Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.
In the category of: We really are two different countries – and knowing that explains a lot.
The fight over family separations proved how broken Trump’s America really is
This wasn’t a liberal victory. It was a sign of how bad things have gotten.
The notion that Trump has really “ended” family separation is questionable as a matter of law. Trump’s executive order doesn’t actually ban the practice; it merely directs the Department of Homeland Security to detain migrant families together rather than separating them. But there are serious questions about the legality of such a policy; if it gets overturned by the courts, then it’s entirely possible that family separations could begin again.
But the “backlash works” analysis also skips over a more fundamental political question. The truth is that huge numbers of Americans — mostly Republicans — were willing to back the family separations policy. They’re even more excited about the underlying policy of arresting every undocumented individual who crosses the border, the so-called “zero tolerance” policy that gave rise to family separation in the first place.
In the category of: Yep. For real, they believe it.
The Oppression of White America
In October 2017, a poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard revealed that 55 percent of white Americans believe there is discrimination against white Americans. More Americans agree than disagree that “white people are under attack in this country,” according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Numerous studies have shown that “racial resentment” was the overriding factor for people who voted for Donald Trump.
Anecdotally, there are cases like the recently approved White Civil Rights rally coming to Washington, D.C., sponsored by the same activist who organized Charlottesville, Va.’s Unite the Right march; the rise in claims of “reverse racism”; and the main refrain in the white national anthem: “Not all white people.”
In the category of: Might have been the plan all along.
DOJ Takes First Steps Toward Indefinite Detention Of Families
The Department of Justice filed in court for changes so it could detain kids for longer with their parents.
The Department of Justice filed an emergency motion in federal court on Thursday to modify a 1997 settlement that prevents the government from detaining migrant children longer than 20 days. Ending the limitations on the length of time kids can be detained, the administration argues, is the only tenable alternative to splitting up families that are apprehended crossing the border illegally.
Although the Trump administration argues the changes it outlined on Thursday are the only way to end family separations, the filing suggests parents and kids could be split up again down the road.
