Appeals Court denies Trump administrations to end Census early ... for now

A federal appeals has denied today (Sept. 30) the Trump administration's request to temporarily block a lower court order that extends the 2020 census schedule.

The Census Bureau must continue counting as ordered by the lower court for now, according to the new ruling by 9th U.S. Circuit Judge Johnnie Rawlinson and Judge Morgan Christen, who were part of a three-judge panel. 

Dissenting was Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay, a Filipino American who was one of the conservative judges rushed through the Senate by Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.

"Given the extraordinary importance of the census, it is imperative that the Bureau conduct the census in a manner that is most likely to produce a workable report in which the public can have confidence," wrote Rawlinson and Christen in their order. "The hasty and unexplained changes to the Bureau's operations contained in the Replan, created in just 4 to 5 days, risks undermining the Bureau's mission."

The ruling means that -- for now -- the Census must continue its efforts to count every resident of the United States until Oct. 31.

Monday one-sentence tweet by the Census Bureau that declared the Census field operations must end by Oct. 5 remains up in the air. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh believes that the bureau's internal memo may violate her court order issued last week that said that the Census would not have accurate and complete data if it stuck to the Sept. 30 deadline. 

Koh will hold a hearing regarding the Oct. 5 deadline this Friday, Oct. 2.

The U.S. Census timetable was thrown out the window when the coronavirus ended field operations last Spring. In order to have an accurate count, the Trump administration, the Census Bureau and community partners agreed to extend the orirginal deadline of Sept. 30 to Oct. 31 and to delay the formalization of the data unti Spring 2021. 

Then, without explanation, the Census Bureau announced in August that the bureau would end of field operations on Sept 31.

Several states and community organizations filed lawsuits to keep the Oct. 31 end date, one of which landed in Koh's court.

The data from the Census is used to allocated $1.5 trillion in social service funds and funding allocation of infrastructure projects. The head count also determines how congressional districts are drawn and how many Congressional representatives each state will have.

FilAm History Month: Nurses carry on the tradition of Filipino American activism

A portion of a gallery of those Filipino health workers of those who have perished due to the coronavirus.
Almost every day, Kanlungan adds another one to its gallery.

 

As we move into October -- Filipino American History Month, with its theme of social activism, a hallmark of Filipino American history -- we must note that today's generation of activists include Filipino and Filipino American nurses in the front lines of battling the deadly coronavirus.

Time magazine named one of the Filipino American registered nurses and a labor activist to the magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. 

"When I recently learned that TIME had added me to the 2020 TIME 100 list of the most influential people in the world, I knew that our nurse voice of patient advocacy was louder and more resonant than ever," said Bonnie Castillo, president of the National Nurses Union, the largest labor group representing RNs in the country as she wrote in Medium.

Nurses of Filipino descent make up just 4% of the U.S. healthcare workforce, but nearly a third of registered nurse deaths due to COVID-19, according to a new report from the National Nurses United union.

On Tuesday, Sept. 29, National Nurses United (NNU) released a report, Sins of Omission: How Government Failures to Track Covid-19 Data Have Led to More Than 1,700 Health Care Worker Deaths and Jeopardize Public Health and a statement on Covid-19 data transparency. 

The report and statement condemns the failure of federal and state governments to track and publicly report transparent, accurate, and timely data on the Covid-19 pandemic. The continued lack of detailed, consistent data endangers the health and lives of nurses, other health care workers, and their patients.

“We cannot forget the deaths of so many health care workers, which includes 213 nurses,” said Zenei Cortez, RN, a president of NNU.

“These deaths were avoidable and unnecessary due to government and employer willful inaction. Nurses and health care workers were forced to work without personal protective equipment they needed to do their job safely. It is immoral and unconscionable that they lost their lives," said the Filipino American registered nurse, who works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, NNU has been tracking the deaths of U.S. registered nurses as well as the Covid-19 infections and deaths of health care workers because no one was reporting this information. The Sins of Omission report has researched and confirmed the deaths of more than 1,700 health care workers.

The NNU report includes a list of the known names of 213 registered nurses who died of Covid-19 as of Sept. 16, as well as the known names of 617 additional health care workers.

"Our state and federal governments must require hospitals and other health care employers to publicly report infection rates and deaths of their workers. We have the right to a safe workplace under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Information is a part of safety. But some employers are not telling nurses when they have been exposed or who has been infected. This is irresponsible and dangerous for nurses, health care workers, and patients.”

About 4% of registered nurses in the US are of Filipino descent, according to a Stat News estimate, but some hard-hit areas employ a larger share of this demographic. ProPublica reported that one of every four Filipinos in the the New York-New Jersey area works in healthcare, and they are four times more likely to be nurses. Filipino and Filipino American nurses comprise 20% of California's RN's.

Kanlungan, a website tracking the deaths of Filipino and Filipino American health workers around the world, has found that the U.S. has about three-times as many healthcare worker deaths than the Philippines.

The all-volunteer effort try to put a face and a story behind the statistics but it's not an easy task. They must get their information from a variety of sources and then confirmed. A more transparent effort in reporting could make it a bit easier.

Bonnie Castillo, (at microphone) was named on of TIME's most influential people in the world.

The NNU call for standardized, timely reporting between states and localities, rather than the current piecemeal approach, which undermines effective interpretation. A lag time of even a week can delay an effective response. Nurses call on all states and localities to publicly report at least the following data (for more details on what governments should report, read the statement):

• Daily reporting of data (as well as cumulative totals) on diagnostic testing and case counts at national, state, and county/local levels.
• Daily reporting and cumulative totals of data on health care worker infections and deaths at an establishment level, such as the specific hospital or business.
• Data on symptomatic cases must be reported at national, state, and county/local levels (influenza-like illness and Covid-like illness).
• Daily reporting of data on hospitalizations and deaths must be reported at national, state, and county/local levels.
• Hospital capacity data must be reported at national, state, and county/local levels; must be updated in real time; and must include total and available hospital beds by type (e.g., ICU, medical/surgical, telemetry, etc.), staffing, health care worker exposures and infections, and nosocomial (hospital-acquired) patient infections.
• Data on the stock and supply chain of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) and other supplies must be reported at national, state, and county/local levels.

After a few stories focusing on the Filipino and Filipino American death rate amng healthcare workers earlier this year, it has become an "old" story and editors and reporters are on working on the next breaking story. But COVID-19 doesn't operated on news cycles and the energy level of journalists, healthcare workers of Filipino descent continue to die from the virus at alarming rates and media outlets hardly notice it anymore.

As she wrote in Medium, Castillo says of her recognition by TIME: "This award lets nurses everywhere know that our expertise is recognized, and it validates our fight to speak truth to power. It means everything to nurses to know that the world is listening.

Congress has failed to act to protect us by addressing the immediate need to scale up domestic production of PPE and other critical medical supplies. Call your Senator at 202–335–6015 and demand they pass the HEROES act now.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this article is news laced with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions. 

Presidential debate takes a disturbing turn when Trump avoids condemning white supremacists

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden held the first of three scheduled debates.

I'm scared. After last night's so-called debate between former Vice President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, I'm very worried.

The moment where I gasped was when moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump to denounce white supremacists. Trump tried to talk around the question but Wallace persisted and Biden even egged him on.

Instead of condemning white supremacists, Trump said, "Proud Boys: Stay back and stand by."

I interpreted that to mean, "Be ready to act in case I need you."

The whoop and hollar you hear are the Proud Boys celebrating that Trump recognized them on national television.

The Proud Boys is a white supremacist organization that is so far right that Twitter and Facebook banned them from their social media apps. 

Nevertheless, using other social media, Proud Boys have been able to increase its membership during the Trump era. They are excited that membership will increase with Trump's mention.

The Proud Boys describe themselves as “a pro-Western fraternal organization for men,” according to the New York Times. 

The Anti-Defamation League was more blunt, saying the organization is considered a violent, nationalistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and misogynistic hate group,

A member of an affiliate organization, the Kenosha Guard, shot and killed two anti-racist demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin last month. After the police shooting of Jacob Blake, who was shot seven times in the back during an arrest, a teenage member of the Kenosha Guard killed two anti-racist demonstrators. A week later, there was  a fatal shooting of a member of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group based in the Portland, Oregon area that has clashed with protesters in the past.

The Proud Boy's new logo.

"Stand by," means to be prepared to act and critics say the term implies that at some point, violence may be needed to quell matters such as a disputed election.

Proud Boys leader Joe Biggs wrote on social media that Trump’s remarks gave them  permission to “fuck” up the group’s foes.

"President Trump told the proud boys to stand by because someone needs to deal with ANTIFA... well sir! we're ready!!" Biggs wrote on the social media app Telegram.

Within hours of the debate, the Proud Boys incorporated the phrase into their logo.

Testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee, FBI director Christopher Wray also said most of the racially motivated cases in the U.S. deal are instigated by white supremacists.

"Within the domestic terrorism bucket, the category as a whole, racially motivated violent extremism is, I think, the biggest bucket within that larger group. And within the racially motivated violent extremist bucket, people subscribing to some kind of white supremacist-type ideology is certainly the biggest chunk of that," he said.

"Of the domestic terrorism threats, we last year elevated racially motivated extremism to be a national threat priority commensurate with homegrown violent extremists," Wray added.

The train-wreck of a debate hosted by conservative network Fox was an embarrassment with Trump ignoring the rules agreed to by the candidates' campaign staffs. Moderator Wallace couldn't control Trump, who often spoke over Biden during the former Vice President's attempted to answer Wallace's question. The first ten minutes of the debate was unintelligible because both candidates and Wallace spoke over each other.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this article is news laced with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions. 

Report: TV shows can affect audience attitudes towards immigrants

Americans' perspectives of immigrants can be highly influenced by the television shows that they watch, according to a new study.

Change the Narrative, Change the World: How Immigrant Representation on Television Moves Audiences to Action is a new report examining the portrayal of immigrant characters and storylines across scripted television, and how they can inspire people to real-life action.

"This new data shows how the power of storytelling can engage audiences, shift mindsets, and move people into action," said Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Jose Antonio Vargas, the founder of Define American. 

This new study, by Define American, a nonprofit media advocacy organization that fights anti-immigrant hate and conducted in partnership with the Norman Lear Center Media Impact Project at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, explores how these depictions can foster more inclusive attitudes and beliefs and drive viewers to create and inspire change.

The new research, released Sept. 23, analyzed 129 immigrant characters across 97 episodes of 59 scripted, narrative TV shows on broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms, airing between August 2018 and July 2019. It also surveyed viewers of three TV shows that featured prominent immigration storylines in their 2018-2019 seasons—Madam Secretary (CBS), Orange Is the New Black (Netflix), and Superstore (NBC)—to measure their impact.

The study found that TV shows with nuanced immigrant characters and immigration storylines can shift attitudes and inspire people to real-life action. For each of the three shows, viewers who saw the immigration storyline had more inclusive attitudes toward immigrants than those who did not, including greater comfort meeting undocumented people and opposition to criminalizing undocumented immigrants. Those who saw the immigration storylines were also more likely to take certain related actions, such as speaking to a friend about immigration issues or attending an immigration-related community event.

The "Change the Narrative, Change the World" research suggests there's still significant work needed to achieve more accurate representation across the entertainment industry:

• Immigrants continue to be criminalized, with 22% of all immigrant characters associated with some sort of crime and 10% incarcerated. While this represents a drop from 2018, (in which 34% of immigrant characters were associated with crime), it still reinforces negative stereotypes. In reality, immigrants commit less crime and are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans, according to studies from the CATO Institute and The Marshall Project.
• Undocumented immigrants are heavily overrepresented on TV. Of the characters with an identified immigration status, 63% were undocumented immigrants or asylum seekers. In reality, only 24% of immigrants in the U.S. are unauthorized.
• For the second straight year, specific at-risk immigrant communities were largely invisible, including those with disabilities, transgender immigrants, and undocumented Black immigrants.
• Asian/Pacific Islander (API) representation on TV declined from 2018, from 16% to 12%, when in reality they comprise more than a quarter of immigrants in the U.S.
• The most commonly represented immigration issues included deportation (29% of episodes), ICE (25%), and mentions of the terms "illegal" (22%) and "undocumented" (17%).

"Television and movies can expand our minds and expose us to people and experiences we may not have access to in real life," said Erica Rosenthal, Norman Lear Center Director of Research. "This is why it is so important that content creators include diverse and nuanced representations of immigrants, even in content that doesn't directly address immigration. The attachments that audiences form with series regular immigrant characters on TV, like Superstore's Mateo, can actually compensate for the absence of real-life contact with immigrants."

The report also includes specific recommendations for show creators on how to better represent immigrants and integrate immigration-related storylines into their content, including hiring more immigrant show writers, consulting with immigrant communities, and seeking out compelling stories about underrepresented communities such as LGBTQ+ immigrants, older immigrants, immigrants with disabilities, and undocumented Black immigrants.

"We're calling on creators in the entertainment industry to continue to better develop authentic immigrant characters and storylines, which not only broaden representation, but empower viewers to take action on immigration-related issues," said Vargas.

Census wrestles with shifting deadlines - now Oct. 5 - and natural disasters

Census takers will have a hard time finding the residents of this household.

Ignoring a federal judge’s ruling last week allowing the decennial head count of every U.S. resident to continue through Oct. 31, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross says the 2020 census will end Oct. 5 according to a one-sentence press release issued by the Census Bureau late Monday.

"The Secretary of Commerce has announced a target date of October 5, 2020 to conclude 2020 Census self-response and field data collection operations," said the press release.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh issued a preliminary injunction last Thursday suspending the Sept. 30 deadline and continuing the Census until at least through the end of October.

The press release came as a virtual hearing was being held in San Jose, California, as a follow-up to Koh’s ruling. The injunction issued last week suspended the Census Bureau’s deadline for ending the head count on Sept. 30, which automatically reverted back to an earlier Census Bureau plan ending field operations on Oct. 31.

The Oct. 31 deadline was agreed to by the Bureau because the coronavirus pandemic had derailed to Census timetable and field operations that required enumerators to go the households who had not yet self-reported.

But last August, the Bureau announced a return to the Sept. 31 deadline without explanation.

RESPOND to the U.S. Census online.

A lawsuit of civil rights organizations and local governments led by the National Urban League sought the Census to return to the October 31 deadline. Koh sought and explanation from the Census why the decision was made to revert to the September deadline.

Koh asked federal attorneys during Monday’s hearing to provide documents on how the Oct. 5 date was decided upon. When a federal government lawyer suggested that the decision-making was a moving target without any records, the judge asked, “A one sentence tweet? Are you saying that is enough reason to establish decision-making? A one sentence tweet?”

In her preliminary injunction issued Thursday, Koh said the Sept. 30 deadline would not provide enough time for an accurate count.

As Census takers continue to scramble to complete their task as best as possible while assuming the Oct. 5 deadline would go into effect. Koh had received messages from Census field offices that they were ordered to assume the Sept. 30 deadline was the effective end of their field operations.

Besides determining the political representation for communities, the data from the Census helps allocate about $1.5 trillion for government assistance.

"In 2010, in just watching what happened the census bureau, we know that there were a lot of gaps, maybe a lot of resources that didn’t land in our communities," said Victoria Huynh, Vice President of the Center for Pan Asian Community Services, to  11Alive in Georgia where the AAP community has grown by 83% in the past decade. 

"2020 is a really important time to capture that information, especially as those cities continue to grow and plan for that growth," said Karuna Ramachandran, the Deputy Director of "Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta."

Additionally, the Constitutionally mandated head count is having difficulty in those areas where wildfires and flooding has forced thousands of residents from their homes.

In Northern California, a Census manager told the staff working underneath her Monday that they needed to complete 99% of households in the the Santa Rosa region where new evacuation orders had been sent out because of threatening wildfires by Sept. 30, including 12,000 households yet to be counted in Mendocino County, reported the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, a measure passed by the U.S. House of the Representatives officially extending the deadline to Oct. 31 never went into effect because the Republican-controlled Senate has not voted on it.

The Trump administration is pushing for the early end to the Census because an inaccurate count -- especially of those areas with historically hard-to-count immigrants -- would likely lose representation if they are undercounted. 

The administration's earlier attempts to dissuade immigrants from participating in the Census -- by adding a question about citizenship status to the Census form and to not include undocumented immigrants when drawing boundaries for Congressional districts -- have been ruled illegal by the courts. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this article is news laced with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions. 

L.A. Times apologizes for its 'history of racism'

To underscore the critical nature of the current state of race relations in the United States, the Los Angeles Times issued an apology for the way it portrayed minority communities in the past as an institution enabling the white power structure and vowed to do a better job of reflecting their readers and reporting on concerns of communities of color.

In its Sunday edition, owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong issued this statement in a letter:

“This year, across America, we’ve engaged in conversations about race and discrimination that have been candid, direct and consequential. They are happening among friends and co-workers, through protests and political debates, at athletic events and in pop culture. And they are happening at the Los Angeles Times.”

His letter continued: "We also feel a deep personal responsibility and duty to fight racism and bias. The national reckoning on race and that within the Los Angeles Times are welcome developments that have already led to productive conversations, concrete plans and accelerated progress for us.

"We are committed to change, both because it is just and because it is mission-critical for our business. Only a diverse newsroom can accurately tell this city’s stories. Only a newspaper that holds power to account and uncovers injustice can truly succeed," writes Soon-Shiong.

"The Times has committed to a close examination of its past, beginning with the project we are launching today. It starts with an overview by the editorial board of The Times’ history in covering and employing people of color and an acknowledgment of the paper’s failings. Over the following days, we will run stories by staff reporters and columnists examining in greater depth, and from a personal perspective, aspects of the paper’s coverage of nonwhite communities and treatment of journalists of color."

The paper's editorial went further by recounting some of the stories and issues where the Times failed by writing from a white, Protestant, suburban perspective when writing about communities of color, which in the past were portrayed as crime-ridden ghettoes, ignoring the hardworking, honest residents.

The Times apologized for past editorial positions including the newspaper's strong support of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII and for its endorsement of Proposition 187, which banned health care and social services to undocumented immigrants and which the courts eventually turned down.

The editorial went on to say:

"On behalf of this institution, we apologize for The Times’ history of racism. We owe it to our readers to do better, and we vow to do so. A region as diverse and complex and fascinating as Southern California deserves a newspaper that reflects its communities. Today, 38% of the journalists on our staff are people of color. We know that is not nearly good enough, in a county that is 48% Latino and in a state where Latinos are the largest ethnic group. We know that this acknowledgment must be accompanied by a real commitment to change, a humility of spirit and an openness of mind and heart.

"The Times will redouble and refocus its efforts to become an inclusive and inspiring voice of California — a sentinel that employs investigative and accountability reporting to help protect our fragile democracy and chronicles the stories of the Golden State, including stories that historically were neglected by the mainstream press. Being careful stewards of this new company, privately owned but operated for the benefit of the public, is our first obligation. But that stewardship will also require bold and decisive change. If we are to survive as a business, it will be by tapping into a digital, multicultural, multigenerational audience in a way The Times has never fully done."

It will be interesting to see if other publications that encouraged racist policies or made stitlted portrayals of minorities make similar apologies.

To say that the mea culpa by the Los Angeles Times is long overdue is a vast understatement, but the promises it makes to be more inclusive and to step down from its Ivory Tower should be welcomed, but viewed with cautiously because we've heard these promises before only to have minority journalists leave print careers in droves because they were tired of butting heads against the institution's walls of explicit and implicit bias.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this article is news laced with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions. 

Opinion: A desperate Trump trumpets a racist past

DISNEY

OPINION

Deeper into the rabbit hole we go; where up is down, night is day, science is just a theory and being anti-racist is racist.

Unbelievable, but its true.

Last week, Donald Trump issued one if his fiats, otherwise known as an executive order, that essentially bans diversity training for the military and federal contractors. 
The executive order claims that anti-racism and anti-sexism efforts are, in fact, the real examples of racism and sexism.

"Instructors and materials teaching that men and members of certain races, as well as our most venerable institutions, are inherently sexist and racist are appearing in workplace diversity trainings across the country, even in components of the Federal Government and among Federal contractors," Trump’s order says.

“Americans should be taught to take pride in our Great Country, and if you don’t, there’s nothing in it for you!” tweeted the White House Mad Hatter.

Trump's latest missive claims that anti-racism and anti-sexism efforts are, in fact, the real examples of racism and sexism. Earlier this month, he issued a similar order to federal agencies.

Trump, who has been called a racist by more than a few people, doesn't want to hurt the feelings of white men. Trump is targeting trainings that cause anyone to “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex” as not allowed.

His latest executive order goes along with another policy he began publicly pushing last week: "patriotic education" in a speech he gave at the White House Conference on American History on Sept. 17 held at the National Archive Museum where copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are displayed.

Basically, he wants to return to the school lessons that warped the truth, that negated the loss of Native Americans' tribal lands, the broken treaties. He wants to skip over the ugliness of slavery part because it is too negative and casts a bad light on white slave owners. The Chinese Exclusion Act would be relegated to a line or two in history books; the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII would be painted as a justifiable evil; the colonization of the Philippines  would be cast as saviors carrying out "the white man's burden" of civilizing the "little brown brothers" and the thuggish takeover of the Hawaiian monarchy as a business opportunity.

"Critical race theory, the 1619 Project, and the crusade against American history is toxic propaganda, ideological poison that, if not removed, will dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together. It will destroy our country," the president said Thursday.

Trump said schools need to focus instead on "the legacy of 1776," when American Colonies declared independence from Great Britain. And he would prefer if no one mentioned that most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were slave owners.

The newly formed committee, Trump said, will be called the "1776 Commission" — a not so subtle dig at The New York Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning "1619 Project," which detailed the country's history from when the first enslaved Africans were brought to America's shores and which is available free online.

"American parents are not going to accept indoctrination in our schools, cancel culture at work or the repression of traditional faith, culture and values in the public square," Trump said.

Sure, one can laugh at these outlandish pronouncements as just political stunts meant to rile up his base but it would be dangerous to ignore what Trump is doing: further dividing the country along racial lines by appealing to a genuine fear held by many Whites that they would lose their privileged status in American society.

Its dangerous because it reinforces that perspective of history that has long been taught to generations of American students; that places Whites above all others, a view shared and espoused by white supremacists.

It is why "patriotic" and overwhelmingly white domestic militias are called the most dangerous threat to democracy, according to the FBI. It is that belief that causes them to gather their arms, to freely walk the streets with automatic rifles, unbothered by the police. Their threatening presence at demonstrations against racial inequities threaten the marchers protesting the inequities ingrained in so many of our institutions.

The same day Trump was making his speech, the Southern Poverty Law Center published a poll rhat found that 70% of Americans support anti-racism education policies “to reduce and prevent hate and extremism.” 

A separate poll by the Pew Research Center found that a similar majority believe that acknowledging the flaws and mistakes and continuing to overcome those missteps of our country makes the United States stronger today.

The Trump administration’s attempt to clamp down on teaching a comprehensive history and clamping down on diversity awareness training, which are related but in not the same things, is part of his larger push to reinforce the belief held by his base  that there is a conspiracy on the part of academics, activists, and journalists on the left to rewrite history.

“Let’s face it, so many people believe in conspiracy theories now. So now that (Trump) has ginned up all this angst over conspiracies to take away people’s rights, he’s really scaling it up,” Crenshaw told Time magazine.

Trump has made it clear and plain that his mantra of "Make America Great Again," is code for "Make America White Again." He might be solidifying his supporters but its a dangerous strategy that emboldens the haters and threatens to rip our country apart.

As for the direction of our country under the current White House occupant, one can only sympathize with a bewildered Alice after stumbling into Wonderland, things are getting "curiouser and curiouser."

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this article is news laced with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions. 

Filipino American coach brings Miami Heat to NBA finals

Miami Heat head coach Eric Spoelsra heading to NBA finals.

Eric Spoelstra, the first and only Asian American manager of a major sports franchise, will be returning to the National Basketball League finals after a 7-year absence.

The 50-year old Filipino American head coach last led the Miami Heat to two consecutive NBA championships in 2012 and 2013.

He returns to the finals after his current team beat the Boston Celtics Sunday evening, 125-113, four games to two, at the NBA's coronavirus-free bubble in Orlando, Florida. The Heat will play and the Los Angeles Lakers will begin the championship sseries Wednesday with the Heat playing the role of underdog.

When the Spolestra-led Heat won the two championships, the team had the NBA's first super-team with three sure Hall of Fame players on its roster: Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch.

This time, James will be on the opposing team along with another superstar, 6 foot, 10-inch power forward Anthony Davis.

Spoelestra's team was ranked 5th in the playoff charts and had to upset the No. 1 team, the Milwaukee Bucks. to reach the finals. With a collection of merging players led by star Jimmy Butler, the Heat are decided underdogs in the David vs. Goliath matchup.

When the NBA began staging Filipino Heritage Month several years ago, Spoelstra, whose mother is from the Philippines, was thrilled. “At first, I thought it was just going to be with us. and then I found out Golden State was involved and then I found out it was going to be honored around the NBA, I had goosebumps thinking about it,” Spoelstra said.

“Obviously, my heritage is really important to me and my family and I’m proud to be Filipino. But when it’s recognized in the NBA it’s such a special thing.”

Immigrant from the Philippines appointed director of the Nevada's Office for New Americans

CHARINA DE ASIS

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak announced the appointment of a Filipina American  as Director of the Nevada Office for New Americans. Charina de Asis will be moving from her current Senior Advisor position for the Office to accept this appointment.

“Charina has done a terrific job throughout her career helping those in need and advocating for what she believes in,” said Sisolak upon announcing his newest appointment Aug. 14. 

“Our goals are aligned for the Office for New Americans, and I’m confident that in this position she will work to support our newest neighbors, help them navigate through challenging bureaucratic barriers, assist them in building new businesses, and create a welcoming environment in Nevada. I couldn’t think of a better person to help us achieve those goals than Ms. de Asis.”

Prior to her appointment, de Asis worked in various analyst roles throughout the State in the Department of Public Safety and for the Department of Veteran Services.

De Asis, a Las Vegas resident, also has international experience, spanning multiple continents, that will assist new Americans in their transition. She conducted research for Habitat for Humanity in Bangkok, Thailand, and managed projects for refugees for the Republic of Hungary’s Office of Immigration and Nationality in Debrecen, Hungary, giving her a unique and well-traveled background.

Originally from the Philippines, de Asis began her education at Ateneo de Manila University where she earned a B.A. in International Relations. She later earned an M.A. from Tallinn University of Technology, also in International Relations. 

Filipino Americans make up the largest Asian American group in the state and Nevada's second largest ethnic minority.

Gov't appeal wants to end the Census at the end of September

MinKwon Center for Community Action

MinKwon census outreach staff Fred Liu and Shiza Ranamagar hang Chinese and Korean
language posters at stores last month in Flushing, N.Y.

As expected, the Trump administration is appealing a federal court order that calls for extending the U.S. Census head count to Oct. 31, a month longer than the government's self-imposed Sept. 31 deadline. 

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in the Northern District of California issued her ruling late Thursday and this morning (Friday, Sept.25) the Justice Department filed a notice that it is appealing that order to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Appeals Court would have to issue a decision quickly with the government's plan to end the once-in-decade tally of who is living in the U.S. is next Tuesday, Sept. 30.

The government's action is the latest development in a federal lawsuit over the Trump administration's decision to shorten the timeline for the Constitution-mandated census.

The Census Bureau's own Census Scientific Advisory Committee made up of outside experts unanimously recommended that the Sept. 30 deadline be extended to "ensure a successful completion" in a way that's based on "scientific and methodological expertise."

"When the weather isn't right, we postpone the launching of rockets into space," the committee wrote in their recommendations for the bureau. "The same should be true of the decennial enumeration, the results of which will impact apportionment, redistricting, funding decisions, legal mandates and regulatory uses of decennial Census data over the next decade."

Plaintiffs, led by the National Urban League, are hoping an extension of the Census will improve the accuracy of the count.

"The coronavirus pandemic has set all of us back and created many challenges to get people counted, especially for rural areas such as the Navajo Nation," Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said in a statement. "Today's ruling should be respected to allow the census count to continue without disruption."

According to NPR, "For the Black community, this decision means we have extra time to claim the governmental resources and representation that we've been denied," said Nana Gyamfi, executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, another plaintiff in the lawsuit.

JUDGE LUCY KOH

“The court’s decision affirms our contention that changes to the census schedule will irreparably harm the integrity of the 2020 Census and result in a devastating undercount of vulnerable communities,” said Marc H. Morial, the NUL’s president and chief executive, to the Washington Post. “Career officials at the Census Bureau opposed the shortened schedule precisely for these reasons, and to avoid the perception of political manipulation, and we are confident that integrity and equity will win out over the partisan vandalism that threatens our democracy.”

Meanwhile, a bipartisan Senate bill introduced this month by Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, would extend the count through at least Oct. 31 and extend the data reporting deadline by four months.

Census experts say post-count analysis and adjustments are key to an accurate count; the government’s Replan would have shortened it from six months to three months. A date extension approved by lawmakers could be vetoed by the president but still could add weight to challenges in court.

An undercount of hard-to-count communities, including the Black, Latino and AAPI communities, immigrants and undocumented Americans, would affect representation in Congress and local governments and affect disbursement of trillions of dollars in government assistance and social services, as well as the awarding of infrastructure projects in the cities, counties and states where large numbers of the hard-co-count communities reside.

The census also forms the sampling frame for thousands of surveys that impact decisionmaking over the next 10 years. All of these uses have long-term effects on public and private investments in communities—and particularly, communities of color.

The U.S. is undergoing a period of racial reckoning and the information from the Census is the basis for economic, social, marketing and business decisions.

Recent analyses show that the nation’s younger generations are the most racially diverse ever, with nonwhite racial groups accounting for more than half of all births and persons ages under 16. Because the white population is aging and declining in number among younger age groups, it is important that the 2020 census reflects the full diversity of the country’s youth. This will ensure that younger people of color and their families get their due in how political decisions are made, how funding gets allocated, and where schools, housing, hospitals, and employment sites are located. Investments in this young, diverse generation are critical for their—and the nation’s—future.

"We will all pay a huge price if they are undercounted in a flawed census," states an analysis from the nonpartisan Brookings Institute.

"If it isn’t stopped, the Trump administration’s last-ditch effort to hijack the 2020 census will have devastating, long-term consequences for the nation, especially its youth. Let us hope that Congress and the judicial system intervene in time to save this vital government institution."

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this article is news laced with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions. 

AAPI women oppose Trump's radical nominee, Amy Barrett, for the Supreme Court

SCREEN CAPTURE / C-SPAN

Amy Barrett was questioned upon her nomination to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

UPDATED Sept. 27 to include statement from Kamala Harris.

Wanting to have a replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in place before the November presidential elections, Donald Trump intends to nominate U.S. Circuit Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, according to several media outlets.

Opposition to the deeply conservative Barrett came quickly from the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF). In a statement released Friday, NAPAWF has a track record of harming the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, pregnant people, immigrants, and more.

Trump committed to picking a woman to replace Ginsberg and has narrowed his choices between Barrett and Judge Barbara Lagoa from Florida. He appears to favor Barrett, the more extreme rightwing of the two with a long track record supporting her reputation.

Barrett is a longtime opponent of the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare," and if confirmed could invalidate the law that would affect two million AAPI during a pandemic. A legal challenge to ACA is expected to be heard in November after the 2020 presidential election.

“At a time when the rights and dignity of immigrant communities and communities of color face daily assaults, we need a Supreme Court justice who will protect the rights that we have fought for,"  said Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive direcctor of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. " Amy Coney Barrett is not that justice."

Awaiting to question Barrett if Trump nominates her, are Senators Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris, the latter is  also the Vice President nominee for the Democrats. Both senators are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and are noted for their sharp questioning of Trump appointees to the judicial system.

“Just yesterday, I paid my respects to the legendary Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who devoted her life to fighting for Equal Justice Under Law and a more fair and just world," Harris wrote Saturday. "Her passing is devastating, and it would be a travesty to replace her with a justice who is being selected to undo her legacy and erase everything she did for our country."

Harris, a former prosecutor, in particular, gained national notoriety for her aggressive questioning which unsettled conservative nominees, including Attorney General William Barr, former AG Jeff Sessions and Brett Kavanaugh, who was seeking the committee's recommendation for the Supreme Court.

Barrett's "track record shows us who she is and how she will rule from a seat on the Supreme Court. She is opposed to health care access, including abortion, and through her support of sex-selective abortion bans, demonstrated that she supports the racial profiling of Asian American and Pacific Islander women based on nothing more than disproven stereotypes about our communities.," continued Choimorrow's statement.

"AAPI women and other women of color stand to be critically impacted by the next Supreme Court justice, who will have opportunities to vote on decisions governing immigrant rights, voting rights, health care access, and workers’ rights -- issues that disproportionately affect the lives of communities of color. We will fight against this confirmation because this is a fight for our families and our lives,” She said.

NAPAWF said the women's advocate organization is opposed to Barrett’s nomination for the Supreme Court for the following reasons:

• Barrett criticized Chief Justice John Roberts for his decision to uphold Congress’s authority to enact large portions of the ACA. A week after the election, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Trump’s lawsuit to overturn the ACA, which has enabled more than 2 million AAPIs to get coverage.

• Barett signed a letter criticizing the ACA requirement that employers include contraceptive coverage as part of their employer-sponsored health insurance plans. For AAPI women, who already use less effective contraceptive methods, insurance coverage of contraceptive methods is critical to ensuring access to effective contraception.

• Trump has repeatedly promised to appoint only justices who will take away our right to abortion, and leadership from several anti-abortion activist groups have expressed their support for Barrett’s consideration for a seat on the Supreme Court.

• In 2018, Judge Barret joined a dissenting opinion in a ruling that had held unconstitutional an Indiana law banning sex-selective abortion. Sex-selective abortion bans racially profile AAPI women for discriminatory questioning based on the racist and false stereotype that we terminate pregnancies based on son preference and may ultimately deny them care.

• Barrett consistently rules against immigrants seeking relief from deportation. For example, Barrett cast the deciding vote permitting the deportation of a lawful resident who resided in the U.S. for 30 years.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this article is news laced with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions. 

Daniel Dae Kim testifies to Congress on the need for diversity in the media

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Daniel Dae Kim vertually testified to Congress.

Actor Daniel Dae Kim gently chastised the 164 Republicans in the House of representatives who voted against a. resolution condemning anti-Asian acts and sentiment. 

"Who wouldn’t support condemning racism in 2020, a full 50 years after the Civil Rights Movement?" asked Kim, who was testifying before Congress to the House of Representative's Judiciary Committee on the topic: "Diversity in America: The Representation of People of Color in the Media."

"But as I looked at the roll call, I saw that 164 representatives in the House voted against it. That’s more than a third of the members of Congress, and more than 80% of the Republican members of the House, -- including many of you watching me right now -- that could not simply say that anti-Asian sentiment is wrong and should be condemned," he said, deliverin his remarks virtually.

The Korean American actor, who has expanded his role in Hollywood to become a successful producer, was the only Asian American asked to testify Thursday. 

Following is his submitted testimony:

To be honest, when I was approached to be a part of this hearing, I initially declined. I thought “Why do we need to have a hearing on the importance of diversity? 

It seems self evident that from its creation, America as we know it has been built on the principles of freedom. Freedom of religion, freedom from tyranny and freedom of speech. 

In fact the very words inscribed at the at the base of the Statue of Liberty echo with the resounding power of these ideas: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! These words signify freedom and safe harbor to all who have suffered, regardless of from where they came. Nowhere does it specify that these ideas only apply to those who are white, or male, or Catholic, or heterosexual. Almost by definition, they are an invitation to diversity – diversity of thought and diversity of people. 

So I thought, there’s no need for me to express my thoughts on the subject. 

Then I thought of House Resolution 908, passed just this past Friday. I’m sure you all recall it. It was a bill that simply asked to condemn and denounce anti-Asian sentiment, racism, discrimination, and religious intolerance related to COVID-19. To me, it was a no-brainer. Who wouldn’t support condemning racism in 2020, a full 50 years after the Civil Rights Movement? But as I looked at the roll call, I saw that 164 representatives in the House voted against it. That’s more than a third of the members of Congress, and more than 80% of the Republican members of the House, - including many of you watching me right now - that could not simply say that Anti-Asian sentiment is wrong and should be condemned. That was all the reason I needed to rethink my decision, and it’s why I am here before you today. 

Now you may ask yourself, what does Anti-Asian sentiment have to do with representation and diversity in media? The short answer is that the two are inextricably intertwined. The media has always been a reflection of our values and culture. 

From the early days of television and the popularity of shows like “Dick Van Dyke,” “Ed Sullivan Show,” and “Leave it to Beaver” we got a glimpse into what it meant to be American in the 50’s. Clean cut times when the biggest problem for our hero was being the only boy invited to a girls birthday party (an actual storyline, btw). 

One look at how different programming is today is a simple reminder of how much our society has changed. A show like “Breaking Bad” or “Atlanta” would hardly make sense in the context of America in the 50’s. Another way that our storytelling has changed from those times is in those who are telling the stories. Where in the 50’s all we had to say was “Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane!” and you know the rest… we would expect to see our hero, who was white, as were most of our heroes, the and now. In fact he was so white that though he was an alien from a planet 27 light years away, he was able to convince everyone that he actually grew up in Kansas! 

But today one of the exception to that rule also happens to be America’s highest grossing Superhero film of all time: Black Panther. A film set in a fictitious country in Africa with African American leads. Which leads me to my next point. 

Not only does representation in media reflect the culture of its times, but it also helps shape its values. In the same way that cigarettes are essentially a nicotine delivery system, so is our media a Value delivery system. And that is a responsibility. One that I believe all of us who are producers and creators must take seriously. 

As a delivery system for values, it is essential that we foster the principles upon which America is built; one of which is that all men are created equal. Our programming must reflect this. Rather than reinforcing and let’s face it, CREATING stereotypes – let’s think about that for a minute: how many times have you, esteemed members of Congress, remember something you saw on film or television, maybe as a kid, and asked “Are people like that in real life?” Perhaps watched a Bruce Lee movie and asked yourself if all Asian people know Kung Fu? Or watched Annie Hall and asked do all Californians eat alfalfa sprouts and plates of mashed yeast? Maybe not as a grownup, but it’s very possible that it happened when you were a kid and entertainment was your primary passport to the world. I know that when I was a kid, who I saw on screen shaped my perceptions, and I also know I was, and still am, a victim, of stereotyping, based on the way media has portrayed people of color. 

Counteracting those misperceptions is one of the primary reasons I created my own production company. I believe that we must work to create fully realized characters from all places and backgrounds, and showcase them in stories where they can lead, be heroes, be complex, or in some cases, just be simple slice-of-life folks like the Cleavers. Because after all, if you believe that there are good people everywhere around the world, then it is important that our media reflect them and that notion. 

To be clear, I can’t wait for the day that we no longer have to have hearings like this about diversity. I can’t wait to for people to say “Can you believe there was a time when people thought all Latino-Americans were illegal immigrants, or that all Muslims were terrorists?” 

That is the goal, to have so many different portrayals of all races and religions that, as Martin Luther King so eloquently put it, people be judged by “the content of their character,” not “the color of their skin.” But we’re not there yet. 

No doubt that you about to be bombarded by statistics that will all reinforce my point, but beyond just the numbers is the stark reality that if you believe that in America, “All men - and women - are created equal, we must continue to do our very best and send that message through our media – both entertainment and news – and also acknowledge that diversity is what continues to make America, like Lady Liberty herself, a beacon for the world. 

Perhaps then when a bill like 908 comes up, every one of our elected representatives can unanimously show empathy for those who are being mistreated, instead of an embarrassingly high number choosing to see Asian Americans as invisible and ignoring an issue that, like so many others in our society today, occurs on a daily basis and yet, is willfully ignored. 

Better yet, what I ultimately hope for is the day when there really isn’t a need for a resolution like this at all because hate crimes become nothing more than a relic from a shameful past. Proper representation in the media is one of the most powerful ways we can make that future a reality. Thank you.