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4/28/2019 0 Comments

It's Mueller Time: April 10-28 2019

Hello, Teen Resisters! There has been a lot going on. Let's all take a deep breath and try to cover it all.
It's unfortunately been a week plagued with violence and hatred. We're taking a moment to remember the 253 people who were killed in Sri Lanka in the terrorist attacks on Easter Sunday. The attacks were carried out in churches and hotels across the country. Hate-based terrorism is a gut-punch to everything we believe in, and we wanted to acknowledge the attacks before launching into our more US-based coverage.

What Went Down:

The Release of the Mueller Report: On Thursday April 18th, the Justice Department released a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 2 year, 400-page long report investigating possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, as well as the Trump campaign's involvement in such interference and obstruction of justice in relation to the Special Counsel's investigation. Three weeks prior, Attorney General William Barr released a 4 page summary stating that “the report identifies no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive conduct.” But as many predicted, Mueller’s findings on obstruction of justice are more nuanced than Barr said. In the end, Mueller did not reach a conclusion on whether or not criminal acts. He writes that Trump’s behavior “presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred.” Of these “difficult issues” investigated in the report are Trump's repeated attempts to commit possible obstruction of justice but failing to do so because the people in office around him would not carry out the orders. The report concluded that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia during the election, but stops short of exonerating the administration completely because of Trump's disdain for the investigation ["When he learned of Mr. Mueller’s appointment, he slumped in his chair and said, 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.'" (NY Times)]. Although Mueller found no concrete evidence of the Trump campaign participating in coordination with the Russian government, the report reveals many instances where suspicious actions occurred and valid reasons to investigate. Since the report has come out, people have been taking it in different ways. We at Teens Resist are glad to hear that the campaign did not (by Mueller's account) collude with Russia during the elections. We are also deeply concerned by the behavior displayed by the administration over the course of this investigation, and regardless of their actions' criminality, we find the corruption and shadiness displayed to be disgraceful. The best thing to do now? Stay informed.

Actions and further reading:

If you’re interested, you can read the full report here. For a slightly shorter read, the New York Times compiled a list of key annotated excerpts here. For an even shorter overview, here’s a list of seven key points from the report.
Stay tuned for the 14 spinoff cases that Mueller mentioned in his report.

More reactions and responses to the report are constantly coming out. You can read more about a recent development here.

The Burning of Black Churches in Louisiana: Three historically Black churches have burned less than two weeks apart in late March/early April in the St. Landry Parish of Louisiana. The three churches in the heart of Cajun and Creole country have been spiritual homes for generations of Black families that have existed for more than a century. The churches were fortunately empty when the fires occurred. A suspect was charged and arrested for hate crimes and arson but pleaded not guilty despite cellphone records and photographic evidence. New developments have suggested that he has ties to neo-Nazi groups.
Historically, Southern Black churches have been the targets of numerous racist attacks of arson, bombing and armed assault. In 2006, there was a string of arson at various Alabama churches. In 2015 in South Carolina, a white nationalist shot and killed nine people at a Bible study.

What you Can Do:

Go Fund Me (no longer accepting donations, as it far surpassed its goal):

https://www.gofundme.com/f/church-fires-st-landry-parishmacedonia-ministry

For those still wishing to donate, mail here:
Seventh District Baptist Association
c/o Ruth Jack, Finance Secretary
P O Box 3921
Lafayette, LA 70502

Speak out against the deep-seeded hatreds that have been so dangerously and violently rising. The Trump admin is certainly not helping defeat the scourge of hatred, and has done nothing concrete to stop it. We'll update you as soon as there is something to push for. Notably, a few weeks ago, there was a hearing on the rise of white nationalism that quickly dissolved into partisan agument. Learn about it here.

Antisemitic Shooting in California: On Saturday, April 27th, a young white nationalist terrorist entered the Shabbat morning services of a synagogue in Poway, California and fired shots, killing one woman, Lori Kaye, and leaving three people wounded. The shooter had previously published an antisemitic manifesto echoing classic anti-Semitic white nationalist ideology. The service being held was for the last day of Passover, one of the most important holidays in a Jewish year. In a disturbing twist, the attack took place exactly six months after eleven Jews were murdered in Pittsburgh during Shabbat. The Rabbi continued his sermon and called for unity and peace even after being shot. The attack follows a dangerous pattern of rising antisemitism.

What You Can Do:

Many who have studied antisemitism and its history are not surprised that it is rising in this moment. Throughout history, in moments of social and political turmoil, Jews have come under attack. It's important to understand how antisemitism functions, especially within the context of modern white nationalism, in order to defeat it and ensure it takes no more lives than it already has.
Here are some must-reads for understanding antisemitism:
- Eric Ward's "Skin in the Game: How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism" is an absolutely mandatory read for anyone looking to understand the threat of the white nationalist movement.
- Yotam Marom's "Toward the Next Jewish Rebellion" is an article that discusses the role of Jews and antisemitism in our own movements. While it is an opinion piece, and we don't take position on everything he writes about, it is a valuable tool for understanding antisemitism.
As we know, the rampancy of hateful gun violence in this country is proof that guns weaponize deep hatred. We must disarm hate. Go to our Index by Issues page to see all our coverage of gun reform.

Fires at Notre Dame and Al-Aqsa Mosque: Last week, two historic and significant monuments, the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris and the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, were ravaged by fires that damaged relatively consequential portions of both landmarks. While the causes of both fires are still under speculation, authorities believe that each case involved negligence from the staff posted in the sites. The main cause of the blaze in Notre Dame is believed to be an electrical short circuit in tandem with the cathedral's lack of fire-prevention provisions, while officials believe the Al-Aqsa fire was caused by children tampering in the area. While Notre Dame suffered extensive damage to its central spire and roof, the structure itself was saved by the consistent efforts of French firefighters to maintain the Medieval staple. Al-Aqsa was thankfully left largely untouched with the flames only really effecting a guard booth. Both of these buildings hold enormous historical significance, with Al-Aqsa being the third holiest site in Islam and Notre Dame being a structure erected more than 800 years ago that has survived two world wars and the French Revolution.

What You Can Do:
-Spread awareness!! While the Notre Dame fire has been chronicled by many sources of mainstream media, what happened at Al-Aqsa has gotten less coverage in the international community.
-Donate to https://www.notredamedeparis.fr/friends/donate/ (Notre Dame) and https://muslimhands.org.uk/appeals/masjid-al-aqsa (Al-Aqsa)

All right, everyone. This has been a heavy, heavy list. It's not the best news and we know the action items have been more help-oriented than advocacy. Just know we're here with you and sending you love and support. xoxo.

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4/9/2019 1 Comment

Springtime Solidarity: March 29th-April 10th

Hey Teen Resisters!
We hope that you've all had the chance to bask in the first few weeks of spring! Here are a few quick things you should be aware of before diving in:
- The Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota--one of the nation's poorest areas--has recently been the victim of heavy snow and severe, debilitating flooding. Read more about the situation here.
- Update on the Mueller report: Attorney General William Barr has promised to release the redacted version of the report to the public, and said in today in testimony before Congress that he hoped to release it next week. He also said that he would investigate spying on the Trump campaign.
- Kirstjen Nielsen submitted her resignation as Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary on April 7th. CALL YOUR SENATOR now and tell them that the next DHS Secretary must end family separation and indefinite detention.
xx
TR

what went down

El Paso Bridge/Letter Campaign
In late March, news broke that hundreds of migrant families seeking asylum in the United States were being held in what was effectively a holding pen under a bridge in El Paso. Families were held for up to four days in the enclosure, where they reported verbal and physical abuse to top off what was already a grossly inhumane environment for the migrants—children forc ed to sleep outside on gravel, families spending the night in outdoors in the cold. The ACLU called the situation an “unprecedented and extreme violation,” but it is certainly not the first time that Customs and Border Protection has demonstrated a complete lack of regard for the well-being of migrants in its custody. This is just the latest—nonetheless completely sickening—example of how CBP (and ICE, for that matter) have violated the rights of asylum seekers.

While CBP cited an overwhelming number of migrants as cause for having to place certain asylum seekers under the El Paso Bridge, the agency already has greatly expanded funding and personnel; it’s clear that more money is the last thing the agency ought to get.

El Paso is far from the only location that migrant families and children are being held. More than 1,700 migrants from the ages of 13-17 are being held at the Homestead Detention Center, in Homestead, Florida. These are children our age. Most have escaped poverty and violence in their places of birth and are now being put through yet another long ordeal at the hands of our government.

What can you do?

Indivisible has a more comprehensive resource on defunding CBP and ICE—how it works, why it’s important, and how you can take action. Check it out here. The gist of it, of course, is to call your representatives and demand that they work to defund the agencies!
Don’t Separate Families of Brooklyn is running a campaign right now to send 2,000 letters, postcards, and drawings of support and welcome to these teens. Please take some time to write one yourself. You can write the letters in English or Spanish.
- Communicate to the migrants that you support them, you care for them, and we’re all fighting for them. And pass on this information, as always, to your friends and anyone who might encourage teens in their life to write or draw a similar message.
- This campaign is designed to spread awareness of this issue, but it’s most chiefly about speaking directly to the people affected by our government’s abuses to provide each of them some measure of the individual support and care they have been denied. We spend a lot of time advocating for changes to structures and institutions that hurt all kinds of people, which is critically important work and the only way we can stop these kinds of violations from continuing. But it’s good, too, to take a moment to focus on just one person who’s affected by one of these issues, to think about them and to speak to them. That’s what this campaign is striving for and what we hope for you to participate in.

The address:
Don’t Separate Families
c/o Margaret Seiler
248 12th St.
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Letters have to arrive at this address by April 19th, so act fast!

Abortion Laws in Georgia
Last week in Georgia, new legislation concerning abortion rights was passed by Georgia state legislators. This new bill prohibits abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat is observed. This would mean that abortion would be banned as early as six weeks into a pregnancy—a time when it’s often too early for many women to even realize that they are pregnant. This new legislation would overturn Georgia’s current laws, which allow a woman to have an abortion up to twenty weeks into her pregnancy. If passed, this new bill would make Georgia one of the most restrictive states in the country in terms of abortion. Similar anti-abortion bills have been signed in Mississippi and Kentucky, and legislation concerning fetal heartbeat is expected to pass in states such as Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas.

The bill received a great deal of opposition while in the process of being voted on, including some from members of the Hollywood film industry who say that they will refuse to work on sets in Georgia if the legislation is passed. It has also experienced pushback due to the current obstetrician shortage in Georgia, which would most likely worsen as a result of this legislation. Additional criticisms include that the bill would endanger women’s health specifically because of an increase in dangerous at-home abortions. This bill is particularly frightening, for it represents a larger anti-abortion, pro-life movement that could eventually lead to Roe v. Wade’s being overturned. This case, which established a woman’s right to choose on a federal level, could be reversed, especially with new justices such as Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh backing pro-life legislation.

So what is going to happen with this bill? This bill was approved by state legislators, meaning that it will now pass on to Republican governor Brian Kemp. Kemp must sign the bill in the following months in order to enact it, and he is expected to do so, based on his continual support for anti-abortion legislation and this bill in particular.

What you can do:
Here are some articles for a more in-depth look at the topic:

Support Planned Parenthood and their “Planned Parenthood Action Fund”

Call your reps w/ this script: Hi, my name is __________, and I live in ___________. I'm calling to ask my Senator to vote NO on any attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. This is nothing more than a blatantly political attempt to do whatever it takes to attack women's health and rights and take health care away from the people who need it most. If Congress cuts funding to Planned Parenthood, millions of people will be left without access to birth control, lifesaving cancer screenings, and other basic care. Many of them will have nowhere else to go for the health care they need. I'm counting on my Senator to do the right thing and stand up for the Planned Parenthood patients in our community and across the country who are counting on those health centers. I stand with Planned Parenthood because [insert your own story or message, if you like]. I expect my Senator to vote against any attacks on Planned Parenthood and the vital health services they provide. Thank you for your time. (adapted from Planned Parenthood)

Anti-LBGTQ+ Stoning Laws in Brunei
On Wednesday, the small yet oil-rich nation of Brunei implemented legislation punishing extramarital sex and anal sex with death by stoning. Under the new law, rape and defamation of the Prophet Mohammed will also be punishable by death, and theft will be punishable by amputation. In what is a clear violation of human rights, numerous celebrities, officials, and human rights groups have come out in opposition to the hateful and harmful piece of legislation. Read more about the law & its implications here.

What can you do to help improve the safety of LGBTQ+ Brunei citizens?

Join celebrities such as George Clooney, Ellen DeGeneres, and Elton John in boycotting the Sultan of Brunei’s nine luxury international hotels (The Dorchester, The Beverly Hills Hotel, Plaza Athénée, Hotel Meurice, Principe di Savoia, Hotel Bel-Air, Coworth Park, 45 Park Lane, Hotel Eden). Supporting and participating in this boycott will help strengthen the international pressure currently put on Brunei to reconsider this reprehensible piece of legislation.
Keep your eyes out for protests in your area! Contact your local LGBTQ community organizers and activists or local LGBTQ Center to see if there are any protests for action or solidarity taking place near you.
Check out the LGBTQ+ section in our Index by Issue to learn more and take action about what’s happening in the U.S. and in other countries, surrounding the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.

Not puppy vid, but very funny

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It's Mueller Time: April 10-28 2019

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