Wednesday June 28, 2002 Number 4

Human trafficking takes several forms.

• 16 million are trafficked for forced labor in private companies.

• 4.8 million are trafficked for forced sexual exploitation.

• 4.1 million people are trafficked for state-imposed forced labor in .

• 24.9 million people are human trafficked worldwide.

www.safehorizon.org

"It is estimated that between 15,000 to 50,000 women and children are forced into sexual slavery in the United States every year,"

https://deliverfund.org/facts-about-human-trafficking-in-the-us/

"Human traffickers have no true empathy or other feelings for their victims. They commonly force sex trafficking victims into using drugs as a way to combat the trauma and emotional distress from being exploited."

https://amuedge.com/gaining-insight-into-the-mentality-of-human-traffickers/

The extant research demonstrates that offenders engaging in the sex trafficking of juveniles (STJ) have high rates of psychopathy as 75% of offenders assessed on the PCL-R met the criteria for psychopathy .

(Hargreaves-Cormany, Patterson, & Muirhead, 2016).

"May we not think of freedom as the right to do as we please,

but as the opportunity to do what is right."

Peter Marshall

10 Ways You Can Help End Trafficking

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Office on Trafficking in Persons

An Office of the Administration for Children & Families

Listen>

Know the Signs

Learn the red flags and indicators of trafficking. Challenge common myths (PDF) about trafficking with facts.

Report a Tip

Contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline if you have any concerns about a potential trafficking situation. Call 1-888-373-7888, text HELP to BEFREE (233733), or email help@humantraffickinghotline.org.

Spread the Word

Share and display HHS Look Beneath the Surface and DHS Blue Campaign awareness resources in your community. Let everyone know that the National Human Trafficking Hotline is here to help.

Think Before You Shop

Consider how you shop and eat . Who made your clothes? Who prepared your food? Calculate your Slavery Footprint , and know which goods may be produced by child or forced labor.

Tell Your Friends: Demand Fuels Exploitation

The U.S. Government has zero tolerance policies for employees, uniformed service members, and contractors paying for sex. Learn more about the Federal Acquisition Regulations and human trafficking (PDF).

Volunteer Locally

Ask anti-trafficking organizations in your community how you can support them. Perhaps they need volunteers or you could help with an awareness event.

Stay Informed

Sign up for DOJ human trafficking news alerts, follow relevant organizations on social media, read reports as they are released, or check out OTIP’s newsfeed.

Register for Training

OTIP’s National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center trains public health professionals and the Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center supports the criminal justice system.

Use Your Skills

Can you train or hire survivors? Reach out to potential local partners. Do you work in a school? Propose anti-trafficking protocols. Are you an attorney? Offer pro-bono services. Writing a story? Use media best practices. Work in hospitals or clinics? Encourage your colleagues to register for the SOAR to Health and Wellness training.

Raise Your Voice

Ask representatives how they are addressing human trafficking. Let them know what your community needs.

https://www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/about/ways-endtrafficking

Tuesday, June 28, 2022 Number 3

Sunday, June 26, 2022 Number 2

And They Abdicated Their Responsibilities

The overthrow of a government begins with lies...

Recent appointees to SCODUS said they saw no need to relitigate existing rulings such as Roe v Wade.

They lied.

...It continues with whispers...

Roe v Wade came to the forefront.

...And then the rights of some begin to disappear...

Women are targeted.

Roe v Wade overturned.

...It will continue...

Will the rights of other Non-White Men,

Non-Heterosexual Peoples be rescinded?

...The whispers will become shouts...

If you are not a white, heterosexual

man you are in trouble.

...The Solution?...

Become Active.

Vote.

Vote out corrupt politicians.

Vote out the Radical Right.

Vote for honest, upstanding people.

Make your voice be heard.

Republican congressional leadership blindly abdicated their responsibility as a check and balance against a tyrant's insurrection on January 6th.

Tuesday, June 21, 2022 Number 1

Tyranny

Our founding fathers wished to create a nation free from the tyranny of a monarchy and its oppressive royal entourage. Exploitation, heavy taxation, and oppression were key factors in the Revolutionary War and the formation of our government.

We have had corrupt Presidents. Those wishing to impose their will on the people for their own ambitions. Wilson, during World War I strongarmed the people into give money to his war effort with claims of patriotic duty. He used a, then young and unknow man named Hubert Hoover to pressure companies to, in turn, pressure their employees by claiming them as unpatriotic and firing them if they did not participate in the War Dollars Campaign.

Richard Nixon abused his power as President to justify his infiltration of the Water Gate building to obtain plans and information of the Democrat Party.

Hitler used peoples fear and hatred to fuel the fires of that would bring him to power and claim the dominance and superiority of the Aryan Race.

Ghastly Experiment

It was once asked by a group of sociologists, following the end of World War II, if what happened in Germany with the rise of Adolf Hitler could happen here in the United States? Through a series of, now considered unethical, experiments they tested a statistically significant portion of the population to see if they could get them to respond to unreasonable and unethical demands from an authority figure.

In this experiment a lead researcher asked test subjects to help another individual, A, (who was part of the experiment) to learn a list of words. Each time a test of individual A’s memory was conducted the list was lengthened. An authority figure sat with the test subjects and ordered them to press a button to administer a shock to A if he were to fail to recite the list correctly. After each shock the voltage was increased.

Individual A did not actually participate in the experiment. Individual A simply met with the test subjects and then was placed in a room with only audio contact with the test subjects and the researcher. Once the experiment began A simply played back pre-recorded responses to the list learning objective. As the experiment progressed A’s recorded responses became more alarming. Eventually they became screams of agony, claims of a heart attack and finally no response. Despite the test subject’s belief that A may be dying or dead, they were ordered to keep administering the list of words and shocking A if he failed to recite the list correctly or at all.

What happened was many fo the test subjects continued to press the button that shocked A every time the authority figure ordered them, even after the test subjects were in great distress and feared that Individual A was dead.

The conclusion drawn by this experiment was that, indeed, an authoritative and charismatic figure such as Adolf Hitler could rise to power in the United States and people would do the bidding of such a powerful and influential individual.

Enter, Donald J. Trump.

The United States of America is one the greatest nations, but it certainly isn’t perfect. It was founded with slavery as a major economic and social factor. The 3/5ths Compromise was instituted to increase the population count in some states and the South. It meant that every slave counted as 60% of a white person in representation but not with the ability to vote. It does not yet have freedom and liberty for all. It is still highly influenced by the wealthy. The U.S. still treats people of color and of varying sexes unequally. Women and people of color are still dealt with as inferior. But we are working on it. Our constitution was only a first step, and most importantly it allowed for additional changes in the form of amendments. One author of the Constitution, George Mason, refused to sign the document because it did not contain a Bill of Rights. He opposed the Constitutional Convention's refusal to end slavery.

Our constitution establishes a system of checks and balances in the form of three branches of government. The legislative, comprised of both Houses of Congress, has the job of creating laws. The executive branch is comprised of the President. The President can either affirm or veto legislations that comes out of Congress. Finally, there is the judicial branch, which is the Supreme Court, whose job it is to rule on the legality and the interpretation of laws that are passed by both of the Houses and the President.

Our Founding Fathers did not establish a two-party system. Hamilton saw the advantage of debate and counter opinions offered up during the hammering out of laws, but it was not until 1796 that the two-party system evolved. The people themselves were the ones to establish parties and the parties often had strong opposing viewpoints.

What our Founding Fathers did not count on were the possibilities that cultural, social, and economic differences might split the nation into two parts, leading to the Civil War and that the two parties might become so diametrically opposed that an insurrection might take place, as happened January 6, 2021. Both events have left deep scars upon the face of our nation.

The use of enslaved people during the beginning of our nation was a travesty of epic proportions. To build an economy and culture only sustainable with the use of enslaved human beings is inhumane, unjust, unethical, and giving the white majority the belief that they were superior.

Sadly, January 6^th happened, in part, because the scar on our nation from the events leading to Civil War never healed. On January 6^th prejudice, bigotry, hatred, and disregard for the teachings of the past rose to the surface and boiled over leading to an attempt to overthrow the workings of our government and the most basic premise of the peaceable transition of power from one President to the next.

The House Jan 6 Committee has shown via the actions of the then sitting President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, brought about the Insurrection of Jan 6^th. He tried to strongarm the Vice-President, Mike Pence, into rejecting the count of the Electoral College vote and encouraged groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to storm the Capital. But there is much more to this story. There are many questions that we must answer.

• What brought Trump to power?

• Why have so many Republicans blindly followed Trump?

• Why did the very Republicans whose lives were in danger during the January 6^th insurrection recant their condemnation of the events that took place during January 6^th?

• Why didn’t Donald J. Trump call in the National Guard?

• Why do so many Americans believe the lies of Donald J. Trump?

• Why did Donald J. Trump encourage Americans not to get vaccinated even after he became infected and received the most advanced care not available to the average American?

• Why didn’t Donald J. Trump tell Americans about the Corona Virus Threat when he first learned about it?

• Why are Republicans blocking most legislation proposed by Democrats that would advance the will of the People?

• Why is reasonable gun control a Democrat’s goal and not a bi-partisan Congressional goal?

• Why does Donald J. Trump condemn a free press, referring to most news media as “Fake News?”

An insurrection cannot be allowed to stand without retort.

The separation of our nation into two opposing parties was not the intent of our Founding Fathers. The two-party system came about as groups of people saw themselves as too different from others thus forming parties to promote their beliefs.

Donald J. Trump has, with the aid of his allies, festered the hatred, bigotry, and malevolence that already exists in the hearts of many white Americans.

It is incumbent upon every citizen of this country to decide what kind of nation in which they wish to live and leave to future generations.

A free press is tantamount to being the 4th check and balance on government.

If many independent agencies report the same event as occurring in the same way it is probable that the event took place.

One of the current failings of the United States is to have allow the consolidation of news agencies under just a few corporate owners. Deregulation of news medias across the nation has allowed corporate ownership of many news agencies and have brought about the loss of the important, independent and essential sources of information about the ongoings in our society and government, leading to a lack of confidence in news gathering and feeding into the position of Donald J. Trump's declaration of "Fake News."

...and then there are brighter moments.

A True American. Even though Russ Bower supported Donald J. Trump for President, he refused to be pressured by Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and others to replace the Electors from his state with fake Electors.