#internal displacement

Shared and hosted by tigrayupdate:

“Seeing our people suffering for so long brings tears. We should all contribute whatever little as we celebrate the New Year with hope of the repatriation to their homes.

Since the onset of the Genocidal War in Tigray in November 2020, over 2 million people have been displaced or ethnically cleansed due to the violence. Although some have managed to return to their homes after enduring harsh conditions in IDP camps, hundreds of thousands are still stuck in these camps, unable to go back due to the Governments' failure to implement the Pretoria Agreement.

Nearly four years have passed since our people were forced from their homes, which remain occupied by #Amhara and #Eritrean forces. Let's support those still suffering and work towards a brighter future for them.”

EL PASO, Texas – Illegal guns are flowing into Mexico from the U.S. at a record pace, and the Mexican government isn’t happy about that.

Mexican officials say those guns are contributing to rising homicide rates in their country and empowering transnational criminal organizations blamed for most of the 120,000 murders reported in Mexico in the past three years.

“We estimate that half a million weapons are trafficked from the U.S. to Mexico every year. The problem is that all this weaponry is getting to the criminal organizations, giving them very strong firepower to commit all kinds of crimes,” said Mauricio Ibarra Ponce de Leon, Mexico’s consul general in El Paso.

Ibarra says Mexico has strict gun laws and its single army-run gun store only issues a couple of hundred gun licenses per year. Virtually every gun used to commit a crime comes from abroad, and seven out of 10 are traced back to the United States, records show.

A recent case in El Paso federal court tells of a local convicted of dealing firearms without a license. The man allegedly purchased 49 guns and rifles from 12 dealers and was detected driving into Mexico shortly after the purchases. The guns included 9mm Berettas and semi-automatic rifles.

Alleged lack of accountability in similar prior cases led Mexico to sue American gun manufacturers in Massachusetts federal court in August.

“We have never meddled with the Second Amendment. This is not against the rights of the people of the United States to buy and own a gun,” Ibarra said. “We (sued) gun manufacturers and distributors we believe are engaging in negligent commercial practices because they know the weaponry they produce is being trafficked to Mexico and is being used in criminal activity.”

The gun manufacturers are fighting the civil lawsuit, whose next hearing date is Nov. 22.

While not commenting on the litigation, a number of U.S. federal agencies say American guns going into Mexico represent a “national security threat.” Such activity hasn’t waned during the COVID-19 pandemic and has extended into the highly profitable distribution of dangerous synthetic drugs.

Ibarra says his country is actively cooperating with the United States to make a dent on the problem, as evidenced by the exchange of information on U.S. guns found in Mexico.

“In the end, this affects everybody. Many people are dying — civilians” the consul said. “And then we have social aspect of providing medical care for the injured and people having to flee their communities because of the violence.”

Episode:

• I remember this episode. Danny returns, Liz Bartlet returns cause her shitbag husband is “banging the nanny” (I’m still salty we didn’t see Bartlet’s reaction to that)

• hi Danny. Still not sure how I feel about him. Also where the hell did he go? Did he just leave the White House press corps?

• “I think he might be banging the nanny.”

“Is that a euphemism?”

• Is Margaret not pregnant anymore?

• I love the look CJ gives to Kate after she sees Doug and Liz on TV and says “they look good.” Like “you don’t know the half of it. He’s a shitbag who’s probably cheating on his wife.”

• “Close the door.”

“I didn’t do it.”

“Close the door.”

“Toby did it.”

• “I can’t act. I’m a terrible actor.”

Classic Bradley Whitford

• I guess the nanny is for the son Gus, (who’s either a preschooler or elementary schooler) cause Annie’s at least 12 (or 14 or who knows what age...shoutout to time indiscrepancies)

• “They have children.”

“Sure. It’d be stupid to have a nanny if you didn’t have kids

• “I’m just saying if you’re interested in the male perspective.”

“Always. I find it raises the level of the discussion.”

• I like how CJs watching Santos make his announcement and Margaret looks at her sideways like she knows what Santos is gonna day and how CJs gonna react.

and then when CJ yells “son of a bitch!” and Margaret nods her head behind her.

I just love Margaret

• Doug is so annoying

• CJs just having a lovely day at work isn’t she?

• “Liz is going to kill him.”

Wait till she finds out he’s sleeping with the nanny.

Oh wait I forgot she already knows

• damn CJ almost told him!!! I know west wing likes to do the thing where they don’t show certain things and it’s left up to the viewers imagination but damn I would’ve loved to have seen Bartlet find out about Doug’s affair

• man I was so confused as to why Kate was asking if the nanny was cute. and then when she said “I’ve spent my life surrounded by men in uniform” I was like...are you...bored by men...converting to the other team? 👀 but then she said “biology kicks virtues ass in my experience” and then I realized she was just basically saying men are horndogs

• “That’s disgusting. He should die. The bastard should just be dead. I should sic special ops on him, make him a tradgedy she can cry over.”

• “Liz Westin’s in your office.”

CJ: *mariah carey meme* I don’t know her

• ok but how is it “the best thing for your children” to have Bartlet be there with Doug? Shouldn’t their children see Doug giving it his all, doing it on his own and then win or lose showing he put effort into it or some crap like that?

• show CJ telling Bartlet about Doug you cowards

• “So if I’m gonna jump off a cliff, and you’re gonna get pushed off a cliff, why don’t we hold hands on the way down?”

Danny was definitely going to propose god dammit

Podcast:

• guest star: Bradley Whitford and Annabeth Gish

• Bradley knew he wanted Allison to be at the center of this episode, and to look at what CJs life would be like at the end of this experience.

“I was really interested in this idea of what it feels like, because it felt like something I could connect to, of what it was like to be knowing, especially for a woman, to be knowing that they have perhaps been socialized to think that they are missing something by being so successful professionally and what it feels like when that extraordinary out there in the world working experience is about to end.”

He also wanted to find some way to do was just to humiliate Josh on national TV.

• The most exciting Sorkin writing is a contrast between the urgency of the issues and some sort of slap stick element.

• lol Brad forgot CJ and Danny got together at the end and had a baby, so he wasn’t even thinking about that when he wrote their scenes together.

• Brad found it hard to remember his own lines, which he wrote.

“I associate the ability to easily memorize something with good writing, and so it was heart breaking for me that I couldn’t memorize.”

• “Everytime I go to do anything at NBC they are aggressively trying, as if I have any power or effect, to get some sort of reunion episode or series of episodes going. I am not convinced, what do you think Josh?”

“I think, taking it out of it, it’s not a good idea. Save for somehow Aaron coming up with something that is a good idea.”

And now we have 10 days until the west wing reunion written by Aaron Sorkin. Dreams really do exist.

• Annabeth auditioned for a role back in the early seasons. (Damn I wanna know what role it was.)

• “I think there’s a wasted sadness about Liz, right? She could have been great. She could have followed in her father’s footsteps probably more so than the other two daughters, than Ellie or, you know what I mean, just because she has that ability.”

“And you can see in this scene that she is the better abled- maybe to take on a public mantel and hold office she’s got character, she’s got wisdom, all these things that her husband appears to lack.”

“Yes, it makes me wonder why she married him.”

• “The other thing that I wish I could have seen is that scene between C.J. and the president when she knocks on the door, like what did she say? And what was his reaction? Clearly she’s saying Doug had an affair, Liz knows, yadda yadda but then I wanna know what Dad called and said to me. Just all those unsaid unwritten elements.”

“Yeah for someone whose been established as such an overprotective father, the rage that the President must have at the moment, it would have been interesting to see.”