Trump Is a F#@king Racist, Part One Zillion in an Endless Series

[Content Note: White supremacy; nativism; misogyny.]

Yesterday, Donald Trump tweeted this racist shit about Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts:

So interesting to see "Progressive" Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly......

....and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how....

....it is done. These places need your help badly, you can't leave fast enough. I'm sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!

As many people have already noted, all four of the congresswomen targeted by Trump are U.S. citizens, so this is just more of the nativist birther shit on which he's made his political name, starting with his birther campaign against President Barack Obama.

I'll come back to that, but I also want to note very clearly that accusing sitting members of Congress of being uppity for having ideas about "how our government is to be run" shows, yet again, Trump's hostility to the most basic notion of the separation of powers. The president doesn't unilaterally run the U.S. government. Congress is a coequal branch which has as much authority over "how our government is to be run" as the executive branch.

Naturally, Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Omar, and Presley had some thoughts for the president.

Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: "Mr. President, the country I 'come from,' & the country we all swear to, is the United States. ...You are angry because you can't conceive of an America that includes us. You rely on a frightened America for your plunder. You won't accept a nation that sees healthcare as a right or education as a #1 priority, especially where we're the ones fighting for it. Yet here we are. But you know what's the rub of it all, Mr. President? On top of not accepting an America that elected us, you cannot accept that we don't fear you, either."

Tlaib tweeted: "Yo @realDonaldTrump, I am fighting corruption in OUR country. I do it every day when I hold your admin accountable as a U.S. Congresswoman. Detroit taught me how to fight for the communities you continue to degrade & attack. Keep talking, you'll be out of the WH soon. #TickTock"

Omar tweeted: "As Members of Congress, the only country we swear an oath to is the United States. Which is why we are fighting to protect it from the worst, most corrupt and inept president we have ever seen. You are stoking white nationalism because you are angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting against your hate-filled agenda."

Pressley, quoting Trump's words, tweeted: "THIS is what racism looks like. WE are what democracy looks like. And we're not going anywhere. Except back to DC to fight for the families you marginalize and vilify everyday."

And of course they got backup from the People's President:

They're from America, and you're right about one thing: Currently their government is a complete and total catastrophe. https://t.co/NvsnFSN8mb

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 14, 2019

One thing I want to emphasize, again, is that one of the primary reasons Trump currently occupies the White House — and has the attendant platform from which to disgorge this despicable trash — is that lots and lots and lots of people who should have known better treated him like an entertaining joke through most of his candidacy, despite the fact that he launched his political career with a birther campaign and, long before that, was a public racist who had been sued by the Justice Department for housing discrimination and purchased newspaper ads calling for the death of the Central Park Five.

I'm old enough to remember when people who urgently warned that Trump was a dangerous authoritarian racist and misogynist were told to stop being such killjoys and ruining everyone's fun making fun of the silly man with the weird hair.

And the purpose of saying that, once more, at this particular moment is that it's still happening. Even now, even as the sitting president goes after women of color serving in the U.S. congress, engaging in rank nativism and racism and misogyny, asserting his authoritarianism as he demeans them as human beings and demeans the role of U.S. Representatives in federal governance, there are still people who have nothing but jokes.

We need more than fucking jokes. It is long past time to treat Donald Trump with the gravity his bigotry and tyranny deserve.

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We Resist: Day 789

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: Social Media and Disinformation Watch, #2. And by me: Corruption and Malice: A Day in the Trump Presidency and Supreme Court Rules Immigrants Can Be Detained without Bond Hearing Even Years After Release.

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

Jim Mustian and Larry Neumeister at the AP: Records Show FBI Was Probing Michael Cohen Long Before Raid. "The FBI was investigating [Donald] Trump's former personal attorney and fixer for nearly a year before agents raided his home and office, documents released Tuesday show. The search warrant, while heavily redacted, offered new details about the federal inquiry of Cohen's business dealings and the FBI raids of his Manhattan home and office. It shows the federal inquiry into Michael Cohen had been going on since July 2017 — far longer than had previously been known." Welp.

Kate Riga at TPM: Rosenstein Extending Stay at DOJ Indefinitely. "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is extending his stay at the Department of Justice for at least 'a little longer,' according to Tuesday NBC reporting. Slated to leave in mid-March, Rosenstein has reportedly spoken to Attorney General William Barr about staying for an indefinite amount of time." Hmm.

Sara Fischer at Axios: Another Trump Facebook Election. "While Democrats' campaign launches have sucked up national attention, [Donald] Trump's re-election campaign has quietly spent nearly twice as much as the entire Democratic field combined on Facebook and Google ads, according to data from Facebook and Google's political ad transparency reports, aggregated by Bully Pulpit Interactive. Why it matters: Political advertising strategists say that this level of ad spend on digital platforms this early in the campaign season is unprecedented." (Emphasis mine.)

Relatedly:

"The High Court in London heard on Monday that Cambridge Analytica was up to its old tricks from beyond the grave — by surreptitiously trying to halt investigations that could expose allegedly nefarious tactics before the company was shut down for good." https://t.co/Cobx4BDPgL

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) March 19, 2019

This election is going to be so ugly. Unregulated social media is the authoritarian's dream and the democrat's nightmare.

* * *

Kenneth P. Vogel and Katie Benner at the New York Times: Lobbying Case Against Democrat with Ties to Manafort Reaches Key Stage. "A decision about whether to prosecute Mr. Craig, who was White House counsel for President Barack Obama during his first year in office, is expected in the coming weeks, people familiar with the case said. The investigation centers on whether Mr. Craig should have disclosed work he did in 2012 — while he was a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom — on behalf of the Russia-aligned government of Viktor F. Yanukovych, then the president of Ukraine. The work was steered to Mr. Craig by Paul Manafort, who was then a political consultant collecting millions of dollars from clients in former Soviet states."

So, after working for Obama, this guy went on to do work for Putin's pal Yanukovych, which means that every major opponent of Hillary Clinton's in both the 2016 and 2008 elections have ties to someone who worked for Yanukovych, including Bernie Sanders (Tad Devine) and Donald Trump (Paul Manafort). And so did Obama's 2008 Republican opponent, John McCain (Manafort and Rick Gates).

The question I now need answered is whether Gregory Craig had anything to do with establishing the back channel communication between the Kremlin and the Obama administration treasury officials during the 2016 election.

* * *

WHAT NOW https://t.co/MXNxeYyhS7

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) March 18, 2019

Now: The State Department won't release any transcript of Pompeo's briefing with "faith-based media only," nor a list of who was invited, who attended, and whether a range of faiths was included.

— Michelle Kosinski (@MichLKosinski) March 19, 2019

I don't even know what to say about that, other than: WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

Well, I'll also note that this shit sounds a lot more like Mike Pence than it does like Donald Trump.

* * *

Brian Stelter at CNN Business: Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan Joins Board of Fox Corporation. "Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is joining the board of the newly slimmed-down Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News." Yeah, that sounds about right. "Ryan and Rupert Murdoch have been friendly for many years. In 2014, he named Ryan as a presidential contender he had 'particular admiration for.' Some observers said Ryan's appointment reflected the cozy relationship between Fox and the modern-day Republican Party." Haha ya think?!

[Content Note: Homophobia; misogynoir] Andy Towle at Towleroad: Anti-Gay Flyers Target Lesbian Chicago Mayoral Candidate Lori Lightfoot with Lies and Hate. "Lori Lightfoot would make history as Chicago's first black female mayor and the city's first openly gay mayor should she be elected in the April 2 run-off election. This week, anti-gay flyers targeted Lightfoot outside black churches in the city, the Sun-Times reports. The flyers feature photos of Lightfoot and her wife Amy Eshelman with the words, 'The Gay Equality Act!!! It's Our Turn' with another line that reads 'The Feminist and Gay Movement Have Come Full Circle.'" For fuck's sake.

And last but certainly not least... [CN: Flooding; displacement] E.A. Crunden at ThinkProgress: The Midwest's Flooding Crisis Is a Terrifying Preview of Climate Impacts to Come.

Deadly and historic flooding is plaguing states across the Midwest, isolating entire towns and upending the region in what experts worry is an ominous preview of future climate change impacts.

National media has been slow to cover the tragedy, which has left several states, including Nebraska, Missouri, and Iowa, all reeling from turbulent weather conditions. As of Sunday, nine million people across 14 states were under a flood advisory.

...In a statement Friday, Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) said, "Nebraska has experienced historic flooding and extreme weather in nearly every region of the state."

Nebraska is experiencing its worst flooding in half a century. At least three people are dead after several major rivers in the state rose to record levels. The Missouri, Platte, and Elkhorn rivers all crested over the weekend to record-shattering levels in the aftermath of last week's "bomb cyclone" — a massive weather event that brought high-speed winds, snow, and heavy rain to the region.

The historic flooding is the result of rain coupled with a considerable amount of pre-existing water on the ground. February brought a record-setting 30 inches of snow to the state, which locked in several inches of water. With eastern Nebraska's rivers already higher than usual following the state's fifth-wettest season in 124 years, the bomb cyclone unleashed a mountain of water, submerging parts of the region.

...Other states are preparing for flooding impacts. In Iowa, nearly 2,000 people at eight different locations have been evacuated in the past seven days. Minnesota, Wisconsin, and South Dakota are also bracing themselves for flooding, along with Missouri and Kansas.

Goddamn.

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

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This Is a Big Deal

Another Donald Trump policy change with major implications flying under the radar today: Donald Trump has revoked "an Obama-era requirement for reporting civilian casualties that resulted from U.S. intelligence operations in non-combat areas across the globe."

Trump struck a section of an executive order issued by former President Barack Obama, which required both the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies to report on civilian casualties that occurred during their operations. There are other provisions that still require the Pentagon to report on civilian casualties caused by military operations outside of combat areas.

"I don't know why they're being coy," said Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert at the private Federation of American Scientists. "They are not saying 'We don't want to report CIA operation casualties,' but that's what they're doing. They are eliminating reporting of casualties arising from CIA operations."

Emphasis mine.

This is particularly concerning to me because of the administration's continual drum-banging on Venezuela and the history of covert U.S. interventions in Latin America. I worry that this is, in fact, a signal that the administration is preparing for an operation in Venezuela. Or elsewhere.

I also want to note that this policy change is being made while we don't have a permanent Secretary of Defense, as Sarah Kendzior noted yesterday in a good thread on Twitter.

As I've said before, Trump loves to make these sorts of sweeping policy changes while there is an acting cabinet head, because they are sycophants who give him zero pushback.

This is a big deal. I am so angry and so frustrated that it will slide by virtually unnoticed.

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Democrats Will Present Rebuttal to Trump Tonight

The bad news: All the major networks have committed to allowing Donald Trump free airtime tonight to disgorge his obscene lies about immigrants and the imagined danger they pose at the southern border.

The good news: The Democrats have demanded equal time to deliver a rebuttal, and, so far, "CBS, NBC, and CNN have said they will carry the response."

The Democrats haven't yet announced who will deliver the rebuttal. My fervent wish is that it's Senator Mazie Hirono.

No matter who does it, though, it's going to be impossible for them to get as much traction as the president, whose lies will be broadcast and re-broadcast and repeated in headlines and dissected by cable news panels for days on end.

Which is why the networks should never have granted him this time in the first place, knowing that he would use it just to promulgate a hateful agenda designed to engender manufactured fear and violent prejudice. They are assisting him with his campaign of stochastic terrorism, allowing themselves to be enlisted as conspirators in his war on immigrants.

And there is precedent — very recent and relevant precedent — for turning down a president who requests airtime: In 2014, President Barack Obama requested airtime for a speech on immigration and was turned down by every network.

But the rules were always different for Obama — and the rules are different for Trump. This is, after all, the candidate whose empty podium got $billions of free airtime during the election. (And gets it still.)

There are people calling for a boycott of Trump's address this evening. I understand that. The thing is, because Trump has now been granted the highly visible platform he was seeking, he's more likely to use it to maximum effect. With Trump, there's always a chance he's going to scream at everyone to look at him only to waste our time, but, given the current environment, his announcing a national emergency is a significant possibility. And boycotting the speech isn't going to change that.

So, don't watch it if you don't want to watch it. Watch it if you want to, without feeling shamed by people making a different choice. Whatever feels best to you. Life is short.

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Obama Administration Treasury Officials Emailed with Kremlin Through Back Channels During 2016 Election

Anthony Cormier and Jason Leopold at BuzzFeed: Russian Agents Sought Secret U.S. Treasury Records on Clinton Backers During 2016 Campaign.

U.S. Treasury Department officials used a Gmail back channel with the Russian government as the Kremlin sought sensitive financial information on its enemies in America and across the globe, according to documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News.

The extraordinary unofficial line of communication arose in the final year of the Obama administration — in the midst of what multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have said was a secret campaign by the Kremlin to interfere in the U.S. election. Russian agents ostensibly trying to track ISIS instead pressed their American counterparts for private financial documents on at least two dozen dissidents, academics, private investigators, and American citizens.

...Russia's financial crimes agency, whose second-in-command is a former KGB officer and schoolmate of President Vladimir Putin, also asked the Americans for documents on executives from two prominent Jewish groups, the Anti-Defamation League and the National Council of Jewish Women, as well as Kremlin opponents living abroad in London and Kiev.

In an astonishing departure from protocol, documents show that at the same time the requests were being made, Treasury officials were using their government email accounts to send messages back and forth with a network of private Hotmail and Gmail accounts set up by the Russians, rather than communicating through the secure network usually used to exchange information with other countries.

...[D]ocuments reviewed by BuzzFeed News reveal that Russia's attempts to extract information about Western targets triggered alarms inside the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, a powerful unit of the Treasury Department with exclusive access to the most comprehensive and sophisticated financial database in the world.

Officials at FinCEN said they reported the use of the back channel to Treasury's counterterrorism unit and security office, and requested an investigation.

...The FinCEN officials reported the incidents in July and August 2016, and claim that there was no substantive investigation of the matter. These sources said that other senior officials continued to use the back channel even after they were told to stop by the Treasury's office for security.

There is much more at the link.

This report is absolutely extraordinary. Not only were employees of Obama's Treasury department aiding the Kremlin in its campaign to subvert the 2016 election, but they were sharing information on Russian dissidents with a regime whose leader is known for ordering the assassination of his critics.

And they kept doing it even after they were told to stop, which, in addition to suggesting these were people who were either profoundly compromised or eager co-conspirators, makes one wonder why they even had a second chance to keep passing information to Russia, as opposed to being immediately removed from their positions.

I have a lot of thoughts on this disturbing revelation, many of which I'm not keen to share publicly at the moment, but I'll note four things:

1. "Russian agents ostensibly trying to track ISIS instead pressed their American counterparts for private financial documents" — Yet again, "working with Russia to defeat ISIS" appears. I really do not understand why I am the only person who noticed and has been screaming about the "work with Russia to defeat ISIS" planks in every candidacy but Hillary Clinton's during the 2016 election, because that is the trail of breadcrumbs to collusion with Russia. It indicates that every campaign but Clinton's had been infiltrated by the Kremlin, and now we discover at least one cabinet in Obama's administration was, too, under the same pretenses.

2. I suspect the odds are very long indeed that Hillary Clinton didn't know, or at least suspect, any of that. The question is how long she has known or suspected. Is the fact that people around Obama and/or people in high levels of the federal government were compromised by Russia partly (or wholly) why she decided to use her own server at State? If so, this has been going on way longer than we knew. (And her decision to use that private server looks smarter by the goddamn day.)

3. Where was then-Secretary of State John Kerry while all of this was happening? If he is truly keen to mount another presidential run in 2020, he's got some pretty big questions to answer.

4. I am very concerned that this disclosure is prelude to Republicans' launching a "Democrats colluded!" offensive that will be used to try to obfuscate the ongoing collusion of the sitting president.

None of this is good. And I am very concerned.

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Explosive Devices Sent to Liberals: The Latest

[Content Note: Terrorism; eliminationism.]

At the end of yesterday's chaos, during which there were a number of incendiary devices sent to prominent liberals and several "suspicious packages" ruled safe by law enforcement, this is where things stood: George Soros (days earlier), Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Maxine Waters, Eric Holder, John Brennan, and Joe Biden were all sent packages known or suspected to be IEDs, with Debbie Wasserman Schultz's name and address used as the return information to implicate her.

This morning, a package said by law enforcement sources to be identical to the other packages was sent to actor (and prominent Trump critic) Robert DeNiro at the address of his Tribeca Productions office.

pic of the package sent to DeNiro- @ShimonPro says that a former police officer who works in the building recognized that it looked like the packages sent/discovered yesterday, alerted authorities. pic.twitter.com/5Cp5PyXQEn

— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) October 25, 2018

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the person behind this terrorist act is yet finished.

Meanwhile, far from taking stock of their own role in fomenting this nightmare, the Trump cultists have decided that this is a "false flag operation" by liberals. And the messaging was sure coordinated quickly: Last night in Florida, protesters outside the gubernatorial debate were already carrying signs reading "Democrats Fake News Fake Bombs."

And in Wisconsin, where Donald Trump was holding forth at another Make America Clap for Me Again rally, the crowd immediately erupted into a "Lock her up!" chant — the same day an IED was sent to Hillary Clinton.

During his speech, Trump laughably told the same crowd: "No nation can succeed that tolerates violence or the threat of violence as a method of political intimidation, coercion, or control. We all know that. We want all sides to come together in peace and harmony."

National reconciliation would definitely be great, but that's simply not possible when one side is being terrorized and the other side is whining that getting heckled at restaurants for being fascist is the same as getting bombs in the mail for being critics of fascism.

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More "Suspicious Packages" Sent to Clintons, Obamas, and Possibly Others

[Content Note: Bombs; threats of violence; terrorism.]

The Clintons and the Obamas have reportedly received suspicious packages similar to the one received by George Soros, which turned out to be an explosive device.

I had a few thoughts on Twitter:

It's important to note that Trump has used stochastic terrorist strategies against Hillary Clinton since August 2016, when he bellowed at a rally: "If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although, the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know."

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 24, 2018

Of course there won't be a direct line between people who commit these acts and Trump. That's the entire fucking point of stochastic terrorism. It's about creating an environment in which *someone* will be moved to violence, while maintaining distance and refusing accountability.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 24, 2018

It's also important to note that Trump didn't put targets on their backs. Soros, the Obamas, and the Clintons have been targeted by conservative extremists using campaigns rife with eliminationist language for decades (in the Clintons' case). Trump just exploited and amplified that existing hatred.

* * *

There are reports that a similar package was sent to CNN headquarters, which has been evacuated. It is thought to be related to the devices sent to Soros, the Obamas, and the Clintons.

Additionally, there is a report that another one was intercepted on its way to the White House. As of this writing, I have not seen any confirmation that package is thought to be similar or related. Which doesn't mean it isn't; I just haven't read that, unlike the others.

Naturally, the report that a package, related or otherwise, has been sent to the White House, too, is underwriting arguments that Trump bears no accountability. Whoooooooops that is not how it works.

As evidenced by the long history of dictators done in by the very violence that they endorsed and used to oppress.

Even if Trump is a target, he is not absolved of his own responsibility in creating the environment in which this is happening.

People get hurt when dehumanization and eliminationism become normalized. That's why decent people don't do that.

* * *

UPDATE: Reuters is now reporting "that there was no suspicious package addressed to the White House."

So, the only related "suspicious packages" have gone to: George Soros, the Clintons, the Obamas, and CNN. All routine and sustained targets of Trump's incendiary rhetoric.

UPDATE 2: Another "suspicious package" has been sent to a Florida office building where the office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is located. The building has been evacuated. No details at the moment whether this package is considered similar and related to the others.

UPDATE 3: CNN's Jake Tapper reports: "The package with an explosive device sent to CNN's NY offices today was addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, according to city and local law enforcement officials." Brennan has been a frequent critic of the Trump Regime, and Donald Trump revoked his security clearance in August.

UPDATE 4: A suspicious package has been found outside a California building in which Sen. Kamala Harris' office is located. The building has been evacuated.

UPDATE 5: Law enforcement officials have told NBC that the return address name on the packages sent to Soros, the Clintons, and the Obamas is "Debbie Wasserman Schultz." Which, in addition to trying to blame DWS of harming fellow Democrats, also suggests that the package sent to her office is indeed related.

UPDATE 6: A suspicious package was intercepted on its way to former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, too.

UPDATE 7: The package intended for Holder (or perhaps a second package) was apparently the package that arrived at Debbie Wasserman Schultz's office — because, as mentioned in Update 5, her name and address were used as the sender's info. Holder's address was incorrect, so it was "returned to sender."

So, suspicious packages have been sent to: George Soros, the Clintons, the Obamas, John Brennan, Kamala Harris, and Eric Holder, with Debbie Wasserman Schultz's information used to implicate her.

UPDATE 8: Law enforcement has cleared the package reported at the building in which Senator Kamala Harris' office is located. Tom Winter at NBC News: "Per a statement from Sen. Kamala Harris' office and local police there is NO suspicious package at the Senator's office in San Diego and the item police did check out was not addressed to her and was found to not be a device of any kind."

UPDATE 9: Another package was sent to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: "Feds wouldn't disclose during the press conferences exactly what was in the package, but said 'it was consistent with the other packages.'"

UPDATE 10: Tara Palmeri at ABC News: "Suspicious package intercepted by Capitol Hill police was addressed to Democratic California congresswoman Maxine Waters, according to three sources."

UPDATE 11: Law enforcement has cleared the package sent to Cuomo. Via the New York Post: "'A device has been sent to my office in Manhattan, which we were just informed about,' Cuomo said at a press conference outside CNN's Columbus Circle headquarters. But police later said his office didn't receive a bomb — it was actually an envelope that said 'From Proud Boys' and contained the thumb drive inside."

It sounds to me like the Proud Boys (or someone pretending to be the Proud Boys) exploited what is happening to try to intimidate Cuomo, who recently ordered state police to investigate the Proud Boys, a patriarchal, white supremacist group.

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Brett Kavanaugh's Confirmation Hearing Begins Today

This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin its confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's nominee to replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

If you're looking for a streaming broadcast of the hearing, C-SPAN's will be available here and PBS's will be avilable here once it begins at 9:30 ET.

Kavanaugh is, of course, terrible. His appointment to SCOTUS would be dreadful for workers, for people seeking abortions, for immigrants, for marginalized people of all sorts. Which is precisely why he was chosen.

And, if confirmed, he would be the second illegitimate justice (in addition to Neil Gorsuch) who was selected by an illegitimate president, after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his obstructionist party blocked President Obama's nominee Merrick Garland from even getting a nomination hearing.

There is no public support for #BrettKavanaugh. https://t.co/UXAd6781MG

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 4, 2018

The public does not want Kavanaugh confirmed. Now we've got to make some noise about it. Contact your Senators, even if and especially if they are conservatives who have indicated that they will affirm Kavanaugh, and make your opposition heard.

If you need one, People for the American Way has a script for you to use when you call your senators' offices.

They also have a Toolkit for Activists with other action items to oppose Kavanaugh's nomination.

Let's work those teaspoons and make some noise!

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We Resist: Day 522

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: The Unbearable Pouting of Jimmy Fallon and I Write Letters.

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

[Content Note: Nativism; child abuse. Covers entire section.]

Maria Sacchetti, Kevin Sieff, and Marc Fisher at the Washington Post: Separated Immigrant Children Are All over the U.S. Now, Far from Parents Who Don't Know Where They Are. "The children have been through hell. They are babies who were carried across rivers and toddlers who rode for hours in trucks and buses and older kids who were told that a better place was just beyond the horizon. And now they live and wait in unfamiliar places: big American suburban houses where no one speaks their language; a locked shelter on a dusty road where they spend little time outside; a converted Walmart where each morning they are required to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, in English, to the country that holds them apart from their parents. ...U.S. authorities are compiling mug shots of the children in detention. Immigration lawyers who have seen the pictures say some of them show children in tears."

BREAKING ⁦@AP:⁩ Immigrant children as young as 14 housed at a juvenile detention center in Virginia say they were beaten while handcuffed and locked up for long periods in solitary confinement, left nude and shivering in concrete cells. https://t.co/ffw0bBcYrH

— Michael Biesecker (@mbieseck) June 21, 2018

"In the Navy document, military officials propose a 60-day timeline to build the first temporary tent facility for 5,000 adults. After that, military officials suggest they could add room for 10,000 additional individuals each month."

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 23, 2018

On a plane, so signing off. After visiting the Tornillo child internment camp, it’s clear America has crossed a line. I think the authoritarianism will now accelerate. The danger is that many will be afraid to respond proportionately for fear of enablers calling them alarmist.

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) June 25, 2018

"Online calls for violence against immigrants have surfaced in recent weeks as the border crisis continues to dominate the national conversation." Of course it has. That's the inevitable result of Trump's obscene policies & use of eliminationist rhetoric. https://t.co/E6sSmywNH5

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 25, 2018

And a pointed reminder that this is all manufactured outrage to justify a nativist, white supremacist agenda:

As we observe the horrors of our government separating families and incarcerating infants, @paulkrugman reminds us of a fundamental truth: none of this is a response to an actual problem. “They’re just sick fantasies being used to justify real atrocities.” https://t.co/A5bhhsuQXo

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) June 22, 2018

Much of Trump's rhetoric around MS-13 is also rooted in lies. Hannah Dreier at ProPublica: I've Been Reporting on MS-13 for a Year: Here Are the 5 Things Trump Gets Most Wrong. "This all matters because the gang really is terrorizing a portion of the population: young Latino immigrants in a few specific communities." It matters hugely that Trump gets this wrong, deliberately so, because he uses his mischaracterization of MS-13 to stoke fear among his white base and justify his reactionary policies.

The truth is, MS-13 is mostly a danger to young Latinx immigrants — and less so than Trump himself is.

* * *

[CN: Racism; misogyny; threats]

Racism. Misogyny. Lies. And a thinly veiled threat against a sitting member of Congress. https://t.co/2sogcW1Mzv

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 25, 2018

Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee at NBC News: Mattis Is out of the Loop and Trump Doesn't Listen to Him, Say Officials. "The president is relying less and less on the advice of one of the longest-serving members of his cabinet, the officials said. 'They don't really see eye to eye,' said a former senior White House official who has closely observed the relationship. ...'He's never been one of the go-tos in the gang that's very close to the president,' a senior White House official said. 'But the president has a lot of respect for him.' In recent months, however, the president has cooled on Mattis, in part because he's come to believe his defense secretary looks down on him and slow-walks his policy directives, according to current and former administration officials."

1. So much for that much-lauded "moderating influence" Mattis was going to provide. 2. How many of those "current and former administration officials" were named Tronald Dump and Beve Stannon?

Robert Barnes at the Washington Post: Supreme Court Sends Case on North Carolina Gerrymandering Back to Lower Court. "The Supreme Court on Monday sent back to a lower court a decision that Republicans in North Carolina had gerrymandered the state's congressional districts to give their party an unfair advantage. The lower court will need to decide whether the plaintiffs had the proper legal standing to bring the case. The Supreme Court recently considered the question of partisan gerrymandering in cases from Wisconsin and Maryland. The court has never found a map so infected by politics that it violated the constitutional rights of voters."

Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress: Gorsuch Says He'll Repeal and Replace the Fourth Amendment with Something Terrific. "As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump offered a vague promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with 'something terrific.' On Friday, Neil Gorsuch, who occupies the seat on the Supreme Court that Senate Republicans held open until Trump could fill it, brought a similar amount of thoughtfulness and coherence to the question of when police should be allowed to conduct a search without a warrant. Gorsuch's dissenting opinion in Carpenter v. United States is an odd piece of writing. It reads less like a judicial opinion and more like the sort of essay that an overworked law professor might toss off after they suddenly realize that they have a symposium paper due at the end of the week." (Just go read the whole piece, because YIKES.)

Nicole Lafond at TPM: Restaurant That Trump Called 'Filthy' Actually Has a Glowing Health Record. "Despite [Donald] Trump's dubious claim that a restaurant's exterior appearance will unfailingly mirror its interior cleanliness, the restaurant in Lexington, Virginia that gave White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders the boot over the weekend actually has a glowing health record, according to county health department documents. ...Red Hen's last inspection was completed on Feb. 6, 2018, when it received a clean bill of health with no violations or required follow up visits. ...While much larger than the Red Hen, by contrast, the kitchen of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort was hit with 13 health violations in April 2017 and was slapped with 15 violations in the club's two kitchens in a follow-up visit in November 2017."

* * *

[CN: White supremacy]

Sebastian Murdock at the Huffington Post: White Woman Threatened to Call Cops on 8-Year-Old Girl Selling Water. "An apparent competition over who can threaten to call the police on people of color for no good reason is really ramping up. In a video posted to Instagram on Saturday, a white woman in San Francisco was captured apparently calling the police on a nonwhite girl who's 8 years old. The child's supposed crime? Selling water 'illegally.' But the woman...said that 'this has no racial component to it' and claims she only 'pretended' to call the police. ...'I have no problem with enterprising young women. I want to support that little girl. It was all the mother and just about being quiet,' she said."

White People: Pull yourself up by the bootstraps!

Black Girl: Okay.

White People: *calls police*#PermitPatty

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 23, 2018

Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani at Think Progress: White Woman Who Threatened to Call Cops on 8-Year-Old Black Girl Says She's 'Discriminated Against'. "She added that she has been getting threats online and now 'feels discriminated against.' 'It was stupid,' she said. 'I completely regret that I handled that so poorly. It was completely stress-related, and I should have never confronted her. That was a mistake, a complete mistake. Please don't make me sound horrible.' ...Ettel is the latest in a long list of white women calling the police on people of color for ordinary things, like holding a barbecue in a public park, napping in their dormitory's common room, and wearing black clothes during a university campus tour."

Fellow white women: Please stop calling police on people of color, except in cases of extreme emergencies. You are risking their getting arrested, harassed, harmed, and/or killed. Stop.

* * *

Gabriel Debenedetti at NYMag: Where Is Barack Obama? Good question. "Obama is monitoring the destruction, but he spends the bulk of his time on two projects, building his foundation and writing a memoir." Oh.

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

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All of This Is Very Troubling

So, last night, the New York Times published a report about Obama adviser Ben Rhodes' upcoming memoir, centering on the 2016 election, and there was a lot of stuff there I found troubling.

The whole article is on-topic for this thread, but here are a few thoughts I shared on Twitter last night:

At best, it means that Obama strongly suspected Moscow had that capability in 2016, if not earlier. Which means there's a strong likelihood they have that capability now. (As many of us have suspected.) Will that be part of the "meddling" during midterms? Who's gonna stop it?

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 30, 2018

And this! "Mr. Rhodes writes that neither he nor Mr. Obama knew at that time that there was an F.B.I. investigation into contacts between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia." HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? The president should have known that. Why didn't he know that?

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 30, 2018

Yes, but an investigation into potential treason being committed by a person who could be president should have been flagged even despite the most rigid parameters.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 30, 2018

Submitted without comment. https://t.co/EgsyFpQV51 pic.twitter.com/vvFAe5cFrW

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 30, 2018

My pal Dan Solomon, quote-tweeting me, further noted: "Additionally, the idea that the US would tolerate cyberattacks for fear of an even bigger one is a pretty terrible thing to contemplate."

Which is exactly right. And also something about which I wrote in this piece, last year:

This passage in particular is haunting me: "To some, Obama's determination to avoid politicizing the Russia issue had the opposite effect: It meant that he allowed politics to shape his administration's response to what some believed should have been treated purely as a national security threat."

It haunts me for two reasons:

1. Although I had criticisms of Obama's presidency, I never felt — never — like I could not implicitly trust him on national security. I always felt confident that we could trust him to protect us. So to find out that we couldn't, and that the reason we couldn't is because he was afraid of accusations of partisanship, is really shaking me.

2. As longtime readers will no doubt recall, my biggest hesitation about Obama during the 2008 election was that I feared he did not take seriously enough the intransigence of Congressional Republicans. I had strong reservations about his emphasis on bipartisanship and worried that the Republicans would use it against him. It's really fucking something that my greatest fear about Obama may turn out to be the very thing that got us into the mess in which we now find ourselves.

In the New York Times piece, Obama was reportedly consoled by his aides after the election by reassuring him "that he still would have won had he been able to run for another term and that the next generation had more in common with him than with Mr. Trump." (In other words: It was Hillary's fault alone.) Obama reportedly responded by musing: "Sometimes I wonder whether I was 10 or 20 years too early."

Meaning, of course, that he was too early because America is a racist hellscape and that his presidency resulted in a backlash. I don't think he was too early for that reason, and I hate that he feels that way.

He may have, however, not been the right president for that moment, because he was temperamentally never going to be a fierce partisan who was prepared to treat the Republican Party like the collection of authoritarian nightmare bigots that it had become.

Obama wasn't willing to name the villain. And now the villain is running the country.

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Someone Hired Black Cube to Collect Info on Obama Administration Officials

Someone hired Black Cube, the same Israeli private intelligence firm that was used by Harvey Weinstein to gather info to discredit his accusers, to discredit Obama administration officials who had championed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Donald Trump now seeks to unwind.

Ronan Farrow has additional details at the New Yorker.

Who is the someone who put this operation of spying, intimidation, and attempted discrediting into action? Well, that's a very good question! And the answer, according to Black Cube, is: We're not telling!

#BREAKING: Full Black Cube comment on the reports they were the company hired by Trump admin officials to spy & dig dirt on @brhodes & @ColinKahl: "Our policy is never discuss, confirm or deny any speculation made with regard to the company’s work" pic.twitter.com/GPP3V98CyZ

— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) May 6, 2018

However, former Obama Administration foreign-policy adviser Colin Kahl — who was one of the two men, along with another former foreign-policy adviser, Ben Rhodes, targeted by the Black Cube operation — has an idea about who it might have been, telling Farrow he believes "Trump associates may have been involved because of unsubstantiated reports in conservative media outlets accusing Rhodes and Kahl of damaging leaks about the Trump administration. 'Why Ben and I? Why conjoin Ben and me?' Kahl asked."

Last night on Twitter, he further noted there are "some suspicious coincidences—especially as it relates to the particular focus on Ben & me. We were not the only Obama officials involved in negotiating & publicly defending the Iran deal." And yet, he adds, "around the same time the Israeli firm was hired, senior White House aides began complaining to Fox News about a 'Ben Rhodes-Colin Kahl Nexus' that was supposedly organizing opposition to the administration."

Dr. Gorka criticizes media over White House coverage: "It's no longer fake news. It's now dishonest news." (via #Hannity) pic.twitter.com/K1mpXB6iJK

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) May 17, 2017

As the summer wore on, senior White House aides pushed a narrative that Ben and I were solely responsible for turmoil across the Middle East. https://t.co/XZPZxpL5kG 7/10 pic.twitter.com/BEkrCxinJ5

— Colin Kahl (@ColinKahl) May 7, 2018

So, we are meant to believe that Gorka seized on this "Rhodes-Kahl nexus" out of nowhere, at just about the same time Black Cube's op on the two men began.

Oh.

Well, that's either quite a coincidence, or Trump was the someone, whether directly or via associates, who hired Black Cube to discredit federal officials over the Iran deal.

Suffice it to say: None of this is normal.

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We Resist: Day 441

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: Trade Wars: So Now I'm NOT Supposed to Care About Middle America? and Trump Announces Plan to Militarize the Border and And Again.

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

Let's start out with Bernie Sanders being a racist dipshit yet again, shall we?

The Senator thought it was a great idea, apparently, to use the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to shit-talk the nation's first Black president:

"He was obviously an extraordinary candidate, brilliant guy. But beyond that reality," Sen. Sanders says, Democrats have lost a record no. of legislative seats.

— Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) April 5, 2018

I just want to note how carefully Bernie Sanders avoids saying Barack Obama was a good president here. "Charismatic individual, extraordinary candidate, brilliant guy." But nothing about being a good president. Or even being president at all. https://t.co/yx8LkieHkP

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018

I'm honestly amazed he didn't throw in a comment about how "articulate" Obama is, in addition to being "charismatic."

And if throwing thinly veiled racist shade at Obama weren't enough for you, how about promising to "try to do better" representing racial minorities in Vermont, while 'splaining at them that his record is already stellar?

Sanders said he will "try to do better" in reaching out to racial justice leaders in Vermont in response to criticism that he has fallen short in representing the state's minorities during his long political career.

"Well, you know, I'm sorry to hear that and I will try to do better," the independent lawmaker said in response to a question about concerns voiced by African-American leaders in Vermont that he had done little to stay in touch with them.

"I think if anyone looks at my record here in Vermont and nationally on issues of racial justice, I think it's a pretty strong record and will continue to be," he said.

Cool cool cool.

While he was being awesome, he also decided to again brush off the idea that Russian interference on his campaign's behalf made any difference — or indeed that Russian interference mattered at all.

On Russian influence on the 2016 election, Sanders said: "Their goal is to divide this country up, and to try to create antagonisms and hatred between different groups of people. My suspicion is what happened is that at the end of my campaign, when it became apparent that I wasn't going to be the Democratic nominee, what they attempted to do is to reach out to people that they felt were my supporters and to tell them not to vote, or not to vote for Clinton or to vote for Trump, and trying to say really hateful and really ugly things about Secretary Clinton."

Sanders concluded, "I don't suspect it had a major impact" on the outcome of the election.

Oh.

It's funny how Sanders spent the day trashing Democrats and President Obama, and then accused the Russians of trying "to divide this country up, and to try to create antagonisms and hatred between different groups of people," and then suggested it doesn't matter. What a piece of work.

* * *

CNN: Mueller's office wants to know if wealthy Russians used US straw donors to steer $ to the Trump campaign and inaugural fund. We reported last year that the American cousin of Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg gave $250K to the Trump inaugural fund. https://t.co/AayXmRjBGT pic.twitter.com/WOpXsVqmW5

— Dan Friedman (@dfriedman33) April 4, 2018

Trump famously spent very little money on traditional campaign strategies. So if wealthy Russians were illegally funneling money to the Trump campaign, virtually all of that money went directly to Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and lining the coffers of Trump properties. https://t.co/ElG66CUR9u

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018

[Content Note: Islamophobia] Robert Maguire at OpenSecrets: Robert Mercer Backed a Secretive Group That Worked with Facebook, Google to Target Anti-Muslim Ads at Swing Voters. "Most Americans have never heard of the far-right neoconservative nonprofit that ran the ads. It has no employees and no volunteers, and it's run out of the offices of a Washington, D.C. law firm. More importantly, most voters never saw the ads. And that was by design. The group, a social welfare organization called Secure America Now, worked hand in hand with Facebook and Google to target their message at voters in swing states who were most likely to be receptive to them. And new tax documents obtained by OpenSecrets show that the money fueling the group came mostly from just three donors, including the secretive multimillionaire donor Robert Mercer."

Remember when everyone was calling @KellyAnnePolls a hypocrite for trashing @realDonaldTrump when she worked for @tedcruz and doing a complete 180 when she joined Trump? The candidates were just disposable puppets. She was working for the Mercers all along https://t.co/f67vcSpnPF

— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) March 23, 2018

Luke Harding at the Guardian: Former Trump Aide Approved 'Black Ops' to Help Ukraine President. "Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort authorised a secret media operation on behalf of Ukraine's former president, featuring 'black ops,' 'placed' articles in the Wall Street Journal and U.S. websites, and anonymous briefings against Hillary Clinton. The project was designed to boost the reputation of Ukraine's then leader, Viktor Yanukovych. It was part of a multimillion-dollar lobbying effort carried out by Manafort on behalf of Yanukovych's embattled government, emails and documents reveal."

* * *

You have to ignore the terrible headline on this solid piece by Greg Sargent at the Washington Post, because the content of the piece doesn't support it:

NEW:

More than 1 million jobs that could be vulnerable in a trade war with China are in Trump counties, new data show.

My new post, with charts:https://t.co/X8jHIpWxs9

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 5, 2018

Asawin Suebsaeng and Lachlan Markay at the Daily Beast: John Kelly to Scott Pruitt: The Scandals Need to Stop. "The day after Scott Pruitt was called by [Donald] Trump, who reportedly told him to 'keep your chin up' amid a torrent of controversy, the EPA chief got another phone call from a top White House official that was noticeably less encouraging. Chief of Staff John Kelly wanted to know, after revelations had surfaced that Pruitt had been renting living space in Washington, D.C., from a pair of high-powered lobbyists — one of whom was lobbying his agency at the time — what other shoes, if any, were going to drop. ...The chief of staff then impressed upon Pruitt that, though he has the full public confidence of Trump for now, the flow of negative and damning stories needed to stop soon, as one source briefed on the contents of the call described."

And "for now" may have been a window that already closed. Kate Riga at TPM: White House Deputy Press Secretary: 'I Can't Speak to the Future of Scott Pruitt'. LOL oh.

[CN: Addiction stigma; carcerality; capital punishment] Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: Kellyanne Conway Sells Mandatory Minimums at Influential Drug Conference. "Conway — who is for some reason in charge of the White House's efforts to tackle the opioid crisis — pleaded with stakeholders at the largest annual conference on the epidemic on Wednesday to change fentanyl sentencing laws. She called for longer prison time for small-time fentanyl dealers and echoed the president's call for the death penalty "in very special circumstances" for drug traffickers." Fucking hell.

* * *

[CN: Misogyny; toxic masculinity]

I'm entirely tired of men who insist that Kevin Williamson couldn't possibly have been "serious" about wanting to hang women for getting abortions, despite the fact that he said it multiple times. https://t.co/kAKMWOYFUI

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018

And the reason that so many men can *utterly unaccountably* believe that men who espouse violence against women aren't really "serious" about it is because those men themselves all harbor a low-grade hatred of women. They think every man does, but not every man acts on it, so.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018

And feminist/womanist women tell you that men who publicly and repeatedly endorse vengeful violence against women are dangerous and serious, and you call us hysterical, and then you act fucking surprised during moments of fleeting reckoning like #MeToo.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018

Man: Plays devil's advocate and/or apologist for a man who has endorsed hanging women who have abortions.

Woman: I can't trust you.

Man: WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY #NotAllMen you fucking bitch.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018

I am too tired. Get yourselves together, men. Jesus.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018

* * *

[CN: Nativism; genital cutting] Betsy Woodruff at the Daily Beast: Want Asylum in America? Get Ready for Hell.

Two months ago, an Ethiopian woman seeking asylum in the United States went to her interview with an American official who would decide her fate. She was expecting it to be tough. But the officer asked her a series of questions her attorney had never heard before.

Like many Ethiopian women, this one survived female genital mutilation when she was 7 years old — a dangerous and medically unnecessary practice deplored by human rights groups around the world.

And the asylum officer grilled her about it.

"Tell me where they cut you," the officer asked, according to the woman's lawyer, Alan Parra. "What did they use? Did it hurt? What did they cut specifically? Did they use anesthesia?"

The woman broke down crying.

This type of exchange with officers — lengthy, and filled with personal questions — is increasingly common among people seeking asylum in the United States, according to a host of immigration attorneys who spoke with The Daily Beast.

Officials with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said there haven't been any formal changes in policy or practice on interviews. But the lawyers who help their clients through these interviews insisted that the process has gotten significantly longer and harder. On top of that, the lawyer said, officers are losing their clients' paperwork.

Fuck this administration. Goddammit.

A group of Somali men alleged they were abused while in ICE detention. Then they were deported https://t.co/Sefyr5UXhY

— Daily Kos (@dailykos) April 5, 2018

Tina Vasquez at Rewire: What Is Deferred Enforced Departure? It's Complicated. "Liberians who were first granted TPS [Temporary Protected Status] in the 1990s through 2002, later received protection under DED [Deferred Enforced Departure]. 'Those with DED now are the people who have been here the longest, the people who have legally resided in the U.S. since 2002,' [Royce Bernstein Murray, policy director at the American Immigration Council] added. Bernstein Murray further explained: 'The idea that we would send 10,000 people, which is the number of people at that time who had TPS, back to a war-torn country, was obviously absurd and would have created a bad relationship with Liberia. You can see how the different conditions in Liberia lead to different statuses.'"

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

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Today in Rape Culture: And Then Come the Rehabilitations

[Content Note: Sexual harassment.]

So, I have been less optimistic about the lasting impact of the current spate of exposures of sexual predators than many other people have been — and the reason is because I have written about the rape culture for 13 years now, and among the many things I have learned is that our culture loves to rehabilitate abusive men.

Yes, some men have lost their jobs and suffered a bit of public humiliation. Men who are millionaires; men who will be just fine.

At the same time, in the middle of what is frequently called "the #MeToo moment," its very moniker suggesting an inherent transience, Mel Gibson made a comeback in a mainstream holiday franchise, despite infamously having sexually harassed a police officer, having been recorded verbally abusing his girlfriend, and having pleaded "no contest" to domestic violence charges.

Roman Polanski is still making movies. Woody Allen is still making movies. Johnny Depp is still making movies. Michael Fassbender, Christian Bale, the Affleck brothers, Terrence Howard, Gary Oldman, Jared Leto, and dozens of other men are still A-level celebrities after being accused of domestic violence and/or sexual assault.

Some of them have never even faced much public scrutiny for their abuse. Some of them have been vociferously defended and their accusers vilified.

Plenty of men, from Charlie Sheen to Mike Tyson, have benefited from second and third and fourth chances, even after they have confessed to or been convicted of violent crimes against women.

I am not remotely convinced that this dynamic has changed. Regretfully, I expect that following these recent disclosures, after some "reasonable" period of time, then the rehabilitations will begin.

Case in point: David Letterman.

I guess everyone has forgotten that Letterman was an abusive, predatory boss? What a moment for his redemption. JFC.https://t.co/zMwdfwcOyT

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 5, 2018

"Did that create a hostile work environment? Yes. ...Did that make me feel demeaned? Completely." That's the atmosphere Letterman created. Since apparently a reminder is necessary. https://t.co/C9UTndDhFq

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 5, 2018

Not only is David Letterman coming back from his inglorious slink away from the limelight with a brand new talk show; he's coming back with President Barack Obama as his first guest.

It also marks Obama's "first post-presidency TV talk show interview."

That's quite a rehabilitation. In the middle of "the #MeToo moment," the former President of the United States is lending his stamp of credibility to Letterman — a man who behaved disgracefully, creating a hostile workplace environment for women, some of whose careers were derailed because they didn't want to sleep with him.

It doesn't mean anything to believe women if the most powerful men on the planet won't do anything about the truths we tell.

[Related Reading: The Rehabilitation of Mike Tyson.]

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Another Reason Trump Isn't Fit to Be President

Yesterday, I dropped a tweet into the comments of the We Resist thread:

Trump on vets he met backstage: "They’re so proud once again. I must say, much more proud than they were last year at this time."

— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) August 23, 2017

That quote didn't get much attention. And in the barrage of daily indecencies and indignities that define Donald Trump's despicable presidency, it's understandable that his boasting about how he has Made the Troops Proud Again registered as a mere blip on the radar.

But I have been thinking about that quote ever since I read it.

It's not that I believe it's impossible some military veterans are prouder now that Donald Trump is the president. Of course that's possible. (Especially since there are white supremacists in or veterans of the U.S. military, including neo-Nazis.) And it bothers me that some veterans are pleased to have an authoritarian white supremacist as their Commander-in-Chief.

But it bothers me even more that Trump bragged about it.

Trump often makes incredible claims about things people have told him, which no one else seems to have ever heard anyone say. So we have no idea if there are actual, living, breathing veterans of the U.S. military who looked their president in the eye and told him they are much prouder these days, or if Trump asked some vets he met an inappropriate question about their levels of pride and they murmured whatever they thought they should, or if he made up the whole thing altogether.

But it doesn't really matter — because more important than whether it was a lie is the fact that he would say it at all, even if it were true.

Because Trump isn't just flattering himself here; he's insulting President Barack Obama (again). Implicit in his comment is that U.S. military veterans couldn't be proud of the former Commander-in-Chief. (There's also the parallel implication that they wouldn't have been proud if Hillary Clinton had won.) They weren't so proud "last year at this time," but now they're "so proud once again."

This is just an extraordinary thing to say. It is something that Presidents of the United States just don't say. Ever. I cannot recall a sitting president ever saying anything even close to the suggestion that veterans did not respect their predecessor.

It is aggressively disrespectful to insult a former president this way, and it is aggressively disrespectful to use veterans to do it, and it is aggressively disrespectful to the office he holds.

There are so many reasons that Trump is unfit to be president, and here is yet one more. He has no respect for his office, which has always been abundantly clear, and further no respect for the discretion regarding its other inhabitants required to ensure the continued respectability of that office.

It's not that presidents are disallowed from criticizing other presidents — although, truthfully, that is very rare outside of campaigns. But what Trump is doing is not "criticism." It is a smear.

It is a smear designed to suggest that the military did not respect its first Black Commander-in-Chief, and wouldn't have respected its first female Commander-in-Chief, and only now that they are once again being commanded by a white man has their pride truly been restored.

That is ugly. That is not presidential. It is sinister.

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On the Terrorist Attack in Barcelona

[Content Note: Terrorism; injury; death.]

Today in a highly-trafficked tourist area of Barcelona, another terrorist drove a vehicle into a crowd, killing at least 13 people and injuring dozens more.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place on Thursday afternoon when a large white Fiat van veered off the road at the top of La Rambla into a crowd of unsuspecting people. Within an hour, Spanish police confirmed they were treating it as a terrorist attack.

Later on Thursday evening, police said two suspected attackers had been arrested. The van driver was captured after he ran into two policeman at a checkpoint.

One of the suspects has been named as Driss Oukabir, an individual believed to be from north Africa, who is alleged to have rented the van used in the attack.

...A second van — presumed to be a getaway vehicle — had been hired at the same time as the Fiat from the Telefurgo rental company in Sabadell, near Barcelona, was found 80km away in Vic an hour and a half later.

The Guardian notes: "The use of weapons as a vehicle is now a well-established tactic and has been used in attacks in France, Germany, Sweden, and the UK in the past 13 months." And, of course, in Charlottesville just days ago, although the driver of that vehicle was a white supremacist terrorist.

The last decent president we had, Barack Obama, tweeted his solidarity with Spain in this terrible moment:

Michelle and I are thinking of the victims and their families in Barcelona. Americans will always stand with our Spanish friends. Un abrazo.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 17, 2017

In contrast, Donald Trump tweeted his support, followed immediately by one of the most disgusting things he's ever tweeted, which is really saying something:

The United States condemns the terror attack in Barcelona, Spain, and will do whatever is necessary to help. Be tough & strong, we love you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017

Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught. There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017

This apocryphal tale about WWI-era General John J. Pershing, is one Trump told on the campaign trail: "He took fifty bullets, and he dipped them in pig's blood. And he had his men load his rifles and he lined up the fifty people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the fiftieth person he said 'You go back to your people and you tell them what happened.' And for 25 years there wasn't a problem, okay?"

The story, which is a hoax spread via email forwards, has been widely and repeatedly debunked as historically inaccurate.

At NBC News, Benjy Sarlin notes: "In addition to celebrating what would be tantamount to a war crime, Trump's claim that such tactics ended terrorism is also inaccurate. The unrest he cited continued long afterwards and was rooted in conflict over colonial rule."

It is appalling that Trump would use this moment to revive this gross falsehood. He is so embarrassing, and just such a terrible person.

My condolences to the people who lost friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues in this terrible attack. My thoughts are also with the injured, and those who survived without physical injury, but may have to process lingering trauma. I'm so sorry.

The Guardian has live updates here. Please note that you may encounter images of the attack and its aftermath at that link.

As always, please keep this an image-free comments thread. Thank you.

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Happy Birthday, President Obama!

President Barack Obama at his final press conference in office.
Today is President Barack Obama's birthday. Happy Birthday, Mr. President! I didn't know what to get you, since being out of office seems like the best gift ever!

If you'd like to wish Obama a happy birthday, or reminisce about what it was like when we used to have a president who was a deeply ethical, intelligent, competent, hardworking, compassionate, flawed but fabulous human being, instead of a having president who is a monumental wreck, have at it in comments!

I miss you, President Obama. I really do.

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On Trump's Latest Interview with the NYT

So, Donald Trump did another interview with the New York Times, extended excerpts from which [Content Note: video may autoplay at link] have been published for all of us to read and build core strength by repeatedly recoiling in horror.

The major pull item from the interview has been [CN: video may autoplay] Trump complaining about Attorney General Jeff Sessions recusing himself from the Russia investigation: "Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else."

Yikes. Walter Schaub, who recently resigned as Director of the Office of Government Ethics, said bluntly: "That's an absolutely outrageous statement for the president to have made." Yup. And it was hardly the only outrageous statement he made regarding the Russia investigation: Trump "also accused James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director he fired in May, of trying to leverage a dossier of compromising material to keep his job. Mr. Trump criticized both the acting F.B.I. director who has been filling in since Mr. Comey's dismissal and the deputy attorney general who recommended it. And he took on Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel now leading the investigation into Russian meddling in last year's election," warning "investigators against delving into matters too far afield from Russia."

All of which constitutes just a small percentage of the alarming content of the far-ranging interview, during which he also referred once again to his "enemies" in the press and described his granddaughter (who just happened to stroll in during the interview to say "I love you, Grandpa" in Chinese) as having "good, smart genes."

Following are just a few other quotes which piqued my interest for various reasons (and, yes, all of these are real):

On healthcare.

"So pre-existing conditions are a tough deal. Because you are basically saying from the moment the insurance, you're 21 years old, you start working and you're paying $12 a year for insurance, and by the time you're 70, you get a nice plan. Here's something where you walk up and say, 'I want my insurance.' It's a very tough deal, but it is something that we're doing a good job of."

"I want to either get it done or not get it done. If we don't get it done, we are going to watch Obamacare go down the tubes, and we'll blame the Democrats."

"This health care is a tough deal. I said it from the beginning. No. 1, you know, a lot of the papers were saying — actually, these guys couldn't believe it, how much I know about it. I know a lot about health care. [garbled]"

On his travels abroad.

"I have had the best reviews on foreign land. So I go to Poland and make a speech. Enemies of mine in the media, enemies of mine are saying it was the greatest speech ever made on foreign soil by a president."

"[French President Emmanuel Macron]'s a great guy. Smart. Strong. Loves holding my hand. People don't realize he loves holding my hand. And that's good, as far as that goes. I mean, really. He's a very good person. And a tough guy, but look, he has to be. I think he is going to be a terrific president of France. But he does love holding my hand."

"It was a two-hour parade. They had so many different zones. Maybe 100,000 different uniforms, different divisions, different bands. Then we had the retired, the older, the ones who were badly injured. The whole thing, it was an incredible thing."

"We had dinner at the Eiffel Tower, and the bottom of the Eiffel Tower looked like they could have never had a bigger celebration ever in the history of the Eiffel Tower. I mean, there were thousands and thousands of people, 'cause they heard we were having dinner."

On...history?

"Well, Napoleon finished a little bit bad. But I asked that. So I asked the president, so what about Napoleon? He said: 'No, no, no. What he did was incredible. He designed Paris.' [garbled] The street grid, the way they work, you know, the spokes. He did so many things even beyond. And his one problem is he didn't go to Russia that night because he had extracurricular activities, and they froze to death. How many times has Russia been saved by the weather? [garbled] Same thing happened to Hitler. Not for that reason, though. Hitler wanted to consolidate. He was all set to walk in. But he wanted to consolidate, and it went and dropped to 35 degrees below zero, and that was the end of that army. But the Russians have great fighters in the cold. They use the cold to their advantage. I mean, they've won five wars where the armies that went against them froze to death. [crosstalk] It's pretty amazing. So, we're having a good time. The economy is doing great."

On the economy.

"I've given the farmers back their farms. I've given the builders back their land to build houses and to build other things."

"Dodd-Frank is going to be, you know, modified, and again, I want rules and regulations. But you don't want to choke, right? People can't get loans to buy a pizza parlor."

On his undisclosed meeting with Putin at the G20.

"We talked about Russian adoption. Yeah. I always found that interesting. Because, you know, he ended that years ago. And I actually talked about Russian adoption with him, which is interesting because it was a part of the conversation that Don [Jr.] had in that meeting. As I've said — most other people, you know, when they call up and say, 'By the way, we have information on your opponent,' I think most politicians — I was just with a lot of people, they said [inaudible], 'Who wouldn't have taken a meeting like that?'"

On foreign policy.

"Crimea was gone during the Obama administration, and he gave, he allowed it to get away. You know, he can talk tough all he wants, in the meantime he talked tough to North Korea. And he didn't actually. He didn't talk tough to North Korea. You know, we have a big problem with North Korea. Big. Big, big. You look at all of the things, you look at the line in the sand. The red line in the sand in Syria. He didn't do the shot. I did the shot."

On Jeff Sessions' recusal.

"Well, Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else. ...So Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself. I then have — which, frankly, I think is very unfair to the president. How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, 'Thanks, Jeff, but I can't, you know, I'm not going to take you.' It's extremely unfair, and that's a mild word, to the president."

"Yeah, what Jeff Sessions did was he recused himself right after, right after he became attorney general. And I said, 'Why didn't you tell me this before?' I would have — then I said, 'Who's your deputy?' So his deputy he hardly knew, and that's Rosenstein, Rod Rosenstein, who is from Baltimore. There are very few Republicans in Baltimore, if any. So, he's from Baltimore."

On Bob Mueller's investigation.

"By the way, I would say, I don't — I don't — I mean, it's possible there's a condo or something, so, you know, I sell a lot of condo units, and somebody from Russia buys a condo, who knows? I don't make money from Russia. In fact, I put out a letter saying that I don't make — from one of the most highly respected law firms, accounting firms. I don't have buildings in Russia. They said I own buildings in Russia. I don't. They said I made money from Russia. I don't. It's not my thing. I don't, I don't do that. Over the years, I've looked at maybe doing a deal in Russia, but I never did one. Other than I held the Miss Universe pageant there eight, nine years [crosstalk]."

Oh.

Open Wide...

Shut Up!