Friday, January 28, 2022
BLACKS LOSING MILLIONS ... BLM ... BUMS, LOSERS, MANIPULATORS
BLM's millions unaccounted for after leaders quietly jumped ship
No one appears to have been in charge at Black Lives Matter for months. The address it lists on tax forms is wrong, and the charity's two board members won't say who controls its $60 million bankroll, a Washington Examiner investigation has found.
BLM's shocking lack of transparency surrounding its finances and operations raises major legal and ethical red flags, multiple charity experts told the Washington Examiner.
"Like a giant ghost ship full of treasure drifting in the night with no captain, no discernible crew, and no clear direction," CharityWatch Executive Director Laurie Styron said of BLM.
BLACK LIVES MATTER FOUNDATION RAISED MORE THAN $90M IN 2020
BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors appointed two activists to serve as the group's senior directors following her resignation in May amid scrutiny over her personal finances. But both quietly announced in September that they never took the jobs due to disagreements with BLM. They told the Washington Examiner they don't know who now leads the nation's most influential social justice organization.
Paul Kamenar, counsel for conservative watchdog group the National Legal and Policy Center, said a full audit and investigation into Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the legal entity that represents the national BLM movement, is warranted.
"This is grossly irregular and improper for a nonprofit with $60 million in its coffers," Kamenar said.
BLM previously came under fire from local black activists after the New York Post reported in April that Cullors, then its executive director, had spent $3.2 million on real estate across the United States. The reports followed BLM's disclosure in February 2021 that it closed out 2020 with $60 million in its bank accounts.
BLM denied allegations that Cullors spent BLM funds on her personal properties. However, BLM and other activist organizations under Cullors's control offered contracts to an art company led by the father of her only child, the Daily Caller reported.
Cullors announced in May she was stepping down and that activists Makani Themba and Monifa Bandele would lead the organization as senior executives. But Themba and Bandele revealed in September that they never actually took the job because of disagreements with BLM's "acting Leadership Council."
Both Themba and Bandele told the Washington Examiner they do not know who took over as BLM's top executive after their departure. And neither would say who served on the council.
"We never actually started in the position, so we never received any detailed information," Themba said.
While a charity's finances are ultimately the responsibility of its board of directors, BLM's bylaws explicitly state that its executive director "shall have charge of all funds and securities of the Corporation."
The two remaining BLM board members, Shalomyah Bowers and Raymond Howard, did not return numerous requests for comment asking who has been in charge of BLM and its money since Cullors left the charity in May.
Bowers served as the treasurer for multiple activist organizations run by Cullors, including BLM PAC and a Los Angeles-based jail reform group that paid Cullors $20,000 a month and dropped nearly $26,000 for "meetings" at a luxury Malibu beach resort in 2019.
Bowers declined to comment when reached by phone on Monday.
Howard has spoken openly on Facebook about his work with BLM and his close relationship with Cullors, but he appears to have recently taken steps to conceal his role with the charity.
As recently as last Friday, Howard's LinkedIn profile stated that he is the director of operations for "An International Social Justice Organization." His page was modified after the Washington Examiner contacted Howard for comment and now states he serves as the director of operations for a "Non Profit." A reference to Howard's position as the finance and operations manager of New Impact Partners, a Dayton, Ohio-based consulting firm owned by his sister, was also removed from his LinkedIn profile.
Also as recently as last Friday, a website for New Impact Partners attributed a quote to "Raymond" from "Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation," thanking the consulting firm for its help solving BLM's organizational challenges. The attribution was removed from the website after the Washington Examiner asked Howard how much BLM has paid his sister's firm.
Despite New Impact Partners's apparent efforts to conceal its affiliation with BLM, the consulting firm continues to solicit applications for its "Talent Network," which it says will connect job applicants directly to BLM and other activist organizations.
Longtime charity expert Doug White said it's a red flag that BLM won't answer basic questions about its finances or leadership structure.
"Sixty million dollars is not chump change," White said. "What BLM does is of tremendous social importance. That they won't give an honest or complete or straightforward answer in regards to its leadership is a concern. Not only do they not have an executive director right now, we think, but they also don't want to tell you how the organization is being run."
BLM was not a charity in its own right for much of 2020, a year in which it received a windfall of cash from big corporations and individual donors spurred by the police killing of George Floyd and the nationwide riots that followed. Rather, BLM spent most of the year essentially borrowing the charitable status of two other California-based charities, Thousand Currents and the Tides Foundation, which served as BLM's fiscal sponsors.
SIDE NOTE: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-1 ... ActBlue has a relationship with Thousand Currents ... https://secure.actblue.com is a front organization with a mission for the destruction of the United States of America ... this organization collects money in support of existing candidates and potential candidates to destroy our country! This is a cancer on society which is global in organization and structure. George Soros and family are the organizers and promoters.
But the IRS granted BLM tax-exempt status in December 2020, enabling the group to operate as a charity independent of its former fiscal sponsors. And Thousand Currents reported in its most recent audited financial statements that it transferred $66.5 million directly into BLM's coffers in October 2020.
Cullors signed the asset transfer on behalf of BLM on Sept. 16, 2020, according to a copy of the agreement provided to the Washington Examiner by the California Office of the Attorney General.
BLM published a report last February saying it incurred $8.4 million in operating expenses in 2020 and that it closed out the year with $60 million under its control.
But BLM reported to the IRS in August 2020 that it expected to incur precisely $12,706,366 in "Professional Fees" expenditures during the same calendar year, a figure $4.3 million higher than the top-line annual spending figure it later reported to the public in February.
Kamenar said his watchdog group believes there should be a "full audit" of BLM to clear up the spending discrepancy.
"Bottom line: Lot of questionable financial activity, organizational structure, location of the books, etc. that call for a full investigation," Kamenar said.
Data that should be contained within BLM's Form 990 tax return for 2020, which was due to the IRS in November, would help clear up the organization's $4.3 million spending discrepancy.
On Tuesday, a Washington Examiner reporter attempted to request BLM's 2020 Form 990 in person at the charity's office in Los Angeles, which the group disclosed as the location its books are stored in previous filings submitted to the IRS, only to be told by a security guard that there has never been a BLM office at the location.
An unidentified BLM spokesperson informed the Washington Examiner on Thursday that the group does not currently maintain a "permanent office" and offered to mail a copy of its 990 within two weeks.
Alan Dye, a partner at Webster, Chamberlain & Bean who specializes in nonprofit law, told the Washington Examiner that charities that don't submit their Form 990s on time could face fines from the IRS and some state-level charity oversight agencies.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Styron, the CharityWatch executive director, said Form 990s are matters of public record and that BLM should have completed its 2020 form by now.
"Irrespective of where any person falls on the political spectrum or what their position is on any social justice issue, hopefully, we can all agree that tax-subsidized public charities have an ethical responsibility to be transparent with the public about how they are operating and how the donations they receive are being used," Styron said. "The amount of money involved here is not insignificant."
Black Lives Matter fundraising handled by group with convicted terrorist on its board
The co-founder of Black Lives Matter names a convicted cop killer as one of her heroes, and the BLM national organization is fiscally sponsored through a leftist group whose board of directors includes a convicted terrorist.
Alicia Garza, one of three co-founders of the Black Lives Matter national organization, has repeatedly talked about how convicted cop killer and wanted domestic terrorist Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, is one of her main inspirations. Susan Rosenberg, a member of the board of directors for the left-wing Thousand Currents group, which handles the intake of donations made to Black Lives Matter, is a convicted terrorist who, among other things, was suspected of helping Shakur escape from prison.
Rosenberg, who was listed as the vice chairwoman of the board of directors for Thousand Currents until the webpage was pulled down this week, as first reported by the Capital Research Center, had been a member of the radical leftist revolutionary militant group known as the May 19th Communist Organization, affiliated with the Weather Underground terrorist group and other radicals. She was convicted on weapons and explosives charges and sentenced to 58 years in prison, serving 16 years before being pardoned by President Bill Clinton in January 2001.
Thousand Currents did not return a request for comment.
Black Lives Matter, which is not a 501(c)(3) charitable group, uses an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization — Thousand Currents — as its fiscal sponsor, and so donations made on the Black Lives Matter website through the left-wing ActBlue donation platform go to Thousand Currents, which says it then distributes them to Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter has gained a vast amount of national attention, and funding, since the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd on Memorial Day.
Rosenberg was a radical in the 1960s and 1970s who landed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for a number of suspected crimes and was nabbed in 1984 while unloading from her car and into a New Jersey storage unit hundreds of pounds of dynamite along with weapons, including a sub-machine gun. She was believed to have been part of future politically motivated bombing plots. Rosenberg and her M19 associates were also charged with roles in bombings during the 1980s at the Capitol and the Navy War College, among other targets. They were also tied to a 1981 Brink’s armored car robbery that killed a guard and two police officers.
Rosenberg was believed to have also played a role in Shakur’s escape from prison.
Garza wrote an article for the Feminist Wire in 2014 explaining that “when I use Assata’s powerful demand in my organizing work, I always begin by sharing where it comes from, sharing about Assata’s significance to the Black Liberation Movement, what it’s political purpose and message is, and why it’s important in our context.” Garza has repeatedly tweeted approvingly about Shakur.
Shakur is currently on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists List with a $1 million reward. A member of the revolutionary extremist group called the Black Liberation Army, Shakur is wanted for escaping from prison in New Jersey in 1979 while serving a life sentence for murdering a police officer during a traffic stop. In 1973, Shakur and two accomplices were stopped for a motor vehicle violation on the New Jersey Turnpike by two New Jersey State Police troopers. Shakur was wanted at the time for her role in a number of serious crimes, including bank robbery, so they opened fire on the officers, injuring one trooper and killing Werner Foerster execution-style at point-blank range. She was caught and sentenced but then escaped, making her way to Cuba in 1984.
Rosenberg wrote an autobiography in 2011 titled An American Radical: Political Prisoner in My Own Country, in which she talked about her radical escapades, and since her release has served as the communications director for the American Jewish World Service and had a stint at John Jay School of Criminal Justice. She also joined Thousand Currents.
The website for Black Lives Matter is operated under an umbrella group known as the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, chaired by BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors, a self-described Marxist. Black Lives Matter uses ActBlue to raise money, but claims from some conservative activists such as Candace Owens that Black Lives Matter was just a "shell company" for donating money to the Democratic Party do not appear to be true.
Black Lives Matter appears to make up the majority of the donation work that Thousand Currents does, with the 2019 public audit statement for Thousand Currents showing just over $6.4 million in total financial assets, including holding more than $3.3 million in assets for Black Lives Matter as of last June. The audit shows Thousand Currents released nearly $1.8 million in donations to Black Lives Matter during the year ending on June 30, 2019.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has pulled in huge amounts of cash since Floyd’s death, telling the Associated Press it received more than 1.1 million individual donations as of mid-June, with each donation averaging $33 — meaning the group has brought in more than $33 million in less than a month.
A 2017 report from Black Lives Matter describes its founders — Garza, Cullors, and Opal Tometi — as “three radical Black organizers.”
Cullors said that she and Garza are “trained Marxists” during a 2015 interview with theReal News Network, noting: “We are super versed on, sort of, ideological theories, and I think what we really try to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk.” Cullors told CNN's Jake Tapper in June that "Trump not only needs to not be in office in November, but he should resign now."
The group announced grant funds totaling $12.5 million in recent days.
Black Lives Matter says it was founded in 2013 in response to George Zimmerman being acquitted in the murder trial of Trayvon Martin. President Barack Obama’s Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder found “insufficient evidence” to pursue federal civil rights charges.
“A year later, we set out together on the Black Lives Matter Freedom Ride to Ferguson, in search of justice for Mike Brown and all of those who have been torn apart by state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism,” the Black Lives Matter website declares.
The “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot!” slogan that features prominently at most Black Lives Matter protests is based on a myth also debunked by the Obama-Holder Justice Department, which concluded the shooting of Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson was justified.
Thursday, January 27, 2022
POLITICAL DEFINITION OF A TRUE SCUMBAG ...
POLITICAL JUDGEMENT IS CLOUDED BY IDEOLOGY <--- click to see the definition.
CHUCK GETS A TINGLE UP HIS LEG TO THE RUSSIAN ANTHEM
Schumer’s Senate Campaign ‘Funded’ By Companies ‘Linked’ To Russian Nord Stream 2 Pipeline
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is running for reelection this year. His campaign has received contributions from affiliates of two corporations that have funded Russia’s Nord Stream 2 Pipeline project. Republicans have criticized Schumer’s efforts to block sanctions on the pipeline project.
According to Federal Election Commission public records, the Schumer campaign received contributions from ENGIE North America and BASF Corporation. Corporations with ownership interests in those contributors are part of a consortium created to finance the construction of Nord Stream 2. The pipeline is designed to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany.
Joe Biden has made public statements describing the pipeline project as a “geopolitical threat” to Europe but has waived official sanctions on the project. As Republicans have consistently called for sanctions on the pipeline to be enforced, the White House and Senate Democrats have resisted.
Schumer has acted as the majority leader to block sanctions bills presented by Republicans. This month, he made a deal with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to allow a vote on sanctions to proceed in exchange for Cruz removing blocks on some State Department nominees.
The bill received 55 votes on the floor but was blocked by Senate Democrats who invoked the filibuster rule that requires 60 votes to advance the measure. Democrats used the filibuster rule they had demonized in the fight over their move to federalize elections and said they wanted to have the sanctions as a “last resort” in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The consortium financing Nord Stream 2 has spent millions of dollars on top lobbying firms in its effort to block the sanctions. One of the group’s lobbyists is Vincent Roberti, who made maximum donations to Schumer and several other Senate Democrats in this election cycle. Thomas McLarty is another Nord Stream 2 lobbyist who has donated to the Schumer campaign.
Europe is divided over the pipeline project. Germany supports Nord Stream 2, as it will receive cheap natural gas direct from Russia through the pipeline. Eastern European countries like Ukraine and Poland oppose the project, as it will bypass their countries and cause the loss of substantial revenue from energy transfer fees.
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
UNDER THE BUS ... THERE'S ENOUGH ROOM FOR MORE
Chuck Todd helps Dems face harsh new reality: Poll shows Biden ‘no longer seen as competent’
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President Joe Biden’s approval rating is now further in the basement that the president was while campaigning for office and he seems to be losing some of his biggest supporters, aka the media.
MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd cited a new NBC News Poll to say that Biden‘s presidency is in need of “a reset because he’s lost his identity a bit.”
“He’s no longer seen as competent and effective, he’s no longer seen as a good commander in chief or — perhaps most damaging — as easygoing and likable,” Todd said. “In fact, just 5 percent of adults say Mr. Biden has performed better than expected as president — one of the many lowest, firsts and fewests in our poll.”
Casting an eye on the midterms, Todd said Biden’s approval rating spells bad news for the Democratic Party.
“If you look at history, history shows that kind of presidential approval rating leads to a shellacking for the party in power,” he said.
This being the first of three times he uses the term “shellacking.” As for the mood of the nation, Todd said the polling shows that 72 percent of respondents believe the “nation is on the wrong track.” He stressed that this is the second poll in a row where “we’ve been over 70%.”
“This is only the third time in our poll’s history over 30 years where we’ve had two tracks that off,” he explained. “That again would put you in shellacking territory for the party in power.”
After pointing out that the poll results show a “dead heat” over which party should control Congress, Todd again expressed a dismal outlook for Democrats.
“As you can see, two of our three most important indexes is sitting in shellacking territory right now for the Democrats. This is a dangerous place for the party and the president to be at the one-year mark of this presidency.”
Various clips of Georgia voters commenting on the current state of affairs is played, with one woman saying “The whole world is just — it’s a mess.”
Others voice discontent with all the division and polarization in America.
“I wish we could just shut up and, like, agree and listen to each other,” on man says.
“Asked to describe America in their own words in our NBC News poll, voters used the words ‘divided,’ ‘negative,’ ‘lost,’ ‘bad’ and ‘downhill,’” Todd said in a voice over.
A clip of Biden essentially blaming it all on the COVID-19 pandemic is then played, and saying he does not believe what the polls are saying — yes, on NBC.
“President Biden is walking a tightrope. In addition to flagging enthusiasm in the base, he faces eroding support among independents,” Todd said, going on to report that the economy is a top issue, with one voter expressing concern over inflation and supply chain issues that have been plaguing the country.
“Republicans have a 33-point advantage, driven by gains among independents,” Todd added. “While job creation is up and the unemployment rate is down, 61% say their family income is falling behind the cost of living.”
“It’s almost $400 just to go to the grocery store for three people. I mean, that’s insane,” a female voter stated.
Todd concluded, “70% say America has become so polarized that the federal government can no longer solve the major issues facing this country. That is up a whopping 34 points from a decade ago. Just 24% say Biden has done a good job uniting the country.”
Monday, January 24, 2022
RED-HANDED: HOW AMERICAN ELITES PLAY LET'S MAKE A DEAL
Schweizer: Biden Family Received ‘Some $31 Million’ from Individuals Linked to ‘Highest Levels of Chinese Intelligence’
Peter Schweizer on Life, Liberty and Levin: "the Biden family, while he was vice president and continuing when he became president, received some $31 million from Chinese individuals who we're linked to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence" Red-Handed . <--- video is here!
Breitbart News senior contributor Peter Schweizer on Sunday revealed how the Biden family have profited from business with individuals “linked to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence.”
Schweizer, the author of Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win, said Biden’s son Hunter, while the elder Biden was serving as both vice president and president, was engaged in deals with individuals tied to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence. He called the Biden family’s business dealings “unprecedented.”
“One of the most startling things we uncovered is the simple fact that the Biden family, while he was vice president of the United States and continuing when he became president, received some $31 million from Chinese individuals who are linked to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence,” Schweizer outlined on Fox News Channel’s Life, Liberty & Levin.
He continued, “And these deals, which we lay out in the book, were carried out by a couple of individuals. One is a guy named Che Feng. Hunter Biden, in the Hunter Biden emails, refers to him as the Super Chairman. That’s kind of his nickname for him, and he says in one email, ‘I don’t believe in the lottery anymore, but I believe in the Super Chairman.'”
“His business partner was the vice minister at the ministry for state security,” Schweizer added. “He was in charge of, among other things, recruiting foreign nationals to spy for China. He was the head of something called the Number Eight Bureau. It doesn’t get any higher than that. These are the sorts of individuals that were striking deals with Hunter Biden. In this particular case, Che Feng happened to help a $20 million deal be secured. Another individual that helped arrange that deal is a guy named Mr. Zhao. Mr. Zhao helped with that $20 million deal. He also sent $5 million to Hunter Biden, and he sent that money from a very interesting business called Harvest Global.”
According to Schweizer, Jiao’s business partner is “the daughter of the former head of the ministry of state security.”
“This is the guy who runs the entire spy apparatus for China,” Schweizer emphasized. “Again, it does not get any higher than that.”
“And for the life of me, Mark, this is unprecedented,” he added. “I don’t know of a time in American history where the American first family has had this kind of a financial bond with a foreign intelligence service, particularly a foreign intelligence service that wants to defeat the United States in global competition.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
Sunday, January 23, 2022
THE THREE BLIND MICE ... BIDEN, HARRIS AND BLINKEN
US rejects calls to immediately sanction Russia over Ukraine
Amid fears of Russian invasion, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says imposing sanctions now would remove their deterrent effect.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has rebuffed calls to immediately impose economic sanctions on Russia, saying that doing so would undercut the West’s ability to deter potential Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Russia’s massing of troops near its border with Ukraine has fuelled growing concern in Western countries that it is planning an invasion. If Russia does make an incursion, the West has threatened sanctions with profound economic effects. Moscow has said it has no plans to invade.
“When it comes to sanctions, the purpose of those sanctions is to deter Russian aggression. And so if they are triggered now, you lose the deterrent effect,” Blinken told CNN in an interview on Sunday.
Blinken said if a “single additional Russian force goes into Ukraine in an aggressive” manner, that would trigger a significant response.
Later on Sunday, the State Department ordered the departure of eligible family members of staff from its embassy in Ukraine and said all citizens should consider leaving “due to the continued threat of Russian military action”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told The Washington Post last week he supported imposing sanctions now, a view endorsed by Republican lawmakers on Sunday.
“We need to act now. When it comes to pushing back against Russia, we need to show strength and not be in a position of … appeasement,” Republican Senator Joni Ernst, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told ABC News.
Democratic Senator Chris Coons, an ally of US President Joe Biden, argued for passing bipartisan US legislation to “show resolve and determination and apply some sanctions now”, but said it was best to keep the strongest sanctions in reserve.
“The very strongest sanctions, the sorts of sanctions that we use to bring Iran to the table, is something that we should hold out as a deterrent,” he told ABC News.
Asked if US hands were tied over Ukraine because of a need for Russian support in talks on reining in Iran’s nuclear programme, Blinken told CBS News: “Not in the least.”
On Saturday, the first shipment of the US’s $200m security support package for Ukraine arrived in Kyiv, the US embassy said.
Russia rejects UK accusations
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday rejected a British claim that the Kremlin is seeking to replace Ukraine’s government with a pro-Moscow administration under former Ukrainian legislator Yevheniy Murayev.
Murayevm who is the leader of a small party that has no seats in parliament, denied the claim.
“This morning I already read in all the news publications this conspiracy theory: absolutely unproven, absolutely unfounded,” Murayev said on a video call.
He denied having any contact with Russian intelligence officers and dismissed the idea that he could be in league with the Kremlin as “stupid”, given he was placed under Russian sanctions in 2018.
Britain’s Foreign Office on Saturday also named several other Ukrainian politicians it said had links with Russian intelligence services.
Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Moscow, said the UK claims were “aimed at trying to provoke tensions and escalate the situation with Kyiv”.
“The Kremlin has said that these accusations are absolutely false and that their main goal at spreading this disinformation, as they call it, is to show yet again that these NATO countries are headed by ‘Anglo-Saxons’, who are trying to incite further tensions and increase the disputes between this country and Ukraine,” she added.
TENSIONS, YOU WANT TENSIONS ... 2024
ELL BURDEN TO FALL ON EDUCATION BUDGET SUPPORTED BY ...
Biden Has Taken Nearly 300 Executive Actions on Immigration in His First Year, Outpacing Trump
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s administration is being criticized across the political spectrum for moving too slowly on immigration. Immigrant-rights activists accuse the president of delay in unraveling hard-line actions taken during Donald Trump’s presidency and conservatives are critical of what they see as inaction to rising flows at the U.S.-Mexico border. Yet as Biden reaches his first anniversary in the White House, a new Migration Policy Institute (MPI) analysis finds that he has outpaced his predecessor in the number of executive actions taken during his first year in office, making significant change in the areas of humanitarian protection, interior and border enforcement and legal immigration.
During his first 364 days as president, Biden took 296 executive actions on immigration—as compared to 86 during Trump's first year and 472 during the entire Trump presidency, analysts Muzaffar Chishti and Jessica Bolter write in a new article for MPI’s online journal, the Migration Information Source. Of Biden’s 296 immigration actions, 89 have reversed or started to undo Trump policies, making clear the administration is doing more than unraveling his predecessor’s policies.
The Biden administration’s actions cover a wide range of issues—greatly narrowing the number of unauthorized immigrants vulnerable to arrest, detention and removal; lifting some barriers to U.S. entry and to accessing immigration benefits; and raising the refugee resettlement ceiling to 125,000.
The administration also has acted to protect as many as 1 million noncitizens from deportation and give them eligibility to apply for a work permit by expanding Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nationals from Venezuela and Myanmar who are already in the United States; extending TPS designations that Trump sought to terminate for other nationalities but was blocked by the courts from carrying out; and by allowing certain victims of crime who are petitioning for a U visa to receive deferred action while awaiting their visa adjudication.
Still, chaotic responses to high levels of migration at the southern border and lack of progress on two key Biden campaign promises—legalization for the country’s unauthorized immigrant population and rebuilding a border asylum system largely dismantled during the prior administration—have fueled public perception that the administration has done little on immigration.
“While most attention has focused on these unmet expectations, there can be no doubt that through large and small-bore executive actions alike the administration has advanced or changed policies in ways that have significant impact on humanitarian protection, immigration enforcement and legal immigration, touching the lives of large numbers of immigrants,” Chishti and Bolter conclude.
Read the article here: www.migrationpolicy.org/article/biden-one-year-mark.
And to sign up for monthly U.S. immigration policy updates in the Migration Information Source, click here.
Thursday, January 20, 2022
PANDEMIC IS DECLARED OVER AND UNDER CONTROL-MODE
Europe considers new COVID-19 strategy: Accepting the virus
MADRID (AP) — When the coronavirus pandemic was first declared, Spaniards were ordered to stay home for more than three months. For weeks, they were not allowed outside even for exercise. Children were banned from playgrounds, and the economy virtually stopped.
But officials credited the draconian measures with preventing a full collapse of the health system. Lives were saved, they argued.
Now, almost two years later, Spain is preparing to adopt a different COVID-19 playbook. With one of Europe’s highest vaccination rates and its most pandemic-battered economies, the government is laying the groundwork to treat the next infection surge not as an emergency but an illness that is here to stay. Similar steps are under consideration in neighboring Portugal and in Britain.
The idea is to move from crisis mode to control mode, approaching the virus in much the same way countries deal with flu or measles. That means accepting that infections will occur and providing extra care for at-risk people and patients with complications.
Spain’s center-left prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, wants the European Union to consider similar changes now that the surge of the omicron variant has shown that the disease is becoming less lethal.
“What we are saying is that in the next few months and years, we are going to have to think, without hesitancy and according to what science tells us, how to manage the pandemic with different parameters,” he said Monday.
Sánchez said the changes should not happen before the omicron surge is over, but officials need to start shaping the post-pandemic world now: “We are doing our homework, anticipating scenarios.”
The World Health Organization has said that it’s too early to consider any immediate shift. The organization does not have clearly defined criteria for declaring COVID-19 an endemic disease, but its experts have previously said that it will happen when the virus is more predictable and there are no sustained outbreaks.
“It’s somewhat a subjective judgment because it’s not just about the number of cases. It’s about severity, and it’s about impact,” said Dr. Michael Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies chief.
Speaking at a World Economic Forum panel on Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious diseases doctor in the U.S., said COVID-19 could not be considered endemic until it drops to “a level that it doesn’t disrupt society.”
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has advised countries to transition to more routine handling of COVID-19 after the acute phase of the pandemic is over. The agency said in a statement that more EU states in addition to Spain will want to adopt “a more long-term, sustainable surveillance approach.”
Just over 80% of Spain’s population has received two vaccine doses, and authorities are focused on boosting the immunity of adults with third doses.
Vaccine-acquired immunity, coupled with widespread infection, offers a chance to concentrate prevention efforts, testing and illness-tracking resources on moderate- to high-risk groups, said Dr. Salvador Trenche, head of the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine, which has led the call for a new endemic response.
COVID-19 “must be treated like the rest of illnesses,” Trenche told The Associated Press, adding that “normalized attention” by health professionals would help reduce delays in treatment of problems not related to the coronavirus.
The public also needs to come to terms with the idea that some deaths from COVID-19 ”will be inevitable,” Tranche said.
“We can’t do on the sixth wave what we were doing on the first one: The model needs to change if we want to achieve different results,” he said.
The Spanish Health Ministry said it was too early to share any blueprints being drafted by its experts and advisers, but the agency confirmed that one proposal is to follow an existing model of “sentinel surveillance” currently used in the EU for monitoring flu.
The strategy has been nicknamed “flu-ization” of COVID-19 by Spanish media, although officials say that the systems for influenza will need to be adapted significantly to the coronavirus.
For now, the discussion about moving to an endemic approach is limited to wealthy nations that can afford to speak about the worst of the pandemic in the past tense. Their access to vaccines and robust public health systems are the envy of the developing world.
It’s also not clear how an endemic strategy would coexist with the “zero-Covid” approach adopted by China and other Asian countries, and how would that affect international travel.
Many countries overwhelmed by the record number of omicron cases are already giving up on massive testing and cutting quarantine times, especially for workers who show no more than cold-like symptoms. Since the beginning of the year, classes in Spanish schools stop only if major outbreaks occur, not with the first reported case as they used to.
In Portugal, with one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa declared in a New Year’s speech that the country had “moved into an endemic phase.” But the debate over specific measures petered out as the spread soon accelerated to record levels — almost 44,000 new cases in 24 hours reported Tuesday.
However, hospital admissions and deaths in the vaccinated world are proportionally much lower than in previous surges.
In the United Kingdom, mask-wearing in public places and COVID-19 passports will be dropped on Jan. 26, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Wednesday saying that the latest wave had “peaked nationally.”
The requirement for infected people to isolate for five full days remains in place, but Johnson said he will seek to scrap it in coming weeks if the virus data continues to improve. Official statistics put at 95% the share of the British population that has developed antibodies against COVID-19 either from infection or vaccination.
“As COVID becomes endemic, we will need to replace legal requirements with advice and guidance, urging people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others,” Johnson said.
For some other European governments, the idea of normalizing COVID-19 is at odds with their efforts to boost vaccination among reluctant groups.
In Germany, where less than 73% of the population has received two doses and infection rates are hitting new records almost daily, comparisons to Spain or any other country are being rejected.
“We still have too many unvaccinated people, particularly among our older citizens,” Health Ministry spokesman Andreas Deffner said Monday.
Italy is extending its vaccination mandate to all citizens age 50 or older and imposing fines of up to 1,500 euros for unvaccinated people who show up at work. Italians are also required to be fully vaccinated to access public transportation, planes, gyms, hotels and trade fairs.
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Associated Press writers Maria Cheng, Danica Kirka and Sylvia Hui in London, Raf Casert in Brussels, Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
WHEN YOUR REACH EXCEEDS YOUR GRASP
California’s COVID gun store shutdowns ruled illegal
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Two California counties violated the Constitution’s right to keep and bear arms when they shut down gun and ammunition stores in 2020 as nonessential businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
Officials in Los Angeles and Ventura counties had separately won lower court decisions saying gun stores were not exempt from broader shutdown orders aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus early in the pandemic.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected both lower court rulings.
The Second Amendment “means nothing if the government can prohibit all persons from acquiring any firearm or ammunition,” Judge Lawrence VanDyke wrote. “But that’s what happened in this case.”
Because buyers can obtain guns only by personally going to gun stores in California, Ventura County’s 48-day closure of gun shops, ammunition shops and firing ranges “wholly prevented law-abiding citizens in the County from realizing their right to keep and bear arms,” he wrote.
This, he noted, while bike shops were among those allowed to remain open as essential businesses. The panel adopted the same reasoning in the Los Angeles County case, though the closure there was for 11 days.
The decision holds that governments “cannot use a crisis to trample on the Constitutional rights of citizens,” said Michael Jean, director of the National Rifle Association’s Office of Litigation Counsel that sued in the Los Angeles County case. It also sued Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties over their restrictions in Northern California, but the last three were dismissed from the lawsuit when they repealed their orders.
Similar restrictions were imposed in 10 other states, according to the Firearms Policy Coalition, another gun owners’ rights groups that sued: Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina and Virginia.
Three gun-owner rights groups and several individuals and businesses had sought to overturn the lower court rulings in California.
Ventura County “believes the case was correctly decided at the District Court level and is disappointed with the three-judge panel’s decision,” county spokeswoman Ashley Bautista said in an email. Officials are reviewing the decision and “evaluating our options and next steps.”
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, named plaintiffs in the case, did not immediately comment.
Losing parties can generally ask the full 9th Circuit to review the ruling by the three judges, or petition the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation’s high court has been deemed more sympathetic to gun owners in recent years.
Firearms Policy Coalition vice president of programs Adam Kraut said in a statement that the cases resulted “when authoritarian governments used COVID as an excuse to attack Second Amendment rights.”
The 9th Circuit opinions “confirm our claims that the COVID closures of gun stores and firing ranges violated the Second Amendment rights of Californians,” he said.