DL Open Thread Thursday, March 18, 2021
The “crisis” on the southern border isn’t a crisis, it’s a logistics problem, as demonstrated by the administration’s vacillation about reopening the child migrant shelter in Homestead, Fla.. Other that bleating “crisis,” Republicans have no ideas on how to handle the influx of unaccompanied minors, currently running about 500 people a day. They do hope it does more to damage Biden than Dr. Seuss has so far.
Evidence of coordination between Russian disinformation and the right wing noise machine, if not the Trump campaign itself, continues to emerge.
Racist killers denying that racism motivated them is apparently now a thing thanks to the Atlanta spa gunman, who claims he killed eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, not because they were Asian but because he’s a sex addict and he was removing temptation. The confluence of guns and fundie religion is strong in this one.
Still waiting on your mail? Yeah, me too, but things are looking up. The Biden administration finally got around to nominating three new members to the USPS governing board. Once they’re confirmed, Louis DeJoy can be removed and, one hopes, investigated for criminal prosecution.
Because Republicans are both stupid and evil, they’re whining about a provision in the Covid relief legislation that bans states using their federal money to cut taxes. Because they have no imagination, Ohio’s Republican AG is suing the federal government over it. And yet we can’t get the morons of this nation — I’m sorry, did I say morons? I meant Republicans, and intended no disrespect to morons — to understand that they people they vote for HATE THEIR FUCKING GUTS AND ARE ACTIVELY WORKING TO MAKE THEIR LIVES WORSE. This doesn’t seem like it would be all that hard to figure out, yet here we are.
The floor’s yours.
One element has been missing from the coverage of the Asian spa killings.
And that’s the possibility, perhaps even likelihood, that the victims of the killings had been already victimized as women who were forced into prostitution via human trafficking.
These Asian massage parlors have long been a front for human trafficking, where the passports are held by the bosses, the women are forced to live in squalid conditions, and can’t get out, no matter how much they want to.
I’ve found this article very interesting when it comes to claims about what goes on in “Asian Massage Parlors”
https://reason.com/2015/09/30/the-war-on-sex-trafficking-is/
Basically, this is more police propaganda to go after prostitution but make it sound like they’re the good guys instead of just arresting people doing a job
I’m not sure who ‘Reason’ reasons with, but it’s not true.
Sex trafficking from Asia is a real thing. Here is some background:
http://delawareliberal.net/2014/04/20/delaware-to-tackle-human-trafficking/
Sorry the links to the WGBH series no longer work, but we’ve passed legislation in Delaware that, among other things, protects those who are victims of human trafficking and provides assistance for them.
Here’s some homework for you:
https://polarisproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Human-Trafficking-in-Illicit-Massage-Businesses.pdf
I think that’s a conversation worth having, but I also question if it pulls attention from the current situation which is …a christo-fascist white man targeted Asian women for execution.
The very necessary and high-priority conversations and actions that need to be taken on sex trafficking MUST include recognition that sex work is a real job that should be legal. Like with drugs, a big reason why it is such a dangerous industry is BECAUSE it is illegal.
If consenting adults (huge emphasis there) want to give “happy endings” for an extra however much it costs, they should be able to do so without fear of police harassment….. we all know what form that harassment all-too-often takes.
like JD brought up, it’s easy for cops to just round up sex workers and charge them until they get a “bigger fish”….. exactly the way they do with small drug arrests.
An excellent article on Asian sex workers, exploitation, and racial hatred:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/18/atlanta-spa-shootings-anti-sex-worker-racism-sexism?utm_source=eml&utm_medium=emlf&utm_campaign=Email_RC_US&utm_content=variantA
Republican and Evangelicals never said a word when Trump put children in cages. If Obama did that they would have sued him.
All these limited people are gaslighted. I don’t know how Fox news gets away with telling people falsehoods all the time.