Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts

We Resist: Day 427

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, March 22, 2018
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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: Cambridge Analytica Stirred the (Supposedly Non-Existent) Bigotries of White America. And by me: Another White Man Who Isn't Troubled Enough to Be Called a Terrorist and Trump Responds to Biden by Saying HE'D Beat HIM Up, Because This Is Our Politics Now.

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

[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; descriptions of violence. Covers entire section.]

In yesterday's thread, I wrote about the police execution of Stephon Clark, who shot at him at least 20 times because he was holding a cell phone they claimed they thought was a gun (an excuse that was always garbage but is exponentially intolerable given the current ubiquity of cell phones). Footage of the killing has now been released, and, as usual, the video reveals the official police account of the shooting to be a total lie.

Monique Judge at the Root: Stephon Clark Shooting Video Released by Police.
In the helicopter video, a deputy can be heard guiding the officers to Clark's location, behind his house on his block. The officers approach his location, see him around a corner, and begin firing within seconds. The helicopter video also shows the officers cowering behind a wall. Clark appears to be walking slowly through the yard, and not charging toward them as police said in their statement. Even as Clark lies on the ground after being shot, both officers continue firing their weapons. Each shot at Clark at least 10 times.

...The police officer body camera footage shows us what happened on the ground. As soon as the officers spot Clark from their hiding place around the wall, we hear one of them yell, 'Show me your hands! Gun! Gun! Gun!' and they both unload their weapons on him. They continue to yell for him to show his hands after he is down and no longer moving.

...Again, the video appears to refute what police said in their statement. At no point in either video can we see Clark charging at officers with anything in his hands."
I am so fucking angry. I am so fucking sad. I am so fucking tired of police killing unarmed people and then lying about the circumstances. This is intolerable.

My sincerest condolences to Stephon Clark's family, friends, colleagues, and community. I am so sorry.

* * *

[CN: Guns; toxic masculinity. Covers entire section.]

In Tuesday's thread, I covered a school shooting in Maryland, in which one female student and one male student were injured, and the shooter shot himself as school officer shot at him. At the time, I wrote: "It sounds a lot like the shooter shot at a specific girl and boy before turning the gun on himself."

And indeed, it turns out that the shooter, 17-year-old Austin Rollins "had been in a relationship that recently ended" with the girl, 16-year-old Jaelynn Willey. (It's unclear whether the boy who was injured was deliberately targeted because of some connection to Willey.)

A number of media outlets have reported this news under headlines calling Rollins "lovesick."

Example, care of ABC News: Police: Maryland School Shooter Apparently Was Lovesick Teen. That's the headline they plopped on the AP wire story, the lede of which reads: "Tuesday's school shooting in southern Maryland that left the shooter dead and two students wounded increasingly appears to be the action of a lovesick teenager."

Incorrect. It was the action of an entitled, violent misogynist.

Fuck any news outlet that is promulgating this horrendous narrative that the attempted murder of a girl who refuses to be owned by a boy is somehow "romantic."

* * *

Matt Shuham at TPM: Trump Defends Congratulating Putin: 'Getting Along...Is a Good Thing'. "In the wake of a report that he ignored his national security team's advice not to congratulate Russian president Vladimir Putin on Putin's recent re-election, [Donald] Trump defended the exchange [on Twitter] Wednesday: 'I called President Putin of Russia to congratulate him on his election victory (in past, Obama called him also). The Fake News Media is crazed because they wanted me to excoriate him. They are wrong! Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing... They can help solve problems with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, ISIS, Iran and even the coming Arms Race. Bush tried to get along, but didn't have the 'smarts.' Obama and Clinton tried, but didn't have the energy or chemistry (remember RESET). PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!'" This fucking guy.

Karen DeYoung, John Hudson, and Josh Dawsey at the Washington Post: Trump's Remark to Putin That They Could Meet Soon Caught White House Advisers by Surprise. "Trump's senior advisers were thrown when he told Russian President Vladi­mir Putin on Tuesday that he expected to meet with him soon, as briefings before the call to Moscow included no mention of a possible meeting, and aides have not been instructed to prepare for one, senior administration officials said. Although Trump told reporters that 'probably we'll be seeing President Putin in the not-too-distant future,' several officials said there are no plans for the two even to be in the same country until November, when both are expected to attend a Group of 20 summit in Argentina." No official plans, anyway.


Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress: Before Being Fired by Sessions, Andrew McCabe Reportedly Authorized a Criminal Probe into Sessions. "Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who was fired by Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III less than two days before he became eligible for a federal pension, reportedly oversaw a criminal probe into Sessions himself. ...Sessions claimed that he fired McCabe last week due to the former FBI official's lack of candor regarding his conduct during an probe into former Democratic president candidate Hillary Clinton — in announcing the firing, Sessions said that 'the F.B.I. expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity, and accountability.' Ironically, the FBI's criminal probe into Sessions involves allegations that the attorney general was not honest under oath."


Whooooooooops!

* * *

If anyone thought that Republicans only hate democracy outside the walls of Congress, what happened during the proceedings on the budget omnibus today should swiftly disabuse them of that notion:


"Hardball politics" is one way to describe it. Cheating by authoritarian democracy-killers is another. Potato potahto.

* * *


Benjamin Haas at the Guardian: China Vows to Take 'All Legal Measures' to Protect Interests as U.S. Trade War Looms. "As the Trump administration prepared on Thursday to slap trade sanctions on China, perhaps including restrictions on investment and tariffs on as much as $60bn worth of products, fears of a trade war heightened. A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said her country would 'take all legal measures to protect our interest' if the U.S. took 'actions that will harm both China and itself.'" Everything is going great under the president who makes the best deals or whatever.

* * *

Frank Bajak and Lise Olsen at the AP: Hurricane Harvey's Toxic Impact Deeper Than Public Was Told. "A toxic onslaught from the nation's petrochemical hub was largely overshadowed by the record-shattering deluge of Hurricane Harvey as residents and first responders struggled to save lives and property. More than a half-year after floodwaters swamped America's fourth-largest city, the extent of this environmental assault is beginning to surface, while questions about the long-term consequences for human health remain unanswered. County, state, and federal records pieced together by The Associated Press and The Houston Chronicle reveal a far more widespread toxic impact than authorities publicly reported after the storm slammed into the Texas coast in late August and then stalled over the Houston area."

George Dvorsky at Gizmodo: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Has Way More Trash Inside It Than We Thought. "For years, scientists have been tracking a large accumulation of floating trash, mostly bits of plastic, in the north Pacific ocean called the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch,' or the 'trash vortex.' This region, according to the latest research, has more lost and discarded plastic inside it than previous surveys suggested — like, a lot more. And it's still growing. The GPGP is filled with 79,000 metric tonnes (87,000 tons) of plastic, which is between 10 to 16 times higher than previous estimates, according to new research published today in Scientific Reports. Disturbingly, plastic pollution inside the GPGP 'is increasing exponentially and at a faster rate than in surrounding waters,' the authors state in the paper."

Damian Carrington at the Guardian: Paul Ehrlich: 'Collapse of Civilisation Is a Near Certainty within Decades'. "'Population growth, along with over-consumption per capita, is driving civilisation over the edge: billions of people are now hungry or micronutrient malnourished, and climate disruption is killing people.' ...Ehrlich is also concerned about chemical pollution, which has already reached the most remote corners of the globe. 'The evidence we have is that toxics reduce the intelligence of children, and members of the first heavily influenced generation are now adults.'"

I mention that last piece for two reasons: 1. Because Ehrlich's concerns are notable, given that it was research "published by Ehrlich and colleagues in 2017 [that] concluded that this is driving a sixth mass extinction of biodiversity, upon which civilisation depends for clean air, water, and food." 2. Paul and Anne Ehrlich's previous work has been (mis)used by white supremacists to argue in favor of some seriously gross population control strategies (and were able to do so because of failures in their work, which he admits), and it seems possible that their new work could be (mis)used in the same way, if they haven't made necessary corrections, especially given the current resurgence of white supremacist nationalism and nativism.

* * *

Charles Pierce at Esquire: 15 Years. More Than 1 Million Dead. No One Held Responsible. "Except for Sinan Antoon's richly deserved jeremiad, the 15th anniversary of the worst foreign policy disaster in modern American history went sailing by largely unremarked, at least in this country. After all, over here, everyone was too busy keeping track of the latest news involving the vulgar talking yam the country had installed as president... But, overseas, particularly in that part of the world where ruined Iraq has been turned into little more than an occupied battlefield, the people living there marked the anniversary the same way they've marked every day since George W. Bush launched his war based on lies. They were trying to stay alive."


[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Related to the above item, via CBS News: "The 60 Minutes interview with Stormy Daniels, the adult-film star and director who says she had an affair with Donald Trump, will be broadcast on Sunday, March 25 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS."

And finally, in case there was any lingering question that Facebook is anti-democratic in its mission:


Meanwhile... Andy Towle at Towleroad: Facebook Blocks Ad Targeting by Sexual Orientation. "As it wrestles with the controversy over Cambridge Analytica's improper harvesting of user data, news has emerged that Facebook has blocked ad targeting by sexual orientation, meaning that companies and organizations will no longer be able to target specific areas of the LGBTQ community. This has made it impossible for some organizations whose mission it is to reach at-risk individuals to reach those people." Goddammit.

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

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We Resist: Day 369

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, January 23, 2018
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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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: On the Shutdown Deal and The Consequences of Trump's War on the Press.

Michael S. Schmidt at the New York Times: Jeff Sessions Is Questioned for Hours in Russia Inquiry.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned for several hours last week by the special counsel's office as part of the investigation into Russia's meddling in the election and whether the president obstructed justice since taking office, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman.

The meeting marked the first time that investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, are known to have interviewed a member of Mr. Trump's cabinet.

...Mr. Mueller's interest in Mr. Sessions shows how the president's own actions helped prompt a broader inquiry. What began as a Justice Department counterintelligence investigation into Russia's election interference is now also an examination of whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct the inquiry, and the nation's top law enforcement officer is a witness in the case.

For Mr. Mueller, Mr. Sessions is a key witness to two of the major issues he is investigating: The campaign's possible ties to the Russians and whether the president tried to obstruct the Russia investigation.

Mr. Mueller can question Mr. Sessions about his role as the head of the campaign's foreign policy team. Mr. Sessions was involved in developing Mr. Trump's position toward Russia and met with Russian officials, including the ambassador.

Along with Mr. Trump, Mr. Sessions led a March 2016 meeting at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, where one of the campaign's foreign policy advisers, George Papadopoulos, pitched the idea of a personal meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin. Mr. Papadopoulos plead guilty in October to lying to federal authorities about the nature of his contacts with the Russians and agreed to cooperate with the special counsel's office.

As attorney general, Mr. Sessions was deeply involved in the firing of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and the president has repeatedly criticized Mr. Sessions publicly and privately for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
I can picture Sessions' blank, blinking face and hear his gormless "Not that I can recall"s as he was questioned, and just the thought of it enrages me.

Jonathan Swan at Axios: FBI Director Threatened to Resign Amid Trump, Sessions Pressure. "Attorney General Jeff Sessions — at the public urging of [Donald] Trump — has been pressuring FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, but Wray threatened to resign if McCabe was removed, according to three sources with direct knowledge. Wray's resignation under those circumstances would have created a media firestorm. The White House — understandably gun-shy after the Comey debacle — didn't want that scene, so McCabe remains. Sessions told White House Counsel Don McGahn about how upset Wray was about the pressure on him to fire McCabe, and McGahn told Sessions this issue wasn't worth losing the FBI Director over, according to a source familiar with the situation." JFC.

Nicole Lafond at TPM: Dems Ask FB, Twitter to Probe If Russian Bots Boosted Nunes' Memo Hashtag. "California Democrats Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff are asking Twitter and Facebook to probe whether a hashtag promoting the release of a classified memo compiled by Republicans was propagated by Russian bots. In a letter sent to the two companies' CEOs Tuesday, Schiff and Feinstein asked the social media giants for 'urgent assistance' in 'our efforts to counter Russia's continuing efforts to manipulate public opinion.' The memo in question was authored by Rep. Devin Nunes' (R-CA) staffers. It reportedly contains classified information about the conduct of senior Department of Justice and FBI officials that allegedly proves Republicans' claims of the Justice Department's bias against [Donald] Trump. The memo was made available to the entire House of Representatives on Thursday, which prompted calls on social media for the memo to be made public, including a Twitter hashtag '#ReleaseTheMemo.'"


In a private conversation about Feinstein's and Schiff's letter, Eastsidekate said (which I'm sharing with her permission): "I'm glad they wrote that letter, but the fact that they had to is terrifying. 'Hey tech companies, the Kremlin is using your companies to push a Republican plot against democracy (or vice versa), little help?' is not something one sees in a functioning nation." Indeed.

Meanwhile:


Nunes is a chaos agent whose incessant spinning of fuckery works simultaneously to the Trump administration's and Russia's favor. This is not a coincidence.

* * *

Emily Guskin at the Washington Post: Most Americans Don't Trust [Donald] Trump with the 'Nuclear Button'. "About half of Americans are concerned that [Donald] Trump might launch a nuclear attack without justification, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. This worry comes as Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continue to provoke each other on Twitter and follows a previous Post-ABC poll that found a large majority of Americans are concerned about the United States going to war with North Korea. Overall, 38 percent of Americans trust Trump to handle the authority to order nuclear attacks on other countries, while 60 percent do not. Among those who distrust Trump, almost 9 in 10 are very or somewhat concerned the president might launch an attack. Combining those results, the poll finds 52 percent of the public overall is concerned the president might launch a nuclear attack without reason, including one-third who say they are 'very' concerned, according to the poll."

That is also typically not something one sees in a functioning nation.

I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear that fear about Trump's recklessness is both highly partisan and highly gendered: "Partisanship is by far the biggest factor in opinion: Almost 6 in 10 Democrats are 'very concerned' about Trump directing an unjustified nuclear attack, compared with about 3 in 10 independents and fewer than 1 in 10 Republicans. Gender is also a factor on this question, with almost twice as many women than men 'very' concerned Trump might launch a nuclear attack — 42 percent vs. 22 percent." Welp.

In other dreadful foreign policy news...

[Content Note: Drones; death] Julian Borger at the Guardian: U.S. Air Wars Under Trump: Increasingly Indiscriminate, Increasingly Opaque.
According to statistics compiled by the Airwars watchdog group, there were nearly 50% more coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in 2017 compared with the previous year. Civilian deaths rose by 215%. The coalition, almost all U.S. planes, dropped 20,000 bombs on Raqqa. By the end of the five-month campaign, 80% of the city was declared uninhabitable by the U.N., and 1,800 civilians are thought to have been killed. Airwars estimates 1,400 of those deaths were caused by coalition air and artillery bombardment.

...[W]hat certainly changed was the command tone. The defence secretary, James Mattis, and other officials started calling the campaign against Isis a "war of annihilation" and that is how it was conducted, even in densely packed cities, where the average munition used was a huge 500lb bomb.

In Afghanistan, there were no last-stand battles in crowded cities, but the number of civilian casualties almost doubled in 2017 compared with the year before.

Trump also widened the war. To get around those restrictions the Obama administration placed on operations outside battle zones, the Trump administration declared regions of Yemen and Somalia to be areas of "active hostilities." As a result, there were more US strikes on Yemen in 2017 than in the four previous years combined, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) found.

The use of drones has been part of the global expansion of the anti-Isis campaign. It is another trend started under Obama and extended by Trump, but in ways and on a scale that the administration has not made clear.

"Reportedly this administration has made changes, but it has not acknowledged so publicly. So that's a big step backwards in terms of transparency," said Andrea Prasow of Human Rights Watch.

"Drones are used more frequently among the tools that are causing those civilian casualties but it is difficult to assess the scale of those casualties and whether they are lawful or not without information about the targeted killings actions."

The increased reliance on drones, the spread of the counter-terror battle to remote new areas, where reporting is minimal or non-existent, combined with looser rules of engagement and a gung-ho command tone, threaten to combine to create an increasingly indiscriminate, increasingly opaque, global war in which civilians are likely to account for an ever larger share of the victims.
Ali M. Latifi and Aoun Abbas Sahi at ThinkProgress: Trump's Bombast Further Divides Afghanistan and Pakistan, as Civilians Await Meaningful Change. "Trump's words have not only highlighted the growing divide between Afghanistan and the neighboring U.S. ally Pakistan, but also threatened the United States' own relationship with Islamabad. ...While state officials fawn over Trump, many Afghan civilians question the U.S. president's strategy for Afghanistan, and by extension, Pakistan. They wonder whether his fiery speeches and tweets will lead to meaningful, positive action on the ground."

[CN: Homophobia] Michael Fitzgerald at Towleroad: Chechnya's Anti-Gay Leader Attacks Human Rights Group as Revenge for Instagram Deactivation. "Russia's oldest human rights group Memorial has said that Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov likely directed ongoing attacks against it after he lost his Instagram account dues to U.S. sanctions. In December, Vladimir Putin ally Kadyrov, 41 was sanctioned by the US Treasury over alleged human rights abuses. Facebook, which also owns Instagram, said the U.S. decision meant it was legally obliged to deactivate his accounts. Last week, Memorial offices in the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia were torched by masked men. Days earlier, Oyub Titiev, the head of Memorial's office in Chechen capital Grozny, was arrested for possession of six ounces of cannabis. That charge could potentially lead to a 10-year prison sentence. Memorial representatives believe that Chechen security forces were involved in both cases."

That is something that the United States would be addressing, if Hillary Clinton were our president and we had a functioning State Department.

* * *


Edward-Isaac Dovere at Politico: Tony Perkins: Trump Gets 'a Mulligan' on Life, Stormy Daniels. "[Conservative evangelical leaders] embrace Trump the policymaker, says Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, despite being uneasy about Trump as a man. Perkins knows about Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who claimed, in a 2011 interview, that in 2006 she had sex with Trump four months after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son, Barron. He knows of the reports that Daniels (real name: Stephanie Clifford) was paid off to keep the affair quiet in the waning weeks of the 2016 election. He knows about the cursing, the lewdness, and the litany of questionable behavior over the past year of Trump's life or the 70 that came before it. 'We kind of gave him— 'All right, you get a mulligan. You get a do-over here,'' Perkins told me in an interview for the latest episode of POLITICO's Off Message podcast. ...Evangelical Christians, says Perkins, 'were tired of being kicked around by Barack Obama and his leftists. And I think they are finally glad that there's somebody on the playground that is willing to punch the bully.'"

Zero principles. At least these fuckers are being honest about it now. They just want someone to punch progressives. Noted.

Speaking of the lack of principles among the party of moral values COUGH... [CN: Objectification; misogyny] Noor Al-Sibai at Raw Story: Hot Mic Catches GOP Senator Ogling 'Beautiful' Teenaged Girls with Fellow Lawmaker. "As the Senate prepared to pass the continuing resolution that would reopen the government, a Mississippi Republican was caught on a hot mic making comments about the appearances of high-school aged pages. 'I thought you were going to say this was one of the most beautiful girls,' Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MI) said, as flagged by CQ Roll Call's Amelia Frappolli. 'What about these others?'" Goddammit.

[CN: War on agency] Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire: Trump's Federal Agencies Are the Greatest Threat to Roe. "Within the first year of his presidency, [Donald] Trump has managed to stack his cabinet with anti-choice ideologues. He's released two separate executive orders targeting reproductive rights, including one that purports to create an entirely new division within Health and Human Services to back health-care providers that refuse to offer abortion and contraception services, or who have a moral or religious objection to treating LGBTQ patients. And his most powerful attorneys are arguing in the case of Hargan v. Garza that the federal government has the right to unilaterally block access to abortions for undocumented minors in its custody, setting up a direct attack on Roe's legacy — and maybe even a direct challenge to the decision itself."

Joe Romm at ThinkProgress: Trump Hits Solar Imports with Tariff But Still Concedes Millions of Jobs to China. "Donald Trump decided to slap a 30 percent tariff on imported solar cells and panels, the White House announced Monday. The tariff comes after the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled last year that China had harmed the domestic solar manufacturing industry with policies aimed at taking over the global market. While the administration claimed the president was acting to protect American jobs, the new tariff is only the latest in a series of efforts by the White House to slow the installation of renewable energy in this country in favor of fossil fuels — a strategy that kills jobs in both the near term and long term."

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

Open Wide...
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We Resist: Day 270

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, October 16, 2017
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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 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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: This Is Nazi Sh1t. And by Fannie: We Walk Together: Thoughts on the Women's Convention.

Ashley Parker and Greg Jaffe at the Washington Post: Inside the 'Adult Daycare Center': How Aides Try to Control and Coerce Trump. "Some Trump aides spend a significant part of their time devising ways to rein in and control the impetuous president, angling to avoid outbursts that might work against him, according to interviews with 18 aides, confidants and outside advisers, most of whom insisted on anonymity to speak candidly." Apart from the bullshit that is having a president who needs to be managed in this way because he's got the temperament of a dumpster fire, think of the taxpayer money being wasted paying the salaries of aides who use most of their time being handlers for a petulant tyrant.

Speaking of which: Donald Trump is blowing up the Iran deal because he is certain that Iran is not complying with its requirements, despite the fact that everyone else believes that they are. Maybe he genuinely (if unaccountably) believes that he knows something everyone else doesn't, which would be in keeping with his usual megalomania, but I suspect it's more likely the pronouncement is simply the easiest pretext to justify his decision to blow up a deal struck by President Obama. [Content Note: Video autoplays at link.] In any case, John Oliver had an excellent segment on this mess last night.

[CN: Bigotry] And as a terrible reminder of how fucked we are even if by some stroke of good fortune Trump is no longer president:


Like, it doesn't even include the name "Glenda Ritz." It does, however, include [CN: Homophobia] this horrendous passage, highlighted by Andy Towle:
"Trump thinks Pence is great," Bannon told me. But, according to a longtime associate, Trump also likes to "let Pence know who's boss." A staff member from Trump's campaign recalls him mocking Pence's religiosity. He said that, when people met with Trump after stopping by Pence's office, Trump would ask them, "Did Mike make you pray?" Two sources also recalled Trump needling Pence about his views on abortion and homosexuality. During a meeting with a legal scholar, Trump belittled Pence's determination to overturn Roe v. Wade. The legal scholar had said that, if the Supreme Court did so, many states would likely legalize abortion on their own. "You see?" Trump asked Pence. "You've wasted all this time and energy on it, and it's not going to end abortion anyway." When the conversation turned to gay rights, Trump motioned toward Pence and joked, "Don't ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!"
If that's even a figure of speech at all, it's just barely one. Because we are being governed by truly awful human beings.

On that note! Tarini Parti and Alexis Levinson at BuzzFeed: No One Knows What Steve Bannon's "War" Will Actually Look Like. "As the GOP appears to be on the verge of another civil war and reports of Bannon's 2018 plans dominate headlines, the big question Republicans are still trying to figure out is: Beyond a photo op, what does Bannon's support actually mean for Grimm and several other candidates he is backing? Asked that question directly, a close Bannon ally responded: 'It's actually still TBD.'" Sure. But we have a pretty good idea of what it will look like, given the Breitbart politics and funding from conservative extremists like the Mercers. And we're already getting a gander at the familiar strategies he is likely to employ, cough.

* * *

A bunch of concerning foreign policy stuff today, starting with North Korea:


[CN: Video may autoplay at link] And in Austria. Angela Dewan, Atika Shubert, Nadine Schmidt, and Laura Goehler at CNN report: "Sebastian Kurz, a 31-year-old conservative, is set to become the next chancellor of Austria and Europe's youngest leader, though he will likely need to form a coalition to rule, early results from Sunday's election show. The People's Party (OVP), which Kurz has led since May, is widely expected to form an alliance with the Freedom Party (FPO), putting the far right in an Austrian governing coalition for the first time in more than 10 years."

[CN: Terrorism; injury and death] And in Somalia. Jason Burke at the Guardian reports:
The death toll in the bombing that hit the centre of Mogadishu on Saturday continues to rise, with more than 300 people now believed to have been killed and hundreds more seriously injured.

The scale of the loss makes the attack, which involved a truck packed with several hundred kilograms of military-grade and homemade explosives, one of the most lethal terrorist acts anywhere in the world for many years.

On Monday morning, Somalia's information minister announced that 276 people had died in the attack with at least 300 people injured. Within hours, however, Abdikadir Abdirahman, the director of Amin ambulances, said his service had confirmed that 300 people died in the blast.

"The death toll will still be higher because some people are still missing," Abdirahman told Reuters.

More victims continue to be dug from the rubble spread over an area hundreds of metres wide in the centre of the city.

Rescue workers said a definitive death toll may never be established because the intense heat generated by the blast meant the remains of many people would not be found.

...The bomb, which is thought to have targeted Somalia's foreign ministry, was concealed in a truck and exploded near a hotel, demolishing the building and several others.

Sources close to the Somali government said the truck had been stopped at a checkpoint and was about to be searched when the driver suddenly accelerated. It crashed through a barrier, then exploded. This ignited a fuel tanker parked nearby, creating a massive fireball.

Witnesses described bewildered families wandering among the rubble and wrecked vehicles, looking for missing relatives. Bodies were carried from the scene on makeshift stretchers made of blankets, as people tried to dig through the debris with their hands.

"There's nothing I can say. We have lost everything," said Zainab Sharif, a mother of four who lost her husband in the attack. She sat outside a hospital where he was pronounced dead after doctors tried for hours to save him from an arterial injury.

Muna Haj, 36, said: "Today, I lost my son who was dear to me. The oppressors have taken his life away from him. I hate them. May Allah give patience to all families who lost their loved ones in that tragic blast."
Absolutely heartbreaking. I take up space in solidarity with the people of Mogadishu, who have my grief, my anger, my condolences, and my support.

And a major story out of Iraq, which is getting shockingly little attention in the U.S. press:


I highly recommend both stories linked in those tweets to understand what's going on, and continues to unfold, as civilians have begun to flee Kirkuk. Fucking hell.

And finally, in Ireland, care of climate change: "Three people have been killed as tropical storm Ophelia batters Ireland with winds of more than 100mph. ...At least 360,000 electricity customers are without power amid scores of reports of fallen trees and power lines. The network operator warned that the majority of those already affected would be without power tonight and 5% to 10% could be without electricity for up to 10 days. Northern Ireland was also affected, with 18,000 customers suffering a loss of power, including the Stormont parliament. The force of Ophelia was such that it blew roofs of buildings in Cork. Douglas Community school saw the roof of its gym ripped off and the roof of Cork City football club’s stadium collapsed. A gust of 118mph was recorded off the coast of Ireland. ...Parts of the UK were covered by an eerie red/orange sky. Experts said the hue was caused by Hurricane Ophelia dragging in tropical air and dust from the Sahara."

It's incredibly important to bear in mind that extreme weather events are also political events — because they are intensified by climate change, about which governments make political decisions that can accelerate or decelerate its effects.

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

Open Wide...
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We Resist: Day 221

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, August 28, 2017
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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 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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: Trump Isolates Us from Allies and Militarizes the Police and Two New Suits Will Immediately Challenge Trump's Trans Military Ban.

Carol D. Leonnig, Tom Hamburger, and Rosalind S. Helderman at the Washington Post: Trump's Business Sought Deal on a Trump Tower in Moscow While He Ran for President.
While Donald Trump was running for president in late 2015 and early 2016, his company was pursuing a plan to develop a massive Trump Tower in Moscow, according to several people familiar with the proposal and new records reviewed by Trump Organization lawyers.

As part of the discussions, a Russian-born real estate developer urged Trump to come to Moscow to tout the proposal and suggested that he could get President Vladimir Putin to say "great things" about Trump, according to several people who have been briefed on his correspondence.

The developer, Felix Sater, predicted in a November 2015 email that he and Trump Organization leaders would soon be celebrating — both one of the biggest residential projects in real estate history and Donald Trump's election as president, according to two of the people with knowledge of the exchange.

Sater wrote to Trump Organization Executive Vice President Michael Cohen "something to the effect of, 'Can you believe two guys from Brooklyn are going to elect a president?'" said one person briefed on the email exchange.
Felix Sater again. When is this guy going to publicly testify? We need some answers from him in a major way.

Although the project never went forward because the Trump organization and its investors "lacked the land and permits to proceed," the heretofore undisclosed details of the deal nevertheless "provide evidence that Trump’s business was actively pursuing significant commercial interests in Russia at the same time he was campaigning to be president — and in a position to determine U.S.-Russia relations."

"White House officials declined to comment for this report." I'll bet they did.

Even the fact that they didn't immediately deny the allegation is pretty damning, though. Time to impeach this guy. Way past time.

* * *

Julian Borger at the Guardian: White House 'Pressuring' Intelligence Officials to Find Iran in Violation of Nuclear Deal. "U.S. intelligence officials are under pressure from the White House to produce a justification to declare Iran in violation of a 2015 nuclear agreement, in an echo of the politicisation of intelligence that led up to the Iraq invasion, according to former officials and analysts. ...Intelligence analysts, chastened by the experience of the 2003 Iraq war, launched by the Bush administration on the basis of phony evidence of weapons of mass destruction, are said to be resisting the pressure to come up with evidence of Iranian violations."

There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas; it's probably in Tennessee — that says, "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you... Fool me can't get fooled again.
You know whose name is nowhere in that report? Mike Pence. Despite the fact that, as I've been saying since he joined the ticket during the campaign, he is incredibly likely to support (or start himself, if he is elevated to the presidency) a war precisely like the one Bush started in Iraq.

In fact, I talked about that just earlier this month on the Hellbent podcast.

* * *


Something else that Trump has done is repeatedly tweet about Hurricane Harvey with a wildly inappropriate tone, as I've been noting on Twitter.


I am just profoundly sorry for all the people affected by the storm who have to deal with their president behaving like a sociopathic jackass on top of everything else they're dealing with at the moment.

* * *

Jonathan Swan at Axios: Trump Frustration with Tillerson Rising Fast. "Trump has been growing increasingly frustrated with his Secretary of State. One time recently, after Trump had returned from a meeting on Afghanistan, a source recalled Trump saying, 'Rex just doesn't get it; he's totally establishment in his thinking.'" Welp.

Already, no one competent wants to work for or with this garbage administration. (Further to that point, Trump's cybersecurity advisors just resigned en masse, following in the footsteps of a number of his other advisory teams.) If Trump ends up shitcanning Tillerson, following a string of other departures, it's going to make finding competent people willing to work for or with Trump even more difficult than it already is.

And that's really a no-win situation for the American people, because Tillerson is a shitty Secretary of State. Keeping him is bad; getting rid of him is bad for a different reason.

That's the Trump administration for you: No good option anywhere you look.

Molly Redden at the Guardian: 'The President Speaks for Himself': Rex Tillerson Distances Himself from Trump. "Asked if [Trump's 'many sides' remarks about Charlottesville] made it harder for him to represent America abroad, Tillerson said: 'I don't believe anyone doubts the American people's values or the commitment of the American government or the government's agencies to advancing those values and defending those values.' 'And the president's values?' asked Chris Wallace, the Fox news anchor. Tillerson replied: 'The president speaks for himself.' Asked if he was 'separating' himself from the president, Tillerson said: 'I've made my own comments as to our values as well in a speech I gave to the state department this past week.'"

What's most notable about this isn't that Tillerson is trying to cynically distance himself from Trump; it's that Tillerson imagines that no one "doubts the American people's values." Actually, Dude Who Is in Charge of Our Global Diplomacy, I think it's fair to say that many people are quite rightfully doubting the values of a large swath of the American people these days. Including the rest of the American people.

Our Secretary of State should be aware of that. And not pretending it could be otherwise.

* * *

[Content Note: White supremacy] Matt Shuham at TPM: New Confederate Monument Erected in Alabama. "A member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans told reporters Sunday it was just a coincidence that he unveiled a new monument to the Confederacy in Alabama so soon after a violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. 'This was planned several months ago,' David Coggins, on whose private land the monument to 'Unknown Alabama Confederate Soldiers' was unveiled Sunday, told NBC News. 'Matter of fact, the monument was ordered last year, and it's taken this long to get it in the ground and ready to unveil,' he added." But nothing says it had to be unveiled right now, or at all, so fuck you, buddy.

Rosie Gray at the Atlantic: What Steve Bannon's Return Means for Breitbart. "Steve Bannon was always supposed to return to Breitbart News. When he left his job as executive chairman of the site to join the Trump campaign in August 2016, the move was presented as a temporary leave of absence, his return to Breitbart after the election a fait accompli. ...[Bannon] is back at Breitbart, which welcomed him home as a 'populist hero' last week (and has been selling fidget spinners with his face on them). The former chief strategist has axes to grind and a place where he can grind them; no longer chained to the internal drama at the White House, he's free to go after his enemies in the administration and in the Republican party as much as he chooses.

Brad Reed at Raw Story: Pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio Considers Running Against GOP Sen. Jeff Flake. "Disgraced ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio was officially pardoned by [Donald] Trump last week — and now he might help the president exact revenge against one of his rivals within the GOP. In an interview with the Washington Examiner, the 85-year-old Arpaio said he's weighing several options for what to do next now that he's been pardoned by the president. 'I could run for mayor, I could run for legislator, I could run for Senate,' Arpaio explained. Arpaio said that a lot of people asked him to challenge Flake in a primary race next year, although he hasn't made any firm commitment either way yet."

Of course. What I find fascinating and terrifying about that is how you can see Trump's thinking outlined in neon lights. "Joe, I'm gonna turn you into a star by pardoning you, and then you can destroy Flake bigly!" Ugh.

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

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We Resist: Day 179

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, July 17, 2017
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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 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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: Get Well Soon, McCain—Then Reconsider Your Politics and The Lying Liars Tell More Lies About Don Jr.'s Meeting.

REMINDER: KEEP CALLING YOUR SENATORS TO TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON TRUMPCARE.

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Igor Bobic at the Huffington Post: Tom Price Says Insurers Should 'Dust Off How They Did Business Before Obamacare'.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price suggested Sunday that the nation's health insurance system ought to operate as it did before the Affordable Care Act was passed.

During an appearance on ABC's "This Week," Price was asked to respond to a blistering criticism of the Senate Republicans' health care proposal by two major groups representing the U.S. health insurance industry. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) earlier this week, the groups called the latest version of the bill "simply unworkable in any form" and warned that it would cause "widespread terminations of coverage" to people with serious medical problems.

"It's really perplexing, especially from the insurance companies, because all they have to do is dust off how they did business before Obamacare," Price said...

In discussing their health care plan, Republicans do not usually speak as candidly as Price about returning the nation's health care system to its pre-Obamacare period, a period marked by egregious insurance company abuses. Protections for pre-existing conditions remain highly popular around the country, and GOP lawmakers are loath to admit their policies would weaken them.

Prior to Obamacare, 79 million — more than one in four Americans — either lacked health insurance or were underinsured. The poor, especially, lacked adequate coverage.
A perfect and terrible reminder from the Secretary of Health and Human Services that Donald Trump's cabinet appointees were chosen based on their willingness to destroy the departments they were chosen to lead. By the time Price is done with his tenure, I suspect a more accurate name will be the Department of No Health and No Human Services.

Ellee Achten at Rewire: West Virginia Families, Just Learning About Health-Care Access, Fear It Will Be Taken Away. "It is well known that Planned Parenthood offers contraception, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and pregnancy services, as well as abortion services and referrals, but West Virginians also receive hormone therapy, and testing and treatment for HIV, while others take their entire families to the clinics for general health care. Planned Parenthood centers — like the one Calloway visits in Vienna — offer extensive health services to their communities, especially to those with lower incomes. And, as Calloway noted, some patients are even seeking help at Planned Parenthood in battling opioids — a long-term and yet rising concern for Central Appalachia. 'We all made the choice to go to Planned Parenthood for different reasons,' said Calloway, who wanted to give Senators more than a story, but a face. 'Putting politics aside, we rely on Planned Parenthood,' she said."

Noam N. Levey at the LA Times: Obamacare Repeal Bills Could Put Coverage out of Reach for Millions of Sick Americans. "Both the House GOP bill that passed in May and the revised Senate GOP bill unveiled last week effectively eliminate the coverage guarantee by allowing health insurers to once again sell skimpier plans and charge more to people with preexisting health conditions who need more-comprehensive coverage. At the same time, the House and Senate bills dramatically scale back financial aid to low- and moderate-income consumers, and slash funding for Medicaid, the government safety-net plan that has helped millions of sick and poor Americans gain coverage. That combination — looser insurance requirements and less financial assistance for patients — will once again put health plans out of reach for millions of sick Americans, according to numerous analyses."


Again, I will note that the Republican Party is pursuing this wildly unpopular legislation with a vigor that suggests a party who believes they will never have to be accountable to voters again. That seems worrying, no?

* * *

[CN: War; death] Samuel Oakford at the Daily Beast: Trump's Air War Has Already Killed More Than 2,000 Civilians. "Airwars researchers estimate that at least 2,300 civilians likely died from Coalition strikes overseen by the Obama White House — roughly 80 each month in Iraq and Syria. As of July 13, more than 2,200 additional civilians appear to have been killed by Coalition raids since Trump was inaugurated — upwards of 360 per month, or 12 or more civilians killed for every single day of his administration. ...Airwars estimates that the minimum approximate number of civilian deaths from Coalition attacks will have doubled under Trump's leadership within his first six months in office." Fucking hell.

This sounds very much like precisely what Trump threatened to do when he was a candidate, having told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade in December 2015 that, unlike Obama, who he accused of waging "a very politically correct war," he "would knock the hell out of ISIS... One of the problems that we have and one of the reasons we're so ineffective, they're using [civilians] as shields. ...With the terrorists, you have to take out their families. When you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families."

So Trump's "politically incorrect" war doesn't care about civilian casualties. And, as a result, an enormous number of civilians are being killed — which is not only breathtakingly cruel but also ineffective, as airstrikes long ago "replaced Guantánamo as the recruiting tool of choice for militants." This is not making us more safe. Even if it were, it would be hideous that our safety came at the expense of the lives of innocent people, whom the U.S. president dismisses as "shields," stripping them of all humanity to encourage our indifferent as his decision to carelessly kill them.

* * *

[CN: Nativism; exploitation] Alex Horton at the Washington Post: Foreign-Born Recruits, Promised Citizenship by the Pentagon, Flee the Country to Avoid Deportation. "About 1,000 of those recruits have waited so long that they have fallen out of legal immigration status. An internal Defense Department memo obtained by The Post acknowledges that canceling these contracts would expose the recruits to deportation. In response, lawmakers urged Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to honor the contracts of those recruits. The recruits, who have already sworn allegiance to the United States in their oaths of enlistment, could potentially face harsh interrogations or jail time if they are deported to countries such as China or Russia, said Tom Malinowski, former assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor in the Obama administration." Unconscionable. This is absolutely heinous treatment of people who aided the U.S.

[CN: Nativism] Tina Vasquez at Rewire: Trump's Wall Sees Windfall and Many Don't Know Why. "Vicki Gaubeca, director of the Regional Center for Border Rights for the ACLU of New Mexico, told Rewire that her real concern is that politicians continue making decisions about what is needed at the border without consulting border communities. 'At a time when migration from Mexico has been at zero, apprehensions at the border are going down, and border communities are already experiencing militarization with little accountability and oversight, the question that begs to be asked is why do we need more resources at the border?' Gaubeca said." (Maybe the wall is actually less about keeping people out than keeping people in?)

[CN: Animal harm] Natasha Geiling at ThinkProgress: A Texas Wildlife Refuge Will Be Razed to Build the First Section of Trump's Wall. "The Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge comprises 2,088-acres along the U.S.-Mexico border, and was established in 1943 for the protection of migratory birds. The refuge is home to at least 400 species of birds, 450 types of plants, and half of the butterfly species found in North America. It is also home to the highly-endangered ocelot. Federal officials told the Texas Observer that the wall would consist of an 18-foot levee wall that would stretch for three miles in the wildlife refuge. The construction plan would require building a road south of the wall, as well as clearing land on either side. Such construction would 'essentially destroy the refuge,' an official told the Texas Observer." FUCK.

[CN: Nativism; Islamophobia; misogynist violence] Michelle Chen at the Guardian: Why Trump's Travel Ban Hits Women the Hardest. "On top of alienating an entire religious community, Trump's even longer ban on future refugee admissions deepens a hidden dimension of the crisis: the endemic gender injustice of warfare. ...According to US humanitarian organization Tahirh Justice Center, which focuses on gender-based human rights abuse, women face a disproportionate share of the trauma because at every stage in the refugee journey, even outside of the direct conflict zone, they 'find themselves unable to get out of situations that might threaten their safety...' Moreover they face ancillary gender-based human rights violations that tend to explode in conflict situations, including epidemics of sexual abuse and labor and sexual trafficking." I hate Trump so much.

Not good:


Meanwhile, the one person who has done something in vaguely in accordance with the law and ethical norms in the Trump administration is considered a betrayer by the president. Jonathan Swan at Axios: Trump Hasn't Forgiven Sessions for Russia Recusal. "Trump's initial fury about Sessions' recusal from the Russia probe has turned to a simmering resentment that may have permanently poisoned their relationship, according to sources close to both of them. ...Trump's top-line association for Sessions: The guy who showed tremendous weakness and caused tremendous problems by needlessly recusing himself from the Russia investigation." Welp.

Dylan Stableford at Yahoo News: Outgoing Federal Ethics Chief: 'We Are Pretty Close to a Laughingstock at This Point'.
The federal government's top ethics chief is resigning on Wednesday. And he's torching the Trump administration on his way out.

Walter M. Shaub Jr., director of the Office of Government Ethics, told the New York Times that [Donald] Trump's apparent disdain for long-established ethical norms has undermined the credibility of the United States around the world.

"It's hard for the United States to pursue international anti-corruption and ethics initiatives when we're not even keeping our own side of the street clean," Shaub told the Times in an article published Monday. "I think we are pretty close to a laughingstock at this point."

Shaub — who has been a vocal critic of Trump's since his election — said the president's frequent trips to his family-owned golf clubs are a microcosm of just how blurry the line between the White House and Trump brand has become.

"It creates the appearance of profiting from the presidency," Shaub said. "Misuse of position is really the heart of the ethics program, and the internationally accepted definition of corruption is abuse of entrusted power. It undermines the government ethics program by casting doubt on the integrity of government decision making."

Trump spent last weekend at another one of his golf courses, and repeatedly promoted the U.S. Women's Open Championship held there.
Unreal.

I deeply appreciate the organizations, like CREW, who are trying to hold Trump accountable for this shit. CREW, in fact, had a bit of good news this morning:


The only problem is that I don't trust for a moment that the records they get will reflect reality. If they haven't been fudged all along, I fully anticipate that Mar-a-Lago will tamper with them before submission. Sigh.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Veronica Stracqualursi at ABC News: Trump Reaches a Low Even He Can't Ignore. "Few want a tweeter-in-chief: The ABC News-Washington Post poll out this morning shows that 67 percent of Americans don't like [Donald] Trump's use of Twitter and 70 percent say Trump has acted in an 'unpresidential' manner since taking office. [The poll also] shows Trump's six-month approval rating at 36 percent, the lowest of any president at this point in 70 years."

Goddddddddddd just fucking resign already! SHIT.

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

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In the News

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, September 27, 2016
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Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Bombing; terrorism; self-harm; injury and death] Fucking hell: "Three blasts killed at least 17 people and wounded more than 50 in predominantly Shi'ite Muslim districts of Baghdad on Tuesday, police and medical sources said. A suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in a commercial street in the eastern Baghdad al-Jadida area of the Iraqi capital, killing nine people and wounding more than 30, they said. Another suicide attack hit a commercial street of Bayaa in western Baghdad, killing six and wounding 22, the sources said. A roadside bomb exploded near a gathering of cattle herders and merchants in al-Radhwaniya, also in western Baghdad, killing two people, they said." The Islamic State has already taken credit for two of the bombings. My condolences to the people of Baghdad. I am so angry, and I take up space in solidarity with Iraqis who are just trying to live their lives in peace.

[CN: Homophobia; violence] Goddammit: "Neil Frias and Jeff White, two New Yorkers who were visiting San Francisco over the weekend for the annual Folsom Street Fair, say they were attacked with pepper spray at the intersection of Golden Gate and Fillmore Streets in the city’s Western Addition neighborhood. ...[F]ive men pulled up in a blue minivan. 'They were saying, 'You fags are destroying family values,'' Frias said. ...'The thing that was the most remarkable about the situation is how unprovoked it was,' White said, still reeling from the encounter Sunday morning. 'I was literally tying my shoe when they came at me. It's mind-boggling.'" There is no behavior that could provoke a violent, homophobic attack. None.

[CN: Class warfare] Of course: "Republican officials nationwide want to stop enforcement of new overtime rules that make millions of people who work eligible for overtime pay."

I don't know how I feel about this! "The world's first baby to be born from a new procedure that combines the DNA of three people appears to be healthy, according to doctors in the US who oversaw the treatment."

[CN: Police brutality] Will definitely watch: "Add 'interview host' to Mary J. Blige's resume. The R&B icon has a new Apple Music show, appropriately titled 'The 411,' and her first guest is none other than Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton."

This forever: "Did anybody see that debate last night? [laughs heartily] Ohhhhh yes! One down; two to go!"


"Russian Photographer Captures the Cutest Squirrel Photo Session Ever." As advertised!

What have you been reading?

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In the News

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, July 08, 2016
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Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Terrorism; bombing; death] "Islamic State claimed responsibility for a triple suicide attack on Thursday evening near a Shia mausoleum north of Baghdad that killed at least 35 people and wounded 60 others, according to Iraqi security sources. The attack on the mausoleum of Sayyid Muhammad bin Ali al-Hadi reignited fears of an escalation of the sectarian strife between Iraq's Shias and Sunnis. ...The strike in Balad is being seen in Baghdad as another indication that after losing much of the territory it has held for the past two years, Isis is once again trying to inflame tensions by attacking soft civilian targets and holy sites." Fucking hell.

[CN: Racism; emotional auditing] This is a must-read: "Stop Condemning My Bitterness, Start Condemning the System: My anger is functional. My bitterness is rational. If I am not outraged at the injustices faced by myself, my community, my children, who will be?"

The State Department, which suspended its investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails while the FBI complete its investigation, has now resumed its investigation, and the FBI may now launch another investigation following Republican lawmakers' announcement that they intend to request the FBI investigate whether Clinton lied to the committee during their invesigation. So, everything's normal with our government.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton continues to run to be the leader of a government intent on making it clear she's better than we deserve, and has a shortlist of veep candidates that reportedly includes: Sen. Tim Kaine, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and Secretary of Labor Tom Perez. Please, Maude, anyone but Tim Kaine.

Newt Gingrich, who is being vetted by Donald Trump for his veep, because no one else wants the job, says of Trump: "I think he is a remarkable figure." I guess? That's not exactly a clear compliment.

And in other supercool election news: "Bernie Sanders has been invited to continue his underdog bid for the White House by the Green party's probable presidential candidate, who has offered to step aside to let him run. Jill Stein, who is expected to be endorsed at the party's August convention in Houston, told Guardian US that 'overwhelming' numbers of Sanders supporters are flocking to the Greens rather than Hillary Clinton." Doubtful.

[CN: War on agency] Go read this terrific piece by Pam Merritt (aka Shark Fu): "Missourians have had enough. That's what brought local progressive activists together, led by Reproaction Missouri organizer Zoe Krause, to launch Show-Me Accountability. We gathered on the sidewalk in front of Thrive, one of at least 65 CPCs anti-choice lawmakers champion despite the fact that the centers have a history of lying to patients seeking reproductive health care. Missouri lawmakers have even pushed legislation to guarantee CPCs aren't subject to regulation or oversight. We chose Thrive as the location of our launch to illustrate the contrast between what Missouri politicians fund, prioritize, and protect, versus what Missourians actually need them to focus on. Someone turned the sprinklers on at Thrive just as activists started showing up, providing a nonstop shower that drenched people walking or standing on much of the sidewalk in front of the building. It was an old-school disruption move that made it clear they knew we were coming and weren't happy about it. We shifted down the sidewalk and started to get in formation."

Good news: "A year after the U.S. Supreme Court's marriage equality decision, state courts are still sorting out the implications for same-sex couples when it comes to disputes over children. The Maryland Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, ruled Thursday that a non-adoptive same-sex partner is still entitled to legal recognition in a custody dispute. ...Maryland isn't the only state still figuring out how to sort out the legal recognition of same-sex parents. Just last week, a federal judge ordered Indiana to list both parents in a same-sex couple on their child's birth certificate, following a similar ruling against Utah last year."

"A ban on women serving in close combat units in the British military has been lifted by Prime Minister David Cameron. Women, who have previously served on the front line in support roles, will now be allowed to enter the cavalry, infantry, and armoured corps. ...The PM's decision follows a government review in which the head of the Army, General Sir Nick Carter, recommended the ban should be lifted. Announcing the move at a Nato summit in Warsaw, Poland, Mr Cameron said: 'It is vital that our armed forces are world-class and reflect the society we live in. It will ensure the armed forces can make the most of all their talent and increase opportunities for women to serve in the full range of roles."

Whoa: "Scientists have designed a robotic stingray that could help our understanding of the human heart. The miniature robot, one-tenth the scale of the actual fish, moves using heart cells taken from a rat. Researchers hope the robotic ray will give new insight into the heart's ability to pump blood and its potential implications in heart disease."

Stunningly beautiful: "A detailed image of the core of the famous Crab Nebula, captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, reveals the 'beating heart' that, with every pulse, breathes life into the expanding cloud of gas and debris surrounding it."

And finally! "Photographer Captures the Fun Side of Ground Squirrels." TOO CUTE.

Open Wide...
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Terrible Islamic State Attack in Baghdad

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, July 06, 2016
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[Content Note: Terrorism; bombing; death; injury.]

In the early hours Sunday morning, as hundreds of Iraqis gathered at a shopping mall in the Karrada shopping district during the holy month of Ramadan, many of them shopping for gifts for the festival of Eid, a car bomb exploded, killing hundreds of people. The latest report from Reuters says that Iraq's Health Ministry puts the death toll at 250.

My sincerest condolences to those who were injured and/or traumatized, and to the families and friends of the people who were killed.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. At the Washington Post, Ishaan Tharoor details that it was the latest, and worst, in a series of deadly attacks over days—and yet has gotten comparatively little media attention:

First, they came for Istanbul. On Tuesday night, three suspected Islamic State militants launched a brazen assault on Turkey's main airport, exploding their suicide vests after gunning down numerous passengers and airport staff. At least 45 people were killed. The world panicked; Istanbul Ataturk Airport is one of the busiest hubs in Europe and the Middle East, and it is among the most fortified. Are our airports safe, wondered American TV anchors. Could this happen here on the Fourth of July?

Next, they came for Dhaka. Gunmen whom many have linked to the Islamic State raided a popular cafe in an upscale neighborhood in Bangladesh's teeming capital. After a 10-hour standoff, authorities stormed the establishment; at least 20 hostages, mostly Italian and Japanese nationals, died at the militants' hands. U.S. college students also were among the dead. The Islamic State's reach is growing far from the Middle East, security experts fretted. Foreigners are at risk all over the Muslim world.

Then, they attacked Baghdad. ...The area is predominantly Shiite, making it a choice target for the Sunni extremist group.
Two-hundred and fifty people killed by IS, and yet "we have become almost numb to the violence in Baghdad: Deadly car bombings there conjure up no hashtags, no Facebook profile pictures with the Iraqi flag, and no Western newspaper front pages of the victims' names and life stories, and they attract only muted global sympathy."

I don't know what to say other than that I care. This matters to me. It makes me angry and it fills me with grief.

And again I find myself unable to do anything but bear witness. Which isn't enough, but it is all I can do. We all must do at least that.

Open Wide...
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In the News

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, May 31, 2016
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Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: War; terrorism; displacement] "Islamic State militants in central Fallujah are believed to have prevented at least 20,000 residents from leaving the city and are offering fierce resistance to advancing Iraqi forces. A string of cautious early engagements, which are believed to have killed scores of Isis members and a smaller number of Iraqi troops, have set the scene for a protracted and difficult fight for Iraq's fourth city that will likely expose large numbers of trapped civilians, whom the group is using as human shields." Fucking hell.

Hillary Clinton got a couple of major endorsements today: The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Action Fund endorsed her, which is the "first time it's backed a presidential candidate." And Democratic California Governor Jerry Brown endorsed her, ahead of the California primary, saying she's the nominee a majority of voters have decided they want. In case you aren't familiar with Brown, he ran a presidential campaign in 1992 very similar to Bernie Sanders', which he ultimately lost to Bill Clinton.

[CN: Authoritarianism] Buried deep, deep within this Washington Post article is a chilling quote from Donald Trump that should terrify anyone with a basic sense of history: "Politicians have used you and stolen your votes. They have given you nothing. I will give you everything. I will give you what you've been looking for for 50 years. I'm the only one." SHIVER.

Relatedly, I've got a piece up at BNR about Trump's tirade at the media earlier today: "Donald Trump launched a vicious attack on the media today, who have, until this point, been treating him with kid gloves and disproportionately favorable coverage. It was a chilling view into how a Trump administration would try to undermine, intimidate, and silence the press."

[CN: ICE raids] This is an interesting interview with Father John Olenick, pastor of Visitation Blessed Virgin Mary Roman Catholic Parish in Philadelphia, a city which has been designated a "sanctuary city" because of its refusal to cooperate with deportation and having put an end to police-ICE collaborations. "The church is also one of 19 member congregations in the New Sanctuaries Movement. When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced in January plans for mass immigration raids, New Sanctuary members and staff set up the emergency hotline and 'Know Your Rights' training sessions for undocumented immigrants."

In (tentative) good news: "Nearly 40,000 striking Verizon employees will return to work Wednesday after reaching a tentative contract agreement that includes 1,300 new call center jobs and nearly 11 percent in raises over four years but also makes health care plan changes to save the company money, the company and unions said Monday. The pact, subject to approval by union members, stands to end one of the largest strikes in the United States in recent years. Workers and Verizon Communications Inc. had reached an agreement in principle Friday but hadn't released details or a date for the workers' return. The strike began in mid-April."

[CN: Domestic violence; abuse apologia; gaslighting] This piece by comedian Doug Stanhope, "Johnny Depp Is Being Blackmailed by Amber Heard—Here's How I Know," is despicable trash. For about a million different reasons, not least of which is this: Trust that a defender of Polanski knows how to preemptively gaslight someone he's abused by telling friends she's out to get him.

[CN: Rape culture; sexual assault] Speaking of Polanski: "Roman Polanski faces a fresh extradition challenge after the Polish government announced Tuesday it would appeal a court decision not to force him to face U.S. courts over a 1977 child sex conviction."

[CN: Guns; death] My god: "At least 60 people were shot, six fatally, over the Memorial Day weekend in Chicago. That is fewer homicides than the holiday weekend last year, when 12 people were killed, but the overall shooting rates in Chicago continue to be higher than the year before, according to the Chicago Tribune's ongoing tally. ...Memorial Day weekend, which falls midway through the year, is an annual, unofficial indicator of a city's gun violence landscape, as the warmer summer weather is typically met with a jump in crime rates. In New York City, at least one person was fatally shot and 16 others injured in shootings over the weekend. But shooting rates in other major cities continue to pale in comparison to those in Chicago, the third-largest city in the US. While fewer homicides occurred in Chicago over the holiday weekend compared to last year, in the first five months of 2016, more people were shot each month than in the same month a year earlier. This time last year, 957 people had been shot, according to the Tribune. On Tuesday, the number for 2016 was around 1,500, the newspaper said."

RIP Lou Richards: "A member of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that was immortalized in the 1992 film A League of Their Own has died. Lucille 'Lou' Richards was 90. ...She was a shortstop for the Racine Belles and the South Bend Blue Sox in 1945 as part of the first women's professional baseball league." My condolences to her family, friends, teammates, and fans.

Neat! After some delay and trial and error and sticktoitiveness, the International Space Station finally has its new room!

And finally! This collection of photographs of Galgos (Spanish Greyhounds) is THE BEST. Yayayayay!

Open Wide...
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