The Quietus
, February 27th, 2021 09:13
Patrick Wright, author of the new book, The Sea View Has Me Again: Uwe Johnson in Sheerness, talks to Simon Matthews about the moral utopia in the Thames Estuary
Brent geese over Shellness and nudist beach. All pictures courtesy Patrick Wright
We live in interesting times. Who would have thought that the odyssey of legendary East Germany writer Uwe Johnson, from the Baltic to Sheerness forty-five years ago, would have resonance today in a political and social landscape scarred by Brexit? A legendary figure in European literature, Johnson chose to settle in a cheerful working-class town with a steel works and port, that echoed in many ways the GDR he left, and had views across the Thames Estuary not unlike the Baltic seascapes of his native Pomerania.
Washington Free Beacon Senate candidate John Hickenlooper (D., Colo.) / Getty Images
February 8, 2021 4:02 PM
Colorado Democrats are pushing to censure Sen. John Hickenlooper (D., Colo.) after he voted in favor of an amendment barring illegal immigrants from receiving federal stimulus checks.
Three Colorado members of the DNC requested the Colorado Democratic Party censure Hickenlooper for violating the party platform with his vote in the Senate last week, according to
Denver Post reporter Justin Wingerter.
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The freshman senator and former Colorado governor joined seven other Democrats and all Senate Republicans to block pandemic stimulus checks from going to illegal immigrants. The amendment, which passed 58-42, is nonbinding and will likely do little to change federal policy on the matter, as provisions preventing illegal immigrants from receiving stimulus funds already exist under current law.
The King’s College in Manhattan Business Professor Brian Brenberg weighs in on policy under the Biden administration so far, the upcoming coronavirus stimulus package and school closures.
The Senate on Thursday approved an amendment to block illegal immigrants from receiving stimulus checks, as part of a marathon vote-a-rama with eight Democrats voting in favor of it.
The amendment, introduced by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Todd Young, R-Ind., would bar any direct stimulus payments being distributed to those in the country illegally. Economic Impact Payments were intended to provide a lifeline to Americans struggling to make ends meet during the coronavirus pandemic. They were not intended for people who are in our country illegally, Young said. Our amendment would ensure that people who break our immigration laws aren’t receiving taxpayer-funded handouts.
Two days after the Biden administration issued an executive order to end the Department of Justice s reliance on private prisons, Representative Jason Crow and other members of Congress called on the president to also commit to ending the use of private prisons for immigrant detention. The Federal Government has a responsibility to ensure the safe and humane treatment of those in its care, and that must be as true for individuals detained in private prisons in DOJ custody as it is for individuals detained in private prisons in the Department of Homeland Security custody. We stand ready to work with the Biden Administration to end the use of private immigration detention facilities by ICE, 75 members of Congress stated in a January 28 letter organized by representatives Crow, Pramila Jayapal and Raul Ruiz to David Pekoske, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.