Showing posts with label Turkey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Turkey. Show all posts

We Resist: Day 719

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, January 08, 2019
View Comments

a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Late yesterday and earlier today by me: No and No, Trump. and The Trump Regime Will Horrify You; I Hope My Typo Will Delight You and Democrats Will Present Rebuttal to Trump Tonight.

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

Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky at the Washington Post: Russian Lawyer at Trump Tower Meeting Charged in Separate Case. "A Russian lawyer whose role at a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower has come under scrutiny from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was charged Tuesday in a separate case with obstructing justice in a money-laundering investigation. Natalia Veselnitskaya became a central figure in the Mueller probe when it was revealed that in June 2016, she met with Donald Trump Jr., after an intermediary indicated she had dirt on Hillary Clinton. But the charges unsealed Tuesday say she made a 'misleading declaration' to the court in a civil case."

Meanwhile, BuzzFeed's Zoe Tillman reports on Twitter: "Paul Manafort's lawyers filed his submission due yesterday re: the allegations of a plea deal breach under seal, per spokesman Jason Maloni — 'Mr. Manafort's counsel filed their opposition yesterday under seal.'" She adds: "Recall that parts of the special counsel's filing re: what they say Manafort lied about after signing a plea deal were redacted, so it's not totally surprising that Manafort would seek to file under seal. We could see a redacted version later."

Also: Greg Stohr at Bloomberg: Supreme Court Receives New Filing in Apparent Mueller Case. "A new U.S. Supreme Court filing suggests the public may soon get more information about a mystery case believed to be tied to the criminal investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The filing stems from an appeals court ruling that upheld fines against a mystery company, owned by an unidentified foreign country, for failing to comply with a grand jury subpoena. The filing seeks permission to file an appeal of the ruling under seal. It also asks the Supreme Court to let a redacted version of the appeal be made public, according to the court's online docket."

Obviously, I don't know which company the filing regards, but I have a few ideas. It could be Prevezon, which is the company in the aforementioned civil case related to the charges brought against Natalia Veselnitskaya — although I'm not sure that's state-owned. I also think there's a good chance it could be Rosneft. My best guess, however, is that it's Vnesheconombank, because of the meeting Jared Kushner had with the chief of Vnesheconombank, Sergey N. Gorkov, at the urging of Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, after Vnesheconombank was on the U.S. sanctions list. I've always wondered why that meeting never seemed to get any scrutiny, but maybe it has.

In more related news: Dan Mangan at CNBC: Blackwater Founder Erik Prince Says Mueller Asked About Meeting Russian Putin Pal in Seychelles. "Blackwater founder Erik Prince said Monday that he would have preferred getting a 'proctology exam' to being interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller's team of investigators about his meeting with a Russian investor linked to Vladimir Putin. But the controversial security consultant told CNBC's Squawk Box that his previously reported sit-down with Mueller's team regarding that curious encounter in the Seychelles islands, which took place shortly before Donald Trump became president, was 'much ado about nothing.' Prince, whose sister Betsy DeVos is Trump's Education secretary, is a supporter of the president. 'I answered their questions, and they haven't talked to me since,' said Prince, a former Navy SEAL."

There's a lot of investigative news today which Donald Trump would surely likely to overshadow. More and more reason to fear a big announcement tonight.

And speaking of Trump's immigration lies... Salvador Hernandez at BuzzFeed: Trump Claimed Former Presidents Told Him They Should Have Built a Border Wall; All Four Living Presidents Say That's Not True. "Providing no evidence, Trump has claimed wide support for the wall and, on Friday, dragged his predecessors into the ongoing debate, claiming that past presidents had privately told him they should have built the wall during their administrations. 'This should have been done by all the presidents that preceded me, and they all know it,' Trump told reporters. 'Some of them have told me that we should have done it, so we're not playing games. We have to do it.' But representatives for all four living past presidents, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, have said this is not true."

* * *


Julian Borger at the Guardian: Trump Administration Downgrades EU's Status in U.S., without Informing Brussels. "The Trump administration has downgraded the diplomatic status of the EU mission in Washington, without informing the mission or Brussels, officials confirmed on Tuesday. The downgrade from nation state to international organisation status reverses an Obama administration decision in 2016 to grant the EU an enhanced diplomatic role in Washington, and is being seen in Brussels as a snub reflecting a general antipathy to the EU in the Trump administration. The president has supported Brexit and has described the EU as a 'foe.' The change, first reported by the German news agency Deutsche Welle, potentially means that the EU mission would have less clout and access to U.S. officials."

Lauren Hirsch at CNBC: Sears Plans to Shutter After 126 Years in Business as Chairman Eddie Lampert's Bid Fails. "Sears Holdings has rejected Chairman Eddie Lampert's bid to save the 126-year-old company, setting the storied retailer with more than 50,000 employees on a path to liquidation, people familiar with the situation told CNBC on Tuesday. Sears, which also owns Kmart, planned to announce its liquidation plans Tuesday morning, the people said. Lampert had put forward a $4.4 billion bid to save Sears by buying it out of bankruptcy through his hedge fund ESL Investments. His offer, though, was deemed insufficient by Sears' advisors, the people said."

Sears and Kmart (which Sears now owns) used to be some of those common community retailers with reliable employment, both for career service employees and for people who'd been laid off. Sears and Kmart saw through an awful lot of laid-off steelworkers in my community in the 1980s. Either probably would have made a good temporary gig for a number of federal workers during a shutdown, if the entire economy that supported Sears hadn't collapsed. Sob.

Emily Holden at the Guardian: Carbon Emissions up as Trump Agenda Rolls Back Climate Change Work. "A new analysis shows US greenhouse gas levels are increasing as the Trump administration unravels efforts to slow climate change. Carbon emissions rose sharply last year, increasing 3.4%, according to new estimates from the economic firm Rhodium Group. That year's jump in emissions is the biggest since the bounce back from the recession in 2010. It is the second largest gain in more than two decades. ...The Environmental Protection Agency chief, Andrew Wheeler, often trumpets declines in greenhouse gases, citing data showing that they fell 2.7% from 2016 to 2017. But the EPA is rescinding Obama-era climate work... 'The tailwinds of Obama administration policy are dissipating,' said Trevor Houser, a partner at [Rhodium Group]."

Charlie Pierce at Esquire: A Joe Biden 2020 Campaign Would Be the Most Divisive Thing for the Democratic Field. "Joe Biden has run for president twice before and he was a genuinely terrible candidate both times. He found his groove — and his half-ironic, half-campy fame — only as Barack Obama's sidekick. In a time in which Hillary Rodham Clinton is being told to disappear because she lost twice, the idea that important parts of the Democratic Party are thinking about nominating Biden is bound to be notable for its obvious hypocrisy. ...Moreover, Biden has a track record that puts him on the wrong side of every issue that currently energizes his political party." Yup.

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

Open Wide...
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

We Resist: Day 701

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, December 21, 2018
View Comments

a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: Trump's Unsettling Morning Tweets and The Damnable Lie of Trump's Erstwhile Minders and Trump Orders Withdrawal of Half of Troops in Afghanistan. And ICYMI late yesterday: Obama Administration Treasury Officials Emailed with Kremlin Through Back Channels During 2016 Election and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis Is Leaving, Too.

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

Tucker Higgins at NBC News: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 85, Undergoes Lung Procedure to Remove Cancerous Growth. "Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 85, underwent a lung procedure on Friday, the Supreme Court said in a release. She is 'resting comfortably' at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City."

NPR reports: "Short of complications in recovery, doctors say prospects look good for a full recovery for Justice Ginsburg, 85. She hopes to be back on the court for the start of the new term in early January."

GET WELL SOON, JUSTICE GINSBURG!!!


Lolsob. Indeed.

* * *

Liz Johnstone at NBC News: Trump Warns Shutdown Could Last 'Very Long Time'. "Donald Trump on Friday warned Senate Democrats that if they don't vote for his border wall, there will be a 'very long' government shutdown beginning Friday night. ...Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., indicated Friday that he hadn't talked to the president. When asked if he was optimistic about the outcome of the White House meeting between Trump and GOP lawmakers, he said, 'Every meeting with Republicans and the president, things have gotten worse.' Schumer said there are three offers on the table for Trump that would avert a shutdown — one that came from Schumer, and others that came from House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. 'He ought to take one of them,' he said."

Just to be clear: The Democrats are offering Trump multiple ways out of a painful shutdown. Trump is electing not to take any of them, because he and his party don't GAF about the harm it will cause to people who work for the federal government and to people who depend on the services the federal government provides.

Lest you imagine that is hyperbole... Colby Itkowitz and Mike DeBonis at the Washington Post: Rep. Meadows Tells Federal Employees Who Won't Get Paid During Shutdown: You Signed Up for This.
To the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who will work without pay or be furloughed over the holidays if there is a government shutdown, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) says it is just part of the risk of working in public service.

Meadows, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a leading conservative voice urging [Donald] Trump not to accept a short-term spending bill absent funding for a border wall, was responding to reporters who asked about Transportation Security Administration and Border Patrol agents who would be required to continue working on Christmas without getting a paycheck.

"It's actually part of what you do when you sign up for any public service position," Meadows said. "And it's not lost on me in terms of, you know, the potential hardship. At the same time, they know they would be required to work and even in preparation for a potential shutdown those groups within the agencies have been instructed to show up."
Wow.

* * *

Matthew Lee and Susannah George at the AP: Trump Call with Turkish Leader Led to U.S. Pullout from Syria. "Donald Trump's decision to withdraw American troops from Syria was made hastily, without consulting his national security team or allies, and over strong objections from virtually everyone involved in the fight against the Islamic State group, according to U.S. and Turkish officials. Trump stunned his Cabinet, lawmakers, and much of the world with the move by rejecting the advice of his top aides and agreeing to a withdrawal in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, two officials briefed on the matter told The Associated Press." Perfectly normal presidency in which Erdoğan is made aware of U.S. foreign policy before the U.S. Secretary of Defense. (Holy shit.)

Heather Long, Josh Dawsey, and Thomas Heath at the Washington Post: As Stocks Drop, Trump Fears He's Losing His Best Argument for Reelection. "[Donald] Trump has kept an almost obsessive watch on the stock market as it has lurched lower in recent weeks, tuning in to Fox Business and checking in with Lou Dobbs, a host on the network. The president has complained to aides about how unfair it is that he is blamed for the market's slide and for growing unease about an economic slowdown in the months to come, say current and former officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly. ...The lower the market drops, the more the president worries that he is losing his most potent argument for reelection, several of the officials said."

Staff at the Daily Beast: Trump Already Souring on Next Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney over 'Terrible Human Being' Jibe, Says Report. "Donald Trump is reportedly already turning on Mick Mulvaney — who hasn't even started his new job as acting White House chief of staff yet — due to a two-year-old video uncovered by The Daily Beast, which shows Mulvaney calling the president 'a terrible human being.' ...Trump reportedly started regretting his appointment after seeing the video of Mulvaney from a week before the 2016 election saying: 'Yes, I am supporting Donald Trump, but I'm doing so despite the fact that I think he's a terrible human being.' Axios reports Trump was 'furious' when he heard about the footage — he reportedly asked one adviser: 'Did you know [Mulvaney] called me 'a terrible human being' back during the campaign?' A spokeswoman for Mulvaney dismissed the remarks as 'old news' and said he changed his mind about Trump after they met."

Surely even Donald Trump has to know it's a goddamn lie that someone would revise their opinion that he's a terrible human being after meeting him.

Also: This is yet another indication of how shitty the White House vetting is under Trump. That extremely recent video should have turned up in any basic background research before hiring someone into a cabinet-level position.

Also also: Who showed Trump the video? I suppose there's a chance he saw it on Fox News if they aired it to criticize it, although they've typically been favorable toward Mulvaney. (That said, Sean Hannity is like Trump's BFF and he mentions the "pee tape" every chance he gets.) But if someone in Trump's orbit showed it to him, who and why? Team Pence, to get him riled up? Team Ivanka and Jared, to create an even bigger power vacuum into which they extend their reach? Who knows. As usual: No good options.

* * *

Today in Trump Stenographers News...

Colby Hall at Mediaite: Maggie Haberman: 'Disgusted' Republicans Now Privately Admitting They Regret Supporting Trump. "New York Times reporter and CNN contributor Maggie Haberman appeared on New Day Friday morning and revealed insight into the current turmoil in Washington D.C. ...Calling it a 'critical moment,' Haberman reported that there was waning support for Trump from the right, saying: 'A number of conservatives who worked on the campaign and supported the president and now say, you know, I regret doing that, and this was a mistake, this administration is, you know, off the rails, and all of these investigations that are coming to a head will be a huge problem.'"

Very interesting that Haberman, who has been carrying water for the Trump administration for two years (and whose mother did PR for Trump, which is apparently not a disclosure worthy of mention in her reporting), now seems to be carrying water for, well, someone else.

In any case, this is hardly the last of the "regretful Republicans" swill that we're going to see. To that end, I did a thread.


* * *

[Content Note: Nuclear weapons] Amanda Macias at NBC News: Russia Again Successfully Tests Ship-Based Hypersonic Missile — Which Will Likely Be Ready for Combat by 2022. "Russia has conducted another successful test of its ship-based hypersonic missile, a weapon the United States is currently unable to defend against, according to two people with direct knowledge of a U.S. intelligence report. ...'What we are seeing with this particular weapon is that the Russians designed it to have a dual-purpose capability, meaning it can be used against a target on land as well as a vessel at sea,' one source explained. 'Last week's successful test showed that the Russians were able to achieve sustained flight, a feat that is crucial in the development of hypersonic weapons.' The U.S. intelligence report, according to one source, noted that production of the missile is slated to begin in 2021 and it will join the Kremlin's arsenal no earlier than 2022."

[CN: Gun violence] Jose Pagliery at CNN: Gun Form Liars May Go on to Commit Gun Crimes, Internal ATF Research Suggests. "Regional offices at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives received 12,710 cases of firearm background check denials for further investigation in fiscal year 2017, the GAO found, but the government prosecuted only 12 people. More than 99.9% of those who were investigated escaped with nothing more than a warning. Past and present ATF agents and prosecutors told CNN that, given limited resources, they're not inclined to prioritize the nonviolent crime of lying on a form over more serious charges, like gun trafficking. ...But a 2006 internal ATF briefing paper obtained by CNN suggests that gun form liars are far more likely to go on to commit a gun crime than even many experts recognize. When ATF analyzed firearm denial cases sent to field offices for investigation during a seven-year period, it found that 10%-21% of that group went on to be arrested for a crime involving guns."

And finally, some good — and long overdue — resistance news... [CN: Racist violence] Kenrya Rankin at Colorlines: Watch the U.S. Senate Finally Vote to Make Lynching a Federal Hate Crime. "Nearly six months after Black Senators Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) introduced the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2018 — and decades too late — the United States Senate voted unanimously to make lynching a federal hate crime [on December 19]. ...The bill now moves on to the House of Representatives for a vote." Video of the moment it happened at the link. Huzzah!

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

Open Wide...
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

We Resist: Day 699

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, December 19, 2018
View Comments

a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: This Is Why Pelosi Has Earned Her Job and Facebook Allowed Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Sony, Spotify, Yahoo, and Others to Access Users' Data and Trump and Giuliani Are Lying Liars, as Usual.

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

Big foreign policy news today, as Donald Trump has declared: "We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency."

Which was preface for the disclosure that the U.S. "is considering a total withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria."

A few problems, detailed by MSNBC's Richard Engel:

This is a very significant moment. There are many allies who will see this as a great American betrayal. What is happening right now, when you look at the president's tweet, when you look at statements to NBC News by military officials, this administration — the president — is going into the holidays and taking a "mission accomplished" moment, saying the U.S. under [Donald] Trump defeated ISIS, so now it's time to withdraw a significant portion of the U.S. troops in Syria, out of the country, out of harm's way, if not all of the troops.

And, on a certain level, ISIS has been pushed back. It hasn't been entirely defeated, but it has been pushed back. U.S. military officials say that the fight against ISIS in Syria isn't over, and then there is the other problem about our allies that we've been fighting with in Syria.

We have had — the U.S. military has had a very close partner in a Kurdish-led force, the YPG, also known as the SDF. This is a Kurdish-led force that has been fighting hand in glove with U.S. troops for about four years now. They have lost thousands of men; thousands of women fighters have also been on the front lines; in the last four years, fighting alongside U.S. troops, they've been able to carve out a successful mini-state right on the Turkish border. With U.S. troops leaving, that mini-state would be at risk. Turkey already says it wants to invade it.

So, not only is the fight not quite over against ISIS, according to the U.S. special envoy who deals with ISIS, according to U.S. military commanders that I've been speaking with; it would also put this very close ally that has sacrificed so much for the United States in a position of probably unsustainable peril.

[Female anchor offscreen says: "And Richard, big picture here: This is another example of [Donald] Trump taking one view; his own military taking another; and this conflict, or clash, that we've seen before on other issues related to the military, in this administration."]

So, this almost happened about six months ago. That's when I went into this region in northern Syria. The troops on the ground, the Kurdish-led partners on the ground, were very concerned, because [Donald] Trump, six months ago, was making statements like, the war against ISIS was finished; it's time to leave the area; the U.S. no longer has any purpose in being there.

And the military pushed back. There were a lot of private conversations; there were a lot of people talking to the president and those around him, saying, hey, look, I know you're the commander in chief, sir, but you might want to consider this — we're not quite finished with the war on ISIS; our allies will be destroyed by the Turks. And the administration backed off.

This time, with that tweet, with the number of comments that we've seen coming out, right out of the gate this morning, it doesn't seem like the White House is willing to back off again.
There's a whole lot there, but I want to emphasize this: "It would also put this very close ally that has sacrificed so much for the United States in a position of probably unsustainable peril. ...Our allies will be destroyed." This, of course, would not be the first time that the U.S. has betrayed Kurdish fighters — a grim legacy left out of the recent remembrances of George H.W. Bush.

Also, once again, I will observe that "working with Russia to defeat ISIS in Syria" was a possible tell about Russian influence within campaigns in 2016. And here is the final endgame of that fuckery: The U.S. will leave Syria, declaring ISIS "defeated," abandoning Syria to chaos which Vladimir Putin will further exploit.

Meanwhile: The U.S. has reportedly approved a $3.5 billion patriot missile sale to Turkey. Holy fuck.

Also: The U.S. Treasury Department is reportedly removing Russian aluminum giant Rusal from the sanctions list. Good lord.

I am so profoundly shaken and upset by all of this. I am so sorry for the Syrian people who wanted none of this. I am so worried about where refugees will find safe harbor. I am so angry at Donald Trump, and every person who has abetted him.

* * *

Erica Werner, John Wagner, and Damian Paletta at the Washington Post: Senate to Pass Bill That Would Keep Government Open, Deny Trump Wall Funding. "The Senate prepared Wednesday to pass a short-term spending bill that would keep the government open through the New Year but deny [Donald] Trump the money he wanted for his border wall — a stark retreat for Republicans in their final days in control of Congress. ...The outcome would temporarily break an impasse that threatened to shutter large portions of the government this weekend and send hundreds of thousands of federal workers home without pay just before Christmas. Trump has signaled his support for the plan but 'can change his mind if he wants to,' said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican. A senior White House aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's position, said the plan is for Trump to sign the legislation."

Trump had better fucking sign this shit. It would be just like him to pull an unexpected reversal and refuse to sign it, throwing the entire federal government into chaos and harming federal workers right before the holidays. I hope, for once, he abandons his urge for malice and just signs the goddamn bill.

* * *

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

John Stanton at BuzzFeed: Another Migrant Girl Nearly Died After She Was Detained in New Mexico by the Border Patrol. "A young girl who was in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection went into cardiac arrest in November at a hospital in El Paso where she was resuscitated, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told members of Congress on Tuesday. The incident occurred in the same CBP sector where a 7-year-old Guatemalan asylum-seeker, Jakelin Caal, fell ill [and died] earlier this month."

Speaking of Jakelin Caal, I hope every person who felt compelled to sneer that her father is responsible for her death, because he took her on a journey through the desert in search of a better life, reads this. Elisabeth Malkin at the New York Times: In Home Village of Girl Who Died in U.S. Custody, Poverty Drives Migration. "Ms. Maquin has a simple explanation for why her husband joined a growing number of villagers and made the dangerous journey north: the absolute lack of alternatives in this lush but remote part of the country. Indigenous communities like theirs have endured centuries of poverty, exclusion, and repression by economic and political elites. ...Mr. Caal, like so many other migrants, may well have heard — from others who made the trip, or from the smuggler he paid to take him to the border — that he would have a better chance of remaining in the United States if he arrived with a child."

Julia Ainsley and Jacob Soboroff at NBC News: Advocates: Trump Admin Lying When It Says It Can't Process Any More Asylum Seekers. "Immigration advocates at the southern U.S. border say the Trump administration is lying when it says it's at 'capacity' and can't process any more asylum seekers at the ports of entry where migrants can legally claim asylum. On Twitter Monday night, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said 'the processing system at CBP and our partner agencies has hit capacity.' ...But Kara Lynum, a lawyer with American Immigration Lawyers Association who was held outside the Otay Mesa border station with the 15 Honduran immigrants Monday, said the station was not full."

Tom Phillips at the Guardian: Mexico Investigates After Teens from Migrant Caravan Killed Near U.S. Border. "Two teenage members of the migrant caravan have reportedly been murdered in Tijuana, a stark reminder of the dangers facing the tens of thousands of young Central Americans who try to reach the United States each year. The Honduran victims, aged 16 and 17, reportedly hailed from the violence-stricken city of San Pedro Sula, where the caravan set out from in mid-October before cutting north-west through Mexico towards the U.S. border." That's the cost of the Trump Regime's lies about being unable to process asylum-seekers.

Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: Members of Congress Caged at the Border While Standing with Asylum Seekers. "Two members of Congress, along with 15 asylum seekers and leaders from immigrant activist group Families Belong Together, were caged together overnight at the Otay Mesa port of entry near San Diego. The group intended to observe how detained migrants are treated when attempting to claim asylum. In a statement to ThinkProgress, Families Belong Together said the incident amounted to the Trump administration making a 'mockery of our long-held democratic values and our legal process.' ...According to [Democratic Reps. Nanette Barragan and Jimmy Gomez, who both represent the greater Los Angeles area], CBP agents routinely gave them a hard time, making snide comments and jokes at the expense of the asylum seekers." Seethe.


I'm so, so glad that Shaima Swileh is going to get to see her son, but this is no solution — granting exceptions to people whose tragic stories go viral. The Muslim ban must be lifted.

* * *

In good resistance news... Elham Khatami at ThinkProgress: Nevada Just Became the First State with a Women-Majority Legislature. "Nevada made history on Wednesday as the country's first woman-majority state legislature, after Las Vegas county officials appointed two women to fill recently-vacated seats in the state Assembly. The appointment of the two women — Democrats Beatrice Duran and Rochelle Nguyen, who is also the first Asian American woman to serve in her district — brings the total number of female-held seats in the Assembly to 23, or 55 percent of the 42-seat chamber. Women hold nine of the 21 seats in the Nevada state Senate, meaning 34 of the 63 total seats in the legislature are women-held. According to Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), Nevada is the first state not only to have a female-majority legislature, but to even reach the 50 percent threshold of overall female representation."

And back to shitty news... [CN: Sexual harassment; racism; homophobia] Kate Riga at TPM: Ex-News Chiefs Booted for Sexual Harassment, Racism Team Up to Create New Outlet. "Ousted NPR and Fox News chiefs, booted due to sexual harassment allegations and accusations of racism and homophobia, respectively, have been recruited by former Fox News executive Ken LaCorte to head a new 'fair and balanced' digital news outlet. According to a Tuesday Politico report, Michael Oreskes formerly of NPR and John Moody formerly of Fox News will play a key role in assigning 'importance' to stories to avoid creating a partisan silo on the new site, LaCorte News. LaCorte told Politico that he is wholly unconcerned about the men's pasts, considering their ouster an overreaction."

Staff at the Feminist Newswire: Trump Administration Rescinds Anti-discriminatory School Discipline Policies. "Today the Trump Administration announced it would rescind parts of the Obama administration's 'Rethink Discipline' school policies; policies that ensured that minority students were not unfairly targeted for harsher punishments or disciplinary practices. The Trump Administration argued that the policies' efforts to reduce discriminatory punishments contributed to the increase of violence in schools. The Trump Administration created the School Safety Commission, led by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, after the Parkland shooting. Instead of focusing on gun violence and gun control, the Commission targeted Obama era school discipline policies that protect minority students from discriminatory discipline practices, even though the Parkland shooter was a white male."

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

Open Wide...
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

We Resist: Day 665

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, November 15, 2018
View Comments

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: Is Facebook Worth It? And by me: This Is Making Me Filthy Angry and Saudi Prosecutor Says Team Dispatched to Rendition Khashoggi Killed Him.

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

[Content Note: Anti-Semitism; Nazism; terrorism] Christina Tkacik at the Baltimore Sun: Man Shouts 'Heil Hitler, Heil Trump' During Intermission of Baltimore Performance of Fiddler on the Roof. "A man shouted a pro-Nazi and pro-Trump salute during a performance of Fiddler on the Roof at Baltimore's Hippodrome Theatre on Wednesday night. Audience member Rich Scherr said the outburst during intermission prompted fears that it was the beginning of a shooting. The man, who had been seated in the balcony, began shouting 'Heil Hitler! Heil Trump!' Immediately after that, 'People started running,' Scherr said. 'I'll be honest — I was waiting to hear a gunshot. I thought: Here we go.'" Horrendous.

Meanwhile... Casey Michel at ThinkProgress: As Hate Crimes Rise, a Bill to Combat the Problem Languishes in Congress. The legislation "attempts to not only stem the rising tide of hate crimes across the U.S., but to also help Americans get a better handle on where and how these hate crimes take place, and who exactly is targeted. The 'National Opposition to Hate, Assault, and Threats to Equality Act,' dubbed the 'NO HATE Act,' was introduced early last year by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA). However, it has languished in Congress over the past 18 months — perhaps due to the fact that the measure has zero Republican co-sponsors. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced a similar bill in the Senate in 2017."

Related Reading: Today in Trump's Campaign of Stochastic Terrorism.

* * *

Staff at the Daily Beast: Trump Attacks Mueller as 'Disgrace to Our Nation,' Claims White House Is Running 'Smoothly'. "With the midterm elections over and the threat of additional indictments apparently looming large on his mind, [Donald] Trump turned his anger to Robert Mueller and his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, calling his team 'a disgrace to our nation' in a Thursday morning tweet. ...'The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess,' he wrote. 'They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want. They are a disgrace to our Nation and don't care how many lives the ruin. These are Angry People, including the highly conflicted Bob Mueller, who worked for Obama for 8 years. They won't even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side. A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!' Separately, he claimed the White House is 'running very smoothly.'"

Since everything Trump says is projection, we can safely assume Mueller's team is the one running very smoothly and the White House is a chaotic disgrace to the nation. Also: We can see the same with our own eyes. Also also: Bob Mueller did not work for Obama for eight years. Just FYI.

* * *

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Cheyenne Haslett at ABC News: Judge Sides with Nelson, Rules Florida Law on Matching Ballot Signatures Being Applied Unconstitutionally. "In the latest legal twist in the Florida vote-counting controversy, a federal judge has ruled that the state's law requiring signatures on ballots to match those on file is being applied unconstitutionally. U.S. District Chief Judge Mark Walker has granted a preliminary injunction, sought by Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson... Vote-by-mail and provisional ballots have become increasingly popular, Walker said, but the county canvassing boards, which determine whether a voter's signature on vote-by-mail and provisional ballots match state records, are 'staffed by laypersons that are not required to undergo formal handwriting-analysis education or training.'" What a mess.


Walter M. Shaub, Jr. at Slate: This Is the Saturday Night Massacre. "With the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, America is in uncharted territory. ...The thing about traveling in uncharted territory is that you don't know where you'll end up. This may seem like a simplistic observation, but it's one worth making. Uncharted territory is the last place a conscientious government official wants to be and the first place an unscrupulous one wants to go. ...[W]hatever the outcome of Mueller's investigation, America is establishing new precedents. One precedent is that [Trump] fired the FBI director — and Congress did nothing. Another is that Trump admitted the FBI's investigation of his campaign motivated the firing — and Congress did nothing. A third precedent is that Trump fired the attorney general after having railed against him publicly for refusing to intervene in the investigation — and Congress has done nothing. A fourth precedent is..." (Read the whole thing. It's very good.)

Anna Schecter at NBC News: Text Messages Show Roger Stone and Friend Discussing WikiLeaks Plans. "Six days before WikiLeaks began releasing Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails, Roger Stone had a text message conversation with a friend about WikiLeaks, according to copies of phone records obtained exclusively by NBC News. 'Big news Wednesday,' the Stone pal, radio host Randy Credico, wrote on Oct. 1, 2016, according to the text messages provided by Stone. 'Now pretend u don't know me.' 'U died 5 years ago,' Stone replied. 'Great,' Credico wrote back. 'Hillary's campaign will die this week.'"


Vaughn Hillyard at NBC News: Second Trump-Kim Summit to Go Ahead without List of Nuclear North Korean Weapons, Pence Says. "The U.S. will not require North Korea to provide a complete list of its nuclear weapons and missile sites before [Donald] Trump and the North's leader Kim Jong Un meet for a second time, Vice President Mike Pence told NBC News exclusively on Thursday. Since an initial agreement for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula was reached between Trump and Kim in June, the United States has pressed the North Koreans to provide information on the entirety of its nuclear operations. The Kim regime has refused to provide the details of the country's operations and postponed scheduled meetings with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York City last week. The second Trump-Kim meeting, slated for after the New Year, will be where a 'verifiable plan' to disclose the sites and weapons must be reached, Pence said." Sounds legit.


[CN: Domestic violence] Claudia Rosenbaum and Ruby Cramer at BuzzFeed: Stormy Daniels' Attorney Michael Avenatti Has Been Arrested on Suspicion of Domestic Violence. "A report on the alleged incident was taken on Tuesday, and as of Wednesday afternoon, Avenatti was booked on a felony domestic violence charge, LAPD Officer Jeff Lee told BuzzFeed News. Officials declined to elaborate on the allegations, except to say the alleged incident occurred at a residence in the 10000 block of Santa Monica Boulevard near Beverly Hills. ...Avenatti, who was released on $50,000 bail, denied any allegation of abuse or violence, first in a statement through his law office, and again outside after his release." Sounds about right.

* * *

And finally, this is a remarkable act of resistance, which I am angry has even been necessitated, and I take up space in solidarity with the teachers.

Casey Quinlan at ThinkProgress: Los Angeles Teachers Are Willing to Strike for Better School Conditions 'as Long as It Takes'. "Teachers at Beachy Avenue Elementary School are weary. They're tired of paying for so many of their classroom supplies, having very few physical education options for students, lacking laptops for students to regularly use, the co-location of charter schools, and dealing with the burden of constant testing. And they're willing to go on strike. ...[Oralia Reyes, a third grade teacher at Beachy Avenue Elementary School, said:] 'I don't want any of my students to feel like they're lacking. I don't want any of them to feel second class or anything. That is what I am fighting for. And I think the parents once they hear that, understand that we're not in it for ourselves.'"

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

Open Wide...
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saudi Prosecutor Says Team Dispatched to Rendition Khashoggi Killed Him

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, November 15, 2018
View Comments

[Content Note: Murder.]

Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb has announced the findings of his investigation into the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and his conclusions are curious, to say the least.

Kareem Fahim and Zakaria Zakaria at the Washington Post report:

[The prosecutor asserts] that a team of Saudi agents who had been dispatched to Istanbul with orders to bring him home alive had instead killed the journalist and dismembered his body.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince had no knowledge of the operation, Shaalan al-Shaalan, a spokesman for the prosecutor, said at a news conference in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

He said that 11 suspects had been indicted and that authorities were seeking the death penalty for five of them. The order to kill Khashoggi, who had criticized the Saudi monarchy over the past year, had come from the leader of the Saudi team in Istanbul, Shaalan said without naming any of the suspects.

...Al-Mojeb's statement on Thursday implicated two higher-level officials in what the prosecutor said was an operation intended either to persuade or force Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia.

...The Saudi prosecutor's version of events on Thursday — that Khashoggi was killed during a fight with the Saudi agents, who administered a lethal injection — contradicted the findings of Turkish investigators, who have said Khashoggi was strangled or suffocated soon after he entered the consulate, in a premeditated killing.
The main thrust of the prosecutor's statements seems to be that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had nothing to do with it. Left unanswered is why a team dispatched with orders to bring someone home alive would happen to have a bonesaw on hand.

The prosecutor also provided no information on the whereabouts of Khashoggi's remains.

This entire charade is transparent bullshit. I don't know what else to say about it besides that. I remain so sad and so angry for Khashoggi's family, friends, and colleagues. They are not only being denied justice; they are being denied even the truth.

Open Wide...
Labels: , ,

Jamal Khashoggi: So Many Questions Remain

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, October 31, 2018
View Comments

[Content Note: Murder; descriptions of violence at link.]

The editorial board of the Washington Post published an important editorial late yesterday, to keep focus on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi as the perpetrators certainly hope that they will escape accountability as public attention wanes: "Jamal Khashoggi Was Brutally Murdered Four Weeks Ago; We're Still Waiting for Answers."

Jamal Khashoggi walked in to the Saudi Consulate four weeks ago on Tuesday to obtain a simple document allowing him to marry. Instead, he was brutally murdered by a team of 15 agents sent from Riyadh. Saudi authorities now acknowledge the crime was premeditated. Yet much about it remains undisclosed, including what happened to Mr. Khashoggi's body, which has not been returned to his family.

Rather than answer those questions, the Saudi government — and its de facto accomplices in the Trump administration — have gone silent, evidently hoping that demands for accountability will fade away now that the story has been pushed from the front pages. That should not be allowed to happen.
The editors rightly note that the Saudi government knows what happened to Khashoggi and are avoiding disclosing that information with the insulting ruse of pretending to investigate what happened.
The Saudis are deflecting questions by pretending to investigate what happened; the kingdom's chief prosecutor traveled to Istanbul on Monday to meet his Turkish counterpart. Worse, rather than demand a genuinely independent investigation, the Trump administration is playing along. It has withheld its own conclusions about the murder while pretending to believe that the Saudis can conduct a credible probe — even though a chief suspect is the kingdom's own autocratic ruler.
We need to keep making noise, even though there is little hope that the Republican Congressional majority will do as they should and demand answers of this administration and devise adequate punitive measures against Saudi Arabia.

We need to keep saying loudly that we want to know what happened to Jamal Khashoggi and want justice for his family, even if it feels futile.

To quote dear Maud: "There are times when you must speak, not because you are going to change the other person, but because if you don't speak, they have changed you."

Open Wide...
Labels: , , ,

The Latest on Jamal Khashoggi

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, October 17, 2018
View Comments

[Content Note: Abduction; torture; murder.]

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who was living in the United States and was critical of Saudi regime, went missing two weeks ago after going inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, to finalize paperwork he needed to marry his Turkish fiancée.

It is believed at this point that a group of around 15 Saudi nationals knew Khashoggi would be arriving and met him there with the purpose of torturing and killing him; that they did precisely that, of which there is a recording; and that Khashoggi was dismembered and carried out of the consulate building in pieces.

One of the men under investigation by Turkish authorities is a Saudi intelligence officer named Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, who is a close associate of Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (MBS), who also maintains close ties to Jared Kushner.

We know that the Trump administration had reportedly intercepted intelligence detailing the plan to abduct Khashoggi and failed to warn him, despite a 2015 directive requiring such disclosures. What we don't yet know is whether the Trump administration fed any intelligence about Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia.

We don't know if Kushner knew of or even helped facilitate a plan which, if not directly MBS's design, certainly took place with his knowledge and approval. We do know, however, that Kushner should have been removed from his position a very long time ago, because he broke federal law multiple times by lying on his disclosure forms, and yet there he still sits.

And of course we know with certainty that Donald Trump, who wages a relentless war on the free press in the U.S., is exactly the worst person who could be occupying the Oval Office during this intense diplomatic crisis, even if his regime didn't actively participate in it.

To wit, under the blunt headline "Trump unleashes festering list of grievances during unscheduled morning," Kevin Liptak and Jeff Zeleny at CNN report:

Without any scheduled meetings, the President was free Tuesday morning to marinate in insult and injury, fueled by the constant presence of Fox News on the flat-screen televisions installed in his third-floor residence.

The President told people in conversations Tuesday morning that he was aggravated at the coverage of Saudi Arabia crisis, which has dominated cable news, one official said. Senior White House aides have tried to impress upon him how serious the matter is.

Asked directly whether he was trying to change the subject of television coverage on Tuesday, the official said: "I don't know, but he's good at doing that."
The investigation into Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance continues, and every state party involved has its own agenda. I hope that the truth will be known, and I fear that this is only the beginning of more and greater ugliness yet to come.

Open Wide...
Labels: , , , , ,

We Resist: Day 631

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, October 12, 2018
View Comments

a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: An Entire Administration of Misogynist Wrecks and The Trump Regime Is Still Harming Immigrant Children.

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

[Content Note: Hurricane; death] J. Freedom du Lac, Mark Berman, Dana Hedgpeth, and Eli Rosenberg at the Washington Post: Hurricane Michael Aftermath: Death Toll Spikes After Five Storm-Related Fatalities Reported in Virginia. "Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane — the strongest on record to hit the area — and charged north through Georgia and into the Carolinas and Virginia, wreaking havoc and causing emergencies. In the storm's wake lay crushed and flooded buildings, shattered lives, and at least 11 deaths, a number that officials worry could rise. ...Four of the deaths were related to people being swept away in floodwaters along roads; the fifth was a firefighter who was killed in a crash along a highway, according to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management."

My sincerest condolences to the family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors of the people who died. Officials keep gravely warning that the death toll will rise as they manage to reach devastated residences through nearly impenetrable wreckage. There are also over half a million people without power in Virginia alone, which could have dangerous results if the outages persist.

My thoughts are with everyone in the affected areas.

* * *

[CN: Death penalty] In good news: Nina Golgowski at the Huffington Post: Washington State's Supreme Court Declares Death Penalty Unconstitutional. "Washington state's Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty is unconstitutional and converted to life in prison all pending death sentences in the state. The court's decision on Thursday was unanimous, with the justices determining that capital punishment is applied 'in an arbitrary and racially biased manner.' 'The use of the death penalty is unequally applied — sometimes by where the crime took place, or the county of residence...or the race of the defendant,' the court said in its opinion. 'The death penalty, as administered in our state, fails to serve any legitimate penological goal; thus, it violates article I, section 14 of our state constitution.'" YES.

* * *

[CN: Violence; death. Covers whole section.]


Shane Harris, Souad Mekhennet, John Hudson, and Anne Gearan at the Washington Post: Turks Tell U.S. Officials They Have Audio and Video Recordings That Support Conclusion Khashoggi Was Killed. "The audio recording in particular provides some of the most persuasive and gruesome evidence that the Saudi team is responsible for Khashoggi's death, the officials said. 'The voice recording from inside the embassy lays out what happened to Jamal after he entered,' said one person with knowledge of the recording who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss highly sensitive intelligence. 'You can hear his voice and the voices of men speaking Arabic,' this person said. 'You can hear how he was interrogated, tortured, and then murdered.'"

I don't want these recordings to be made public, because it would be so terribly traumatic for Khashoggi's loved ones. That said, I really wish that someone I felt I could reasonably trust had heard and/or seen the recordings and would give their assessment on the record, because I don't feel like I can trust anonymous Turkish and U.S. officials at this point. (Not that I'm trusting the Saudis' claims for a moment, mind you.) It's so troubling to me that I don't feel there is any reliable state agency involved, including my own government.


Welp.

* * *

Today in rampaging authoritarianism...

Luke O'Neil at the Guardian: Trump Administration Plans Crackdown on Protests Outside White House.
Donald Trump has frequently and falsely crowed about the idea of so-called paid protesters, including most recently the sexual assault survivors who confronted senators in the lead-up to the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation. Now his administration may be trying to turn that concept on its head, by requiring citizens to pay to be able to protest, among other affronts to the first amendment.

Under the proposal introduced by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in August, the administration is looking to close 80% of the sidewalks surrounding the White House, and has suggested that it could charge "event management" costs, for demonstrations.

...Naturally, civil liberties groups consider the proposals an affront to the rights guaranteed under the first amendment. As the ACLU notes, such fees "could make mass protests like Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic 1963 March on Washington and its 'I Have a Dream' speech too expensive to happen."
Which is the entire point.

Susan B. Glasser at the New Yorker: I Listened to All Six Trump Rallies in October; You Should, Too. "Much of the coverage of these events tends to be theatre criticism, or news stories about a single inflammatory line or two, rating Trump's performance or puzzling over the appeal to his followers. But what [Trump] is actually saying is extraordinary... It's not just the whoppers or the particular outrage riffs that do get covered, either. It's the hate, and the sense of actual menace that the President is trying to convey to his supporters. Democrats aren't just wrong in the manner of traditional partisan differences; they are scary, bad, evil, radical, dangerous. Trump and Trump alone stands between his audiences and disaster. I listen because I think we are making a mistake by dismissing him, by pretending the words of the most powerful man in the world are meaningless. They do have consequences. They are many, and they are worrisome."

Jay Michaelson at the Daily Beast: Republicans Have a Secret Weapon in the Midterms: Voter Suppression. "With Democrats furious over Donald Trump, and many Republicans furious over the treatment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the 2018 elections are likely to see the highest turnout of midterm voters in recent history. But those voters will be confronted by a byzantine array of voter restrictions, voter-suppression efforts, and voter discrimination standing in their way. A review by The Daily Beast found at least five voter-suppression practices in active use today. All are led by Republicans, all have disproportionate effects on non-white populations, and all are rationalized by bogus claims of voter fraud."

* * *

Some trade and foreign policy news...

Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey at Reuters: Trump Says He Could Do 'a Lot More' on China Trade. "[Donald] Trump warned on Thursday there was much more he could do that would hurt China's economy further, showing no signs of backing off an escalating trade war with Beijing. ...Trump imposed tariffs on nearly $200 billion of Chinese imports last month and then threatened more levies if China retaliated. China then hit back with tariffs on about $60 billion of U.S. imports. ...'It's had a big impact,' Trump said in a Fox News interview. 'Their economy has gone down very substantially and I have a lot more to do if I want to do it.' ...The growing trade war prompted the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday to cut its global economic growth forecasts for 2018 and 2019."


Patrick Wintour at the Guardian: Yemen: End Airstrikes and Give Child Victims Justice, Says UN Body. "A UN human rights body has called on Saudi Arabia to end airstrikes in Yemen and start ensuring the perpetrators of attacks on children are brought to justice. ...The latest UN report from a 15-strong panel in Geneva found that since March 2015 at least 1,248 children have been killed and the same number injured, amounting to about 20% of the total deaths and injury since the war began. The report condemns 'the dramatic consequences for civilians, and particularly for children who are being killed, maimed, orphaned, and traumatised, of military operations, aggravated by an aerial and naval blockade that has rendered many millions of people, including a high proportion of children, food insecure.' It says the independent assessments undertaken by Saudis of their air raids are 'insufficiently independent, lack detail, and have no mechanism for enforcement.'"

* * *

[CN: Clergy abuse; rape culture] Andy Towle at Towleroad: Pope Accepts Resignation of Washington Archbishop at Center of Pennsylvania Child Sex Abuse Scandal, Praises His 'Nobility'."Pope Francis on Friday accepted the resignation of Washington Archbishop Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who was at the center of the Pennsylvania grand jury report in August which accused more than 300 Catholic priests of the sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children. ...The NYT reports: 'But instead of making an example of Cardinal Wuerl...Francis held him up as a model for the future unity of the Roman Catholic Church. The pope cited Cardinal Wuerl's 'nobility' and announced that the 77-year-old prelate would stay on as the archdiocese's caretaker until the appointment of his successor. In an interview, Cardinal Wuerl said that he would continue to live in Washington and that he expected to keep his position in Vatican offices that exert great influence, including one that advises the pope on the appointment of bishops.'"

And Republicans in Pennsylvania decided to cover themselves in shame, too:


The Catholic Church and the Republican Party continue to abet abusers and fail survivors, deliberately and maliciously. No decent person should ever give a penny to either of these organizations ever again.

[CN: Privacy concerns] Deborah Netburn at the LA Times: So Many People Have Had Their DNA Sequenced That They've Put Other People's Privacy in Jeopardy. "A new study argues that more than half of Americans could be identified by name if all you had to start with was a sample of their DNA and a few basic facts, such as where they live and about how old they might be. It wouldn't be simple, and it wouldn’t be cheap. But the fact that it has become doable will force all of us to rethink the meaning of privacy in the DNA age, experts said. There is little time to waste. The researchers behind the new study say that once 3 million Americans have uploaded their genomes to public genealogy websites, nearly everyone in the U.S. would be identifiable by their DNA alone and just a few additional clues. More than 1 million Americans have already published their genetic information, and dozens more do so every day."

[CN: Anti-vaxxers; video may autoplay at link] Staff at CBS News: Growing Number of U.S. Children Not Vaccinated Against Any Disease. "A small but growing proportion of the youngest children in the U.S. have not been vaccinated against any disease, worrying health officials. An estimated 100,000 young children have not had a vaccination against any of the 14 diseases for which shots are recommended, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday." That is so scary to hear for all of us with compromised immune systems. JFC.

And finally:


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

Open Wide...
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

We Resist: Day 295

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, November 10, 2017
View Comments

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: Deplorables Defend Accused Rapist.

Oliver Holmes and Tom Phillips at the Guardian: Trump Attacks Countries 'Cheating' America at APEC Summit.
Donald Trump has abruptly ended the diplomatic streak he displayed on his 12-day tour of Asia by launching a tirade against "violations, cheating or economic aggression" in the region, just hours after heaping lavish praise on China.

Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in Da Nang, Vietnam, on Friday, the US president's words had the tone of a fierce reprimand. The speech was clearly, sometimes explicitly, focused on China and other countries he blamed for predatory economic policies, accusing them of having "stripped" jobs, factories, and industries out of the United States.

"We can no longer tolerate these chronic trade abuses and we will not tolerate them," he said, with audio speakers in the large hall crackling as Trump raised his voice at times.

...Trump addressed a largely mute and visibly stunned audience that included ministers from countries he accused of not "playing by the rules" as the US opened its economy with few conditions. "But while we lowered market barriers, other countries didn't open their markets to us," he said.

The US leader then went off-script to confront a man who was speaking audibly during the address and suggested he may be from a country that was cheating America.

"Funny, they must be from one of the beneficiaries," Trump said, laughing. "What country to do you come from, sir?" he added rhetorically.
An international humiliation. Again.

Heather Timmons at Quartz: Beijing Is Playing Trump "Like a Fiddle," an Ex-Ambassador to China Says. "Xi is an authoritarian leader who has brutally cracked down on political opposition and on citizens who question his policies, while attacking US interests. Past US presidents, both Democrat and Republican, have taken advantage of state visits to urge the Communist Party to stop stifling religious and political freedom. But Trump has not mentioned human rights once during his visit. ...The fact that Trump didn't mention human rights is only half of the problem, said Sophie Richardson, the China Director of Human Rights Watch. 'The other half of the problem is this grotesque adulation of Xi Jinping and the total failure to acknowledge that this is an authoritarian regime,' she said."

* * *

Carol E. Lee and Julia Ainsley at NBC News: Mueller Probing Possible Deal Between Turks, Flynn During Presidential Transition.
Federal investigators are examining whether former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn met with senior Turkish officials just weeks before [Donald] Trump's inauguration about a potential quid pro quo in which Flynn would be paid to carry out directives from Ankara secretly while in the White House, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation.

...Four people familiar with the investigation said Mueller is looking into whether Flynn discussed in the late December meeting orchestrating the return to Turkey of a chief rival of Turkish President Recep Erdogan who lives in the U.S. Additionally, three people familiar with the probe said investigators are examining whether Flynn and other participants discussed a way to free a Turkish-Iranian gold trader, Reza Zarrab, who is jailed in the U.S. Zarrab is facing federal charges that he helped Iran skirt U.S. sanctions.

...It is unclear how Flynn, as national security adviser, could have successfully carried out either alleged request. But any deal in which a government official would be bribed to secretly act on behalf of a foreign government could potentially constitute multiple federal crimes.

Investigators also are looking into what possible role Flynn's son, Michael G. Flynn, may have played in any such efforts. The younger Flynn worked closely with his father at his lobbying firm, Flynn Intel Group.
Holy shit.

Sam Thielman at TPM: Mueller Probe Interviews Stephen Miller. "Robert Mueller's probe into suspected collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government has interviewed top Trump aide Stephen Miller, according to multiple reports. ...Sources tell CNN that 'Miller's role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey' was among the topics discussed. Miller helped Trump draft a memo describing the reasons Comey should be fired. ...The letter Miller helped Trump write was several pages long and included more reasons to dismiss Comey, including the fact that Comey would not say publicly that his investigation of Trump's campaign was not focused on Trump himself, according to the Washington Post."

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz, and Matthew Mosk at ABC News: Trump Adviser Claims He Lied to FBI out of Loyalty to Trump. "George Papadopoulos, the Trump foreign policy aide who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, initially misled agents out of what he claimed was loyalty to [Donald] Trump, according to a person with direct knowledge of the investigation. ...After the plea agreement was made public last month, Trump sought to distance himself from Papadopoulos, tweeting that 'few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar.'" One-way loyalty with Trump. Always.

Marc Bennetts at the Guardian: Russia Plans Retaliation Against US Media as Row over RT Escalates. "Russia's parliament has begun drafting tit-for-tat measures that would place severe restrictions on some US media outlets operating in the country, in a move that looks likely to plunge US-Russia relations to a new low. The announcement on Friday came shortly after the Kremlin-funded international news channel RT said it had been ordered by the US Department of Justice to register as a 'foreign agent' by Monday or have its bank accounts frozen. Russian president Vladimir Putin had previously warned that Russia would take retaliatory steps if RT, formerly known as Russia Today, was targeted by US authorities. ...'What the US authorities are doing today is an infringement of fundamental civil rights, of freedom of speech,' said [Russian parliamentary speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin]." The chutzpah!

* * *

Ana Campoy at Quartz: Most Puerto Ricans Have Water Now, But They're Afraid of Drinking It. "The share of Puerto Ricans with running potable water surpassed 85% on Nov. 8 for the first time since hurricane Maria hit the island seven weeks previously. But in some areas, most people still don't have running water, and for those who do it's not clear whether it's safe to drink. One such place is the mountain municipality of Utuado — ironically, the site of two major reservoirs. Only around one third of its roughly 30,000 inhabitants have running water, and many are still drinking only bottled water, or using filters or chlorine tablets to disinfect the water from the faucets. 'I don't recommend drinking tap water at all,' says Daniel González, a local resident. Running water returned to his home a week ago, but it's still coming out brown, he says."

Oliver Milman at the Guardian: Puerto Ricans Face Rain and Floods in Wrecked Homes Still Without Roofs. "Of all the basic necessities still missing for Puerto Ricans more than a month after Hurricane Maria devastated the island, one is almost immediately obvious: the lack of shelter. In neighborhoods across Puerto Rico, particularly outside the capital San Juan, many residents with damaged roofs have struggled to get even the most threadbare of defenses against the elements. ...FEMA said it has provided 65,000 tarpaulins to local authorities to distribute and has 100,000 more in a warehouse. Samaritan's Purse, an NGO, said it has given out 42,000 covers. But many people still are without any shelter over their heads."

Nidhi Prakash at BuzzFeed: Millions of Puerto Ricans Just Lost Power Again After a Line Repaired by Whitefish Energy Failed. "A major Puerto Rican power line repaired by the tiny Montana company Whitefish Energy failed Thursday morning, plunging almost all of the island, including parts of San Juan and other major cities, back into darkness. Just 18% of Puerto Rico now has power, according to the island's energy utility, down from 43% before the line failed on Thursday, wiping out a quarter of Puerto Rico's power generation."

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Alex Sosnowski at AccuWeather: Caribbean Storm to Eye Puerto Rico Amid Setback with Power Outages in San Juan. "A large area of downpours and locally gusty thunderstorms will continue to affect part of the Caribbean, included Puerto Rico, into next week. ...'Available observations around the island did not reveal any severe thunderstorms with high winds in Puerto Rico on Thursday,' according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller. [But] 'Given the delicate state of repair and lingering damage outside of the capital city of San Juan, it may not take much weather for possible setbacks to restoration efforts,' Miller said."

Laila Kearney, Nick Brown, and Hugh Bronstein at Reuters: In Puerto Rico, a Sinkhole of Rebuilding Struggles. "Along a stretch of highway in suburban Bayamon, Puerto Rico, construction workers tried desperately to make progress repairing a 100-foot-long sinkhole before the clouds rolled in. Previous rains had suspended work, as workers watched earth fall back into the hole. 'It has not wanted to stop raining' since Hurricane Maria, said Carlos Rivera, a 26-year-old contract worker at the site last month. ...Fixing just this one sinkhole required maneuvering a set of vexing logistical and financial hurdles that reveal why rebuilding this isolated island will take so much more time and work than in any storm-ravaged region of the mainland United States. The hole is only one of 3,500 reported incidents of hurricane damage to Puerto Rico-owned roadways, with repair costs estimated at $250 million."

* * *

[CN: Genocide] Multiple Signatories at the Guardian: The Rohingya Are Facing Genocide: We Cannot Be Bystanders. "Over the past two months, more than 600,000 Rohingya people have been driven from their homes, had their land destroyed, and endured torture and rape while searching for safety. ...The Rohingya are often described as among the most persecuted people on earth. They are a predominantly Muslim ethnic group, and despite having lived in Myanmar's Rakhine state for centuries, they're refused citizenship. For years, their movement has been restricted, and they have been denied access to education, health care, and other basic services. ...Since 25 August, almost half the Rohingya population in Myanmar has been driven out [under the guise of fighting terrorism]. ...The international response to the Rohingya crisis has fallen far short of what's needed. The UN appeal is still underfunded, and world leaders have not put sufficient political pressure on the government."

Navine Murshid at the Washington Post: Why Is Burma Driving out the Rohingya — and Not Its Other Despised Minorities? "Why is Burma attacking only the Rohingya? As the Burmese military drives out upward of 600,000 Rohingya in what one United Nations official called 'a textbook example of ethnic cleansing,' most media analyses correctly highlight ethno-religious discrimination and economic motives. But that leaves us with the question: Why only the Rohingya? Burma, also known as Myanmar, has other hated ethnic groups. Since the country first gained independence from the British in 1948, its government has been fighting the Karen, the Karenni, the Kachin, the Shan, and the Mon. Those ethnic groups have had armed militias for decades. The Rohingya only recently spawned a small armed group — and most Rohingya disapprove of their methods. So why are the Rohingya being so brutally singled out? The answer lies in Burma's peculiarly stratified hierarchy of citizenship."

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Edith M. Lederer at the Associated Press/TIME: The U.N. Security Council 'Strongly Condemns' Crackdown on Rohingya Muslims. "The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a statement Monday strongly condemning the violence that has caused more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee from Myanmar to Bangladesh, a significant step that still fell short of a stronger resolution that Western nations wanted but China opposed. The presidential statement calls on Myanmar's government 'to ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine State' and take immediate steps to respect human rights. It expresses 'grave concern' at reports of human rights violations in Rakhine by Myanmar's security forces against the Rohingya. These include 'the systematic use of force and intimidation, killing of men, women and children, sexual violence and … the destruction and burning of homes and property,' it says."

Bluntly, the Trump administration is not doing enough.

* * *


Yashar Ali at the Huffington Post: Trump Thinks Scientology Should Have Tax Exemption Revoked, Longtime Aide Says. "Donald Trump believes the Church of Scientology should have its tax exemption revoked, a longtime family aide and current top official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development told an actress and producer in May. In an unsolicited Twitter message, Lynne Patton, who has worked for the Trump family since 2009, told actress Leah Remini of Trump's position and said she would interface with the IRS directly to seek more information in an effort to initiate revocation. Remini sent HuffPost copies of Patton's messages and has declined to comment further. It's not clear if Patton ever communicated with the IRS. But if Trump did express an opinion on the church and Patton did contact the IRS about it, as her message suggests, that would be a highly inappropriate level of interference with the IRS by the administration, one expert said."

Alex Isenstadt at Politico: Romney Moves Toward Senate Bid. "The Senate might seem like an unexpected landing place for the 70-year-old former Massachusetts governor and two-time presidential candidate. Yet those who've spoken with Romney in recent days are convinced he's prepared to jump in. After falling short in his quest for the White House and then being passed over by [Donald] Trump for secretary of state, friends say Romney still has unquenched political ambitions." And he probably thinks the time is right, since people now think even George W. Bush looks pretty good by comparison to Trump. But never forget that Mitt Romney thinks people aren't entitled to food.

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

Open Wide...
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,