Mary Kinda Contrary: Episode 6 – The Trump Administration’s Civil and Human Rights Rollbacks of 2019: Will It Ever End?
Mary Lemanski reads and comments on a list, compiled by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, of the Trump Administration’s civil and human rights rollbacks during the third year of his administration. One more year to go in this four part series!
Transcription
Hello, hello, hello. It’s been a while. I’m Mary Lemanski and this is the Mary Kinda Contrary podcast. And, um, I was just looking and it’s been a year and seven months since I put out an episode. Um, and so I thought, what the heck, I’m going to go live. I’m really nervous, but I’m going to go live. Um, I’m not going to play any music or do any kind of fanfare because I really want to get down to business because this is serious.
Our future of our country is at stake. Our civil and human liberties are at stake. And if you go look at my, or listen, I guess, to my past episodes at marykindacontrary. com. You’ll see the last two or the last two episodes were the first two years of, uh, civil and human rights rollbacks during the Trump administration.
I literally read everything, um, that happened in the year in each episode. So, um, today we’re going to be talking about 2019. But I already have episodes on 2018 and 2017. So if you want to check those out, plus a bunch of other, um, stuff in the other, uh, three episodes that were posted so far, but I really don’t want this, um, podcast to be completely about politics.
It’d be great to have just a segment about politics and talk about other stuff. Okay. Um, but right now it just needs to be about politics because Tuesday, um, America, we have an important decision to make. And the reason why I haven’t been putting out episodes is because every time I put out an episode, I get emails and, and weird calls and, and messages and my DMs.
That are there, some of them are scary and, and it’s just, it feels harassing and threatening. And so I feel I was, um, I was watching, I was watching TV the last week, I guess. Um, when, uh, uh, when Eminem got up and spoke, I was like, Um, in Detroit for Kamala Harris and Barack Obama, introducing Barack Obama.
And, and he said, um, you know, I don’t think anyone wants an America where people are worried about retribution and I’m living proof and over the next few days, I’m going to go live as much as possible. Um, and, and for, you know, an hour or so at a time. Um, these next two times this today, it’ll be right now we’ll be talking about, um, the civil and human rights rollbacks during the Trump administration, 2019, and then maybe later today or tomorrow, I will talk about the 2020 rollbacks, but then I’m going to get on here live again at some point before Tuesday and talk about.
What I’ve been through for the past three years, since I talked, since I got up and spoke at a school board meeting and they were a proud voice there. So I’ll tell you what it’s going to be like if Trump becomes president and you get retribution for speaking out against him or against Republicans. And they’re fringe groups.
So, I felt that I needed to come on here and do this as a last, you know, my last stitch ever. This is for me, um, but it’s also for all of you. And, um, okay, so, let’s just get into this. And we’ll talk about, we’ll talk about all of that later. Um, 2019.
Sorry, trying to get a hold of myself. Trying to get centered. One second. Pardon me, I’m gonna blow my nose. I’m not on camera because you’ll probably hear it, but I don’t want you to see it.
Okay, so for those of you listening to this later on, um, after I posted this as a podcast on the networks that regularly carry podcasts, um, uh, just so you know, this is being broadcast live on Facebook. And if you want to hear any of the live, future live broadcasts, Um, just go to facebook. com slash Mary kind is my kind of contrary podcast, I believe
so. Um, okay,
well, let’s get on with it.
2019 on January 3rd, uh, two days after new year’s starting early, the Washington post reported that the Trump administration. is considering rolling back desperate impact regulations that provide anti discrimination protections to people of color, women, and others. So if they want you to, to think that what happened at Madison Square Gardens, um, um, uh, a few days ago was, you know, like not normal.
On the, on January 3rd, 2019, the Washington Post reported that the Trump administration considered, was considering rolling back regulations that provide anti discrimination protections to people of color, women and others. It’s right there. They do, they did it and listen to the other two episodes before this, they did it and they did it.
And they’re doing it in this year and, and I mean 2019 and they’re doing it in 2020 and they’ve been doing it since. On January 4th, the next day, the Guardian reported that the Trump administration has stopped cooperating with and responding to United Nations investigations over potential human rights violations in the, in the United States.
Never did I think that the United Nations would be investigating, wanting to investigate the United States. S, that’s why Trump really doesn’t wanna be in the United Nations. On January 23rd, the Department of Health and Human Services granted a waiver to South Carolina to allow state licensed child welfare agencies to discriminate in accordance with religious beliefs.
What happened at his separation of church and state? On January 25th, the Department of Homeland Security began implementing the migrant protection protocols, also known as the Remain in Mexico policy. Which forces central Americans seeking asylum to return to Mexico for an indefinite amount of time while their claims are processed.
On January 29th, the department of justice reversed its position in a Texas voting rights case saying the state should not need to have its voting, uh, voting changes pre cleared with the federal government. So it can just do whatever it wants. In a federal election, career voting rights lawyers at the department declined to sign the brief.
On January 6th, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, under the direction of Trump appointed director Cathy Craninger, I believe, released its plan to roll back the central protections of the agency’s 2017 payday and car title lending rule.
So, rolling back consumer protections. On February 15th, Trump announced that he would declare a national emergency on the southern border in an attempt to end run the Congress in order to build a harmful and wasteful border wall. Remember this, I mean, there are, there’s rebar, pictures of rebar ladders going over this, these walls and I mean it hurts the environment.
It’s not really helping anything. Did the Great Wall of China keep people out? No. Um, I mean it did for a while, but I mean that was back then when people rode around on horses and didn’t have things that could blow holes in walls and could dig tunnels under walls. Well, maybe they had stuff like that, that back then, but anyway, I digress.
On February 22nd, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a final rule to significantly undermine the Title X family planning program’s ability to properly serve its patients and to provide its hallmark quality care. The rule’s provision will have far reaching implications for all Title X funded programs, the services provided, and And the ability of patients to seek and receive high quality confidential family planning and preventative health care services.
So, when they say they’re not coming for your birth control, they are. On February 25th, the White House issued a statement of administration policy opposing H. R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, which the Leadership Conference in Civil and Human Rights supports. For Um, I’m getting all of this, by the way, I should say, um, from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
I, um, had mentioned this in the previous two episodes, but I should mention it here as well that this information is all coming from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which basically is a watchdog group for Civil and Human Rights. Um, okay. On February 25th, oh, I already said that. On February 26th, the White House issued a statement of administration policy opposing H.
J. Res. 46, a resolution terminating the national emergency on the southern border declared by President Trump, which the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports. On September 25th, the White House issued a statement opposing the Senate’s companion resolution. Um, so Congress basically terminated that national emergency on the southern border that the President declared.
And then he issued a statement opposing the, the House did that and then the, and then the White House, um, issued a statement opposing the Senate’s decision. Companion resolution to the house, which meant that the house and the Senate both thought that the national emergency on the Southern border should be terminated.
All the brown people coming over the border, um, uh, border crossing is a, is a misdemeanor by the way, not a felony. So when Trump and. And his buddies came up with the idea that taking children away from their parents for a misdemeanor crime, which, you know, like shoplifting or light shoplifting, um, to take their children away for a misdemeanor, um, that is now legal precedent in American history, that, that somewhere in American history, uh, we were, um, At a federal level, able to take kids away from their parents for a misdemeanor.
Um, and nobody really thought anything of it, or it didn’t seem like anybody did anything about it for months and months and months. Luckily that has been remedied, but we don’t want to go back. Um, okay, so, where was I? Okay.
On March 5th, the White House issued a statement of administration policy opposing H. R. 1, the For the People Act, which the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports. On March 7th, the Department of Labor issued a proposed revision to the overtime rule, which proposes to raise the salary threshold to an amount of 35, 308.
A far lower than the Obama administration department’s previously finalized rule of 47, 476. Um,
yeah, so definitely not for workers there. On March 11th, the Trump administration released its fiscal year 2020 budget proposal, which requested 8. 6 billion for a southern border wall. Think how many Other useful things we could do with 8. 6 billion dollars as. As as a country, that’s a whole lot of money.
Um, so he, uh, that that budget proposal request 8. 6Billion dollars for the southern border law, put her law, put her. Pretty and slip their, um. Requested and inexplicably and. Irresponsibly low figure for 2020 census operations, so you didn’t want much money going toward the census and finding out what people really, uh, who it makes up America and, you know, their needs and propose deeply troubling cuts to the social safety net, including cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, social security, and snap.
So when he says that. He doesn’t want to take those things away from you. He already tried to with his fiscal year 2020 budget proposal. Luckily, there were enough Democrats to may say it. On March 12th, the department of defense issued guidance for enacting the transgender military ban to begin in 30 days.
So we’re not. We’re, we’re discriminating now against transgender people. On March 25th, the Trump administration said in an appeals court filing that the entire, entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down. That was March 25th, 2019. And you can look all these things up. It’s not like people make these things up and there’s not documents to back this stuff up.
He’s the president of the United States. Everything he did and said was documented. Practically, except those things that happened behind closed doors with Putin, but. On April 11th, the Trump administration ordered all federal agencies to put important policy decisions on hold until they had been reviewed by the White House, making it take even longer for independent regulators to respond to problems like risky lending practices.
Uh, you wonder why the government’s slow, let’s make it slower. On April 12th, Politico reported that the Trump administration will not nominate or re nominate anyone to the 18 member United Nations committee on the elimination of racial discrimination. Didn’t think that was important, I guess. On April 17th, Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a rule eventually published on May 10th, seeking to restrict housing assistance for families with mixed citizenship status.
So, basically, if you, you are American and you have someone in your household. That is not, um. A citizen, you know. Uh, and. I don’t, you can’t be restricted from getting housing assistance. The agency’s own analysis showed that the proposal could lead to 55, 000 children becoming temporarily homeless. Just what we need, 50, 000, 55, 000 homeless children, in addition to the ones that we already have.
On April 19th, the Department of Health and Human Services published a proposal to reverse an Obama era rule. That required the data collection of the sexual orientation and gender identity of youth in foster care along with their foster parents, adoptive parents, or legal guardians. Um, so basically they wanted to collect information on, um, youth that are in foster care, um, whether they are transgender or had, um, their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Um, because a lot of times, you know, transgender kids are kicked out of the house. Gay kids kicked out of the house, um, or abused, and so, um, and so, you know, these things are important because, you know, if there’s, if there’s a pattern, then there is a, maybe if we find a way to disrupt the pattern, then, you know, we can help find a solution to the problem.
So, that’s why we want to investigate all these things and why we need to know these things. Um, I don’t know the, the, the mindset behind wanting to not know these things.
On May 2nd, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a final rule to allow health workers to cite religious or moral objections to deny care to patients, which will substantially harm the health. And well being of many people in America, particularly women and transgender patients.
Um,
so basically that’s the federal government deciding that its health workers can not give you a service, even though you’re a tax paying citizen, because they disagree with your lifestyle.
On May 6th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published a final rule targeting home care workers, who are mostly women of color, designed to stop them from paying union dues and benefits through payroll deduction,
again, attacking workers. On May 6th, the Office of Management and Budget proposed regulatory changes that could result in cuts in federal aid to millions of low income Americans. By changing how inflation is used to calculate the definition of poverty.
So, there is, he’s making fiscal changes to undermine poor people.
On May 20th, the White House issued a statement of administration policy opposing H. R. 15, the Consumers First Act, which the Leadership Conference in Civil and Human Rights supports. So, of course, he would oppose anything putting consumers first. On May 22nd, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed changing the Obama era equal access rule to allow homeless shelters to deny access based on a person’s gender identity.
So, okay, the people, the kids thrown out on the street now can’t go into a shelter either.
On May 24th, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a proposed rule to weaken the non discrimination, let’s weaken all these non discrimination policies and protections.
Um, announced a proposed rule to weaken the non discrimination protections of the Affordable Care Act. The rule, if implemented, would harm millions of people in America by allowing healthcare professionals or providers to deny care to marginalized communities and worsen already existing health disparities.
So we’re not quite, oh, we are almost halfway through the middle, halfway through the year. We still got June. A lot going on. Thank you. Um, on June 3rd, the White House that just to remind everyone, this is the Trump administration in 2019, the 3rd year of his administration. He’d been doing this for 2 years prior to that.
So go listen to the previous episodes on June 6. I’m sorry on June 3rd, the White House issued a statement of administration policy opposing HR 6, the American Dream and Promise Act. Let’s oppose the American dream and promises. Which the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports. Should we look up?
Let’s, let’s, let’s be curious and just look up what H. R. 6, the American Dream and Promises Act was. I’m curious.
Because you can look these things up.
Do your research. Like, for real. Watch YouTube videos. Look up the documents.
So it looks like there was one that came up in 2020. What was the one in 2019?
Oh, of course. Of course, the dreamers. The dreamers. This bill cancels and prohibits removal proceedings against certain aliens and provides such aliens a path toward permanent resident status. Of course he opposed that one. Of course.
People have lived here their whole lives. This is the, like, the only home they really remember. Yeah, we’re, we’re going to kick them out.
Okay. On June 6th, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a final rule that delayed the compliance date for the agency’s 2017 payday and car title lending rule. And there’s consumer protections again. On June 10th, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Kevin acting, I got it. I have to, to emphasize that, that most of the people on Trump’s cabinet were acting, they weren’t actually approved by Congress because they would never would have passed approval.
So he has this little puppet government in there acting. Um, on June 10th, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security. Who wants an acting Secretary of Homeland Security? You want an actual, verified, congressional approved Secretary of Homeland Security.
On June 10th, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Kevin McLean, Announced that, Immigration hardliner Ken Cuccinelli was the new acting director of U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Five months later, the new acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, named Cuccinelli to be the senior official performing the duties of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security.
A federal judge and the Government Accountability Office respectively said that Cuccinelli, Cuccinelli’s appointments were illegal.
The senior official performing the duties of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. Wow. Alright. So, um, just so you know, my, my, My theory is that if Trump does win the election on Tuesday, that the Supreme Court will make Joe Biden’s presidency null and void and all of these things will go back into effect.
That’s just my theory. Um, On June 12th, Trump asserted executive privilege to block congressional access to documents related to the addition of an untested citizenship question to the 2020 census. He didn’t want people to know the racist stuff that was said in the background. On, or the hateful bigoted stuff that was said in the background, probably, for, um, the untested citizenship question on the 2020 census.
On June 21st, it was reported that Trump had directed U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to conduct a mass roundup of migrant families.
No, he’s not like Hitler at all. The following day, the president announced that the raids were delayed. But has continued to threaten them. And guess what? On that first day of dictatorship, ha ha, there’s going to be a lot of raids. On July 1st, oh god, thank god, it’s the second half of the year. Take a break.
There’s no alcohol in this, it’s just caffeine.
Too early in the morning to be drinking. Plus I don’t drink that much anymore. Alrighty.
I’m more of a social tricker. Alright. And when I do, it’s only like one to three drinks, depending on how long the night is. And, uh, I don’t know why I’m going into this talk about alcohol. Because I don’t want you to think I’m a lush because it’s 8. 30 in the morning. 8. 26 AM here.
And I’m drinking soda. Actually, Dr. Pepper, to be exact. Okay. Which isn’t good. I should be drinking like green tea, which I do a lot. Why am I telling you about my drinks? All right. Anyway, on July 1st, the Department of Education rescinded the gainful employment rule that identified higher education programs that routinely left students with unaffordable debt.
The rule had been designed to ensure that students who needed to borrow loans were able to reap the benefits of their investment in education. I mean, if you pay for something, don’t you want to be able to use it and reap the benefits? So, um,
so yeah, he’s attacking, um, now people that are paying back student debt. In case we hadn’t hit that yet this year. On July 3rd, the Department of Housing and Urban Development removed the requirements that applicants for homelessness funding maintain anti discrimination policies and demonstrate efforts to serve LGBT people and their families, which had included in notices of funding availability for several prior years.
So he’s allowing discrimination against homeless LGBT people. Cue people in case the other two things didn’t do enough that he had already done this year. That year, meaning 2019. Um, on July 8th, the State Department created the Commission on Unalienable Rights aimed at providing review of the role of human rights in American foreign policy.
Seven of the appointees to commission have disturbing anti LGBTQ records.
On July 15th, the administration moved to end asylum protections for most Central American immigrants, I mean migrants, deeming anyone who passes through another country ineligible for asylum at the U. S. southern border. So basically you had to fly in and then overstay your visa, then it’s okay. Then it’s okay.
Then you can stay here in America. But if you cross over that border, um, yeah, that, that’s not okay. Did you know that 80 percent of close to 80 percent were like 70, some high 70 percent of, uh, illegal migrants into this country are people that flew in here and overstayed their visa. It’s not. People crossing the border, um, the southern border in particular.
On July 15th, the White House issued a statement of administration policy opposing H. R. 582, the Raise the Wage Act. He doesn’t want you to have higher wages. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports. Which the civil, uh, leadership conference on civil and human rights. Oh, my alarms.
Sorry about that. On July 23rd, the Trump administration published a notice in the federal registration, uh, federal register that expands expedited removals to a wider range of undocumented immigrants. The move threatened same day deportation for anyone who cannot immediately show they have been in the United States continuously for two years without.
a hearing, oversight, review, or appeal. It also threatens to trigger massive racial profiling and roundups for immigrants and citizens in the United States. So basically he expanded, um, the expedited removals of many undocumented immigrants, um, and including telling people that they had to go back right that minute, same day, um, if they couldn’t prove they’d been in the U.
S. for For two years and had been, and there’s no hearing, no oversight, no review, no appeal. Um, usually in this country, if a law has been broken, you have a right to trial and all that sort of thing. It’s in the constitution.
All right.
On July 23rd, the Trump administration proposed a rule that could cut more than 3 million people from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Let’s take food away from poor people. Aren’t we supposed to feed the sick? I mean, feed the sick. Feed the hungry and take care of the sick. And, you know, welcome the stranger, the migrant.
Jesus was a migrant. Jesus was a refugee. He had to cross over in Egypt because Herod wanted to kill him. His family. So they went over into Egypt. They were refugees. So anytime you speak bad about a refugee and you’re Christian, you need to think about Jesus being a refugee and hold your tongue or, you know, think about it.
So anyway, the Trump administration proposed a rule that could cut more than 3 million people from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, or food stamps, after Congress blocked similar efforts into that in 2018. So Congress stopped Trump from cutting people off of, from having food, and then he tried it again the next year.
On July 25th, Attorney General William Barr announced that the federal government will reverse a nearly two decade moratorium to resume the federal death penalty. Yay! Let’s kill people on top of everything else. Let’s be barbarians.
On July 3rd, Bloomberg Law reported that the Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to issue a proposed rule to amend the agency’s desperate, desperate impact regulations that provide anti discrimination protections to people of color, women, and others. If enacted, millions of people in America would be more vulnerable to housing discrimination with fewer tools to challenge it.
The proposal was officially published in the Federal Register on August 19th. Look it up.
On August 7th, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, Raided seven food processing plants in Mississippi and arrested 680 undocumented immigrants, representing the largest workplace raid in more than a decade. The raids, part of this administration’s dangerous anti immigrant agenda, left some children parentless.
and locked out of their homes after school.
Where’s the compassion? Where, why are we paying taxes to be this heartless government? Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. That’s said by the people up, up, up above that are the ones that give you the money so that you can buy those bootstraps. Maybe they need to give you more money so you can buy the bootstraps.
On August 12th, the administration announced its final public charge rule, which makes it more difficult for immigrants who come to the United States legally to stay as permanent residents if they have used or are viewed as likely to use public benefits. So you can’t stay here if you’re poor. Never mind about, you know, the American dream and You know, working hard and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, you can’t stay here if you’re poor.
On August 13th, Bloomberg Law reported that the Department of Justice is urging the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to change its position and urge the U. S. Supreme Court to rule that businesses can discriminate against LGBTQ workers.
That doesn’t sound like we’re all equal. Under the law.
What business is it of yours? What’s somebody’s sexual orientation is? I mean, if they want to outwardly profess it,
aren’t you, are you against freedom of speech? Are you against freedom of expression? What exactly are you against? You think their lifestyle is wrong. Well, then turn the other cheek. Walk away, shake the dust off your, your sandals and walk away.
It’s not for you. And it’s not for you to tell somebody else how to raise their kids. Do you want somebody else telling you how to raise your kids? Because I was raised in a, in a house where 700 club with Pat Robertson every night. And so not only did I have this guilt, but then I had the guilt on top of the guilt.
And I’m going to tell you that it’s fucked up. It’s, it’s messed up. That mentality is not right. You can have a personal connection with the supreme divine being that is, that, that created all of this. Without going after somebody else that the supreme divine being also created. So I just, I, I know all about, I know all about that mindset.
I used to be anti abortion until I needed an abortion.
And it was because my baby had died in me and my body wouldn’t abort it.
Um, If Republicans had their way, some women would just die because their baby died, because that’s what God, God wanted. Well, God didn’t want you to have a heart on either. So no Viagra for you. How do you feel about that? Because that’s the next step. If they can tell us what to do with our bodies, like I said, the legal precedent has been set that they can tell men what to do with their bodies.
And what health things they can do like Viagra. I they haven’t gone after Viagra yet because if they do that they lose all their all of their. All of their men voters. On top of it, but the precedence there, they can do it.
All right, none ranting over.
Where was I on August 12th? The administration announced the. It’s final public charge rule, which makes it more difficult for immigrants. Okay. I already talked about that. All right. On August 13th, Bloomberg law reported that the department of justice is urging the equal employment opportunity commission to change his position and urge the U S Supreme court.
That’s what I was just talking about. Supreme court to rule that businesses can’t discriminate, can’t discriminate against LGBTQ workers.
On August 15th, the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs unveiled a proposal that would allow government contractors to fire LGBTQ employees or workers who are pregnant and unmarried single mothers, um, based on employees religious views.
This is the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. That’s deciding That government, it allow, would allow government contractors to fire employees because they’re gay or because they’re a single mom who’s pregnant. I mean, alright, I mean, you get forced into having this baby and now we’re going to take away your job.
Okay. Because it doesn’t agree with our religious, our religious beliefs and we’re working, but the government, we’re still getting money from the government. We’re a business, we work for, we’re getting contracted by the government and we can lay off this gay person and this, this, this woman that just said she’s pregnant and she’s not married.
They can, they can just do that. Is this the kind of thing we want to go back to? We don’t want to go back to this. We don’t want to. We don’t want to be, it’s so exhausting. All these civil rights groups fighting every day, every day. Something new coming out of the freaking White House. So nothing, something new coming out of the Trump administration every freaking day.
Do we want to go back to that? No, we don’t. We don’t. It was so exhausting. We can’t handle another four years. It will tear this country apart.
On August 16th, the Department of Justice filed a brief with the U. S. Supreme Court arguing that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not prohibit discrimination against transgender people. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions previously reversed an Obama era Department of Justice policy which clarified that transgender workers are protected from discrimination under Title VII.
On August 16th, U. S. Citizenship And immigration services sent letters first reported in the Boston area stating that the agency will no longer consider most deferrals of deportation for people with a serious medical condition, asking people in extreme medical leave to leave the country within 33 days.
You have an extreme medical need and you’re here in the United States to get help. Get out of here. Go back in a month.
On August 19th, the Department of Justice filed a brief with the U. S. Supreme Court arguing that the Trump administration acted lawfully when it rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, or DACA, in September 2017. So, back to discriminating against the DREAMers again.
There’s a theme here. You see, if you go and listen to the other podcasts, you’ll see the theme. Targeting specific groups of people over and over and over again by rescinding stuff that’s already been, people have fought for 200, 400 years for these, these rights and these rules to get, to get passed. And they’re just doing away with them.
This is August 21st, 2019 acting homeland security. Kevin Mc. Alinen announced that the administration was moving forward with new rules aimed at ending the decades, decades old Flores settlement agreement that ensures constitutional protections for children in immigration detention facilities.
Without the protections of Flores, the government can hold immigrant children indefinitely. And in prison like conditions. With no hope for a timely release and no ban date. For appropriate care for traumatized children.
What about cruel and unusual punishment?
On August 23rd, his department of justice filed a brief with the U. S. Supreme court arguing that title seven of the civil rights act of 1964 does not prohibit, prohibit discrimination against gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. Here we are again, attacking LGBTQ people. On August 23rd, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Attorney General Barr promoted six judges to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which sets binding policy for deportation cases.
All six of the judges have high rates of denying immigrants asylum claims, and four of them fill seats that the Trump administration created in 2018.
So, I mean, they’re, they’re attacking immigration. They’re undoing immigration rules and stuff to make it things worse. It seems like on August 28th, the Trump administration announced that some children born to us military members and government employees working overseas wouldn’t automatically be considered us citizens.
You are overseas, um, working for our government, maybe over there. With the potential to give your life for our country and your kids can’t come home. They, they’re not citizens of the United States. That’s Trump.
On August 30th, secretary of education, Betsy DeVoie announced final new borrow, borrower defense regulations. That rolled back protections for student borrowers against predatory recruiting and other school misconduct put in place in 2016. So attacking students now and, and, and the, you know, the lending and the borrowing, their borrowing.
Um,
and, and,
Sorry, I’m reading, um, so they, they roll back protections for student borrowers against predatory recruiting. I’m going to tell you, and I’m not going to say the school, but when I applied for college, there was a school I really, really, really, really, really wanted to go to. It was my top choice. And I had another school tell me that they would give me full tuition paid.
And. Um, this school, I really wanted to, the recruiter called up and he said, I, um, I have an offer for you from the school and it’s a really good offer. But first, before I tell you what it is, I need you to commit to going to the school.
And here I am having to, this is a serious financial decision. And they’re like, you know, I got to hear you say you like us, or I can’t tell you what we’re going to give you. I mean, that, that’s kind of what I would call, you know, predatory recruiting behavior. I really wanted to go to that school. It was my top choice.
I told him that it’s my top choice. Well, I need you to say. Well, I just told you this is my top choice. What more do I need to say? I need you to tell me how much money I’m getting to go to this school so I can make an adult informed decision about this.
Alright. But I didn’t have those words, you know, back then. I was 17 years old. Ha! . I, I didn’t know about boundaries. , I came from , a, a a a, a household that, you know, you’re my, my emotions and, and, and my, my needs were secondary, you know, um, very religious, kind of, you know, everybody else do for everybody else, you know?
Um, so, you know, I didn’t know how to defend myself against that. Luckily, I’m, I’m getting better, but I’ve been working on myself, especially the last few years. But anyway, on September 11th, September 11th, multiple reports confirmed that the Trump administration would not grant temporary protected status to Bahamians impacted by Hurricane Dorian.
The denial of protected status follows the Trump administration’s termination of the temporary protected status designated for several other countries.
So, you know, they’re, they’re impacted by Hurricane Dorian and no, you can’t come here, go find somewhere else to go, even if it’s just temporary, don’t come here. On September 17th, the White House issued a statement of administration. I just want to say something first. We do not have open borders. We have not had open borders since September 17th.
Since Ellis Island closed. When Ellis Island was open, you could come any time of day, whenever, and arrive at the island and wait to be checked in. That’s when we had open borders. We don’t have open borders now. So stop saying we have open borders. Okay. All right. It’s my pet peeve. I freaking hate it. I hate hearing we have open borders.
We don’t have open borders. On September 17th, we wouldn’t have, we wouldn’t have an immigration problem at the border if we had open borders. On September 17th, the White House issued a statement of administration policy opposing H. R. 1423, the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act, the FAIR Act, which the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports.
On September 19th, the Department of Education proposed removing gender based harassment, including harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and nonconformity with gender stereotypes, from the Civil Rights Data Collection’s definition of harassment or bullying on the basis of sex. So they proposed removing gender based harassment, um, from the Civil Rights Data Collection’s definition of harassment or bullying on the basis of sex.
So the government defines certain things a certain way so that they all know legally what they’re talking about and they wanted to take, um, gender based harassment out of the definition of harassment. On September 23rd, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McLean, and he’s a busy man, announced that the administration would soon end a federal immigration policy, commonly referred to as catch and release, that allows migrant families seeking asylum in the United States to remain in this country while their asylum applications are pending.
On September 24th, the Department of Labor released its final overtime rule Which raises the salary threshold to an amount far lower than the Obama Labor Department’s previously finalized rule. So, you know, let’s take money away from middle class. Lower middle class, by the way, 30, 000, 37, 000 a year is not really all that much.
Let’s be honest. I mean, to really like a single person, I think really needs at least 50, 000 to like, feel secure and have something, you know, to put away and be able to live comfortably and not in, well, it depends on where you’re at, I guess, but here in the Midwest. Uh, you know, you could probably do all right, most places for 50, 000 a year, unless you’re being extremely extravagant, you know, but I mean, you’d still be able to save for the future and, you know, be able to live quite all right and have a car and have, you know, everything that you need.
But 30, 30, 000, it’s a little tight.
All right, um. On September 27th, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division filed a statement of interest in defense of a Roman Catholic Archbishop’s decision that led to a firing of a gay married teacher, yet another move by the Trump administration to use religion as a shield against core anti discrimination principles that protect LGBTQ people.
Did Jesus discriminate? Did Jesus say, no, you’re gay, you can’t eat at this table? He hung around with 12 guys. On October 1st, the Department of Agriculture unveiled a new proposal to take away some state flexibility in setting benefit levels under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the administration’s third attempt in the past year to kick people off food stamps.
On October 4th, Trump signed a proclamation to deny visas to legal immigrants. Who are unable to prove they have health care coverage or the ability to pay for it within 30 days of their arrival to the United States. You’re here in the U. S. You got all these things to do and getting health care should be your top priority in the first 30 days.
On October 7th, the Department of Labor released a proposed tip rule that would eliminate the 80 20 rule, which says that when a tipped worker is assigned. Non tip generating side work that takes up more than 20 percent of their time, the employer can’t take the tip credit and must instead pay the worker the full minimum wage.
So, they basically wanted to eliminate that rule that protects workers that work for tips. Um, so that they would have no way of getting tips because they’re not working Non tip generating, they’re working a non tip generating duty, you know, um, a side, side job, whatever, and it’s taking up more than 20 percent of their time, which if you’re, you know, do 40 hour work week, that’s a lot of money.
That’s a lot of money working tables, if you’ve ever worked tables, or, you know. Um, that’s a lot of money. And, uh, so they’re saying that while you’re not getting those tips, now you’re not out there on the floor, getting those tips. You’re not, you’re not, you’re not, you’re getting paid, what, like 3 an hour or whatever, 2 an hour, whatever they pay waiters now.
Um, that’s all you’re getting to do the side work for 20 percent of the time. That is not fair. That’s, that’s, well, that’s what Trump’s Department of Labor proposed in 2019. On October 22nd, a Department of Justice proposal published in the Federal Register proposed to begin collecting DNA samples from immigrants crossing the border, creating an enormous database of asylum seekers and other migrants.
On October 23rd, the White House issued a statement of administration policy. Opposing H. R. 4617, the stopping harmful interference in elections for a lasting democracy act, which the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports. So, the Republicans are sitting there saying, we don’t have fair elections, but then they stopped.
The Trump administration opposed the stopping harmful interference in elections.
I guess they prefer people with guns to like, you know. Stand outside voter, you know, uh, drop boxes.
On October 25th, U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a new policy to narrow who can qualify for waivers of fees associated with applications for green cards for U. S. citizens, work permits, and other benefits. Chipping away at those immigration rights. On October 25th, U. S. Attorney General William Barr, who now is like, Like 180’d on Trump.
Wish he would have 180’d when he was in office. Attorney General William Barr issued two decisions made through his certification power that will limit immigrants options to fight deportation.
On November 1st, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule to undo requirements that its guarantees ensure that guarantees ensure that that is, I’m sorry. A little burp there. On November 1st, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule to undo requirements that its grantees ensure that the federal taxpayer dollars are not used to fund discrimination.
They wanted the Department of Health and Human Services wanted to do undo. Issued a rule to undo requirements that its grantees ensure that that the people that it gives grants to. Federal taxpayer dollars to are not used to fund discrimination. They went to federal tax pot, paying dollars to fund discrimination.
On November 1st, the department of education issued a final regulation permitting religious colleges and universities to ignore accrediting agencies. Let’s just throw our college system into havoc and. I mean, what are they trying to do? They’re like trying to undo everything that the executive branch has done for the past, like 200 years of presidents.
They’re undoing it. Like these rules are built on each other and, and people have been fighting for these rules to be passed and they just go on everybody’s rights gone.
On November 18th, the Social Security Administration published in the Federal Register a proposal to slash Social Security disability benefits, which could cut benefits for up to 2. 6 million people with disabilities.
Believe them
when when people say, no, no, no, we’re not going to cut this. We’re not going to cut that. That’s why are you even talking about it? Why are you even talking about it? You should be making it better. You should be improving it, not trying to cut it.
On December 3rd, the white house issued a statement of administration policy, opposing HR for the voting rights advancement act, which the leadership conference on civil and human rights supports
on December 10th, the equal employment opportunities commission. Revealed a proposed rule that would prohibit the use of official time by union representatives to assist in federal workplace anti discrimination claims.
So, I mean, not only are they, you know, making rules that discriminate against, uh, people, they’re also making it so that you can’t do anything about it either, at least during official time. You’d have to do it on your own time. On December 11th, memos obtained by NPR revealed that Secretary Betsy DeVos overruled career staff in the Department of Education’s Borrower Defense Unit, of course she did, who recommended to the department’s political leadership that defrauded student borrowers deserve no less than full relief from their student debts.
The secretary instead provided only partial or no relief to most such borrowers. Well, it’s because, you know, she has a stake in the game. That’s why that’s really actually what. On December 12th, the Trump administration approved a waiver following South Carolina. I’m sorry. The Trump administration approved a waiver, allowing South Carolina to require most Medicaid recipients to work on December
18th. Oh, thank God. It’s almost the end of the year. Whatever I’ve been going on. Hang on for like over an hour now.
Um, on December 18th, 2019, Attorney General William Byer announced the launch of Operation Relentless Pursuit, which was projected to funnel 71 million dollars to law enforcement in seven cities, Albuquerque, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Memphis, and Milwaukee, under the guise of combating violent crime.
Operation Relentless Pursuit replicates the most devastating aspects of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which flooded America’s streets with cops and dramatically increased incarceration rates, especially in black and brown communities.
On December 27th, HuffPost reported that the Department of the Interior removed eight of sexual orientation from a statement in the agency’s ethics guide regarding workplace discrimination. I mean, it’s just relentless against people that are non binary. On December 30th, the Department of Labor announced a proposed rule setting out new standards for when the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs could issue predetermination notices for preliminary findings of discrimination.
The rule would make it more difficult to identify and remedy potential discrimination in federal contractor and subcontractor workplaces, negatively impacting the right of federal contract workers to be free of unlawful employment discrimination. Basically, it probably is so Trump can appoint people into government that do his bidding.
No, you don’t want somebody fighting against discrimination within the system. Um, just the mere presence there, uh, goes against what they’re trying to do. And so they need these people out of the government so that they can put their own cronies and, and sycophants and, you know, people to do their bidding into government.
positions. So luckily that is the end of 2019. Nothing on New Year’s Eve. Too busy, um, doing whatever presidents do on New Year’s Eve. So, um, I will probably be back maybe this evening and I’ll finish up 2020. In the next podcast episode. So thank you all. If you have tuned into this, I don’t know. Maybe I’m talking to nobody.
But, um, if you are, um, tuning in here on Facebook, the video should be available. Um, after this, or if you are watching this later, you can also find the podcast. It will be up on my website. Um, maybe later today. At Mary kind of contrary. com. So thank you all for joining me and have a good rest of your day.
I’ll be talking to you later. Bye for now.
