Showing posts with label Anti-Semitism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anti-Semitism. Show all posts

We Resist: Day 880

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, June 18, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.

So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Late yesterday and earlier today by me: Today in Misogyny. And Every Day. and Trump Announces Massive Sweep of Undocumented Immigrants and Primarily Speaking.

Here are some more things in the news today...

[Content Note: Nativism. Covers entire section.]

Hamed Aleaziz at BuzzFeed: USCIS Director Appears to Warn Asylum Officers in an Email to "Do Our Part". "The newly appointed leader of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Ken Cuccinelli, sent an email to staffers Tuesday in which he appeared to push asylum officers to stop allowing some migrants seeking refuge in the country passage at an initial screening at the border. 'Under our abused immigration system if an alien comes to the United States and claims a fear of return the alien is entitled to a credible fear screening by USCIS and a hearing by an immigration judge,' Cuccinelli wrote to USCIS staffers. ...He told staffers that USCIS needed to do 'our part to help stem the crisis and better secure the homeland.'" The homeland. JFC.

Faith Karimi at CNN: Body of a 6-Year-Old Girl from India Is Found in the Arizona Desert. "The body of a 6-year-old girl believed to be from India was found in a remote desert area in Arizona this week, officials said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the girl was trying to cross into the United States with a group of people from her country. Her body was discovered 17 miles west of Lukeville, just over the U.S.-Mexico border. The group was trying to get into the U.S. after human smugglers dropped them off near the Mexico border, the agency said in a statement Thursday. Temperatures in the rugged wilderness where agents found her remains Wednesday hovered around 108 degrees."

Deaths in the desert are going to become more commonplace as the Trump Regime escalates its violation of international law by refusing to allow refugees to seek asylum at the border. That will inevitably force more people to try to cross the border illegally in search of safety.


(If you don't know why that last item was posted in this section, this is why.)

* * *

Devan Cole at CNN: Trump Downplays Tanker Attacks in Contrast to His National Security Team. "Donald Trump, in contrast to statements by his own top aides, downplayed recent attacks on two fuel tankers in the Gulf of Oman that his administration has blamed on Iran, calling them 'very minor.' The disconnect between Trump's comments in an interview with Time magazine — in which he also warned that he would 'certainly' go to war with Iran were the country to develop nuclear weapons — and recent statements by national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo come at a time of escalating military posturing between the two countries and a heightened risk of confrontation."

Eliana Johnson at Politico: Trump Prepares to Bypass Congress to Take on Iran. "The Trump administration and its domestic political allies are laying the groundwork for a possible confrontation with Iran without the explicit consent of Congress — a public relations campaign that was already well underway before top officials accused the Islamic Republic of attacking a pair of oil tankers last week in the Gulf of Oman. Over the past few months, senior Trump aides have made the case in public and private that the administration already has the legal authority to take military action against Iran, citing a law nearly two decades old that was originally intended to authorize the war in Afghanistan."

Kate Riga at TPM: Pentagon Sending 1,000 More Troops to Middle East as Iran Tensions Escalate. "Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan announced Monday that the Pentagon is dispatching 1,000 more troops to the Middle East in the wake of the blown-up oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman."

They're ramping up for war as fast as they can. Meanwhile...


* * *

[CN: Gun violence; white supremacy; misogyny; death] Kelly Weill and Justin Glawe at the Daily Beast: Dallas Federal Building Shooter Posted Far-Right Memes About Nazis and Confederacy.
A Texas man accused of opening fire outside a Dallas courthouse uploaded right-wing memes to Facebook, including memes about Nazism and the Confederacy.

Authorities said Brian Clyde, 22, attacked the Earle Cabell federal courthouse Monday morning before law enforcement killed him. No one else was reported injured. A Dallas Morning News photograph of Clyde shows him holding a semi-automatic rifle and wearing a belt full of ammunition. He appears to have uploaded to his Facebook page a picture of similar magazines on Saturday. Elsewhere on the page, he shared memes, some of which suggested racist or misogynist views.

...Last week, Clyde uploaded a Facebook video suggesting plans with a gun.

"I don't know how much longer I have, but a storm is coming. However, I'm not without defense," he said in the brief video, pulling out a rifle. "I'm fuckin' ready. Let's do it."

On Saturday, he uploaded a picture of 10 gun magazines. On Sunday, he uploaded a picture of a sword with the caption "A modern gladius to defend the modern Republic."

Clyde served in the Army from 2015 to 2017, though details of his discharge were not available.
[CN: Anti-semitism; violence] Luke Barnes at ThinkProgress: California Man Arrested for Allegedly Plotting to Kill Jews Walks Free After Posting Bail. "A California man who allegedly wanted to carry out a mass shooting of Jews and police officers has been released from custody after he posted $125,000 bail over the weekend. [Redacted], 23, was taken into custody last week after a joint investigation by the FBI and police in Concord, on the outskirts of San Francisco. ...When police searched his home, they allegedly discovered a homemade AR-15 rifle, 13 magazines, a sword, a hunting knife, camouflaged clothing, books about the Hitler youth and Nazi life, as well as additional pistol ammunition. ...In a statement on Monday evening, the Concord Police did not offer any updates as to [redacted]'s bail conditions but noted that they were working to 'keep those threatened apprised of any developments' and urged the public to be vigilant." Oh.

[CN: Gun violence; domestic violence; death]


* * *

[CN: Sexual harassment] Olivia Messer at the Daily Beast: 'This Isn't a Game': Four Women Sue Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill for Sexual Harassment. "Indiana State Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon hasn't spoken to her state's attorney general, Curtis Hill, since the night he allegedly grabbed her ass. 'I want him to know how profoundly he's affected all of our lives,' Reardon, a Democrat, told The Daily Beast through tears on Monday. 'This isn't a game.' And so she is suing. Reardon and three other named statehouse employees filed a new federal lawsuit against Hill on Tuesday morning. The 11-count complaint against Hill and the state of Indiana alleges sexual harassment, retaliation, gender discrimination, battery, defamation, and invasion of privacy, according to a draft viewed Monday evening by The Daily Beast."

[CN: Domestic violence] Staff at USA Today: Read the Full Statement from Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan About a 2010 Domestic Case. "Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan released a written statement Monday night, addressing a violent domestic dispute from nine years ago with his then-wife. The 2010 incident is part of an FBI background investigation ahead of his possible confirmation hearing to be [Donald] Trump's permanent defense chief." Shanahan asserts: "I never laid a hand on my then-wife and cooperated fully in a thorough law enforcement investigation that resulted in her being charged with assault against me — charges which I had dropped in the interest of my family."

[CN: Domestic violence and sexual abuse] Amy Zimmerman at the Daily Beast: Eight Women Accuse Hollywood Filmmaker Max Landis of Emotional and Sexual Abuse: 'We're Not People to Him'. "As for secondhand allegations, there were too many to count. 'There's too many voices to ignore,' [actress Anna Akana] insisted. 'And I felt the need to be vocal because Max is intimidating and he's scary. And I've seen, being in that friend group, one of the most frustrating things is that he would lord his power and his money over people and intimidate them into friendship, or into forgiveness.'"

* * *


Kari Paul at the Guardian: Libra: Facebook Launches Cryptocurrency in Bid to Shake Up Global Finance. "Facebook has announced a digital currency called Libra that will allow its billions of users to make financial transactions across the globe, in a move that could potentially shake up the world's banking system. Libra is being touted as a means to connect people who do not have access to traditional banking platforms. With close to 2.4 billion people using Facebook each month, Libra could be a financial game changer, but will face close scrutiny as Facebook continues to reel from a series of privacy scandals."

Let me offer some unsolicited advice: Don't freely offer your financial data to a company who already abuses your personal data for their own profit.

Also: Fuck Facebook. Their pretense that this will help poor people is disgusting. "Disrupting" traditional finance models with no other objective than their own profit will ultimately harm financially vulnerable people the most.

[CN: Class warfare; food insecurity] Aviva Aron-Dine, Matt Broaddus, Zoë Neuberger, and Arloc Sherman at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Administration's Poverty Line Proposal Would Cut Health, Food Assistance for Millions over Time. "The Trump Administration is considering a change to the federal poverty line that would ultimately cause millions of people to lose eligibility for, or receive less help from, health, food assistance, and other programs that help them meet basic needs. ...While [the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)'s] notice does not discuss how the proposal would affect low-income families, the Census poverty thresholds are the basis for Department of Health and Human Services poverty guidelines, which determine who can get help from Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), and many other federal programs. The proposed change would lower the income-eligibility cutoffs for all of these programs, cutting or eliminating assistance for some individuals and families."

[CN: Poverty] Morgan Lee and AP Staff at the Washington Post: Childhood Poverty Persists in Fast-Growing Southwest. "The number of children living in poverty has swelled over the past three decades in fast-growing, ethnically diverse states such as Texas, Arizona, and Nevada as the nation's population center shifts south and west, a report Monday on childhood well-being shows. The annual Kids Count report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that 18% of the nation's children live in poverty, down from the Great Recession. But the same advances weren't seen in the Southwest, where many children are Native Americans, Latinx, and immigrants who have long faced disadvantages. 'The nation's racial inequities remain deep, systemic, and stubbornly persistent,' said the annual Kids Count report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation."

And finally... Reuters Staff at the Guardian: Scientists Shocked by Arctic Permafrost Thawing 70 Years Sooner Than Predicted. "Permafrost at outposts in the Canadian Arctic is thawing 70 years earlier than predicted, an expedition has discovered, in the latest sign that the global climate crisis is accelerating even faster than scientists had feared. A team from the University of Alaska Fairbanks said they were astounded by how quickly a succession of unusually hot summers had destabilised the upper layers of giant subterranean ice blocks that had been frozen solid for millennia. 'What we saw was amazing,' Vladimir Romanovsky, a professor of geophysics at the university, told Reuters.

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

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We Resist: Day 839

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, May 08, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.

So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Late yesterday and earlier today by me: Nancy Pelosi, What Are You Even Doing? and Quote of the Day and Trump's Leaked Taxes and His Redefining of Poverty and Today in Our Constitutional Crisis and Primarily Speaking.

Here are some more things in the news today...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: I'm pausing for a moment because I do think this is a moment in history.

And I appreciate my good friends on the other side of the aisle, but — having received a letter both from, a copy of the letter to the President of the United States by Attorney General Barr; a letter from the Department of Justice indicating after their purposeful collapse of the negotiations, well-intentioned by the staff and House Judiciary Committee — I can only conclude that the president now seeks to take a wrecking ball to the Constitution of the United States of America.

For the first time in the history of the United States, a president is now exerting executive privilege over every aspect of life that the American people desire to have information: Whether or not their Affordable Care Act is dissolving the preexisting condition; whether or not children are being separated from their parents; whether or not the environment is being destroyed... Anything that the Congress wants to do on behalf of the American people is now being alleged to be under the jurisdiction of privilege.

Then, of course, we have to surmise that this is an absolute lawless behavior by this administration. The Attorney General's actions are contemptuous — and insulting to Congress. But we're simply the tools. It is to the American people.
YES. THIS. IMPEACH HIM NOW.

Felicia Sonmez at the Washington Post: Pelosi Says Trump Is 'Becoming Self-Impeachable'. "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that [Donald] Trump is 'becoming self-impeachable,' pointing to his efforts to fight all subpoenas from congressional investigations and prevent key aides from testifying before Congress. 'The point is that every single day, whether it's obstruction, obstruction, obstruction — obstruction of having people come to the table with facts, ignoring subpoenas ... every single day, the president is making a case — he's becoming self-impeachable, in terms of some of the things that he is doing,' Pelosi said at a Washington Post Live event."

What the everloving fuck is she even talking about? "Self-impeachable" isn't a thing. If what she means is that Donald Trump's contempt for the law is leaving Democrats no choice but to impeach him, then she should say that.

Unfortunately, I suspect what she means is that Trump is turning himself into a figure for which people won't vote and will "self-impeach" himself out of office during the next election, which is unmitigated horseshit — first of all because his base loves his authoritarian behavior for "owning the libs" and secondly because we are unlikely to have free and fair elections especially if Congress refuses to even try to hold Trump accountable.

Goddammit, this is infuriating.

* * *


So, one day after I wrote "The Trump Regime Wants a War with Iran," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancels his scheduled trip to Germany and heads to Iraq, where the administration has claimed that Iran is planning to use proxies to strike U.S. forces.

Which, of course, is garbage intel being inflated by warmongering pigshits.

Betsy Woodruff and Adam Rawnsley at the Daily Beast: Trump Admin Inflated Iran Intel, U.S. Officials Say.
On Sunday, the National Security Council announced that the U.S. was sending a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Persian Gulf in response to "troubling and escalatory" warnings from Iran — an eye-popping move that raised fears of a potential military confrontation with Tehran.

Justifying the move, anonymous government officials cited intelligence indicating Iran had crafted plans to use proxies to strike U.S. forces, both off the coast of Yemen and stationed in Iraq. National Security Adviser John Bolton also discussed the intelligence on the record. A consensus appeared to be emerging: that Iran was gearing up for war.

But multiple sources close to the situation told The Daily Beast that the administration blew it out of proportion, characterizing the threat as more significant than it actually was.
It's the Iraq War all over again. And why not? John Bolton got away with it one time; he figures he might as well do it again.

* * *

Eliana Johnson at Politico: Trump Campaign Refuses to Say Whether It Has a Policy on Foreign Agents. "FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday that if any 2020 presidential campaign is contacted by a foreign agent, it's 'something the FBI would want to know about.' But would [Donald] Trump's campaign alert the feds if approached by a potential election meddler? It won't say. The Trump campaign did not respond to numerous inquiries about whether it has implemented a policy about foreign interference — including the use of information stolen or hacked by a foreign power and whether aides must formally report outreach from foreigners."

Because they are planning to cheat. Are you paying attention, Speaker Pelosi? Christ.

Meanwhile... Cristina Maza at Newsweek: Russia Isn't Just Interfering in U.S. Elections; It's Abusing the American Justice System.
Before special counsel Robert Mueller submitted his 448-page report to the Department of Justice in March, the special counsel's team had argued in court against handing over sensitive evidence to Concord Management, a Russian company caught up in the sweeping investigation into Russian election interference.

The Russian firm, owned by Evgeney Prigozhin, a man close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, would use the evidence as part of a disinformation campaign against the special counsel, Mueller's team argued in an 18-page memorandum filed in January. After all, the company had been indicted for funding the St. Petersburg-based troll farm that used social media campaigns to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

According to court filings, Concord Management's lawyers had already been permitted to review documents as part of the pre-trial discovery process, and the information had been used to launch a disinformation campaign targeting the special counsel's investigation directly. Handing more documents to the lawyers would jeopardize U.S. national security, according to Mueller's team, and would allow Moscow to use the discovery process to gather intelligence on the Russia investigation.

But months later, despite the evidence that the information would be misused, the dispute was still unresolved as Concord Management's American lawyers argued in U.S. courts that they should be permitted to review millions of additional documents collected in the discovery process.

This case, which sucked up innumerable hours and energy from U.S. law firms, lawyers, and judges, is just one example of how ill-equipped the American justice system is to respond to politically motivated cases from abroad and to Russia's manipulation of the system, experts argue.
And of course Trump is busily stacking the courts with lackeys who aren't keen to prioritize America's best interests.

* * *

Staff at Protect Our Care: White House Threatens Veto of "Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act".
Late yesterday, the White House threatened to veto H.R. 986, the "Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act of 2019," ahead of its scheduled vote on the House floor tomorrow. The bill introduced by Rep. Annie Kuster (NH-02) would protect patients with pre-existing conditions from abuse by insurance companies that is enabled by new Trump administration regulations that sabotage our health care.

...In response to their shameless veto threat, Protect Our Care chair Leslie Dach released the following statement:

"Democrats are working to protect patients with pre-existing conditions like cancer, diabetes, and asthma but the Trump administration is now threatening to veto those efforts. Trump and his Republican allies have tried to repeal these protections for people with pre-existing conditions, then they went to court to strike them down and now they're threatening to veto them. No matter how many false promises they make to the American people, the record shows they'll do everything they can to let insurance companies gut coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions."
Larry Elliott at the Guardian: U.S. Prepares to Raise China Trade Tariffs. "The U.S. and China have moved to within 36 hours of a full-scale trade war after Washington published a list of imported products that will face higher tariffs from Friday. In a clear sign of Washington's hardline approach in talks with Beijing, the U.S. trade representative's office filed the formal paperwork needed to increase duties on $200bn of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% later this week. ...China has threatened to retaliate against any step up in U.S. action."

T.J. Stiles at the Washington Post: America Is Losing Its Memory. "America is losing its memory. The National Archives and Records Administration is in a budget crisis. More than a resource for historians or museum of founding documents, NARA stands at the heart of American democracy. It keeps the accounts of our struggles and triumphs, allows the people to learn what their government has done and is doing, and maintains records that fill in family histories. Genealogy researchers depend on it, as do journalists filing Freedom of Information Act requests. If Congress doesn't save it, we all will suffer."

Oliver Milman and Fiona Harvey at the Guardian: U.S. Is Hotbed of Climate Change Denial, Major Global Survey Finds. "A total of 13% of Americans polled in a 23-country survey conducted by the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project agreed with the statement that the climate is changing 'but human activity is not responsible at all.' A further 5% said the climate was not changing. Only Saudi Arabia (16%) and Indonesia (18%) had a higher proportion of people doubtful of manmade climate change."

Juliana Menasce Horowitz at the Pew Research Center: Americans See Advantages and Challenges in Country's Growing Racial and Ethnic Diversity. "A majority of Americans (57%) say the fact that the U.S. population is made up of people of many different races and ethnicities is a very good thing for the country, and another 20% say this is somewhat good." However, some of the other findings were far more grim, like: "Most Americans (70%) say they would not be particularly bothered if they heard people speak a language other than English in a public place, including 47% who say they would not be bothered at all. Still, a sizable share (29%) says this would bother them at least some."

A "sizable share" that is almost the exact same percentage as the hardcore conservative base. What a coinkydink.

[Content Note: Nativism; vigilantism] Matt Shuham at TPM: Stung by Leader's Arrest and Bad Press, Armed Border Militia Adopts New Name. "Stung by the arrest of their leader, an eviction from their campground on Union Pacific Railroad land, and weeks of critical press coverage, members of the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP) border militia will be reforming under a new name, said Jim Benvie, the de facto spokesperson for UCP's 'Border Ops,' on Tuesday. 'We are officially changing our name to Guardian Patriots,' Benvie said in a live video stream filmed on a patch of land near the U.S.-Mexico border. 'The reason for that is because we have had attacks on the UCP.'" Thanks for letting us know, assholes.

[CN: Anti-semitism; white supremacy] Veronica Ortega at 5 News Online: Holocaust Remembrance Day Event in Russellville Interrupted by White Supremacists Rally. "Joyce Griffis has organized the Holocaust remembrance day event in Russellville for years. This year, they were interrupted by members of a white supremacist group. 'It made me feel terrible, it made me feel terrible for my friends. They were talking to us like we were pieces of nothing,' Griffis said. Sir Beryl Wolfson, a 96-year-old World War II veteran, was invited to speak at the event. Wolfson says he saw the liberation of the concentration camps with his own eyes. He says he's traveled all over the state sharing his story for a reason. 'Never forget, because it could happen again, and I'm trying to get this out to the people so it won't happen again in any place,' Wolfson said." Sob.

[CN: Homophobia] Matt Wilstein at the Daily Beast: Meghan McCain's Husband Ben Domenech Goes on Unhinged Homophobic Rant Against 'Cuck' Seth Meyers.
The View host Meghan McCain seemed pretty uncomfortable by the end of her contentious appearance on NBC's Late Night on Tuesday night [during which Seth Meyers said her comments about Ilhan Omar's supposed anti-Semitism were dangerous]. But for the most part, she was able to keep things cordial with host Seth Meyers.

Then, a few hours later, early Wednesday morning, her husband shared his unfiltered thoughts about the interview on Twitter.

In a series of since-deleted tweets, Ben Domenech, the founder and publisher of conservative website The Federalist, went on an unhinged rant against the late-night host and former head writer for Saturday Night Live that was at times homophobic and at others suggested that he has only succeeded in comedy because he is a white man.

"I see that @sethmeyers, the untalented piece of shit who only has has job because he regularly gargled Lorne Michaels' balls, went after my wife tonight with his idiotic anti-Semitic bullshit," Domenech wrote.

..."Here is proof that white men get ahead despite their obvious lack of talent," he continued. "It's @sethmeyers, who would beg for a third of the viewers at @TheView. He's awful, untalented, and a perfect definition of a cuck," he added, referring to a popular far-right pejorative.
What a nice family.

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

Open Wide...
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We Resist: Day 831

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, April 30, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.

So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: Trump Will Make Asylum-Seekers Pay and Primarily Speaking.

Here are some more things in the news today...

[Content Note: Anti-Semitic violence; Islamophobia; stochastic terrorism; video may autoplay at first link. Covers entire section.]

Andrew Johnson and R. Stickney at NBC 7 San Diego: 1 Dead, 3 Injured in Synagogue Shooting in Poway, Deputies Detain Suspect.
A woman has died and a rabbi was injured after shots were fired inside a Poway, California synagogue filled with people celebrating the last day of Passover. A suspect was taken into custody approximately two miles away from the synagogue while three patients were rushed to a nearby hospital.

The victim was identified Saturday as 60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye.

A man with an assault-style rifle entered Chabad of Poway on Rancho Bernardo Road, west of Interstate 15 at 11:23 a.m. and opened fire on the people inside, law enforcement officials said.

"We didn't hear him screaming or saying anything. He was just focused to kill. You saw the hate and the murder in his eyes," Danny Almong, a witness, told NBC 7. "He had a vest and he had clips in the vest. He was ready. He was ready. He came in to kill."

The suspect was identified as John T. Earnest, 19.
The scene almost certainly would have been even more grim were it not for the courage of Oscar Stewart. Also, Lori Gilbert-Kaye died protecting her rabbi, who lost a finger in the shooting. My condolences to her family, friends, and community.

Earnest, whose parents assert that he was radicalized online, "has also been charged with setting fire to a nearby mosque weeks earlier. Prosecutors allege John T. Earnest, 19, attacked the Islamic Center of Escondido, California, on March 23 in what is described as an act of terrorism. Graffiti was found at the scene citing the attack on New Zealand Muslims by a white-power terrorist."

This, too, must be viewed as the inevitable consequence of the nation's president waging a campaign of stochastic terrorism, centered firmly within his white supremacy. If that weren't abundantly clear already, here is Donald Trump, hours after Earnest opened fire at a synagogue, fear-mongering about Democrats wanting "to take your guns away."


Trump also said this as details were emerging about another horrific mass shooting, too — in Tennessee, with seven dead — committed by another young white man whom authorities say "has a history of committing violent crimes."

Staff at the Daily Beast: Anti-Semitic Attacks in U.S. Tripled in 2018: Study. "According to a new study released Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League, 59 Jews were the victims of physical assault in 2018 — which includes the 13 congregants killed or wounded in the Tree of Life massacre — up from 21 assault victims in 2017. The study found that there were a total of 1,879 anti-Semitic incidents reported last year, a figure obtained from police reports, victim accounts, and news articles. Nearly 98 percent of those incidents involved harassment or vandalism, the study said."

Relatedly... Richard Winton and James Queally at the LA Times: L.A. Terror Plot Thwarted: Army Vet Planned 'Mass Casualties,' FBI Says. "A U.S. Army veteran who wanted revenge for attacks on Muslims around the globe was planning to detonate a bomb at a Long Beach rally this past weekend before he was intercepted by law enforcement officials, authorities said Monday. Mark Steven Domingo, 26, was arrested Friday night [and] charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists and, if convicted, could face up to 15 years in prison. According to a federal affidavit, Domingo considered 'various attacks — including targeting Jews, churches, and police officers' before he decided 'to detonate an IED at a rally scheduled to take place in Long Beach this past weekend.'"

* * *

Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaidó is currently staging a coup, and witnesses have reported men in military uniform accompanying Guaidó exchanging fire with soldiers acting in support of Nicolás Maduro. The Guardian has live updates of what's happening.

Veep Mike Pence, who has long been obsessed with Venezuela, is pretty excited about it:


Aram Roston and Matt Spetalnick at Reuters: Blackwater Founder's Latest Sales Pitch: Mercenaries for Venezuela. "Erik Prince — the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater and a prominent supporter of [Donald] Trump — has been pushing a plan to deploy a private army to help topple Venezuela's socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, four sources with knowledge of the effort told Reuters. Over the last several months, the sources said, Prince has sought investment and political support for such an operation from influential Trump supporters and wealthy Venezuelan exiles. In private meetings in the United States and Europe, Prince sketched out a plan to field up to 5,000 soldiers-for-hire on behalf of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, according to two sources with direct knowledge of Prince's pitch."

David Edwards at Raw Story: House Intel Committee to Refer Erik Prince for Criminal Prosecution over Alleged Lies for Trump. "The House Intelligence Committee is expected to send a criminal referral to the Justice Department alleging that Erik Prince lied to lawmakers. While speaking to The Washington Post on Tuesday, Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) revealed the plans for a criminal referral. 'The evidence strongly suggests that he misled our committee,' Schiff said. 'When we asked whether he was asserting some privilege, he merely said he was not answering questions because the White House told him not to.' Schiff noted that Republican members of the committee have attempted to block the criminal referral."

Nicole Lafond at TPM: Trump Family Sues Deutsche Bank and Capital One to Halt Subpoenas from House. "Trump and his family sued Deutsche Bank and Capital One on Monday to block House Democrats subpoenas demanding access documents related to Trump's finances, according to multiple new reports. ...'The subpoenas were issued to harass [Trump], to rummage through every aspect of his personal finances, his businesses, and the private information of [Trump] and his family, and to ferret about for any material that might be used to cause him political damage,' the lawsuit said, according to Politico. 'No grounds exist to establish any purpose other than a political one.' ...House Democratic leaders on the House Financial Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee said a joint statement on Monday that the suit was 'meritless' and was filed to force a delay in accountability." Yup.

Manu Raju and Alex Rogers at CNN: Graham Calls Democrats 'Political Hacks,' Says Trump Should Fight Their Subpoenas 'Like Hell'. "Graham, who played a prominent role in President Bill Clinton's impeachment proceedings in 1998, defended his past stance in an interview with CNN on Monday, while calling on Trump to 'fight like hell' against House Democratic 'political hacks' and goading Democrats to carry through with impeaching Trump if they want. And when asked about Trump's behavior, specifically the 10 instances documented in special counsel Robert Mueller's report of the president's possible obstruction of justice, Graham said bluntly: 'I don't care.'" What a fucking weasel.

Michael Birnbaum and Ioana Burtea at the Washington Post: Trump's Campaign Manager Gave a Paid Speech in Romania, Prompting Ethics Concerns.
The day before special counsel Robert S. Mueller III submitted his report to the Justice Department last month, Washington was abuzz with what revelations it might contain about contacts between the 2016 Trump campaign and foreign officials. But [Donald] Trump's 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, was an ocean away, delivering a paid speech to a room full of Romanian politicians and policy elites.

Legal analysts said that Parscale's visit breaks no laws so long as he does not do any lobbying in the United States on behalf of foreign clients without registering. But ethics experts said any money changing hands between foreign citizens and campaign officials created an obstacle course of potential risks. And some ethics lawyers worried that Parscale's engagement — which received little attention outside Romania at the time — is a sign that the 2016 Trump campaign's freewheeling approach to foreign contacts may be carrying over to its 2020 successor.

...In a statement, Parscale said the "handful of international speeches" he has delivered gave him a chance to see the world with his wife and recuperate from campaign responsibilities.

"We did not grow up with the opportunity to travel internationally, and speaking opportunities have allowed me to share my talent with other professionals in a university setting while having a brief break from the rigorous campaign schedule that I maintain," Parscale said. "This speaking engagement was fully vetted and approved through the necessary channels in advance."
LOL the "necessary channels" being his corrupt boss' lackeys, natch.

Meanwhile, Parscale is giving interviews on U.S. television, broadcasting to the Kremlin exactly which states the Trump 2020 campaign would like hacked please and thank you:


The collusion is right out in the open.

Speaking of Russia... Hannah Ellis-Petersen at the Guardian: Whale with Harness Could Be Russian Weapon, Say Norwegian Experts. "Marine experts in Norway believe they have stumbled upon a white whale that was trained by the Russian navy as part of a programme to use underwater mammals as a special ops force. ...The strange behaviour of the whale, which was actively seeking out the vessels and trying to pull straps and ropes from the sides of the boats, as well as the fact it was wearing a tight harness which seemed to be for a camera or weapon, raised suspicions among marine experts that the animal had been given military-grade training by neighbouring Russia. Inside the harness, which has now been removed from the whale, were the words 'Equipment of St. Petersburg.'" Cool.

Rod Rosenstein has quit, apparently for real this time:


Peter Cary and Allan Holmes of the Center for Public Integrity, at the Guardian: Workers Barely Benefited from Trump's Sweeping Tax Cut, Investigation Shows. "Big companies drove Donald Trump's tax cut law but refused to commit to any specific wage hikes for workers, despite repeated White House promises it would help employees, an investigation shows. The 2017 Tax and Jobs Act — the Trump administration's one major piece of enacted legislation — did deliver the biggest corporate tax cut in U.S. history, but ultimately workers benefited almost not at all." What a fucking shocker.

[CN: Anti-choicery] Emily Shugerman at the Daily Beast: 'Bizarre, Dangerous, and Insulting': Baby Nurses Fed Up with Trump's Bogus Abortion Rants. "Trump's latest rant about babies being executed after birth is riling up neonatal nurses, who say he's twisted the palliative care they provide for the sickest of infants into an anti-abortion rallying cry that could endanger health providers. ...The nurses claim what they do is sensitive, personal, and has absolutely nothing to do with abortion. And they are not happy with the president's claims." Nurse Julia Pulver has an excellent Twitter thread on this subject.

[CN: Class warfare; child abuse] Chris McGreal at the Guardian: About 13m U.S. Children Are Living Below the Poverty Line, Rights Group Reveals. "A leading children's rights group has called for a doubling of the federal minimum wage and wider access to housing subsidies to end the 'moral travesty' of millions of children living in poverty while the wealthiest Americans get tax cuts. The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) said in a new report that about 13 million American children are living in homes with incomes below the poverty line, depriving many of a decent education and proper nutrition, and putting them at risk of homelessness and violence. Two-thirds of those living in poverty are children of color."

Well, I guess they should just take out a small million-dollar loan from their fathers or write a bestselling book, right? Rage seethe boil.

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We Resist: Day 796

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, March 26, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.

So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Late yesterday and earlier today by me: Trump Wants His Revenge and Trump Justice Department Moves to Strike Down ACA and Pentagon Informs Congress $1B Authorized to Start Building Trump's Border Wall; Democrats Object and Primarily Speaking.

Here are some more things in the news today...

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted out a graphic made by the New York Post that identified members of the media who have the unmitigated temerity to believe that Donald Trump colluded with Russia and called them "angry and hysterical [Donald Trump] haters." This on the same day that she casually reminded everyone that the punishment for treason is death.


[Content Note: War on agency] Julian Borger at the Guardian: Trump Expands Global Gag Rule That Blocks U.S. Aid for Abortion Groups.
The Trump administration has expanded its ban on funding for groups that conduct abortions or advocate abortion rights, known as the global gag rule, and has also cut funding to the Organisation of American States for that reason.

The new policy was announced on Tuesday by secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who declared: "This is decent. This is right. I am proud to serve in an administration that protects the least among us."

The Trump administration has already expanded the reach of the funding ban which dates back to the Reagan administration, to apply to all US healthcare assistance, totalling about $6bn.

The extension of the policy announced by Pompeo would not only cut funding to foreign non governmental organisations directly involved in abortions or abortion rights advocacy, but also those who fund or support other groups which provide or discuss abortion.
RAGE SEETHE BOIL. I hate this administration so fucking much.


[CN: Reproductive coercion] Katelyn Burns at Rewire.News: Trump Officials Attend Hungarian Conference to Promote Women Having More Babies. "Trump administration officials and prominent anti-choice activists appeared at a conference hosted by the Hungarian Embassy earlier this month designed to promote government policies to encourage women to have more babies. The 'Make Families Great Again' conference, which was held at the Library of Congress on March 14, promoted far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's seven-point 'Family Protection Action Plan.' The plan is 'designed to promote marriage and families and spawn a baby boom' through financial incentives... White House special assistant Katy Talento, White House Strategic Communications Director Mercedes Schlapp, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Senior Advisor Valerie Huber spoke at the event."

* * *

[CN: War; death] D. Parvaz at ThinkProgress: U.S. Airstrikes Kill 10 Children in Afghanistan as Trump Envoy Negotiates Taliban 'Peace' Deal.
As the Trump administration continues its 'peace talks' with the Taliban — with the latest round taking place earlier this month in Qatar — there's been an uptick in fighting between U.S. forces and our would-be partners, with the latest U.S. airstrikes killing ten children and three adult civilians, and wounding three other adults.

On Monday, the United Nations said that the children were all part of the same extended family, and were killed on Saturday as U.S. and Afghan forces fought Taliban fighters for nearly 30 hours in the northern province of Kunduz.

...A Taliban stronghold, U.S. airstrikes in the province have sent families fleeing the area, adding to the mass internal displacement crisis facing the country.

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) noted that the children and their family had already been displaced from another area, fleeing fighting elsewhere in the country.
Goddammit. Sob.

[CN: Indefinite detention] Charlie Savage at the New York Times: Testing Novel Power, Trump Administration Detains Palestinian After Sentence Ends. "Swept up by authorities after the Sept. 11 attacks, Adham Hassoun, a Palestinian computer programmer who lived in Florida, served 15 years in prison for sending support to Islamist militants abroad. His sentence completed, he then waited in immigration detention more than a year and a half while the government fruitlessly hunted for a place to deport him. Finally, a judge ordered him temporarily released in the United States. But instead, the Trump administration, citing a little-used immigration regulation issued after 9/11, notified Mr. Hassoun last month that he was being declared a security risk and would be kept locked up indefinitely."

Carol E. Lee and Courtney Kube at NBC News: Mike Pence Talked Dan Coats out of Quitting the Trump Administration. "The country's intelligence chief was on the verge of resigning at the end of last year over his frustrations with [Donald] Trump but was talked out of it by his closest ally in the administration, Vice President Mike Pence, according to current and former senior administration officials. ...Similarly, whenever Trump is souring on the DNI he privately calls 'Mister Rogers' — because he won't implement a directive or has left the impression he thinks the president is irrational — Pence has encouraged Trump to stick with Coats, according to the current and former officials." What a giant collection of assholes.

Catherine Rampell at the Washington Post: Stephen Moore Could Inflict More Long-Term Damage Than Any of Trump's Other Nominations. "[Donald] Trump has made a lot of ill-advised nominations. But perhaps no single choice could inflict more long-term damage than the one he announced Friday: Stephen Moore, Trump's pick to join the Federal Reserve Board. Moore's many economic claims over the years have revealed him to be, shall we say, easily confused. ...It's not only his forecasts for the future that have proved chronically incorrect; it's his characterizations of past and present, too." He sounds great.

Brian Kahn at Earther: The Republicans' Upcoming "Green Real Deal" Sounds Like Green Real Bullshit. "Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican whose biggest environmental claim to fame is introducing a bill to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency, is reportedly planning to put forth the (I kid you not) 'Green Real Deal.' Politico scored a leaked copy of the resolution, which it says has been circulating among energy lobbyists and it could be officially introduced in the 'coming days.' I am sorry to report the Green Real Deal is not, in fact, the real deal. The five-page draft resolution — which could change when or even if it gets introduced in the House — is light on policy specifics, timelines, and goals." Huh!

[CN: Anti-Semitism] Isaac Stanley-Becker at the Washington Post: GOP Congressman Quotes Hitler's Mein Kampf to Slam Trump's Adversaries as Liars.
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) took to the House floor on Monday to portray [Donald] Trump's detractors as Nazis but ended up slurring them using an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory drawn verbatim from Adolf Hitler's writings.

It's 2019, and the Führer's magnum opus, Mein Kampf, has become a playbook for political combat in Congress, at the very moment that Trump is calling the Democrats "anti-Jewish."

Brooks, a five-term Republican, accused Democrats and members of the media of propagating a "big lie" about collusion. The expression was coined by Hitler to describe how Jews used their "unqualified capacity for falsehood" to blame a top German military commander for the country's losses in World War I. A lie could be so big, Hitler claimed, that it perversely defied disbelief.

It was unclear if Brooks grasped that by leveling charges of the "big lie," he had inverted his own analogy, making Democrats the equivalent of interwar German and Austrian Jews. He set out to compare the other side to fascists, but he was the one employing a fascist smear — one that, ironically, came to define Nazi propaganda.
It was no coincidence. Trust that Mo Brooks knew exactly what the fuck he was saying.

[CN: Gun violence; abuse] Staff at the Daily Beast: NRA Instructed Far-Right Group to 'Shame' Anti-Gun Activists After Massacres. Representatives of Australia's One Nation party reportedly sought advice from the U.S. gun lobbyist on how to go about loosening their country's very strict gun laws. ...The best method to handle media inquiries in the wake of a massacre was to 'say nothing,' according to Catherine Mortensen, an NRA media liaison officer, on the video [secretly recorded by Al Jazeera]. But if the media inquiries about gun control persist, another NRA comms official, Lars Dalseide, said to 'shame them to the whole idea,' adding: 'If your policy isn't good enough to stand on itself, how dare you use their deaths to push that forward? How dare you stand on the graves of those children to put forward your political agenda?'" Scum.

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We Resist: Day 782

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, March 12, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.

So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: What the F#@k Is Even Happening and Nancy Pelosi: "I'm Not for Impeachment." and Bernie Sanders, Where Are Your Taxes?

Here are some more things in the news today...

Let's start out with some good news. Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: Democrats Introduce Latest Version of DREAM Act, Offering Protection to More Young Immigrants.
Eighteen years after the original Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act, was introduced, House Democrats formally unveiled their new-and-improved version Tuesday.

While previous iterations of the bill focused narrowly on providing a path to citizenship only for undocumented youth brought to the United States as children, the new version does this in addition to expanding it to include immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). With the inclusion of TPS and DED recipients, the DREAM Act has rebranded to the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, to reflect the government's longtime goal to make good on its promise of providing permanent solutions to legal immigrants who have been living at the whims of the federal government for decades.

Like the DREAM Acts that came before it, the Dream and Promise Act would grant undocumented immigrant youth — known as "Dreamers" — conditional permanent resident status for 10 years and cancel any removal proceedings so long as they: have been continuously physically present in the United States for four years preceding the date of the enactment of the bill, were 17 years or younger when they first arrived in United States, pass a background check, have a clean criminal record, and graduate from high school or an academic equivalent.

...The bones of the DREAM Act have largely remained the same since 2001, when the bill was first introduced in the House by former Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) and in the Senate by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT). What makes the Dream and Promise Act different, however, is that it for the first time includes protections for TPS and DED holders.

There's an unprecedented level of urgency with this version of the DREAM Act because the Trump administration has pulled the legal rug out from under thousands of immigrant families.
I know I'm the brokenest of broken records, but I'll say once more: Regardless of the chances of this legislation becoming law during the Trump administration, this is worth doing, because it's the right and necessary thing to do.

Donald Trump may reject this legislation, because of his vile nativist agenda, but that very agenda is what obligates the attempt.

Speaking of which...

Travis Gettys at Raw Story: Trump Administration 'Very Seriously' Considering Plan to Designate Some Mexicans as Terrorists. "The president told Breitbart News that his administration was 'very seriously' considering a policy change that would label Mexican drug cartels or some of their factions as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. 'We are, we are,' Trump told the website. 'We're thinking about doing it very seriously. In fact, we've been thinking about it for a long time.' The president appeared to admit the change was intended to gin up fear of Mexican immigrants to justify his proposed border wall and other controversial anti-immigration policies. 'It's psychological, but it's also economic,' Trump said. 'As terrorists — as terrorist organizations, the answer is yes. They are.' Trump then cited an inflated statistic to justify his fear-mongering about gang violence across the border."

Absolutely chilling.

Fabiola Sanchez and Scott Smith at the AP: U.S. Pulling Last Diplomats from Venezuela Amid Power Crisis.
The U.S. said late Monday that it is pulling its last remaining diplomats from Venezuela, saying their continued presence at the country's embassy in Caracas had become a "constraint" on U.S. policy as the Trump administration aggressively looks to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

The announcement came from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a tweet shortly before midnight comes as Venezuela struggles to restore electricity following four days of blackouts around the country.

...Pompeo said the remaining diplomats would be out of Venezuela by the end of the week but gave no indication of future policy steps despite past warnings that "all options" — including the use of military force — are on the table for removing Maduro.
Fucking hell. Unless I'm somehow misreading this, it sounds like the Secretary of State is ordering the removal of diplomats because they are trying to stop the administration from taking extreme measures, including the possibility of military force, in pursuit of regime change. That blows my mind. The Trump Regime is truly out of fucking control.

To wit:


Meanwhile...

William Booth and Karla Adam at the Washington Post: Ahead of Crucial Brexit Vote, Key Lawmakers Won't Support Theresa May's Plan. "Prime Minister Theresa May presented a Brexit deal with some new add-on language to a skeptical Parliament for a landmark vote on Tuesday. But the British leader faced strong headwinds, as crucial blocs of lawmakers signaled they will not support her withdrawal agreement. Before May rose to speak, Britain's attorney general told lawmakers that May's hard-fought changes might not go far enough — an assessment that increased the odds that her Brexit deal will fail again and that the nation won't depart on schedule on March 29."


Nicholas Nehamas and Lily Dobrovolskaya at the Miami Herald: Wanted in Russia, He Partied at Mar-a-Lago — and Invested in Cheap South Florida Homes.
Last year, [Donald] Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club hosted a black-tie 'Safari Night' fundraiser for a favorite charity of one of his older sisters. The event included Chinese dancers, a silent art auction, and one unusual guest: Sergey Danilochkin, a Russian real estate investor who had settled in South Florida after authorities in his home country accused him of taking part in a massive tax fraud linked to the most contentious corruption case of the 21st century.

Party-goers had no idea they were rubbing shoulders with a wanted man. While the guests sipped cocktails and studied photos of African wildlife, Danilochkin, who is also an aspiring journalist, filmed the bustling ballroom on a smartphone and posted the footage on YouTube. Holding a flute of champagne and wearing a dark suit, the Russian émigré addressed the camera in his native tongue, alluding to the uncanny way Russians seem to turn up in the president’s orbit.

"The most interesting thing," Danilochkin said, "is that we met a lot of people here who speak Russian."
* * *

[Content Note: White supremacy] Madeline Peltz at MediaMatters: Unearthed Audio Shows Tucker Carlson Using White Nationalist Rhetoric and Making Racist Remarks. I'm sure we're all shocked that a toxic chauvinist is also a white supremacist.

[CN: Abduction; sexual assault] Melanie Eversley at the Grio: Ohio Police Officer Indicted for Sexually Assaulting Women. "Andrew Mitchell, 55, a 31-year-veteran of the police force in Ohio's state capital, is charged with holding two women against their will and demanding sexual favors in exchange for their freedom, the Columbus Dispatch reported. Mitchell is charged with three counts of deprivation of rights while using his police authority — with two of those counts involving one woman — two counts of witness tampering, and one count each of obstruction of justice, as well as making false statements, the Dispatch reports."

Ryan Mac at BuzzFeed: Facebook Removed Elizabeth Warren's Ads Calling for Its Breakup; Then It Put Them Back Up. "Facebook briefly removed and then restored four ads on Monday from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, which advocated for the breaking up big technology companies, for violating its terms of service. On Monday, the social networking company confirmed that it had removed the ads, all of which featured a video with a thumbnail image incorporating Facebook's logo. 'We removed the ads because they violated our policies against use of our corporate logo,' a Facebook spokesperson said. 'In the interest of allowing robust debate, we are restoring the ads.'" Shady.

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We Resist: Day 781

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, March 11, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.

So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by Fannie: Stop Trying to Make "Partisan Prejudice" Happen. And by me: Primarily Speaking and Not-Breaking News: Tucker Carlson Is a Dirtbag.

Here are some more things in the news today...

Damian Paletta, Erica Werner, and Jeff Stein at the Washington Post: Trump Proposes $4.7 Trillion Budget with Domestic Cuts, $8.6 Billion in New Funding for Border Wall.
[Donald] Trump is releasing a $4.7 trillion budget plan Monday that stands as a sharp challenge to Congress and the Democrats trying to unseat him, the first act in a multi-front struggle that could consume Washington for the next 18 months.

The budget proposal dramatically raises the possibility of another government shutdown in October, and Trump used to the budget to notify Congress he is seeking an additional $8.6 billion to build sections of a wall along the U. S.-Mexico border.

...Trump's "Budget for a Better America" also includes dozens of spending cuts and policy overhauls that frame the early stages of the debate for the 2020 election. For example, Trump for the first time calls for cutting $845 billion from Medicare, the popular health care program for the elderly that in the past he had largely said he would protect.

...Other agencies, particularly the Environmental Protection Agency, State Department, Transportation Department, and Interior Department, would see their budgets severely reduced.

...More broadly, Trump's budget would impose mandatory work-requirements for millions of people who receive welfare assistance while dramatically increasing the defense budget to $750 billion next year, a 5 percent increase from 2019.
House Budget Chair John Yarmuth said: "With severe cuts to essential programs and services that would leave our nation less safe and secure, the Trump budget is as dangerous as it is predictable. It has no chance in the House." GOOD.

Staff at American Oversight: Sessions Letter Shows Department of Justice Acted on Trump's Authoritarian Demand to Investigate Clinton.
American Oversight has uncovered the signed directive from former Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructing a federal prosecutor to carry out [Donald] Trump's authoritarian demand to investigate Hillary Clinton.

The document, obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation by American Oversight, is a formal, November 2017 letter from Sessions to U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber and has never before been released to the public. In a sworn declaration filed in November 2018 in response to American Oversight's lawsuit, the Justice Department had insisted that no written directive existed and that all guidance to Huber had been delivered verbally.

Trump has repeatedly tweeted demands for DOJ to investigate Clinton. Throughout the 2016 presidential general election campaign and at multiple rallies after taking office, Trump and his supporters have used the rallying cry "Lock her up" to call for the prosecution of Clinton.

"'Lock her up' was wrong at campaign rallies, and it's even worse coming from the Department of Justice," said Austin Evers, American Oversight executive director. "Even after this long, it's still deeply shocking to see the black-and-white proof that Jeff Sessions caved to [Donald] Trump's worst authoritarian impulses and ordered a wide-ranging investigation of his political opponents based on demands from Congress instead of the facts and the law."
Fucking hell. There is much more at the link.


[Content Note: War; death] Eric Schmitt and Charlie Savage at the New York Times: Trump Administration Steps Up Air War in Somalia.
The American military has escalated a battle against the Shabab, an extremist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, in Somalia...

During January and February, the United States Africa Command reported killing 225 people in 24 strikes in Somalia. Double-digit death tolls are becoming routine, including a bloody five-day stretch in late February in which the military disclosed that it had killed 35, 20 and 26 people in three separate attacks.

Africa Command maintains that its death toll includes only Shabab militants, even though the extremist group claims regularly that civilians are also killed. The Times could not independently verify the number of civilians killed. The rise in airstrikes has also exacerbated a humanitarian crisis in the country, according to United Nations agencies and nongovernmental organizations working in the region, as civilians are displaced by conflict and extreme weather.

"People need to pay attention to the fact that there is this massive war going on," said Brittany Brown, who worked on Somalia policy at the National Security Council in the Obama and Trump administrations and is now the chief of staff of the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit organization focused on deadly conflicts.

The war in Somalia appears to be "on autopilot," she added, and one that is drawing the United States significantly deeper into an armed conflict without much public debate.
[CN: Anti-Semitism] Zack Ford at ThinkProgress: Trump Claims Democrats Hate Jewish People and Israel Loves Him. "'The Democrats hate Jewish people,' [Donald] Trump reportedly told Republican National Committee donors on Friday night at Mar-a-Lago. ...Trump reportedly said he couldn't understand how any Jewish person could vote for a Democrat. He also bragged about his decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, a decision that pleased U.S. conservatives and Israel's Likud party alike, but upended decades of diplomatic policy and sparked international disapproval. If he were to run in an election for prime minister of Israel, he told the crowd, he'd be at 98 percent in the polls."

Tony Leys at the Des Moines Register: Iowa Poll: Registered Republicans Like Trump But 40 Percent Want a GOP Challenger. "Most registered Republicans think [Donald] Trump is doing a good job, but they are split over whether another GOP candidate should challenge him for their party's nomination in 2020, a new Iowa Poll shows. The Iowa Poll, sponsored by the Des Moines Register, CNN, and Mediacom, also finds 90 percent of registered Republicans want Trump to run a positive re-election campaign, focusing on the good things he's done for the country. Just 4 percent want him to focus on attacking opponents — one of the president's trademarks." LOL.

(If you're wondering whether I deliberately juxtaposed Trump bragging that he'd have a 98 percent approval rating if he ran for prime minister of Israel while 40 percent of his own base at home want him primaried, the answer is YES!)

[CN: Nativism; abuse; descriptions of sexual assault] Tina Vasquez at Rewire.News: In Search of Safety: An Investigation of Abuse at an Immigration Facility. "In the United States, there are two primary apparatuses intended to protect detained immigrants from sexual abuse: the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), a series of procedures and policies aimed at the elimination of sexual assault of prisoners, and the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG), which provides 'independent oversight' of DHS agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But immigrants in federal custody and their advocates see these processes as deeply flawed and loophole-ridden. ...What we learned through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request...only left us with more questions about the efficacy of PREA and DHS OIG and about the safety of the nearly 50,000 immigrants detained by ICE on any given day."

[CN: Violence against women; trans hatred] Jourdan Bennett-Begaye at Indian Country Today: Congress Begins Debating Violence Against Women Act — Again. "Congress held a hearing Thursday to introduce a new version of the Violence Against Women Act. Now the question is: What will it take for that measure to become law? Again. One witness said Republicans 'seemed fixated' on gender identity making it that much more difficult and 'hard to tell' if they support the new proposal. 'Today they seemed fixated on attacking trans women. That seemed to be the primary purpose today,' said hearing witness Sarah Deer, Muscogee (Creek) Nation. 'I expected to get more poignant questions today about tribal jurisdiction from the Republicans but I didn't get any. So it seems like there was some sort of distraction going on.'"

[CN: Trans hatred] Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: 2020 Democrats Slam Trump for Pressing Ahead with Transgender Military Ban.
The Trump administration appears poised to implement a ban on transgender service members in the U.S. military, following a ruling from a federal court judge giving it the green light.

...Lead attorney for the transgender service members in the Maryland case, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyer Joshua Block, said the Thursday ruling does "concrete, severe harm."

"While not surprising, this decision is deeply disappointing for our clients and for transgender service members across the nation," he said.

"Each and every claim made by [Donald] Trump to justify this ban can be easily debunked by the conclusions drawn from the Department of Defense's own review process. We will continue to fight against this discriminatory policy and the Trump administration's attacks on transgender people. Our clients are brave men and women who should be able to continue serving their country ably and honorably without being discriminated against by their own commander in chief."

Meanwhile, the 2020 Democratic presidential contenders voiced their support for the nation's transgender community on Twitter throughout the weekend.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) described transgender service members "heroes" and banning them from their service amounts to a "national security threat."

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who brought a transgender service member as her guest to the State of the Union this year, called the policy "wrong, hateful, unnecessary, and an insult to our troops."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called the policy unconstitutional.

And Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) meanwhile, highlighted the uncertainty that many transgender members of the military feel, with multiple ongoing lawsuits and an administration in the White House determined on undermining their rights.
Goddammit I hate this administration so fucking much.

And finally... Andy Towle at Towleroad: Trump Claims He Meant to Call Apple CEO 'Tim Apple' as 'an Easy Way to Save Time and Words'. "Apparently Trump is very embarrassed that the media called him out on his Tim Cook brain fart because he can't stop lying about it. Trump attacked the 'fake news' media on Monday for spreading another 'bad Trump story,' tweeting that he meant to say 'Tim Apple' when referring to Apple CEO Tim Cook at a meeting of tech leaders at the White House. ...Interestingly, that's not the story he told his donors on Friday night [when he claimed] 'that he actually said 'Tim Cook Apple' really fast, and the 'Cook' part of the sentence was soft. But all you heard from the 'fake news,' he said, was 'Tim Apple.''" JFC.

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

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We Resist: Day 774

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, March 04, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.

So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: Trump Gives Alarming, Ranting Speech at CPAC and Primarily Speaking and House Dems Are Coming for Trump.

Here are some more things in the news today...

Jane Mayer at the New Yorker: The Making of the Fox News White House. Among the enormous amount of good reporting in this piece about how Fox News has become Donald Trump's propaganda arm is this passage:
When [Bill Shine] assumed command at Fox, the 2016 campaign was nearing its end, and Trump and Clinton were all but tied. That fall, a FoxNews.com reporter had a story that put the network's journalistic integrity to the test. Diana Falzone, who often covered the entertainment industry, had obtained proof that Trump had engaged in a sexual relationship in 2006 with a pornographic film actress calling herself Stormy Daniels.

Falzone had worked on the story since March, and by October she had confirmed it with Daniels through her manager at the time, Gina Rodriguez, and with Daniels's former husband, Mike Moz, who described multiple calls from Trump. Falzone had also amassed e-mails between Daniels's attorney and Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen, detailing a proposed cash settlement, accompanied by a nondisclosure agreement. Falzone had even seen the contract.

But Falzone's story didn't run — it kept being passed off from one editor to the next. After getting one noncommittal answer after another from her editors, Falzone at last heard from LaCorte, who was then the head of FoxNews.com. Falzone told colleagues that LaCorte said to her, "Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go." LaCorte denies telling Falzone this, but one of Falzone's colleagues confirms having heard her account at the time.

Despite the discouragement, Falzone kept investigating, and discovered that the National Enquirer, in partnership with Trump, had made a "catch and kill" deal with Daniels — buying the exclusive rights to her story in order to bury it. Falzone pitched this story to Fox, too, but it went nowhere. News of Trump's payoffs to silence Daniels, and Cohen's criminal attempts to conceal them as legal fees, remained unknown to the public until the Wall Street Journal broke the story, a year after Trump became President.
Fucking hell.

* * *

Nicole Perlroth at the New York Times: As Trump and Kim Met, North Korean Hackers Hit over 100 Targets in U.S. and Ally Nations. "North Korean hackers who have targeted American and European businesses for 18 months kept up their attacks last week even as [Donald] Trump was meeting with North Korea's leader in Hanoi. The attacks, which include efforts to hack into banks, utilities, and oil and gas companies, began in 2017, according to researchers at the cybersecurity company McAfee, a time when tensions between North Korea and the United States were flaring. ...In 2017, Mr. Trump mocked Kim Jong-un as 'rocket man' in a speech at the United Nations, while North Korea tested missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the United States. The attacks began soon after that."

Staff at AlJazeera: Russia Confirms North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un Will Visit Moscow. "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will visit Russia, according to the press secretary of the Russian president who did not share dates or other details of the trip. 'Such a visit is indeed on the agenda,' said Dmitry Peskov. 'We hope that the precise date and venue will be determined via diplomatic channels within the foreseeable future.' ...On Monday, Russian media reports said members of a parliamentary group that deals with Russia's relations with North Korea will visit Pyongyang on April 12." Of course.


Staff at AP/Guardian: Russia Suspends Participation in Nuclear Arms Treaty with U.S. "President Vladimir Putin has suspended Russia's participation in a key nuclear arms treaty, following Washington's decision to withdraw from it. Putin's decree means Russia is suspending its obligations under the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty and will continue to do so 'until the U.S. ends its violations of the treaty or until it terminates.' The U.S. gave notice of its intention to withdraw from the INF a month ago, setting the stage for it to terminate in six months unless Moscow returns to compliance. Russia has denied any breaches and accused the U.S. of violating the pact." Of course.


Casey Michel at ThinkProgress: These Prominent Americans Are Speaking at Far-Right Russia Conference Linked to Sanctioned Oligarchs. "The World Congress of Families (WCF), a notorious anti-LGBTQ group that's reportedly received funding from sanctioned Russian oligarchs, is hosting its annual conference in Verona, Italy next month. And a number of Americans have decided to join them. Among the Americans slated to speak at the WCF conference are John Eastman, former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and now a professor at Chapman University, and megachurch pastor Jim Garlow. According to the WCF's roster, they will also be joined by Mike Donnelly, a higher-up at the right-wing Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), and Sean O'Hare, the chairman of one of the most prominent anti-abortion groups aimed at American youth."

Note that these folks come from Mike Pence's wing of the conservative movement. It's not just Donald Trump that's colluded up to his neck with Russia. It's the entire Republican Party and a huge portion of conservative white evangelical leadership.

Which is why removing Trump from office is merely the first necessary step in a whole process of getting the Kremlin out of our democracy.

* * *

[Content Note: Nativism; child abuse] Shani Saxon at Colorlines: Immigrant Rights Groups Urge DHS to Release Infants Detained in Texas. "The American Immigration Lawyers Association, American Immigration Council, and Catholic Legal Immigration Network filed a complaint with DHS asking for the immediate release of the infants and their mothers, who say 'their children were sick, had lost weight, and were crying more than usual.' ...[The advocacy group's coordinator, Katy Murdza, said] that all of the mothers are Honduran and they're worried that their babies aren't being given clean water to mix with their formula. They also worry about the sudden change in formula their babies are given, even though doctors warn a sudden change in formula can negatively impact a child's digestive system."

[CN: Anti-semitism] Andy Towle at Towleroad: California High School Students Give Nazi Salute over Game of Swastika Beer Pong in Viral Snapchat Photos. "High school students from Newport Harbor High School and Costa Mesa High School in Orange County, California are pictured giving the Nazi salute over a game of beer pong in the shape of a swastika in photos that were published to Snapchat and have now gone viral. One of the photos is captioned 'German engineering.'" Jesus fucking Jones. If you're a parent of white kids, and you're not having explicit conversations with your kids about the gravity of Nazism in this moment, you are failing as a parent.

[CN: Holocaust; sex abuse]


Damian Carrington at the Guardian: Heatwaves Sweeping Oceans 'Like Wildfires,' Scientists Reveal. "The number of heatwaves affecting the planet's oceans has increased sharply, scientists have revealed, killing swathes of sea-life like 'wildfires that take out huge areas of forest.' The damage caused in these hotspots is also harmful for humanity, which relies on the oceans for oxygen, food, storm protection, and the removal of climate-warming carbon dioxide the atmosphere, they say. Global warming is gradually increasing the average temperature of the oceans, but the new research is the first systematic global analysis of ocean heatwaves, when temperatures reach extremes for five days or more. The research found heatwaves are becoming more frequent, prolonged, and severe, with the number of heatwave days tripling in the last couple of years studied. ...As heatwaves have increased, kelp forests, seagrass meadows, and coral reefs have been lost." Sob.

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

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