our anger — not at each other or those in a different wealth class but so we can create change from the ground up. She knows how to battle so that our fervent hopes can actualize into reality. Anger can destroy us if unchecked. What good is anger unless it provides respite from our suffering, a solution to our problems, or balm for our healing?
Most of all, great leaders know what the public needed. Inspiration. Hope. Caring. Healing. Discretion. Ability to wield words that unite. Connection. Policies and visions are not enough.
New York Times op-ed today asks: Why Don’t We Know Which Democratic Candidate Can Beat Trump? This is not the question to ask. We need systemic change not just a regime change. The question that will get us on track isn’t how to get rid of Trump — which is a band aid until the next Trump in 2024 — but how to get rid of the factors that caused him? From the broken electoral process down to social issues, Trump is the symptom not the cause. The factors that caused him all very much remain. So the next president not only has to move us forward but undo so much that set us back AND address long term solutions at its core which still exist and have worsened.
In terms of political strategy: yes ask how to beat Trump because it’s a numbers game in terms of electoral votes; factors like districting and voter suppression affects numbers, which is why they’re partisan issues; how many people come out to vote etc.
In terms of us: NO. Worry about doing your part. For us, go out and vote for the person you most believe in. Trust me: it’s worse out there than you can think. Much worse. So why am I filled with optimism and continue working for pennies on this? Because the numbers are on our side—if we show up. You just have to show up and urge others to do the same. From the local on up.
Right now, droves of Republican voters are turning out for Trump. Why? “The massive turnout is a reflection of organic enthusiasm among conservatives and a sophisticated effort by Trump’s campaign to rev up its get-out-the-vote machine ahead of the general election. Read: support, enthusiasm, and showing up to vote.
Get rid of this “electability” illness. This “electability” situation is often predicated on what the polls say. “I want to vote for her but I don’t think she can win” is a cop-out and misinformed. The numbers we often hear in relation to “electability” are polls. Who conducted them using how many people in which region at which time asking which questions in a pool from which demographic? No idea, right? Thus: Not to be trusted much less go on as to who to vote for. Even Gallup has been wrong more times than right. JUST DO YOUR PART.
Independents: pick a side. The non-Trump base also suffers from “the independent.” Are you an independent as in Switzerland, who wants everyone’s money and stands for nothing yet has no skin in the game? Because that is not an independent. Or are you an independent in that you don’t want to affiliate with one party but have values you believe in and a candidate who most reflects you and your self-interests? That means: put your teeth into it.
There’s a lot at stake. There’s a sickness caused by our systems. It’s why crimes are now daily committed in our face and nothing is done about it. It’s why we even got to 2016. There is an economic injustice that is suffocating us, and most felt by communities of color and women across the board. Travel around to random counties and you will see. Hell, travel to San Francisco and step over tents of homeless on your way to the $9 coffee. Bernie and Warren get it to the core. As much as we all want to say vote any Dem, yes of course but not any Dem will get to the root problems.
Most people I’ve met live paycheck to paycheck. One diagnosis or accident away from losing it all. No way of coping, no support, no time to get informed as to how to deal with mental issues or whatnot. Fox is their only news. I don’t judge because many factors led up to their lives just as many have led to mine and we each are blinded by our own biases.
Most of all, It breaks my heart because my child will have so much access to basics that their children will not; access to support and healthcare and all of that which enables us to be thoughtful or generous instead of living with constant stress and trauma and fear. What a tragic loss of potential. It’s our loss as much as theirs. You cannot see it if you’re too busy living it.
Yet that’s also where they fight the most. And yes sometimes that fight is for Trump. Who else listened for decades. And like it or not, blame this or that but know this: We will not have any progress on any climate or social justice issue if their desperation is not tended to.
Voting in a Dem is one step in a long haul ahead. No one who benefits from systems—and that includes me and many of my social circle—are afraid of change. It will be a fight even from “good” folks. And def from the power structure. Grand plans will be meted out by legislation and fought in the Supreme Court. We’ll need 8-12 years to see any of it through.
So yes whatever: vote any Dem but know there are only two who get it and will do their level best to fix it at its core. And for me only one with the plans and ability to see a good chunk of it through: Elizabeth Warren.
It’s because I’ve met with so much anger and sadness and desperation I’m so invested in her winning. She not only gets it like Bernie but I’ve seen it. She connects. She can unite. Those qualities can not be underestimated.
Why Elizabeth Warren is our best choice for President
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders may share similar visions of progressive policies but ultimately record, history, political alliances, strategy, skill at navigating legislation and judicial branches are on the side of Warren. She has fought for the working class her entire professional life and as a Senator with agencies, laws, and policies that prove she can bring visions into reality. That’s why she’s the onlycandidate Wall Street, Silicon Valley tech giants, and mega-corporations who pay $1 in taxes fear.
This country needs structural change. It’s not enough to talk big, you have to actually know the structure. What is the new business plan? No social justice platform can be implemented if the majority of people are struggling to provide for their families.
No one knows it better than a tax and debt lawyer and professor. Warren has plans that appeal to working-class who haven’t had a raise that outstrips inflation in 30 years. She has plans for healthcare, childcare, Medicare, and college debt that has put a stranglehold on the middle and working class.
She has the temperament to guide the country out of years of turmoil while keeping a strong hand to ensure the corruption doesn’t go unanswered to restore faith and eliminate the cynicism and normalization that’s settled in.
She is of our times. She has the endorsements and support of our times from the most powerful and vocal groups of their communities: African American civil rights leaders, Black Women caucus, the LGBTQI community, Latinas especially in relationship to immigration rights, unions, reproductive rights organizations who are thrilled a candidate says “abortion,” even parent organizations are thrilled due to her childcare policies. They all endorse her because her views and platforms are intersectional and comprehensive — and they trust she can get policies through.
Bottom line: she has the plans and experience for sure but as important, she inspires trust, exudes warmth, speaks to women, immigrants, and the working-class and upper middle class with the same confidence-inspiring charisma.
RESTORE TRUST
In order to transform a nation, similar qualities appear time and again. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for example, needed a vision with plans such as The New Deal, but also had to have the ability to execute, and alliances, political know-how, and a fighting spirit to battle it out whether it was a contentious Congress or Supreme Court. To do any of this you have to be able to foster trust in the government and governance.
Warren can do that better than any candidate because her entire professional life has been about anti-corruption and fighting for the working class, starting with forming the Consumer Protection Agency to combat the rampant housing mortgage corruption and recession of 2008 — that she had predicted as a professor in 2004.
HEAL
Our nation is again in great turmoil: impeachment, almost daily news of corruption, human rights crises, rampant racism and hate crimes, weekly mass shootings, greater and greater economic insecurity. You must inspire unity and hope in a country battling intense strife. In these times, that is no easy task.
While Bernie Sanders may share some of this vision, he has yet to state how he can do it. He doesn’t have the political base to get it through legislation or navigate a conservative Supreme Court nor the alliances in Congress.
Elizabeth Warren can do it. Vision, policy understanding, political strategy, communication and negotiation skills, all describe a leader like Warren who has the temperament and ability to have a vision and execute it while being able to inspire the public to both heal and forge ahead. We need the temperament of a leader who can heal after these four turbulent years.
“It’s the economies, stupid”
We need a systemic change to address the growing income — and thus education gap. Yes, racism and sexism were at play in 2016 but that doesn’t discount that there is a lot of unrest in impoverished and languishing cities and towns with growing numbers of unemployed or barely surviving families juggling 2 or 3 jobs that foster the worst in people and draws them to candidates who use emotions and false hope to gain support.
Polls show Warren’s message that the economic system is rigged against ordinary people — and her willingness to unapologetically call for fundamental structural changes in the rules of the economic game — are very attractive to the working-class. Voters don’t want continuity or stability, they want change.
Who better than someone who knows just how to do it because she’s studied tax structure, communicated complex plans in simple terms for the public, and implemented into policies and laws.
Warren continues that fight. Her plans and visions are not socialist by far; they are those of most economists. For one, there is no singular economy in this country. The rural poor and urban poor have different reasons and solutions. And the economy is not booming contrary to Trump.
Since the crash of 2008, 75 percent of new jobs pay less than $50,000 a year, and a large percentage barely pay above minimum wage.
Eighty-five percent of post-recession income growth has occurred among the top 1 percent of earners.
The richest 10 percent of Americans own 84 percent of stocks. Barring a crash, which would reverberate throughout the entire country, the daily rise and fall of Wall Street has no effect on most Americans.
The unemployment rate may be at a historic low, but it does not take into account the millions of laborers who are “underemployed” — working part-time hours when they are in desperate need of full-time, salaried work or the “gig” economy where professionals, like teachers, have to take on night shifts as car drivers.
This doesn’t just create stress, it creates fractured families. With rising costs of childcare, who watches the kids as parents must take on second shifts? Where does the health insurance come from in a gig economy?
Millionaires and billionaires, like Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase who had to pay a fine for their hand in the housing crisis of 2008, Leon Cooperman, a billionaire hedge fund manager; and Microsoft founder Bill Gates all cry about Warren and that should make you suspect. Trump told his friends at Mar-a-Lago after signing a massive tax cut, “You all just got a lot richer.” Why are they crying when in January 2020, most Americans cannot afford a home and are one illness away from bankruptcy?
The public is not just overworked and underpaid but stressed and that means less innovation and more trauma, the kind that stunts national growth and leads to greater societal problems like crime. Jobs are not just about GDP. It’s about a public engaged in work that has a sense of purpose and provides the basics to their families.
Warren understands that deep need and has been a champion for the working and middle class from the start. So much so that as a professor setting up a federal regulatory agency, Warren fought with then-President Obama on his choice for Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers.
“It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance an existing home with a mortgage that has the same one-in-five chance of putting the family out on the street.” (Elizabeth Warren, “Unsafe at Any Rate,” 2007, predicting the housing crisis)
“I believe the recovery should have been from the ground up, and people with Geithner’s and Summers’ background would never see the world that way,” she said in an interview with Politico, because above all else she wanted the public to be protected.
In 2007, she predicted the housing crisis. In 2006, when the economy was booming and she was studying consumer debt as a Harvard law professor., she observed, “The great American middle class is fighting a battle for survival — and losing.” And in 2004, in a NOW interview, she predicted the recession of 2008. Each time, she had solutions alongside her simple explanation of complex economic issues.
Vox does an excellent job outlining just how Warren set up the CFPB and why it was so critical.
No other candidate aside from Warren understands the need for a new business plan for the country at its core, and not just provide band-aids and government programs or handouts, least of all because she lived poverty and single parenting upfront and personal.
It is rare that to have a leader and politician who will not only understand the briefs she is given but probably had a hand in writing them or in the research that underlies today’s policy experts.
For the moderates: She’s not out for your money
We do not need a watered-down Obama 3.0. Warren is not what so many Biden supporters fear: a democratic socialist. In a nutshell, her tax plan for the wealthy is: a 2 percent levy on assets more than $50 million, and higher rates on billionaires. Warren is merely saying that the tax system as it now stands benefits the 1% and many in the 1% endorse that they need to pay their fair share. That alone could provide the funding needed for programs such as greater healthcare coverage and student loan debt forgiveness.
Since when did Americans like to be taken for a ride? We are the kings of wanting everything to be fair! In sports like deflate-gate. In “American Idol.” We love underdogs and second acts, Robert Downey Jr!
So how is it we stand for the fact that Amazon paid $1 in taxes? Then gripe we don’t have money to pay teachers and fund schools? The richest 10% of U.S. households represent 70% of all U.S. wealth in 2018, according to a recent study by researchers at the Federal Reserve. How is it that as we watch our paychecks shrink and pay our fair share, more than our share as per statistics, while the 1% saw their fortunes increase from 23% to 32% in 2018? Home ownership is at its lowest since the 1960s; income is falling as the number of jobs Americans must work increase as wealth is consolidated into fewer hands.
Evening the playing field is not radical or progressive. It is 100% American.
For the Progressives: Visions need execution
If Warren and Bernie Sanders share a similar vision to restructure our economy, why Warren? For one, she can execute and two, the woman’s been obsessed. Her entire career has been fighting corruption through an obsessive analysis of power, taxation, systems, and the forces that keep the status quo. That’s why Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Big Business are frightened. Warren gets it. And has successfully fought them and won.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., greet each other before the first of two Democratic presidential primary debates hosted by CNN, July 30, 2019, in the Fox Theatre in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Visions are great. They will all be modulated by legislation regardless. So, what makes the great stand out? Execution.
As a lifelong social justice activist who has studied movements, from the Civil Rights movement to the suffragists and others, the one thing to be gleaned from all of this is that everything which was a win was planned. Behind every vision coming to life is hard work and a strategy executed by a team. There had been other people to board the bus before Rosa Parks. She was not a happy accident.
If you were hiring for a senior-most position in a company, would you want to take someone on who has knowledge of the policies and politics that underlie the job at hand, has the allies and know-how to navigate politics, and the experience to show all of that or a person who talks the same talk but has nothing to show for it?
That may sound harsh towards Sanders yet the proof is in their history. Sanders as per the nonprofit watchdog on politicians, has served over 30 years yet has one major bill to show for it, has the fewest co-sponsored bills (1) and was an Independent until political expediency made him a Democrat. That’s fine however what that shows is an inability to compromise or negotiate, especially with Congress, and it doesn’t do is give you any allies. Warren started a brand new, highly controversial regulatory agency with a Republican Congress to protect consumers while she was a university professor.
As economist Dean Bakers said, “Warren was able to navigate around the opposition from some Democrats and from the Republican Congress to get the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created, and to ensure that it would have real power to protect people from the financial industry.”
As Iowa’s largest newspaper, The Des Moines Register said when they endorsed her, “she is not radical. She is right.”
She will be a social justice President
Mass shootings are weekly in America. Warren wants to reduce gun deaths by 80% with reforms that a majority of this country already support.
Warren is the candidate for LGBTQ by far, the only candidate to consistently poll in double digits.
She has an ally in Julian Castro and even earlier made it clear she will make unifying families and addressing the abuse that has led to family separations.
She talks about women’s issues that other candidates do not. For too long, more than half the population must suffer through horrific statistics like 1 in 3 girls will be sexually assaulted by 18. Maternal deaths in the US are rising. With the Trump administration, the overt sexism has reached all the way to the Supreme Court.
She deftly addresses major issues like “electability,” the silencing of women (“she persists!”), domestic violence (“you are not alone”), and reproductive rights (“abortion rights are human rights”). She reflects a nuanced understanding of the range of issues all women must face, like childcare citing her own aunt’s assistance when she was working as a single mother.
She’s a woman, mother, and progressive–and that matters.
It does make a difference when a woman is in charge—the right woman. Warren is that right woman out of the candidates. She’s the first to go to college in her lower-income Oklahoma family; a single mother for a time who credits her aunt’s childcare support as being critical to her success. As Justice Sotomayer said: it may not define you but it influences you. Ethnic identity like gender identity impacts how you see the world. Warren’s campaign is offering childcare on caucus night. Childcare wouldn’t be on the radar for most men—unless you’ve been a mother, and a single mother like Warren had once been.
Childcare costs have soared. So many parents have to choose to stay at home and have one paycheck or drop off kids at suspect but affordable care. With a widening income gap, that leaves millions of kids already behind their more well off peers. Warren has been doing this on her campaign trail to show she’s committed to this cause in practice as a candidate and it’s not just an off the cuff campaign promise.
“The difficulty of accessing affordable and high-quality child care puts parents in a bind — forcing them to choose between breaking the budget, cutting back work hours, or settling for lower-quality care,” Warren wrote in a Medium post.
The countries right now with the most systemic humane and progressive policies from climate change to education to immigration are led by women: Germany, Finland, New Zealand, Iceland. (While we here don’t even believe women can lead as per half the country.) Such a long way to go—but this is the year we can do it.
On the pulse of the times
This is not the Obama years or 2016. MeToo, Time’s Up, climate change, mass shootings, trans rights and pronouns and gender fluidity– our world is changing and needs a cohesive approach to its solutions. Warren always has been and is intersectional. When speaking about gender violence, she mentions trans violence. When speaking about wage gaps, she reminds the public that black and Latina women face an even greater gap than their white counterparts. Black women are heard even less than white mothers when it comes to prenatal care.
As we bury black young adults, children in mass shootings, a migrant child, or another woman who has died from childbirth, we must remember social justice is not a nice-to-have. It’s a necessity for a progressive society and it’s time we had a President that embraced and will champion such reforms. Warren is the leader we need.
For the country: a reset
Warren’s first priority taking office: an anti-corruption package. Why? Because this country has been besieged by corruption from Trump’s Day 1. And given the lawsuit of him funneling funds from his inaugural committee to private family benefits, it’s even before his first day in office.
The Trump Organization has been involved with over 19 conflicts of interests, securing business deals using the Presidency, using the Presidency to secure access and meetings for money — for starters.
More importantly than bringing justice to Trump is healing the country and regaining public trust. Before we can forward any progressive policy, like healthcare for all, we need to have a public that trusts governance again otherwise they will not back any plan if it doesn’t believe in the executors of that plan and who better than Warren, someone who has emerged a consistent winner against corruption?
Three Warren-aligned groups—the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, the Working Families Party, and Black Womxn For—of a list of more than 3,000 progressive elected officials, economists, and activists all end on one note: her temperament, her experience, her plans, her vision and most of all who she is and what she represents is what this fractured country needs in response to the ignorance, sexism, and xenophobia of the Trump administration.
Personally, I can attest that she is inspiring and elicits loyalty and kind words on her authenticity from staff and supporters I rarely encounter.
She calmly talks to a protester angry about her opposition to a war with Iran and to a father angry at her for her school loan debt forgiveness plan because he had to pay for his daughter’s tuition. (Her response was spot-on: a lot of things didn’t exist for a lot of people, say colored, queer girls for instance, that exist today. Doesn’t mean everyone in that boat going forward should get screwed.)
You can imagine Obama responding as calmly as she did. You can’t imagine Biden or Sanders. That matters. In these contentious political times when the leader of this country would threaten civilians, mocks them, or turns them over to angry, violent crowds, empathy and calm matter.
The leader in LGBTQ rights
Who supports you matters.
No need to foment discord but suffice to say we’ve already had toxic supporters of a male cult personality with questionable, or no support or endorsements of progressive and powerful organizations. Rather than go into that, there’s a long list of impressive endorsements that reflect who Warren is and what she stands for.
Warren has the most comprehensive platform dedicated to the protection of LGBTQI rights . She has been supported by the Human Rights Campaign – the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization; by Out, Advocate; by Black Womxn For, a collective of black women and gender-nonconforming organizer.
We can’t afford to be moderate.
Right now, America is not where it was in 2016. That could be a good thing. There are more women and diverse Congressional members than ever before. The sexism and racism that pervaded society can no longer be hushed away. The ugly can come out but so can the forces against it. As the founder of a civics nonprofit, civic engagement can only be a good thing. Democracy dies in the darkness.
However: America is not where it was in 2016.
There have been significant civil and human rights rollbacks from the Muslim ban to a 216% increase in hate crimes to a UN human rights crisis at the border with family separation and unhygienic, inhumane jail-like conditions for asylum seekers.
Workers’ rights have been slashed from a higher threshold for overtime-eligible pay to a 2020 budget proposal with significant cuts for Medicare, Social Security, and SNAP.
95 environmental deregulations through reversals, cutbacks, and rollbacks, including the biggest setback to the Clean Water Act since it was passed in 1972. This allows industries to do as they wish, including infesting our drinking water. This fattens the pockets of corporations at the expense of public health.
What Warrens will bring is not a moderate or progressive or Democrat presidency. She offers what Vox called a transformative presidency.
It can get confusing at times whether or not a candidate is for you or not. There had been a Washington Post quiz going around to see which candidate you’re most aligned with, like an e-harmony between voter and candidate. This isn’t that.
Here’s a simple list of how to judge candidates given who has been President since 2016.
If any candidate passes the muster then remember to vote even if it’s not your absolute favorite person! If treason, corruption, and erratic behavior that endangers national security is A-OK with you — as is possibly sending off your young adult to war and ensuring you never have social mobility as you wait for billionaires good fortune to trickle down not to mention living with sticky moral issues like children in cages torn from their families — then, by all means, vote for that candidate or don’t vote at all!
The Mueller Report makes it clear that: i.) the Russian government tried to help Trump win; ii.) the Trump campaign was eager to benefit from hackings targeting Democrats; and iii.) Trump’s campaign advisers had a lot of troubling ties to Russia.
See all articles and news clips dealing with “Trump Impeachment.” At televisions near you.
Trump paid a $2 million settlement to 8 charities admitting that he misused funds from Trump Foundation for his campaign and settle business debts.
25 cases of sexual assault and harassment and counting.
Trump faced two lawsuits in California and one in New York against fraud allegations that were wrapped into one civil suit against Trump University. A federal court approved a $25 million settlement with students who said they were duped by Trump and his now-defunct Trump University.
a) The US Department of Justice under the Nixon administration sued the Trump Management Corporation for violating the Fair Housing Act. Federal officials found evidence that Trump had refused to rent to black tenants and lied to black applicants about whether apartments were available, among other accusations. He signed an agreement in 1975 agreeing not to discriminate to renters of color. There’s a lot more where that came from! Here’s a full timeline. b) Senior advisor to Trump and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Saturday told a crowd of far-right French politicians to let people label them as “racist,” and to consider it “a badge of honor.” Bannon was the founder and once executive editor of Breitbart News, which he “proudly” told a Mother Jones reporter at the 2016 Republican National Convention is “platform for the alt right,” referring to Breitbart News. The alt right is a loose network of individuals and groups that promote white identity and reject mainstream conservatism in favor of politics that embrace implicit or explicit racism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy. Bannon was only let go by Trump due to seemingly disparaging remarks he made in a book about Trump and his family. c) Stephen Miller is a Trump senior adviser and architect of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda as well as a far-right political activist. In November 2019, over 900 emails were made public that reveal him to be a supporter of white nationalism. 59 civil rights groups cited Miller as a promoter of “white supremacy, violent extremism, and hate,” and demanded Trump fire him. Given the revolving door of his staff and inner circle, this should’ve been easy. Miller has yet to be fired.
I mean, how important is it to vote? It’s not like you’re marrying the person. That person will only be in charge of your health, like whether you die from diabetes or can afford insulin or are ever able to see a doctor or go broke trying to; if you can ever afford a home or watch as Jeff Bezos buys his tenth home paying a $1 in taxes as you fork over half your paycheck; whether you have clean water or fresh air to breathe; if your children can get a fighting chance in this world with a good education (if they aren’t traumatized due to school shootings or chronically ill due to an inability to pay for health insurance); and whether we are embroiled in a world war. So it’s not to the level of marriage but it does bear some importance.
An admirable quality of Trump supporters and enablers is their unflagging faith, whether due to fear, ignorance, or bullying, there is a resoluteness that Democrats lack. The sky can be blue, and yet if Trump says it’s green, so say they. What I am hearing as of December 2019, before even the primaries kick-off is a “woe-is-me” cry that Trump will win. “I don’t want him to but…”
But what? It is entirely within your control. The outcome may not be but let’s not forget three very important factors:
1. It’s not over until it’s over. Just ask Al Gore. Politics is an endurance game and you have to be like Serena Williams fighting down to the last point of the last game in the last set.
Part of me wants to scream and curse because WHY? There’s no hard data that he’ll win. It seems so obvious that if you are so against something then why believe something that will make it come true? Up until a month, even two weeks before the election, Hillary Clinton seemed a “shoo-in” even by the Trump campaign internally.
There will always be doubt as to an outcome, so fight to the tooth for the candidate you believe in — or do your values mean so little? Does a candidate have to razzle and dazzle with oratory flair in order for there to be groundswell of support? Doubts weaken your candidate. In either case:
Stop Saying He’ll Win.
2. In February 2017, Ezra Klein wrote the “real reason” Hillary Clinton lost which applies today. She lost due to us. Put aside the numbers and Wikileaks and emails and Russia. Swing states, electoral votes, and scandals aside, Trump was Trump. The candidate who said that the Mexicans are rapists, made fun of the disabled, was heard saying “grab’em by the pussy,” rife with sexual assault allegations and corruption lawsuits, links to white supremacists on his team, riddled Russia and mafia ties, and with zero qualifications (almost as an aside). None of that was fake news. He said it. There’s footage. We all heard all of the above. And half of us didn’t. And he won.
Republicans aside, it’s not that Clinton lost due to a narrow margin that should give us pause. It’s that Trump won due to a narrow margin.
Much of that was due to half the country not voting. Nonchalance. The kind of thinking then fueled by “she’ll win but I don’t like her for some vague reason,” that pervades to this day.
Whether sexism is involved or not (it is as polls and data show but that aside), that senseless purity for candidates had once been fueled by “I don’t like her” to now “I don’t want Trump to win, but I don’t like any of the others. No one can win.”
Well, progressives and any champion of sanity, due to that thinking in 2016 we not only threw the baby out with the bathwater but we burned the house down. If we still insist on having “tests,” here’s a list of qualities candidates to judge candidates by since 2016 , ex. have any of the other candidates been found guilty of less than 3 corruption cases? DING! Better than Trump! Less than 25 sexual assault cases? DING! Whiffs of treason? DING! White supremacist ties? DING!
If anyone you like has any of those qualities, then Stop Saying Trump Will Win.
3. Even if Trump is in the lead: what will you do to stop it?
Here’s a guide as to what you can do to be proactive in getting a Democrat elected. Think what you will of Dems, but as our current 2020 party system stands, it will either be a Republican or Democrat as a winner so given all you know of Trump and the GOP, if they don’t sit well, then do what you can. This guide shows you how and what with links, everything from how to submit a vote to actively campaigning, there’s a wealth of options to choose from based on your resources, time, and level of involvement. Choose ONE.
And Stop Saying He’ll Win.
4. Politics is a number game: voters, electoral votes, gerrymandering, districting. I’ve outlined this in another post but this ties into “it’s not over until it’s over.”
Rail against the electoral college all you want but it’s here for 2020. Nothing at the systemic level, like the electoral college, will change unless we have the right judgeships which can only happen if they are appointed, which takes a steady stream of progressives in the Executive and Congressional branches. Why do you think Mitch McConnell is so focused on judgeships? Voter suppression, gerrymandering, the electoral college have all worked in the GOP favor so they won’t make any changes.
To make any of that happen, we need the votes. For the votes, we need voter turnout. For voter turnout, we have to fight for every vote — at the mass media, social media, mailbox, door knock, phone call levels.
And we have to Stop Saying He’ll Win.
5. The data does not support that Trump is a shoo-in winner. Not only do I firsthand speak to thousands of voters and know it not to be true from my slice of life but national and state polls do not bear this up. By the way, merely three weeks prior to the 2016 election, Trump’s own team told him that he had a 15% chance of winning based on polls. It’s not over until it’s over.
More importantly, we need to go forward with steadfast resolution. What has happened — whether it’s climate change, the environmental policy deregulation, the corruption, the inhumane immigration policies — pick one that most resonates and fight for it.
I don’t believe much of this country is Trumpland. I don’t believe most of this country is seething with racism and predators. I believe any country can bring out its ugly with the right cocktail at the top and we now have that cocktail of hate and vitriol, shaken not stirred. Don’t drink it.
Go into this election year holding your values close and speaking out loud for those values with the confidence of a rich, white man or Lizzo.
Do you want systemic change? You don’t have to do too much else but vote. And there’s proof. Community Change Action, along with three others reached out to infrequent and never-voters in Michigan, Nevada and Florida. What they found was astonishing:
When you add new voices and change the electorate, you can shift what is politically possible. ..This method of deep organizing blows up business-as-usual electoral politics. It threatens the huge paychecks of political consultants and strategists on both sides of the aisle who parachute into communities for elections. The progressive political industry spent $5.7 billion on congressional races alone in 2018. Much of that went to the usual Beltway power brokers who focus on tired attack ads or the vote for so-and-so emails.
“Now is not the time to give up. It’s not the time to be silent. And it’s certainly not the time to quit….we can’t afford your disillusionment, no matter what side of the political aisle you are on….
Do something. Do anything! Truly, anything. Sign up to make calls for a local candidate, or your favorite presidential candidate. Commit to canvassing one day a month. Text five friends asking if they’re registered to vote and helping them figure out how if they’re not.”
PROTEST
Join the millions who have protested in Hong Kong, India, Chile, and other countries who are tired of governments bordering on fascism, fueled off hate, supportive of gender and ethnic violence, denying climate change as our earth burns, and preventing progress into a more inclusive, economically and socially just world.
Today, January 14, 2020, voters will decide who will win a seat to the Pennsylvania Senate in the 48th District. It’s between Republican David Arnold (District Attorney for Lebanon County) and Democrat Michael Schroeder (college history professor and community/environmental activist) when former Republican Sen. Mike Folmer resigned following his arrest for child pornography in September.
But a lot more seats are empty in Congress and real change with the steps necessary to undo the harm caused by the Trump administration as the nation heals and thrives — needs a progressive Congress that supports a progressive President. Here are the people you can vote out of office, who have been Trump enablers no matter the cost down to overlooking racism, sexism, even crime and their Constitutional duties — and who to support instead.
CAMPAIGNS: DONATE, CANVASS, OR CALL
The House
The biennial election for representatives from all 435 Congressional Districts will take place on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party currently controls the U.S. House, where 218 seats are needed for control (when there are no vacancies). We need to keep that lead.
Tedra Cobb (D, NY-21)who has spent the past 30 years in public service jobs is running against the incumbent, Rep. Elise Stefanik, one of the leading GOP defenders of President Donald Trump in the House impeachment inquiry.
Shannon Freshour(D, OH-4) has a solid Twitter game and is running against possibly the most obnoxiously loud member of Congress and sexual abuse enabler, #GymJordan aka Rep. Jim Jordan, founder of the far-right House Freedom Caucus.
The Senate
Democrats need to net three Senate seats — and win back the presidency — in order to control the chamber after Inauguration Day 2021.
M.J. Hegar (D, TX) running in the most flippable Senate seat against Republican Senator John Cornyn. Hegar is a former Air Force helicopter pilot and mom who nearly beat an incumbent Republican House member in the heart of Texas last year. Donate here.
Sara Gideon (D, ME), the Speaker of the House for Maine is running against Sen. Susan Collins, Trump enabler who voted for Kavanaugh and for tax breaks for the wealthiest. Gideon isn’t just against Collins, she’s for progressive policies.
Jamie Harrison (D, SC) running against Trump’s #1 supporter, Sen. Lindsey Graham. Harrison rose from poverty to become a teacher then became the first African American man to become South Carolina Democratic Party chair from 2013 to 2017, and is an associate chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Amy McGrath (D, KY), former Marine fighter pilot and 2018 congressional candidate coming in strong as a contender for the uber-GOP Trump enabler’s top spot, Mitch McConnell aka #MoscowMitch whom Julian Castro rightly described as the leader who “has done as much or more damage than Donald Trump over the years to our democracy” by packing courts with conservative judges while ignoring hundreds of bills languishing in the Senate, playing dirty to prevent a Merrick Garland appointment while rushing through Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, and making obstacles at every step of the way for the Mueller Report and the impeachment trials rather than do his Constitutional duty to investigate a President who may have conspired with foreign powers.
Senator Doug Jones (D, AL) beat Roy Moore, a former Alabama Chief Justice and District Attorney who sided more with sex criminals than the law and was accused by a long list of women of sexual assault, several when they were minors. Even pedophilia didn’t stop it from being a tight race in Trump country. Alabama keeps voting for leaders and policies that keep it as the poorest and one of the most undereducated states in the country. We need to keep Doug Jones.
Mark Kelly (D, AZ)runs against Sen. Martha McSally, appointed after the election to serve part of the late Sen. John McCain’s term. Kelly is a Navy veteran and retired astronaut married to former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot and seriously wounded at a constituent event in 2011.
Cal Cunningham (D, NC) and State Senator Erica D. Smithare running against Sen. Thom Tillis , “a man with the backbone of a squid and zealous supporter of President Definitely No Quid Pro Quo Donald Trump, has the lowest approval ratings of any sitting member of Congress, according to a poll from Morning Consult.” Cunningham is an Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, an environmental services company leader and former legislator who served as Vice Chairman of the Governor’s Crime Commission. Smith currently represents Senate District 3 in her third term.
FAIR & JUST REPRESENTATION
Voting Suppression
Support Fair Fight. Efforts to discourage and disenfranchise voters—in voter registration, ballot access, or counting of votes—have a catastrophic effect on our democracy and our communities. Nowhere was this more clearly seen than in Georgia’s gubernatorial race between Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp, who was the Republican secretary of state in charge of state elections before he beat Abrams to become Georgia governor–in charge of the very elections in which 1.4 million voters were purged, majority black voters. Now Stacey Abrams is taking voter rights protection nationwide through Fair Fight.
Redistricting
Support All on the Line. With the redistricting process less than a year away, All On The Line is already in full swing — especially because 2020 is a census year. Here’s what you need to know about the role that the census plays in redistricting.
→ The census is the foundation for redistricting. Without an accurate count, it will be impossible to create fair maps that truly represent the communities who live there.
→ The census count will determine how many congressional districts each state will have for the next decade. With 435 representatives total, that means states could gain or lose a district based on population changes.
→ The Supreme Court stopped the Trump administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the census, but we expect that map manipulators will try to find new ways to suppress the power of certain communities in an attempt to maintain their own power.
Protests have been ongoing this week after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) denied doctors’ requests to give flu vaccines to detained migrants. Three of the six children who have died under US custody died of the flu in overcrowded, unhygienic detention camps.
Despite the conditions and these deaths and warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), federal authorities prevented doctors from entering the premises to administer flu shots. Six doctors were arrested.
Doctors for Camp Closure, an organization that opposes the detention of migrants and refugees attempting to enter the United States, protested with upwards of 70 people, including physicians, outside the Chula Vista, California, facility Monday.
A History of Negligence by the US Government and CBP
A June report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general that found inhumane, disease-prone conditions at the centers, with immigrants packed in standing-room-only areas with limited access to baths.
In August 2019, as reported by CBS News, doctors associated with Harvard and Johns Hopkins called for an investigation into health care at border facilities months ago in a letter to members of Congress. The letter came in response to the deaths of six migrant children either in government custody or soon after their release.
Later that same month, a report by the CDC detailed at least 931 cases of mumps at CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities . The CDC called for immediate reform of the camps and vaccinations.
“In general, due to the short-term nature of CBP holding and the complexities of operating vaccination programs, neither CBP nor its medical contractors administer vaccinations to those in custody,” a CDC spokesperson said in a statement.
The request was given this week by Doctors for Camp Closures — and denied.
“This is intentional cruelty. People are needlessly suffering and dying. You can’t lock people up in inhumane conditions, watch them get sick, and then refuse them access to medical care,” said Marie DeLuca MD.
At least three of the children died from the flu, according to autopsies. The doctors wrote in their letter that flu deaths “are fairly rare events for children living in the United States.” That’s nine times the mortality rate of the general pediatric population, according to Doctors for Camp Closure.
The three children who have thus far died of the flu are:
May 2019: 16-year-old Carlos Hernandez Vásquez, just a week before what would have been his 17th birthday
Several healthcare providers —supported by Doctors for Camp Closures (D4CC), Families Belong Together (FBT), and Never Again Action, as well as advocates, fellow physicians, and local community members— will continue rallying through this week to demand a meeting with CBP. They hope to discuss the urgent need for immigration officials to end their policy of denying detained migrants access to routine flu vaccinations.
The United Nations has called what the United States has been doing to migrants at the border “a human rights abuse.” Congress has done nothing despite visits to these overcrowded detention centers where malnutrition, sexual abuse, disappearances, and deaths have rampant. The most traumatizing aspect of the process has been family separations where even babies have been separated from their caregivers. Many of these children have disappeared, many more have been abused, and all have been traumatized.
Defendants of these laws say that it is “the law” and the law has been broken by these migrants. That is false. Before getting into the laws, let’s debunk the myths with data.
MYTHS
The biggest problem with our immigration is that our policies and public understanding of immigration is circa 1997 instead of 2019. Consequently, we are ill-prepared to meet the challenges of the current immigration crisis.
MYTH 1 The number of migrants is unprecedented. FALSE.
Border crossings are at their lowest levels in decades, and current research estimates more unauthorized immigration is caused by visa overstays than illegal entry.
Foreign population breakdown 1997 vs 2017:
1n 1997, European descent 17% in 1997 substantially declined to 10.3% in 2017.
In 1997, Asians accounted for 26.1%; today, Asians account for 30%.
In 1997, Central Americans accounted for 6.3%; today, they are at 8.1%
In 1997, South Americans accounted for 5.9% and increased to 7.3%.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
There has not been major growth in the unauthorized population for many years.
MYTH 2: Those damn Mexicans. FALSE
Today there are more Asians than Mexicans living in the United States. Mexican born population has remained steady for over 20 years, between 27-29%. Mexicans are a smaller percentage of the overall U.S. population than they have been for many years.
The Pew Research Center has reported extensively on the undocumented population and estimates that there are approximately 11 million undocumented individuals in the United States. The “Northern Triangle” countries—Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador—have all consistently increased as shares of the undocumented U.S. population. India has driven the growth in the Asian undocumented U.S. population, as the levels from countries like China and Korea have largely remained constant for the past 15 to 20 years.
The growth in Mexicans’ usage of legal visas (evidenced in the growth of H-2A and H-2B visas), coupled with a major decline in Mexican illegal immigration based on total apprehensions from the US Customs and Border Protection, has changed things dramatically at the border compared with the mid-1990s.
MYTH 3 Illegal immigrants are uneducated. FALSE
Currently, almost half of all immigrants in the United States have more than a high school education. A recent Migration Policy Institute study found that between 2011 and 2015, nearly half of all new immigrants were college graduates.
