Thursday, August 23, 2018
On this edition of Zona Politics: Tucson Weekly/Tucson Local Media executive editor Jim Nintzel sits down with Congressman Raul Grijalva to discuss abolishing ICE, family separation at the border, climate change, the future of public lands and more. Then CD2 congressional candidate Mary Matiella talks about why she's running for the office.
Tags: politics , video , Zona Politics , Arizona , Congressman Raul Grijalva , ICE , family separation , climate change , public lands , CD2 , congressional candidate , Mary Matiella , Video , Image
But just as laws that hurt sex workers become more extreme, people are throwing more support behind political candidates who openly oppose such laws, support sex worker rights and even call for complete decriminalization of the industry.
A state Senate candidate in New York is doing just that. Twenty-seven-year-old Julia Salazar, who heads into a Sept. 13 primary against an eight-term incumbent, has attended sex worker advocacy meetings and even has a decriminalization platform on her website.
The Intercept goes deeper into Salazar's advocacy as well as looking at some of the other political candidates standing up for the human rights of sex workers.
Salazar’s platform outlines steps toward decriminalization that include
an end to raids on massage parlors; working with district attorneys to
stop charging sex workers with crimes; and creating a network of
optional social services to address workers’ needs, such as housing,
child care, syringe access, and job training. Her platform would also
make it easier for sex workers with criminal records to access housing
and jobs, along with repealing the exemption for sex workers under New
York’s rape shield law.
Tags: New York , Senate , Candidate , Julia Salazar , The Intercept , sex workers , rights , decriminalization , Image
Tags: comics , politics , press , questions , no answers , president , White House , press briefing , the new normal , Image
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Tags: comics , politics , cartoon , Manafort , Cohen , Papadopoulos , Gates , Flynn , men in chains , felons , Image
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Police lined a waist-high barricade during a protest at Reid Park, on Saturday Aug. 18. On the inside of the barricade was Patriot Movement AZ (PMAZ), a group whose members support Trump and the most far-right political candidates, including Senate candidates Joe Arpaio and Kelli Ward. Many in the group brandished guns on their hips. They flew banners and signs calling for deporting immigrants, re-electing Trump and defending semi-automatic rifles.
And on the outside of the barricade, an eclectic group of counter protestors, gathered to denounce the group largely viewed as being white supremacist. Winged stilt walkers danced to a marching band. Clowns theatrically laughed and cried, falling to the ground before the men with guns. Counter-protestors ranged from punks with tattooed faces to parents wearing sun hats and birkenstalks, their children in toe.
A faction of counter protestors wearing all black, with helmets and handkerchiefs covering their faces, stood at the front and held two large signs: “Rest in Power Heather Heyer” and “No one is illegal on stolen land.”
They wouldn’t take questions from the press but were handing out a flyer that explained the garb as being necessary to protect their identities against alt-right retaliation. The flyer also said they are there to keep things safe, not to instigate violence.
PMAZ rented the two ramadas that day. On Facebook, they called the event “Tucson March Against Far Left Violence.” A shade tent housed their pulpit, with speakers blaring out their cause. At the picnic tables, they had supplies to keep their own children busy, with a few sitting around looking bored. A man sold shirts bearing slogans with anti-immigrant sentiments. “I hope you tell both sides of the story,” he said to me, as I walked by, taking photos.
“I’m coming after every la raza member involved with the Mexican government,” said Edna San Miguel, a primary Congressional candidate running in Rep. Raul Grijalva’s district. “The Mexican government is the greatest enemy to our nation.” She yelled into the microphone, pointing at the crowd outside the barricade, telling them they’re indoctrinated with hate.
A man with what looked like a billy club in his pocket took the mic as well. He pointed into the crowd and said he was ready to blow the heads off any one of the protestors who knocked him down. Another woman took the mic and repeatedly yelled at the protestors to "get a job."
Flipping the script and saying the left is violent has become a common tactic of PMAZ and other far-right groups. While they are not totally wrong (Vox reported anti fascist protestors assailing police and journalists during an Aug. 12 protest in Charlottesville, Virginia), members of PMAZ have repeatedly made local news for hateful and intimidating behavior.
The national “Patriot movement" goes back farther than the local one, which seems to have formed in support of Donald Trump. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, parts of group are composed of armed militias who believe in anti-government conspiracy theories with no basis in reality.
In March, two women affiliated with PMAZ received felony charges after going into a mosque, taking books out of a gated-off area and shouting anti-Muslim slurs at a man who approached them. One of the women had three of her children with her and encouraged them to join in the verbal attacks. This is just a portion of what happened during a Facebook live video, which has since been taken down. The Southern Poverty Law Center has a thorough (and disturbing) summary here.
PMAZ disavowed the women after the incident, in a Facebook post which read:
PMAZ stands firmly against racism, bigotry, and anyone who harasses people based on sexual orientation. Those representing PMAZ are at all times law-abiding, too.
The actions of one bad apple makes all of us look bad. It is extremely disappointing and while we cannot tell anyone how to behave, we also need to have clear separation and call out bad behaviors.
But this is not the only incident where PMAZ members have assailed people based on their skin color. The Arizona Republic reported on PMAZ members asking a Native American lawmaker if he was in the country legally.
Lawmakers said they were also questioned based on their appearance. Rep. Eric Descheenie, D-Chinle, said he was confronted by Trump supporters while helping defend a young student that he said was being harassed.
They asked Descheenie, a Navajo lawmaker, if he was in the United States illegally.
“I’m indigenous to these lands,” Descheenie said. “My ancestors fought and died on these lands. I just told them, ‘Don’t ask me that question.’”
In a YouTube video from the incident, some of the groups members incessantly yelled at a group of people, including young children, “Get legal or get out of America.”
A few protestors did try to talk to the other side, asking questions about why they believe something so unfathomable to the other.
Tammie Duncan, a Trump supporter, said she came down from her home in Las Vegas because a friend invited her to the event. She said she primarily supports Trump because of his stance on immigration, adding that she has two degrees but has trouble finding a job. She declined to say what field her degrees were in. She said she doesn’t think Trump is racist.
PMAZ did let some people take the stage who were not with their group.
Vana Lewis, a Tohono O'odham tribal member, took the microphone with a message of peace. She’s a member of both the Culture of Peace Alliance and their Nonviolent Legacy Project. In an interview after she addressed the crowd, she said a man of Mexican heritage who was with PMAZ had asked her to speak.
“I came with a message of peace, to neutralize the situation,” Lewis said “People have a built up aggression. Therefore, it’s going to come out in places like this where we don’t really need that to actually make stable change or hear each other out.”
She says even though it’s hard to find unity in such opposing views, we are all human, and if we remember that, negotiation is possible.
“Everybody needs a doctor. Everybody needs a home to sleep in,” she said. “So what do we do to make it all happen and come together? It’s hard to negotiate with something like this when we allow racism and we allow hate to come into our hearts. The bottom line is we’re all human and we’re all worthy of some human rights and basic necessities.”
Tags: Reid Park , protest , police , barricade , Patriot Movement AZ , PMAZ , Left , Right , opposition , Image
In a recent BradBlog post, Friedman wrote about the latest from the hackers convention, DEF CON, in Las Vegas. If this doesn't scare you, you're not paying attention (or you figure vote tampering is going to help your side). He also has a podcast you can link to with more detailed information and interviews.
[W]e head straight out to Las Vegas for today's BradCast, where the 26th annual hackers convention, DEF CON, held its 2nd annual Vote Hacking Village.
After every voting system on display at last year's event was hacked within minutes by conference attendees, organizers tried to make it a bit more difficult this year. They made unverifiable electronic voting systems, optical-scan paper ballot tabulators and electronic pollbooks from a number of companies —- almost all of which will be in wide use across the country once again for this November's crucial midterms —- available for investigation and penetration. Once again, the hackers in attendance made short order of pretty much all of them.
Stunning vulnerabilities were discovered, including some that officials have known about (and ignored or tried to keep secret for years) while others were revealed for the first time. Things like Chinese pop song files were found on one system used in actual elections recently, along with a host of other disturbing findings, which we summarize today.
Tags: Election integrity , Brad Friedman , DEF CON , Voting machines , Image
Tags: comic , cartoon , politics , TV , reality show , celebrity , Image
Monday, August 20, 2018
Bee II has been unusually quiet for a candidate running for an elected office, and has stayed largely out of the public eye. This has raised speculation of an attempt to use his identical name to confuse voters into thinking they are voting for the father as an incumbent. Over the past few months, several news outlets have attempted to contact Bee for interviews with not much luck.
Bee's opponent, Doug Taylor, is a defense attorney with a private practice here in Tucson. He's been upset with Bee's campaign strategy, and has talked to the media frequently in an attempt to make Bee's identity more clear to the public.
On Bee's campaign website, there is a claim that he completed "Arizona Supreme Court Pro Tem Judge Training." A pro tem (short for pro tempore) is a person that works temporarily in the place of an official judge, similar to a substitute. In Pima County, pro tem judges are required to have at least five years of experience as a licensed attorney and cannot be less than 30 years old.
Bee II does not meet these requirements, since he has never attended law school and just recently turned 21 years old. So his claim of completing training for a pro tem judgeship raised a few flags among Tucson's legal community, including Taylor.
On Facebook, Taylor accused Bee of lying about the judge training because it isn't possible for him to become a pro tem judge. He also sent emails to several news outlets, including Tucson Weekly, urging reporters to look into his "false" claim.
Heather Murphy, public information officer for the Arizona Supreme Court, said that there are different types of pro tem judge training with different requirements for each one. The training that Bee completed was an online course that came in the form of computer software that can be completed on a self-paced schedule. This is not the same as orientation training for official pro tem judges, which is what Taylor assumed Bee was implying in his website credentials.
Over the weekend, Tucson Weekly reached out to Bee to clarify the specific training that he completed and he responded, to our surprise. It's important to note that although he used vague terms on his website, Bee II never said that he was in a position to become a pro tem judge.
In an email Bee wrote:
The Arizona Supreme Court Pro Tem Judge Training is produced by the Judicial College of Arizona. Between June-July 2018 I successfully completed all of the required modules.
Matthew Schwartz, Investigative Reporter from Channel 4 News, has thoroughly researched this story. Here are his response and findings on the topic.
"Feel free to tell anyone who asks that I informed Mr. Taylor that your statement is not a lie, prompting him to delete it from his Facebook page. After I received the proof from you, I called the media person for the State Supreme Court and she confirmed your statement. She said Mr. Taylor 'is apparently confusing the New Judge Orientation' with the pro tem training you completed."
As of today's deadline, Taylor could not be reached for comment.
Tags: keith bee , doug taylor , justice of the peace , pro tem , judge training , arizona supreme court , Image
Tags: comic , cartoon , politics , military , parade , canceled , postponed , over budget , president , Image
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Congressman Raul Grijalva received the first-ever “Democracy Award” for best constituent services from the Congressional Management Foundation, an organization based in Washington, D.C. that works directly with members of Congress to ensure that they are effectively serving the citizens of their districts.
Representative Grijalva and his staff were selected for this award out of 441 other congressional offices nationwide.
On Tuesday, August 14 Grijalva hosted a reception for the award at El Pueblo Neighborhood Center. The congressman received high praise at the event from his staff and the residents of Congressional District 3, but he insisted the recognition should go to his team.
“I’m very proud to be associated with this staff and having our office recognized as the outstanding office in Congress for taking care of people and helping them navigate all the things they have to confront,” Grijalva said during his opening remarks. “Those of us that are members of Congress, we get all the attention, good and bad, but the work of providing service to our constituency, that constitutes what the staff of the district does.”
One of Grijalva’s staff members, Alexandra Martinez, read a letter from a Tucson resident named Eric Lowe who couldn’t attend the event but greatly benefited from the services that Grijalva’s office provides.
Lowe, a former D.C. resident, was diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) after being exposed to severe toxic chemicals. His condition made it extremely difficult to tolerate normal working and living environments, so he moved to Arizona on doctors’ recommendations because of the supportive climate.
After relocating, Lowe found it extremely challenging to find suitable housing for his medical condition “due to the nature of most conventional building materials, pesticides and other chemical cleaning agents used in those buildings” and was “rendered effectively homeless” because of it. Grijalva’s office helped to expedite his Social Security disability payments, lawyer fees and full back payment. Lowe wrote that this was a “life-saving intervention at a time of absolute critical need.”
On a similar note, David Goodman, another Tucson resident, took the stand to express how Grijalva continuously supports the veteran community and the adversities they face. While working at Fort McClellan, an army base in Alabama that housed chemical weapons before being shut down in 1999, Goodman was unknowingly exposed to toxic chemicals and suffered greatly from it.
He said the federal government refuses to acknowledge and take responsibility for the hazardous conditions. After a decade of attempts, bills that could prevent this kind of disaster in the future never make it to the House floor due to lack of support.
“Mr. Grijalva has supported [H.R.3666] for years, and has gone further than just co-sponsoring this bill,” Goodman said. “He has formally requested a committee to convene a hearing on this matter. I am here today as an Arizona district three resident, but more importantly, I am here as a proud advocate for those poisoned veterans across the country that are too weak to fight.”
In an interview after the event, Grijalva told Tucson Local Media that the biggest caseload his office sees is veteran affairs. He said his team helps veterans with “everything from disability to medical coverage, to taking general discharge and making it an honorable discharge, and getting them what they deserve for their time in service.”
“If we can help a person, we dig in, and if it’s an issue that we can’t help, we’re honest,” he said. “I think that helps the credibility of what these people do.”
Grijalva explained that because of his background is social service, his office is set up with a case management component, so they follow each case much like a social service agency. He believes that residents sometimes don’t realize his office is a close-proximity resource, and that him and his team work as advocates for the residents.
“Our district is unfortunately an underserved area, so we have to pump up the service that we do,” Grijalva said. “And the cases are many times very involved, very difficult, especially now with all the immigration stuff going on, it's particularly difficult to try to get people, try to remedy their situation because it’s harder to work with Homeland Security than it was in the past, they are much stricter on enforcement and less discretion and less compassion.”
However, he did give credit to the Tucson-based Veterans Administration and Social Security Administration for being a great help in his office’s ability to serve constituents. During the event, Grijalva and his staff members thanked the federal and state agencies that they work with on a daily basis: U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, Department of Veteran Affairs, Western Passport Center, Social Security Administration, Department of Education, IRS and foreclosure prevention services.
By utilizing these agencies along with his influence as a U.S. representative, Grijalva said he takes his ability to help people very seriously.
“We are advocates,” he said. “And I think if people see us not just as merely paper pushers but more importantly, once we take their case, we become their advocate.”
If you are a resident of CD-3, you can visit this website to learn about the specific services that Representative Grijalva’s team offers.
Tags: grijalva , congress , award , advocacy , constituent , congressional district 3 , Image
