[Marxism] Army Officer Says His Mother’s Deportation Is ‘Completely Inhumane’
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * NY Times, Jan. 5, 2020 Army Officer Says His Mother’s Deportation Is ‘Completely Inhumane’ By Derrick Bryson Taylor It has been an emotional start to the new year for Rocio Rebollar Gomez and her family. On Thursday, after 31 years in the United States, a country where she had built a life and raised three children, including a son now in the United States Army, Ms. Gomez was deported to Tijuana, Mexico, where she had little family left. That son, Second Lt. Gibram Cruz, 30, who has been in the Army for five years and rushed to be with her the day after Christmas, said he was “shocked” at the way his mother was treated and called the actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement “completely inhumane.” Ms. Gomez, 51, was previously scheduled to self deport and that plan was known to ICE, the family’s lawyer, Tessa Cabrera, said on Friday. Instead, as the family went to an ICE office to discuss her case, Ms. Gomez was taken across the border to Tijuana without a chance to say goodbye, Ms. Cabrera said. Officials “snuck her out through the back” and in less than 30 minutes she was in Mexico, Lieutenant Cruz said. In the months leading up to her deportation, Ms. Gomez, who, according to her family, ran a small business selling health and natural products and drove for Uber, had attempted to stay in the United States legally, including deferred action under the discretionary option for military families through Citizen and Immigration Services, Ms. Cabrera said. The family also worked to bring attention to the case by conducting interviews with the news media. They held a news conference on Thursday and made signs showing support for Ms. Gomez the night before. “Our hope was that our eyes wouldn’t be the only ones witnessing this,” Ms. Cabrera said of the attention. “I think Rocio held onto hope and faith until the very last moment.” Ms. Gomez was removed from the country in 1995, 2005 and 2009, Ms. Cabrera said. Mary G. Houtmann, a spokeswoman for ICE, said on Friday that Ms. Gomez’s 2009 removal was the result of a 2008 order by an immigration judge and that she illegally re-entered the country after that. In March 2018, Ms. Gomez was apprehended by ICE, Ms. Houtmann said, and was processed to be removed again but was granted a stay by Enforcement and Removal Operations officers while her appeals and requests to remain in the United States were being reviewed. Lieutenant Cruz, who is based in Texas and works in military intelligence, acknowledged that his mother had illegally entered the country but called her removal “completely unnecessary.” “Her as a responsible mother did what any mother in her situation would do and came back to care for her children by any means,” he said. “A country that was founded on immigrants should be welcoming to my mother, who her whole life has been an outstanding citizen.” Ms. Gomez also has two daughters, ages 34 and 23. Families sacrifice a lot when members of the military serve their country, Lieutenant Cruz said. “We never asked for any handouts,” he said. “We have always provided and succeeded by ourselves. We simply asked ICE to exercise some discretion and let her continue being a contributing member of her society.” Ms. Houtmann said Ms. Gomez was informed last month that all avenues for her to remain in the country had been exhausted and she was given until Jan. 2 to depart. Karla McKissick, one of Ms. Gomez’s daughters, expressed concerns about her mother’s future in Mexico. Her mother’s brother, while living in Acapulco, Mexico, was abducted and held for ransom, she said. The family presumes he is dead and have never found his body. Ms. Gomez is staying with her half sister, someone she has not seen in at least 10 years, Ms. McKissick said. “Her sister has a tiny house and she’s going to be staying on the couch,” she said. “We’re helping her financially to do the most that we can.” Shortly after Ms. Gomez’s removal to Tijuana, Ms. McKissick crossed the border to bring her supplies. “According to our attorney, we’re out of options,” she said. The family also hopes that a change in administration or a change in laws might help their mother’s case. “But as of right now, all we can do is hold our breath,” she said. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fisking Douma | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * All of Robert Fisk’s bad habits come into play in a recent Independent op-ed piece titled “The Syrian conflict is awash with propaganda – chemical warfare bodies should not be caught up in it” that is part of the aggressive propaganda campaign trying to absolve Bashar al-Assad from the chlorine gas attack in Douma last year. Along with Fisk, two other British journalists have been making a huge stink over alleged OPCW cover-ups. One is Jonathan Steele, who works for the liberal Guardian newspaper and the other is Christopher Hitchens’s brother Peter, who works for the rightwing Mail on Sunday. Their articles on Douma rely heavily on two OPCW whistle-blowers, Ian Henderson and “Alex”, who spoke at a conference sponsored by Courage Foundation, which is closely tied to Wikileaks. Since Julian Assange has been a long-time supporter of Assad, it is no surprise that his allies are doing everything possible to prove that jihadis organized a “false flag” in Douma in order to give the USA an excuse to bomb Syria. full: https://louisproyect.org/2020/01/05/fisking-douma-2/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] US encirclement endangers Cuba's economy, provokes response
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/03/u-s-encirclement-endangers-cubas-economy-provokes-response _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Cold War Propagandist: Nicolas Nabokov, JFK, and the Shostakovich Wars - Los Angeles Review of Books
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * A personal footnote for what it's worth. During the US war against Vietnam I was in my high school's band. One day we went on a field trip to hear a local orchestra. The conductor was with the US military, and he appeared in full dress uniform. On the playlist was a piece by Shostakovitch, and the conductor introduced it by saying that it was an important work even if the Soviet Union was a horrendous dictatorship. At that age I had only the most vague politics, but I remember thinking to myself, "who the fuck are you to criticize anyone?" > > _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Cold War Propagandist: Nicolas Nabokov, JFK, and the Shostakovich Wars - Los Angeles Review of Books
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/cold-war-propagandist-nicolas-nabokov-jfk-and-the-shostakovich-wars/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Soleimani assassination spells trouble for Iraqis, Iranians and the region
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * A very good article that discusses the danger Trump's attack has put the region in, while emphasising that Soleimani was a psychotic mass murderer with the blood of thousands of Syrians, Iraqis and Iranians on his hands who should not be mourned by human beings. A very strong point that this whipping up of Trump-Khameini, US-Iran warlike confrontation inside occupied Iraq (occupied by both) will have a tendency to sweep aside the mass popular Iraqi uprising we have seen in recent months, directed as it was against the Iraqi rulers, corruption, injustice and both US and Iranian occupation forces; its momentum is getting swept aside by bullshit nationalism and "anti-imperialism" nonsense, bolstering the image of precisely the people like Soleimani and the other Iran-owned sectarian thugs who had just crushed the Iraqi uprising by open slaughter of 500 peaceful protestors (and up to 1500 peaceful protestors murdered in Iranian streets by the same thugs). Let's hope this impact is short-lived. "This is perhaps the most tragic aspect of Trump's assassination of Soleimaini: Despite the US justifying the killing by absurdly claiming it will "deter further Iranian attacks", it could instead reinvigorate Iran in Iraq, at a time when criticism of its grip was gaining momentum through the protests. "The Iraqi protest movement had overwhelmingly disavowed the attack on the US embassy, making clear that the same forces attacking the US embassy were the ones who had attacked them. "Now the line of polarisation risks moving away from the protesters' demands for social justice, to one determined by a renewed pro-Iran/pro-US dichotomy. This time, however, it could lead to outright war – or, at least, a situation where Iran strikes back not directly at the US, but at any force deemed to be supportive of their interests. "Though there's no doubt Tehran is rattled by the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, it seems that once again the demands for Iraqi self-determination are being buried under the interests of foreign powers" https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/Comment/2020/1/3/Soleimani-assassination-spells-trouble-for-Iraqis-Iranians-the-region?fbclid=IwAR0QeycT1WczDymi-MSkhOiMutn4hG0kXmox5BnuCuEYkGgFZY-GzbeRcqg _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
