Month: February 2018

Seriously though, I got inappropriately parked on one university hospital’s adolescent psych unit for other reasons, for a couple of weeks the summer I was 16. (Long story I’m not starting into right now.)

And for most of that time, I was the only one there who was not put there by the local foster care system. That was apparently most of who they got over the summer, in particular: kids between placements. Not in any particular crisis or anything, just for somewhere to put them.

For that matter, I know for a fact that North Carolina was parking kids in the foster care system on psych units in the early ‘90s. Whenever they were short on suitable placements, and presumably the state and/or Medicaid would pay for “treatment” in the meantime.

And nobody seemed to have a problem with that, because foster kids. Who were probably fucked up enough to need psych treatment by then anyway, if they weren’t going into the system.

(Not my own view of any of it, to be clear. Other than systems which operate like that being highly unlikely to help anyone’s mental health.)

Wouldn’t be surprised if some other systems were doing similar, and/or if it happened over an extended time period. May still be the case, for all I know. But, they weren’t even trying to hide what was going on then, and I saw some of it.

Bad enough when it is legit “treatment” (for whatever diagnoses they could come up with to justify locking people up), in a less blatantly abusive setting.

raivaryn:

disexplications:

Election law violations, wire fraud, bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft. They used stolen US identities to conceal the sources of the funds they used.

As to the second part of your question, possibly they will? I’m not sure what immediate implications this has. Some of them did travel to the US during the election, and presumably now they can’t come back.

From what I understand, it’s not expected that they’ll acknowledge the indictments, and Putin has no incentive to extradite any of them.

What does make an impact though is that the indictments spell out the interference publicly, and nearly in full. Everything they did, from social media to on-the-ground operations, is listed out for everyone to see in the light of day. 

It sounds like a consolation at first, but this really does matter in the narrative nationally and abroad. (not to mention the rather self-incriminating WH response)

Source: disexplications

bilt2tumble:

communistcountryclub:

White Supremacist Murders More Than Doubled in 2017

January 17, 2018

The number of white supremacist murders in the United States more than doubled in 2017 compared to the previous year, far surpassing murders committed by domestic Islamic extremists and making 2017 the fifth deadliest year on record for extremist violence since 1970.

In its annual assessment of extremist-related killings, the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism found white supremacists and other far-right extremists were responsible for 59 percent of all extremist-related fatalities in the U.S. in 2017, up dramatically from 20 percent in 2016.

White supremacists were directly responsible for 18 of the total 34 extremist-related murders in 2017, according to the new ADL report, Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2017. A total of nine deaths were linked to Islamic extremists.

The most recent ADL data shows that over the last decade a total of 71 percent of all fatalities have been linked to domestic right-wing extremists, while 26 percent of the killings were committed by Islamic extremists. The other 3 percent of deaths were carried out by extremists not falling into either category.

“These findings are a stark reminder that domestic extremism is a serious threat to our safety and security,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “We saw two car-ramming attacks in the U.S. last year– one from an Islamic terrorist and another from a white supremacist in Charlottesville—and the number of deaths attributed to white supremacists increased substantially. The bottom line is we cannot ignore one form of extremism over another. We must tackle them all.”

Murder and Extremism in 2017: Major Findings

ADL’s Center on Extremism has been tracking data on domestic extremist-related murder in the U.S. since 1970.  The 2017 assessment found:

  • With 34 total deaths, 2017 was the fifth deadliest year for extremist violence since 1970, but there was a marked decline from the much higher total fatalities recorded in 2016 and 2015.
  • The 18 white supremacist murders included several killings linked to the alt right as that movement expanded its operations in 2017 from the internet into the physical world – raising the likely possibility of more such violent acts in the future.
  • Unlike 2016, a year dominated by the Pulse nightclub shootings in Orlando, Florida, committed by an Islamic extremist, a majority of the 2017 murders were committed by right-wing extremists, primarily white supremacists, as has typically been the case most years.
  • Far-right extremist violence accounted for 59 percent of the total, or 20 deaths.
  • An Islamic extremist still committed the single deadliest incident in 2017: the New York City bike path vehicular homicide attack, which killed eight people.

“When white supremacists and other extremists are emboldened and find new audiences for their hate-filled views, violence is usually not far behind,” Greenblatt said. “We cannot ignore the fact that white supremacists are emboldened, and as a society we need to keep a close watch on recruitment and rallies such as Charlottesville, which have the greatest potential to provoke and inspire violence.”

The report also noted a spate of killings in 2017 by black nationalists as a possible emerging extremist threat. Black nationalists were responsible for five murders in 2017, and this came on the heels of other violent incidents with black nationalist connections in 2016 and 2014.

‘But-BUT… Her Muslim Terrorists… Or… Emails?… What were we supposed to be screaming about, again?… I’m getting a headache from all this thinking… Who’s got the FoxNews Ap on their phone?!?!

Source: communistcountryclub

How did Trump win? Or more to the point, how did Trump win given that he only had a 38 percent favorability rating among people who voted on Election Day? The answer is partly the Electoral College, of course. But it’s also that Clinton was really, really unpopular herself — almost as unpopular as Trump — with a favorability rating of just 43 percent among Election Day voters. Also, the substantial number of voters who disliked both Clinton and Trump went to Trump by a 17-point margin. Voters really weren’t willing to give Clinton the benefit of the doubt. That’s largely because Clinton was viewed as dishonest and untrustworthy, exactly the sort of message that the Russian campaign (which used hashtags such as #Hillary4Prison) was trying to cultivate. Trump, of course, was trying to cultivate this message too. Media coverage often struck the same themes. And voters sometimes heard variations on this theme from Sanders and his supporters in the more contentious moments of the Democratic primaries. Was some of this Clinton’s fault? Yep, of course. Would Clinton still have been “Crooked Hillary” even without the Russians? Almost certainly. But the Russians were at least adding fuel to the right fire — the one that wound up consuming Clinton’s campaign. The indictment also alleges that the Russian conspirators sought to suppress African-American turnout. A decline in black turnout was an important — perhaps even decisive — factor in Clinton’s defeat, although it may have been inevitable given that Barack Obama, the first African-American president, had been on the ballot in 2012.

How Much Did Russian Interference Affect The 2016 Election? | FiveThirtyEight

With regard to the last point, the various voter suppression tactics enacted by Republican legislatures need to be taken into consideration as well.

(via dendroica)