Showing posts with label authoritarianism watch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label authoritarianism watch. Show all posts

We Resist: Day 908

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, July 16, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Late yesterday and earlier today by me: Nancy Pelosi, Please Do Something Real and Feeling the Heat and Primarily Speaking.

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

The President of the United States tweeted this today: "'Billionaire Tech Investor Peter Thiel believes Google should be investigated for treason. He accuses Google of working with the Chinese Government.' @foxandfriends A great and brilliant guy who knows this subject better than anyone! The Trump Administration will take a look!" Trump has previously accused Google, among others, of news- and election-rigging against him, so now announcing his administration "will take a look" at investigating them for treason is extremely chilling.

Caitlyn Byrd at the Post and Courier: Mark Sanford, SC Republican, Former U.S. Rep, Considers Presidential Run Against Trump. "Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina congressman ousted from office after [Donald] Trump urged voters to reject him, is considering a run for president. Sanford, in an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Post and Courier, confirmed he will take the next month to formulate whether he will mount a potential run against Trump as a way of pushing a national debate about America's mounting debt, deficit, and government spending. He would run as a Republican." Oh for fuck's sake.

Danielle McLean at ThinkProgress: Democrats Sue over a Florida Law That Puts Trump's Name Ahead of Rivals on the 2020 Ballot. "The Democratic Party and civil rights groups in Florida are suing over a number of state laws meant to suppress the votes of people of color and give Republicans an edge in the state, which has had numerous whisker-close elections in its recent past. This latest legal challenge, filed by Florida voters and several Democratic groups last year at U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, seeks to end a nearly 70-year-old law mandating that candidates belonging to the governor's political party be listed first on the ballot. A four-day federal court trial began in the case on Monday."

[Content Note: Police brutality; death; racism] Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett at the Washington Post: Justice Department Will Not Charge Police in Connection with Eric Garner's Death.
The Justice Department will not bring federal charges against any police officers involved in the death of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old Black man whose recorded takedown in New York in 2014 helped coin a rallying cry for those concerned about law enforcement's treatment of minorities, two people familiar with the matter said.

For Garner's supporters, the decision is a disappointing — albeit long expected — end to a case that had languished for years as various components of the Justice Department disagreed about what to do.

At a news conference Tuesday, Gwen Carr said the Justice Department had "failed us," and called on the New York City police commissioner to fire the officer who was caught on video wrapping his arm around Garner’s neck before he died.

"Five years ago, my son said, 'I can't breathe' 11 times, and today we can't breathe, because they have let us down," Carr said.
Rage. Seethe. Sob.


[CN: War on agency; anti-choicery] AP at the Guardian: Trump Administration to Ban Abortion Referrals at Taxpayer-Funded Clinics. "Taxpayer-funded family planning clinics must stop referring women for abortions immediately, the Trump administration has announced, declaring it will begin enforcing a new regulation hailed by religious conservatives and denounced by medical organizations and women's rights groups. The head of a national umbrella group representing the clinics said the Republican administration is following 'an ideological agenda' that could disrupt basic health care for many low-income women." FUCKING GODDAMMIT.

* * *

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

Ginger Thompson at ProPublica: A Border Patrol Agent Reveals What It's Really Like to Guard Migrant Children. "Referring back to the grim conditions inside the Border Patrol holding centers, [the Border Patrol agent] said: 'Somewhere down the line people just accepted what's going on as normal. That includes the people responsible for fixing the problems.' ...Most of his colleagues, he said, fall into one of two camps. There are the 'law-and-order types' who see the immigrants in their custody, as, first and foremost, criminals. Then, he said, there are those who are 'just tired of all the chaos' of a broken immigration system and 'see no end in sight.'"


Kate Morrissey of the San Diego Union-Tribune at Stars and Stripes: Customs and Border Protection Denies Marine Corps Veteran Entry for Scheduled Citizenship Interview. "A deported Marine Corps veteran who has been unable to come back to the U.S. for more than a decade was denied entry to the country Monday morning when he asked to be let in for a scheduled citizenship interview. Roman Sabal, 58, originally from Belize, came to the San Ysidro Port of Entry around 7:30 on Monday morning with an attorney to ask for 'parole' to attend his naturalization interview scheduled for a little before noon in downtown San Diego. Border officials have the authority to temporarily allow people into the country on parole for 'humanitarian or significant public benefit' reasons." He was denied entry.


This is hell on earth.

* * *

I'll wrap it up with some good news...

[CN: Death penalty] Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg at the Appeal: Philadelphia D.A. Asks Court to Declare Death Penalty System Unconstitutional.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner — who vowed as a candidate not to seek the death penalty — has asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to declare that the sentence, as applied, violates the state's Constitution.

"Because of the arbitrary manner in which it has been applied, the death penalty violates our state Constitution's prohibition against cruel punishments," states a brief filed by Krasner's office tonight in the case Jermont Cox v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

"It really is not about the worst offenders," Krasner told The Appeal. "It really is about poverty. It really is about race."

The new brief is part of a broader push that started last August, when lawyers representing Cox and another death row prisoner, Kevin Marinelli, asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in on Pennsylvania's use of the death penalty.

"Pennsylvania administers a system of capital punishment that is replete with error, a national outlier in its design, and a mirror for the inequities and prejudices that plague American society," lawyers for Cox and Marinelli wrote to the court in February.
Fingers crossed that another state will soon outlaw the death penalty.

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

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

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, July 15, 2019
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[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:


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 903

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

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: Trump's Massive Purge of Undocumented Immigrants Is Back On and Primarily Speaking.

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

Staff and agencies at the Guardian: New Orleans: Evacuations Ordered as City Braces for Possible Hurricane.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered south-east of New Orleans, Louisiana, on Thursday as the city and a surrounding stretch of the Gulf coast braced for a possible hurricane over the weekend that could unload heavy rain and send water spilling over levees, in the first big test for flood defenses since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The strength and speed of the wind increased on Thursday and by mid-morning was upgraded to become tropical storm Barry.

All eyes were on a weather disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico that dumped as much as 8in (20cm) in just three hours on Wednesday over parts of metro New Orleans, triggering flash flooding.

Coastal communities are braced for Barry to turn into the first hurricane of the season by Friday, coming ashore along the Louisiana-Mississippi-Texas coastline and pouring more water into the already swollen Mississippi River.

Forecasters said the biggest danger in the days to come is not destructive winds but heavy rain as the slow-moving storm makes its way up the Mississippi valley.
This is the worst fucking timeline. I am horrified that NOLA residents may have to revisit one of their city's worst nightmares. I'm thinking about you, NOLA. Stay safe.

* * *

[Content Note: Nativism. Covers entire section.]

Allan Smith and Hallie Jackson at NBC News: Trump Expected to Order Citizenship Question Added to the Census. "Donald Trump is expected to announce Thursday that he is taking executive action to add a citizenship question to the census, according to an administration official. Trump tweeted that he will hold a press conference in the afternoon to discuss his latest efforts at including the question as part of the census."

Just to be clear: The president is reportedly going to announce that he will ignore a Supreme Court ruling to take unilateral executive action. That is a grievous affront to our democracy. He is asserting his power as a dictator at that point.


Max Siegelbaum at the Guardian: Millions in U.S. Taxpayers' Money Invested in Private Prison Firms. "Millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are being invested into private prison operators involved in the detention of thousands of migrants across the United States, an investigation shows. Some of the largest investments, which are by pension funds for public sector workers such as teachers and firefighters, come from states with 'sanctuary' policies, such as New York, California, and Oregon." Goddammit.

Barbie Latza Nadeau at the Daily Beast: Acting Border Boss Who Quit Says He Was 'Hit Hard' by Migrant Boy's Death. "Speaking to CNN, [John Sanders, who quit his role as acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner after just one month] did not directly criticize the Trump administration's approach to immigration, but he said that the threat of raids of sanctuary cities coupled with the death of 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez troubled him. He said Vasquez's death pushed him towards taking further action to prevent another similar tragedy, such as bolstering medical assistance at the border. 'It hit me hard, that he was in the cell sleeping,' Sanders told CNN. 'Helping the kids. That has forever changed me. And I think a lot more needs to be done for them.'"

If more agents share his feelings, and I sure hope they do, they can: 1. Resist inhumane orders. 2. STAND DOWN. 3. Don't carry out these raids.

Yes, they may lose their jobs. But at what cost do they keep them?

* * *

[CN: Misogynoir; birtherism. Video may autoplay at link] Oliver Darcy at CNN: Trump Invites Right-Wing Extremists to White House 'Social Media Summit'. "Trump is calling it a 'social media summit,' but the White House did not extend invites to representatives from Facebook or Twitter. Instead, the White House has invited its political allies to the event. ...Among them are Bill Mitchell, a radio host who has promoted the extremist QAnon conspiracy theory on Twitter; Carpe Donktum, an anonymous troll who won a contest put on by the fringe media organization InfoWars for an anti-media meme; and Ali Alexander, an activist who attempted to smear Sen. Kamala Harris by saying she is not an 'American black' following the first Democratic presidential debates. Other eyebrow raising attendees include James O'Keefe..." JFC.


Jordan Wilkie at the Guardian: 'A Risk to Democracy': North Carolina Law May Be Violating Secrecy of the Ballot.
North Carolina may be violating state and federal constitutional protections for the secret ballot in the US by tracing some of its citizens' votes.

The situation has arisen because North Carolina has a state law that demands absentee voting — which includes early, in-person voting as well as postal voting — is required to use ballots that can be traced back to the voter.

The laws are in place as a means of guaranteeing that if citizens cast multiple ballots during early voting or that if ineligible residents — like non-citizens or people who have not completed sentences for criminal offenses — cast ballots, those votes can be retrieved and removed.

Likewise, if a voter casts an early ballot then dies before election day, that ballot can then be discounted.

But voting rights advocates think the North Carolina law breaks one of the most sacred tenets of the democratic system: preserving the secrecy of the ballot.
If voters aren't ensured privacy, they may not vote. Which, of course, is the entire point. Because Republicans are a bunch of Democracy Killers.

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

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We Resist: Day 902

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, July 10, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: Migrant Children Allege Sexual Abuse and Retaliation and Primarily Speaking.

Let's start out with some GOOD news today!

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Jenna Amatulli at the Huffington Post: Women's World Cup Soccer Champs Praised at NYC Parade with Glorious Signs. "The United States Women's National Team was honored in New York City with a parade on Wednesday after they brought home the 2019 Women's World Cup — and the signs did not disappoint." There is a great collection of the signs that greeted Donald Trump's least favorite professional sports team, but this one is defo my favorite:


So, yesterday, Amy McGrath announced that she is challenging Mitch McConnell for his senate seat, and then this happened... Kasie Hunt at NBC News: McGrath Raises a Record $2.5 Million on First Day of Senate Campaign. "Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Amy McGrath raised more than $2.5 million in the first 24 hours of her campaign against Mitch McConnell — over $1 million of it coming in just the first five and a half hours after she announced, according to her campaign. McGrath campaign manager Mark Nickolas said it's the most ever raised in the first 24 hours of a Senate campaign." RIGHT FUCKING ON.

Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: California Becomes First State to Give Health Care to Some Undocumented Migrants. "California has become the first state to offer taxpayer-supported health care to some undocumented migrants after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law Tuesday. The new laws...will allow around 90,000 low-income adults below the age of 25 to access the state's Medicaid program, even if they're undocumented. ...Newsom said he plans to further expand coverage to more adults in the years to come." Woot!

* * *

Ann E. Marimow and Jonathan O'Connell at the Washington Post: Appeals Court Dismisses Emoluments Lawsuit Involving [Donald] Trump's D.C. Hotel.
A federal appeals court Wednesday sided with [Donald] Trump, dismissing a lawsuit claiming the president is illegally profiting from foreign and state government visitors at his luxury hotel in downtown Washington.

The unanimous ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is a victory for the president in a novel case brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia involving anti-corruption provisions in the emoluments clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

In its ruling, the three-judge panel said the attorneys general lacked legal standing to bring the lawsuit alleging the president is violating the Constitution when his business accepts payments from state and foreign governments.
Crap.

[CN: Rape culture]


Nicole Lafond at TPM: DOJ Instructs Two Mueller Deputies Not to Appear for Closed-Door Testimony. "House Democrats are attempting to make arrangements for two of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's deputies to appear for a private, closed-door testimony on the same day that Mueller is set to testify — July 17. But the Justice Department has reportedly instructed the two special counsel staffers, James Quarles and Aaron Zebley, not to appear. According to new reports in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the DOJ's interference could muddy the deal that the department and lawmakers reached last month to get Mueller's testimony." Muddy the deal. That's polite.

Peter Jamison at the Washington Post: Trump's July Fourth Event and Weekend Protests Bankrupted D.C. Security Fund, Mayor Says. "Trump's overhauled July Fourth celebration cost the D.C. government $1.7 million, an amount that — combined with police expenses for demonstrations through the weekend — has bankrupted a special fund used to protect the nation's capital from terrorist threats and provide security at events such as rallies and state funerals. In a letter to the president Tuesday, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) warned that the fund has now been depleted and is estimated to be running a $6 million deficit by Sept. 30. The mayor also noted that the account was never reimbursed for $7.3 million in expenses from Trump's 2017 inauguration." Fucking grifter.

Ally Boguhn at Rewire.News: Trump's Human Rights Commission Could Undercut Human Rights.
The Trump administration launched an advisory commission this week tasked with examining human rights in foreign policy — but advocates worry it could undermine global reproductive rights.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday announced the creation of the U.S. State Department's Commission on Unalienable Rights. He said the commission will conduct "an informed review of the role of human rights in American foreign policy" and provide him "with advice on human rights." A notice published in the Federal Register in May said the commission will provide "fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation's founding principles of natural law and natural rights."

Though the State Department has an office devoted to human rights, the commission was "conceived with almost no input from" it, Politico reported. Officials told the outlet that the commission is "advisory and will not create policy, and maintain that everyone has 'unalienable rights,' including LGBTQ people and other minorities."

Mary Ann Glendon, a professor of law at Harvard University who teaches on human rights, will chair the commission. Glendon's anti-choice activism earned her the "Proudly Pro-Life Award" from National Right to Life in 2009. That year, Glendon turned down a medal from the University of Notre Dame, citing its decision to give President Barack Obama an honorary degree.
Fucking hell.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link; ableist language at link] Jonathan Cohn at the Huffington Post: Obamacare Had Another Bad Day in Court; That's Pretty Alarming. "[T]he mere possibility that the two Republicans would invalidate part, let alone all, of the Affordable Care Act is hard to fathom. The consequences of such a ruling would be devastating, and the underlying argument of the lawsuit is, according to a wide array of respectable legal experts, positively [absurd]. And yet, here we are."

Rishika Dugyala at Politico: Pence Aide Still Refuses to Reveal Why Trip Was Mysteriously Scrapped. "The mystery surrounding Vice President Mike Pence's scrapped trip to New Hampshire last week is still alive, with his chief of staff telling reporters Wednesday morning that he can't yet offer up an explanation. 'I can't talk about that,' Pence chief of staff Marc Short told reporters on the White House driveway. He said the public could expect an answer 'in a few weeks.'" What horseshit. [Background.]

[CN: Nativism] Josh Israel at ThinkProgress: GOP Congressman Claims without Proof That 80% to 90% of Asylum Claims Aren't Legit. "Texas Rep. Michael Cloud (R) falsely stated that few asylum seekers have legitimate claims of political persecution, and that their cases should therefore merit only a very brief evaluation lasting 30 minutes to two hours maximum. The House Freedom Caucus member combined debunked statistics and a misunderstanding of what makes people eligible for asylum in a Fox News interview." These fucking lying assholes.

* * *


Maxwell Tani at the Daily Beast: CNN Tells Digital Staff: Take Some Cues from Fox News. "Fox News is already beating CNN on TV. Now, to ensure the conservative news network doesn't start winning online, CNN wants to make sure its employees know what stories Fox News is writing about. In recent months, CNN's newly revamped audience development team has begun highlighting the top daily stories people are searching for online in a widely seen company Slack messaging channel. The network has begun placing small fox emojis next to stories the right-leaning cable outlet covered online that CNN missed." Goddammit.

[CN: Misogyny] Larrison Campbell at Mississippi Today: Robert Foster, GOP Governor Candidate, Denies Woman Reporter Access Because of Her Gender. "In two phone calls this week, Colton Robison, Foster's campaign director, said a male colleague would need to accompany this reporter on an upcoming 15-hour campaign trip because they believed the optics of the candidate with a woman, even a working reporter, could be used in a smear campaign to insinuate an extramarital affair. 'The only reason you think that people will think I'm having a (improper) relationship with your candidate is because I am a woman,' this reporter said. Robison said the campaign simply 'can't risk it.'" Seethe.

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

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Barr Says Trump Can Ignore Supreme Court; Add Citizenship Question to Census

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, July 08, 2019
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Of course.

See, when there's no one empowered to hold the president accountable who is willing to do it, what happens is that the president turns the Justice Department into a rubber stamp for his authoritarianism.

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We Resist: Day 895

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, July 03, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Late yesterday and earlier today by me: Quote of the Day and Malice Is the Agenda — and Here's What It Looks Like and Primarily Speaking.

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

Staff at BBC: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp Hit by Photo Glitch. "Some Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp users cannot upload photos, videos, and files. A spokesman for Facebook, which owns all three apps, told BBC News: 'We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.' ...The Facebook Messenger app, which is often installed separately, is also affected."

Twitter DMs have also been affected all day.

I'm sure I'm just a paranoid hysteric for thinking that there's no way this isn't probing ahead of the election.


In other tech news, Alfred Ng at CNET: Amazon Alexa Keeps Your Data with No Expiration Date, and Shares It, Too. "Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in May, demanding answers on Alexa and how long it kept voice recordings and transcripts, as well as what the data gets used for. The letter came after CNET's report that Amazon kept transcripts of interactions with Alexa, even after people deleted the voice recordings. The deadline for answers was June 30, and Amazon's vice president of public policy, Brian Huseman, sent a response on June 28. In the letter, Huseman tells Coons that Amazon keeps transcripts and voice recordings indefinitely, and only removes them if they're manually deleted by users." Yikes.

* * *

Juliet Eilperin, Josh Dawsey, and Dan Lamothe at the Washington Post: Park Service Diverts $2.5 Million in Fees for Trump's Fourth of July Extravaganza.
The National Park Service is diverting nearly $2.5 million in entrance and recreation fees primarily intended to improve parks across the country to cover costs associated with [Donald] Trump's Independence Day celebration Thursday on the Mall, according to two individuals familiar with the arrangement.

Trump administration officials have consistently refused to say how much taxpayers will have to pay for the expanded celebration on the Mall this year, which the president has dubbed the "Salute to America." The two individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed the transfer of the Park Service funds Tuesday.

The diverted park fees represent just a fraction of the extra costs the government faces as a result of the event, which will include displays of military hardware, flyovers by an array of jets including Air Force One, the deployment of tanks on the Mall, and an extended pyrotechnics show.
And, because "the White House is distributing VIP tickets to Republican donors and political appointees," this is essentially a taxpayer-funded campaign event for the fucking authoritarian grifter who cheated his way into the Oval Office.

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Jim Sciutto at CNN: Military Chiefs Have Concerns About Politicization of Trump's July 4th Event. "In the planning for the event, Pentagon leaders had reservations about putting tanks or other armored vehicles on display, the source said. As the final details come together, several top military chiefs of the individual services are not attending and instead are sending alternates in their place, though some say they had prior plans." That seems like an inadequate response to an authoritarian trying to politicize the military as part of his fascist takeover.

Speaking of Trump's rampaging authoritarianism, Melanie Schmitz at ThinkProgress: Trump Is Mad That Mueller Is Testifying 'Again'.
Donald Trump on Tuesday lamented Special Counsel Robert Mueller's upcoming testimony before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees later this month, incorrectly stating that Mueller had appeared before them previously and demanding lawmakers move on from the nearly two-year long investigation.

"Robert Mueller is being asked to testify yet again," Trump tweeted. "He said he could only stick to the Report, & that is what he would and must do. After so much testimony & total transparency, this Witch Hunt must now end. No more Do Overs. No Collusion, No Obstruction. The Great Hoax is dead!"

Mueller has not yet answered questions publicly about the findings contained in his 400-plus page final report on that investigation, which focused on Russian interference in the 2016 election. His testimony, scheduled for July 17, will be the first time he takes questions about those findings.
Not that Trump cares. Facts are irrelevant, as his objective is spreading disinformation to discredit Mueller.

* * *

[CN: Nativism; eliminationism] Scott Bixby at the Daily Beast: ICE Told Agents 'Happy Hunting!' as They Prepped for Raid. "As federal immigration authorities put the finishing touches on a plan to initiate a nationwide raid on undocumented immigrants in September 2017, agents and field directors involved in the planning could barely contain their excitement. When the sweep's codename was changed from 'Operation MEGA' to 'Operation EPIC,' one member of the San Bernardino field office joked that the name should be changed again, to 'Operation Super Epic Mega sonic just so there's no confusion.' 'Right???' responded a fellow ICE agent. 'It was Trumppped!!' Another email seeking volunteers and assistance in building target lists signed off by telling agents: 'Happy hunting and target building!'"

[CN: Nativism] adamg at Universal Hub: 18 People Arrested at ICE Protest; All Have Charges Dropped Before They're Even Arraigned. "The Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports prosecutors this morning dropped trespassing charges against 18 people arrested in a Jewish-led 'Never Again' protest at the ICE detention facility at the South Bay jail last evening. Before the 18 — a number chosen by protest organizers for arrest because of its 'good luck/long life' significance in Hebrew — could be arraigned in Roxbury Municipal Court, prosecutors filed 'nolle prosequi' forms formally dropping the charges and leaving them with clean records."

One of the people arrested was Jaclyn Friedman, who has an important thread on the protest and arrests beginning here:


[CN: Nativism; sexual assault; details of assault at link] Tina Vasquez at Rewire.News: Reporting a Rape in Immigration Jail: One Asylum Seeker's Fight for Justice. "Lopez and her attorney have sought justice without success. They have struggled to access basic information from officials at the jail and within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who are investigating the case. The responses they have received often conflict with each other. Meanwhile, Lopez remains detained at the Yuba County Jail, an immigrant detention facility about an hour north of Sacramento. Lopez's experience navigating the criminal justice system while detained mirrors others reported by Rewire.News. The situation seems compounded for Lopez and other LGBTQ migrants, who are vulnerable to abuse and neglect in prison-like facilities."

[CN: Sexual assault; rape apologia; victim-blaming] Jon Swaine at the Guardian: Teen Accused of Rape Deserves Leniency Because of His 'Good Family', Judge Says.
A judge suggested that a teenage boy accused of raping a drunk girl at a party should be treated leniently because he came from "a good family," and cast doubt on whether such an attack amounted to rape at all.

Judge James Troiano in New Jersey made the remarks while ruling that the boy, who was identified only as "GMC," should not face trial as an adult for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl while recording the incident on his mobile phone.

"This young man comes from a good family who put him into an excellent school where he was doing extremely well," Troiano said. "He is clearly a candidate for not just college but probably for a good college. His scores for college entry were very high." Troiano, 69, also noted that the boy was an Eagle Scout.

Investigators said GMC sent a clip of the alleged rape to seven of his friends, and later sent a text adding: "When your first time having sex is rape."

...The judge also cast doubt on allegations GMC's victim was too drunk to understand what was happening, asserting that she "walked hand-in-hand" with GMC to a basement area where the alleged rape took place.

And he dismissed the significance of GMC's boastful text messages, describing this as "just a 16-year-old kid saying stupid crap to his friends."
The judge also "went on to question whether the rape victim and her family had understood 'the devastating effect' that pressing charges would have" on GMC's life.

Rage. Seethe. Boil. Fume. GODDAMMIT.

I feel like virtually every inch of progress we made in the almighty task of dismantling the rape culture has been completely obliterated by appointing a confessed serial sex abuser to the presidency. Fuck.

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

Open Wide...
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We Resist: Day 894

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, July 02, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Late yesterday and earlier today by me: Quote of the Day and Congressional Delegation Finds Appalling Conditions at Border; Another Death After Detention by ICE and Primarily Speaking.

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

There's a breaking story that is very weird, and I'm not exactly sure what to make of it, but here's what we know as of publication time: Mike Pence was abruptly called back to the White House as he was about to depart for an event in New Hampshire, and administration officials insisted it's not because either Donald Trump or Pence is having any kind of health issue.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has reportedly canceled his plans for today to meet urgently with his defense minister. But administration officials also insist that nothing to do with why Pence was called back to the White House. Just a coincidence.

But.

This is also breaking news: "Fire erupts on one of the Russian navy's deep-sea submersibles, killing 14 sailors, Russian Defense Ministry says."

Now, when I read "fire erupts on one of the Russian navy's deep-sea submersibles," all I can think of is this piece I wrote in March: Russia Threatens to Arm Submarine with Nuclear Doomsday Devices — the second part of which was about Russian ships allegedly lurking near underwater internet cables, with the presumed intent to interfere with them in some way.

The sub in question is "a Russian AS-12, the smallest nuclear sub in the world and also one of the deepest diving." According to Russia's defense ministry, the sub was "studying the bottom of the world ocean" when the fire broke out.

If that sounds neither honest nor reassuring to you, you are certainly not alone.

Anyway. Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's something. I'm just putting this here now because I have a suspicion that it will make more sense, and be a useful reference, in the future.

* * *

Andy Sullivan and Makini Brice at Reuters: Trump Plans Tanks and Flyovers at Fourth of July Celebration in Washington.
Donald Trump said on Monday that he plans to display battle tanks on Washington's National Mall as part of a pumped-up Fourth of July celebration that will also feature flyovers by fighter jets and other displays of military prowess.

The military hardware is just one new element in a U.S. Independence Day pageant that will depart significantly from the nonpartisan, broadly patriotic programs that typically draw hundreds of thousands of people to the monuments in downtown Washington.

...Also on the agenda are an extended fireworks display and flyovers by Air Force One, the custom Boeing 747 used by U.S. presidents, and the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels jet squadron.

"I'm going to say a few words, and we're going to have planes going overhead," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "And we're going to have tanks stationed outside."
And that's not all, naturally. [Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Samuel Osborne at the Independent: Trump 'Demands U.S. Military Chiefs Stand Next to Him' at 4th of July Parade. "Mr. Trump has asked the chiefs for the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines stand next to him as aircraft from each of their branches of the military fly overhead, the New York Times reports. The event is likely to raise concerns over Mr. Trump's desire to parade U.S. military forces through the streets of the capital in a similar manner to authoritarian regimes such as North Korea, Iran, and China."

Editors of the Washington Post: Trump's Fourth of July Plans Just Keep Getting Worse. "Equally, if not more troubling, is his insistence on a display of military might that will include a flyover of warplanes and the stationing of tanks or other armored military vehicles on the streets of the capital. What this will cost the Defense Department and the National Parks Service is anyone's guess. (Officials have refused comment.) But the question of expense pales in comparison with the message that will be sent by a gaudy display of military hardware that is more in keeping with a banana republic than the world's oldest democracy."

[CN: White supremacy; misogyny] Will Sommer at the Daily Beast: Proud Boys and Allies to Rally in D.C. to Capitalize on 'Trumpstravaganza'. "Members of the far-right Proud Boys men's group and their allies will rally in D.C. on July 6, just a week after violence at rival Portland rallies ratcheted up tensions between groups on both the right and left. ...The Proud Boys — self-described 'Western chauvinists' who adhere to a dizzying array of rules, including restrictions on how much they can masturbate — will be joined by a number of right-wing internet personalities at the 'Rally for Free Speech' at D.C.'s Freedom Plaza. The event's website lists a number of right-wing internet provocateurs, including conservative smear-pusher Jacob Wohl, anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer, British far-right activist Milo Yiannopoulos, and former Pizzagate promoter Jack Posobiec."

Fucking hell.

* * *

Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: Trump Administration 'Misses Deadline' to Print Census Forms. "The Trump administration has missed its own July 1 deadline to print the paper forms needed for next year's Census, NPR reports. A website tracking the progress of 2020 Census materials shows they're yet to be officially approved by the White House's Office of Management and Budget, which is headed by Trump's acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney."

They are, as Danielle McLean rightly notes at ThinkProgress, deliberately slow-walking the printing.

This, after Trump threatened last week to delay the census if he's not allowed to include his nativist citizenship question. As I noted at the time: This is almost certainly a test ahead of the 2020 election. If Trump is allowed to "delay" or suspend the census without consequence, there is nothing that will stop him from "delaying" or suspending the election, which he already constantly suggests is being "rigged."

[CN: Nativism]


So not only does Trump have nativist allies running all three arms of immigration, but he's got the entire Justice Department being run by a narivist ally, too. JFC.

[CN: Nativism; child abuse. Video may autoplay at link.] Chantal da Silva at Newsweek: Lawyers Who Visited Detained Migrant Children Say Border Officials Barred Them from Seeing the Sickest Kids, Who Were Held Separately.
In an interview with Newsweek, Human Rights Watch U.S. Program Executive Director Nicole Austin-Hillery said U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency personnel refused to grant her and other lawyers visiting the Clint detention center last month access to a "sick ward" where sick children were being detained.

"We asked if we could visit with children who were sick and who had been ill for a few days because our understanding was that there was an area of the facility called the 'sick area' or the 'sick ward' and so, we said we wanted to see those children," Austin-Hillery said. "We wanted to see how those children, who are most vulnerable right now, how they are being treated and being cared for."

However, despite repeated requests, Austin-Hillery said CBP officials refused to grant lawyers access, claiming it was for their own health and safety.

"We were prohibited from seeing those children and we were told it was for our own safety," Austin-Hillery said.

"We told them, 'We don't care. We're not concerned about catching a cold,'" she said.

Ultimately, however, the lawyers were forced to leave the facility without being able to see the children who would be among the most vulnerable at the detention center.
[CN: Nativism] Staff at Reuters: Asylum Seekers Returned to Uncertainty, Danger in Mexico. "The United States government should cease returning asylum seekers to wait in Mexico during their U.S. immigration court proceedings, Human Rights Watch and the Hope Border Institute said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch's 50-page report, ''We Can't Help You Here': U.S. Returns of Asylum Seekers to Mexico,' finds that thousands of asylum seekers from Central America and elsewhere, including more than 4,780 children, are facing potentially dangerous and unlivable conditions after U.S. authorities return them to Mexico."


[CN: Nativism; abuse] Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: Homeland Security Admits It's Using Abhorrent Conditions at Detention Centers to Deter Migration. "Poor conditions including overcrowding, flu outbreaks, and a lack of clean clothes are just par for the course at an El Paso border station, according to a report released Monday by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Inspector General. In the report, border patrol argues that these conditions are necessary to stem the flow of migrants to the United States."

Malice is the agenda.

* * *


Philip Bump at the Washington Post: Trump Is Incapable of Accepting That Most Americans Don't Like Him. Yeah, well, I've got news for him: Most of the rest of the fucking planet doesn't like him, either.

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

Open Wide...
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We Resist: Day 893

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, July 01, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: The Entire Trump Family Is a Global Embarrassment and Primarily Speaking.

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

Juliet Eilperin, Josh Dawsey, and Dan Lamothe at the Washington Post: Trump Asks for Military Tanks on the Mall as Part of Grandiose July Fourth Event. "The ongoing negotiations over whether to use massive military hardware, such as Abrams tanks or Bradley Fighting Vehicles, as a prop for Trump's 'Salute to America' is just one of many unfinished details when it comes to the celebration planned for Thursday, according to several people briefed on the plan, who requested anonymity to speak frankly." This is authoritarian theater. And it's being reported as though it's all just perfectly normal. It isn't.


[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Parmida Mahalli, Nick Paton Walsh, and Tamara Qiblawi at CNN: Iran Exceeds Uranium Caps Set by Nuclear Deal. "Iran's stockpiles of enriched low-grade uranium have exceeded the 300-kilogram limit set in a landmark 2015 nuclear deal, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said on Monday according to the state-run IRNA news outlet. The move is thought to be Tehran's first major breach of the accord since [Donald Trump withdrew the United States] from the agreement last year."


[CN: White supremacy] Luke Barnes at ThinkProgress: Germany Is Facing a Terrifying Rise in Far-Right Threats. "Together, these incidents highlight the dangerous surge in far-right extremism which Germany is currently facing. That point is further backed up by a report published by the German domestic security agency Bundesamt fΓΌr Verfassungsschutz (BfV) on Friday: The report stated that, while the number of right-wing extremists in the country had remained relatively stable from 2017 to 2018, the number of acts of extreme violence had risen sharply from 28 in 2017 to 48 in 2018. The report added that nearly 13,000 individuals classified as right-wing extremists had been deemed 'violence-orientated.'"


There is a lot in the news about the protests in Hong Kong — as well there should be! — and far less attention is being given to protests around the U.S. against the Trump Regime's immigration horrors, the lack of more coverage of which is very disturbing (and of course by design). There are some stories popping up on my radar, though.

[CN: Nativism; video may autoplay at link] Daniel Moritz-Rabson at Newsweek: Over 30 Jewish Protesters Arrested After Blocking Access to Privately Operated ICE Detention Facility. "Over 30 protesters were arrested on Sunday outside a privately managed ICE detention center in New Jersey, which has been used to hold undocumented immigrants. Those arrested were among dozens of Jews who staged an action at the Elizabeth Detention Center to protest the treatment and detention of undocumented immigrants. Invoking the Holocaust, demonstrators described to the conditions in which immigrants are being held as concentration camps and spoke of the immigrant children who have died while in ICE care. The protesters traveled from cities including Seattle and Boston to attend the protest, which was organized by a decentralized group of Jewish activists, along with members of the immigrant rights group Movimiento Cosecha."

Oren Oppenheim at the Philadelphia Inquirer: Immigrant Allies Call for Justice, Assail Trump Administration Outside Philadelphia ICE Offices. "Donald Trump's threatened mass deportations of undocumented migrants drew more than 100 protesters Monday morning to the sidewalks outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Center City, where they vowed they would 'fight back,' as one organizer declared, against a 'violent, racist government's attacks' on foreign-born residents. 'We're here today to send a message to the administration that we are not going to stay quiet.... We are ready to rise up,' said Blanca Pacheco, co-director of the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia, a coalition of faith-based groups that led the demonstration."

Marcheta Fornoff at MPR News: Marchers Protesting Immigration, Border Policies Fill Minneapolis Streets. "A crowd estimated at more than 1,000 people gathered in south Minneapolis on Sunday to protest the Trump administration's immigration and border policies. From the Kmart parking lot at the corner of Nicollet and Lake, they marched — waving banners and cardboard signs, and spanning two city blocks at a time — to the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis. Once there, speakers shared their stories and spoke against the separation of families, threats of deportation, and other federal actions that have made headlines for months."

Oyin Adedoyin at the Baltimore Sun: Hundreds Rally Outside Baltimore's ICE Office in Defense of Immigrants. "Hundreds of Baltimore residents showed to show support for immigrant communities and advocacy groups at the steps of the ICE field office in Hopkins Plaza, calling for the agency to leave the city. ...Baltimore residents from small children to senior citizens stood side by side on a humid summer day as immigrant advocacy representatives shouted words of resistance from a bullhorn. They held up handmade signs with phrases like 'Have compassion' and 'Abolish ICE.'"

Maria Perez at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Hundreds of Members of Religious Groups Protest Trump Immigration Policies in Milwaukee. "Hundreds of members of faith-based organizations marched Monday outside the Milwaukee office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to protest against the immigration policies of [Donald] Trump's administration. Holding signs and banners that read 'Classrooms, not cages,' 'Abolish ICE,' or 'Keep families together,' protesters walked and chanted on the sidewalks outside the building. More than 30 religious leaders and faith-based organizations' members blocked for nearly half an hour the garage entrances to the building where, organizers said, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brings arrested immigrants for processing."

Diane Smith and Jasmine Robinson at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: They're Still Standing: Why Critics Protesting Trump's Child Detentions Won't Give Up. "[The protesters call] themselves Patriots for the Children. They said they were fighting federal policy that separated immigrant youngsters from fathers, mothers, aunts and grandmothers. They promised to keep protesting until immigrant children were no longer separated from their parents or detained at the southern border. Now, more than a year after they first planted their feet on University Drive, about a dozen protesters continue to take a public stand. 'The issue hasn't gone away and I don't think we should go away until it does,' said Walter Horton, a semi-retired real estate agent who protests every Friday."

Alan Pyke at ThinkProgress: Hundreds Protest Local D.C. Government's Failure to Protect Their Neighbors from ICE. "A crowd of 300 marched through city streets in Washington, D.C., on Saturday in protest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids that were recently reported in their neighborhood. The rally attracted an all-ages crowd, with toddlers playing in the Columbia Heights fountain as adults listened to brief speeches from clergy and protest organizers in sweltering heat. ...'ICE out of D.C., fuera ICE,' the crowd chanted as it marched. 'No ban, no wall; sanctuary for all.'"

This is just a small selection of local news stories about the protests going on all across the country against Trump's vile nativist agenda. Look for them in your local news. Share them. Raise awareness of this resistance. And the next time you see someone snorting about how people in the U.S. aren't "out in the streets," tell them that people are out in the streets. The more urgent question is why our national press doesn't cover it.

[CN: Nativism; abuse. Covers rest of section.]


Jay Root and Riane Rolden at the Texas Tribune: No Toothbrushes or Showers, Kids Coughing All Night: Migrants Describe Conditions Inside Border Facilities. "'They don't have the humanitarian conditions for people to be there,' said Gary, a 33-year-old migrant from Siguatepeque, Honduras, who would only give his first name. 'There were more than 200 of us in a single cage — seated on the floor, standing, however we could fit.' He said the stench inside overflowing toilets was so bad it made him gag and caused children to vomit. ...U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol, said it could not comment or research any specific allegations unless the Tribune provided the agency with names, alien registration numbers, and times and dates of the alleged treatment."


Julia Ainsley and Jacob Soboroff at NBC News: Agents Feared Riots, Armed Themselves Because of Dire Conditions at Migrant Facility, DHS Report Says.
The government's own internal watchdog warned as far back as May that conditions at an El Paso, Texas, border station were so bad that border agents were arming themselves against possible riots, countering Friday's assertion by a top Trump administration official that reports of poor conditions for migrants were "unsubstantiated."

In an internal report prepared by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General and obtained by NBC News, inspectors noted during a May 7 tour of a border station in the El Paso sector that only four showers were available for 756 immigrants, more than half of the immigrants were being held outside, and immigrants inside were being kept in cells maxed out at more than five times their capacity.

...A cell meant for a maximum of 35 held 155 adult males with only one toilet and sink. The cell was so crowded the men could not lie down to sleep. Temperatures in the cells reached over 80 degrees, the report said.

"With limited access to showers and clean clothing, detainees were wearing soiled clothing for days or weeks," the report said.

Medical concerns were also rising during early May, the report found. Agents reported taking sick migrants to the hospital five times a day, treating 75 immigrants for lice in a single day, and trying to quarantine outbreaks of flu, chickenpox, and scabies.
So instead of letting people go, border agents decided to "remained armed in holding areas" rather than put their weapons in lockboxes. Despicable.

[CN: Nativism; racism; misogyny] And it's hard not to believe that border agents aren't hoping for a chance to start shooting when you read filth like this. A.C. Thompson at ProPublica: Inside the Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Agents Joke About Migrant Deaths and Post Sexist Memes.
Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday, and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.

In one exchange, group members responded with indifference and wisecracks to the post of a news story about a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in May while in custody at a Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas. One member posted a GIF of Elmo with the quote, "Oh well." Another responded with an image and the words "If he dies, he dies.”"

...Several of the postings reviewed by ProPublica refer to the planned visit by members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, including Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Veronica Escobar, to a troubled Border Patrol facility outside of El Paso. Agents at the compound in Clint, Texas, have been accused of holding children in neglectful, inhumane conditions.

Members of the Border Patrol Facebook group were not enthused about the tour, noting that Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from Queens, had compared Border Patrol facilities to Nazi concentration camps. Escobar is a freshman Democrat representing El Paso.

One member encouraged Border Patrol agents to hurl a "burrito at these bitches." Another, apparently a patrol supervisor, wrote, "Fuck the hoes." "There should be no photo ops for these scum buckets," posted a third member.

Perhaps the most disturbing posts target Ocasio-Cortez. One includes a photo illustration of her engaged in oral sex at an immigrant detention center. Text accompanying the image reads, "Lucky Illegal Immigrant Glory Hole Special Starring AOC."

Another is a photo illustration of a smiling [Donald] Trump forcing Ocasio-Cortez's head toward his crotch. The agent who posted the image commented: "That's right bitches. The masses have spoken and today democracy won."
The story notes that the secret Facebook group has "roughly 9,500 members from across the country." There are around 20,000 border patrol agents who serve in the broader U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, which means nearly half of them are participating in this secret group.

Clearly, not all of them share the obscene sentiments, since someone took those screenshots and made sure they got to the media. But it is very troubling to think that such a large proportion of border agents, including many who aren't members of the secret Facebook group, are in agreement with what's being said in that space.

We have a president who is actively pursuing nativist malice against migrants and refugees, and he's got a national force of violent xenophobes ready to start shooting given half a chance.

We're in real trouble.

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

Open Wide...
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The Entire Trump Family Is a Global Embarrassment

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, July 01, 2019
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After painfully reminding us once again that the collusion is still happening right out in the open by slobbering all over Vladimir Putin at the G20, Donald Trump then went on a four-day blitz through Asia where he slobbered all over North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

It was another despicable display of Trump's affinity for murderous authoritarians, and political scientist Brian Klaas wrote about the chilling, reverberating effects that the U.S. president's embrace of dictators will inevitably have:

I study authoritarianism — and also how it functions in places that aren't always in headlines. What many don't realize is that Trump's embrace of dictators will likely have a cascading effect. Other autocrats will think: Well, if Putin or Kim can get away with it, why not me?

Most dictators and despots are driven by a desire to retain power. What can topple them? Well, opposition leaders, dissidents, journalists, and human rights campaigners who try to expose abuses and corruption can destabilize a regime. That's why dictators kill or jail them.

In other words, the rational behavior for a dictator or despot is often to silence critics, rule by fear, and generally be a monstrous tyrant. What has held many back is: 1) International norms; and 2) The risk of consequences from foreign powers (almost always in the West).

When Trump acts like Putin and Kim and MBS are his best friends, it doesn't just legitimize those regimes. It also signals to other authoritarians that there will be no consequences. That international norms no longer matter. You can murder journalists. Trump will do nothing.

Yes, previous presidents have had relationships with awful regimes in the past. But they didn't simply uncritically fawn over people like Kim Jong-un. They didn't give them propaganda victories for nothing. They didn't treat them better than America's democratic allies.

The Trump effect will take time. It won't happen overnight. But Trump's foreign policy will make the world worse and more authoritarian, creating a world in which dictators and despots can commit atrocities and horrifying abuses with less fear of any meaningful consequences.
And as Sarah Kendzior further notes: "This is not just about the shattering of international norms. This is about the shattering and taking of human life. We need to focus on the ordinary people being brutalized by this axis of autocrats."

This is urgent threat of the Trump presidency: It's not just that he's endeavoring to destroy everything democrats value in the United States, but that he is working in concert with other powerful and tenacious democracy-killers around the globe, like Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, to usher in a new era of despotism.

The refugee crisis at the U.S. southern border, for instance, is a profound humanitarian crisis. It is also an international law crisis — because the Trump Regime is ignoring international law governing refugees with zero consequences, which could have a cascading effect just as the global refugee crisis reaches staggering proportions: A recent U.N. report found that there are currently 71 million refugees who "have been displaced worldwide by war, persecution, and other violence," a collective total "that would amount to the world's 20th most populous country."

This negative influence on global norms and the visible subversion of international law is something that cannot be easily remedied, and the precipitous erosion of democratic and humanitarian practices cannot be easily restored.

When Trump embraces Putin and Kim, but turns his back on children suffering in concentration camps, it sends a strong message to an international community who have been looking to the U.S. as a world leader for decades.

Trump is not the lead we want the rest of the world to follow.

* * *

Naturally, Donald Trump was also terrifying ignorant, again, on the world stage.

After Senator Kamala Harris challenged Joe Biden on his busing record during the first Democratic primary debate, Trump was asked if he views busing as "a viable way of integrating schools," to which he started his response by saying: "Well, it has been something that they've done for a long period of time. I mean, you know, there aren't that many ways that you're going to get people to schools."

At another point, he was asked if he agrees with Putin about decline of "Western-style liberalism," to which he responded by criticizing Los Angeles and San Francisco run, saying they are "sad to look at" because they are "run by liberal people." Yikes.

Adam Serwer notes: "Trump thinks 'Western-style liberalism' refers to liberals on the West Coast, not the form of government of the country he is currently president of."


And, in one final humiliation for the U.S., Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, awkwardly tried to insert herself into a group of world leaders discussing world affairs. Edward Luce at the Financial Times describes the scene:
The video, released by the French government, shows varying expressions of tortured politeness as Ms Trump intrudes on a discussion between France's Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Theresa May, Canada's Justin Trudeau and Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF. Ms Lagarde, in particular, was unable to conceal her irritation.

What they were discussing is secondary. Mr Macron made a point about social justice. Mrs May replied that people notice when the economy is brought into it. Ms Trump then interrupted with a non sequitur about how the defence industry is male-dominated.
After which she smiles broadly, totally pleased with herself at what she clearly believes was a trenchant observation, completely oblivious to what an absolute wanker she is. It is absolutely cringe-inducing to behold.


This entire family is a scourge on the nation and on the entire fucking planet.

I don't know what else needs to be or even could be said at this point. Impeach Trump. Remove his entire regime. It is, truly, of global importance and the utmost urgency.

Open Wide...
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The Collusion Is Still Happening Right out in the Open

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, June 28, 2019
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Earlier, I shared video of Donald Trump with Vladimir Putin at the G20, jokingly waggling his finger at him while grinning and telling him not to meddle in our election. Here it is again, for anyone who missed it:


Olga Lautman observed that Trump has never seemed so happy to see anyone in his life as when Putin walked into the room:


Trump also "bonded with Putin over a scorn for journalists."


As Sarah Kendzior noted about this stomach-churning exchange: "Every access journalist and sycophantic pundit legitimizing Trump is digging their own grave while spitting on the graves of the journalists who've been murdered."

That — and abetting the brazen co-conspirators who continue to openly collude to destroy the U.S. democracy.

One of whom is the sitting U.S. president.

Open Wide...
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