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Iraqi National Who’d Lived Whole Life in US Dies Shortly After Being Deported to Iraq

by | Aug 8, 2019 |

CNN: An Iraqi national who had lived in the US since he was an infant died shortly after being deported to Iraq as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Jimmy Aldaoud, 41, died from complications of diabetes, his attorney Edward Bajoka told CNN. Aldaoud, who had a long criminal record, was deported in early June to Iraq, where he had no family or contacts and did not speak the language. His body was found Tuesday at an apartment he shared with another Iraqi American deportee.
“He was not able to get insulin in Iraq. That was essentially the cause of his death,” Bajoka said. “This death was completely preventable. It did not have to happen. The death has been devastating to Jimmy’s family and to the community.”

Cop Nation

by | Aug 8, 2019 |

The government plan to turn us all into snitches.

Whistleblowers help government collect billions in unpaid taxes

WASHINGTON — Whistleblowers who helped the federal government collect $1.4 billion in unpaid taxes last year reaped a record $312 million in reward money thanks to a new law meant encourage tipsters to step forward. And the payouts could go even higher in the years ahead.

For the first time ever, whistleblowers have been granted legal protection against retaliation under a new law that went into effect in July. And the IRS is now required to notify them about the status of their claims no later than 60 days after a status change or upon written request.

The new rules are just the latest in a series of laws meant to encourage whistleblowers to step forward. The record payout, for instance, occurred after the government in 2018 made the formula for determining rewards more generous if the IRS recouped back taxes from delinquent individuals or companies.

The State of the American Debt Slaves, Q2 2019

by | Aug 8, 2019 |

Wolf Richter at Wolf Street.

Consumer credit – auto loans, student loans, and revolving credit such as credit card balances and personal loans, but not housing-related debt such as mortgages and HELOCs – grew 5.4%, or by $208 billion, in the second quarter compared to a year ago, to a new record of $4.06 trillion.

The student loan ponzi scheme.

But that surge in student loan balances is not because there are more students enrolled. On the contrary: According to the latest data available from the National Center for Education Statistics, enrollment fell by 7% between 2010 and 2017, from 18.1 million students to 16.8 million students.

So who got this $1.6 trillion that students now owe and that the taxpayer guarantees? Students are just the conduit for this money. Who ends up with it? Universities; Apple and other companies, such as textbook publishers, that focus on selling their goods and services to students; other participants in the economy such as grocery stores and concert venues; and importantly, investors in a booming asset class called “student housing.” They are the recipients of these taxpayer guaranteed funds. And every dime of this debt contributes to the economy as measured by GDP – on the time-honored principle of Apocalypse not now.

This is also how the Military Industrial Complex operates.  Tax dollars are funneled to other countries via aid then the money is used by that country to purchase military hardware.  This also adds to GDP.

Venezuelan Sanctions are a Bad Idea

by | Aug 7, 2019 |

The Trump administration recently enacted sanctions against Venezuela, citing human rights abuses among its justifications. But if violations of human rights are a legitimate concern for the administration, then pursuing economic sanctions is bad policy.

Research shows that such sanctions not only fail to achieve their stated goals seventy to eighty percent of the time, but also result in greater poverty and widespread malnutrition and starvation.

If preserving and improving the lives of the oppressed is an outcome for which we’re shooting, well, this ain’t it, chief. Instead, we should start developing solid trade relationships with Venezuela. After all, aside from enriching both countries, more economic interaction leads to fewer wars.

(H/T Jason Ditz)

100-mile Constitution Free Border Zone

by | Aug 7, 2019 |

Patrick Eddington at Just Security writes that Senators are trying to get the border security zone reduced from 100 miles to 25 miles.

The Border Zone Reasonableness Restoration Act of 2019 (S. 2180, offered by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and H.R. 3853, offered by Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT)) would reduce the “border zone” from 100 miles to 25 miles into the United States from the physical border, within which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may make vehicle stops and searches, and from 25 miles to 10 miles for DHS access to private property.

Citylab has mapped the border zone.

The border zone is home to 65.3 percent of the entire U.S. population, and around 75 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population, according to a CityLab analysis based on data from location intelligence company ESRI. This zone, which hugs the entire edge of the United States and runs 100 air miles inside, includes some of the densest cities—New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. It also includes all of Michigan and Florida, and half of Ohio and Pennsylvania, 

The chance of the Leahy Bill being passed in the Republican lead Senate are not good.  So far the bill is a “democrat-only” affair and it is unlikely to attract many Republicans in the current anti-immigration atmosphere.  The bill is also not without it’s problems.

I do worry, however, about the precedent being set by the mere introduction of a bill that would, if enacted, create a statutorily-sanctioned slice of America where you can be stopped, asked to prove your citizenship, and possibly be detained or even assaulted and held by federal agents for refusing to answer their questions.

The larger problem underlying the Leahy-Welch approach is the idea of permitting any geographic zone to exist—in statute—that allows fundamental constitutional rights to be suspended in the name of border security.

Patrick used a Freedom of Information request to obtain an internal Custom and Border Patrol document that states that “refusal to comply is not illegal”.  However, all a Border Patrol Agent has to do is have “concerns” about whether a motorist and/or passenger are legally present in the USA to pull them over for a “secondary inspection”.

Just watch this video from 2017 of what happened when San Diego mother and middle school teacher Shane Parmely refused to answer Border Patrol questions.  Note this occurred 30 miles from the border.

As John Whitehead states:

In this authoritarian reshaping of America, you’d better watch where you roam and ramble, because you could find yourself wandering into the government’s ever-expanding, Constitution-free zone where freedom is off-limits and government agents have all the power and “we the people” have none.

Montana Man Attacks Little Boy for ‘Disrespecting the National Anthem’

by | Aug 6, 2019 |

Don’t you upset my little feelings during government’s special song, boy! Or else!:

A Montana man allegedly assaulted a 13-year-old boy who he believed had disrespected the American national anthem at a county fair in the state. Curt James Brockway, 39, of Superior, is accused of assaulting the boy at the Mineral County Fair and Rodeo at around 11 p.m. on Saturday.

“There was a little boy lying on the ground,” Taylor Hennick, who was as the rodeo, told Missoulian. “He was bleeding out of his ears, seizing on the ground, just not coherent.”

According to KPAX, witnesses saw a man pick up a boy and throw him to the ground. Brockway reportedly tried to justify his actions to nearby fairgoers. Hennick told Missoulian: “He said [the boy] was disrespecting the national anthem so he had every right to do that.”

The unnamed boy’s parents said his ears bled for six hours after the incident and that his skull was fractured. He was taken by air ambulance to Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital in Spokane.

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