Shakesville: hacking

Showing posts with label hacking. Show all posts

We Resist: Day 882

a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

The Trump administration argued in front of a Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday that the government is not required to give soap or toothbrushes to children apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border and can have them sleep on concrete floors in frigid, overcrowded cells, despite a settlement agreement that requires detainees be kept in "safe and sanitary" facilities.

All three judges appeared incredulous during the hearing in San Francisco, in which the Trump administration challenged previous legal findings that it is violating a landmark class action settlement by mistreating undocumented immigrant children at U.S. detention facilities.

"You're really going to stand up and tell us that being able to sleep isn't a question of 'safe and sanitary conditions?'" U.S. Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon asked the Justice Department's Sarah Fabian Tuesday.

U.S. Circuit Judge William Fletcher also questioned the government's interpretation of the settlement agreement.

"Are you arguing seriously that you do not read the agreement as requiring you to do anything other than what I just described: cold all night long, lights on all night long, sleeping on concrete and you've got an aluminum foil blanket?" Fletcher asked Fabian. "I find that inconceivable that the government would say that that is safe and sanitary."

The panel has yet to issue its ruling, but it doesn't look good for the Trump Regime. (Thankfully.) Which, of course, is why Mitch McConnell is stacking the courts with unqualified hacks that will affirm their malice as quickly as he can.

On Twitter, former director of the Office of Government Ethics Walt Schaub notes: "The government attorney, Sarah Fabian, who doesn't think [that] children need soap or toothbrushes, is the same attorney who refused to work over a weekend to address the crisis: 'I have dog-sitting responsibilities that require me to go back to Colorado but I will be back Monday.'"

This is an entire administration of sociopathic wrecks.

[CN: Nativism] At the intersection of the Trump Regime's nativism and trade warring... Neha Dasgupta and Aditya Kalra at Reuters: U.S. Tells India It Is Mulling Caps on H-1B Visas to Deter Data Rules. "The United States has told India it is considering caps on H-1B work visas for nations that force foreign companies to store data locally, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, widening the two countries' row over tariffs and trade. The plan to restrict the popular H-1B visa program, under which skilled foreign workers are brought to the United States each year, comes days ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to New Delhi. India, which has upset companies such as Mastercard and irked the U.S. government with stringent new rules on data storage, is the largest recipient of these temporary visas, most of them to workers at big Indian technology firms."

[CN: Nativism; child abuse; homophobia; Christian Supremacy] Scott Bixby at the Daily Beast: Lesbian Couple Barred from Fostering Migrant Kids. "Bryn Esplin and Fatma Marouf knew early into their marriage that they wanted a family. But when early attempts with in vitro fertilization were unsuccessful, the couple started exploring serving as foster parents, opening their home to child refugees held in increasingly draconian conditions by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). ...When they approached a local child-welfare organization contracted by the federal government to help find homes for some of the thousands of migrant and refugee children in the department's care, however, Esplin and Marouf were told that they didn't qualify — not because they couldn't provide a loving home for a child fleeing oppression abroad, but because, as a same-sex couple, their lifestyle doesn't 'mirror the Holy Family.'" (In good news, they sued and won.)

[CN: War on agency] Alice Miranda Ollstein at Politico: Appeals Court Says Trump Family Planning Restrictions Can Take Effect. "A federal appeals court this morning said the Trump administration's family planning rules can take effect nationwide while several lawsuits play out, delivering a major blow to Planned Parenthood and states challenging the overhaul. ...A panel of three judges, all appointed by previous Republican presidents, said the administration will likely prevail in the legal battle over the Title X family planning program since the Supreme Court held up similar Reagan-era rules almost 30 years ago, though they were reversed by the Clinton administration."

Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress: Justice Alito Just Wrote the Most Terrifying Sentence to Appear in a Supreme Court Opinion in Years. "[T]he fifth vote to maintain SORNA's basic structure came from Justice Samuel Alito. His opinion concurring in the result is just three paragraphs long, and it contains this portentous sentence: 'If a majority of this Court were willing to reconsider the approach we have taken for the past 84 years, I would support that effort.' ...Congress' power to delegate regulatory authority to agencies is a backbone of American law. ...Had Congress known that the Supreme Court would pull this rug out from under it, it may have written some of these laws differently. ...But Congress acted on the assumption that the Supreme Court would not someday be held by nihilist revolutionaries."

[CN: Christian Supremacy] Robert Barnes at the Washington Post: Supreme Court Rules That Maryland 'Peace Cross' Honoring Military Dead May Remain on Public Land. "The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a 40-foot cross erected as a tribute to war dead may continue to stand on public land in Maryland, rejecting arguments that it was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. ...Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote the main opinion and said history and tradition must be taken into account when judging modern objections to monuments on public land. 'The cross is undoubtedly a Christian symbol, but that fact should not blind us to everything else that the Bladensburg Cross has come to represent,' Alito wrote." WHUT.

Will Bunch at the Philadelphia Inquirer: Did Russian Hackers Make 2016 NC Voters Disappear? Why Won't We Stop This for 2020?

In the end, we'll never know how folks went home and didn't vote in North Carolina, a key swing state that Trump won by 173,000 votes — and that's neither the only mystery about what happened in Durham, nor the biggest. Just days before the 2016 voting, Greenhalgh and other activists had heard the first reports that Russian operatives had tried to hack into an election technology company called VR Systems. She wondered that day if VR Systems was Durham's vendor.

It was.

Incredibly, it is just now — 32 long months after North Carolina's Election Day snafus — that officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have finally launched a serious probe into the possibility that Russian hackers crashed the computers or altered data that caused those crushing lines. DHS investigators are launching a forensic analysis of those laptops that crashed in Durham County — an effort that North Carolina officials had requested a year and a half ago.

Even more incredible: We might never have gotten here were it not for the actions of a heroic whistleblower — Reality Winner, who leaked federal intelligence about the VR Systems hack when most key state officials knew nothing about it, and who has been prosecuted, imprisoned, and held incommunicado by the Justice Department for her efforts — and the diligence of special counsel Robert Mueller, who confirmed a successful malware plant by Russian agents.

Now here's the most incredible part: U.S. election systems could be every bit as vulnerable to outside monkey business in the 2020 presidential election, because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his GOP lawmakers are refusing to vote on critical election security bills that would provide federal dollars and support to local election systems to upgrade cybersecurity, as well as requiring paper ballots and audits that would ensure the integrity of the vote.

Republicans are democracy killers. And the entire party, in failing to prevent foreign interference in future elections, is colluding with any foreign interlopers who decide to interfere.

This is a national security nightmare! Is everyone in this admin is a possible Russian intelligence target?! She is compromised. The RUSSIANS knew. We didn’t. https://t.co/r6AhadWyHP
— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) June 19, 2019

Josh Kovensky at TPM: FBI Conducting Criminal Probe of Deutsche Bank Money Laundering Lapses. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has an active criminal probe into whether Deutsche Bank broke anti-money laundering laws, the New York Times reports. Agents have reportedly tried to establish contact with a former Deutsche Bank compliance employee who sounded the alarm about transactions made by Kushner Companies, the family business of [Donald] Trump's son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner. Those transactions purportedly involved money that was sent to Russian entities. The bank reportedly did not file suspicious activity reports with the Treasury Department, as would have been required by law."

Miranda Bryant at the Guardian: Ivanka Trump's 2020 Tweet Violated Hatch Act, Watchdog Says. "Ivanka Trump has been accused of violating the Hatch Act, which bans government workers from speaking out on political campaign issues, over a tweet she wrote before her father's 2020 presidential campaign launch. The influential Washington-based watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed a complaint against Donald Trump's daughter, a senior presidential aide who works in the White House as an adviser, albeit unsalaried." It would be great if this mattered. It won't.

* * *

Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: U.S May Have to Spend over $400 Billion on Seawalls by 2040 to Protect Itself from Rising Seas. "A new report has predicted that the U.S. will have to spend $416bn on seawalls in the next 20 years in order to protect itself from rising seas. The report comes from the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI.) Florida is likely to face the highest bill of $76bn by 2040, according to the research, followed by Louisiana which has a projected bill of $38bn, then North Carolina which stands to pay $35bn. 'I don't think anybody's thought about the magnitude of this one small portion of overall adaptation costs and it's a huge number,' said Richard Wiles, executive director of the CCI. 'So the question is: Who's going to pay for that? Is it really going to be taxpayers? The current position of climate polluters is that they should pay nothing, and that's just not tenable.'" Build those walls.

[CN: Water insecurity; video may autoplay at link] Jessie Yeung and Swati Gupta at CNN: India Is Running Out of Water. "Millions of people are running out of usable water in the southern Indian city of Chennai, which is currently experiencing major droughts and a rapidly worsening water crisis. At least 550 people were arrested Wednesday in the city of Coimbatore for protesting with empty water containers in front of the municipal government's headquarters, accusing officials of negligence and mismanagement. Meanwhile, four reservoirs that supply Chennai, the state capital and India's sixth largest city, have run nearly dry."

Maram Ahmed at the World Economic Forum: How Climate Change Exacerbates the Refugee Crisis — and What Can Be Done About It. "Climate-induced displacement is on the rise. Last year, climate-related factors resulted in the displacement of around 16.1 million people. It is estimated that, by 2050, between 150 to 200 million people are at risk of being forced to leave their homes as a result of desertification, rising sea levels, and extreme weather conditions. ...It is the world's most vulnerable people who are made to bear the brunt of climate change, though they are the least responsible for causing it, and are ill-equipped to deal with the consequences. ...Climate change induced migration is adding a new layer of complexity to the area of gender, as women and girls are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change impacting education, maternal health, and gender-based violence."

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We Resist: Day 874

On May 21st, four commissioners who compose the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (E.A.C.) were asked to attest, in Congress, that they agreed with the findings of the special counsel Robert Mueller that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election. It was a strange and oddly suspenseful moment in what might have been a routine oversight hearing of the House Administration Committee.

The E.A.C. is a small, relatively obscure agency, established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (H.A.V.A.), an election-modernization bill that was passed in response to the disastrous failure of voting equipment during the 2000 Presidential election. H.A.V.A. allocated over three billion dollars to the states to upgrade their election systems and authorized the E.A.C. to distribute it. The E.A.C. was also mandated to advise election officials and oversee the testing and certification of voting and vote-tabulation machines. Seventeen months away from the next Presidential election, it could be leading the charge against future cyberattacks. It is not.

Senator Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who sits on the Intelligence Committee, predicts that the 2020 election will make what happened in 2016 "look like small potatoes." "It's not just the Russians," he told me. "There are hostile foreign actors who are messing with two hundred years' worth of really precious history." Wyden recently reintroduced the PAVE Act, a wish list of election-security provisions that failed to get through the Senate last year. The measure includes the use of hand-marked paper ballots and a prohibition on wireless modems and other kinds of Internet connectivity, all of which have been advocated by computer scientists and other election experts for years.

But with the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, making it clear that he will not advance any election-security legislation, the PAVE Act, and also other election-security bills, many of which have bipartisan support, will languish. McConnell has made 2020 open season for hackers aiming to undermine our election system. The E.A.C. has made this easier, by displaying not only intransigence and institutional weaknesses but also a willful disregard of the threats facing our elections.

Jessica Brandt at Slate: How Not to Handle Security Threats to Our Elections.

In the weeks before the 2016 presidential election, a Florida company known as VR Systems fell victim to a Russian spear-phishing campaign. Most Americans have never heard of VR Systems, but it runs poll books — the registries that election workers use to track who is eligible to vote and who has already voted — for counties in eight states around the country.

The hackers used the information they gathered from VR Systems to breach two of the Florida county election systems the company managed. And three years later, new reporting suggests that VR Systems may also have inadvertently put Russians in a position to alter voter rolls in North Carolina, another swing state, on the eve of the 2016 presidential election.

Meanwhile... Matt Zapotosky and John Wagner at the Washington Post: Trump Asserts Executive Privilege to Shield Documents on Census Citizenship Question. And as Danielle McLean at ThinkProgress noted in a piece I shared in yesterday's We Resist thread, the Trump Regime "has done everything possible to ensure that minority populations are left uncounted, giving Republicans a huge edge during the 2021 congressional and state legislative redistricting process."

I cannot emphasize this strongly enough: Pinning all of our hopes for crawling out of this mess on the 2020 election is aggressively foolish. With Mitch McConnell at the helm, the Republican Party is doing every goddamn thing it can to rig this election. And, if all their efforts fail, Donald Trump will almost certainly assert that there was election fraud and refuse to leave office. We have to do something to prevent tha outcome now.

* * *

Betsy Woodruff at the Daily Beast: White House Will Preview Mueller Evidence Before Nadler Review. "When House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced on Monday that he had reached an agreement with the Justice Department to view some of the underlying evidence behind Special Counsel's Robert Mueller's report, the announcement was hailed as a major breakthrough for the Democratic Party's oversight efforts. But Nadler may get less than expected. That's because the Trump White House will work with the Justice Department to decide what exactly the committee gets to see, two senior administration officials told The Daily Beast. And, so far, the White House has not waived executive privilege regarding any of Mueller's materials, the two officials said."

Shep Smith explaining to Fox News viewers, in a voice usually reserved for explaining to children why you can't have a cookie in the grocery store, that the Mueller report did not exonerate Trump and found 10 potential instances of criminal obstruction. https://t.co/HqNnr89EYd
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 12, 2019

Reuters Staff at the Guardian: Donald Trump Shows Off 'Secret' Mexico Document but Photos Reveal Contents. "Donald Trump brandished a document on Tuesday confirming details of a regional asylum project agreed with Mexico to stave off threatened tariffs, saying the plan was 'secret' even though Mexican officials had revealed much of it."

Guess what's on the piece of paper in MY pocket? A letter signed by every member of the House and Senate saying Donald Trump and Mike Pence must vacate their offices effective immediately. Shocking, I know, but IT'S ON THE PAPER. No, you can't see it. https://t.co/c8jYM1oqt2
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 11, 2019

* * *

Shelby Hanssen and Ken Dilanian at NBC News: Reps of 22 Foreign Governments Have Spent Money at Trump Properties. "Representatives of at least 22 foreign governments appear to have spent money at Trump Organization properties, an NBC News review has found, hinting at a significant foreign cash flow to the American president that critics say violates the U.S. Constitution."

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Maureen Groppe at USA Today: Rep. Greg Pence Amends Filing That Showed Lodging Charge at Trump Hotel. "Greg Pence, a freshman congressman and brother of Vice President Mike Pence, reported spending more than $7,600 in campaign funds on lodging at the Trump International Hotel in the first few months after his election in November, although lawmakers are supposed to pay for their own housing in Washington. ...Hours after USA Today pressed for more detail on the nature of the lodging expenses, the campaign filed an amended FEC report that changed the designation of the expenses to 'fundraising event costs.'"

Kyla Mandel at ThinkProgress: Trump International Hotel Will Host a Climate Denial Conference. "In late July, climate science deniers will descend upon the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. — located right across the street from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — to attend the Heartland Institute's annual climate conference. The theme this year is 'Best Science, Winning Energy Policies.' ...The hotel — referred to by one Department of Energy staffer as 'Republican Disneyland' — has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from oil, coal, natural gas, and mining interests who come to attend events frequented by administration officials. Last March, the Independent Petroleum Association of America's (IPAA) annual 'Congressional Call-Up' was held at Trump's hotel."

Shahien Nasiripour and Caleb Melby at Bloomberg: Trump's Net Worth Rises to $3 Billion Despite Business Setbacks. "Donald Trump's net worth rose to $3 billion, a 5% gain over the past year... The increase in Trump's wealth reverses two years of declines and brings his net worth back to 2016 levels, according to figures compiled by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index from lenders, property records, securities filings, market data, and a May 16 financial disclosure."

So, Trump is doing just fine. In other news...

Heather Long at the Washington Post: GOP Leader Concedes Tax Cuts May Not Pay for Themselves as 2019 Deficit Grows. "Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex.), a lead architect of the GOP tax bill, suggested Tuesday the tax cuts may not fully pay for themselves, contradicting a promise Republicans made repeatedly while pushing the law in late 2017." And what will happen when a conservative government wants to cut spending? They won't raise taxes. They'll institute austerity measures to defund social services.

Programs on which, for instance, non-wealthy elderly people depend. Especially those who have been exploited by the corporations handed fat tax cuts and zero oversight by the Republican Party.

Nick Penzenstadler and Jeff Kelly Lowenstein at USA Today: Seniors Were Sold a Risk-Free Retirement with Reverse Mortgages. Now They Face Foreclosure.

n a stealth aftershock of the Great Recession, nearly 100,000 loans that allowed senior citizens to tap into their home equity have failed, blindsiding elderly borrowers and their families and dragging down property values in their neighborhoods.

In many cases, the worst toll has fallen on those ill-equipped to shoulder it: urban African Americans, many of whom worked for most of their lives, then found themselves struggling in retirement.

...These elderly homeowners were wooed into borrowing money through the special program by attractive sales pitches or a dire need for cash – or both. When they missed a paperwork deadline or fell behind on taxes or insurance, lenders moved swiftly to foreclose on the home. Those foreclosures wiped out hard-earned generational wealth built in the decades since the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

...Consumer advocates said the analysis supports what they have complained about for years – that unscrupulous lenders targeted lower-income, black neighborhoods and encouraged elderly homeowners to borrow money while glossing over the risks and requirements.

Goddammit.

* * *

In GOOD reproductive rights news: Chelsia Rose Marcius at the Daily Beast: Ariana Grande Donates Proceeds From Atlanta Concert to Planned Parenthood. "Pop superstar Ariana Grande has donated the proceeds from her sold-out Atlanta concert to Planned Parenthood, TMZ reports. The singer gave $300,000 to the nonprofit from her June 8 show in Georgia, one of the states that recently passed restrictive abortion legislation." Awesome.

[CN: Anti-choicery; anti-choice terrorism; war on agency. Covers rest of section.]

Jason Salzman at Rewire.News: This Ballot Measure Could End Later Abortion Care in Colorado.

"These people have no concern for the health and welfare of the women we are helping. This is anti-abortion madness carried to a logical extreme," Dr. Warren Hern, whose Boulder Abortion Clinic bills itself as "specializing in late abortions for fetal disorders," told Rewire.News. Criminalizing later abortion would have a major impact on people outside Colorado too, as the state has become a reproductive health-care haven for people in other states.

For decades, anti-choice activists have targeted Hern with vigils, protests, and gunshots through his window, but he has continued to be an outspoken proponent of abortion rights in the media and on his clinic's website, which states, "The true meaning of 'family values' is the freedom to choose your own life and values with those you love."

Lenny Bernstein at the Washington Post: Women Seeking Abortions Turn to Volunteer Network for Help. "The work of a nationwide network of volunteers and nonprofit groups that assist women trying to end unwanted pregnancies has reemerged as new state restrictions on abortion threaten to force women to travel farther, pay more and wait longer for the procedure. The groups, which help with the cost and logistics of travel, lodging, food, child care, and the abortion procedure itself, say they're working harder and spending more. They've also seen an increase in donations for aid to the low-income women who have three-quarters of U.S. abortions and who are most of their clients."

Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire.News: The Nuns Are Back Before the Supreme Court, and They're Trying to Kill the Birth Control Benefit for Good. "Conservatives have spent the better part of a decade arguing the Affordable Care Act's birth control benefit, which provides insurance coverage for a host of contraception without additional cost or co-pay, violates religious freedom principles. Those efforts have had mixed results. Despite two turns before the U.S. Supreme Court, dozens of lower court orders, and a handful of executive orders from [Donald] Trump, the benefit remains in place — but employers who object to it can avoid complying with it. This week, the Roberts Court will consider taking up a case that could settle the birth control benefit's fate once and for all."

* * *

[CN: Self-harm; addiction] Erika Edwards at NBC News: U.S. Death Rates from Suicides, Alcohol Abuse, and Drug Overdoses Reach All-Time High. "Rates of deaths from suicides, drug overdoses, and alcohol have reached an all-time high in the United States, but some states have been hit far harder than others by [the so-called deaths of despair], according to a report released Wednesday by the Commonwealth Fund. ...What separates the top ranked states from the lowest? Health care coverage. 'We really think of healthcare access of being the foundation of a high-performing health care system,' [David Radley, a senior scientist for the Commonwealth Fund] said. The states that ranked at the bottom of the list all had the highest rates of residents without health care coverage."

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

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

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We Resist: Day 818

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Late yesterday and earlier today by me: Trump Tells Supporters: "This Is Your Country, Not Theirs" and Barr Rules Asylum-Seekers Can Be Held Indefinitely and Primarily Speaking.

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

[Content Note: Arson; white supremacy] Last Thursday, I noted that an arrest had been made in the arson attacks on three historically Black baptist churches in one Louisiana parish. Since then: "A fundraiser started by the Seventh District Baptist Association set a target of $1.8 million to be raised and split evenly to the three churches. As of Wednesday morning, $1,030,647 had been donated by over 18,000 people." The total as of this writing is now at $1.27M, and, if you can and would like to donate, you can do so at GoFundMe.

[CN: Terrorism] In another follow-up: U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant Christopher Hasson, a white nationalist with a massive stockpile of weapons and ammunition who was arrested in February after planning a large-scale terrorist attack targeting Democratic politicians and journalists, will not face terrorism charges, according to his attorney: "Hasson, 49, has remained in custody since his Feb. 15 arrest and subsequent indictment in Maryland on firearms and drug charges. Hasson's attorney, Liz Oyer, wrote in a court filing Monday that prosecutors recently disclosed that they don't expect to seek any additional charges."

Essentially, she's arguing he should be released since prosecutors have supposedly told her no more charges will be filed against him, and there are no terrorism charges filed at the moment, which gives them no reason to hold him indefinitely.

Just as a reminder, at the time of his arrest, prosecutors said: "The defendant intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country."

* * *

Felicia Sonmez, Josh Dawsey, and Karoun Demirjian at the Washington Post: Trump Vetoes Resolution to End U.S. Participation in Yemen's Civil War. "[Donald] Trump on Tuesday vetoed a resolution that would have ended U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. ...The veto means the United States will continue its involvement in Saudi Arabia's bombing campaign against Yemen's Houthi rebels, waged in the name of holding back Iran's expansion in the region. But the Saudi-led effort, which has targeted civilian facilities and prevented aid shipments from getting to Yemenis, has been faulted by human rights organizations for exacerbating what the United Nations has deemed the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe."

Trump's refusal to sign the resolution is a great shame on our nation, and his veto will almost certainly not be overridden, because the Republican Party is itself a great shame on our nation.

Speaking of which...

Of course they do, because the GOP is a death cult. https://t.co/UQGAaMZ5mx
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 17, 2019

We Resist: Day 774

When [Bill Shine] assumed command at Fox, the 2016 campaign was nearing its end, and Trump and Clinton were all but tied. That fall, a FoxNews.com reporter had a story that put the network's journalistic integrity to the test. Diana Falzone, who often covered the entertainment industry, had obtained proof that Trump had engaged in a sexual relationship in 2006 with a pornographic film actress calling herself Stormy Daniels.

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

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

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

Fucking hell.

* * *

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

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

This passage from today’s WashPost is everything that’s wrong about Russia coverage.

Why are we pretending it’s a mystery if people around Trump knew that Russia was trying to help Trump?

There is literally an email to Trump Jr saying the Russian govt is trying to help Trump pic.twitter.com/8p2gUbWvCc
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 2, 2019

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

It's interesting that Wilbur Ross isn't on this list, given that he of all people had a front row seat to international money laundering. https://t.co/ruAbc9OLt2
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) March 4, 2019

Bloop. https://t.co/QLFxFGoLZt
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) March 4, 2019

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

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

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

* * *

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

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

[CN: Holocaust; sex abuse]

Well, that's one way to try to distract people from your institutional sex abuse problems. https://t.co/oWx3WjS71Z
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) March 4, 2019

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

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

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We Resist: Day 764

A man allegedly caught researching acts of domestic terrorism and amassing more than a dozen firearms will spend at least two weeks in federal custody, a Maryland federal judge decided today.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Christopher Paul Hasson, 49, was arrested on charges of firearm and drug possession, but Judge Charles Day said that Hasson's internet search history, as well as previous letters and emails he had allegedly written, were enough to warrant him a danger to the community.

Speaking on behalf of the prosecution, Jennifer Sykes said that the gun and drug possession charges were "just the tip of the iceberg" in terms of the extent of Hasson's alleged crimes, indicating that they may attempt to charge him as a domestic terrorist allegedly planning to launch a major attack.

According to court documents filed Tuesday, Hasson was described as someone who had "espoused extremist views for years." In a draft email from June 2017 he allegedly wrote, "I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth. I think a plague would be most successful but how do I acquire the needed/ Spanish flu, botulism, anthrax not sure yet but will find something."

...The defendant also allegedly compiled a list of prominent Democratic lawmakers as well as journalists from CNN and MSNBC. Names on that list include presidential candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, as well as MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and CNN's Van Jones.

As I noted yesterday, this didn't happen in a vacuum. Donald Trump has been waging a campaign of stochastic terrorism, rhetorically putting targets on the backs of his "enemies" and hoping that shamelessly violent wrecks among his cultists will do the rest.

And he is hardly alone in this endeavor. Just in the last day:

Staff at Media Matters: Frequent Fox News Guest Tells Laura Ingraham "We Are in a Civil War"; Suggests Everyone Buy Guns to Prepare for "Total War". "We are in a civil war in this country. There's two standards of justice — one for Democrats one for Republicans. The press is all Democrat, all liberal, all progressive, all left — they hate Republicans; they hate Trump. So the suggestion that there's ever going to be civil discourse in this country for the foreseeable future in this country is over. It's not going to be. It's going to be total war. And as I say to my friends, I do two things: I vote and I buy guns."

Also on Fox News:

“The white supremacists are American citizens. The illegal immigrants are people who shouldn’t be here.” pic.twitter.com/OcL8QihQ4m
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 22, 2019

Conservatives, led by Trump, are amping up the violent and eliminationist rhetoric. And they are keeping silent on the men who take their words seriously enough to act on them. They're playing with fire, and they know it. Indeed, that is the entire point.

* * *

Sabrina Siddiqui at the Guardian: 'Even Nixon Wasn't Like Him': Trump's Bid to Upend Russia Inquiry Unprecedented, Experts Say. "From high-level firings to public misstatements, Trump's repeated steps to undermine the investigations that have clouded his two years in office paint a picture of a president who is his own worst enemy, legal experts say. 'It is quite clear from all the evidence that the president has had the intent to obstruct this investigation,' said Andy Wright, a former associate counsel to Barack Obama and the founding editor of the legal blog Just Security. 'It's been in plain sight. ...It's a fundamental abuse of power for the president to be trying to shut down an investigation in which he has a personal stake — both as a potential target himself and his political allies and family members,' he added."

Every whistleblower is being charged for exposing crimes that actually led to convictions yet Trump and his whole criminal Russian mafia cabal walks around free continuing to commit crimes https://t.co/X5dMTxewrA
— Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211) February 21, 2019

[CN: Threats] Joshua Eaton at ThinkProgress: Judge Lights into Roger Stone over Threatening Instagram Post, Issues New Gag Order. "The federal judge overseeing former Trump campaign aide Roger Stone's criminal trial barred him on Thursday from speaking publicly about the case or anyone involved with it, just days after he posted a photo on Instagram that appeared to show her next to rifle crosshairs. His previous gag order only prevented him from speaking to press in or around the courthouse, but didn't prevent him from making media appearances." JFC.

William K. Rashbaum at the New York Times: New York Prosecutors Expected to Charge Manafort, Guarding Against Trump Pardon. "The Manhattan district attorney's office is preparing state criminal charges against Paul J. Manafort, [Donald] Trump's former campaign chairman, in an effort to ensure he will still face prison time even if the president pardons him for his federal crimes, according to several people with knowledge of the matter. ...The president has broad power to issue pardons for federal crimes, but no such authority in state cases."

* * *

[CN: Sex crimes; possible sex abuse] Staff at the Daily Beast: New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Charged in Prostitution Sting. "Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, has been charged in a human trafficking and prostitution investigation. ...He is a close friend of [Donald] Trump, and frequent visitor to Trump's Florida estate Mar a Lago." Which is just down the road from the place where Kraft was allegedly videotaped "in a sex act at one of the spas." News is still breaking in this story, and it's not entirely clear as of this writing whether the sex workers were all trafficked young women, but there is a possibility they were, which would make this story far worse than a straightforward consensual sex act with a professional sex worker.

[CN: Sexual assault; rape culture]

Prosecutors — among them, Trump’s U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta — broke federal law when they signed a plea agreement with Jeffrey Epstein

🚨https://t.co/qWyDuZIqk6
— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) February 21, 2019

Would very much like to know what "complication" caused the current Labor Secretary while a prosecutor to favor the sex trafficker of 13-to-16-year-old girls above and beyond the interests of the abused. https://t.co/JWc7W1dhGl
— Garance Franke-Ruta (@thegarance) February 22, 2019

One of the ugly facts laid bare in the Epstein plea deal is that many powerful people feel zero shame helping a billionaire who has molested girls as young as 14. Zero consequences. Crimes against kids happen not only because of the criminals but their support networks.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 22, 2019

* * *

Eliana Johnson at Politico: Trump Aides Worry He'll Get Outfoxed in North Korea Talks. "Donald Trump is eagerly anticipating his second summit with Kim Jong Un, touting his 'really meaningful' relationship with the North Korean strongman and insisting he's ready to give up his nuclear arsenal. In Washington, he's pretty much the only one who feels that way. Many, including several of the president's top advisers, are less excited. Some have expressed trepidation not only that the summit, scheduled to take place next week in Hanoi, may not yield big results. They worry, too, that Trump, eager to declare victory on the world stage, could make big concessions in exchange for empty promises of denuclearization." That's exactly what's going to happen, because that's the entire directive for the puppet whose master wants to destabilize the region.

Someone please make Mike Pence go on record about this. Does he agree with the head of the ticket he's on that there's no need to pledge not to use hacked/stolen materials against competitors? ATTACH HIS NAME TO THIS TRAITOROUS SHIT. https://t.co/uLotJyNqXg
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 22, 2019

Relatedly:

Trump is a Russian asset who routinely violates the *constitution* and Biden's big idea is to have him sign a "no more Russian propaganda" pledge?! https://t.co/wglUEoWHV1
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) February 22, 2019

Come on, Biden.

And finally... To be honest, I don't entirely understand this story (and the State Department is working very hard to ensure that none of us do), but it seems very troubling to me. Jacqueline Charles, David Ovalle, and Jay Weaver at the Miami Herald: Americans Arrested in Haiti with Arsenal of Guns Won't Face U.S. Charges.

The five heavily armed Americans arrested in Haiti earlier this week are back on their home soil and won't be facing any criminal charges in the United States — a decision already causing outrage among some Haitian leaders.

Federal sources told the Miami Herald that the men will not be charged criminally, but are being debriefed. They told U.S. authorities they were on the island providing private security for a "businessman" doing work with the Haitian government.

The five American citizens, who returned on a commercial flight to Miami on Wednesday night and were met by U.S. law enforcement, did not have any scheduled appearances in Miami federal court.

The U.S. Attorney's Office referred calls to the State Department, which said only: "The return of the individuals to the U.S. was coordinated with the Haitian authorities."

What promises the U.S. government made to secure the release of the men remain murky.

Oh.

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

Open Wide...

We Resist: Day 741

"Billionaire" isn't a qualification. It's the description of a person who is hoarding more resources than they could use in 100 lifetimes while other people are starving. It's the name for a human dragon sleeping on its pile of rubies and gold.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 29, 2019

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

John Wagner and Shane Harris at the Washington Post: Trump Blasts U.S. Intelligence Officials, Disputes Assessments on Iran and Other Global Threats. "[Donald] Trump lashed out at U.S. intelligence officials Wednesday, calling them 'extremely passive and naive' about the 'dangers of Iran' and pushing back on their assessments of the Islamic State and North Korea during a congressional hearing. ...Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also weighed in. 'The President has a dangerous habit of undermining the intelligence community to fit his alternate reality,' Warner said in a tweet. 'People risk their lives for the intelligence he just tosses aside on Twitter.'"

When Russia is involved it’s always shady!
Venezuelan lawmaker says that the empty Russian plane (500 person capacity) that arrived yesterday was there to pick up 20 tons of gold from the central bank
Destination unknown https://t.co/eHYPGX53S9
— Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211) January 30, 2019

I still don't understand what Trump (and Pence) are doing in Venezuela, although I am damn certain that their interest does not end at regime change. I do think they are interested in further destabilizing the region, to what ends I'm not sure, and I suspect there's a possibility of waging a false war with Russia in Venezuela, with the purpose of pillaging oil and other regional resources (including state treasure; see above) and the tangential benefit of creating the illusion that Russia and the U.S. are still adversaries and that the U.S. president isn't a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vladimir Putin. In any case, I'm very freaked out and worried for the people of Venezuela.

Emma Loop at BuzzFeed: A House Democrat Is Targeting Steven Mnuchin's Business Dealings in the Russian Sanctions Fight. "A House Democrat is demanding answers about an alleged business deal that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had with an associate of a Russian oligarch whose companies recently received US sanctions relief. California Rep. Jackie Speier, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Mnuchin last week seeking answers about a deal he reportedly made in 2017 with an associate of Oleg Deripaska's, the billionaire aluminum magnate whose companies Treasury surprisingly announced it would be taking off the formal sanctions list in December."

Igor Derysh at Salon: With Sanctions Lifted, Trump Transition Member Gets Board Position on Russian Oligarch's Company. "On Sunday, the Treasury Department lifted the sanctions on three companies owned by Deripaska 10 months after it imposed them, citing Russia’s 'malign activity around the globe.' Deripaska, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was also personally sanctioned because the government accused him of threats to rivals, bribing government officials and links to organized crime. As part of the deal to have the sanctions lifted, Deripaska agreed to dilute his control of EN+, the parent company of the Russian aluminum giant Rusal. ...On Monday, EN+ announced seven new board directors, including Christopher Burnham, who served on Trump's State Department transition team and previously worked as an executive at Deutsche Bank." Deutsche Bank. Of course.

As an Intelligence warrior my mission was to identify imminent threats to our great nation. A megalomaniacal, delusional #RussianAsset who thinks he knows better than all of us is the greatest threat this nation has ever faced. Our Constitution gives us tools to #DisArmTheThreat https://t.co/iKWwB0dspZ
— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) January 30, 2019

Danny Hakim at the New York Times: N.R.A. Seeks Distance From Russia as Investigations Heat Up. "When a delegation of high-profile donors, boosters, and board members from the National Rifle Association traveled to Russia in 2015, they visited a gun factory in Moscow, took in a ballet, and met with members of Vladimir Putin's inner circle. But now the N.R.A. is seeking to distance itself from the trip, after revelations that a Russian woman who helped arrange it, Maria Butina, was conspiring to infiltrate the organization. The trip has been a subject of scrutiny in at least four inquiries into the N.R.A.'s ties to Russia; questions about the N.R.A. have also surfaced in the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Newly empowered congressional Democrats are now stepping up efforts to uncover how much money the N.R.A. received from Russia, and whether the group served as a conduit for Russian funds into the 2016 Trump campaign."

Casey Michel at ThinkProgress: Hacked Emails List Right-Wing Fundraiser Partying with Russian Fascists and Oligarchs. "Last month, a new leak site called Distributed Denial of Secrets went live, compiling a cache of hacked emails and documents of Russian officials, confidants of sanctioned Russian oligarchs, and those steering Russian interference efforts. Among the revelations: A higher-up at the Bradley Foundation, one of the main financiers of right-wing groups in the U.S. — including the Daily Caller News Foundation and anti-immigrant organizations — apparently attended a notorious 'pro-family' conference in Russia in 2014, held shortly after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine."

Betsy Woodruff and Erin Banco at the Daily Beast: Mueller Witness' Team Gamed Out Russian Meddling...in 2015. "Days after Donald Trump rode down an escalator at Trump Tower and announced he'd run for president, a little-known consulting firm with links to Israeli intelligence started gaming out how a foreign government could meddle in the U.S. political process. Internal communications, which The Daily Beast reviewed, show that the firm conducted an analysis of how illicit efforts might shape American politics. Months later, the Trump campaign reviewed a pitch from a company owned by that firm's founder — a pitch to carry out similar efforts."

Christopher Bing and Joel Schectman at Reuters: Special Report: Inside the UAE's Secret Hacking Team of U.S. Mercenaries.

Stroud had been recruited by a Maryland cyber security contractor to help the Emiratis launch hacking operations, and for three years, she thrived in the job. But in 2016, the Emiratis moved Project Raven to a UAE cyber security firm named DarkMatter. Before long, Stroud and other Americans involved in the effort say they saw the mission cross a red line: targeting fellow Americans for surveillance.

"I am working for a foreign intelligence agency who is targeting U.S. persons," she told Reuters. "I am officially the bad kind of spy."

The story of Project Raven reveals how former U.S. government hackers have employed state-of-the-art cyber-espionage tools on behalf of a foreign intelligence service that spies on human rights activists, journalists, and political rivals.

Interviews with nine former Raven operatives, along with a review of thousands of pages of project documents and emails, show that surveillance techniques taught by the NSA were central to the UAE's efforts to monitor opponents.

There is much more at the link.

* * *

Greg Sargent at the Washington Post: Howard Schultz Is Anything But a Realist. "The idea that a billionaire with no political experience is just what we need is particularly galling amid our current disastrous experiment. And Schultz would run as a 'centrist independent,' which appears to mean 'economically conservative and socially liberal,' but there's not a great constituency for that. ...At the core of this sort of centrism is the idea that there's a hallowed middle ground that — simply by virtue of being equidistant between arbitrarily designated and presumptively equivalent 'extremes' — is inherently sensible, virtuous, and above all, non-ideological. This idea is certainly seductive to far too many people. But it doesn't give rise to anything resembling realism. In a way, it's a rigid ideology all its own."

Pilar Melendez at the Daily Beast: Howard Schultz Shocked a Box of Cheerios Costs Four Dollars. "Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, amid a media tour rife with awkward moments, got stumped by Morning Joe on Wednesday when asked: 'How much does an 18-ounce box of Cheerios cost?' 'An 18 ounce box of Cheerios? I don't eat Cheerios,' the billionaire responded to host Mika Brzezinski. When she revealed the price was four dollars, Schultz was shocked. 'That's a lot,' he said."

There are a whole lot of reasons that the cultural enamourment with billionaires and the attendant belief that they are inherently qualified to be political leaders are garbage. Among them is this: Anyone who is a billionaire is de facto completely out of touch with the lives of the majority of the population. They have no comprehension about what life is really like. One cannot effectively and decently lead people whose lives they fundamentally don't understand.

And, truly, no president of a wildly and wonderfully diverse nation can know and understand the lives, needs, interests, struggles, and successes of everyone in the country. But living in a separate, elite economic stratosphere is insulating, even for the empathic and curious.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 30, 2019

[Content Note: Class warfare] Ally Boguhn at Rewire.News: Diapers, Tampons, Nursing Bras: The Trump Shutdown's Unseen Costs for Working Families. "Corinne Cannon, founder and executive director of the Greater D.C. Diaper Bank, told Rewire.News Friday that the organization saw 'a pretty drastic increase in requests for help for individuals' during the government shutdown. The diaper bank, operating in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia for more than eight years, normally provides 'diapers, period products, formula, breastfeeding supplies, adult incontinence supplies, and other hygiene products' to social service organizations that then distribute them to those in need. But during the government shutdown, there was 'a massive increase in need,' Cannon said. 'We had an increase in requests for individuals, an increase in requests from organizations — we saw a lot of folks who we've never talked to about diaper needs before coming [to us].'"

[CN: Nativism] John Wagner and Erica Werner at the Washington Post: Trump Digs In on Border Wall Funds as Congressional Negotiators Prepare to Convene. "Trump warned Wednesday that congressional negotiators would be 'wasting their time' if they do not discuss his demand for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, which led to a 35-day partial government shutdown that ended last week with a temporary truce. The president's message, delivered in a morning tweet, came hours before a bipartisan, bicameral committee was set to meet for the first time to broker a compromise over border security funding and avert another shutdown, with Democrats continuing to resist Trump's demand. 'If the committee of Republicans and Democrats now meeting on Border Security is not discussing or contemplating a Wall or Physical Barrier, they are Wasting their time!' Trump wrote on Twitter."

Fucking hell.

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

Open Wide...

We Resist: Day 729

Let's be very blunt about this: Trump is willing to starve his own people, which is something that only the most brutal dictators in history have done. https://t.co/qaGtFU8Gm4
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 18, 2019

Indeed he doesn't. But that doesn't make them *not* his own people. Other dictators also othered their own people before and as a rationale for starving (and/or in other ways harming) them. That this is his view also puts him right in line with other vicious authoritarians.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 18, 2019

American Exceptionalism is making far too many people complacent about what is already happening here. Don't believe it couldn't happen here. It's happening.

* * *

After Speaker Nancy Pelosi was not allowed to go on her diplomatic mission to see NATO leaders and visit the troops, Donald Trump has now decided that no one in Congress will be allowed to go anywhere without his approval:

JUST IN: White House issues a directive to executive branch agencies that bars congressional delegation travel on any government aircraft, as well as use of travel expenses, during the shutdown without White House approval. pic.twitter.com/LmtMoWDIVX
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 18, 2019

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is meeting with North Korea and Senator Lindsey Graham is in Turkey meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

And the United States is doing nothing as Russia deploys nuclear-capable ballistic missile launchers near Ukraine's border.

So, Lindsey Graham is with Erdogan, Mike Pompeo's with North Korea, John Bolton is asking the Pentagon for plans to go to war with Iran, Russia is moving nukes to Ukraine's border, and Trump stopped Pelosi from meeting with NATO.

How much more urgent does it have to get, folks?
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 18, 2019

Everything is fine. (Everything is not fine.)

* * *

[Content Note: Nativism; Islamophobia] Caitlin Oprysko at Politico: Trump Touts Story About Finding 'Prayer Rugs' Along Border. "Donald Trump on Friday sought to prop up his administration's claims that migrants who enter the U.S. illegally at the southern border don't come from only Mexico and Central America, in an attempt to justify his demands for a border wall. Trump cited a story from conservative news outlet the Washington Examiner in which an unnamed rancher living in New Mexico claimed to have found 'prayer rugs,' or pieces of carpet used by Muslims for prayer, near her property. The story does not include any first-person accounts of seeing such migrants, however. U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Arizona said recently that it had arrested migrants from seven countries trying to enter the U.S. illegally there, but none of the countries it named were majority Muslim."

In other words, that rancher is lying, and Trump is repeating the lie.

[CN: LGBTQ hatred] Carla Herreria at the Huffington Post: Vice President Says Outrage over Wife Karen Pence's Discriminatory School Is 'Offensive'. "Vice President Mike Pence defended second lady Karen Pence's decision to take a teaching job at a school that discriminates against LGBTQ individuals and families, suggesting that the uproar over it is an attack on Christianity. During an interview with the Catholicism-focused Eternal World Television Network on Thursday, Pence said that the attacks on the Immanuel Christian School, which bans LGBTQ employees, students, and families, were offensive to his family. 'To see major news organizations attacking Christian education is deeply offensive to us,' Pence said. 'We'll let the critics roll off our backs,' the vice president continued. 'But this criticism of Christian education should stop.'"

1. Fuck you. 2. It's not an attack on Christianity; it's a condemnation of bigotry. 3. Not all Christian denominations are homophobic and transphobic, so it can't possibly be an attack on Christianity. 4. Running to the media and demanding that criticism stop is the polar opposite of letting the criticism roll off your backs. 5. Fuck you.

[CN: Anti-choicery] Ally Boguhn at Rewire.News: Senate GOP Prioritizes Abortion Funding Restrictions over Ending Shutdown. "U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) advanced legislation that would codify a ban on federal abortion funding in a nod to anti-choice activists rallying this week in Washington, D.C. But the bill's progress was halted Thursday afternoon when it failed to pass the 60-vote threshold needed to proceed. Meanwhile, McConnell continues to block legislation to end the partial government shutdown." PRIORITIES.

[CN: Anti-choicery; class warfare] Emma Platoff at the Texas Tribune: Federal Appeals Court Lifts Order Blocking Texas from Kicking Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid. "A federal appeals court has lifted a lower court order that blocked Texas from booting Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid, potentially imperiling the health care provider's participation in the federal-state health insurance program. A three-judge panel on the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Sam Sparks, the federal district judge who preserved Planned Parenthood's status in the program in February 2017, had used the wrong standard in his ruling. The appeals court sent the case back to him for further consideration." JFC.

[CN: Homophobia] Tim Fitzsimons at NBC News: Judge Rules Against Elderly Lesbians Rejected from Retirement Home.

A federal court on Wednesday ruled against a lesbian couple who brought a lawsuit against a Missouri retirement home that rejected the women's apartment application because their marriage is not "understood in the Bible.”

Bev Nance, 68, and Mary Walsh, 72, married a decade ago in Massachusetts and have been in a committed relationship for roughly 40 years.

When they applied to move into the Friendship Village senior living facility, they did so "because it is in their community, they have friends there, and it offers services that would allow them to stay together there for the rest of their lives," said Julie Wilensky, an attorney representing the couple.

But once Friendship Village staff found that Nance and Walsh are married, they told the couple that they were not allowed to move in, because the home did not condone homosexuality. The letter they received said that the only married couples they accepted were those in unions between "one man and one woman."

The couple sued, alleging "discrimination on the basis of sex," and their case was finally decided this week by a federal court in Missouri, which found "sexual orientation rather than sex lies at the heart of Plaintiffs' claims."

LGBTQ groups decried the outcome, and the couple's lawyers said "we disagree with the court's decision, and our clients are considering next steps."

Goddammit. Rage seethe boil.

* * *

Staff at the Daily Beast: DNC Says It Was Hit by a Russian Cyberattack Days After the Midterms. "The Democratic National Committee claims it was hit by a Russian cyberattack in the days after the 2018 midterm elections. According to court documents filed late Thursday, the DNC says 'dozens of DNC email addresses were targeted in a spear-phishing campaign' on Nov. 14, but that the attack appears to have failed to gain access to any information. The committee believes the attack was part of a phishing campaign that cybersecurity firms previously linked to a Russian hacking group known as Cozy Bear. Cozy Bear is linked to Russian intelligence and is said to have broken into the DNC's systems ahead of the 2016 presidential election." Fucking hell.

Erin McCormick at the Guardian: Recalls of 'Potentially Lethal' U.S. Meat and Poultry Nearly Double Since 2013.

The number of meat and poultry products recalled in the US for potentially life-threatening health hazards has nearly doubled since 2013, according to a report by a consumer watchdog group.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture logged 97 meat recalls for serious health hazards in 2018, ranging from 12 million pounds of raw beef that made close to 250 people ill with salmonella to the withdrawal of 174,000 pounds of chicken wraps for possible contamination with listeria.

These "Class 1" recalls — for conditions the USDA deems "a health hazard situation in which there is a reasonable probability that eating the food will cause health problems or death" — are up from 53 in 2013, the report by the US PIRG Education Fund said.

"The most dangerous types of meat and poultry recalls are on the rise," said Adam Garber, who co-authored the report. "Whether you like hamburger or chicken, more and more dangerous meat is reaching your house."

Some people argue that this proves inspections are working; i.e. more cases are being caught. Either way, the numbers are going to go up the longer the shutdown lasts. Food safety is one of the many things that will compromised by a shuttered government.

Joel Shannon at USA Today: Measles Outbreak Grows in Area with Low Vaccination Rate, Most Patients Unimmunized. "A measles outbreak in southwestern Washington state has grown to 16 confirmed cases, and most of the children affected are unimmunized against the disease, officials said Thursday. ...Only two of the children have an unverified immunization status; the other 14 are unimmunized, officials say. Clark County has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state, with more than 22 percent of public school students having not completed their vaccinations, The Oregonian reports, citing state records."

Outbreaks of disease, whether due to a subversion of herd immunity or other causes, will also be even worse than otherwise if the shutdown continues. We are just fucked on so many levels.

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

Open Wide...

We Resist: Day 882

We Resist: Day 874

We Resist: Day 818

We Resist: Day 774

We Resist: Day 764

We Resist: Day 741

We Resist: Day 729

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